The influence of intrinsic motivation and learning styles on the classroom performance of extensive reading II students - USD Repository

  

THE INFLUENCES OF INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

AND LEARNING STYLES ON THE CLASSROOM PERFORMANCE

OF EXTENSIVE READING II STUDENTS

A THESIS

  Presented as Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education

  

By

Argian Nicko Wiwoho

Student Number: 031214092

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAMME

  

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ART EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

  

THE INFLUENCES OF INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

AND LEARNING STYLES ON THE CLASSROOM PERFORMANCE

OF EXTENSIVE READING II STUDENTS

A THESIS

  Presented as Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education

  

By

Argian Nicko Wiwoho

Student Number: 031214092

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAMME

  

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ART EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

  “Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he died that distinguish one man from another.” Ernest Hemingway

  “Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.” Winston Churchill

  “A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.” Theodore Roosevelt

  

To my beloved family, I an, and friends

w ho make me learn

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  First, my greatest appreciation goes to Allah SWT for all the blessings to finish this thesis and all the opportunities in this life. Second, my appreciation goes to my parents who have funded my education, shared a wonderful life, and given me meaningful experiences to deal with problems in this life.

  Third, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my major sponsor, Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd., and my co-sponsor, Christina Kristiyani, S.Pd., M.Pd., for sharing with me the critical thoughts, helpful suggestions, and encouraging advice. Furthermore, I would like to express my deep gratefulness to the head of the department, Ag. Hardi Prasetyo, S.Pd., M.A., and all PBI lecturers who have contributed to the completion of my thesis.

  Fourth, my thankfulness also goes to all my PBI mates, who have provided me sincere supports during my study and the completion of my thesis especially Dera, Vendi, Bunga, Chandra, Febri, Intika, Rere, Andreas Denny, Ari, Meiske, Daniel. It has been a remarkable memory to work and go through it all together.

  Fifth, I intend to express my deep gratitude to Ian, who has supported me unwaveringly, helped me unconditionally, and provided a last escapade each time desperation strikes through. Lastly, my great thankfulness is for those who directly or indirectly helped and supported me in writing this thesis.

  Argian Nicko Wiwoho

  COVER PAGE TITLE PAGE........................................................................................ PAGES OF APPROVAL..................................................................... PAGE OF DEDICATION....................................................................

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  STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY..................................... ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................. TABLE OF CONTENTS..................................................................... LIST OF TABLES................................................................................ ABSTRACT.........................................................................................

  CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY A. Research Method.................................................................... B. Research Participants.............................................................. C. Research Setting..................................................................... D. Research Instrument............................................................... E. Data Gathering Technique...................................................... F. Data Analysis Technique........................................................ G. Research Procedures............................................................... CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS A.The Influence of Intrinsic Motivation and Learning Styles on Learners’ Classroom Performance....................................

  ABSTRAK ..............................................................................................

  CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Research Background............................................................. B. Problem Formulation.............................................................. C. Problem Limitation................................................................. D. Research Objectives............................................................... E. Research Benefits................................................................... F. Definitions of Terms............................................................... CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. Theoretical Description..........................................................

  1. Extensive Reading.............................................................

  2. Intrinsic Motivation...........................................................

  3. Learning Styles..................................................................

  4. Classroom Behaviours.......................................................

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  Theoretical Framework..........................................................

  1. Individual Characteristics of the Research Participants.....

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  a. Research Participants’ Intrinsic Motivation...................

  b. Research Participants’ Learning Styles.........................

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  38 TABLE OF CONTENTS

  2. The Influence of Intrinsic Motivation and Learning Styles on Research Participants’ Classroom Performance

  41 B. Research Participants’ Internal Drawbacks on Classroom Performance............................................................................

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  1. Research Participants’ Strategy in Overcoming Intrinsic Motivation Drawbacks.......................................................

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  2. Research Participants’ Strategy in Overcoming Learning Styles Drawbacks...............................................................

  65 CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

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  75 Conclusions............................................................................

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  77 Suggestions.............................................................................

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  78 For Future Research...........................................................

  REFERENCES...................................................................................

