UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH YOGYAKARTA
A skripsi
Submitted to Faculty of Language Education In a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
By Ade Gusti 20120540008
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT LANGUAGE EDUCATION FACULTY
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Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta
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“Orang bilang ada kekuatan-kekuatan dahsyat yang tak terduga yang bisa timbul
pada samudera, pada gunung berapi dan pada pribadi yang tahu benar akan tujuan hidupnya”
– Pramoedya Ananta Toer (Rumah Kaca, Tetralogi Buru #4) –
“Writing is a courage……. as long as one writes he won’t be lost in the society
and history”
– Pramoedya Ananta Toer –
I dedicate this final term paper to:
Mother, who always knows what her daughter goes through, even if she does not
see it herself;
Oma (my sister) and her little family, who are always cheer me up and encourage
me throughout this undertaking;
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First of all, I would like to deliver my greatest gratitude to my Allah SWT.
Everything written in this paper has come from His mercy, blessing and strength.
Secondly, my special gratitude is addressed to my beloved advisor,
Maryam Sorohiti, S.S., M.H.Sc., for her kindness, guidance, patience, and support that was given to me. I thank him for giving feedback on my paper and
giving his time to share information, knowledge, motivation, experience, and
everything to support me in writing this paper. This paper would not be better
without her suggestion and feedbacks.
I would like to send my gratitude for Sri Sudarsi, S.S., M.In.T., as my examiner I and Fitria Rahmawati, S.Pd., M.Hum., as my examiner II, who helped me a lot to read, examine and give valuable suggestion to improve my
skripsi writing. Then, my deepest gratitude also goes to all of PBI lectures and
staff, for the knowledge you share to me in the classroom and outside class. They
are my biggest resources to obtain any knowledge in learning education and
English language.
My grateful also goes to the students of EED UMY batch 2015 as my participants for giving me chance to conduct my research. Everything that has
come from them was the special information me and thank for working well
together.
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memory saved in your mind. Thank you for our togetherness, sharing, learning,
teaching, and experience.
Next, I want to say thanks for KKN 35 team, Nisa, Kiki, Ghaniy, Dinar, Kenang, Wulan, Marmut, Dhita, Hendra, Thoriq, Inu, Tomy, Manges, Belly, Herdin and Bang Zain, who had spending time nicely together at Tonalan village, Sedayu, Bantul for a month. Thank you for the time and craziness in
working together to achieve our goal. Hope we can get our successful in the
future.
Next, I want to send my gratitude for Flashdotcom crew, Koh Agus, Mbak Diana, Widi, Ristia, Mbak Yoan, Desi, Yohana and little Jossie, who give me chance to develop myself and apply my skill. Thank you for giving me
chance to work together. In addition my gratitude is for Carapedia.com who gives
me opportunity to do my hobby and share knowledge.
Thanks also for the most elegant ladies: Kiki, Ayum, Wulan, Dova, Mita, Rini, and Lisa who always exists next to me and cheer me up with your
talkativeness. Remember our motto girls: “Stay pretty. Be Educated. Dress well.
Get money”. I hope we always know what we want and be able to create our best
destiny in the future. Without you girls, I’m no longer woman, therefore, you exist to balance me. I’m so proud of you.
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humor sense but you always laugh to create any fun circumstances. Thank you so
much guys. Next, thanks to my other friends, Pak Harry and Toto, thanks for the time and efforts to help me a lot and cheer me up with your uniqueness. Let’s
hangout together. In addition, for Fendi, ‘my-little-brother’, finish your study and focus on your future, dude! I am waiting you at the top. For Pram, thank you for always providing your ears to listen my craziness, obsession, dreams, and
problems, and also give me a great huge, motivation and wisdom to lift me up.
Thank you so much for being my proofreader to improve my final paper.
I also place on record, my sense of gratitude to one and all who, directly
and indirectly have helped me, supported me in this venture. I am extremely
grateful to have you all.
Yogyakarta, May 2016
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Approval Page ... ii
Statement of Work’s Originality ... iii
Dedication Page ... iv
Acknowledgement... v
Table of Contents ... viii
List of Tables... xi
List of Figures ... xiii
List of Appendices ... xiv
Abstract ... xv
Chapter One Introduction ... 1
Research Background... 1
Statement and Limitation of the Problem ... 6
The Research Question ... 7
The Objective of the Research ... 7
The Significance of the Research ... 7
The Outline of the Research ... 8
Chapter Two Theoretical Review ... 10
Definition of Adjustment ... 10
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Factors Contributing Students’ Speaking Success ... 17
The Correlation between Students’ Adjustment and Students’ Achievement, Language Ability and Speaking Skill ... 20
Theoretical Framework ... 26
Hypothesis ... 29
Chapter Three Methodology ... 30
The Design of the Research ... 30
Setting of the Research... 31
Population and Sampling ... 31
Data Collection Method and Instrument ... 33
Validity and Reliability ... 34
Data Analysis Technique ... 36
Chapter 4 Findings and Discussion ... 41
Findings ... 41
Descriptive Statistics ... 41
Pre-condition Test Analysis ... 50
Hypothesis Test ... 51
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Speaking Ability of the Students’ of EED UMY batch 2015 ... 56 The Correlation between Students’ Adjustment Ability and Their
Speaking Ability at EED UMY Batch 2015 ... 58
Chapter 5
Conclusion and Suggestion ... 62 Conclusion ... 62
Suggestion ... 63
References
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Tabel 3.1 Blue Print of instrument tool of Student adjustment to college
scale (Baker & Siryk, 1984) ... 33
Tabel 3.2 Blue Print of 39 items of instrument tool of Student adjustment to college scale (Baker & Siryk, 1984)... 35
Tabel 3.3 Valid Item Number of the Students’ Adjustment Questionnaire 35
Table 3.4 Reliability Test ... 36
Table 3.5 Category of Students’ Adjustment Level ... 38
Table 3.7 Distribution Score of Speaking ... 38
Table 3.7 The Correlation Criteria Value ... 40
Table 4.1 Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Adjustment Ability ... 42
Table 4.2 Students’ Academic Adjustment ... 43
Table 4.3 Dimension of Students’ Commitment to Achieve the Goal ... 44
Table 4.4 Dimension of Students’ Social Adjustment ... 45
Table 4.5 Dimension of Students’ Emotional Adjustment ... 46
Table 4.6. Students’ Adjustment Ability towards the learning environment ... 47
Table 4.7 Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Speaking Ability ... 48
Table 4.8 Students’ Speaking Ability at EED UMY Batch 2015 ... 49
Table 4.9 Result of Linearity Test... 50
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Table 4.12 The Cross tabulation between Students’ Adjustment in the
learning environment and their speaking ability at EED UMY Batch
xiii
Figure 2.1 Theoretical Framework of the Research ... 28
Figure 4.1. Histogram of Students’ Academic Adjustment ... 43
Figure 4.2. Histogram of Students’ Commitment to Achieve the Goal ... 44
Figure 4.3. Histogram of Students’ Social Adjustment ... 45
Figure 4.4. Histogram of Students’ Personal-Emotional Adjustment ... 46
Figure 4.5. Histogram of Students’ Adjustment towards the Learning Environment ... 47
xiv Appendix 1. Informed Consent
Appendix 2. Questionnaire of Students’ Adjustment Ability
Appendix 3. Table of Number Item Validity
Appendix 4. Result of Validity
Appendix 5: Result of Reliability
Appendix 6. Result of Descriptive Analysis
Appendix 7. The Correlation between students’ adjustment and their speaking
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new environment of higher education. Adjustment might influence students’
performance in learning English especially in English speaking. This research
aims to find out: (1) the EED of UMY students’ adjustment toward the learning
environment; (2) the EED of UMY students’ speaking ability; and (3) the
correlation between the students’ adjustment of the learning environment and their
English speaking at EED of UMY.
