T1 112011058 Full text
ATTITUDES TOWARDS LEARNING ENGLISH: A STUDY OF
SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT BANYUBIRU 1 STATE JUNIOR
HIGH SCHOOL
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Freda Dyah Ayu Kusumaning Yandi
112011058
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2015
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ATTITUDES TOWARDS LEARNING ENGLISH: A STUDY OF
SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT BANYUBIRU 1 STATE JUNIOR
HIGH SCHOOL
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Freda Dyah Ayu Kusumaning Yandi
112011058
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2015
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COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any
course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the
best of my knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or
written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text.
Copyright@2015. Freda Dyah Ayu Kusumaning Yandi and Rindang Widiningrum,
S.S., M.Hum.
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the
permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department, Faculty of
Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga.
Freda Dyah Ayu Kusumaning Yandi
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TABLE OF CONTENT
Cover Page…………………………………………………………………………..
i
Inside Cover Page………………….………………………………………………..
ii
Approval Page………………………………………………………………………
iii
Copyright Statement………………………………………………………………...
Iv
Publication Agreement Declaration…………………………………………………
V
Table of Content…………………………………………………………………….
vi
List of Table…………………………………………………………………………
vii
List of Appendices…………………………………………………………………..
viii
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………...
1
Introduction………………………………………………………………………….
2
Language Learning………………………………………………………………
6
Attitude…………………………………………………………………………...
7
Component of Attitude………………………………………………………..
9
The Study……………………………………………………………………………
10
Research Method ………………………………………………………………..
10
Research Context………………………………………………………………...
11
Research Participant……………………………………………………………..
12
Research Instrument of Data Collection………………………………………...
13
Data Collection Procedure ………………………………………………………
14
Data Analysis Procedure…………………………………………………………
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Discussion…………………………………………………………………………...
16
Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………….
27
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………….
30
References…………………………………………………………………………...
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Appendices………………………………………………………………………….
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LIST OF TABLES
The affective aspect…………………………………………………………………..
17
The behavioral aspect………………………………………………………………… 21
The cognitive aspect………………………………………………………………….. 24
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LIST OF APPENDICES
Questionnaire – English version……………………………………………………...
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Questionnaire – Indonesian version…………………………………………………..
39
Interview Transcripts (Student A, B, and C)………………………………………..
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ATTITUDES TOWARDS LEARNING ENGLISH: A STUDY OF
SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT BANYUBIRU 1 STATE JUNIOR
HIGH SCHOOL
Freda Dyah Ayu Kusumaning Yandi
ABSTRACT
Students’ attitude is important to see their preferences toward a subject in class. When
students have a positive attitude, usually they easily grasp the material given and also
encourage their performances in the class. A research toward students’ attitudes was
conducted due to the fact that nowadays English became a demand to reach a better
education. It was also based on teachers’ experience in Banyubiru 1 State Junior High
School that during English learning process, most of the students had a tendency to use
more their native language in discussion of English class, while English was only used
as a subject. This paper studies the attitude of eighth grader students in Banyubiru 1
State Junior High School toward learning English in term of their affective, behavioral,
and cognitive aspects. 32 participants were chosen by using sampling method as
representations of the whole target population and to avoid time consuming on the data
collection. They were asked to answer the questionnaire and 3 students were chosen to
be interviewed to cross-validate the responses toward the questionnaire given.
Regarding to the aspects of the attitudes, this research revealed that most students had a
positive attitude toward the English subject. They liked and were motivated to learn
English by actively participated on the question/answer session, even practiced using
English outside the classroom. Although some students showed their negative attitudes,
they also had awareness to learn more about English.
Keywords: attitude, EFL learner, English learning
1
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, the influence of English language spreads rapidly in Junior
High Schools in Indonesia. The massive use of English itself then makes the
curriculum in schools begin to provide English subject to bolster the learners for
learning English language (Sukyadi & Mardiani, 2011). Then, because the
curriculum includes English subject, it becomes one of required subjects in
Indonesia. Furthermore, it is comprised in National Examination and applies to all
students of all levels from Junior High School to Vocational School.
Additionally, English is even as a subject that is included on “the selection
of entrance examinations to higher education and any other promising
scholarships” (Crystal, 2003, p.2). Consequently to achieve those goals, as
English learners who usually “are not capable to communicate fluently or learn
excellently in English, and often come from non-English-speaking backgrounds”
(Abbot, 2014), a learner’s performance in a learning process is important
especially the way students demonstrate their attitudes towards the English subject
at school. It is because attitudes of language learners are one of the indicators that
affects language learning (Snow, 2007; Young, 2006). For instance, the attitudes
are the action-taken to learn or efforts-applied during the learning process.
Hence, when the students have positive attitude, usually they will perform
quite well in class, also learn the materials effectively (Hosseini, 2013). Moreover,
students are more likely to behave productively, work harder in the class, and
(crucially) persist longer with language study (Hosseini, 2013; Al-Tamimi &
2
Shuib, 2009). Thus, attitudes play an important role that influences the
performance of learning the language (Gardner, 1985).
Many studies have been conducted to explore the nature of students’
attitude towards learning English as Foreign Language (EFL) in Junior High
School. For instance, King-Fong (2004) investigated about the attitudes of a group
of F.4 (the name of the class that is conducted for the research) students in a local
EMI school (the school used English language not only as the subject, but also as
the Medium of Instruction that teacher used to teach) in China’s secondary
schools towards English language, English culture and English-speaking people.
Questionnaires and semi-structured interview were used to collect data. The result
stated that students showed positive attitudes in learning English and were willing
to learn the language even if it was not a compulsory subject in school.
After that, Hussain, Shahid, and Zaman (2011) examined six districts of
the Punjab Province in Pakistan, about foreign language anxiety and attitude
towards foreign language learning. The participants were selected by sampling
method with 360 male and 360 female students of 10th grade students of public
sector secondary schools from six districts of the Punjab Province of Pakistan.
Besides, Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for data
analysis. Then, the level of anxiety and level of attitude were determined by
percentage. Furthermore, T-test was used to discover the difference between boys
and girls of 10th grade. On the other hand, the result stated that students especially
in a rural area had less positive attitude towards English although they had high
anxiety in learning English.
3
In Iran, Alseweed (2011) took a related study about students’ attitude in
secondary school. The study revealed the rationale behind the relationship among
students’ interest, desire, and attitudes. Moreover, the participants were 124 male
students’ secondary school in Buraydah, Gasim, Saudi Arabia using questionnaire
to collect the data. The result indicated that students’ attitude in Buraydah could
not be viewed as stable. It showed positive attitudes on the value of studying
English, and negative attitude on studying English as an important subject.
According to the previous study, there are some attitudes that appear
towards the language learning, namely positive and negative attitude. Hosseini
(2013) defined ‘positive and negative attitude’ as follows:
“Students have positive or negative attitudes towards the language they
want to learn or the people who speak it. Having positive or negative
attitudes towards a certain language can exert considerable as the
reflection on the language itself. By investigating the attitudes and beliefs
of learners, they, in turn, can be the guidelines for the learning process, as
learners play the main role in any learning environment.” (p.64)
Thus, after knowing the importance of positive and negative attitude and the
previous study, the researcher would like to conduct similar research about
students’ attitude towards learning English in Junior High School.
However, some previous studies used large size participants and conducted
in school where English was a media language to learn, it became differences with
this research. The researcher used small size participants so that the researcher
could be more focus and got a deeper analysis. Besides of that, time limitation
also became the consideration remembering the limited of time given by the
faculty to finish the research. Furthermore, the research was conducted in school
4
where the students do not use English as daily communication and their
proficiency on learning English is still low in fact many Indonesian Elementary
schools do not provide English language as the subject. Besides, based on the
informal conversation with teachers in the school when the researcher did a
Teaching Practicum; students in Junior High School require learning English at
schools and have to pass it in order to reach higher education. However, during
the learning process, most of them tend to speak in their native language, but
sometimes they speak in English as the conversation in English class. Thus, it is
not clear whether they prefer learning English or not.
This study aims to explore attitude of the second year students in
Banyubiru 1 State Junior High School, and to answer the research question,
“What is the students' attitude toward learning English in the second year of
Banyubiru 1 State Junior High School?” Therefore, by doing this research, the
researcher hopes that this study can help teachers to recognize more about
students’ attitude in learning English. Moreover, it could identify deeply with
students’ preferences towards learning English in school. Powell and Powell
(2011) stated that “students who are engaged in work that interested them were
overwhelmingly more able to see connections between their present work in
school and their future academic.” Then, the finding of this research hopefully can
help readers that have more curiosity in general English Language Teaching
(ELT). Since as the teachers, they are supposed to consider the possibility of
students’ need and learning preferences in the process of learning language.
5
Here, the researcher provides a review of literature which is related to the
research objectives. Since the objective of the study is to find students’ attitude
toward learning English, this part would discuss a brief explanation about
language learning, the attitudes, and its components.
Language Learning
Languages come to be seen as a ‘useful support’ for the educational area.
It is strengthen by the MCEETYA (The Ministerial Council on Education,
Employment, Training and Youth Affairs) National Statement in Australia that
learning language can enrich our learners’ education. This statement can be
proved since in learning language, their learners have ability to communicate
across cultures, contribute to social cohesiveness through better communication
and understanding, have further developing the existing linguistic and cultural
resources in our community, and the last is to enhance the educational quality of
every individual (MCEETYA, 2005).