  80 APPENDICES A.

  82 Questionnaire Forms of the Research Participants................. Questionnaire Forms of the Research Participant A1............

  82 Questionnaire Forms of the Research Participant B3.............

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  90 Observation Results Observation Results of Group A from Meeting 1 up to 10....

  90 Observation Results of Group B from Meeting 1 up to 10....

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  Interview Transcripts Interview Transcript of Research Participant A1................... 107 Interview Transcript of Research Participant B3................... 108

Table 3.1 Qualitative Components of the Research Design.........

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Table 3.2 Behaviours Rubric on Classroom Performance............Table 4.9 Classroom Performance Summary of Research Participant A3...............................................................Table 4.1 Research Participants’ Perception about the Course....Table 4.2 Research Participants’ Learning Styles........................Table 4.3 Research Participants’ Preferences...............................Table 4.4 Learning Behaviour of Research Participant A1..........Table 4.5 Classroom Performance Summary of Research Participant A1...............................................................Table 4.6 Conduct Behaviour of Research Participant A2...........Table 4.7 Classroom Performance Summary of Research Participant A2...............................................................Table 4.8 Learning Behaviour of Research Participant A3..........Table 4.10 Emotional Behaviour of Research Participant A4........Table 4.20 Classroom Behaviours Summary of Research Participants...................................................................Table 4.11 Classroom Performance Summary of Research Participant A4...............................................................Table 4.12 Emotional, Conduct, and Learning Behaviours of Research Participant B1................................................Table 4.13 Classroom Performance Summary of Research Participant B1...............................................................Table 4.14 Conduct Behaviour of Research Participant B2...........Table 4.15 Classroom Performance Summary of Research Participant B2...............................................................Table 4.16 Emotional, Conduct, and Learning Behaviours of Research Participant B3................................................Table 4.17 Classroom Performance Summary of Research Participant B3..........................................................Table 4.18 Emotional Behaviour of Research Participant B4........Table 4.19 Classroom Performance Summary of Research Participant B4...............................................................

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ABSTRACT

  Wiwoho, Argian Nicko. 2008. The Effects of Intrinsic Motivation and Learning Yogyakarta: English Styles on the Performance of Extensive Reading II Students. Language Education Study Programme, Sanata Dharma University.

  The underlying principle that Extensive Reading does not only require the learners to comprehend the texts but also to generate critical notions about them is greatly influenced by each pupil’s individual characteristics. The referred to characteristics originate from inside, recognized as internal factors, as well as outside, recognized as external factors, the learners. The research focused on the internal factors, especially intrinsic motivation and learning styles, since they appeared to give direct influence on the learners’ performance. It calls for an investigation of how intrinsic motivation and learning styles influence each individual performance in the classroom. The learners’ classroom performance was assessed by employing behaviours rubric which covered emotional, conduct, and learning behaviours. In addition, the research also attempted to find out the way how learners overcome the existing drawbacks in carrying out the course assignments.

  The research investigated the influence of intrinsic motivation and learning styles on the learners’ performance in Extensive Reading II class and involved eight research participants representing one population consisting of learners with various individual characteristics. Descriptive qualitative was the method best utilized to treat the data. Supported by mainly qualitative data collected from a questionnaire, classroom observation sheets, and interview, the research attempted to figure out (1) how intrinsic motivation and learning styles influence learners’ classroom performance and (2) how learners overcome their internal drawbacks in performing the assigned Extensive Reading II tasks.

  The research revealed (1) that intrinsic motivation and learning styles functioned differently among the research participants. Research participants who shared the similar characteristics appeared to demonstrate discrepant performance in the classroom. Furthermore, (2) learners, who were intrinsically motivated and had a particular tendency on either wholistic or analytic, dealt with several problems in carrying out the course assignments. Consequently, they had different ways to overcome the existing drawbacks; some of research participants formed study groups in which each member became a proofreader for the other member. Some others were encouraged to undergo trial and error strategy in doing their projects. The rest were sometimes not enthusiastic about doing the tasks and relied on their peers’ help in completing the assignments.

