3 problem occurs when the teacher tries to make an interaction with the students using
the target language, but there are no responses from the students
.
They usually tend to keep silent, speak softly and unclearly
.
It seems that they are afraid to speak or shy about saying something since they are not confident of their ability or afraid of
making mistakes
.
Commonly, during a teaching and learning process, students have a lot of questions in their mind but they have a hard time to express it in a target
language
.
In another case, the students are busy with themselves when they are not interested in a certain subject
.
The class becomes very noisy and it is hard for the teacher to control this kind of class
.
Given the importance of identifying learners’ motivation and attitudes towards learning the English language, the researcher conducted a study to investigate the
SMK N 1 Depok students’ motivation and attitudes towards learning English
.
B. Research Problems
In this study, the researcher intends to find out the answer of the following research questions:
1. What kind of motivation do the 1
st
grade students of SMK N 1 Depok have in learning English?
2. What is the attitude of the 1
st
grade students of SMK N 1 Depok towards learning English?
4
C. Research Objectives
As this study is intended to find out the answers to the questions mentioned earlier in research problems, two research objectives are:
1. To determine what kind of motivation do the 1
st
grade students of SMK N 1 Depok have in learning English
.
2. To determine what kind of attitude do SMK N 1 Depok
students’ have towards learning English
.
D. Benefits of the study
Gardner and Lambert 1972, p.85 stated that a better understanding of students motivation and attitudes may assist ESLEFL curriculum and instruction
designers to devise language teaching programs that generate the attitudes and motivation most conducive to the production of more successful ESLEFL learners.
Additionally, Midraj 2008, p.118 states that a better understanding of students’
motivation and attitudes can help material researchers create and teachers select activities and tasks that tap students motivation and attitudes.
For other researchers, hopefully the results of this study can provide them useful with information for their own study related to this topic
.
They can provide a study relating to this topic in some other various issues
.
5
E. Definition of Terms
This section is to define the important terms used in this research
.
It will avoid misunderstanding about the terms which are used in this study
.
1. Motivation
According to Dornyei and Otto 1998, p.65, motivation can be defined as the
dynamically changing cumulative arousal in a person that initiates, directs, coordinates, amplifies, terminates, and evaluates the cognitive and motor processes
where by initial wishes and desires are selected, prioritized, operationalized and successfully or unsuccessfully acted out.
Student ’s motivation naturally has to do with students desire to participate in
the learning process Lumsden, 2009
.
The students may have their own motivation, and the sources of their motivation may be different from each other
.
Motivation is a crucial factor in learning process
.
In this study, student’s motivation refers to the participation of the students while learning English; whether the students of 1
st
grade students of SMK N 1 Depok Yogyakarta participate well in the learning process or
not
.
2. Attitude
Gardner 1980, p
.
267, defines the term attitude as an inference which is made on the basis of a complex of beliefs about the attitude object
.
While Ajzan 1988, p
.
4 considers attitudes as “a disposition to respond favorably or unfavorably
6 to an object, person, institution, or event”
.
In this study, the attitudes of the student would be categorized as positive or negative based on their answer in the
questionnaire
.
7
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