All the explanation above impacts the learners’ consciousness to learn
language. Related to the metacognition theory about psychological of language
learning, Zhang (2010) stated that, “during the process in the language learning,
the students must understand how they learn” (p.3). Therefore, by knowing the
reason to learn language, learners need to reflect on their learning process
continuously. Moreover, they can also develop self-awareness of themselves to
keep remember on the importance of learning language.
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Attitude
The term attitude can be defined into some essential ideas. Albarracin et al
(2005) believe that attitude can be defined as “a psychological tendency to view a
particular object or behavior with a degree of favor or disfavor” (p.4), or as one of
causal factors that created people’s motivation towards language learning process,
its culture and people to achieve certain goal (Chalak, 2011). Besides, Vogel et al
(2014) stated the objects of the attitude belonged to anything that a person might
keep in mind, including people, groups, things, and ideas.
Additionally, attitude belongs to "…one of important key of students’
ability to achieve proficiency in the learning process” (Scarcella & Oxford, 1992,
p.2). Therefore, people who are involved in education field have to know about
the concept of attitude. This knowledge can be used to help them to figure out the
main factor that leads the students' successfulness in school.
Moreover, Stark et al (2013) believes that attitude is “tendency to respond
positively or negatively towards a certain thing such as an idea, object, person, or
situation” (p.608). Abidin et al (2012) claims that there are 2 kinds of language
attitude in language learning, they are positive attitudes and negatives attitude.
Then, to categorize positive or negative attitude, it usually “depends on the
students’ interest towards the language they want to learn” (Chalak, 2011, p.41).
Positive attitude indicates a situation when students have more enthusiasm or
proclivity learning the language, like being active in question-answer session.
Oppositely, negative attitude indicates a situation when students tend to be quiet,
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lazy to do the exercises, or shy to ask the difficulties of the materials in language
learning.
Moreover, Montano and Kasprzyk (2008) state that positive and negative
attitudes can influence the language learning; the person who holds strong beliefs
in positively valued outcomes will result positive attitude. Contrary, “a person
who holds strong beliefs that negatively valued outcomes will result negative
attitude” (p.70). Shortly, it is necessary to know students attitude since as an
educator, teachers want to achieve learning success. Besides the only way to
distinguish either positively or negatively is by trying to know and understand the
students' responses toward the subject that affects their performance in the
classroom.
Based on the definitions above, Ajzen ( 2005) said that attitude was a
customary to distinguish verbal and non verbal response which “represented
beliefs, feelings, and action” (p.22). It means that beliefs, feelings and action can
be a tool to investigate positive and negative attitude of learning language.
Considering Ajzen’s statement, it becomes a foundation for this research to
investigate beliefs, feelings, and actions to get the data about students’ attitude
towards learning process and classify it whether it is included positive or negative
attitude. Moreover Elyidirim and Ashton (2006) claim that positive and negative
attitude have their own impact to the students. Positive attitudes can increase the
chance of language learning strives to success. In contrary, negative attitudes can
hinder the learning of that language. Yet, attitudes in this research can be defined
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as beliefs, feelings, and actions that would create positive or negative attitudes
towards the learning process.
Components of Attitude
In recent studies, Ling and Braine (2007); Abidin (2012); Hosseini (2013)
similarly adopted the theories of attitudes, Baker (1992) and Brown (1994);
toward the construct attitude with three components: affective, behavioral
(readiness for action), and cognitive in their researches. Thoughts about attitudes
affect language performance had come a long time ago by Baker (1992) that,
“attitude is considered as a vital component affecting language
performance, while achievement in a target language depends not only
on academic capacity, as well as on the learner’s attitudes towards
language learning” (p.92).
This means that learning language should be approached primarily as a
social and psychological phenomenon rather than as a purely academic one. Thus
attitude enriched the process of language learning, influenced on the nature of
student’s behavior, psychological, and social towards the other language, and
identified to acquire that language itself.
Furthermore, in early investigation about attitude, Brown (1994)
introduced the three components of the attitude. They are affective, behavioral /
conative, and cognitive. Affective involves a person’s feelings or emotions about
the attitude object, such as “like”, “dislike”, “with”, or “against”. This is
emphasized by Feng and Chen (2009) that learning process is an emotional
process which influences students’ perspectives and attitudes toward the learning
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process. The example of affective component is “I like learning English”
(Pickens, 2005, p.44).
Next, behavioral/conative involves the way the attitude that we have, could
influence how we act or behave. In this component, Kara (2009) agreed that
positive behavior will lead positive attitude. The example of behavioral
component is “I like to learn English and will join English class ” (Pickens, 2005,
p.44).
The last is cognitive component. This involves expressions of beliefs and
ideas or opinions about the object of the attitude. For example, “I believe learning
English will help me to trip around the world” (Pickens, 2005, p.44).
THE STUDY
This section discusses the research methodology in this research. They are
types of research method, research participant, research context, research
instrument of data collection, data collection procedure, and data analysis
procedure.
Research method
This study deals with students’ attitude in learning English. Therefore to
get richer data, this study employed a “concurrent mixed methods design” which
is also called as a combination of quantitative and qualitative method. In this
method the data are collected at the same time and then incorporates it to overall
results (Creswell, 2007, p. 14). This type is attractive for several reasons. First,
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this approach is less time consuming because the researcher is able to collect the
two types of data during a single data collection time. Secondly, since both
quantitative and qualitative data sources are provided in this study, the researcher
can gain perspectives from different types of data or from different levels within
one study.
For the qualitative data, the study focuses on words-choices and meanings,
and the common methods include in focus group (group discussion), individual
interview, or participation/observation (Nunan, 1992), and the quantitative data,
“typically relies on measurement tools such as scales, tests, observation checklists,
and questionnaire” (Ary et al, 2009, p.421). This study used close-ended
questionnaire (statements with four options) and individual interview, specifically
semi-structured interview (a flexible interview that was conducted around the
interview guideline).
Research Context
The setting of the study was in Banyubiru 1 State Junior High School,
Central Java, Indonesia. This school is one of public Junior High Schools in
Banyubiru. It has 18 classes and they are six classes of grade 7th, 8th and 9th. Thus,
the researcher chose students’ eighth grader to be the participants. The research
was conducted on January 2015. The reason to choose this school was because
English was considered as a subject and not used as Medium Instruction (EMI).
Besides, the researcher did the teaching practicum in the school and there was no
research about students’ attitude for the secondary school, especially in Banyubiru
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area. Moreover, the reason to choose this grade was because the 8th students had
experiences to learn English since they were on 7th grade, so that they could think
whether they like English or not with the reasonable reason. Furthermore it was
because the consideration of the accessibility to “the time, respondents and
financial reason” (Ary et al, 2009, 137). Besides, the researcher has had good
relationship between teacher and students in the term of flexibility.
Research Participants
The total number of eighth grader students in Banyubiru 1 State Junior
High School was 192 that studied in academic year 2014-2015. The ranges of
participants’ age were between 14-15 years old, female and male who came from
different places around Banyubiru. However, to collect the data, questionnaires
were given to the participants. Since, Ary et al (2009) stated that giving the
questionnaires to all the students were “expensive or time consuming to do
negotiation to the administer” (p.231), therefore purposive or “criterion-based”
sampling procedure were chosen to support the study. Blackledge (2001) said that
purposive sampling could allow the researcher to select a group of people that
fulfill the criteria. It gave a chance to the researcher to get the relevant data within
a shorter time. The suggestion also came from Tongco (2007), “purposive
sampling can be better idea to construct as deliberate taking certain samples, this
is done based on the requirements (traits, characteristics, criteria) of the sample”
(p.147). Therefore, the researcher only took one class in 8F. There are 32 students
became the participants of the questionnaire and 3 of these students became the
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participants of the interview. The interview was used to obtain data and crossvalidate students’ responses toward the questionnaire. The participants were
selected based on the tendency of using less English in classroom. It was
supported by the researcher’s experience during the teaching practicum in that
school. Moreover, the participants were relatively easy access because the
researcher had a good relationship with them.
Research Instrument of Data Collection
The primary instrument that was used in this study was a questionnaire.
The statements in questionnaire were made by adopting questions from Kingfong’ (2004), Al-Tamimi & Shuib (2009), and Abidin et al (2012). It consisted of
three sections: affective (item 1-7), behavioral (8-13), and cognitive (item 14-20)
For this research, there would be two parts in questionnaire. The first one
was demographic information such as student number, class, age, gender, and the
phone number / email. The second one was closed-ended questionnaire by using
Likert Scale. The Likert scale is a technique that often used to measure statements
that express positive / favorable or negative / unfavorable attitude toward certain
object (D rnyei, 2003). The 20 items were put in a 4-point Likert Scale. It is from
level 1, Strongly Disagree to level 4, Strongly Agree. The questionnaire would be
translated into Indonesian to ensure an optimal understanding among all students
and to eliminate any potential language barrier that could prevent them from
expressing their full opinions.
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The researcher did the semi-structured interview in relation to students’
answers on the questionnaire. Semi-structured interview was defined as “the best
method to do interview since it provided richer data from all the types of the
interview” (Zacharias, 2013, p.67). Furthermore, “the interviewer may modify the
framework of the format or questions during the interview process” (Ary et al,
2009, p.438). Thus, using semi-structured interview could have a great deal of
flexibility and will get more insightful information toward what the students had
answered in the questionnaire given.