  Based on the findings and discussions, teachers are to design the a suitable materials, select a proper teaching methodology, implement the course design, improve the course administration, and finally re-implement the design based on the obtained feedbacks. Furthermore, the findings and discussions of this research could be generalized and implemented in other classes besides Extensive Reading

  II course with learners who possess the similar individual characteristics. In the end, the ideal course design to facilitate learners with various range of individual

  ABSTRAK

  Wiwoho, Argian Nicko. 2008. The Effects of Intrinsic Motivation and Learning Yogyakarta: Styles on the Performance of Extensive Reading II Students. Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

  Prinsip dasar Extensive Reading yang tidak hanya menuntut siswa untuk memahami teks bacaan yang diberikan dalam kelas tetapi juga menuntut siswa untuk berpikir kritis tentang inti permasalahan didalamnya sangatlah dipengaruhi oleh karakteristik setiap siswa. Karakteristik yang dimaksud berasal baik dari dalam diri siswa, disebut sebagai faktor internal, dan dari luar diri siswa, disebut sebagai faktor eksternal. Penelitian ini mengacu pada faktor dari dalam diri siswa, terutama motivasi dari dalam diri dan pola pikir, karena faktor tersebut memberikan dampak langsung terhadap kinerja siswa di dalam kelas. Oleh sebab itu dibutuhkan adanya penelitian tentang bagaimana faktor-faktor internal tersebut mempengaruhi kinerja setiap siswa di dalam kelas. Kinerja siswa di dalam kelas akan dikategorikan berdasar rubrik perilaku yang meliputi perilaku emosi, perilaku interaksi, dan perilaku belajar. Selain itu, penelitian ini juga mencoba untuk mencari tahu cara siswa dalam mengatasi masalah-masalah yang mereka hadapi ketika mengerjakan tugas mata kuliah Extensive Reading II.

  Penelitian ini mengarah pada pengaruh-pengaruh motivasi dari dalam diri dan pola pikir yang tercermin pada kinerja siswa di dalam kelas Extensive Reading

  II. Penelitian ini melibatkan delapan peserta yang mewakili satu populasi yang terdiri atas siswa dengan berbagai macam karakteristik. Deskriptif kualitatif menjadi metode yang digunakan untuk menganalisa data yang ada. Dengan dukungan data kualitatif yang diperoleh dari kuisioner, observasi dalam kelas, dan wawancara, penelitian ini mencoba mencari jawaban dari (1) bagaimana motivasi dari dalam diri dan pola pikir siswa memberi dampak pada kinerja siswa di dalam kelas dan (2) begaimana siswa mengatasi masalah-masalah yang mereka hadapi ketika mengerjakan tugas mata kuliah Extensive Reading II.

  Dari penelitian ini didapati bahwa (1) motivasi dari dalam diri dan pola pikir mempunyai dampak yang berbeda pada tiap siswa. Peserta yang mempunyai karakteristik yang sama tampaknya menunjukkan kinerja yang berbeda di dalam kelas. Bahkan (2) siswa yang termotivasi dari dalam diri dan mempunyai kecenderungan pola pikir tertentu mengalami beberapa masalah. Maka dari itu, mereka mempunyai cara masing-masing untuk mengatasinya. Sebagian siswa membentuk kelompok belajar sebagai sarana diskusi. Sebagian siswa mencoba langkah trial and error. Sebagian lainnya tidak begitu antusias dalam mengerjakan tugas yang diberikan dan mengandalkan teman lainnya untuk mengerjakannya.

  Berdasarkan hasil yang diperoleh dari penelitian ini, guru disarankan untuk merancang sususan materi yang tepat, memilih metode pengajaran yang sesuai, menerapkan desain yang ada dalam kegiatan belajar mengajar, mengevaluasi proses belajar yang berlangsung, dan pada akhirnya menerapkan beberapa perbaikan dari proses yang telah berlangsung. Maka dari itu dapat diperoleh metode yang tepat untuk memfasilitasi siswa-siswa dengan karakteristik yang berbeda-beda tidak hanya terbatas pada kelas Extensive Reading II saja tetapi juga

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The first chapter elicits general overview and description about the

  research. It consists of six sections namely research background, problem formulation, problem limitation, research objectives, research benefits, and definition of terms that will be used for further elaboration in the following chapters.

