An Attitude Analysis Of English Language Learning: A Case Study Of Second-Grade Students Of Natural Science Program At Sma 4 Binjai
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1 Learners
According to Harmer (2001:37), learners are categorized into three levels
based on the age of the learners themselves. In this case, the age itself, of course,
differentiates the students’ needs and wants of English Language Teaching (ELT).
He says,
“The age of our students is a major factor in our decisions about
how and what to teach. People of different ages have different
needs, competences, and cognitive skills; we might expect
children of primary age to acquire much of a foreign language
through play, for example, whereas for adults we can reasonably
expect a greater use of abstract thought.”
Based on the age of learners, there are three levels of learners. Those are
young children, adolescents, and adult learners. Due to my topic in this thesis, I will
only give the explanation about the ‘adolescents’ since they are in accordance with
the age of second-grade students in a high school.
Penny Ur (1996:286) in Harmer (2001:38) says, “Teenage students are in fact
overall the best language learners.” However, Puchta and Schratz (1993:1) in Harmer
(2001:38) wondered why teenagers seemed to be less lively and humorous than adult
while designing material for teenagers in Austria.
Puchta and Schratz (1993:4) in Harmer (2001:39) say,
“Problems with teenagers as resulting, in part, from ‘...the
teacher’s failure to build bridges between what they want and
have to teach and their students’ worlds of thought and
experience. Students must be encouraged to respond to texts and
situations with their own thoughts and experience, rather than just
by answering questions and doing abstract learning activities.”
7
2.2 Attitude
Before going too far towards an attitude analysis, it is better to have an
understanding whether an attitude has an impact towards the students’ desire to learn
a foreign language or not. Gardner (1985) says that attitudes towards the second
language may affect the learners’ motivation to learn. In this opinion, it is implicitly
stated that a positive attitude will normally give a high motivation in learning a
language. To make it clearer, a quite simple and common example is given as
follows:
A second-grade student in a high school likes to study English as a subject for
foreign language in his school. His enthusiasm in learning the language is very
high. He is always enthusiastic to study. He always does his homeworks. He
follows every little thing his teacher asks him to do. Sometimes, he practices
speaking English by mixing it with Indonesian language even though it does not
frequently make sense. Here, it can be said that he has a positive attitude towards
learning English because he has a high motivation to do so.
Normally, a student who has a positive attitude in learning a language can be
seen and proven by their activities while learning inside and even outside the
classroom. However, it is not rare to find some students whose trait is plegmatic
indicating that they are not interested in studying or integrating with the foreign
language, for instance, English. Nevertheless, since they only behave like that at
school but they sing English songs and watch English movies at home, they do
have a positive attitude towards learning English too, indeed.
Labov (1972) said, “Such positions, perceptions, actions have been defined as
language attitudes.” It means that what they think refers to their attitudes in learning.
8
2.3 Factors Influencing Language Attitude
According to a book of Sociolinguistics: The Studies of Societies’ Languages,
there are several factors that influence language attitude. Each of them is explained
as follows:
2.3.1 The Prestige and Power of the Language
The prestige of a language influences students’ attitude in learning the
language indeed. No wonder many people keen on learning English because the
prestige is high enough. It has been regarded as a language connecting many people
whose native languages are not same. Not only Asian people but also people from
many countries throughout the world. However, even though English is a language
with high power and prestige and many people are enthusiastic in learning and
mastering the language, it does not mean that they have negative attitudes towards
their national and cultural feelings. In this way, there is a research done on Japanese
children studying English. It has been proved that even though they show great
attraction towards the Western culture as well as the language being studied, they
kept holding a strong Japanese identity and a language loyalty (Downes, 2001 in Ng
Bee Chin and Gillian Wigglesworth, 2007).
2.3.2 Historical Background of Nations
The historical background of one nation also influences the students to learn
the language, too. If the history is impressive and well-liked for most of nations in
the world, people usually are eager to learn the country’s language probably because
the country did great and good things to one’s country. However, many people do
not want to study and even know anything about the language, such as English,
9
because Western people were colonialists. This historical background of nation can
make oneself have no willing to learn English at all.
2.3.3 The Social and Traditional Factors
The social and traditional factor also influence the students to learn a foreign
language which is completely new for them. Of course, it is due to the variety of
language they study. Normally, a language has varieties in being used by people. The
higher variety of language is commonly regarded as the better and purer one.
2.3.4 The Language Internal System
This part refers to the difficulties of the language itself, such as the
grammatical structures, pronounciations and vocabularies of the language studied, of
course, this is what experts name as the internal sides of a language. Normally,
people like to study a new language, in this case, a foreign language, because of its
prestige and power among other languages. In addition, even though it has a high
prestige and power, people would not like to study about it if the grammatical
sturctures, pronounciations and vocabularies of the language are difficult to study.
