Marine Cadets’ Reflection on Differentiated Learning in The Intensive English Speaking Program

Abstract

Differences in cadets' speaking competence that are not balanced by appropriate grouping make speaking courses less effective. This research aims to analyze the reflection of the cadets toward the implementation of differentiated learning in content, process, and learning environment of the Intensive English Speaking Program in marine higher education. A qualitative approach with the integration of a qualitative survey to collect the data and thematic analysis to analyze the data was used. The data was gathered through a questionnaire, which was carried out by a Google Form consisting of open and closed-ended questions. This questionnaire was targeted at the 15 cadets of Semarang Merchant Marine Academy who have participated in the Intensive English Speaking Program. Through the cadets’ reflection, the findings showed that differentiated learning provided more relevant learning experiences for the cadets’ speaking mastery level. The false beginner cadets testified that they feel more encouraged in speaking, specifically in the mastery of vocabulary and pronunciation. The beginner cadets testified that they feel more confident, participative, and able to fix the accuracy of the sentence structure and the use of vocabulary. Meanwhile, the elementary cadets felt more challenged in developing their fluency, accuracy, and complexity of the utterance. Moreover, adjusting the learning activities based on the cadets’ speaking competence level helped the cadets to understand the material more effectively. Hence, the cadets still faced several challenges, such as keeping fluency in spontaneous conversation, pronunciation consistency, and a limited vocabulary to convey more complex ideas