This research was quantitative by using correlational design. Sample of the
research was 41 students of EED UMY batch 2015 selected by using convenience
sampling method. Questionnaire was used as the instrument to collect the data of students’ adjustment and the speaking scores were gained from the documentation
to find out the participants’ scores of speaking ability. Analysis method of the
research used descriptive statistics to know the students’ adjustment ability (x)
and students’ speaking ability (y) along with Correlation Product Moment to
examine the correlation between both variables of x and y.
The findings showed that most of EED students (56.1%) were in the
medium adjustment ability toward the learning environment. Afterward, the EED students’ speaking ability was mostly in the category of good (46.3%). This
research showed that the correlation coefficient was 0.437 with significance value
0.004 (p<0.05), therefore the null hypothesis was rejected and the alternative
xvi
1
This chapter presents the research background that elaborates the reason
why this study conducted. Then, this chapter also presents statement of the
problem, followed by research question, objective of the research, significance of
the research and research outline
The Background of the Research
A new learning environment is a foundation for freshmen students of a
higher education. Gerungan (2006) stated that the new learning environment
might become a stimulus for students but, at the same time, it became an inhibitor
for them to be a part of the new environment. Learning environment refers to all
aspect of physical, psychological and instructional atmosphere that affect learning
process (Warger & Dobbin, 2009). To deal with the new learning environment,
freshmen students have to fit in with themselves whatever the conditions are.
A new learning environment brings some impacts to the students
experience in a higher education. According to Oberg (1960), a new environment
in learning process can give students shocking experiences (as cited in Mukminin,
2012). Moreover, in higher education, students come from various background,
which means that students should understand multicultural backgrounds in their
new environment. According to Lizio, Wilson and Silmon (2001), a new
environment will influence students’ motivation, attitude, knowledge,
should solve their problems related to new environment in the learning process.
Moreover, with different experience, students have to face more competition, deal
with more academic load, and maintain interaction with other students along with
the need to follow the different teaching style (Sharma, 2012). Therefore,
freshmen students should adapt to new learning environment, in order to be
familiar with learning environment. In a learning process, learning environment
will help students build contribution in a classroom appropriate with their
characters and values as well as their initiative of their actions in the classroom
(Abdullah, Bakar, Mahbob, 2012).
For freshmen students of English Education Department, learning English
in the higher education becomes new environment for them. It is because in their
previous education, English was one of the compulsory subjects. In that time, the
students learn English only to pass the minimum competency score. While in
English Education Department, the students learn English as their major. It means
English is a basic competence for all subjects; hence the students have to master it
well. Those differences become demands transition from high school to college
that present challenges as well as opportunities. According to Talebloo and Baki
(2013), freshmen students face the challenges, such as problem related to
facilities, social environment and academic system. Likewise, LaFontaine (1985)
and Ewan (1991) argued that the transition provides opportunity for freshmen
student to correct their performance in English academic as well as provides them
Krashen (1981) stated that when the students learn English as foreign
language, they need some factors to succeed their English mastery; those are
aptitude factor and attitudinal factor. Aptitude factor relates with the students’ cognitive in learning English. It means the students need have phonetic coding
ability, grammatical sensitivity, inductive ability (Carol, 1973), along with verbal
intelligence (Pimsleur, 1966). Among students, those abilities are different each
other related to their achievement in learning foreign language.
Then, for attitudinal factor, it will be influenced by learning environment.
Here, attitudinal factors in second language acquisition encourage students to be
able to interact with other speakers in order to obtain intake of the target language.
There are two goals of attitudinal factor related to their learning style. First,
freshmen students desire to be a part of a new environment in learning English.
Second, they want to achieve proficiency of practicing English in their
environment (Krashen, 1981).
In order to achieve these goals, adjustment is important for freshmen
students to deal with a new environment and encourage students learning process
in the college. According to Sharma (2012), adjustment to college concerns with
social and emotional changes, where it becomes a major task for students to
manage their moods and express them appropriately in social interaction of a college. Adjustment establishes students’ identities in a classroom to fit in with
uncommon environment. In line with that, students are supposed to be
In humanistic approach, personal response to an activity of learning
influences students’ success or failure of English learning (Stevick in Harmer,
2001). Good personal response of students in a new environment will affect their
adjustment to solve threatening environment. Freshmen students face more
adjustment of their new environment in order to obtain learning motivation, fit in
with their different cultures, needs and learning method, as well as interact with
other students. Success of adjustment will encourage students to perform when
they learn English in a classroom.
Adjustment process among freshmen students is different and many
students do not well prepared for this process (Venezia, Kirst, & Antonio in Smith
& Wertlieb, 2005). Students must simultaneously adjust to college academic
strictness and new social responsibilities (Holmstrom, Karp, & Gray, 2002). For
instance, academic strictness forces freshman students to catch levels same as
others, whether they want or they do not, they direct or indirectly, they have new
social responsibilities, namely at least they have to be in the same level with
others.