The length of interview process was around 15-20 minutes. Then, it would
be recorded (with participants’ permission) and transcribed. Similar with the
questionnaire, the interview was conducted in Bahasa Indonesia to ensure an
optimal understanding. After that, the researcher transcribed it into clean
transcription. Zacharias (2013) stated that, “in clean transcription, you only focus
on the content and leave out the irrelevant parts like fillers (ums, ahs, you knows,
etc.), false starts, repeated words, side conversations, interruptions, etc. (p.82)”.
The researcher chose clean transcription with the consideration of time.
Data Collection Procedure
To ensure its validity, the researcher did the piloting data session. Ary et al
(2009) indicated that pilot data study is necessary to make sure everyone in your
sample can understand the question in the same way, and to see how long students
take time to complete the survey in real time. Besides, to conduct a pilot data
study, the researcher used ¼ of 32 total participants. They were 8 students who are
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not the real participants and were chosen randomly from the eight grade of State
Junior High School 1 of Banyubiru. The reason to choose eight students according
to Zacharias (2013), “There is no agreeable formula in piloting data, but it is
better do the piloting data approximately ¼ of your total sample size” (p.81).
While in the procedure of piloting data, the researcher explained the purpose of
the study earlier so that students could recognize the researcher’s aim doing the
research in the class.
Three days after doing the piloting data session, the real questionnaire
would be given to 32 students. This questionnaire distributed to the students to
know their attitudes toward learning English in classroom. Similar with piloting
data, the researcher explained the research’s aim in doing data collection in their
class before students filled in the questionnaire.
Two weeks after the questionnaire were collected and analyzed by the
researcher, interview section was conducted. In this research, I conducted a
delayed interview Peterson et al (2005) because the information retrieval is more
cognitively effortful and this turns strengthens the memory trace (p.538). Here,
the delayed interview was an interview that was done in two until three times due
to the consideration of the participants’ condition. Thus, besides doing semistructured interview, the researcher also did the delayed interview to make sure
participants’ question and got relevant data.
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Data Analysis Procedure
After all the questionnaires had been gathered, the findings of
questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively. The classified findings were
analyzed by calculating the finding according to how many percentages on each
theme, interpreting the data by adding the detail information from the interview,
and correlating the data with relevant literatures. The analysis of the finding
would be delivered by presenting tables and percentage, and providing the
description for the participants’ answers in interview section. For the last step, the
researcher drew conclusion from the analyzed findings.
DISCUSSION
This section would discuss and analyze the finding as the answer for the
research question “What is the students' attitude toward learning English in the
second year of Banyubiru 1 State Junior High School?” The data were categorized
into four major themes. They were student’s attitude toward learning English as
foreign language, the affective aspect of attitude, the behavioral aspect of attitude,
and the cognitive aspect of attitude. The discussion of each theme was presented
by giving the questionnaire data on tables followed the discussion from the
interview.
Students’ Attitude toward Learning English as Foreign Language
This first theme would discuss a brief summary about the result of the
questionnaires-given. It was concluded from the checklists on the “agree” and
“disagree” column which were correspondingly to the statements about English.
16
The result indicated that many participants have a positive attitude (65,63%)
regarding to what they think about learning English while others have a negative
attitude (34.37%). Therefore, from the finding, it is clearly showed that most of
the participants at Banyubiru 1 State Junior High School have a positive attitude
toward learning English in school. The finding of this study supported some
previous studies such as King-fong’s (2004), Al-Tamimi & Shuib (2009), and
Chalak (2011) that the participants were aware and enthusiastic toward English
learning process. However, we need to get deep understanding behind the
participants’ attitude toward learning English.
The Affective Aspect of Attitude
This theme would present about the affective aspect of the participants
towards learning English, since we had known in the previous discussion that
many participants showed a positive attitude in learning English. The following
table 1 would give a clear summary of the finding.
Table 1
Students’ result on the affective aspect.
Total Agree
Total
Disagree
N
%
N
%
1. I like to listen to all matters about English.
25
78.12
7
21.83
2. I feel proud when I study English.
28
87.50
4
12.50
50
16
50
Statements
3. I feel excited when I communicate in English 16
with others.
17
4. I enjoy doing activities in class.
21
65.63 11
34.37
5. I enjoy doing my English homework.
20
62.50 12
37.50
6. I like my English class very much.
27
84.38
5
15.62
62.50 12
37.50
7. I feel excited to come to class when English is 20
being thought.
-
Total Percentage
70.09%
-
29.91%
The findings in Table 1 showed that the majority of the participants had
good desires to learn English. This result is related to Feng and Chen (2009) that
learning process is an emotional process which influences students perspectives
and attitudes toward the learning process. Most of the participants liked, enjoyed,
even felt excited and proud of learning anything about English.
In line of this, many participants showed their positive attitude on the
affective aspect (70.09%). They said that there were some factors affected their
attitudes toward learning English. Those factors are language curiosity and
teacher. Based on the finding, the participants firstly mentioned that they liked
English because of the language, especially the uniqueness of the language. This
naturally happened to the learners since they were driven by their inborn curiosity
to explore the world and the learning experience (Liuolienė & Metiūnienė, 2006).
As student A mentioned:
“Saya suka bahasa Inggris. Biasanya, lagu berbahasa Inggris atau film
barat. Bahasanya asik dan asing didengar karena bahasa sehari-hari kita
adalah bahasa Indonesia dan Jawa.”
(I liked English. It was usually related to songs or movies. The language
was fun and strange when we listened to it. It was because our daily
language was Indonesian and Javanese).
18
Then student B said:
“Lumayan suka, miss karena keren aja kata-katanya. Ada yang aneh jadi
bisa kepo nyari dikamus.”
(I just liked it, miss, because those words were cool. They were strange so
I could find the meaning in my dictionary).
Therefore, when the learners had the curiosity to learn the language, it
might derive to positive attitudes. It relates to Gardner (2007) that positive
attitudes toward the learning situation would likely produce greater enjoyment in
the study of the language, desire to learn the language, and effort expended in
learning the language.
The second factor why they liked English was based on their English
teacher. It was admitted as what students A said:
“Sejauh ini sih suka mapel bahasa Inggris, dan belajarnya bareng sama
temen-temen. Tapi lebih condong sama cara guru mengajar di kelas.
Kalau misal gurunya tegang (spaneng), murid malah jadi stress dan
ujung-ujungnya malah enggak nyambung ke materi yang diajarkan. Beda
kalau gurunya santai, ajak ngobrol, ajak diskusi kelompok, ajak cerita
lucu, atau ada games, maka kita sebagai murid malah nyambung ke
materinya .”
(So far, I liked learning English because I could learn it with my friends.
However, I actually prefer learnt more based on the way teacher explained
the material in class. If she taught in tense way, I was difficult to
understand the material. It was different if the teacher could make it fun,
take a short conversation, make a discussion, tell funny stories, even do
some games. It would make me understand the material).
Similarly, student B confessed:
“Kalau saya sih, tergantung guru. Kalau dia enak, ya saya menikmati
kelasnya miss. Ya sambil cerita-cerita gitu atau nonton video singkat.
Enggak hanya diskusi dan ngerjain tugas.”
(In my opinion, it depended on teacher. If she made the class fun, I would
enjoy the class. For example, teacher told some stories or gave short
videos. Therefore, she did not just discuss the material and did the
exercise).
19
Here, what happened to both Students A and B reflected that the kind of
pedagogy and the student's preferences are influenced by the learning
environment (Ruth Beyth-Marom, et al 2005). It means that how the teachers
teach may determine the students’ responses toward particular subject. In this
case, understanding students’ responses toward a certain subject is important,
because those responses have a big effect to students’ performance in the class.
Unlike students with positive attitudes, 29,91% of the participants reacted
negatively in term of learning English. One of them said that he did not have any
passion to learn English. Student C argued:
“Sebetulnya saya sedikit suka bahasa Inggris karena bahasanya aneh
untuk di dengar. Bahasa Inggris adalah bahasa yang sulit untuk dipahami.
Jadi saya malas untuk belajar. Kata-katanya banyak yang
membingungkan, cara menulisnya juga susah, kurang 1 huruf aja salah
dan beda arti, terus cara pengucapan susah, dan penggunaan verb 1, verb
2, dan verb 3.”
(Actually I like a bit about English because the language is strange.
English language was hard to be understood, so I was lazy to learn it.
There were many confusing vocabularies. Therefore, I felt difficult to
write them; for example, if I just missed a letter then it would be wrong
and had different meaning. Moreover, it was difficult to pronounce some
words, also to differentiate the use of verb 1, verb 2, and verb 3).
Rudd, Greenbowe, and Hand (2002) argue that if attitudes are negative,
every activity which is related to the course will be also negatively affected. In
other words, when a particular participant had a negative attitude, s/he tended not
to grasp and learn English. Thus, as teachers, they should change students’
perception toward English learning. It could be done by providing more
interesting material or different classroom atmosphere to the participants. When
20
the negative changed into positive, it would help the participants to understand the
English language easily.
The Behavioral Aspect of Attitude
This theme would present about the behavioral aspect of the participants
towards learning English. Similar on the affective aspect, there would be also
further discussions from the finding result in this section. Table 2 would depict the
finding on the behavioral aspect.
Table 2
Students’ result on the behavioral aspect.
Total Agree
Total
Disagree
N
%
N
%
17
53.13
15
46.87
15
46.87
17
53.13
10. I look forward to learn more about English.
18
56.25
14
43.75
11. I would take English even it is not a
16
50
16
50
17
53.13
15
46.87
Statements
8.
