TIA NUR ISTIANAH, BAB II
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Participation 1. Definition of Participation Several definition of participation is stated by some experts. According to Svinicki in Tanireja et.al (2012: 96) states that participation
is students active involvement in creating ideas and information. Then Raymond in Taniredja et.al (2012:96) defines participation is a standard or measurement of participants‟ involvement in group activities. So it can be concluded that participation is students‟ involvement in teaching activity including giving ideas, taking a part in group discussion, and the others that concern about students activities.
2. Kinds of Participation
Here two kinds of paticipation according to Taniredja et.al (2012:96) there are contributive and initiative participation.
Contributive participation is the participation that encourages the students to follow learning well, do the structured task well both in school and home. Whereas intiative participation aims more autonomous activity in doing unstructured task or assignment. In this case, the students have their own intiative in learning the materials that have not been taught. In conclusion both contributive and initiative participations will build students creativity and make them more active.
To make the explanation above is understood especially how to measure students‟ participations, here there are some indicators which is used as a guideline in observing students participations:
Contributive Participation
1. Asking Questions
2. Answering teacher or student questions
3. Giving opinion or comment to the teacher or other students
4. Listening when teacher explains the material
5. Doing the task or exercise
Initiative Participation
6. Taking part in class or group discussions 3.
The Importance of Participation
Effective teaching and learning process is the process that involves teacher and students activities. The process of teaching learning will be meaningful if the students can participate actively on it. Conducting participatory learning strategies will be brought the students in conducive situation due to the students take more role, and more open. Through this condition, new ideas are easily received by the students. In addition, participatory learning means the students are willing to join and work with their colony to reach the main goal of learning. That is why participation take an important role to increase the quality of teaching learnning activities.
4. Factors of Students’ Low Participation
Based on the explanation above that participation is important factor in possessing successful learning. The factors of students‟ participation should be known by the teacher, Xu Jianing (The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XIII, No. 11:2007) states the main factors affecting students‟ low participations during the lesson: a. Students are nervous and afraid of making mistakes
b. The topics are not interesting
c. The classroom atmosphere is not encouraging
d. Feedback of the listeners is not supportive From those case, it may be teachers‟ homework to boost students‟ participation in order to create active and effective learning. Here are some of the major characteristics associated with active and effective learning which is stated by Charles C. Bonwell (2 : 1991): a. Students are involved in more than passive listening
b. students are engaged in activities (e.g., reading, discussing, writing)
c. there is less emphasis placed on information transmission and greater emphasis placed on developing student skills, and student motivation increased.
As the result of explanation above, teacher should provoke students participation by applying principles of active learning in order to the implementation of learning process can run appropriately.
5. Some Ways to Increase Students’ Participation The way teacher boost students„ participation is quite difficult.
Some ways done by the teacher to increase students‟ participation is giving motivation. As Mc Donald in Hamalik (2001:158) states that: Motivation is an energy change within the person characterized by affective arousal and anticipatory goal reaction. by giving motivation students will know why they should learn and what are the benefits that will be got from learning.
In addition, the use of model of teaching and various technique,can be used by the teacher to increase students interest toward English.
According to Killen in Hamruni (2011:22) states that: No teaching strategy is better than others in all circumstance, so you have to be able to use a variety of teaching strategies, and make rational decisions about when each of teaching strategies is likely to most effective.
In conclusion, the ways teacher treats the students well by using appropriate and effective learning strategies can possess the students have their own initiative to participate in learning English B.
Ice Breaking Activities 1. Definition of Ice-breaking Activity
Icebreaking is the activity which has the function to motivate the students to engage actively in teaching learning process. The term
“icebreaking” comes from “break the ice” which comes from special ships called “icebreaker” that designed to break up the ice in arctic regions. And just as these ships make it easier for other ships to travel. That illustration is the same as the function of ice-breaking in the classroom activity, icebreaking helps to clear the way for learning to occur by making the learner more comfortable and encouraging interaction among the students, or between teacher and students.