English Education Department (EED) students are supposed to master four
skills of language especially speaking as well as possible. In learning English,
speaking is one of the most important skills, which the students should master
well. Brown & Yule (in Tuan & Mai, 2015) stated that spoken language
production reflects as one of the complex aspect of language learning. Each
student always tries to overcome their difficulty to express themselves in spoken
learning environment. Littlewood (in Tuan & Mai, 2015) argued that students will
feel anxious and inhibition to speak in target language in their foreign classroom.
Zhao (in Yildirim, 2014) stated that poor language proficiency obstructs social
interaction of students with lecturers and other students. In this case, it will infers students’ academic achievement because of social and psychological problems
and negative contribution.
Based on researcher’s experience during studying at EED UMY from the
first time entering college until now, the researcher found a phenomenon that not
all the freshmen students mastered English well. Some of them just did not even
have any basic knowledge of English from their high school. For students who
had low ability, they had to adapt in the classroom so that they could be
comparable with other students who had high proficiency.
The freshmen students in EED UMY came from various backgrounds;
which mean some students mastered English well but some of them were not.
Then, when it came to study in the classroom the English ability became a gap.
Some students who mastered English well would speak confidently but for
students who could not adapt the new environment and did not speak English well
would keep their mouth closed and underestimated themselves.
In learning English, the students who did not practice English speaking
well needed to adjust to the new environment faster, because if they did not, they
would not achieve speaking ability as others. Whether they would or not to adjust
they should have fit in. Moreover, they needed to keep closed with the curriculum.
students’ speaking might be reference for the teacher in designing activity in the
speaking class effectively along with for the senior students to encourage
freshmen students feel comfort and easy to adjust new environment. Therefore,
the researcher needed to investigate a correlation between student’s adjustment to
the learning environment and their English speaking ability.
The Statement and Limitation of the Problem
Students need to adjust a new learning environment in order that they can
speak English confidently. Adjustment is main thing for the freshmen students
need when they enter a new environment of higher education. The students of
EED particularly, should adjust English learning environment that is different
from their previous learning. English that they have to learn in EED’s classroom
includes four skills, namely, writing, reading, listening, and speaking. In this case,
speaking becomes the most difficult to do because speaking is conducted in real
time, here and now along with the person whom students are talking to is coming
up to them to speak right then (Nunan, 2003). The research focused on the students’ adjustment, students’ speaking ability and the correlation of these two
variables. The study was important to be conducted in the EED environment of
UMY for the teacher and students. By knowing the students adjustment of the new environment, the teacher will know how to encourage students’ improvement
in English speaking classroom. Likewise, for the students who had been senior
can help encourage the freshmen students to able to adjust the new learning
The Research Question
According to the background, the researcher formulated three research questions,
those are:
First, how is the EED of UMY students’ adjustment level toward the learning environment?
Second,how is the EED of UMY students’ speaking ability?
Third, is there any correlation between the students’ adjustment of the learning environment and their English speaking at EED of UMY?
The Objective of the Research
In relation to the research statements mentioned above the aims of the study are:
First, to investigate the EED of UMY students’ adjustment toward the learning environment.
Second, to investigate the EED of UMY students’ speaking ability.
Third, to find out the correlation between the students’ adjustment of the
learning environment and their English speaking at EED of UMY.
The Significance of the Research
The significances of the study are:
Theoretically. Result of the research can be used as an overview for the
teachers in teaching English Speaking especially in helping the student adjust to
their new environment. In addition, the result of the research can be used as a
In addition, for further researchers, the researchers can conduct deeper research
about college adjustment and speaking ability as well as exploring good method to teach speaking related with students’ background.
Practically. By reading the result, teachers can build the class atmosphere
and teaching method, which are suitable with students’ character when teaching
English speaking. This research is beneficial for senior students who will help
freshmen students in adjusting themselves toward the new learning environment.
In addition, freshmen students can take benefits from the research such as
construct commitment in early stage of their college in order to they know what
should they do during studying in college and achieving good performance in
speaking.
The Outline of the Research
The researcher organized this research paper in order to make the readers easily to
understand the paper. The following showed the contended covered in this
research. Chapter I is introduction. This chapter explains the background of the
study, problem statement, research question, objective of the study, benefit of the
study, and outline of the research. Chapter II presents review of related literature.
It covers definition of adjustment, adjustment to the college, definition of
speaking ability, review of previous studies and then discusses theoretical
framework of the research. Chapter III presents research method. It covers type of
the research, research procedure, subject of the study, object of the study, data and
IV presents the result of the study comprising of students’ adjustment, students’ speaking ability and the correlation between students’ adjustment and their
speaking ability as well as discussion. Chapter V deals with conclusion and
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Chapter Two Theoretical Review
This chapter contains some theoretical description related with the
research topic, comprising of: 1) definition of adjustment; 2) definition of adjustment to college; 3) dimension of student’s college adjustment; 4) speaking
ability; 5) factors contributing the student’s speaking success; and 6) the
correlation between adjustment and speaking ability; and the last, theoretical
framework.
Definition of Adjustment
Adjustment, in Oxford dictionary (2005), means a process to make comfy
a personal or group by varying or altering its pattern of behavior provided by
cultural environment. Ganay (2013) described adjustment, in psychology term, as
behavioral process that humans sustain stability among their needs and the
obstacles in their environment. The humans do adjustment in sequence to feel end
it with satisfaction. For example, a hungry one is provoked to seek food by his
physiological state. After eating, he will feel better and reduce stimulating
condition that provokes him to do an activity. In essential, a hungry one will
adjust himself toward this need so he will not being starving.
In general, the adjustment process involves four parts: (1) a need or motive
in the form of a strong persistence stimulus, (2) the thwarting or no fulfillment of
solving, and (4) some response that removes or at least reduces the initiating
stimulus and completes the adjustment (Ganay, 2013).
Pearlman and Barney (2000) defined adjustment as personal ability to
carry out indistinctness, confront with improbability and anxiety, and try working
beyond the tradition and geographic margin. Adjustment also establishes the students’ identities in the classroom to fit in with uncommon environment.
Therefore, adjustment of the students requires their personal response and society. Based on the three definitions above, adjustment means humans’ behavior
to feel comfortable by meeting their needs and overcoming the obstacle so that
they can establish their identities without indistinctness. Humans justify among
various needs and obstacles that are encouraged by their personal response and
society. Adjustment is condition where humans build variation in behavior to
achieve satisfaction with an aim to maintain stability between individual and the
environment.
Adjustment to College
Many students have to encounter difficult transition when they adjust their
life after school. Students make decision to go to college because of some reasons,
such as earning a degree, increasing knowledge or personal growth, build a new
friendship and needs to be recognized in the new environment. The students have
a chance to learn new thing, meet new people, and deal with new challenges and
experiences that help them in their personal development. As Barber and Olsen
study as well as less encouragement to do higher study standards but poorer
school marks.
According to Arkoff (in Sharma, 2012), students’ adjustment to college
reveals on portion of students achievement through maintaining stability their
personal and college environment and its effect on their personal growth. How the
students getting grades and achieving degree depends on the students adjust the
learning environment. Al-khatib, Awamleh, and Samawi (2012) also defined college’s adjustment as higher students’ ability to conceive the material
successfully and creating sociable relation with colleagues and teachers as well as
his ability to overcome psychological and social problem. Astin (in Sharma, 2012)
in her theory of involvement proposed that students have a highly involved to
assign considerable energy to study, spend much time on college, participate
actively in students organization, and interact frequently with other students and
faculty members.
When students face their adjustment in new learning environment, they
struggle to establish themselves and the college environment to satisfy their
critical psychological, social and academic needs. However, students realize they
encounter adjustment difficulties, which arise from the differences between
expectation and reality. Jacson, Pancer, Pratt, and Hunsberger (in Sharma, 2012) examined in a longitudinal investigation concern with the students’ expectation
about college and their relation with adjustment in the college. Their study
revealed that students with fearful expectation tends to be more stress, depressed
Baker and Siryk (1984) formulated the adjustment to college as a
manifestation in quality of academic performance. That means a reflection of the students’ involvement in the life of the college based on their intrapersonal and
interpersonal skill, attitude and also the needs and commitment to the college
experience. Four aspects that Baker and Siryk proposed, namely academic
adjustment, social adjustment, personal-emotional adjustment, and students’ commitment to the college experience, are a principle of how the students are
successful to encounter their obstacle and meet the needs in the college
environment.
It can conclude that adjustment to college demands the students to be
brave in dealing with their fearful in order to balance the needs and environment.
For new students is again important to adjust themselves with the social
surroundings of the college. Students have to increase personal freedom to make
their own decision and take the responsibility to maintain balance between the
needs. More the students are satisfied with their new environment then higher
they are being sensitive, then more successful their adjustment in the new
environment, particularly in term of learning environment.
Dimension of the Students’ College Adjustment
Baker and Siryk (1989) as cited in Shilkret (2002) stated that the process
of adjustment is based on four dimensions, as follows:
measure student success in coping with educational demand close with college’s
experience. The aspects of academic adjustment are academic performance,
seriousness of academic purpose, career plan certainty, class attendance, study
habits and attitude towards faculty.
Social Adjustment. It refers to the scope to which an individual can fit in different aspect of the new culture. The students deal with interpersonal, social
demands and the cultural values (social activities, relationship with other). This
factor is measured by the amount of difficulties or concerns experienced in the
performance of daily task. The social adjustment has some aspects, such as:
participation in extracurricular, frequency of leaving campus to visit home, a
number of contact with family and friends at home, number a close friends, length
of friendship, involvement in romantic relationship and interpersonal/occupational
competence.
Personal-Emotional Adjustment. It states a determination of how the students feel both psychologically and physically in new environment. There are
some aspects to measure this dimension: psychological services agencies, number
of appointment with college physician, strain or stress having trouble in adjusting
to college, depression, anxiety, dissociation symptom, and class absence due to
illness.
Commitment to achieve goals. The students should have attachment to the college attended. Intention of the attachment is determined from the first time
the students apply to college. It can be the first choice that determine whether the
commitment to achieve goals grounded on satisfaction with being in college in
general; and satisfaction with being at the institution in which enrolled.
Speaking Ability
Some expert in language learning have proposed many definition of
speaking. Speaking is included into two productive skills in a language teaching. Productive skills, according to Harmer (2002), are the students’ abilities to utter a
communication with other people in forms of oral and verbal. Then, speaking ability is defined as students’ ability to build and sharing meaning through oral
form (Channey, 1998). Nunan (2003) also defined that speaking is producing
process in systematically to convey the meaning in form of verbal utterances.
Brown (2001) mentioned that when students can utter a language in
spoken means to an ability to carry on conversation practically. He also stated the
target of successful acquisition of language is the demonstration of an ability to
achieve pragmatic goals in the way of an interactive discourse with other language
speakers. From the theories above, it can conclude that speaking ability is
producing process systematically to achieve pragmatic goals to communicate with
other people in form of verbal utterances.
Speaking is more complex rather than listening (Brumfit in Gadau, 2013).
In listening, a person only knowing the sound and receive it as information, while
speaking is a process to sharing information soundly. As stated also by Nunan
speaking is conducted in real time, here and now. Second, the person we are
talking to is coming up us to speak right then.
Effective oral communication always requires the ability to speak
appropriately in social interaction. Richards and Renandya (2002) said it engages
not only verbal communication but also paralinguistic elements of speech such as
pitch, stress, and intonation, along with nonlinguistic elements such as gestures,
body language and expression to convey message directly without supplementary speech. Harmer (2001) also supported that speaking is as “an activity or an
assignment which asks students to have ability to communicate, express thought,
ideas or feeling orally.
Based on the statement above, in social interaction, the students demand to
express the ideas to communicate with others by emphasize the paralinguistic and
nonlinguistic elements in order to deliver the message explicitly and directly. It
can infer that speaking is very important is mastering foreign language. Thus,
speaking capability can measured whether a foreign language learner is successful
learning or not. This is not merely seen from the performance of the students in
spoken, but also seen from their competence in using the language to social
interaction.
According to Hornby (1975), to measure the students’ speaking ability,
there are five competences as follows:
Grammar. There is a close relationship between grammar and
pronunciation. Besides the students are taught the sound system, they must be
recognized structure system of language. The students must mastery word order,
inflection and derivation into meaningful features of the English language. If the
students have been mastered both competences pronunciation and grammar, they
are being able to speak fluently.
Vocabulary. Vocabulary is a variety or word choices that is usually used by a person in various field and profession. Students who have many vocabularies
in their memory will express the idea easier and real time.
Fluency. Fluency is defined as the excellence of speaking smoothly and easily. Students can speak without any difficulties and hesitation though he makes
errors in pronunciation and grammar.
Self-confidence. This is an important factor to encourage students
speaking bravely in the English learning process. Students with good grammatical
and vocabulary master exactly have a great confidence to express thought,
suggestion and answer the question.
Factors Contributing Students’ Speaking Success
According to Nunan (2003), speaking is conducted either instantly and
spontaneously or intentionally and thoughtfully. The more immediately oral
language is occurred, the more risk is taken, which means the students involve
are many factors that contributing students’ speaking success that are showed by
several previous researches, as following:
The use of interactive technique for teaching-learning process. Bashir, Azeem, & Dogar (2011) revealed that the interactive technique involve teacher
and students in two-ways communication that they promote questioning and
answering in English. If the teacher do not use interactive technique, the students
might speak very little or not all even they could not think of anything to say
(Tuan & Mai, 2005). In addition, Abdullah, Bakar & Mahbob (2012) states that
the proper strategy and technique might create a responsive classroom because the
classroom are the richest when all voices are heard. Whether the students are
active or passive, the instruction is relevant with their activeness involvement in
the classroom,
The use of English frequently. English is considered as better medium of instruction rather than using mother language when they had group or pair
discussion session (Tuan & Mai, 2015). Students who tend to translate
information into mother tongue before they speak and have low or uneven
participation might have lack ability in speaking English.
The influence of classmates of peers. Fassinger (Abdullah, et.al, 2012) defines peers has two types as a class trait, firstly interaction norm (pressure from peers not to speak, the pressure to remain comments brief, peer’s warning of
controversial opinions, peers’ attention, and peers’ lack of respect), and secondly,
emotional circumstances (friendship, peers’ supports to each other, and
involvement in the classroom to speak up actively, in particular English speaking
as a medium to convey their opinion. If the students face both types of peer
challenges hardly, they are demotivated to express themselves and being afraid of
disapproval of losing face (Tuan & Mai, 2015).
The influence of instructor in classroom. A skilled instructor might successfully bring the classroom into interactive situation. The students will have
high motivation, not bored during in the classroom (Abdullah, et.al, 2012). Tuan & May (2015) also suggested that teacher’s feedback during speaking activities
would help students contribute more to success their ability in speaking.
Adjustment challenges. Adjustment challenges influence the students’
speaking success. Speaking skill success is included into one of students’
academic achievement. Those challenges mainly occur on several variables such
as language proficiency, study habits, educational background and personal
characteristics (Andrade, 2006). Besides, Stoynoff (Andrade, 2006) also found that motivation, self-testing and test taking strategies are related to the students’
achievement.
Learning environment. Djanurombang (2015) investigated the feelings of SMK Sanjaya Pakem students about speaking in English. The research
accomplished mostly students still felt uncomfortable and less self-confidence to speak in English. As cited in Tuan and May (2015) students’ motivation and
confidence have great role to encourage them to speak well. The feeling comes
due to some factors inducing such as culture and society around the students, the
the classroom and the outside. Learning environment sometime also forces the
students to perform well in given time for preparation.
In the previous researches, speaking is assumed as one skill that students
must deal hardly in order to get better performance, even though they have many difficulties to deal with it. Students’ motivation and self-confident influence the
performance of the students’ speaking. The student with lack of both factors
perform speaking difficultly even the speech is not clear and fluent. Both the
previous researches above showed that social adjustment and personal-emotional
adjustment is very important to help students achieve good performance in
learning process.
The Correlation between Student’s Adjustment and Students’ Achievement,
Language Ability and Speaking Skill
The correlation between student’s adjustment and speaking ability has
been not adequately examined. A few researches who studied related had been extracted here to support the theory about correlation between student’s
adjustment and speaking ability.
Al-khatib, Awamleh and Samawi (2012) studied the degree of student’s adjustment to university life at Technical University, Albalqa, Jordan by using
Scale of Adjustment to College that was formulated by Baker & Siryk in 1984.
This research used random sample which consists of 334 students and 3-way
statistically significant differences (α = 0,05) on the scale of adjustment to college
attribute to college, gender, study level, and the interactions between them. The
four aspects of adjustment that was measured by the researchers showed various
kinds of rationale whether the students adjust the college successfully or not. In
academic aspect, students feel dissatisfied towards their academic performance. It
is because of differences in the study at the university and at schools as the
university. In personal-emotional domain, averagely students feel frustrated to the
environmental surroundings that prevents the students meet their needs and
demotivates their learning engagement. The last is commitment to goals domain,
because of the variance of the component such as teachers, colleagues, social activities influence students’ goal in achieving their academic performance.
Therefore, students need to commit to this goal.
Loekmono and Joltuwu (2011), in their study about “The relationship
between self-adjustment and Grade Point Average (GPA) of the students in faculty of philosophy UKIM Ambon”. This research investigated 222 students by random
sampling method to know the correlation between both variables. Result of Pearsons’ Product Moment analysis showed that rxy= 0,228 p=0,001 < 0,005. This
research revealed there is significant relationship between student’s self
-adjustment and their GPA. It meant then if the scores of self--adjustment increase,
then the scores of GPA also increase. Furthermore, if the self-adjustment score
decrease then the score of GPA also decrease because it has positive relationship. Grade Point Average (GPA) is an indicator of student’s performance in the
in facing college’s challenge, adjusting themselves to the class situation, building
good communication with lecturers and colleagues, and their ability in adjusting
to college system. Empirically, students who able to encounter those abilities will
achieve high GPA. Therefore, the higher of self-adjustment ability in the academic
environment will influence the increasing of their GPA.
