The underachievers of English learning - USD Repository
THE UNDERACHIEVER OF ENGLISH LEARNING A thesis A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Program in English Language Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Magister Humaniora (M. Hum.) in English Language Studies by Intan Sejati 086332002 GRADUATE PROGRAM ON ENGLISH STUDIES SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2013
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This is to certify that all the ideas, phrases, and sentences, unless otherwise stated, are the ideas, phrases, sentences of the thesis writer. The writer understands the full consequences including degree cancellation if she took somebody else‟s ideas, phrases, or sentences without proper references.
LEMBAR PERTANYAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH
UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Kajian Bahasa Inggris Universitas Sanata Dharma,
Nama : Intan Sejati Nomor Induk Siswa : 086332002 Menyatakan bahwa demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah yang berjudul :
THE UNDERACHIEVERS OF ENGLISH LEARNING
Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Demikian saya memberikan kepada perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain mengelola dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikan karya ilmiah saya diinternet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberi royakti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian surat pertanyaan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First, praise to Allah, Lord of the worlds. I would like to expess my greatest gratitute to Him for giving me an opportunity to finish my study in this university. Thanks for Your guide and light.
I would like to express my gratitute to everybody who has helped me along my research. I would like to deliver my deepest thank to my thesis advisor, Dr. J. Bismoko for guiding me patiently. I also thank for the knowledge and sharing. I also thank Drs. F.X. Mukarto, M. S., Ph.D who always supports me to finish my thesis and for his time. I would like to say thank to Dra. Novita Dewi, M.S., M.A (Hons).,Ph.D and Dr. B.B. Dwijatmoko M.A. for your attention asking my progress every time we met. Then, I thank all the English Study lecturers for the knowledge.
I would like to express my gratefulness to all members of my family; my parents, my husband, my grandfather, my sister and brother, and my uncle. I would like to thank you for the motivation. I also thank to baby Op and baby Arf for your sacrifice; I appologize for the less time for you recently.
I thank Christine, Pipin, and Vero for the favour and sharing. Then, I also thank my beloved friends Rifky, Ule, Bunga, Ratna W, Yeni, Jose, Wedho, Juan, Hil for the sharing.
Lastly, I also like to thank mbak Lely who helped me during my study. I like to express my deepest gratitude to bu Kasi and pak Dul for the cooperation and help. Then, I like to thank also to all my participants; this thesis cannot be completed without y
WISE WORDS
The best person is one who is beneficial for others.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page TITLE PAGE .................................................................................................. i APPROVAL PAGE ........................................................................................ ii THESIS DEFENSE APPROVAL PAGE ....................................................... iii STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ................................................................ iv
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN .... ........................................................................... v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................ vi WISE WORDS ............................................................................................... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................ viii LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................... xi LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................... xii LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................. xiii ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... xiv
ABSTRAK ........................................................................................................ xvi
CHAPTER 1
1.1 Research Background................................................................................. 1
1.2 Problem Identification ............................................................................... 6
1.3.Problem Limitation ................................................................................... 8
1.4 Problem Formulation ................................................................................ 7
1.5 Research Objectives ................................................................................... 8
1.6 Research Benefit ....................................................................................... 8
CHAPTER 2
1.1 THEORETICAL REVIEW
1.1.1 Underachiever .............................................................................. 10
1.1.1.1 Learning Achievement ..................................................... 10
1.1.1.2 Evaluation ......................................................................... 16
1.1.2 Learning English .......................................................................... 18
1.1.2.1 Learning ............................................................................ 18
1.1.2.2 English as Foreign Language and Lingua Franca ............ 21
2.1.2.3 Multiple Intelegences and Learning styles ....................... 22
2.1.2.4 English Teaching ........................................................... ... 26
3.4 Text Analysis and Interpretation .............................................................. 52
4.1.2.1. Preparing the English Lesson .................................................. 57
4.1.2. The lived-experience during the lesson of Wati .............................. 57
4.1.1.3. Ending the English Lesson ...................................................... 57
4.1.1.2. Attending the English Lesson ................................................. 55
4.1.1.1. Preparing the English Lesson .................................................. 53