Other definition about ice-breaking is stated by
(2013) who defines ice breaker as an activity, game, or event
that is used to welcome and warm up the conversation among participants in a meeting, training class, team building session, or other event.Ice breakers are a great way to begin a meeting and can be used to relieve stress and provide needed breaks during intense meetings. Ice breakers help to relax the students thereby allowing them to be more receptive to listen and contribute. This activity is easy to be applied and it just spends at least 5 until 10 minutes. Only when the teacher uses ice-breaking as games in elaboration activity, it will spend more than 10 minutes.
2. Kind of Ice breaking activity
An ice breaker can serve to build a team atmosphere and generate enthusiasm. Using icebreakers are not normally related to the subject matter but the teacher may use it to open up new topic. The term ice- breaking can be defined as funny, amusing, humorous, thoughtful, surprising or just plain silly activity. There are so many icebreaking activities that can b e used, but looking at its method. Sunarto‟s article
(2008) mentions ice breaking can be categorized into several types they are as follows: a. Ice-breaking type of yell-yell
Yell is the simplest technique that can be applied, but it is the great technique to boost participation and spirit than the other. Yell is usually used in training or seminar to create espirit de corp or solidarity in a team work, and it really works. Type of yell that usually used is greeting.
Teacher’s greeting Students’ response How are you? Great or Exellent Hallo Hai Are you ready? Yes
Those are kinds of yell which is simple and easy to be remembered by the students. Yell-yell itself can be modified based on teacher and students agreement. If condition of the students out of the rule, or start being uncondusive, teacher can use one of those yell above to overcome the problem.
b. Ice-breaking type clapping hands Clapping hands describes the joyness, funny, or even pride with something. When our hands clap, it means there is relationship between what we see, listen and do. That is why clapping hands including ice-breaking activities because it has the same function as energizer. When clapping our hands due to something interesting, so clapping hands itself is enjoyable action. Applying clapping hands as ice-breaking, teacher may asks the students to do crowd clap or make melody from clapping hand, each line of students sit should makes different sounds and then conduct an orchestral sounds through clapping hands.
c. Ice-breaking type of song Singing a song is an activity which is liked by so many people.
Song is one of ice breaking activities that is usually used especially in teaching children. For applying ice-breaking, the use of song may give different atmosphere of learning if teacher uses some movement related to the song at the same time. Singing a famous or modified song can be used as ice-breaking activity, or the selection of song itself can be fit by the material of teaching. For instance, the use of this song below for teaching profession at Junior High School students.
My father is a farmer and he is working in the field My mother is a teacher and she is teaching the students My brother is a doctor and he is curing the patients
I love my family cause their jobs are increadible
Tuk tik tak Tik tuk tik tak Tik tuk tik tak
Tik tuk 2x I love my family
d. Ice-breaking type of games Game is a technique to break the boredom or cheer up the participant in engaging the activity. Based on an action research conducted by Huyen and Nga (2003) in articleents said that they liked the relaxed atmosphere, the competitiveness, and the motivation that games brought to the classroom. So in conclusion using game helps the students in learning through interesting way. The benefits of using games in language-learning can be summed up in nine points: are learner centered. promote communicative competence. create a meaningful context for language use. increase learning motivation. reduce learning anxiety. integrate various linguistic skills. encourage creative and spontaneous use of language. construct a cooperative learning environment. foster participatory attitudes of the students.
(http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Chen-Games.html) Based on the benefits above, teacher can use ice-breaking type of games with relevant reasons. There are so many types of game for ice- breaking activity, among others, following are type of games that can be used: 1) Door Game
A teacher decides to choose the multiple of 2 or 3 in starting the game, and point out a student who starts to count The student begins to count and when it comes to multiple of
3, the students has to mention an adjective Ex: 1,2,beautiful,4,5,smart,7,8,.....
2) Secret Code The group should solve secret code from the evelope which is given to find the answer of some question or task.
Jumbled Game
3)
Jumbled game is a game where the players have to arrange the jumbled words,sentences, or paragraphs into a good order. The use of jumbled game should be suitable with students level. For example the use of jumled word may be appropriate for students in primary school rather than senior high school. 4) Marooned As an ilustration the students are marooned on an island.
