The Effects of Doing Group Presentation to Foster Independent Learning
48 All of the statements in Table 4.2 investigated the effects of doing group
presentation to foster students’ independent learning. According to Richards and Rodgers 2001, group project in language teaching provides opportunities for the
students to learn naturally by having group activities. Therefore, the first statement was about whether the students could learn better by working together with their
friends in group or not. There were 62.3 out of all students agreed and 26.2 of the students strongly agreed with this statement. Besides, the 11.5 of the students
disagreed that they could learn better by doing group project. However, none of the students strongly disagreed with the first statement. It was described that most of the
students felt that they could learn better by doing group presentation project. Next, the second statement showed that 70.5 out of all students agreed that
they could reach their learning goal through doing group presentation project. Group presentation project was done by the lecturer as a methodology to make the students
able to achieve their goal Richard Rogers, 2001. There were 13.1 of the students who supported this statement because they strongly agreed. Nevertheless, the
16.4 of the students disagreed and there was no one who strongly disagreed with the second statement.
Afterward, the third statement in number three asked whether or not the students became more communicative by learning through group presentation project.
In language teaching, Richards and Rodgers 2001 stated that group work has a communicative function for students because they have to be interactive in doing the
49 task. It exposed that the students also learn independently in order to practice their
communicative speaking skill. The result was that 32.8 of the students strongly agreed and 60.7 of all of the students agreed that they could be more
communicative. On the other hand, 6.6 of the students disagreed and none of the students strongly disagreed with the third statement.
The f orth statement was about learning in group opened each student’s
opportunity to learn about new material. More than half respondents agreed with the forth statement. There were 70.5 out of all students agreed and 27.9 of the
students strongly disagreed. A few students about 1.6 of the students disagreed and none of them strongly disagreed with statement number three. According to Richards
and Rodgers 2001, group work provides opportunities for learners to be success in their learning. Thus, group presentation project as a part of group work was also
aimed to let the students succeed in understanding their lesson and to get new knowledge.
Richards and Rogers 2001 also said that the implementation of group work in language teaching can enhance students’ motivation and reduce their stress.
Motivation is also related to students’ independent learning. However, the result showed that 42.6 of all of the students disagreed and 14.8 of the students strongly
disagreed with the fifth statement. There were only 34.4 out of all students who agreed and 8.2 of the students strongly agreed that they could reduce their stress
through doing group presentation project.
50 On the other hand, if the students had more independent learning through
doing group presentation project so they would improve their academic performance Meyer, et al., 2008. The sixth statement asked whether or not the students got good
scores by learning through group presentation project. It was shown that 63.9 out of all students agreed and 4.9 of the students also strongly agreed with it. Some 29.5
of the students disagreed and 1.6 of the students strongly disagreed with it. It explained that most of the students got good scores in their study by learning through
group presentation project. Otherwise, some of them could not get it. The seventh statement asked whether or not the students felt much more
motivated in learning by doing group presentation project. According to Meyer, et al. 2008, if the students become more independent in learning by doing the project,
their motivation and confidence as well as the ability to engage in lifelong learning will be increased. It was proven that there were more than half students who felt that
they were much more motivated in learning through group presentation project. There were 44.3 out of all students who agreed and 13.1 of the students strongly agreed
with the seventh statement. The 42.6 of the students disagreed and none of the students strongly disagreed with it.
Moreover, the eighth statement wanted to find out whether the students felt much more confident or not. There were 57.4 out of all students who agreed and
13.1 of the students strongly agreed that they felt much more confident. Otherwise, the other 29.5 of the students disagreed that they felt much more confident. There
51 were no students who strongly disagreed that they did not feel much more confident
by doing group presentation project. To sum up, more than half students felt that they were much more motivated and confident. The 57.4 out of all students agreed that
they were much more motivated and 70.1 out of all students agreed that they were also much more confident.
The ninth statement wanted to discover whether the students could find ways to improve their weakness through doing group presentation project. It was found that
there were 77.0 out of all students agreed with the ninth statement. There were 4.9 of the students answered strongly agree with that statement, while 18.0 of the
students disagreed and none of the students who strongly disagreed with it. It was stated that one of the benefits of having independent learning, students became more
aware of and better at managing their limitations Meyer, et al., 2008. It was meant that by doing group presentation project the students were able to improve their
weaknesses independently and learned better. To sum up, the result of perceptions in the ninth statement showed that 81.9 of the students agreed that by doing group
presentation project they could find ways to improve their weaknesses. Furthermore, the last statement dealt with whether the students improved their
independent learning by doing group presentation project or not. The result showed that 45.9 of the total students agreed that by doing group presentation project they
improved their independent learning, there were 26.2 of the students who strongly disagreed, 23.0 of the students disagreed, and 4.9 of the students strongly
52 disagreed with the statement. Therefore, the result of statement number ten showed
that there were 72.1 of the students who agreed and 27.9 of the students who disagreed that they improved their independent learning by doing group presentation
project. The tenth statement was also supported by the answers from the interview.
Some students agreed that doing group presentation improve their independent learning. The reason was explained by one of the interviewees.
“Ehm… first is because we have a responsible to master the topic. So like it or not like I’ve said before, we need to dig and get a lot of information to the
topic that we have. From that process we can do it independently.” Interviewee 3
Another interviewee said that heshe also agreed with the statement because of the responsibility. By having responsibility, heshe was accustomed to preparing the
presentation project really well and became more independent in learning Interviewee 2. Those who agreed with the statements of improving independent
learning through group presentation project might agree because of considering that they could find out a lot of information for their topic of discussion and presentation
in their group. They found information by themselves first, and then they shared it with their friends, after that they learned it again Pozzi Persico, 2010, p. 197.
Interviewee 3 and Interviewee 4 decided to agree with fostering independent learning by doing group presentation project because the process of doing it made
53 them find as much as information about the materials and prepare the presentation
well, thus it fostered their independent learning. On the other hand, there were few students who did not agree that group
presentation project helped them improve their independent learning. There must be a reason for that and one of the students who were interviewed explained the reason.
Heshe said: “Because I feel that I am more independent, I become more independent if I
do it myself because I work it alone so I am independent right. But if I do it, do the task or the assignment with my groups mostly all of the package of the
assignments are done by my friends. So, I am dependent to my friends, I am not independent.
” Interviewee 1
The answer of Interviewee 1 showed that heshe did not feel independent because of the project was done in group. Otherwise, if the project was done independently, then
heshe would feel much more independent because the project was all done on hisher own.
However, whether or not doing group presentation project makes the students more independent depends
on each student’s awareness. Interviewee 4 said that: “I do not totally disagree actually why because whether it has effects to my
independence it depends on myself and other members. If all of the members can do our own part by ourselves and responsible to our part then we can be
more independence, we will not dependent to other members.
”
54 Interviewee 4 believed that independent learning improvement depended on each
person. If all of the group members can participate really well like doing their own part to looking for information so they could be more independent. It was shown that
participation from all of the group members was needed in doing group presentation project so that the students learned to be more independent.
As a result, the researcher concluded that the respondents or the students had positive perceptions on the effects of doing group presentation project to foster their
independent learning. It was shown that all of the students responded agree to most of the statements provided in the questionnaire.