A. Research Background

  Grabe and Stoller (2002: 9) defined reading as “the ability to draw meaning from the printed page and interpret this information appropriately”. Apparently, reading can be defined loosely as the ability to make sense of written or printed symbols. The reader uses the symbols to guide the recovery of information from his or her memory and subsequently uses this information to construct a plausible relationship and/or interpretation of the author’s message (Mitchell, 1982: 67). No matter how easy it is to put a definition of reading, an inevitable multifaceted reading dimension will be encountered frequently.

  It is interesting that learners’ performance on reading tasks is not merely influenced by their ability to absorb what the author intends to say. Learners are also affected by the personal perception; it is whether they are motivated or not (Alderson, 2000: 35). Alderson also exposed the facts that a reader may be familiar with more than 10.000 words yet s/he is normally able to identify any one of these

  2 words within a fraction of just a second. One can do this despite the fact that the words are frequently represented by different shapes from the letter to the next. Individual can even identify words that have been misprinted or misspelt. Another example is that reader can cope with the fact that a word has different meanings in different contexts. Readers can combine the individual meaning of a word to derive the true meaning of the sentences, extended passages, and prose. This involves their strategy in drawing inferences and calling upon their experiences in the situation under the same circumstance. This circumstance differentiates successful from unsuccessful readers. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on the individual differences namely motivation and learning styles.

  The research focuses on the differences among individuals, especially in how actually beginning readers become fluent readers and what variables affect their progress. The most important resource for any potential readers to possess is an awareness of the way in which they use the language (Wallace, 1992: 35).

  Learners’ reading performance depends on many potential features. These features may come from inside as well as outside of the students themselves. Several examples are the home/family background of the pupils, the prevailing peer culture, the ethos of school, the quality of the academic staff, and the individual characteristics of the pupils.

  There are some characteristics that are under the control of a classroom teacher and there are some others that are not. It is significant to consider the overall picture and recognize what teachers can change and what is beyond their control. The first two of these factors, the home/family background of the pupils

  3 and the prevailing peer culture, are generally beyond the control of the educational institutions. The rest, which are the individual characteristics of the pupils, can be changed or taken into account to improve learning process significantly.

  The researcher, thereby, focuses the investigation on looking for the effects of one out of many factors on students’ reading performance. Here the researcher decides to specify the discussion on the internal factors generally known as individual characteristics and scrutinizes several variables that may affect students’ performance. However, it is not easy to discover how this performance is implemented unless an idea of what is learned is clear. This means that understanding the nature of definitions, rules, and procedures which are eventually utilized by accomplished readers is obviously important. Thus, this research aims to help teachers and education practitioners to maximize their performance in carrying out teaching-learning activity.

B. Problem Formulation

  The researcher focuses on the research participants’ classroom performance in relation to their intrinsic motivation and learning styles which will be elaborated in the two following questions.

  1. How do students’ intrinsic motivation and learning styles influence their classroom performance?

  2. How do students overcome their internal drawbacks in performing the assigned Extensive Reading II tasks?

  4 C. Problem Limitation The researcher intentionally chooses Extensive Reading course conducted by Father Lucianus Suharjanto S.J., S.S., B.S.T since this course considerably applies learning approach which requires the learners to engage and generate their own learning experience. Common Extensive Reading courses are conducted in such a way that learners are required only to draw an analysis based on supplied texts. However, in the preferred class, learners are required not only to comprehend new knowledge, to apply the knowledge meaningfully, and to analyze the information into its smaller parts but also to synthesize the information to generate a general conclusion that can be inferred from each learner’s personal viewpoint. Apparently, each conclusion from each individual is different from one another due to the existing distinctive individual characteristics; they are intrinsic motivation and learning styles. Besides, the researcher chooses Extensive Reading

  II course taught by Father Lucianus Suharjanto S.J., S.S., B.S.T because this class is apparently different in terms of methodology from the one the researcher enrolled in previous semester. It requires the students not only to analyse a particular topic given in the classroom but it also requires the students to come up with their syntheses about the assigned topic.