I always practice English language by
interacting with friends and teacher.
9.
When I miss the class, I always ask to my
friends about the homework on what has
been taught,
compulsory subject in school.
12. I like to give opinions (ask and answer the
question) during English class.
21
13. I am able to make myself to pay attention
21
65.63
-
54.17
11
34.37
during studying English.
Total Percentage
-
45.83
Based on the interview session with the students, many of them said they
looked forward to learn more about English. Student A affirmed:
“Saya sering berlatih bahasa inggris. Ya, kalau di sekolah sama temen.
Tapi kalau di rumah sama bapak, sama mas. Saya sih suka banget sama
bahasa Inggris. Jadi selalu pengen tanya dikelas.”
(I often rehearsed the English language. I did it with friends in school.
Then if I was at home, I did it with my father and my brother. I liked
English so much. Therefore, I always asked anything in class)
Interestingly, student B added:
“Kalau saya latihan sama temen setiap hari Jumat ngobrol biasa. Enggak
wajib sih miss. Sekedar ngobrol aja biasa tapi dicampur pake bahasa
Indonesia. Ya kayak iseng-iseng sendiri gitu miss.”
(I did conversations in English with my classmate every Friday. It was a
simple daily conversation; not an obligation at school. I actually did it by
mixing in Bahasa Indonesia. We did it just for fun, miss)
Those ideas are also similar to Zacharias (2004) that materials given in
language classroom indirectly encourage the students to learn more about what
had been studied, so that the students could improve their ability in language
learning. Yet, to enhance student’s curiosity toward the materials and
subsequently apply what they have learnt, first of all, teacher needs to grab
students’ attention. According to the questionnaire data, 65.63% of participants
said that they were able to make themselves pay attention during studying
English. This is related to the theory of behavioral aspect of attitude that students’
preferences will affect to respectable actions or behavioral intentions towards the
object and finally lead to positive attitude (Kara, 2009).
22
In English classroom, Oliver, Wehby, and Reschly (2011) emphasize that
classroom management is based around a teacher’s ability to organize and plan in
the class. Besides, a teacher also has a power to affect students’ view about a
particular subject (Good & Brophy, 2003). To summarize, teaching style and
classroom management that the teachers create have a big role in term of students’
preference toward certain subject. Those might influence students in order to pay
attention, finally influence how students act or behave in class.
According to the participants, two of them admitted that they could pay
attention with the material although they still got any distraction, usually from
their classmates. The reason why they tried to pay attention usually depended on
the teacher, similar with the explanation above that teacher should manage the
classroom management to make students interested with the material. Some added
it was because of AVA, stands for Audio Visual Aid, such as video and
PowerPoint. As student C said:
“Pelajaran di sekolah asik karena gurunya kasih liat video atau
melakukan games”.
(English subject at school was very fun because the teacher played a video
or did some games).
Even the student, who was inclined into the negative attitude, felt that
games and AVA could make him to pay attention in class. VanGundy (2005)
points out “interactive techniques by using games are often perceived as “fun”, yet
they are frequently more effective than lectures at enabling student learning”
(p.25). It is clear that games and AVA are effective because they can lower
students' stress, and give them opportunity for the real communication. In other
23
words, teachers have a power to use kinds of games or AVA as long as they do
not leave out the value of the target language.
The Cognitive Aspect of Attitude
The last theme would present about the cognitive aspect of the participants
towards learning English. Table 3 presented the finding on the cognitive aspect.
Table 3
Students’ result on the cognitive aspect.
Total Agree
Statements
Total
Disagree
N
%
32
100
0
0
15. English is easy to learn.
18
56.25
14
43.75
16. I believe I can go around the world when
32
100
0
0
19
59.38
13
40.62
21
65.63
11
34.37
20
62.50
12
37.50
14. English is an important world language to
N
%
communicate.
I learn English.
17. In my opinion, English should be the
medium of instruction in Banyubiru 1
State Junior High School, in addition to
Bahasa Indonesia .
18. Learning English make me obtain better
education.
19. The teaching English should start in
Indonesia earlier
24
20. I study English just to pass an exam.
Total Percentage
17
53.13
15
46.87
-
70.98
-
29.02
70.98% of participants show their beliefs and opinions by learning
English. This related to the theory of cognitive component that produces
expressions of beliefs and ideas or opinions toward the object of the attitude. For
example, “I believe learning English will help me to trip around the world ”
(Pickens, 2005, p.44).
Based on Table 3, which showed the highest percentage, all participants
agreed that English is an important world language to communicate. This was
alike to Crystal’s statement (2013), “English nowadays comes as a global
language that comes to be used by more people than any language” (p.111).
Moreover, the discourse of ‘Education for All’ and the increase in the use of
English in the global market have recently added a universalistic dimension to the
teaching-learning of English (Shamim, 2011). Because of that, many students
considered English as world language to communicate as well as to enable them
to get better education. These below are what students said about English as
communication. It is as what student A conveyed in the interview:
“Setuju (bahasa Inggris adalah bahasa untuk berkomunikasi), karena di
dunia bahasanya macam-macam, ada yang Korea, Jepang, Cina. Tapi
yang lebih umum digunakan untuk berkomunikasi bahasa Inggris karena
bahasa Inggris bahasa Internasional”
(I agree (English as a language to communicate) because in the world,
there are many languages, for example, Korean, Japanese, Chinese
(Mandarin). However people commonly communicate using English
because English is International language).
Then, student B added:
25
“Karena bahasa Inggris kan bahasa Internasional, hampir semua simbol
atau tulisan biasanya ada bahasa Inggris. Contohnya di bungkus mi instan
atau di barang elektronik ada bahasa Inggrisnya.”
(Because English is International language, English is almost used in all
symbols or words. For example, in instant noodles packaging or in
electronics).
Similarly student C said like student A and B:
“Setuju. Karena sudah banyak orang luar negeri yang memakai bahasa
Inggris.”
(I agree because many foreign people use English to communicate).
While these below are what students said about English as an entrance to
get better education. Student A said:
“Iya bisa. Lagian pendidikan di luar negeri juga lebih bagus. Asalkan
pintar di sekolahnya, baru bisa keluar negeri dan pasti mendapat
pendidikan yang lebih baik.”
(Yes, it was. Education in abroad was much better. As long as the students
were clever at school, so they could go abroad and get a better education,
for sure).
In addition student B agreed:
“Menurut saya sih jelas banget miss. Asal udah lancar bahasa Inggris
terus niat belajar ke luar negeri pasti pendidikannya jauh lebih baik. Kan
denger-denger pendidikan di luar lebih bagus.”
(In my opinion, it was true, miss (about learning English in abroad). As
long as the students were fluent enough, and also had intention to learn
English, hence their educations were much better. The reason was because
of people’s assumption that education in abroad was better).
Yet, student C was confused about this, he similarly said like student A:
“Kurang tau. Tapi mungkin bisa,miss. Karena kan bahasa Inggris
mendunia. Dan asalkan anaknya pintar.”
(I am not sure about this, but probably it was possible because English has
been being the world; provided that the students were clever).
Here, what student A and C mentioned ‘clever’ might refer to how well
students can comprehend and apply English in a good way. Then those answers
were unsurprisingly because as world language, English is considered by donor
26
agencies as the existing language for educational development in developing a
country. Here, Coleman (2010a) mentioned some points that make English can
play roles
in
educational development:
“English
enables international
collaboration (exchange students), provides access to research and information,
and facilitates the international mobility of students, tourists, workers and others”
(p.15). By the accordance to Coleman, it can be presumed that the students have
awareness toward the beneficial of English language, so they have positive
attitude toward learning English and finally they will be more motivated to learn
the language.
CONCLUSION
The study examined students' attitude toward learning English in the
second year of Banyubiru 1 State Junior High School. Based on the questionnaire
and the interview section, many participants had positive attitudes toward learning
English at school although the characteristic of students mostly used native
language (Indonesian) as their daily communication. Most of the participants
(65,63%) had positive responses about learning English, while others had a
negative attitude (34.37%). This result was equivalent with the previous studies
conducted by King-fong’s (2004), Al-Tamimi and Shuib (2009), Chalak (2011)
that most of the participants also had positive attitudes toward learning English.
Here the results were reflected from three aspects; affective, behavioral,
and cognitive aspects. On the affective aspect, many participants showed their
positive attitudes (70.09%) because of some factors that affected students’
27
attitudes. Those are language curiosity and teacher. For the language curiosity,
students liked English based on the uniqueness of the language. Then for the
teacher, it is due to the way teacher taught were attracted students to learn more
English language. On the behavior aspect, a total 65.63% of participants said that
they were able to pay attention during studying English since the teacher used
AVA to assist the explanation, such as video and PowerPoint. Therefore, what
teachers created in class had a big role in term of students’ preference toward
certain subject because it influenced them to pay attention and to act or behave at
class. Then, the last is cognitive aspect. From the result, all of the participants
believe that English was a world language to communicate, even enabled them to
get better education. Those increased students’ awareness about learning English
and finally encouraged them to learn English more.
From the finding of this study, it may have some implications. As English
teachers, this study can be used as a reference to increase their awareness toward
students’ attitude on English subject. Moreover, it probably improves the quality
of teaching and learning process in all Secondary schools.
