Metacognitive Strategies Students’ Choices of Language Learning Strategies
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ability was improved after doing some language learning strategies while student A was the interviewee who disagreed. Student C said:
“The definite improvement is now I can respond to the conversation faster without thinking too long about what I have to say. I also do not
say “aaa, ee” anymore when having conversation with native speakers. Besides, now
I understand more how to speak English politely and formally by choosing appropriate vocabularies and correct grammar.”
However, student A said that her speaking ability did not get better even though she did language learning strategies like what her friends did. It happened
because she did not do them seriously which meant that she could not persist in facing obstacles even though actually she really wanted to have better speaking
ability and be able to speak English as fluent as native speakers. Moreover, she was not confident in her speaking ability and she had doubt that she would be able
to achieve her goals. From the analysis, it can be concluded that the improvement were obtained by only student B and student C.
The improvement was not obtained by all students because of some factors that influenced the use of language learning strategies. According to Oxford
1990, motivation and anxiety are factors that influence the use of language learning strategies which subsequently give impact on the performance
. Oxford’s theory explains why
student A’s speaking ability was not improved even though she applied some strategies like what student B and student C did.
According to Gardner 1985, motivation determines the amount of some components, namely goal, effort, want, attitudes toward the learning activity, and
success in learning foreign language. That statement is also supported by Dornyei’s theory which states that motivation determines how long they are
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willing to continue the activity, and how hard they are going to pursue it 2001. Therefore, the researcher asked the students some questions in the questionnaire
and the interview which were related to their motivation. The questions were asked to know about the obstacles faced by the students when practicing and
developing their speaking ability, the effort they invested to attain the goal when they encountered obstacles and the attitudes towards that situation.
The questionnaire result number 16 which can be seen in Appendix 4
shows that 20 students or 91 faced obstacles when practicing and developing their speaking ability while the other two 2 students or 9 did not face
obstacles. It can be concluded that most students faced some obstacles. Nevertheless, the obstacles were different one to another based on their interview
results which can be seen in Appendix 6. Student C said that she often felt nervous and shy in speaking English which made her wonder whether her
speaking partners, especially the native speakers, could understand what she said. Student A said that she often felt lazy and tempted to play and hangout with her
friends which made her forgot to practice her speaking. She also often felt confused to choose between finishing her assignments and practicing her English
speaking ability when she had lots of assignments to do. Moreover, obstacles faced by student B came from herself. She stated:
“Of course there is obstacle. That obstacle comes from myself. I often feel inferior in speaking English because my speaking ability is not as good as
my other friends in ELESP.” From the obstacles analysis above, it is needed to know how long the
students are willing to continue doing the strategies even though they have to face PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI