A SURVEY ON THE RURAL STUDENTS ATTITUDE TOWARDS
ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING IN SMAN 2 PALOH
A RESEARCH ARTICLE
By:
ERIS SETIANENGSIH
F1021131071
ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM
LANGUAGE AND ART DEPARTEMENT
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
TANJUNGPURA UNIVERSITY
PONTIANAK
ATTITUDE TOWARDS ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING
(A Survey on the Rural Students of SMAN 2 Paloh)
Eris Setianengsih, