Significance of the Study

8 a student’s mastery of a given academic area. 9 Achievement is what a person has already learned. It means achievement is the child’s past learning that is his accumulated knowledge in a particular field. 10 Further, the other definition of learning achievement is the extent to which a person has achieved something acquired certain information or mastered certain skills, usually as a result of specific instruction. 11 Related to achievement, Jihad and Haris have quoted the definition of the achievement from experts’ opinion, and then they conclude that learning achievement is “pencapaian bentuk perubahan perilaku yang cenderung menetap dari ranah kognitif, afektif, dan psikomoris dari proses belajar yang dilakukan dalam waktu tertentu yang sesuai dengan tujuan pengajaran. ” 12 In addition to definition of learning achievement, some experts express their idea, as follows: 1 Romizowski says that learning achievement is outputs from an input process systems, and 2 Sudjana states that learning achievement is one’s ability that he has after he got learning experience. Furthermore, Sadker and Sadker express learning achievement as students’ actions that they have discipline minds and adhere to traditional moral and behavior. They demonstrate their competency in academic subjects or traditional skills through tests and writing. 13 In conclusion, learning achievement is the result of students past learning after instructional process in harmony with the instructional objective in particular period of time. 9 Julian C. Stanley, Measurement in Today’s School, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1964, p.2 10 Louis J. Karmel, Testing in Our Schools, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1966, p. 38. 11 M. Chabib Thoha, Teknik Evaluasi Pendidikan, Jakarta: Raja Grafindo Persada, 1996, p. 44. 12 Asep Jihad and Abdul Haris, Evaluasi Pembelajaran, Yogykarta: Multi Pressindo, 2008, p. 14-15. 13 Myra Pollack Sadker and David Miller Sadker, Teachers, Schools, and Society, New York: Mc-Graw Hill, 2005, p. 330. 9

c. Student’s English Learning Achievement in Indonesia

English achievement is learner’s ability to use the target language. 14 Similarly, Thornburry stated that English achievement is what learner has learned about target language – English, over a week, months, term or entire course. Moreover, English achievement is how much a foreign language that students know. 15 Students have to struggle through a course or learning experience of some sort to achieve a certain amount of control of the language. Beside those definitions, Huebener said that English achievement is the skills and the knowledge the pupils have acquired in each of the various phases of the language learning. 16 Concluding some definitions about the English achievement, it is the students ’ ability, skill, knowledge in English which they have acquired in particular time. In education, achievement is sign by scores, which may be taken from average of daily scores and final test where the test is used to measure the achievement and it is usually called achievement test. In indonesia , students’ achievement has been describe at the rules of the minister of National Education-Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan Nasional- Permendiknas No. 22, 2007, about Education Assessment Standard- Standar Penilaian Pendidikan . It is explained at section 1 point 1: “Assessment of learning outcomes of students in primary and secondary education implemented based on the educational assessment standard that is applied nationally.” To fulfill Education Assessment Standard, the students should reach the objectives of study from Based Competence-Kompetensi Dasar KD which is developed from Standard of Competence-Standar Kompetensi SK. In English subject, SK and KD cover the attainment of four skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing as written on School-based Curriculum-Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan KTSP. As the aims of English subject in Indonesia, student at secondary level are expected to have capabilities as described below: 14 Geof Brindley, Language Testing in the 1990s: The Communicative Legacy, ed. J. Charles Alderson and Brian North, Hertfordshire: Macmillan, 1995, p. 154. 15 Robert Lado, Language Testing: The Construction and Use of Foreign Language Tests, 9 th Ed., London: Longman, 1977 p. 369. 16 Theodore Huebener, How to Teach Foreign Language Effectively, 2 nd Edition, New York: New York University Press, 1969, p, 213.