The limitation of this study was its limited participant. A modified study is
needed due to a small-scale study. The number of participants and survey
questions should also be added. With only 32 participants and 3 interviewers, the
result may not be generalized although it can be applicable for all school levels. It
is because many schoo
SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT BANYUBIRU 1 STATE JUNIOR
HIGH SCHOOL
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Freda Dyah Ayu Kusumaning Yandi
112011058
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2015
i
ATTITUDES TOWARDS LEARNING ENGLISH: A STUDY OF
SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT BANYUBIRU 1 STATE JUNIOR
HIGH SCHOOL
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Freda Dyah Ayu Kusumaning Yandi
112011058
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2015
ii
iii
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any
course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the
best of my knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or
written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text.
Copyright@2015. Freda Dyah Ayu Kusumaning Yandi and Rindang Widiningrum,
S.S., M.Hum.
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the
permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department, Faculty of
Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga.
Freda Dyah Ayu Kusumaning Yandi
iv
v
TABLE OF CONTENT
Cover Page…………………………………………………………………………..
i
Inside Cover Page………………….………………………………………………..
ii
Approval Page………………………………………………………………………
iii
Copyright Statement………………………………………………………………...
Iv
Publication Agreement Declaration…………………………………………………
V
Table of Content…………………………………………………………………….
vi
List of Table…………………………………………………………………………
vii
List of Appendices…………………………………………………………………..
viii
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………...
1
Introduction………………………………………………………………………….
2
Language Learning………………………………………………………………
6
Attitude…………………………………………………………………………...
7
Component of Attitude………………………………………………………..
9
The Study……………………………………………………………………………
10
Research Method ………………………………………………………………..
10
Research Context………………………………………………………………...
11
Research Participant……………………………………………………………..
12
Research Instrument of Data Collection………………………………………...
13
Data Collection Procedure ………………………………………………………
14
Data Analysis Procedure…………………………………………………………
16
Discussion…………………………………………………………………………...
16
Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………….
27
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………….
30
References…………………………………………………………………………...
31
vi
Appendices………………………………………………………………………….
35
LIST OF TABLES
The affective aspect…………………………………………………………………..
17
The behavioral aspect………………………………………………………………… 21
The cognitive aspect………………………………………………………………….. 24
vii
LIST OF APPENDICES
Questionnaire – English version……………………………………………………...
35
Questionnaire – Indonesian version…………………………………………………..
39
Interview Transcripts (Student A, B, and C)………………………………………..
43
viii
ATTITUDES TOWARDS LEARNING ENGLISH: A STUDY OF
SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT BANYUBIRU 1 STATE JUNIOR
HIGH SCHOOL
Freda Dyah Ayu Kusumaning Yandi
ABSTRACT
Students’ attitude is important to see their preferences toward a subject in class. When
students have a positive attitude, usually they easily grasp the material given and also
encourage their performances in the class. A research toward students’ attitudes was
conducted due to the fact that nowadays English became a demand to reach a better
education. It was also based on teachers’ experience in Banyubiru 1 State Junior High
School that during English learning process, most of the students had a tendency to use
more their native language in discussion of English class, while English was only used
as a subject. This paper studies the attitude of eighth grader students in Banyubiru 1
State Junior High School toward learning English in term of their affective, behavioral,
and cognitive aspects. 32 participants were chosen by using sampling method as
representations of the whole target population and to avoid time consuming on the data
collection. They were asked to answer the questionnaire and 3 students were chosen to
be interviewed to cross-validate the responses toward the questionnaire given.
Regarding to the aspects of the attitudes, this research revealed that most students had a
positive attitude toward the English subject. They liked and were motivated to learn
English by actively participated on the question/answer session, even practiced using
English outside the classroom. Although some students showed their negative attitudes,
they also had awareness to learn more about English.
Keywords: attitude, EFL learner, English learning
1
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, the influence of English language spreads rapidly in Junior
High Schools in Indonesia. The massive use of English itself then makes the
curriculum in schools begin to provide English subject to bolster the learners for
learning English language (Sukyadi & Mardiani, 2011). Then, because the
curriculum includes English subject, it becomes one of required subjects in
Indonesia. Furthermore, it is comprised in National Examination and applies to all
students of all levels from Junior High School to Vocational School.
Additionally, English is even as a subject that is included on “the selection
of entrance examinations to higher education and any other promising
scholarships” (Crystal, 2003, p.2). Consequently to achieve those goals, as
English learners who usually “are not capable to communicate fluently or learn
excellently in English, and often come from non-English-speaking backgrounds”
(Abbot, 2014), a learner’s performance in a learning process is important
especially the way students demonstrate their attitudes towards the English subject
at school. It is because attitudes of language learners are one of the indicators that
affects language learning (Snow, 2007; Young, 2006). For instance, the attitudes
are the action-taken to learn or efforts-applied during the learning process.
Hence, when the students have positive attitude, usually they will perform
quite well in class, also learn the materials effectively (Hosseini, 2013). Moreover,
students are more likely to behave productively, work harder in the class, and
(crucially) persist longer with language study (Hosseini, 2013; Al-Tamimi &
2
Shuib, 2009). Thus, attitudes play an important role that influences the
performance of learning the language (Gardner, 1985).
Many studies have been conducted to explore the nature of students’
attitude towards learning English as Foreign Language (EFL) in Junior High
School. For instance, King-Fong (2004) investigated about the attitudes of a group
of F.4 (the name of the class that is conducted for the research) students in a local
EMI school (the school used English language not only as the subject, but also as
the Medium of Instruction that teacher used to teach) in China’s secondary
schools towards English language, English culture and English-speaking people.
Questionnaires and semi-structured interview were used to collect data. The result
stated that students showed positive attitudes in learning English and were willing
to learn the language even if it was not a compulsory subject in school.
After that, Hussain, Shahid, and Zaman (2011) examined six districts of
the Punjab Province in Pakistan, about foreign language anxiety and attitude
towards foreign language learning. The participants were selected by sampling
method with 360 male and 360 female students of 10th grade students of public
sector secondary schools from six districts of the Punjab Province of Pakistan.
Besides, Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for data
analysis. Then, the level of anxiety and level of attitude were determined by
percentage. Furthermore, T-test was used to discover the difference between boys
and girls of 10th grade. On the other hand, the result stated that students especially
in a rural area had less positive attitude towards English although they had high
anxiety in learning English.
3
In Iran, Alseweed (2011) took a related study about students’ attitude in
secondary school. The study revealed the rationale behind the relationship among
students’ interest, desire, and attitudes. Moreover, the participants were 124 male
students’ secondary school in Buraydah, Gasim, Saudi Arabia using questionnaire
to collect the data. The result indicated that students’ attitude in Buraydah could
not be viewed as stable. It showed positive attitudes on the value of studying
English, and negative attitude on studying English as an important subject.
According to the previous study, there are some attitudes that appear
towards the language learning, namely positive and negative attitude. Hosseini
(2013) defined ‘positive and negative attitude’ as follows:
“Students have positive or negative attitudes towards the language they
want to learn or the people who speak it. Having positive or negative
attitudes towards a certain language can exert considerable as the
reflection on the language itself. By investigating the attitudes and beliefs
of learners, they, in turn, can be the guidelines for the learning process, as
learners play the main role in any learning environment.” (p.64)
Thus, after knowing the importance of positive and negative attitude and the
previous study, the researcher would like to conduct similar research about
students’ attitude towards learning English in Junior High School.
However, some previous studies used large size participants and conducted
in school where English was a media language to learn, it became differences with
this research. The researcher used small size participants so that the researcher
could be more focus and got a deeper analysis. Besides of that, time limitation
also became the consideration remembering the limited of time given by the
faculty to finish the research. Furthermore, the research was conducted in school
4
where the students do not use English as daily communication and their
proficiency on learning English is still low in fact many Indonesian Elementary
schools do not provide English language as the subject. Besides, based on the
informal conversation with teachers in the school when the researcher did a
Teaching Practicum; students in Junior High School require learning English at
schools and have to pass it in order to reach higher education. However, during
the learning process, most of them tend to speak in their native language, but
sometimes they speak in English as the conversation in English class. Thus, it is
not clear whether they prefer learning English or not.
This study aims to explore attitude of the second year students in
Banyubiru 1 State Junior High School, and to answer the research question,
“What is the students' attitude toward learning English in the second year of
Banyubiru 1 State Junior High School?” Therefore, by doing this research, the
researcher hopes that this study can help teachers to recognize more about
students’ attitude in learning English. Moreover, it could identify deeply with
students’ preferences towards learning English in school. Powell and Powell
(2011) stated that “students who are engaged in work that interested them were
overwhelmingly more able to see connections between their present work in
school and their future academic.” Then, the finding of this research hopefully can
help readers that have more curiosity in general English Language Teaching
(ELT). Since as the teachers, they are supposed to consider the possibility of
students’ need and learning preferences in the process of learning language.
5
Here, the researcher provides a review of literature which is related to the
research objectives. Since the objective of the study is to find students’ attitude
toward learning English, this part would discuss a brief explanation about
language learning, the attitudes, and its components.
Language Learning
Languages come to be seen as a ‘useful support’ for the educational area.
It is strengthen by the MCEETYA (The Ministerial Council on Education,
Employment, Training and Youth Affairs) National Statement in Australia that
learning language can enrich our learners’ education. This statement can be
proved since in learning language, their learners have ability to communicate
across cultures, contribute to social cohesiveness through better communication
and understanding, have further developing the existing linguistic and cultural
resources in our community, and the last is to enhance the educational quality of
every individual (MCEETYA, 2005).