4.1.1. The lived-experience during the English lesson of Budi ................. 53
4.1 The Lived- Experience Description .......................................................... 53
CHAPTER 4
3.6 Trustworthiness ......................................................................................... 53
3.4.4. Trustworthiness ................................................................................ 52
3.4.3. Text Interpretation ............................................................................ 52
3.4.2. Text organization ............................................................................. 52
3.4.1. Text Summary .................................................................................. 52
3.3 Research Procedure .................................................................................. 47
1.1.3 Junior High School Students ........................................................ 28
3.2.3. Text processing instrument .............................................................. 47
3.2.3 Text gathering instruments ................................................................ 46
3.2.2. The Nature of the Text ..................................................................... 46
3.2.1. The source of the Text...................................................................... 45
3.2 Research Design ....................................................................................... 42
3.1 Progresive Qualitative Method ................................................................ 40
CHAPTER 3
1.2 Pre-understanding Framework ................................................................. 34
1.1.5 Live-Experience Research............................................................. 34
1.1.4 Lived-experience ........................................................................... 33
1.1.3.3 Junior High Scool Curriculum ......................................... 32
1.1.3.2 Learning English ............................................................. 30
1.1.3.1 Psychological Development ............................................. 28
4.1.2.2. Attending the English Lesson ................................................. 58
4.1.2.3.Ending the English Lesson ....................................................... 61
4.1.3. The lived-experience during the lesson of Joko ............................... 61
4.1.3.1. Preparing the English Lesson .................................................. 61
4.1.3.2. Attending the English Lesson ................................................. 63
4.1.3.3. Ending the English Lesson ...................................................... 65
4.1.4. The lived-experience during the unscheduled quizess ................... 66
4.1.5. The lived-experience during the other type of quiz ........................ 67
4.1.6. Self-Perception ................................................................................ 70
4.1.7.The lived-experience of participants daily life ................................ 72
4.2. The Essential Themes ............................................................................. 78
4.2.1. Motivation ....................................................................................... 78
4.2.2. Struggle ........................................................................................... 80
4.2.3. Belief ............................................................................................... 82
4.3. The Emergent Themes ............................................................................ 84
4.3.1. Patience ...................................................................................... 84
4.3.2. Creativity .................................................................................... 84
4.3.3. Challenges .................................................................................. 85
4.3.4. Feeling ........................................................................................ 87
4.3.5. Awareness .................................................................................. 90
CHAPTER 5
5.1 Conclusions ........................................................................................... 89
5.2 Suggestions ............................................................................................ 91
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. The research Design on the Underachievers of English Learning... 50 Table 2. Interview II Transcript of Wati ............................................ 105 Table 3. Interview I Transcript of Budi.............................................. 112 Table 4. Interview II Transcript of Budi ........................................... 127 Table 5. Interview I Transcript of Joko .............................................. 130 Table 6. Interview II Transcript of Joko.............................................. 134 Table 7. The development of the emergent themes of Wati................ 141 Table 8. The development of the emergent themes of Budi ............... 146 Table 9. The development of the emergent themes of Joko ................. 157
FIGURE
Figure 1. A framework for investigating individuals‟ differences ........
13 Figure 2. The steps taken during the research and the result of each step
48
LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix A. Interview I to Wati ..........................................................
98 Appendix B. interview II to Wati.......................................................... 108 Appendix C. Interview I to Budi .......................................................... 115 Appendix D. Interview II to Budi......................................................... 130 Appendix E. Interview I to Joko............................................................. 133 Appendix F. Interview II to Joko............................................................ 137 Appndix G. The development of the emergent themes of Wati.............. 144 Appendix H. The development of the emergent themes of Budi............. 149 Appendix I. The development of the emergent themes of Joko................ 160
ABSTRACT Sejati, Intan. 2013. The Underachiever of English learning. Yogyakarta: The Graduate Program in English Language Studies, Sanata Dharma University.
