Language Learning Media Using Journalism

Seeing the world from the perspective of common people or non-journalists can present a unique point of view. One stirring example is Cut Putri, an Aceh-born resident who happened to visit her family living in the coastline of Aceh; she witnessed the massive tsunami strike from her family’s three-storey house and recorded it in her handy camera. When she decided to let more people know about the real condition from her point of view, it then turned out as the outbreak of which then referred as citizen journalism in television industry in Indonesia. Tsunami in 2006 had opened a rare opportunity of common people for being a reporter in an urgent situation. Videos, pictures and articles from common people who witness a natural disaster, traffic accident, or riot in a demonstration can be uploaded to various nationwide mainstream media sources.

For most situations, mainstream media sources in Indonesia like Metro TV, TVOne, Kompas, or Media Indonesia are, in most cases, the only available sources for current information. Occasionally, the availability of their journalists may not cover situations which may take place in a split second and vital to be shared to wider viewers. These media sources then expanded their coverage by gaining news from common people or non-journalists to report events with their available devices, such as handy camera, digital camera and even mobile phone. Hence, more and more mainstream media sources provide link for viewers to upload their reports and more viewers can undoubtedly give feedback or comment to the information uploaded. This is the point where citizen journalism grows as an open source media and dramatically changes the nature of news presentation around the world in the current years.

As widely recognized, citizen journalism has been popular since the beginning of 2000. One of the most outstanding sites that brought popularity in this alternative form of journalism is OhMyNews in Korea which was known with its tagline “every citizen is reporter” and Malaysiakini that appeared as an opportunity to use internet to provide free and fair news to the Malaysian public and to set new standards in journalism as well as to support the development of freedom of speech, social justice and democracy in Malaysia (George: 2006). In the United States or European countries, citizen journalism grew as alternative source of information that gave balance to the information offered by the mainstream media. Citizens are unlimited sources of latest information and alternative perspective is always valuable for the growth of balance and fair information.

News coverage on citizen journalism itself is not only limited on big and moving events, but also reported glimpse of a daily basis circumstances, for instance, tragic life story or light-hearted tale. It may also recheck the facts presented by mainstream media sources and then common people can provide multiple perspectives to an event. With these perspectives, news can be brought down closer to its viewers. As quoted from Richard Sambrook, the Director of BBC’s Global News division, citizen journalism has fundamentally changed the relation of media sources and their viewers. With the use of new digital tools and viewers’ expectancy, mainstream media sources have to help their viewers to contribute in the news making itself, as there has been fundamental repositioning between the media and the public. Here, people have a better bargaining position to the information offered to them since there is channel named blog in which disagreement or different perspective is sincerely welcomed and discussed by more people who have the same attention to a certain issue.

In line with language learning process, this paper offers an alternative in learning English which put forward students’ initiative in dealing with day-to-day situations. This paper proposes a lesson plan which enables language learners express their ideas by recording situation in a daily basis and report it back in forms of videos, pictures or articles. It mainly aims in achieving student’s autonomy in dealing with their improvement in mainly their integrated language skills in English as a foreign language.

A.          Autonomous Learning

Benson (2000: 17) mentions “the idea that language learning should be a process of learning how to communicate”. Being able to “communicate” means that a language learner should be able “to make something known, to exchange information, news, ideas, etc.” (Hornby, 1995: 229). This notion gives the impression that when a learner does not master the language well, most probably, he will fail to communicate. Therefore, in a language learning process, there is the notion of, as Benson (2000: 17) further states, “learner – centeredness, which holds that the learner rather than the teacher should stand at the center of the process of teaching and learning.”

This point of view has triggered the concept of autonomy in language learning. Benson (2000: 8) calls “autonomy” as “the product of self-directed learning, or learning in which the objectives, progress and evaluation of learning are determined by the learners themselves.” Nonetheless, Benson (2000: 59) adds that self-directed learning seems to be “difficult even show a preference for direction by teachers and learning materials.” Therefore, it can be concluded that autonomy in learning does not simply mean learning without a teacher or guidance.

Little (1990: 7) in Benson (2000:48) adds that “autonomy is not a synonym for self-instruction; in other words, autonomy is not limited to learning without a teacher.” Problem solving proposed by John Dewey (1859-1952), as cited by Benson (2000: 26), proposes that “the teacher’s role was not to direct the process of learning but to act as a resource or guide for the learners’ own self-directed efforts.”

In the scope of foreign or second language learning or acquisition, the problem in applying the autonomy lies in the “transferring abilities that students have already acquired in other domain” (Benson, 2000: 45). This is how the role of teacher will possibly take place. Another problem that may surface in autonomous language learning is the readiness of the students to receive this type of learning. A research conducted in Hong-Kong by Spratt et. al. (2002) in autonomous learning finds “student expectations that teachers need to address when they seek to change traditional classroom roles”. This dependence on teachers that leads to unsuccessfulness of autonomous learning may be caused by the lack of students’ “self-esteem, self-confidence, knowledge of yourself, and belief in your own capabilities” as the keys to successful cognitive and affective activity as proposed by Brown (1987: 101). Sercu (2002: 7) mentions “self esteem, self-awareness and self confidence” as the parts a task given to students should enhance “in setting out their own learning path and assessing their own achievements in a realistic way.”

            The research carried out by Spratt et. al. in 2002 has found the relation between motivation and autonomy. In a learning context that necessitates life-long learning and increasingly calls for distance learning, autonomy must surely remain an important aim.  However, one way to encourage autonomy may be to develop students’ motivation to learn (Spratt et. al., 2002: 263). This then becomes another aspect a teacher should pay more attention to. The teacher could use “motivating activities in which learner-centredness as a precursor to learner autonomy can be integrated” (Spratt et. al., 2002: 263). There is an indication that “a motivated student would have a greater interest in what was to be learnt and thus be more ready and able to take on responsibilities in the language learning process (Spratt et. al., 2002: 255).

            The task-based approach proposed in autonomous learning has been “practiced by many foreign-language teachers, who – consciously or not – occasionally include problem-based or task-based learning approaches in their classroom teaching, which leave more room for learner initiative” (Sercu, 2002: 71). Further, Allen (2000) in Sercu (2002: 65) states that “the goal of task-based learning is not the predetermined teaching of a specific grammatical structure or lexical item, but rather the satisfactory completion of a meaningful communicative task.”

            The problem that may rise in foreign language learning would be the linguistic boundaries in that “learners will want to express themselves on various points and will need to use the appropriate language to do so”, although, “from an intercultural competence point of view”, this problem tends to be low (Sercu, 2002: 66). To encounter this type of problem, assistance from a teacher is needed. Sercu (2002: 66) further asserts that “teacher guidance and intervention” will come when the students have found a problem in the language and need feedback. Brown (1987: 192) affirms that “one of the keys, but not the only key, to successful second language learning lies in the feedback that a learner receives from others.”

            It can be concluded that autonomous learning requires learners’ independence and initiative to solve their problems and complete the tasks given. The teacher’s role is not as big as the traditional learning but more as a guidance and provider in the process and is to give feed-back the learners need.