What five (you can use a different number depending on the size of each team) items would have brought. Note that the students are only allowed five or more items per team, not per person. You can have them write the items on a flip chart or paper, and than exchange the items with other group. This activity helps the students to learn about other‟s values and problem solving styles and promotes teamwork. 5) Move and Move
Put chairs in the circle equal to the number of participants, minus one. The person in the center begins by selecting something that he/she has done, is wearing, etc. And says “All my friends _______.” Those who meet those criteria must get up and move to a new seat, not one that is to either side of them. The person left sta nding is the next one to decide on the criteria! (Example: “All my friends are wearing tennis shoes” or “All my friends have been to Bali.”, etc). Keep playing until the group‟s energy is up, and everyone has moved at least 5-6 times. (Retrieved f
Becky’s (Dragon’s) Guiding Resource Centre)
e. Ice-breaking type of short story Short story is a story that has few pages or paragraphs. This kind of ice breaking is identical with fiction, legend, or myth. But sometimes telling about someone‟s experience has delighted everyone, because telling about s omeone‟s experience does not need more knowledge.
f. Ice-breaking type of body movement This energizer is commonly used in some kinds of seminar or trainning when the participants become bored and tired. By moving their body, their physical condition will be fresh and get concentration back. This activity can be done individual or in pairs.
3. Advantages and disadvantages of using ice breaking activity
Using ice breaking as a technique to promote fun learning, so the students will participate and enhance their achievement in real has many advantages, they are as follows: o
Motivate the students in learning English o Create a positive and interesting atmosphere o
Reduce students‟ boredoom o Create an interaction between students and teacher, or among the students o Help the students to get their concentration back during the lesson. o
Help people to relax o Give opportunity for the teacher to assess students‟ prior knowledge o create an open environment in which all participants are willing to open up and participate. o
Break down social barrier o Energize the students. Some of ice-breaker are designed to foster students or group participation o
Help students to think outside the box o Help pupil to get to know one another. As Virgil E and Varvel Jr
(2002) said that many learning environments (and this concept is particularly true in online education) require some form of introduction in order to be fully utilized by the participants. By structuring the ice breaking activity into the learning environment or course management system, students can get to know one another while getting to know the course delivery method. Beside ice-breaking gives many benefits or advantages, there are some disadvantages of using ice-breaking that should be paid more attention as a medium of teaching. o
Selecting type of ice-breaking that is appropriate with students condition ,level, even when intoducing new topic is quite difficult. o
Using ice-breaking types of game may spend much time o The instruction of using ice-breaking sometimes make the students confused. So the teacher should give clear and easy instructions for the students to understand.
4. Suggestion for choosing ice breaking activity
When choosing an ice breaker there are some consideration that should be known, according to an article of Virgil E and Varvel Jr (2002) states that there are 3 things to keep in mind.
1. The goal of the activity The first consideration when choosing an ice breaker is the purpose of that ice breaker. Earlier, it was noted that ice breakers can have many purposes. Determine what your goals are, and connect the activity to the goal.
2. Level of students Next consideration is looking at the audience or student level. It means the teacher should know students conditions and needs before choosing ice-breaking activity. In this case, the teacher may has an alternative activity that should be considered when ice-breaking activity would not serve much purpose in some situation.
3. The purpose of ice-breaking itself Finally, make sure that the ice breaker which is choosen actually connected to the intended purpose of the ice breaker, because not all ice-breakers work for all intended ends.
An additional thing that should be considered is timing. It should not be too long otherwise the serious work of the meeting will not be given enough time. It should not be so short that participants feel it was a perfunctory exercise. Timing also depends on the size of the group, the overall length of the event, and the purpose of the event.
5. The use of Ice-breaking in this research
The use of ice-breaking or usually called as warm-up activity is reallly not far from the purpose of implementation ice-breaking as medium of teaching. Usually, an ice breaker is used at the beginning of a session or course in order to let everyone in the course get to know one another and get focused or well motivated toward the lesson. However, ice-breaking also can be put in the middle of the lesson to refresh the situation and get concentration back. In addition, sometimes the teacher puts it at the end of lesson as confirmation or review about the material.
C. English Test Item in This Research
As an evaluation of learning English before and after doing an action, this research used multiple-choice as objective test item to evaluate students‟ achievement in English. Following the detailed explanation of multiple choice.