  With regard to the identified problems, the researcher first concentrates the investigation on particular domains of individual constituents namely motivation and learning styles. Next, the investigation evaluates the consequences of individual characteristics on students’ performance especially in Extensive Reading II course. One way to assess respondents’ classroom performance is by

  5 observing their behaviours. Learners’ observed behaviours are emotional behaviour, conduct behaviour, and learning behaviour. Afterwards, the researcher classifies the data in order to build descriptive conclusion of the research.

  Eventually, the investigation reveals the effects of intrinsic motivation and learning styles on the learners’ classroom performance in Extensive Reading II class.

D. Research Objectives

  First, the research attempts to look for insight of the nature of intrinsic motivation and learning styles, especially in Extensive Reading II classroom performance. It is obvious that both domains, which are intrinsic motivation and learning styles, could influence the learners’ classroom performance. Therefore, the researcher deals with the individual characteristics description of intrinsic motivation and learning styles of each learner as well as their influence on the learners’ classroom performance. In order to measure the learners’ performance in the classroom, the researcher made use of classroom observable behaviours rubric which covers emotional, conduct, and learning behaviours. At this point, the influence of intrinsic motivation and learning styles on the learners’ classroom performance could be observed.

  Second, it is true by nature that individual characteristics have both strengths and weaknesses for the learners. Thus, the researcher tries to look for the major difficulties that the learners find in the classroom. Besides, the researcher also tries to figure out the way how actually the learners overcome the existing

  6 drawbacks to carry out the assigned tasks in Extensive Reading II class.

  Eventually, the ways how learners overcome the existing drawbacks in the class could be figured out.

  E. Research Benefits

  This research is expected to be beneficial for teachers and education practitioners since it provides an investigative research on factors that affect students’ classroom performance. Besides, it is also expected to discover principles that could be used as a basis for improving techniques of teaching reading and give substantial contribution to English language teaching area. Correspondingly, all who are involved in education field may acquire elaborate knowledge and apply the information they obtain.

  F. Definition of Terms A number of terms are going to be utilized in the following chapters.

  Therefore, in order to avoid misconception or misunderstanding on the utilized terms, the researcher supplies definitions and brief points on each term.

  1. Individual characteristics Individual characteristics refer to the distinct features within the learners such as classroom behaviours and learning preference. Commonly, these attributes are the results of individual’s learning habit pattern (Riding, 2002: 2). Therefore, it is apparently different from one another among individuals. However, some of these features are generalisable to populations which share the typical constituents.

  7 Each individual feature varies from one another in terms of its application and visibility. In the research, individual characteristics refer to the learners’ intrinsic motivation and learning styles. The researcher seeks how these factors influence the learner’s classroom performance.

  2. Performance The word performance simply implies broad meaning in terms of what it refers to. With regard to reading domain, it may portray either reading strategies such as skimming and scanning or course achievement and course progress. However, in this research, the term performance refers to the learner’s classroom progress such as weekly assignments accomplishment and classroom individual presentation (Brown, 2000: 253). Consequently, learners’ performance could be observed and, therefore, it could help learners to achieve a better performance.

  3. Extensive Reading “Extensive reading is carried out to achieve a general understanding of a usually somewhat longer text” (Brown, 2001: 313). It is true that most extensive reading activities are conducted outside of the class ever since there is insufficient amount of time inside the class to understand the essence of the texts. Besides, it also requires students to analyze what the subject matter of the text is.

  In this study, the setting of the chosen Extensive Reading II class requires the students not only to understand and to analyze texts supplied by the lecturer but it also demands the students to analyze additional texts of their own intellectual interest. The texts of their own choice have to cover popular, scientific, as well as literary aspects.

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  4. Motivation “Motivation is the direction and intensity of an individual’s behaviour in situations in which performance can be evaluated according to some standards; the standards may be personal or may be imposed as external factors” (Stipek, 1993: 9) . It is apparent that individual’s performance in particular tasks is affected by both personal factor, which is called intrinsic motivation, and external factor, which is called extrinsic motivation. These factors affect students’ performance significantly and, therefore, the researcher attempts to investigate the influence of intrinsic motivation on students’ performance in Extensive Reading II classroom.

  5. Learning styles “Style is related to both personality and cognition” (Brown, 2001: 210).

  Personality refers to extroversion, self esteem, anxiety, and so forth. On the other hand, cognition implies left or right brain orientation, ambiguity tolerance, field sensitivity, and the like. These characterize the consistent and continuing traits, tendencies, or preference that could distinguish a learner from the others. One could, for example, tend to be extroverted or right brain oriented whereas someone else could be introverted and left brain oriented. In this study, the researcher intends to pay attention to personality and cognition aspects based on the quoted Brown’s assertion. Firstly, the researcher focuses the investigation on students’ motivation, figures out their learning styles through multiple data sources, and afterwards correlates the relationship among those factors and their classroom performance.

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This chapter includes two sections, namely theoretical description and

  theoretical framework. The first section, which is theoretical description, will take account of the beneficial related theories to be used in the research, whereas the second section, which is theoretical framework, will depict the correlation between the referred to theories and their roles in the development of the research.

A. Theoretical Description

  Carrel and Grabe (1993), as cited in Schmitt (2002: 233), pointed out that interest in second language research and practice, especially in reading skill, has increased dramatically in the past 15 years. Part of this interest is due to the increasing recognition that reading ability is critical for academic learning. This interest is also due to the recognition that reading (either second language or foreign language reading) represents the primary way that students can learn on their own beyond the classroom activities. Reading, for either second language or foreign language readers, is complex and the development of fluent reading abilities by these readers is a challenging action.

  However, it is necessary to understand the notion of learning principle. Learning is a process in which learners are engaged in particular tasks in order to accomplish specific objectives; that is, not only to succeed in executing the objectives but also to obtain new meaningful knowledge which afterwards could

  10 be applied to another learning experience (Fontana, 1985: 37). Obviously, teacher is not the only one factor who decides that the learning process is important. In other words, the learners are able to gain new meaningful knowledge from the on- going learning process, for each learner.

  Teachers evidently cannot fully control the class and expect every student to succeed in completing the assigned course objectives. At some points, it is recognizable that some learners could succeed in carrying out the course objectives, some others could succeed although they encounter numerous hindrances during accomplishing the assigned tasks, and the rest could fail in carrying out the delegated objectives. Nevertheless, teachers can actually ‘control’ a class to promote and sustain a better learning process by running a well- organized and effective classroom arrangement. The question would be ‘how is it possible for teacher to actually control a classroom?’

  First of all, teachers should realize the nature of classroom learning. A classroom is a place in which each individual learner is given opportunities to practise and implement their current proficiency for the sake of the learner’s evaluation and advancement (Fontana, 1985: 63). Apart from these opportunities, learning process can still take place outside the class yet learning process can be much better if learners are supervised by classroom teachers. One thing that should be paid attention to is that teachers only fulfill the role as facilitator of learning process. In other words, instead of spoon-feeding the learners, teachers are expected to give more drills which are more meaningful and applicable to the learners’ real life experience. Therefore, teachers are required to arrange a well-

  11 organized and effective classroom management in order to provide equal opportunities for each individual learner to develop the learner’s abilities and accordingly advance to higher level of proficiency.

  Alderson (2000: 32) stated that it has become common practice to divide research into factors that affect reading into the two major clusters of variables that are typically investigated. These factors are particularly focusing on, first, the factors inside the reader and, second, significant aspects outside the reader. There are a lot more constituents that can be investigated from inside the individual reader. The constituents that are originally developed from each individual are generally called reader’s variables. The readers’ variables constitute a number of different variables for instance reader’s prior knowledge or schemata, motivation, strategies in reading, emotional stability, learning styles, and so forth. These variables obviously affect individual’s classroom behaviours and attainment.

  Referring to the factors inside the readers, this research focuses its attention on two minor variables namely intrinsic motivation and learning styles.