Some students were not able to reach the minimal score determined by the school. They actually did not have low natural abilities. However, such students were usually marginalized. The teacher or friends often thought that they were stupid. The students usually got unfair treatments from the teacher and other students. The marginalization might discourage them more. Therefore, I would like to provide a bridge between the students and the teacher. However, this study focused on students who did not perform well in the English subject only, namely underachievers of English learning. It means that I only focused on underachievers of English learning, and ignored the student s‟ achievement in other school subjects. The research was about revealing
“What is the lived- experience of the underachievers of English learning like? ”. My main intention was to help both the teacher and students by revealing what had happened „inside‟ the underachievers of English learning.
The research was progressive qualitative. The design was constantly modified, based on ongoing process and emergent issues. It was also considered as a reflective research since the participants had to reflect their past experience. The research was conducted in Klaten, Central Java. The participants were two students of SMP N 1 Bayat and a student of MTsN Jatinom. In order to get reliable text, this study used in-depth interviews with two students and their teacher, classroom observation, and document check (the students‟ academic report). The first step was the classroom observation in order to get information on what happened in the classroom during the lesson. The second was the interview with the students. The students were asked about their pre-intention, awareness, action, history, understanding (belief), and intention. The third was the interview with the teacher. The interview tried to explore the teacher‟s experience of teaching the underachievers of English learning. The interview for teacher was conducted for triangulation.
From the study, we could elicit some of probable factors which might influence their learning outcomes. In line with the previous researches, those students had low-motivations to learn English. The second was they were from low-educational family backgrounds. They also got economical problems. The third was they were kinesthetics learners. The fourth was the two of them had high demand teachers. The fifth was they rarely communicated in English language. The emerging themes were they got problem in memorizing English words since the English spelling is different from its writting system. One of them did not get access to good English dictionaries.
This study will carry some benefits such as scientific, practical, and humanistic benefits. The scientific benefit is the description and interpretation will enrich the body of knowledge. Then, for the participants, I hope the participants will have higher awareness, commitment in learning English, and higher achievement in the rest of their life. In addition, the description and interpretation may also build my and the readers‟ emphatic understanding of underachievers of English learning. Keywords: underachievers English learning experience understanding
ABSTRAK Sejati, Intan. 2009. The underachiever of English learning. Yogyakarta: The Graduate Program in English Language Studies, Sanata Dharma University.
Beberapa siswa ternyata tidak mampu memperoleh nilai minimal yang telah ditetapkan oleh sekolah. Kalau kita perhatikan mereka bukanlah siswa yang mempunyai kemampuan bawaan rendah. Siswa-siswa tersebut sering mendapat perlakuan „tidak adil‟ dari teman maupun guru mereka. Hal tersebut dapat membuat mereka semakin tidak termotivasi untuk mengikuti pelajaran di sekolah. Oleh karena itu, pada penelitian ini saya berusaha mencari pengalaman hidup mereka dalam belajar bahsa Inggris seperti apa. Sebagai tujuan utama saya yaitu untuk membantu para siswa-siswa tersebut agar dapat meningkatkan kemampuan bahasa Inggris mereka.
Penelitian ini termasuk dalam kelompok kualitatif progresif. Desain penelitian ini akan dimodifikasi secara terus menerus berdsarkan proses dan tema yang muncul. Penelitian ini juga termasuk penelitian reflektif karena partisipan harus melakukan refleksi untuk melihat pengalaman mereka yang telah lalu. Penelitian ini dilakukan di klaten yaitu di SMPN 1 Bayat dan MTsN Jatinom. Kedua sekolah tersebut merupakan sekolah yang paling diburu di kedua tempat tersebut. Untuk mendapatkan data yang sahih, dilakukan pemeriksaan dokumen yaitu daftar nilai siswa dan rapor. Kemudian dilakukan observeasi untuk menentukan partisipan dan yang mereka lakukan di kelas. Setelah itu dilakukan wawancara kepada partisipan. Setelah wawancara, dilakukan wawancara dengan guru dan wawancara ulang kepada partisipan. Setelah teks diperoleh, dilakukan deskripsi dan interpretasi dari teks tersebut. Akhirnya, akan ditemukan pengamalaman partisipan dalam belajar bahasa Inggris.
