Dewi’s Story Description of the Participants’ Lived Experiences

58 one of the hotels in Yogyakarta. She and her group sent a cover letter and were welcomed warmly by the hotel staff. Soon after that, they conducted the interview and stated that they were going to create an English program for the hotel staff. At that time, they interviewed the HRD Human Resource and Development representative as well as the receptionist. After conducting the interview, she and her friends then decided to specifically create an English program for the receptionist only. “My friends suggested me send a cover letter to the hotel. Then, we did send the letter and we were welcomed very warmly. After that, we did the interview and stated that we were going to conduct an English program. At that time, we interviewed the HRD as well as the receptionist. Finally, we then chose to specifically create the program for the receptionist only.” A7- D2-AS. Having decided the participant for their English program, they were also requested to create a presentation as well as to present it weekly. She me ntioned that “we were firstly given the materials for the presentations, and every week, we had to present our progress based on the topic given”. A7-D6-COPG Moreover, when they had presented their weekly presentations, they needed to present their program to the lecturers and their friends started with the introduction of the program, the design of the program, the materials, and the theories that they used. From the presentations, they could gain many inputs not only from the lecturers but also from their classmates. “After we presented our weekly presentations, we had to present our program to our lecturers and our friends started with the introduction, the design, the materials, and also the theory. From that presentation, we could gain many suggestions from not only the lecturer but also our friends.” A7- D16-L-CS After they had finished designing the English program and the materials, she further told me that she and her friends did not apply the program to the receptionist. 59 However, they planned to give the materials to the receptionist after they obtained the feedback for the materials from the lecturer. When doing group project in PMD class, she mentioned that she was very happy working with her other two friends. She told me that when she was confused about a problem, her friend could help her solve the problem by sharing it to them “When doing group project, if we got confused, there were our friends who could help us, Mas . In other words, we could share the problems to another group member.”A4-D58-FtFP In other words, they could also handle the problems together “…What made me happy when doing group project was we could solve or handle the problems together with our friend s.” A4-D60-GRP. However, even though it was a group project, she also mentioned that she and her friends divided the tasks evenly so that each of them had the same portion when doing the project , as what Dewi stated “Yes, Mas¸ each of us got our own pa rt” A4-D49-IA. Additionally, since they had divided the task, they could enlarge their opportunity to improve their learning potentials. In the second interview, Dewi stated that she and her friends, for instance, when doing the presentation, really read their own parts and maximized it before the presentation began. “… For example, when doing presentation, whoever got the chapter, she must read it seriously. Me, I did the same thing as well. I would read the chapter I got seriously. When I read seriously, they would also do the same thing as me.” A7-D27-ENOP “Since my other two friends were diligent, so we all did maximize our effort, Mas ”A7-D29-ENOP. Furthermore, Dewi added that by doing group projects she could be more understanding to her frie nds’ needs, as well as her friends characters. In doing PMD project, she mentioned that she could understand her friends’ needs since she and her friends did not stay close in the same area where she stayed. For instance, she 60 had to understand that one of the members in her group stay quite far from her boarding house. Hence, she needed to arrange their time to discuss the project. Moreover, she also added that she could be closer to her friends and could understand their characters as well. It happened because during the process of creating the project, they were always together so that they could understand each other. “From the PMD project, I could learn to be more understanding to my friends’ needs. For example, one of my friends stayed in Kulonprogo , and I n eeded to arrange the time discuss our project.” A4-D70-UON “From PMD project, I could be closer to them since we were always together for one semester. Moreover, I could understand their character as well.” A7-D23-UOCH By doing projects as well, Dewi, could increase her self-esteem as well as her self-efficacy by becoming a tough woman. In addition, she could also be more open minded during and after the project. She mentioned that she could be tougher in terms of doing her assignment and she could handle the pressure. She further stated that she became a less panicky student when dealing with her projects or her assignments. She also became less stressful and became wiser in dealing with her problems. In coping with her projects and her assignments, she could also handle the pressure well. “I felt I became tougher since I could be less panicky when dealing with papers, and less stressful. Moreover, I felt like I was getting wiser each day A4-D41-SEST. Not only was I getting wiser, but I could also handle the pressure A4-D41- SEFF.” Being open-minded became the next thing she mentioned. During the completion of her PMD project, she stated that after meeting and working with her friends she could be more open to them. Moreover, she could also accept her friends’ opinions 61 or arguments and she realized that she could not insist her friends to accept her expectation. “After PMD project, I could be more open to my friends since I worked with them” Moreover, I could accept my friends’ arguments or opinions and I realized that I could not insist my expectations to my friends. A7-D25-OM The last thing she mentioned was after completing ther PMD project, she and her group could present their paper in the LLTC seminar in the ELESP Sanata Dharma University. She uttered that by being involved in the seminar she could give benefits not only to herself, but also to her friends as well. She stated that “by doing projects we were able to present our paper in the LLTC seminar. So I felt like this also gave us benefits A7-D29- SEM.” In sum, from Dewi’s Story, I found out that the PMD project when she was in the second semester was her memorable experience. When doing the PMD project, she needed to conduct or design an English program for Hotel receptionist in Yogyakarta as her group project. During the completion of her project, she had quite a lot of experiences, such as working in group with her friends, maximizing the use of other resources as a means of finding appropriate materials for the receptionist, gaining inputs or feedbacks from her classmates, and learning how to improve her learning potentianls. In addition, through PMD project, she could be more understanding to her friends, be more open-minded, and be a presenter in a seminar.