1. Extensive Reading

  “Extensive reading is carried out to achieve a general understanding of a usually somewhat longer text” (Brown, 2001: 313). In other words, extensive reading means reading many articles, books, longer texts or passages without a focus on classroom exercises that may assess comprehension skills. There are several reading comprehension test activities namely short-answering question related to the text, generating a conclusion or personal opinion about the text,

  12 making a review about the text, and retelling the text in front of the class. Instead of doing these kinds of comprehension test activities, extensive reading requires the learners to gain the in depth information and, afterwards, grab what actually beyond the text is.

  It is true that most extensive reading activities are conducted outside of the class ever since there is insufficient amount of time inside the class to understand the essence of the texts. Lecturers and/or instructors are only facilitators who guide and direct the learners to narrow their standpoint. Furthermore, extensive reading requires learners to analyze what the subject matter of the texts is so that learners could acquire an elaborate information beyond the written texts.

  In this study, the setting of the chosen Extensive Reading II course requires the students not only to understand and analyze texts supplied by the lecturer but it also demands the students to analyze additional texts of their own intellectual interest. The texts of their own choice had to cover popular, scientific, as well as literary aspects. The course is carried out in fourteen effective meetings.

2. Intrinsic Motivation

  Cohen and Dornyei as cited in Schmitt (2002: 171), mentioned that language aptitude was referred to as a special feature for language learning.

  Teachers, learners, and researchers will most likely agree that this is a very important attribute of learning effectiveness. Learners with high language aptitude could acquire a second language relatively easy, whereas some other learners with lower language aptitude could achieve the same level of proficiency by means of

  13 hard work and persistence. The locus of causality for learners’ hard work and persistence apparently comes from the learners’ intrinsic motivation.

  Intrinsic motivation theorists claim that human being is naturally settled with learning related activities. Stipek (1993: 59) endorsed that external reinforcement is not necessarily needed because learning is naturally reinforcing. Intrinsic motivation is obviously not subject to direct observation because it is an abstract domain. However, it can still be inferred from continuous observations which eventually lead to a general pattern. For example, some learners exhibit interest and enjoyment during completing the supplied tasks whereas some others do not. In other words, individuals learn best when they engage themselves in learning activities for their own intrinsic motivation. That is all because they want to rather than because they have to. Working on tasks for intrinsic motivation is more enjoyable. It also leads to more beneficial learning results compared to working on tasks for extrinsic motivation, such as pleasing a person in authority, obtaining rewards, avoiding punishments, and the like.

3. Learning Styles

  It is important to note that language aptitude is not the only factor that determines whether or not learners can acquire a language (Stipek, 1993: 9). Other factors that affect learning outcomes are native ability, age, contexts of learning, background experiences, qualifications, style preferences, availability of time, quality of the input, and many more. It is worth-noting that learners with low language aptitude could achieve the same level of proficiency as they who have

  14 high language aptitude by various other factors, such as individual distinctive learning styles. It implies that style preference also contributes to the success of learners’ learning results.

  Researchers have observed that learners’ learning approach may vary in a significantly different manner. Cohen and Dornyei (as cited in Schmitt, 2002: 176) claimed that the concept of learning styles has been used to refer to these existing differences . Learning styles seems to be relatively stable since they are formed from each individual’s past experience and gradually become a habit of learning. Therefore, teachers may not have such a direct influence on this learners’ variable. Hereby, learning styles may promote a better language learning.

  It is necessary to distinguish learning strategies and cognitive styles. Learning strategies are flexible whereas cognitive styles are in-built, habitual in use and fairly fixed. Pupils might develop learning strategies in order to help them in situations where their styles do not match the task being done (Riding, 2002: 99). Since learning styles is fairly fixed, individuals may find difficulties when their style does not fit the task assigned. They cannot change their styles but they can develop strategies to carry out the given tasks at ease. Moreover, it enables them to effectively encounter particular learning situations. Learning styles are both individually and culturally motivated. Within a particular context, certain learning preferences among individuals are evidently seen. It means that not everyone within a culture group has the same learning preferences but the culture clearly plays a role in the development of our preferences.

  15 In general, there are two major dimensions in learners’ learning preferences: they are wholistic view and analytic view (Riding, 2002: 23). The first dimension affects the way in which people think about, view, and respond to information and situations. This affects the way they learn, organize information, apply the information, and interact with other pupils. Wholists tend to see a situation as a whole and are able to have an overall perspective to appreciate its total context.