Dari penelitian, diketahui bahwa partisipan memiliki beberapa karakter yang hampir sama dengan teori maupun asumsi awal saya, namun ada beberapa hal-hal yang baru saya temukan. Sesuai dengan teori, siswa yang nilainya tidak memenuhi KKM biasanya memiliki motivasi rendah untuk belajar bahasa Inggris; orang tua berpendidikan rendah; mempunyai masalah ekonomi; siswa kinestetik, tuntutan guru tinggi, dan jarang „bertemu‟ bahasa Inggris dalam kehidupan mereka sehari-hari. Hal lain yang ditemukan adalah tulisan bahasa Inggris berbeda dengan pelafalnya. Selain itu, salah seorang partisipan kesulitan memperoleh kamus yang baik.
Penelitian ini diharapkan dapat membawa banyak membawa manfaat untuk keilmuwan, praktisi, dan kemanusiaan. Untuk keilmuwan, deskripsi dan interpretasi dari penelitian ini akan memperkaya ilmu pengetahuan. Untuk para partisipan, penelitian ini diharapkan dapat meningkatkan kesadaran dan komitmen mereka sehingga dapat menguasai bahasa Inggris dengan lebih baik. Dengan penelitian ini, diharapkan para pembaca mempunyai rasa empati yang lebih terhadap siswa yang tidak dapat mencapai nilai standar minimal yang ditetapkan sekolah. Kata kunci : pengalaman hidup siswa belajar bahasa Inggris prestasi
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE PROBLEM
The underachievers often get unfair treatment from both peers and teachers. The peers often laugh at their mistakes and label them as „stupid‟ students. The students are usually marginalized by teacher and their classmates. Teachers rarely or never give them praise for their „very little progress or better behavior”. I also treat the underachievers who are considered as „trouble-maker‟ unfair. I often shout at them when they make some noisy. Even though, I never show that I underestimate them, but actually I label some of my students
“left behind”. I never find out why they do not perform well.
Marginalizing the underachievers may put them in danger. It may make their affective filter towards English language higher. When their affective filter is high, it is hard for them to master English language more. They feel nervous or uncomfortable during English lesson. They will resist to English language. They may avoid something written or spoken in English language even though the things are important for them. They will have low self-esteem. What happen if such thing happen when the world today demand all of us to be able to speak English?
The underachievers might be brilliant students in other subjects or in other occasion. When I was a teacher in a school, I met a student who was an underachiever, especially in English lesson (I do not know about other school subjects). The teachers and classmates may consider him as a trouble maker in the class. I talked to one of his teacher. She said that he was great in the previous grade. My second experience is when I saw my neighbor. I got the information from his teacher, she said that the child is stupid and his classmates often play him such as hiding his lunch box and so on. However, when a person tried to give some lesson about a school subject in informal situation (outside the class while he feels relax) he is able to perform well. His parents decided to put him in a course, the instructor said that the boy likes to move around instead of listening to her explanation or doing tasks. The third person was a friend of mine in senior high school. When he was in elementary school, most of his scores were below the standard which was usually marked with red ink. His junior high school seems become his turning point, even though he only brought a notebook when he attended the school lesson but he performed excellent. When he was in senior high school, he was the best three students in classroom. He got the ticket to join one of the best universities in this country.