1) Definition of Multiple-Choice Multiple-choice itemis recognized as the most widely applicable and useful type of test item. Gronlund and Linn (1990:166-167) in their book entitled Measurement and Evaluation in Teaching give more explanation about multiple-choic. Multiple-choice item is an objective test item that consist of a problem and a list of suggested solution. The problem may be stated as a direct question or an incomplete statement, and is called the stem of the item. The list of suggested solutions may include words, numbers, symbols, or phrases and are called alternatives (also called choices or options).
2) Advantages and Limitation of Multiple-Choice
a) Advantages There are several advantages in using multiple choice as an objective test item to measure students achievement as stated by
Gronlund and Linn (1990: 174-175). They are as follows: Multiple-choice can effectively measure various types of knowledge and complex learning outcomes.
Multiple-choice item is free from some of the common shortcomings characteristic of the other test item types.
In multiple-choice item the students can not receive credit for simply knowing that a ststement is incorrect: they also know what is correct answer. Multiple-choice item is the greater reliability per item because the number of alternatives is increased two to four or five, the oppotunity for guessing the correct answer is reduced, and the reability is correspondingly increased.
Besides that, an advantage of multiple-choice is that the need for homogeneous material is avoided.
b) Limitations Despite its advantages, the multiple-choice item has several limitations as follows:
As with all other paper-and-pencil test, it is limited to learning outcomes at the verbal level. It means that multiple-choice item, like other paper-and-pencil test, measure whether the pupil knows and understands what to do when confronted with a problem situation, but it can not determine how the pupil actually will perform in that situation.
The multiple-choice item requires selection of the correct answer,and therefore it is not well adapted to measuring some problem-solving skills in mathematicsand science or to measuring the ability to organize and present ideas.
Multiple-choice item has the difficulty of finding a sufficient number of incorrect but plausible distracters.
(Gronlund and Linn ,1990:177) 3) Suggestion for constructing Multiple-Choice Item
The following some suggestions for constructing multiple-choice item building on Gronlund and Linn (1990:177-183). They are as follows:
a) The stem of the item should be meaningful by itself and should present a definite problem.
b) The item stem should include as much of the item as possible and should be free of irrelevant material.
c) All of the alternative should be grammatically consistent with the stem of item.
d) All distracters should be plausible. e) An item should contain only one correct or clearly best answer.
f) The relative length of the alternatives should not provide a clue to the answer.
D. The Relevance Previous of Research Result
There are some results from the previous research that is stated about the use of ice- breaking activities to boost students‟ participation:
1) According to Dian Arshinta (2010), the use of ice breaking in learning Chinese gives possitive effect for teaching learning process. The implementation of ice- breaking and motivated words can break students‟ boredom during learning process. The same problem that is faced in the classroom make common cause with applying ice-breaking as the solution, and it is proven by increasing participatory of students during the lesson.
2) Another result had been proven by Sunyoto (2012), in order to create effective learning in enterpreneurship class, ice-breaking activities become the treatment that is use to overcome same problem. As the result, from three classes which are given the action show the enhancement with total students who participated are around 90%. In conclusion, ice breaking activities is one of many ways that is used to boost students‟ participation.
E. Basic Assumption
Learning English as a Foreign Language Some causal factors affecting students in learning English
Students' low participations Using Ice-breaking activities as the solution
A diagram above describes that learning English is one of many lessons that should be learnt by the students, and it is quite difficult for them.
Besides that, some causal factors such as the exsistance of English as foreign language in Indonesia and the l ackness of teacher‟s way in teaching english makes the students are unaccustomed and uninterested in learning that language. That is why the students have low participation in learning English as already shown in pre-observation. Therefore, the use of ice-breaking activities as a solution to solve that problem is supported by several relevant previous research.
Ice breaking is able to increase students‟ participation, and get their concentration back. In addition, the experience during teaching training while using ice-breaking at another class which has low participation gets possitive response from the students. feeling relaxed, and enjoyed when learning English through Ice-breaking activities is what the students need. On that account, this research proves that Ice-breaking activities can be used as a medium or technique to provoke students participation in learning English.
F. Hypothesis of the Research
Ice- breaking activities are able to boost students‟ participation in learning English at VIII G students of SMP N 1 Purwokerto in academic year 2013/2014.