  For wholists, there is a possible danger that the distinction among parts in the total context is blurred so that it is very difficult to distinguish the issues that make up the whole of a situation. The positive strength of wholistic learners is that they can see the whole picture by the time they consider a particular situation or information. Consequently, they can have a balanced view and see situations in their overall context. The negative aspect of wholistic learners is that they find difficulties in separating out a situation into its smaller parts or subsystems. In conclusion, wholistic learners are good at grabbing the overall context from a particular task. Yet, they may find difficulties in working on the details of each segment which makes up a particular context.

  The latter learning styles dimension in learners’ learning preferences, which is analytic view, sees a situation as a collection of parts and often focus on one or two aspects of the situation at a time. Since analytic learners tend to focus on just one aspect of the whole at a time, this may have the effect of distorting, exaggerating, or making it more prominent than the remaining segments of a

  16 system. Thus, there is a possibility that the information is out of proportion to the total situation.

  For the analytics, the positive ability is that they can analyze a situation into parts and this allows them to come quickly to the heart of any problem. They are good at seeing similarities and detecting differences. Nevertheless, their negative aspect is that they may not be able to obtain a balanced view of the whole. Besides, they may also focus merely on one aspect of a situation excluding the others and broaden it out of its proper proportion.

4. Classroom Behaviours

  This consideration begins with what is generally known as observable behaviours to the teacher in the classroom. Teachers could notice that some pupils appear more confident than others, some behave in a cooperative way while others are disruptive, some attend to the learning tasks while others are not motivated and poorly organized, and some do well in assessments while others do not. Riding (2002: 3) classified observable behaviours into three major categories; they are emotional behaviour, conduct behaviour, and learning behaviour.

a. Emotional Behaviour

  Emotional behaviour can be defined as how a student feels about himself/herself (Riding, 2002: 3). The level of emotional behaviour is apparently observable in terms of the degree of self-assurance, a quiet self confidence, an ease in associating with other pupils and environment, and not appearing very nervous

  17 or anxious in delivering presentations. In this study, emotional behaviour is one means to assess the students’ intrinsic motivation and learning styles.

  b. Conduct Behaviour

  Conduct behaviour can be perceived as students’ attitude in interacting with others (Riding, 2002: 4). Conduct behaviour can be disruptive/active misbehaviour, such as verbal interruption, distracting other pupils, inappropriate moving, physical aggression, or non-disruptive/passive misbehaviour such as inattention, daydreaming, and not completing work.

  Disruptive/active misbehaviour usually reduces the pupils’ performance. Moreover, this impact is also seen not only on the pupils who are misbehaving but also of other pupils in the group who are distracted. On the other hand, passive misbehaviour is less likely to be seen as conduct disorder since it is not disruptive. It is considerably referred to as learning disorder. Like emotional behaviour, conduct behaviour is also one means to assess students’ intrinsic motivation and learning styles.

  c. Learning Behaviour

  Learning behaviour refers to the individuals’ attention to the lessons, learners’ interest in the available topics and classroom activities, and learners’ effective organization, perserverance, and communication (Riding, 2002: 5). The way pupils feel and behave later on determine individuals classroom performance and, therefore, it influences their learning behaviour. In this study, learning behaviour is also one way to assess students’ intrinsic motivation and learning styles.

  18 B. Theoretical Framework There are obviously many factors that could influence learner’s individual performance. In this research, the researcher intends to seek the impact of the two referred to variables by monitoring individual’s observable classroom behaviours and performance. Thereby, this research focuses its investigation on the factors within the readers, which are intrinsic motivation and learning styles, and their effects on individual’s performance.

  At this point, it is clear that this research involves intrinsic motivation and learning styles as its primary discussion. The researcher is aware that both intrinsic motivation and learning styles are abstract domains; they are not subject to direct observation but they can be inferred and indicated from several sources namely continuous observations, inquiry, and clarification through interview. It is also clear enough that both factors intensely affect individual’s classroom performance.