For instance, people certainly prefer English to Germany and French because English
is rather easier than Germany and French in case of grammatical structures and
specially the pronounciations. Even though English is not easy to study, at least it is
easier to understand than other European languages.
2.4 Attitudes in Language Learning
It has been found many studies done towards learners’ attitudes in learning a
second language. Most of the studies showed that those who have positive attitudes
10
in learning the target language will affect more positive results in the learning than
those who do not. Based on the researches done in the context of language learning,
there are two types of language attitude depicted as follow:
a) Integrative Language Attitude
This part refers to those who study a second language and integrate with the
language. They do not only want to master the language but also integrate with the
culture of the language itself.
b) Instrumental Language Attitude
This part refers to those who merely want to study the language because of
their need in passing an examination and probably applying to some job. They do not
truly want to understand it entirely and seriously.
2.5 Relevant Studies
Before starting doing this thesis, the writer has read some relevant studies
related to an attitude analysis. Some excerpts from another research which are
relevant to this research are also put in this thesis. The first thesis to be seen is a
thesis of Muchamad’s. Muchamad (2013:53-54) in his thesis states, “There is no
difference in English speaking ability between the sanguine and the phlegmatic
students. It means that the students’ personality has no statistically significant
difference to the students’ English speaking score.” This thesis opens the writer’s
mind to do such an analysis related to the students’ attitudes towards learning a
foreign language, that is English, which is still regarded as an international language
up to this 21st century.
11
An international journal done by Gajalakshmi entitled High School Students’
Attitude towards Learning English Language supports the writer the most to do and
finish a thesis about an attitude analysis. Gajalakshmi’s finding is that students are
completely different in their attitudes towards learning English based on the gender,
locality of the school, type of the school, type of management, and also in father’s
and mother’s occupation.
There is also another thesis, that is Colak’s entitled Attitudes, Motivation and
Study Habits of English Language Learners: The Case of Baskent University
Second-Year Students. In Colak’s thesis, it has been found that there is a correlation
between students’ grades at school and their attitudes towards learning English as a
foreign language. The students who have a positive attitude towards learning English
create a better performance. Besides, this positive attitude usually creates successful
language learner.
Pineda’s thesis entitled Attitude, Motivation, and English Language Learning
in A Mexican College Context also supports the writer. Even though there is no
space in discussing the students’ motivation in learning, the writer remains put this
thesis into the relevant studies because this Pineda’s thesis also talks about the
students’ attitude. Pineda’s finding is that most students in the University of Aztlan
demonstrate positive attitude and high motivation in learning English.
12
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1 Learners
According to Harmer (2001:37), learners are categorized into three levels
based on the age of the learners themselves. In this case, the age itself, of course,
differentiates the students’ needs and wants of English Language Teaching (ELT).
He says,
“The age of our students is a major factor in our decisions about
how and what to teach. People of different ages have different
needs, competences, and cognitive skills; we might expect
children of primary age to acquire much of a foreign language
through play, for example, whereas for adults we can reasonably
expect a greater use of abstract thought.”
Based on the age of learners, there are three levels of learners. Those are
young children, adolescents, and adult learners. Due to my topic in this thesis, I will
only give the explanation about the ‘adolescents’ since they are in accordance with
the age of second-grade students in a high school.
Penny Ur (1996:286) in Harmer (2001:38) says, “Teenage students are in fact
overall the best language learners.” However, Puchta and Schratz (1993:1) in Harmer
(2001:38) wondered why teenagers seemed to be less lively and humorous than adult
while designing material for teenagers in Austria.
Puchta and Schratz (1993:4) in Harmer (2001:39) say,
“Problems with teenagers as resulting, in part, from ‘...the
teacher’s failure to build bridges between what they want and
have to teach and their students’ worlds of thought and
experience. Students must be encouraged to respond to texts and
situations with their own thoughts and experience, rather than just
by answering questions and doing abstract learning activities.”
7
2.2 Attitude
Before going too far towards an attitude analysis, it is better to have an
understanding whether an attitude has an impact towards the students’ desire to learn
a foreign language or not. Gardner (1985) says that attitudes towards the second
language may affect the learners’ motivation to learn. In this opinion, it is implicitly
stated that a positive attitude will normally give a high motivation in learning a
language. To make it clearer, a quite simple and common example is given as
follows:
A second-grade student in a high school likes to study English as a subject for
foreign language in his school. His enthusiasm in learning the language is very
high. He is always enthusiastic to study. He always does his homeworks. He
follows every little thing his teacher asks him to do. Sometimes, he practices
speaking English by mixing it with Indonesian language even though it does not
frequently make sense. Here, it can be said that he has a positive attitude towards
learning English because he has a high motivation to do so.
Normally, a student who has a positive attitude in learning a language can be
seen and proven by their activities while learning inside and even outside the
classroom. However, it is not rare to find some students whose trait is plegmatic
indicating that they are not interested in studying or integrating with the foreign
language, for instance, English. Nevertheless, since they only behave like that at
school but they sing English songs and watch English movies at home, they do
have a positive attitude towards learning English too, indeed.