Xue (2013) conducted qualitative research towards 14 Chinese
international graduate students about their experience in group work and the effect
on their English communicative competence. This was a qualitative approach that
conducted toward 14 Chinese students of public university in the Southeast of the
United States. By using interview to get the data, the researcher found out that the students’ attitudes towards group work had transition from lack of initial
adjustment or dislike until adjustment or acceptance with adjustment ranged from half a year to one year. Group work was proven can improve student’s English
communicative competence. According to Hymes, communicative competence is a language user’s grammatical and social knowledge that used to utter the
message appropriately (as cited in Xue, 2013). Whereas, group work is a way of
cooperative learning which is useful to students in improving their team spirit and
social communication skill. This research indicated that limited English
proficiency in speaking and listening as well as pedagogical difference
constructed the students’ lack of initial adjustment. Students who have language
barriers will make them speak little or participate passively in activities such as
Ismail, Mohamed, Ali and Xuan (2015) investigated the relationship
between social adjustment and practice of second language among non-native
speakers of Arabic at some universities in Jordan. Random sampling was used to
select sample of 386 Malaysian students at the Universities. Analysis of chi
square test showed the result that most of Malaysian students did not have high
level of social adjustment and achieve medium level of practice in Arabic
language. This research implied there is a positive correlation between the social
adjustment and practice of Arabic language. This research tried to explain that
degree of practice of second language depends on how the students are success in
their social adjustment. When the students reinforce them to get around by
themselves and succeed in practice language, they begin to open a way into a new
environment. Theory of learning by trial and error by Thorndike is applied in the
research, where if the students try to avoid mistake and be shame of talking they
were going to fail to learn the second language. This situation will influence their
ability in interacting and participating in an academic situation, moreover the
students need to build a relationship with peers, lecturers, neighbors to practice
language and talk to them in second language.
Gadau (2013) studied about the correlation between self-esteem and
English Speaking Ability of the tenth grade students of SMK N 2 Yogyakarta. This research used two kinds of variables, namely students’ self-esteem and their
English speaking ability. Simple random sampling method was used to find out 71
students of sample. Both variables were analyzed by using Pearson’s Product
was a significant correlation between self-esteem and English speaking ability of
tenth grade students of SMK Negeri 5 Yogyakarta. By the result, it could be stated
that if the self-esteem was high, then the English speaking ability would be high.
Students are main actors in teaching and learning process. Whether success or not
the students in the learning process, it depends on their personalities. The
recognition of students personalities itself called as self-esteem, which is
influenced by interaction factor a person has with college surrounding such as
peers, lecturers and college staffs. Students who believe themselves may have a
good self-esteem and could behave confidently in speaking English. Students will
not feel afraid or embarrassed when they speak in front of the class and even make
a failure in speaking.
Djanurombang (2015) investigated the feelings of SMK Sanjaya Pakem
students about speaking in English. This was a mixed-method research with 45
students as sample of quantitative method and five students of qualitative method.
This research used descriptive analysis which accomplished mostly students still
felt uncomfortable and less self-confident to speak in English. The feeling comes
due to some factors inducing such as culture and society around the students, the
environment (friends, teacher, media and the application of learning processes in
the classroom and the outside. In the previous researches, speaking is assumed as
one skill that students must deal hardly in order to get better performance, even though they have many difficulties to deal with it. Student’s motivation and self
-confident influence the performance of the student speaking. The student with
fluent. Both the previous researches above showed that social adjustment and
personal-emotional adjustment is very important to help student achieve good
performance in learning process.
Fauzan (2016) argued that debate and peer assessment can improve the
speaking ability of the English department students of IAIN Samarinda. This
research used classroom action research (CAR) design) in two cycles, and got the
result that the students could express their thought and opinions in this activity.
The teacher conducted some adjustment in the classroom in order the students got
familiar with this activity. The result of speaking test presented that the students
had made some progress, the average scores raised from 60 in pre-test, 69 in cycle 1 and 75 in cycle 2. These scores indicated an increasing ability from being ‘fair’ to being ‘good’. More students practice speaking in the classroom, more they
improve their fluency as well as their confident. This research show us that
classroom activity helps students adjust themselves in practicing English,
especially in speaking, by using strategic method such as debate and
peer-assessment. The teacher facilitated the students’ adjustment by doing motion of implementation of the techniques in order to gain a higher achievement of
speaking score.
Yildirim (2014) conducted literature study among the international
students in the USA that faced many problems particularly language ability that
was related to their adjustment towards college, social and performance. In this
revealed that adjustment issues experienced by the students might be related close
with their English language ability. Moreover, the students did not use English in
academic purpose only, but they used it in daily purpose. This problem might have
significant effect on their overall adjustment to their new social and learning
environment. He suggested to another researcher to investigate between English
language and adjustment problems that focus on specific language skills, such as
writing or speaking.
Following up the suggestion by the researcher, it will beneficial to investigate the relationship between student’s adjustment and academic
achievement in specific language skill. English proficiency is not only for
academic achievement but also can lift up students’ personal and social ability in
the new environment. Therefore, knowing adjustment ability of the student in the college is very important to measure the student’s ability in the Language
proficiency, particularly in speaking ability, because speaking is considered as the
hardest part that students learn during study in college and might become a gate to
enter their new environment.
Theoretical Framework
From the theoretical review above, there are some definitions of two variables; those are students’ adjustment and speaking ability. Students’
adjustment refers to behavioral process by a student to meet their needs when they
enter new environment, especially new educational environment. First year
arrangements, and develop new relationship. Students usually face challenges of
adjusting to classmates, lecturers or class environment who may have a very
different boundaries and individual needs than family and friends from home.
Students need to be comfortable in their surroundings and to have their
psychological needs. So that, they can achieve their good performance in the
classroom, social interaction ability with other people and good inter-personal
skill. Thus, adjustment ability plays important role in the development of an
individual.
Speaking is a students’ ability to carry on conversation practically by oral
spoken. In social interaction, students need to express their idea by oral explicitly
and directly. Speaking is considered as important skill in mastering foreign
language. Some students might have difficulties in speaking English, even though they have to get better performance in the speaking classroom. Students’
motivation and self-confident influence the performance of the students’ speaking.
The student with lack of both factors perform speaking difficultly even the speech
is not clear and fluent.
Related to speaking ability, adjustment is demanded by the students
because they have to speak in English here and now in the classroom. If the
students do not familiar with the environment, students might have lack of
self-confident and motivation to learn English speaking. Whereas, the students need to
practice speaking frequently in order to speak fluently. When the students have
lack of self-confident, they will not feel comfortable in the classroom. It brings
If the students practice English speaking less frequently, it will influence their
fluency in speaking and cause bad score of English performance.