Egbert and Smith (1999:295) show other facts that may help us to understand the underachievers. They state that students who are visual and kinesthetic often underachieve in classroom because the teaching style does not match their perceptual strength. Visual learners learn by seeing and by watching demonstrations; like visual stimuli such as pictures, slides, graphs, demonstrations, etc; conjure up the image of a form by seeing it in the “mind‟s eye”; often has a vivid imagination; often stares; need something to watch, are often quiet and do not talk at length; become impatient or drifts away when extensive listening are required; prefer the visual arts and media. Kinesthetic learners learn by doing, direct involvement; often fidget or find reasons to move; are not very attentive to visual or auditory presentations; want to be “doing” something; try things out and like to manipulate objects; gesture when speaking; are often a poor listener; respond to music by physical movement; often find success in physical response activities; learn better when able to move during learning; like to move hands while learning; use movement to help concentrate. In classroom practice in Indonesia, the teaching style still cater visual learners rather that the kinesthetic ones.
My experience above somehow „wakes me up‟ and makes me think about them. As the consequence, I think that finding out why some students cannot reach the standard is much more important than marginalizing them. They, I think, feel uncomfortable in such condition. They may need someone to talk to about their problems in learning English. Therefore, to know more about what happen „inside‟ them I need to talk with them personally about their experiences.
Even though, counseling teacher usually conducts sharing with students who are underachievers but those teachers do not focus on English achievement. Talking about their own experience in learning English will make them feel more comfortable since they do not only talk about their problems but also their interest or may be some probable solution for their problem. During talking about their experiences, they will tell me about their problems. We can see their problem through the sharing. Then, I give them feedback in order to improve their awareness. By knowing their problems and helping them to improve their awareness, we will find ways to help them to improve their performance in English.
Therefore, I would like to take the students of grade 8 who are underachievers. It is mainly because the participants of this study still have opportunity to improve their ability in the next grades and they have already have adequate experience in learning English language in the school.
Even though it is important to know more about the underachievers, especially in learning English, however, w hat actually happen „inside‟ under achievers in Indonesia have not been reveal much through researches. And even some teachers or schools have already tried to uncover the reason why some students are under achievers. I see such observation usually stop in finding the reasons but not really concern with what‟s the next.
This study is important in the way improving the underachievers of English language performance. By voicing the voiceless, this study will build empathic understanding to other people will end marginalization to them. It will also help them to build their self-esteem, motivation, and feeling secure. The interview in this study somehow may help the students in increasing their awareness and commitment in learning English.
1.2 PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Talking about underachievers of English learning is related to learning, and the position of English. The underachievers are ones who do not perform well means that they do not meet the goals of learning. In this term, they do not meet the goals of leaning English both as foreign language and lingua franca.
In this research, students who are considered as underachievers are ones whose marks in their academic report less than the achievement standard determined by the school. They are about 10 percent of the classroom population.
English in Indonesia is considered as a Foreign Language. As a foreign language, English is only spoken in particular place and occasion. As the consequence, the student does not get adequate comprehensible input. Basically, the reasons why student should master English language are to fulfill the needs to communicate with other people around the world in the future and access knowledge. In other words, student needs to learn English because English is a lingua franca. English is a language spoken by people from different linguistics background to communicate one another. Even though, nowadays people learn English as lingua franca but in practice the student learns English as a foreign language. It means that the teaching learning process still centered on native speakers‟ language not the reputable broadcast and media in Indonesia. Therefore, the student learn English which used by native speaker.
In the context of English learning in junior high school; there are some factors influencing the learning outcome such as motivation, nature ability, context of learning, style preference, background experience and qualification, availability of time to give the effort needed, quality input, it is important to see what factors influence the achievement of the participants. It is important to see the specific factors which really exist in the participants, we can help them out of his/her problem.
Learners‟ motivation is also one of the factors. It is also related to the family educational background. Then, it is hard to determine what factors work much then others because every learner is unique. s/he is different from others. Therefore, in order to know what factors affects to a learner, we have to explore a learner; and the factors cannot be generalized.