Labov (1972) said, “Such positions, perceptions, actions have been defined as
language attitudes.” It means that what they think refers to their attitudes in learning.
8
2.3 Factors Influencing Language Attitude
According to a book of Sociolinguistics: The Studies of Societies’ Languages,
there are several factors that influence language attitude. Each of them is explained
as follows:
2.3.1 The Prestige and Power of the Language
The prestige of a language influences students’ attitude in learning the
language indeed. No wonder many people keen on learning English because the
prestige is high enough. It has been regarded as a language connecting many people
whose native languages are not same. Not only Asian people but also people from
many countries throughout the world. However, even though English is a language
with high power and prestige and many people are enthusiastic in learning and
mastering the language, it does not mean that they have negative attitudes towards
their national and cultural feelings. In this way, there is a research done on Japanese
children studying English. It has been proved that even though they show great
attraction towards the Western culture as well as the language being studied, they
kept holding a strong Japanese identity and a language loyalty (Downes, 2001 in Ng
Bee Chin and Gillian Wigglesworth, 2007).
2.3.2 Historical Background of Nations
The historical background of one nation also influences the students to learn
the language, too. If the history is impressive and well-liked for most of nations in
the world, people usually are eager to learn the country’s language probably because
the country did great and good things to one’s country. However, many people do
not want to study and even know anything about the language, such as English,
9
because Western people were colonialists. This historical background of nation can
make oneself have no willing to learn English at all.
2.3.3 The Social and Traditional Factors
The social and traditional factor also influence the students to learn a foreign
language which is completely new for them. Of course, it is due to the variety of
language they study. Normally, a language has varieties in being used by people. The
higher variety of language is commonly regarded as the better and purer one.
2.3.4 The Language Internal System
This part refers to the difficulties of the language itself, such as the
grammatical structures, pronounciations and vocabularies of the language studied, of
course, this is what experts name as the internal sides of a language. Normally,
people like to study a new language, in this case, a foreign language, because of its
prestige and power among other languages. In addition, even though it has a high
prestige and power, people would not like to study about it if the grammatical
sturctures, pronounciations and vocabularies of the language are difficult to study.
For instance, people certainly prefer English to Germany and French because English
is rather easier than Germany and French in case of grammatical structures and
specially the pronounciations. Even though English is not easy to study, at least it is
easier to understand than other European languages.
2.4 Attitudes in Language Learning
It has been found many studies done towards learners’ attitudes in learning a
second language. Most of the studies showed that those who have positive attitudes
10
in learning the target language will affect more positive results in the learning than
those who do not. Based on the researches done in the context of language learning,
there are two types of language attitude depicted as follow:
a) Integrative Language Attitude
This part refers to those who study a second language and integrate with the
language. They do not only want to master the language but also integrate with the
culture of the language itself.
b) Instrumental Language Attitude
This part refers to those who merely want to study the language because of
their need in passing an examination and probably applying to some job. They do not
truly want to understand it entirely and seriously.
2.5 Relevant Studies
Before starting doing this thesis, the writer has read some relevant studies
related to an attitude analysis. Some excerpts from another research which are
relevant to this research are also put in this thesis. The first thesis to be seen is a
thesis of Muchamad’s. Muchamad (2013:53-54) in his thesis states, “There is no
difference in English speaking ability between the sanguine and the phlegmatic
students. It means that the students’ personality has no statistically significant
difference to the students’ English speaking score.” This thesis opens the writer’s
mind to do such an analysis related to the students’ attitudes towards learning a
foreign language, that is English, which is still regarded as an international language
up to this 21st century.
11
An international journal done by Gajalakshmi entitled High School Students’
Attitude towards Learning English Language supports the writer the most to do and
finish a thesis about an attitude analysis. Gajalakshmi’s finding is that students are
completely different in their attitudes towards learning English based on the gender,
locality of the school, type of the school, type of management, and also in father’s
and mother’s occupation.
There is also another thesis, that is Colak’s entitled Attitudes, Motivation and
Study Habits of English Language Learners: The Case of Baskent University
Second-Year Students. In Colak’s thesis, it has been found that there is a correlation
between students’ grades at school and their attitudes towards learning English as a
foreign language. The students who have a positive attitude towards learning English
create a better performance. Besides, this positive attitude usually creates successful
language learner.
Pineda’s thesis entitled Attitude, Motivation, and English Language Learning
in A Mexican College Context also supports the writer. Even though there is no
space in discussing the students’ motivation in learning, the writer remains put this
thesis into the relevant studies because this Pineda’s thesis also talks about the
students’ attitude. Pineda’s finding is that most students in the University of Aztlan
demonstrate positive attitude and high motivation in learning English.
12