Related to English learning as a main subject for the students of EED
UMY have, adjustment has become very fundamental. Adjustment can influence students’ performance in learning English especially in English speaking. Students
who have good adjustment ability probably will speak fluently and confidently,
because they are success in facing the challenge to meet their needs. In contrast,
students who have lack of ability in adjusting probably might speak English less
fluently and do not have confidence in speaking English. That is why adjustment
ability has a correlation with the ability of students in English speaking.
According to the explanation above, below is the figure of the correlation
of students’ adjustment and English speaking ability.
Figure 2.1 Theoretical Framework of the Research
Students’ Adjustment Ability in college:
- Academic Adjustment - Social Adjustment - Personal – emotional
adjustment
- Commitment to achieve goals
Hypothesis
According to the theoretical framework above, the research formulated two
hypothesis, namely:
H0 : There is no correlation between students’ adjustment to the learning
environment and their English speaking ability at EED of UMY.
30
In this chapter, the researcher will explain methodology that will be used
in the research. It comprises design of the research, setting of the research,
population and sampling, data collection method and instrument, validity and
reliability, and the last is analysis technique.
The Design of the Research
Research design of this research was quantitative with correlation design.
Quantitative research is a systematic, formal, objective process which uses
numerical data to gain information. Creswell (2009) stated that quantitative
research is conducted by testing objective theories deductively or examining the
relationship among variables. These variables can be measured by instruments and
analyzed by using statistical procedures. This research used correlational design
approach. According to Creswell (2009) correlational design aims to know
whether there is any relation between two or more variables. Furlong, E.
Lovelace and K. Lovelace (2000) explained that correlational design is research
measuring two variables (X and Y) which should have association or systematic
relationship, such as value of X changes and value of Y changes in uniform and predictable pattern. In this research, the variables were namely students’
Then, the variable identification included:
Independent Variables (IV) : Students’ adjustment ability (X)
Dependent Variable (DV) : Students’ speaking ability (Y)
Setting of the Research
The researcher conducted the research in February - May 2016 in the
classroom at the English Education Department of UMY batch 2015. The
researcher took this location because the researcher found out the presence of the
problem at EED of UMY. The problem came from the difference of students’
backgrounds that influenced their ability to adjust the learning environment and
language proficiency. Moreover, it was closer and easier to get the data, as the
researcher studied at EED UMY and had been familiar with the environment of EED UMY. Moreover, the result of the research would be beneficial for EED’s
lecturer of UMY in developing students’ character along with senior students in
encouraging students in order to be able to adjust their first college experience as
soon as possible. As a result, it was expected that the students would achieve the English skills’ performance better.
Population and Sampling
Population is defined as generalization area that comprises on subject that
has quantity and specific characteristic determined by the researcher to be
examined and then the researcher will draw the conclusion (Furlong, E. Lovelace
classes’ batch 2015 at English Education Department of UMY. Undergoing first
year in the college, the freshmen students have to face a new learning
environment that cause changing in their social, emotional, academic and
commitment (Baker & Siryk, 1989). This statement is also supported by the previous study that revealed, a freshmen students’ achievement in the period of
first semester indicate the students’ ability to face the challenges of adjustment
(Sharma, 2012).
According to Furlong, E. Lovelace and K. Lovelace (2000) sample is
representative part of population that the researcher will investigate and draw
conclusion. Arikunto (2010) stated that if population number is less than 100, it is
better to take whole number so that the research is a population research. While, if
the population number is more than 100, then sample can be taken between 10 – 15% or 20 – 25%, 50%, or more. The researcher used number of sample 25%
taken from number of the population, so that number of sample of the research
was 41 respondents that consisted of 28 female students and 13 male students.
Sample of 41 students is actually too small to be sample. This 41 number of
sample is considered not adequate to be sample. Therefore, this research
suggested to further research to use more number of sample to get better result.
Sampling technique used in the research was convenience sampling.
According to Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2000), convenience sampling is
conducted accidentally based on the opportunity, which means sample is chosen
considerations, namely from aspects of time, cost, and the data availability
possible to do the research with the sample of 41 students.
Data Collection Method and Instrument
To obtain the data of students’ adjustment, the researcher used a
questionnaire constructed from “Scale of Adjustment to College (SAC)” The
questionnaire was developed by Baker & Siryk, 1984) and adapted by Ali in
Al-khatib, Awamleh, & Samawi (2012). The questionnaire was self-administered multidimensional scale to measure students’ adjustment to college. The
questionnaire consisted of 29 items distributed on four domains: academic
adjustment, social adjustment, emotional adjustment and commitment to achieve
goals.
Tabel 3.1
Blue Print of instrument tool of Student adjustment to college scale (Baker & Siryk, 1984)
No. Criteria Item example Statement Total
1. Academic adjustment
Obtaining good score is important thing for me
1 – 7 7
7 Social adjustment I involve in extracurricular and organization of campus
I prefer to my major rather than other majors
8 – 13 6
29 29
The researcher established the scale of the questionnaire by using Likert
scale. Likert scale consists of questions concern with an attitude object (Margono,
answer categories. The answers from each of the instrument had gradation of four
scales from the highest (very positive) until the lowest (very negative), with four answer categories, namely “strongly agree” (SA), “Agree” (A), “Disagree” (DA),
“Strongly Disagree” (SDA). The four scales was considered to prevent a central
tendency or to prevent neutral response, that is felt concerning will not describe
real condition of the respondents. Each alternative answer showed a suitability
given with the condition experienced by the respondents.
After collecting the data from the questionnaire, to obtain the data of students’ speaking ability, the researcher used documentation method. The data of students’ speaking ability was collected from the score of subjects in Listening
and Speaking for Formal setting batch 2015/2016. The subject represented the students’ ability in speaking for formal or academic situation suitable with their
fundamental ability for the next level of speaking learning. The score was used
because it becomes a proof of students’ learning process in speaking during the
period of the first semester.
Validity and Reliability
Before conducting data analysis, the researcher must test validity and reliability tests toward the instrument of students’ adjustment to college scale.
Construct validity was used to find out validity of the instrument. Creswell
(2009) stated that construct validity is used to find out whether questionnaire
items can measure hypothetical construct or concepts. The researcher conducted
measure students’ adjustment or not. The item can be valid if significant value (P)
obtained by the Sig. (2-tailed) is less than 0.05. The following table is an initial
questionnaire with 39 items that were distributed into four dimensions of
adjustment.