All the explanation above impacts the learners’ consciousness to learn
language. Related to the metacognition theory about psychological of language
learning, Zhang (2010) stated that, “during the process in the language learning,
the students must understand how they learn” (p.3). Therefore, by knowing the
reason to learn language, learners need to reflect on their learning process
continuously. Moreover, they can also develop self-awareness of themselves to
keep remember on the importance of learning language.
6
Attitude
The term attitude can be defined into some essential ideas. Albarracin et al
(2005) believe that attitude can be defined as “a psychological tendency to view a
particular object or behavior with a degree of favor or disfavor” (p.4), or as one of
causal factors that created people’s motivation towards language learning process,
its culture and people to achieve certain goal (Chalak, 2011). Besides, Vogel et al
(2014) stated the objects of the attitude belonged to anything that a person might
keep in mind, including people, groups, things, and ideas.
Additionally, attitude belongs to "…one of important key of students’
ability to achieve proficiency in the learning process” (Scarcella & Oxford, 1992,
p.2). Therefore, people who are involved in education field have to know about
the concept of attitude. This knowledge can be used to help them to figure out the
main factor that leads the students' successfulness in school.
Moreover, Stark et al (2013) believes that attitude is “tendency to respond
positively or negatively towards a certain thing such as an idea, object, person, or
situation” (p.608). Abidin et al (2012) claims that there are 2 kinds of language
attitude in language learning, they are positive attitudes and negatives attitude.
Then, to categorize positive or negative attitude, it usually “depends on the
students’ interest towards the language they want to learn” (Chalak, 2011, p.41).
Positive attitude indicates a situation when students have more enthusiasm or
proclivity learning the language, like being active in question-answer session.
Oppositely, negative attitude indicates a situation when students tend to be quiet,
7
lazy to do the exercises, or shy to ask the difficulties of the materials in language
learning.
Moreover, Montano and Kasprzyk (2008) state that positive and negative
attitudes can influence the language learning; the person who holds strong beliefs
in positively valued outcomes will result positive attitude. Contrary, “a person
who holds strong beliefs that negatively valued outcomes will result negative
attitude” (p.70). Shortly, it is necessary to know students attitude since as an
educator, teachers want to achieve learning success. Besides the only way to
distinguish either positively or negatively is by trying to know and understand the
students' responses toward the subject that affects their performance in the
classroom.
Based on the definitions above, Ajzen ( 2005) said that attitude was a
customary to distinguish verbal and non verbal response which “represented
beliefs, feelings, and action” (p.22). It means that beliefs, feelings and action can
be a tool to investigate positive and negative attitude of learning language.
Considering Ajzen’s statement, it becomes a foundation for this research to
investigate beliefs, feelings, and actions to get the data about students’ attitude
towards learning process and classify it whether it is included positive or negative
attitude. Moreover Elyidirim and Ashton (2006) claim that positive and negative
attitude have their own impact to the students. Positive attitudes can increase the
chance of language learning strives to success. In contrary, negative attitudes can
hinder the learning of that language. Yet, attitudes in this research can be defined
8
as beliefs, feelings, and actions that would create positive or negative attitudes
towards the learning process.
Components of Attitude
In recent studies, Ling and Braine (2007); Abidin (2012); Hosseini (2013)
similarly adopted the theories of attitudes, Baker (1992) and Brown (1994);
toward the construct attitude with three components: affective, behavioral
(readiness for action), and cognitive in their researches. Thoughts about attitudes
affect language performance had come a long time ago by Baker (1992) that,
“attitude is considered as a vital component affecting language
performance, while achievement in a target language depends not only
on academic capacity, as well as on the learner’s attitudes towards
language learning” (p.92).
This means that learning language should be approached primarily as a
social and psychological phenomenon rather than as a purely academic one. Thus
attitude enriched the process of language learning, influenced on the nature of
student’s behavior, psychological, and social towards the other language, and
identified to acquire that language itself.
Furthermore, in early investigation about attitude, Brown (1994)
introduced the three components of the attitude. They are affective, behavioral /
conative, and cognitive. Affective involves a person’s feelings or emotions about
the attitude object, such as “like”, “dislike”, “with”, or “against”. This is
emphasized by Feng and Chen (2009) that learning process is an emotional
process which influences students’ perspectives and attitudes toward the learning
9
process. The example of affective component is “I like learning English”
(Pickens, 2005, p.44).
Next, behavioral/conative involves the way the attitude that we have, could
influence how we act or behave. In this component, Kara (2009) agreed that
positive behavior will lead positive attitude. The example of behavioral
component is “I like to learn English and will join English class ” (Pickens, 2005,
p.44).
The last is cognitive component. This involves expressions of beliefs and
ideas or opinions about the object of the attitude. For example, “I believe learning
English will help me to trip around the world” (Pickens, 2005, p.44).
THE STUDY
This section discusses the research methodology in this research. They are
types of research method, research participant, research context, research
instrument of data collection, data collection procedure, and data analysis
procedure.
Research method
This study deals with students’ attitude in learning English. Therefore to
get richer data, this study employed a “concurrent mixed methods design” which
is also called as a combination of quantitative and qualitative method. In this
method the data are collected at the same time and then incorporates it to overall
results (Creswell, 2007, p. 14). This type is attractive for several reasons. First,
10
this approach is less time consuming because the researcher is able to collect the
two types of data during a single data collection time. Secondly, since both
quantitative and qualitative data sources are provided in this study, the researcher
can gain perspectives from different types of data or from different levels within
one study.
For the qualitative data, the study focuses on words-choices and meanings,
and the common methods include in focus group (group discussion), individual
interview, or participation/observation (Nunan, 1992), and the quantitative data,
“typically relies on measurement tools such as scales, tests, observation checklists,
and questionnaire” (Ary et al, 2009, p.421). This study used close-ended
questionnaire (statements with four options) and individual interview, specifically
semi-structured interview (a flexible interview that was conducted around the
interview guideline).
Research Context
The setting of the study was in Banyubiru 1 State Junior High School,
Central Java, Indonesia. This school is one of public Junior High Schools in
Banyubiru. It has 18 classes and they are six classes of grade 7th, 8th and 9th. Thus,
the researcher chose students’ eighth grader to be the participants. The research
was conducted on January 2015. The reason to choose this school was because
English was considered as a subject and not used as Medium Instruction (EMI).
Besides, the researcher did the teaching practicum in the school and there was no
research about students’ attitude for the secondary school, especially in Banyubiru
11
area. Moreover, the reason to choose this grade was because the 8th students had
experiences to learn English since they were on 7th grade, so that they could think
whether they like English or not with the reasonable reason. Furthermore it was
because the consideration of the accessibility to “the time, respondents and
financial reason” (Ary et al, 2009, 137). Besides, the researcher has had good
relationship between teacher and students in the term of flexibility.
Research Participants
The total number of eighth grader students in Banyubiru 1 State Junior
High School was 192 that studied in academic year 2014-2015. The ranges of
participants’ age were between 14-15 years old, female and male who came from
different places around Banyubiru. However, to collect the data, questionnaires
were given to the participants. Since, Ary et al (2009) stated that giving the
questionnaires to all the students were “expensive or time consuming to do
negotiation to the administer” (p.231), therefore purposive or “criterion-based”
sampling procedure were chosen to support the study. Blackledge (2001) said that
purposive sampling could allow the researcher to select a group of people that
fulfill the criteria. It gave a chance to the researcher to get the relevant data within
a shorter time. The suggestion also came from Tongco (2007), “purposive
sampling can be better idea to construct as deliberate taking certain samples, this
is done based on the requirements (traits, characteristics, criteria) of the sample”
(p.147). Therefore, the researcher only took one class in 8F. There are 32 students
became the participants of the questionnaire and 3 of these students became the
12
participants of the interview. The interview was used to obtain data and crossvalidate students’ responses toward the questionnaire. The participants were
selected based on the tendency of using less English in classroom. It was
supported by the researcher’s experience during the teaching practicum in that
school. Moreover, the participants were relatively easy access because the
researcher had a good relationship with them.
Research Instrument of Data Collection
The primary instrument that was used in this study was a questionnaire.
The statements in questionnaire were made by adopting questions from Kingfong’ (2004), Al-Tamimi & Shuib (2009), and Abidin et al (2012). It consisted of
three sections: affective (item 1-7), behavioral (8-13), and cognitive (item 14-20)
For this research, there would be two parts in questionnaire. The first one
was demographic information such as student number, class, age, gender, and the
phone number / email. The second one was closed-ended questionnaire by using
Likert Scale. The Likert scale is a technique that often used to measure statements
that express positive / favorable or negative / unfavorable attitude toward certain
object (D rnyei, 2003). The 20 items were put in a 4-point Likert Scale. It is from
level 1, Strongly Disagree to level 4, Strongly Agree. The questionnaire would be
translated into Indonesian to ensure an optimal understanding among all students
and to eliminate any potential language barrier that could prevent them from
expressing their full opinions.
13
The researcher did the semi-structured interview in relation to students’
answers on the questionnaire. Semi-structured interview was defined as “the best
method to do interview since it provided richer data from all the types of the
interview” (Zacharias, 2013, p.67). Furthermore, “the interviewer may modify the
framework of the format or questions during the interview process” (Ary et al,
2009, p.438). Thus, using semi-structured interview could have a great deal of
flexibility and will get more insightful information toward what the students had
answered in the questionnaire given.
