JUSTIFICATION OF CURRENT STUDY

1

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This introductory chapter is to ensure the validity of the research project, i.e. its meaningfulness and relevance, as well as its feasibility. The chapter presents a justification for the current study so as to clarify the context within which the research was conducted before progressing to subsequent chapters. The problem identification is introduced and the problem limitation is presented which are of importance to this study, presenting the area of discussion for this study. My statement of the research question for conducting the study and the significance of the study are outlined. This chapter also introduces a description of phenomenology as a qualitative approach adopted for the study. The research benefit is set forth and closes the thesis.

A. JUSTIFICATION OF CURRENT STUDY

University students, especially international undergraduate program students, need to improve their mastery of the English language. One of the researcher’s motivations is to gain an insight into how students orient to lived experiences in learning English. This thesis provides research describing the lived experiences of some International Class students at UMY taking English class at the Language Training Center as their required subject. This project considers “what and what does it mean” Manen, 1990: what each student has done in his everyday activity 2 of learning English and what learning English means to them, with a view to reaching the better stages of needs, i.e. realization of self-potential self- actualization and competence in helping others. There are studies focusing on teacher and learner as part of important elements in teaching-learning process Reszke, 2011; Tumijo, 2008; Leaph, 2011. As an English teacher, my aim in undertaking this study is to ensure that this research project is feasible and valid. The project is not only relevant to education in reaching emphatic understanding, but also scientifically relevant and meaningful. As illustrated in Tumijo’s 2008 study of teachers’ lived experience of using a text-based curriculum in English teaching, it is found out from the lived- experience of the teachers that they have different perspectives on text-based curriculum. Moreover, it affects the approach they use in the classroom. If the teachers hold varying opinions on teaching English, it is reasonable to suppose that there must be the same case with the students’ opinions on learning English. This finding inspires me to pay attention to participants’ experiences in learning English to better reach emphatic understanding. Another result of a study conducted by Suzanne Margaret Reszke in 2011, interesting as well, The Lived Experiences of Adult Learners of English as a Second or Other Language, suggests that sense of vocation motivates the participants to learn English as well as helps them to continue to have their English learning and to continue in using English to meet the requirement of their vocation through working with international organizations. She focuses on participants’ points of view in learning English, especially those who live in an English speaking country and work at international organizations. The study 3 shows that the participants a part from experience the process of learning English reflect to what they have experienced to improve their performance in the workplace. A pertinent question is what about students learning English in non- English speaking countries? Leaph in 2011 examined perceptions of thirty nine Cambodian University students about the effectiveness of oral feedback OF and written feedback WF on their writings. After two months of treatment, the results showed that both the OF and WF groups of students improved their holistic writing. Other indications recognized were that the OF group of students felt more oriented toward the oral feedback than the WF group toward written feedback. Additionally, the OF group made improvement in both micro aspects i.e. grammar, vocabulary, mechanic, and spelling and macro aspects i.e. content and organization of writing. On the other hand, WF group only improved in macro aspects of writing. The study does not share the meaning of the treatments to the students and shows only the proficiency of the students’ learning. From those studies, it is clear that this project is still feasible and reliable to be conducted. It is understood that in learning English, in order to have better communication, there has to be a reflection where students see again what they have done and relate it with the meaning implied on learning English so that they become more empowered. Besides, both teachers’ and students’ empathic understanding are needed to meet the goal of learning-teaching English language particularly in order to better able to come to an understanding of the deeper meaning of an aspect of student experience in learning English in the context of 4 the whole student experience. To this end, this study attempts to describe the essence of learning English to the participants.

B. RESEARCHER’S VOICE