In order to know more about the under-achievers of English learning, it is important to elicit their lived-experience. There are two kinds of lived-experience, shared and personal. Shared live-experience is experience of two people who shared the same experience. Personal lived experience is experience of a person only. Lived-experience covers understanding, desire, intention or expectation, anticipation, relations with others, cultural patterns, feeling, belief or sights, smells, sounds and so on ( Murphy,1960:13 in Bradley, 2002). This study is attempting to elicit the personal experience of underachievers of English language learning.
1.3 PROBLEM LIMITATION
There are many aspects related to learning achievement. The learning achievement is affected by the context, goals, resources, and some learning factors both internal and external; and also the position of English as lingua franca or as foreign language. In classroom practice, we can see some students who success or fail in learning. Their success and failure are influenced by many aspects. This study will both explore the internal and external factors of learning.
This study would only focus on certain underachievers‟ lived-experience especially in English learning. From the interview, I would see the English learning experience of the participants. It would include how they like to learn, their sources of learning, their motivation, and whether the people around them support them or not. Even though, there is several coverage of live-experience, I only focus on exploring the under-
English achiever‟s awareness, action, experience in general, understanding in learning English, and intention (pre- intention and intention).
This study appled the qualitative approach. This study will record the lived-experience of the underachievers. This study focuses on Junior High School students. Since it is conducted in Junior High Schools students, therefore, the position of English is both as Lingua Franca and Foreign Language. However, I will focus on the underachievers of English learning only.
Because of the limitation of energy and time, I conducted the study in two junior high schools; I interviewed three underachievers of grade 8. The schools were considered good schools in the areas, and also they were accessible for me. I assumed that grade 8 students already had adequate experience in learning English in the school and they still had opportunity to perform better after my study.
1.4 PROBLEM FORMULATION
To help the underachievers to perform better in learning English, I need to find out the underachievers lived-experience in learning English particularly their awareness, action, experience, understanding, and intention. I also like to find out the information about them from their teachers. Since there are many aspects related to learning achievement, I have to formulate the questions of this study as: What is the lived-experience of the underachievers of English learning like?
1.5 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
As the context of this study is the lived-experiences of underachievers of English learning, this study attempts to attain the description of lived-experiences of the underachievers of the English learning and the interpretation. By doing so, the essential themes of the meaning of lived-experiences of the students will be obtained.
The result of this research hopefully will increase the empathic understanding of the readers particullary educators. Based on the research, educators will improve their teaching by considering the underachievers. The research may also help the educational institution to set more effective language programs.
The objectives stated above are basically to reach the ultimate objective, that is to improve the undea chievers‟ English competence. Therefore, they will have better livings.
1.6 RESEARCH BENEFITS
There are some benefits provided by this study; scientific, humanistic, and practical benefits. For scientific study, the description and interpretation will enrich the body of knowledge of English language studies. For humanistic, this description and interpretation of this study may improve empathic understanding on the underachievers. For the participant, the interview of this study, hopefully, will help the underachievers of English language learning to have higher awareness, higher commitment in learning English, and higher achievement in the rest of their life. For the researcher and also for the readers, this study will help to build empathic understanding towards under-achiever and may also help to conduct more efficient and productive program.
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter attempts to contextualize some theories related to the problems of this study. There are two parts of this chapter, theoretical review and theoretical framework.
2.1 Theoretical Review
Here, I would like to review some theories related to the underachievers; factors, I suspects, which may affect their learning achievement; and also some other theories which are related to this study.
2.1.1 Underachiever
In classrooms, we often find some students who do not perform well in a subject or some subjects. They are not able to achieve the standard determined by the school. They are considered as the underachiever. Underachievers in Indonesia seem to have several of the characteristics. The underachievers of English language are usually underachievers of several subjects. They are usually too quiet students or talk active or ones who like to play with friends during the class. Some of them are really quiet with under confidence, motivation and self-esteem. They have low-confidence, motivation and self-esteem too. However, we can see clearly that they tend to have negative attitudes towards teachers and schools. Some of them tend to be „trouble makers‟ in classrooms. They do not care about assignments, teachers‟ explanations, even the schools, rules.
