120
5.4.2.1 Manifestations of Maya’s pedagogic disposition to formalitydistance in her practice
This subsection focuses on Maya’s pedagogic disposition to formalitydistance in her teaching practice. This disposition manifests through the discouraging comments
she often makes to the students, her tendency to not refer to the students by name when interacting with them, and by the fact she seldom compliments the students. The
following excerpt is an example of Maya’s pedagogical practice that reveals her disposition to formalitydistance through the way she acts and talks to the students in
the listening class. In particular, it demonstrates how Maya makes discouraging comment to the students:
[After listening to a conversation about an invitation to a party, Maya asks some questions to the students]
MAYA: Do you think they will go the party? STUDENTS: Noooo [answering all together].
MAYA: No? Why not? SINTA: Boring and stupid [answering confidently].
MAYA: Who is boring and stupid? SINTA: Birthday party.
MAYA: The party is boring? How do we know that the party is boring? It hasn’t started yet [with raised voice].
SINTA: Opinion mam. MAYA: Your opinion? But your opinion must be logic … logical [with raised voice and then
the students are suddenly silent] Okay, any other opinions? HERU: Because he throw up an invitation?
MAYA: Okay. Because he threw the invitation. Okay I’ll repeat once more.
Not surprisingly after Maya said, “… but your opinion must be logic … logical” with a raised voice when responding to Sinta’s answer, all of students then went silent. Her
node of providing feedback surely discouraged and demotivated the students from actively participating in class discussions, especially Sinta, who answered her question.
Another example of how Maya discourages the students through the comments she makes is presented in the excerpt below:
121
[The students are sitting in two rows and Maya stands in the middle between the rows. After Maya plays the conversation, discusses and explains the answers with the students, she then asks
some referential questions relating to topic of discussion by pointing to certain students to answer. The topic for the lesson is “good friend”].
MAYA: Still talking about good friends. What do you usually do when you have free time with your friends? [pointing to Siska]
SISKA: Talking about our future MAYA: You talk about future [repeating Siska’s answer]. So you have chat. Okay. Is it really
activity you do? SISKA: Yes.
MAYA: Okay. You never go out somewhere? SISKA: No.
MAYA: Never. What about you? [pointing to Teguh] TEGUH: Ee … [murmuring and thinking] talking about future.
MAYA: Where do you usually have the talk? Where do you usually have the conversation? TEGUH: Kantin [answering with wrong pronunciation].
MAYA: Okay. Canteen [reframing Teguh’s answer with the correct pronunciation]. Next, what about you? You please [pointing to Sita]. Yes, you sitting in the middle.
SITA: [Remains silent] MAYA: Do you have good friends?
SITA: [Remains silent] MAYA: Do you have good friends? [raising her voice] Do you have good friends? Yes or no?
SITA: Yes. MAYA: Yes. What do you usually do with your friends?
SITA: [Smiling and remaining silent]. MAYA: I need your answer not your smile [again, raising her voice]. Okay. Mas, please
[pointing to Ahmad]. Do you have good friends? AHMAD: Yes. Sometimes I’m talking about our lesson in the library and in the canteen and
sometimes just kidding
.
The above excerpt presents some clear actions that reveal Maya’s disposition to formalitydistance. Maya again made a discouraging comment by saying; “I need your
answer not your smile” to Sita when she did not answer her question. It appears to be the case that the student was finding it difficult to express her idea in English, especially
when the entire class was waiting for her answer. She therefore just smiled and did not answer Maya’s question. However, Maya did not tolerate this response and made a
discouraging comment. Maya seems not aware of the impact her verbal language may have on the students’ motivation. Such comments are likely to have a detrimental effect
122 on the responding student in particular but also on all of the students in general, further
limiting their involvement in class activities. The above excerpt also shows that Maya rarely mentioned the student’s names while interacting with them. She referred to the
students as “you” or sometimes pointed them with her finger if she wanted a student to answer. This implies that Maya was either not familiar with the students’ names or did
not feel the use of names was important. The next manifestation of Maya’s pedagogic disposition to formalitydistance is
her practice of seldom praising or complimenting the students, especially after the students have made a good effort to answer her questions, as demonstrated in the
following excerpt:
[The students have just listened to a conversation on a cassette. They were then required to answer some questions from Maya regarding the information in the conversation. The questions
are addressed to the whole class.] MAYA: So we go to person one. The friend’s name, Jack. Is it right?
STUDENTS: Right [some students answer together]. MAYA: Okay. When did they meet?
STUDENTS: Three years ago [some students answer together]. MAYA: Three years ago [repeating and emphasizing students’ answer]. Where did they meet?
STUDENTS: At work [some students answer together]. MAYA: At work [repeating and emphasizing students’ answer]. All right. And what does his
friend do now? STUDENTS: Works in the bank [some students answer together].
MAYA: Works in the bank [repeating and emphasizing students’ answer]. Okay. They still keep in touch?
A STUDENT: Yes. MAYA: Yes [again, repeating and emphasizing students’ answer]. Now we move on to person
two
.
As illustrated in the above excerpt, Maya’s way of acknowledging her students’ correct responses is by repeating and emphasizing the answer. Another example from the video
recording of Maya’s lesson is presented in the below excerpt:
[After asking the students to listen to a conversation on a cassette, Maya discusses some question relating to the topic discussed. The questions are addressed to the whole class.]