2. Evi’s Story

Evi, pseudonym, was currently one of the students in The Graduate Program in English Language Studies Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta. She was in her third semester of becoming the student in the graduate program and her interest 62 is in linguistics. She was born in Purworejo. Her formal education was also in Purworejo. Right after she graduated from senior high school, she chose to continue her education to the English Language Education Study Program ELESP Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta. She started her education in the ELESP from 2009 until 2013. Having graduated from the undergraduate program, she then applied for a job in the education field such as schools, and language institutions. Finally, she was accepted to be a teacher in one of the private schools in Jakarta. During her teaching time, she taught junior high school students and also elementary school students. Furthermore, she was not only teaching English, but she also was teaching civics and social studies. When she became the teacher, she did not merely teach her students with giving so many questions. Rather, she applied group presentations and also group projects such as creating advertisement, and also some cultural projects so that the students would not feel bored easily. After having a one year experience for being a teacher in Jakarta, she felt that her English ability was not sufficient enough. Hence, she decided to pursue her higher educational degree to the graduate program in ELS in 2015. Her main motivation was because she needed to learn linguistics more deeply. Additionally, she thought that when teaching, teacher’s linguistics ability was more important than the teaching method. Moreover, she also thought that without having enough linguistics knowledge, the students would not have sufficient materials as what they were supposed to have. Regarding her experience in doing projects, Evi, told me that she had ever done projects since she became the undergraduate student. The projects she 63 remembered were the SPD project and the play performance project. She further explained that in her SPD project, she was assigned to create an English course program with her group. In her play performance project, she and her group had to create a play performance as the final assignment and she was chosen to be the director for her group. Not only did she have experience in doing projects when she was the undergraduate student, but she also had done many projects during her study time in the graduate program in ELS. One of the projects was the CDA project when she was in the first semester in early 2015. During the interview, she told me that in CDA project, she and her three other friends had to choose a topic to analyze a text. After that, they had to choose the theories that they were going to use. Since there were four people in her group, they had to firstly discuss the topic by using the CDA approach and distribute the tasks evenly so that the members of the group could explore their own interests. “As the first process, we chose the topic to analyze a text. A8-E4-RWT “After that, we chose what theories that we were going to use to determine the basis of the analysis. Since there were four people in my group, we had to discuss the text and how it was going to be analyzed using the CDA approach. A8-E4-TW “According to Ferkalr, there were four steps in CDA. We then divided the steps evenly to each member of the group - who gained step A, step B, step C, and step D. We were together in assigning the four steps. A4-E4-NEGO So that we could explore our own interest by choosing our own step.” A4- E19-EXIN After they had chosen the topic and discussed the four steps, they did their own tasks individually, discussed the tasks together, and they revised their own work. 64 “Having decided the topic and discussed the theory, we divided the four steps A4-E6- FtFP. We did our own tasks, we discussed our own tasks again together, and we revised our own work A4-E6-IA ”. “When the tasks had evenly given to each member of the group, we typed our tasks individually. After we gained the red line, we developed our argument, and we made an appointment to have our group discussion again since it would be impossible for us to typ e our work together.” A8-E17-IA Indeed, in the group discussion, they often debated eac h other’s arguments in order to find the best analysis for their chosen topic. However, they did it because they wanted to know whose arguments were the strongest. “We often debated each other’s argument in our group discussion. For example, if in my opinion this was right, and if this was the right analysis. My other friends might have different opinion and they would support their argument. We often debated our own argument so that we could know whose arguments were the strongest. Since there were four people in my group, so there would be who chose whose arguments.” A8-E11-OC-FtFP- MADE In analyzing the text, Evi and her friends, maximized the use of other resources such as internet to help them analyze the text they had chosen. They tried to find research reports from the internet to support their argument as well as their analysis. It also helped them strengthen their argument so that they could decide they had analyzed the text correctly. “At that time, we tried to find research reports from the internet to help us strengthen our argument in analyzing the text. Moreover, it also supported our argument so that we knew we had correctly analyzed the text.” A8- E10-UOR Having finished with her CDA group project, Evi told that she could gain togetherness, team work, new experiences, as well as benefits for herself. Moreover, she could tell that she was able to understand her friends’ characters. She more emphasized that through project-based learning she was able to know how her friends worked, their characters, as well as their personalities. 65 “In group, I could know my friends’ characters. In fact, each of us is different from one and another. Hence through project based, I could know how A, B, C, worked, and their personalities as well. A5-E18-E19-UOCH Moreover, she mentioned that through doing projects, she could be independent, disciplined, and could increase her self-esteem. She stated that through doing project, she could be more independent since she had to do research, find appropriate theories, and many other related things. She stated that “Obviously, I became more independent. Since we had to conduct research, find theories by ourselves A5-E37- INDP”. In terms of being disciplined, she felt that her discipline increased. She explained that when she studied in the graduate program, she often did many projects individually and in group. Hence she felt more disciplined compared to when she was an undergraduate student. She stated that “I felt that I became more disciplined. It was very different from when I was an undergraduate student A5-E66-E67- DCP”. Related to her self-esteem, Evi added that by doing projects, she could be resilient. She further mentioned that no matter what the conditions were, she had to be really tough when dealing with projects and the deadline. “I became resilient A5-E68-SEST. For instance, when you felt sick, you needed to keep struggling to finish the projects and the deadline. No matter how busy you were, you really had to be tough and strong. A5-E69- SEST” Lastly, Evi, stated that by working on projects, especially her CDA projects, she could increase or improve her critical thinking skills. She mentions that unconsciously she could be able to analyze the texts critically by not only looking at the main ideas, but also she could find the power in balance within the texts. She uttered that “Unconsciously, we could analyze the texts. In other words, we could analyze the texts critically. Usually, I only analyze the texts based on their