There are many factors related to the students‟ achievement. In disscusing the students‟ achievement, we can refer to some theories which may related to the achievement; they are as follow :
2.1.1.1 Learning achievement Achievement is the degree of skills measured with reference to particular curriculum.
According to Savignon (1972), achievement has two parts, competence and performance.
Competence is about what learners know. Then, performance reflects competence. It means that performance is observable and measureable (Oxford, 1990:237).
McCoach (2001) uses the term underachievement. Underachievement is defined as a difference between potential (ability) and performance (achievement) (Reis &McCoach, 2000). Further, McCoach finds out some factors which commonly associated with underachievement. The factors include academic self-concepts (Schunk, 1998: Supple, 199
Whitmore,1980), low-self efficacy ( Schuk,1998), low-self motivation (Weiner,1992), low goal-valuations (McCall, Evahn&Kratzer,1992), negative attitude towards school and teacher ( Colangelo, Kerr, Christensen &Maxey,1993:Ford,1996;Kimm,1995). Most literature show that underachievers have lower academic self-perceptions, lower self- motivation/regulations, less goal directed behavior, more negative attitudes toward teachers and school than high achievers. She also mentions that low and high achievers are different in motivational pattern and academic self-perception ( Reis and McCoach,2000).
Basically the terms underachievement refers to students who cannot achieve the standard given by the educational institution. However, what McCoach means by underachievers are those actually have potential to reach the standard. In this research, I apply his term to choose students as the participants. Therefore, the participants in this research were ones who are not able to reach the minimum score standardized by their school, however, they were actually potential to achieve it.
An article written by Noble (2009) also characterize the underachievers in general. The writer categorizes the characteristics into personal, family, educationally related factors, and extracurricular activities. Related o the first category, she writes “Students' perceptions of their abilities, which contribute to their self-esteem and confidence, are related to educational achievement”. It means that underachievers tend to see themselves do not have abilities in the subject, then, they have low self-esteem and confidence. For example, students with a less positive view of them are more likely to be underachievers than high achievers. Still related to the first category, she says that students who have a low level of motivation to succeed, or who have a high level of anxiety about their schoolwork or home environment, are five to six times as likely to be under achievers as high achievers. Related to family characteristics, she finds out that students whose parents have less than a bachelor's degree are somewhat more likely to be under achievers than high achievers: Of students with parents with less than a bachelor's degree, 29% were under achievers and 20% were high achievers. In contrast, students whose parents have bachelor's degrees or higher are more likely to be high achievers than underachievers (44% vs. 12%). She adds that students who face difficult situation at home are as likely to be under achievers. The third, students who said they needed help in reading comprehension, study skills, or mathematics skills were more likely to be under achievers than high achievers. The last are related to the last category such as (1) students who spend more time watching TV are more likely to be under achievers than high achievers, and (2) Students who spend less time on school-related extracurricular activities are more likely to be under achievers than high achievers.
Vann and Abraham (1990: 177) state that some unsuccessful learners used relatively many strategies. They also used many of the same strategies as the successful learners. All learners, at least occasionally clarified and verified, guessed at meaning, applied grammatical rules, monitored form, and demonstrated various production tricks and social management strategies. Their study on the underachievers of IEP at Iowa University shows that the unsuccessful learner emerged as active strategy users, though they sometimes applied strategies inappropriately.
Language learning outcomes are influenced by several factors. Each factor will also influence the other factors. As we see in figure 1 (1) Individual Learner differences
Beliefs about language learning Affective states General factors Learning processes and mechanisms
From the figure above, the language learning outcomes of the learners can be (2) Learner strategies (3) Language Learning Outcomes different. The differences can be on proficiency, achievement, or on rate of acquisition of the
On proficiency On achievement learners. The outcomes may influence learning strategies and learners‟ belief about language On rate of acquisition
Figure 1. A F
ramework for investigating individual learners’ differences
learning, however, learning strategies and the belief also influence the language learning ( Ellis, 1994: 473) outcomes. Then, I would like to focus on the later.