MAYA: So, for the first person, what do they do? [Asking the students about the question in the textbook]
STUDENTS: Seeing movie [answering all together].
123
MAYA: Seeing a movie [repeating and emphasizing students’ answer]. Okay. When does it take place?
ADIT: Friday. MAYA: Okay. Now we move on to number 2. What does his father say?
SINTA: He must have a job. MAYA: Okay. He must have a job [repeating and emphasizing Sinta’s’ answer].
As both the above excerpts illustrate, Maya used two techniques to respond to the students’ answers. First, Maya mostly said “okay”, or she sometimes said “all right”
when the students provided the correct answer. Second, Maya repeated the students’ answer to confirm that the answer was correct. At no time does Maya compliment or
praise the students for providing a correct answer. This suggests that Maya is not concerned about trying to motivate the students through the provision of positive
feedback since she did not use praise as a method of positive reinforcement to encourage the students to be more active in the learning activities. The following
subsection of this chapter discusses the relationship between Maya’s pedagogic disposition to formalitydistance and her capital, field, and practice.
5.4.2.2 Relationship between Maya’s pedagogic dispositions to formalitydistance and capital, field, and practice
Habitus with the generation of capital structures an individual’s practices within a particular field. In other words, practice may be considered as the product of habitus.
Maya’s extensive English teaching experience, her ability to speak English fluently with good pronunciation, and her educational background from a public university provides
her with the potential to have a pedagogic disposition to formalitydistance within her field. Hence, Maya’s teaching practices are characterised by her habit to provide
discouraging comments to the students, her tendency not to refer to the students by their names, and her failure to praise the students.
Maya asserts that she does not want to be too formal with the students and that she hopes to establish a positive personal relationship with them. She is also aware
however that she finds it difficult to make her teaching fun for the students:
I try to be my students’ friends so that they will be brave enough to ask questions in the class. It seems that they see me as an unfriendly and serious
person so that they don’t have the confidence to talk to me. I realise that I cannot
124 easily make friends and I am not a humorist person. Yes, I’m not that kind of
person Interview 3, 06062012.
The above statements indicate that Maya is aware of her pedagogic disposition to formalitydistance as expressed through an image as a serious teacher. She perceives
that creating a positive relationship with the students is not an easy task. The classroom observations of Maya’s teaching practices revealed that she tried to create a relaxed
atmosphere in her class by smiling when she interacted with the students, such as when she was asking the students to answer the questions. However, it appeared the students
did not enjoy the lesson because they were only allowed to speak when asked to by Maya and subsequently they had little desire to participate in the class activities.
Maya diminishes her chances of establishing positive relationships with the students by her pedagogic disposition to formalitydistance. Her tendency not to refer to
the students by name and the limited praise she offers to them discouraged participation, particularly in a class dominated by students with low-ability English skills. The
students therefore did not have the confidence to express themselves in English. Moreover, Maya may have only compounded this problem when she called the students
who need a long time to answer her questions ‘lazy’, as shown in the following excerpt:
I’m tried to point the lazy students to answer. It’s just wasting time because they just kept silent when I asked them. Then I tried to point another lazy student and
it didn’t make any differences so that I just pointed certain students who are smart and active in the class Interview 3, 06062012.
As mentioned in the above statements, Maya is not patient enough to wait for an answer from the students so she focuses more on the students who have enough courage to
speak up. Maya mentioned that she was taught by an unfriendly English teacher while in
the first grade of junior high school:
I did not know anything about English when I was a junior high school student. One day, my teacher asked me to do something and at that time, I really did not
know how to do that. I even did not how to look up a dictionary. The teacher then insulted me by saying that I was stupid in front of the class. It really hurt
me. I felt shy as well with my classmates. I then have a kind of revenge that I will prove to my teachers I will become someone better than her Interview 3,
06062012.
125 The above excerpt recalls how Maya’s teacher made discouraging comment to her when
she could not do what her teacher wanted. Maya regarded this as a bad experience which impacted her personally. On the one hand, Maya was self-motivated enough to
want to do better. On the other hand, Maya have developed a tendency to be unfriendly and to sometimes say discouraging comments to her own students partly as a
consequence of her bad experience. Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992 argued that habitus is created by past experience and produces present and future practices by providing
schemes for perceptions and thoughts. In Maya’s case, her experience with an unfriendly teacher in the past may have contributed to her current disposition to
formalitydistance. Maya’s pedagogic disposition to formalitydistance diminishes Maya’s
relationship with the students. She does not have a positive relationship with them and tends to distance herself from the students. A positive teacher-student relationship is one
of many important elements for effective education. It ultimately promotes a “sense of school belonging” and encourages students to “participate cooperatively in classroom
activities” Veresov, 2004, p. 278. In other words, a positive relationship between teacher and students is likely to make the students more engaged in learning and create
a more relaxed and comfortable atmosphere and environment in the classroom. The students are therefore more likely to be receptive and to understand what is being
taught, which, in turn, can help to increase their level of academic achievement. To create a more positive and friendly relationship with the students, Maya might change
from her formal and distant pedagogic disposition. She could try to be friendlier towards the students, get to know them as individuals, and praise them when
appropriate. The next section of this chapter examines a third pedagogic disposition that Maya demonstrated through her teaching practices, that of a tendency towards
accuracyperfectionism.
5.4.3 Pedagogic disposition to accuracyperfectionism
Kategori