CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. Learning English 1. Definition of Learning
A search in dictionaries reveals that learning is acquiring or getting of knowledge of a subject of a skill by study, experience, or instruction. Any activity
can be called learning so far as it develops the individual in any respect, good or bad and makes him alter behaviour and experiences different from what that
would otehrwise have been. Lay definitions of learning focus on the acquisition of either knowledge
mainly verbal learning or skill mainly motor learning.
4
A more specialized definition according to Bernhardt, “Learning is more or less permanent
modification of an individual activity in a given situation due to the practice in attempts to achieve some goal or solve some problem.”
5
According to Hilgard and Bower, “Learning is the process by which an activity originates or is changed through reacting to an encountered situation,
provided that the characteristics of the change in activity cannot be explained on the basis of native response tendencies, maturation, or temporary states of the
organism.”
6
After getting the definition, the writer conclude that learning is acquiring new knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, preference or understanding, and may
involve synthesizing different types of information.
2. Types of Learning
The first general category within processes of learning comes from the work of educational psychologist Robert Gagne, who demonstrated the
4
Melvin H. Marx, Learning Process, Missouri: The Macmillan Company: 1969p. 4
5
Ibid, 182
6
Robert M. Liebert, Rita wicks Poulos and Gloria D. Strauss, Development Psychology, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Incp. 115
importance of identifying a number of types of learning which all human being use:
1. Signal Learning. The individual learns to make a general diffuse response to a signal.
2. Stimulus-Response Learning. The learners acquire a precise response to a discriminated stimulus.
3. Chaining. What is acquired is a chain of two or more stimulus-response condition.
4. Verbal association is the learning of chain that is verbal. 5. Multiple Discrimination. The individual learns to make a number of different
identifying responses to many different stimuli, which may resemble each other in physical to a greater or lesser degree.
6. Concept Learning. The learner is able to make a response that identifies an entire class of objects or events.
7. Principle Learning. In simple terms, a principle is a chain of two or more concepts. It functions to organize behavior and experience.
8. Problem Solving is a kind of learning that requires the internal events usually referred to as ‘thinking’.
7
3. Strategies of Learning
As a teacher, we must have a strategy to improve our language learning, because it is one of important factors to get the purpose of language learning.
Strategies are specific methods of approaching a problem or task, modes of action for achieving a particular end, planned designs for controlling and
manipulating certain information. According to O’Malley, there are six learning strategies:
1 Metacognitive strategies
Making a general but comprehensive preview of the organizing concept or
7
John M. Stephens, The Psychology of Classroom Learning, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc: 1966p.135
principle in an anticipated learning activity. 2
Cognitive strategies Imitating a language model, including overt practice and silent rehearsal.
3 Sosioaffective strategies.
Working with one or more peers to obtain feedback, pool information, or model a language activity.
4 Communication strategies
While learning strategies deal with the receptive domain of intake, memory, storage, and recall, communication strategies pertain to
employment of verbal or nonverbal mechanism for the productive communication of information.
5 Avoidance strategies
Avoidance is a common communication strategies that can be broken down into several categories. The most common type of avoidance
strategy is syntactic or lexical avoidance within a semantic category. 6
Compensatory strategies Compensatory strategies is a direct appeal for help. Learners may, if stuck
for a particular word or phrase, directly ask a native speaker or the teacher.
8
B. The Students’ Motivation 1. Definition of Motivation
Kategori