As stated above, language learning outcomes are influenced by factors (1) and (2). Related to the former, Horwitz (1987a) in Ellis (1994: 578) found that learners have different belief about language learning. Based on his research, he says that most of the learners ( participants) felt that people were born with a special aptitude for learning foreign languages. They were confident that they possessed such aptitude themselves. They also believed that some languages were more difficult than others. Many of them also believed that the best way to learn English was to spend most of the time memorizing vocabulary and grammar rules. Abraham and Vann ( 1987) investigated two language learners. Both learners believed that it was important to create situation for using English outside the classroom to practice as much as possible, and to have error corrected. It is also important to practice actively in class. one of the participant, Geraldo, believed that paying conscious attention to grammar is important. He also believed that it is important to preserve in communication and understanding an idea. While, Pedro, did not believed to the importance of paying conscious attention to grammar. He also expressed a strong dislike to metacognitive. For him, topic abandonment is the best stategy in some cases. The two participants showed different learning outcomes. Geraldo has better TOEFL Score (523v473) while Pedro did better on a test of spoken English ( Ellis, 1994: 478).
Learners are also different in affective states. Rathbone (1987) in Ellis (1994: 479) found that learners seems need to feel secure and to be free of stress before they can focus on the learning tasks. Further Ellis ( 1989a: 257) found a learner‟s statement saying that s/he felt that her/his mind blocked when the teacher asked a question , even though the teacher did not frighten him/her. However, anxiety has positive influence to American University students related to marks in Spanish ( Ellis, 1994 : 479-480).
The general factors also vary based on the extent of the learners‟ control over them. For instance, learners may change their learning styles, however, they can do nothing with their age ( Ellis, 1994 : 473).
The next factor is learning strategies. Every learner employs different learning strategies. Ellis (1994:541- 543) sees how learners‟ personal backgrounds effect strategy use.
The strategies are influenced by belief about language learning and learners‟ factors. Related to the first factor, Wenden (1987a) in Ellis (1994: 541) found that learners who emphasized on the important of learning tended to use cognitive strategies that helped them to understand and remember specific items of language, while learners who emphasized the importance of using language employed few learning strategies, relying instead on communication strategies. Age, motivation, and personal background are considered to be the learners‟ factors. Yo ung children‟s strategies are often simple, while mature learners‟ strategies are more complex and sophisticated. He adds that the strength of learners‟ motivation can be expected to have a causal effect on the quantity of learning strategies they employ. Ehrman
(1990) compared the professional linguists, untrained instructors, and students‟ personal background. He found that professional linguist use more strategies and more frequently than the others.
Ellis (1994: 549-550) identifies five major aspects of successful language learning. The fist aspect is a concern for language form. The learners treat language as a system by making effective cross lingual comparisons, analyzing the target language, and using reference books. The second is a concern for communication or functional practice. The learners also search for meaning in the target language data which they are exposed to and try to engage in real communication by seeking out opportunities for natural data use. The third is an active task approach. The learners appreciate teachers who are systematic, logical, and clear, but prefer to treat them as „informant‟. They like to take charge of their own learning by identifying and pursuing goals and trying to introduce new topics into a conversation.
However, some of them are „silent speakers‟. The forth is an awareness of learning process. Learners use both meta-lingual strategies and cognitive knowledge use. They tend to take conscious decisions and follow their own preferred learning styles. They also use meta cognitive knowledge to help them assess their needs, evaluate progress, and give direction to their learning. The last is the learners have a capacity to use the strategies flexibly in accordance with task requirements. It means that the effective learners have the ability to choose the appropriate strategies and more purposeful.