The length of interview process was around 15-20 minutes. Then, it would
be recorded (with participants’ permission) and transcribed. Similar with the
questionnaire, the interview was conducted in Bahasa Indonesia to ensure an
optimal understanding. After that, the researcher transcribed it into clean
transcription. Zacharias (2013) stated that, “in clean transcription, you only focus
on the content and leave out the irrelevant parts like fillers (ums, ahs, you knows,
etc.), false starts, repeated words, side conversations, interruptions, etc. (p.82)”.
The researcher chose clean transcription with the consideration of time.
Data Collection Procedure
To ensure its validity, the researcher did the piloting data session. Ary et al
(2009) indicated that pilot data study is necessary to make sure everyone in your
sample can understand the question in the same way, and to see how long students
take time to complete the survey in real time. Besides, to conduct a pilot data
study, the researcher used ¼ of 32 total participants. They were 8 students who are
14
not the real participants and were chosen randomly from the eight grade of State
Junior High School 1 of Banyubiru. The reason to choose eight students according
to Zacharias (2013), “There is no agreeable formula in piloting data, but it is
better do the piloting data approximately ¼ of your total sample size” (p.81).
While in the procedure of piloting data, the researcher explained the purpose of
the study earlier so that students could recognize the researcher’s aim doing the
research in the class.
Three days after doing the piloting data session, the real questionnaire
would be given to 32 students. This questionnaire distributed to the students to
know their attitudes toward learning English in classroom. Similar with piloting
data, the researcher explained the research’s aim in doing data collection in their
class before students filled in the questionnaire.
Two weeks after the questionnaire were collected and analyzed by the
researcher, interview section was conducted. In this research, I conducted a
delayed interview Peterson et al (2005) because the information retrieval is more
cognitively effortful and this turns strengthens the memory trace (p.538). Here,
the delayed interview was an interview that was done in two until three times due
to the consideration of the participants’ condition. Thus, besides doing semistructured interview, the researcher also did the delayed interview to make sure
participants’ question and got relevant data.
15
Data Analysis Procedure
After all the questionnaires had been gathered, the findings of
questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively. The classified findings were
analyzed by calculating the finding according to how many percentages on each
theme, interpreting the data by adding the detail information from the interview,
and correlating the data with relevant literatures. The analysis of the finding
would be delivered by presenting tables and percentage, and providing the
description for the participants’ answers in interview section. For the last step, the
researcher drew conclusion from the analyzed findings.
DISCUSSION
This section would discuss and analyze the finding as the answer for the
research question “What is the students' attitude toward learning English in the
second year of Banyubiru 1 State Junior High School?” The data were categorized
into four major themes. They were student’s attitude toward learning English as
foreign language, the affective aspect of attitude, the behavioral aspect of attitude,
and the cognitive aspect of attitude. The discussion of each theme was presented
by giving the questionnaire data on tables followed the discussion from the
interview.
Students’ Attitude toward Learning English as Foreign Language
This first theme would discuss a brief summary about the result of the
questionnaires-given. It was concluded from the checklists on the “agree” and
“disagree” column which were correspondingly to the statements about English.
16
The result indicated that many participants have a positive attitude (65,63%)
regarding to what they think about learning English while others have a negative
attitude (34.37%). Therefore, from the finding, it is clearly showed that most of
the participants at Banyubiru 1 State Junior High School have a positive attitude
toward learning English in school. The finding of this study supported some
previous studies such as King-fong’s (2004), Al-Tamimi & Shuib (2009), and
Chalak (2011) that the participants were aware and enthusiastic toward English
learning process. However, we need to get deep understanding behind the
participants’ attitude toward learning English.
The Affective Aspect of Attitude
This theme would present about the affective aspect of the participants
towards learning English, since we had known in the previous discussion that
many participants showed a positive attitude in learning English. The following
table 1 would give a clear summary of the finding.
Table 1
Students’ result on the affective aspect.
Total Agree
Total
Disagree
N
%
N
%
1. I like to listen to all matters about English.
25
78.12
7
21.83
2. I feel proud when I study English.
28
87.50
4
12.50
50
16
50
Statements
3. I feel excited when I communicate in English 16
with others.
17
4. I enjoy doing activities in class.
21
65.63 11
34.37
5. I enjoy doing my English homework.
20
62.50 12
37.50
6. I like my English class very much.
27
84.38
5
15.62
62.50 12
37.50
7. I feel excited to come to class when English is 20
being thought.
-
Total Percentage
70.09%
-
29.91%
The findings in Table 1 showed that the majority of the participants had
good desires to learn English. This result is related to Feng and Chen (2009) that
learning process is an emotional process which influences students perspectives
and attitudes toward the learning process. Most of the participants liked, enjoyed,
even felt excited and proud of learning anything about English.
In line of this, many participants showed their positive attitude on the
affective aspect (70.09%). They said that there were some factors affected their
attitudes toward learning English. Those factors are language curiosity and
teacher. Based on the finding, the participants firstly mentioned that they liked
English because of the language, especially the uniqueness of the language. This
naturally happened to the learners since they were driven by their inborn curiosity
to explore the world and the learning experience (Liuolienė & Metiūnienė, 2006).
As student A mentioned:
“Saya suka bahasa Inggris. Biasanya, lagu berbahasa Inggris atau film
barat. Bahasanya asik dan asing didengar karena bahasa sehari-hari kita
adalah bahasa Indonesia dan Jawa.”
(I liked English. It was usually related to songs or movies. The language
was fun and strange when we listened to it. It was because our daily
language was Indonesian and Javanese).
18
Then student B said:
“Lumayan suka, miss karena keren aja kata-katanya. Ada yang aneh jadi
bisa kepo nyari dikamus.”
(I just liked it, miss, because those words were cool. They were strange so
I could find the meaning in my dictionary).
Therefore, when the learners had the curiosity to learn the language, it
might derive to positive attitudes. It relates to Gardner (2007) that positive
attitudes toward the learning situation would likely produce greater enjoyment in
the study of the language, desire to learn the language, and effort expended in
learning the language.
The second factor why they liked English was based on their English
teacher. It was admitted as what students A said:
“Sejauh ini sih suka mapel bahasa Inggris, dan belajarnya bareng sama
temen-temen. Tapi lebih condong sama cara guru mengajar di kelas.
Kalau misal gurunya tegang (spaneng), murid malah jadi stress dan
ujung-ujungnya malah enggak nyambung ke materi yang diajarkan. Beda
kalau gurunya santai, ajak ngobrol, ajak diskusi kelompok, ajak cerita
lucu, atau ada games, maka kita sebagai murid malah nyambung ke
materinya .”
(So far, I liked learning English because I could learn it with my friends.
However, I actually prefer learnt more based on the way teacher explained
the material in class. If she taught in tense way, I was difficult to
understand the material. It was different if the teacher could make it fun,
take a short conversation, make a discussion, tell funny stories, even do
some games. It would make me understand the material).
Similarly, student B confessed:
“Kalau saya sih, tergantung guru. Kalau dia enak, ya saya menikmati
kelasnya miss. Ya sambil cerita-cerita gitu atau nonton video singkat.
Enggak hanya diskusi dan ngerjain tugas.”
(In my opinion, it depended on teacher. If she made the class fun, I would
enjoy the class. For example, teacher told some stories or gave short
videos. Therefore, she did not just discuss the material and did the
exercise).
19
Here, what happened to both Students A and B reflected that the kind of
pedagogy and the student's preferences are influenced by the learning
environment (Ruth Beyth-Marom, et al 2005). It means that how the teachers
teach may determine the students’ responses toward particular subject. In this
case, understanding students’ responses toward a certain subject is important,
because those responses have a big effect to students’ performance in the class.
Unlike students with positive attitudes, 29,91% of the participants reacted
negatively in term of learning English. One of them said that he did not have any
passion to learn English. Student C argued:
“Sebetulnya saya sedikit suka bahasa Inggris karena bahasanya aneh
untuk di dengar. Bahasa Inggris adalah bahasa yang sulit untuk dipahami.
Jadi saya malas untuk belajar. Kata-katanya banyak yang
membingungkan, cara menulisnya juga susah, kurang 1 huruf aja salah
dan beda arti, terus cara pengucapan susah, dan penggunaan verb 1, verb
2, dan verb 3.”
(Actually I like a bit about English because the language is strange.
English language was hard to be understood, so I was lazy to learn it.
There were many confusing vocabularies. Therefore, I felt difficult to
write them; for example, if I just missed a letter then it would be wrong
and had different meaning. Moreover, it was difficult to pronounce some
words, also to differentiate the use of verb 1, verb 2, and verb 3).
Rudd, Greenbowe, and Hand (2002) argue that if attitudes are negative,
every activity which is related to the course will be also negatively affected. In
other words, when a particular participant had a negative attitude, s/he tended not
to grasp and learn English. Thus, as teachers, they should change students’
perception toward English learning. It could be done by providing more
interesting material or different classroom atmosphere to the participants. When
20
the negative changed into positive, it would help the participants to understand the
English language easily.
The Behavioral Aspect of Attitude
This theme would present about the behavioral aspect of the participants
towards learning English. Similar on the affective aspect, there would be also
further discussions from the finding result in this section. Table 2 would depict the
finding on the behavioral aspect.
Table 2
Students’ result on the behavioral aspect.
Total Agree
Total
Disagree
N
%
N
%
17
53.13
15
46.87
15
46.87
17
53.13
10. I look forward to learn more about English.
18
56.25
14
43.75
11. I would take English even it is not a
16
50
16
50
17
53.13
15
46.87
Statements
8.