Tabel 3.2
Blue Print of 39 items of instrument tool of Student adjustment to college scale (Baker & Siryk, 1984)
No. Criteria Item example Statement Total
1. Academic adjustment
Obtaining good score is important thing for me
1-9 9
2. Social adjustment I involve in extracurricular and organization of campus
I prefer to my major rather than other majors
10-16 7
39 39
After the researcher conducted validity test by SPSS, then the researcher
found out that from 39 items of questionnaire, 10 items were considered as invalid
item. Then, the invalid items were deleted by the researcher because the items
were also similar to other, as shown in the table:
Tabel 3.3
Valid Item Number of the Students’ Adjustment Questionnaire
No. Dimension Valid Invalid
1. Academic adjustment 1,2,5,6,7,8,9 3, 4 2. Social adjustment 17,18,19,20,21,
Finally, there were 29 items distributed to the respondents. The piloting was
conducted on February of 14th– 17th 2016. The validity after piloting was attached
on the appendix.
Reliability value in the research was measured by using Cronbach’s alpha.
Kaplan and Sacuzzo (2005) explained that coefficient value of good reliability is
in range 0.7 – 1.0 based on the piloting result. It was said that the college adjustment measurement tool was considered reliable or in another word the
measurement tool is homogenous to measure college adjustment construct.
Table 3.4 Reliability Test
Cronbach Alpha N of Items
.920 29
There were 29 items on questionnaire that were distributed to 41 students EED of
Batch 2012. The reliability of the questionnaire was 0.920 which was in the
interval 0.7 – 1.0, it means that the questionnaire was good to use.
Data Analysis Technique
The data collected was analyzed by using statistical method. Statistical
method is scientific method to collect, arrange, represent and analyze the research
data comprising the numerical data to draw conclusion and logical decision (Hadi
& Haryono, 2005).
As the purpose of the research was to measure the correlation between students’ adjustment and their speaking ability, the researcher used statistics
and the test result was in form of number. All the data were analyzed
quantitatively. For the questionnaire of Adjustment to College, the researcher
scored the items: Strongly Agree: 4; Agree: 3; Disagree: 2; and Strongly Disagree:
1. To determine the level of students' adjustment, the researcher conducted
classification by using hypothetical mean and hypothetical deviation standard
(Azwar, 2013), by formula:
� = � �� − � � ∑ �
Where:
µ = Hypothetical mean
imax = item maximum score
imin = item minimum score
∑ � = item number
The formula for hypothetical deviation standard:
� = 6 � ��− � � Where:
� = hypothetical deviation standard
Xmax = subject maximum score
Xmin = subject minimum score
From the respondent distribution score, the research was computed, then
the hypothetical mean and deviation standards become score limit estimation in
Table 3.5
Category of Student’s Adjustment Level
Category Value
High > 87.00
Medium 58.00 – 87.00
Low < 58.00
For the speaking score, the data from documentation were classified
according to the score value presented in the Academic Guidelines of
Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta University 2015/2016, as the following:
Table 3.6 Distribution Score of Speaking
Alphabetical Score Final Score Value Interpretation
(A) > 3.5 – 4 Very good
(B) > 2.5 – 3.5 Good
(C) 1 – 2.5 Satisfying
(D) > 1 Low
As the scoring system in EED UMY used A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D, to
facilitate the analysis process of the data, the researcher categorized the scores
into four categories as recommended by UMY Academic Guideline in Table 3.5.
The data then were interpreted by descriptive statistics. According to Furlong, E.
Lovelace and K. Lovelace (2000), descriptive statistics shows percentage of
frequency, which refers to how often something occurs. Descriptive statistics
explains various data characteristics such as mean, median, mode, standard
deviation, variance, range, minimum and maximum values, and etcetera.
As the research aimed to find out the correlation between students’
adjustment ability and speaking ability, the researcher computed correlation
would probably speak fluently and confidently, because they were successful in
facing the challenge to meet their needs. In contrast, students who had lack of
ability in adjusting probably would speak English less fluently and did not have
confidence in speaking English. Therefore, adjustment ability might have a
correlation with the ability of students in English speaking.
To find out the correlation between X and Y, this research used Pearson
Product Moment correlation using SPSS 20.0 version. According to Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2000), Pearson’s Product Moment has coefficient of
correlation (r) that is a statistical value ranging from – 1.0 to +1.0. and articulates
the relationship in quantitative form. Before the data was analyzed, the data
should have normal distribution. In normality test, Kolmogrov-Smirnov was used
to show significance (p) for Adjustment College and Speaking Ability that should
be > 0.05 to meet the criteria of normal distribution.
To measure the correlation, the researcher used bivariate correlation
analysis by using Pearson product moment in SPSS 20.0. Decision on the
hypothesis proposed whether accepted or denied was determined by:
If the significant value is less than 5% then null hypothesis (H0) is rejected. It means there is correlation between adjustment’s ability and speaking ability.
If the significant value is high than 5% then null hypothesis (H0) is accepted; it means there is no correlation between adjustment’s ability and speaking
Correlation coefficient also aims to know the strength of correlation
between variables. Cohen (1988) stated that the strength of correlation is indicated
based on criteria:
Table 3.7
The Correlation Criteria Value Coefficient interval Correlation degree
-+ .10 to -+ .29 Small (weak)
-+ .30 to -+ .49 Medium (moderate)
This chapter presents the answers of the three research questions. The first research question is “How is the students’ adjustment level towards the learning
environment at EED UMY batch 2015?". The second is “How is the student’s
speaking ability at EED UMY batch 2015?” and the third is “Is there a correlation between students’ adjustment towards the learning environment and students’
speaking ability at EED UMY Batch 2015?”. The discussion of the findings is
also presented in this chapter.
Findings
Descriptive Statistics. This research was conducted at English Education Department, Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta University. The subject of the research was 41 students’ batch 2015. In the research there were two variables namely
students’ adjustment ability towardthe learning environment (x) and students’
speaking ability (y). From both variables then it was obtained further analysis test by using product moment correlation. to know the correlation between students’
adjustment ability toward the learning environment and their speaking ability.
Before this analysis was presented, the researcher presented the descriptive