I always practice English language by
interacting with friends and teacher.
9.
When I miss the class, I always ask to my
friends about the homework on what has
been taught,
compulsory subject in school.
12. I like to give opinions (ask and answer the
question) during English class.
21
13. I am able to make myself to pay attention
21
65.63
-
54.17
11
34.37
during studying English.
Total Percentage
-
45.83
Based on the interview session with the students, many of them said they
looked forward to learn more about English. Student A affirmed:
“Saya sering berlatih bahasa inggris. Ya, kalau di sekolah sama temen.
Tapi kalau di rumah sama bapak, sama mas. Saya sih suka banget sama
bahasa Inggris. Jadi selalu pengen tanya dikelas.”
(I often rehearsed the English language. I did it with friends in school.
Then if I was at home, I did it with my father and my brother. I liked
English so much. Therefore, I always asked anything in class)
Interestingly, student B added:
“Kalau saya latihan sama temen setiap hari Jumat ngobrol biasa. Enggak
wajib sih miss. Sekedar ngobrol aja biasa tapi dicampur pake bahasa
Indonesia. Ya kayak iseng-iseng sendiri gitu miss.”
(I did conversations in English with my classmate every Friday. It was a
simple daily conversation; not an obligation at school. I actually did it by
mixing in Bahasa Indonesia. We did it just for fun, miss)
Those ideas are also similar to Zacharias (2004) that materials given in
language classroom indirectly encourage the students to learn more about what
had been studied, so that the students could improve their ability in language
learning. Yet, to enhance student’s curiosity toward the materials and
subsequently apply what they have learnt, first of all, teacher needs to grab
students’ attention. According to the questionnaire data, 65.63% of participants
said that they were able to make themselves pay attention during studying
English. This is related to the theory of behavioral aspect of attitude that students’
preferences will affect to respectable actions or behavioral intentions towards the
object and finally lead to positive attitude (Kara, 2009).
22
In English classroom, Oliver, Wehby, and Reschly (2011) emphasize that
classroom management is based around a teacher’s ability to organize and plan in
the class. Besides, a teacher also has a power to affect students’ view about a
particular subject (Good & Brophy, 2003). To summarize, teaching style and
classroom management that the teachers create have a big role in term of students’
preference toward certain subject. Those might influence students in order to pay
attention, finally influence how students act or behave in class.
According to the participants, two of them admitted that they could pay
attention with the material although they still got any distraction, usually from
their classmates. The reason why they tried to pay attention usually depended on
the teacher, similar with the explanation above that teacher should manage the
classroom management to make students interested with the material. Some added
it was because of AVA, stands for Audio Visual Aid, such as video and
PowerPoint. As student C said:
“Pelajaran di sekolah asik karena gurunya kasih liat video atau
melakukan games”.
(English subject at school was very fun because the teacher played a video
or did some games).
Even the student, who was inclined into the negative attitude, felt that
games and AVA could make him to pay attention in class. VanGundy (2005)
points out “interactive techniques by using games are often perceived as “fun”, yet
they are frequently more effective than lectures at enabling student learning”
(p.25). It is clear that games and AVA are effective because they can lower
students' stress, and give them opportunity for the real communication. In other
23
words, teachers have a power to use kinds of games or AVA as long as they do
not leave out the value of the target language.
The Cognitive Aspect of Attitude
The last theme would present about the cognitive aspect of the participants
towards learning English. Table 3 presented the finding on the cognitive aspect.
Table 3
Students’ result on the cognitive aspect.
Total Agree
Statements
Total
Disagree
N
%
32
100
0
0
15. English is easy to learn.
18
56.25
14
43.75
16. I believe I can go around the world when
32
100
0
0
19
59.38
13
40.62
21
65.63
11
34.37
20
62.50
12
37.50
14. English is an important world language to
N
%
communicate.
I learn English.
17. In my opinion, English should be the
medium of instruction in Banyubiru 1
State Junior High School, in addition to
Bahasa Indonesia .
18. Learning English make me obtain better
education.
19. The teaching English should start in
Indonesia earlier
24
20. I study English just to pass an exam.
Total Percentage
17
53.13
15
46.87
-
70.98
-
29.02
70.98% of participants show their beliefs and opinions by learning
English. This related to the theory of cognitive component that produces
expressions of beliefs and ideas or opinions toward the object of the attitude. For
example, “I believe learning English will help me to trip around the world ”
(Pickens, 2005, p.44).
Based on Table 3, which showed the highest percentage, all participants
agreed that English is an important world language to communicate. This was
alike to Crystal’s statement (2013), “English nowadays comes as a global
language that comes to be used by more people than any language” (p.111).
Moreover, the discourse of ‘Education for All’ and the increase in the use of
English in the global market have recently added a universalistic dimension to the
teaching-learning of English (Shamim, 2011). Because of that, many students
considered English as world language to communicate as well as to enable them
to get better education. These below are what students said about English as
communication. It is as what student A conveyed in the interview:
“Setuju (bahasa Inggris adalah bahasa untuk berkomunikasi), karena di
dunia bahasanya macam-macam, ada yang Korea, Jepang, Cina. Tapi
yang lebih umum digunakan untuk berkomunikasi bahasa Inggris karena
bahasa Inggris bahasa Internasional”
(I agree (English as a language to communicate) because in the world,
there are many languages, for example, Korean, Japanese, Chinese
(Mandarin). However people commonly communicate using English
because English is International language).
Then, student B added:
25
“Karena bahasa Inggris kan bahasa Internasional, hampir semua simbol
atau tulisan biasanya ada bahasa Inggris. Contohnya di bungkus mi instan
atau di barang elektronik ada bahasa Inggrisnya.”
(Because English is International language, English is almost used in all
symbols or words. For example, in instant noodles packaging or in
electronics).
Similarly student C said like student A and B:
“Setuju. Karena sudah banyak orang luar negeri yang memakai bahasa
Inggris.”
(I agree because many foreign people use English to communicate).
While these below are what students said about English as an entrance to
get better education. Student A said:
“Iya bisa. Lagian pendidikan di luar negeri juga lebih bagus. Asalkan
pintar di sekolahnya, baru bisa keluar negeri dan pasti mendapat
pendidikan yang lebih baik.”
(Yes, it was. Education in abroad was much better. As long as the students
were clever at school, so they could go abroad and get a better education,
for sure).
In addition student B agreed:
“Menurut saya sih jelas banget miss. Asal udah lancar bahasa Inggris
terus niat belajar ke luar negeri pasti pendidikannya jauh lebih baik. Kan
denger-denger pendidikan di luar lebih bagus.”
(In my opinion, it was true, miss (about learning English in abroad). As
long as the students were fluent enough, and also had intention to learn
English, hence their educations were much better. The reason was because
of people’s assumption that education in abroad was better).
Yet, student C was confused about this, he similarly said like student A:
“Kurang tau. Tapi mungkin bisa,miss. Karena kan bahasa Inggris
mendunia. Dan asalkan anaknya pintar.”
(I am not sure about this, but probably it was possible because English has
been being the world; provided that the students were clever).
Here, what student A and C mentioned ‘clever’ might refer to how well
students can comprehend and apply English in a good way. Then those answers
were unsurprisingly because as world language, English is considered by donor
26
agencies as the existing language for educational development in developing a
country. Here, Coleman (2010a) mentioned some points that make English can
play roles
in
educational development:
“English
enables international
collaboration (exchange students), provides access to research and information,
and facilitates the international mobility of students, tourists, workers and others”
(p.15). By the accordance to Coleman, it can be presumed that the students have
awareness toward the beneficial of English language, so they have positive
attitude toward learning English and finally they will be more motivated to learn
the language.
CONCLUSION
The study examined students' attitude toward learning English in the
second year of Banyubiru 1 State Junior High School. Based on the questionnaire
and the interview section, many participants had positive attitudes toward learning
English at school although the characteristic of students mostly used native
language (Indonesian) as their daily communication. Most of the participants
(65,63%) had positive responses about learning English, while others had a
negative attitude (34.37%). This result was equivalent with the previous studies
conducted by King-fong’s (2004), Al-Tamimi and Shuib (2009), Chalak (2011)
that most of the participants also had positive attitudes toward learning English.
Here the results were reflected from three aspects; affective, behavioral,
and cognitive aspects. On the affective aspect, many participants showed their
positive attitudes (70.09%) because of some factors that affected students’
27
attitudes. Those are language curiosity and teacher. For the language curiosity,
students liked English based on the uniqueness of the language. Then for the
teacher, it is due to the way teacher taught were attracted students to learn more
English language. On the behavior aspect, a total 65.63% of participants said that
they were able to pay attention during studying English since the teacher used
AVA to assist the explanation, such as video and PowerPoint. Therefore, what
teachers created in class had a big role in term of students’ preference toward
certain subject because it influenced them to pay attention and to act or behave at
class. Then, the last is cognitive aspect. From the result, all of the participants
believe that English was a world language to communicate, even enabled them to
get better education. Those increased students’ awareness about learning English
and finally encouraged them to learn English more.
From the finding of this study, it may have some implications. As English
teachers, this study can be used as a reference to increase their awareness toward
students’ attitude on English subject. Moreover, it probably improves the quality
of teaching and learning process in all Secondary schools.
The limitation of this study was its limited participant. A modified study is
needed due to a small-scale study. The number of participants and survey
questions should also be added. With only 32 participants and 3 interviewers, the
result may not be generalized although it can be applicable for all school levels. It
is because many schoo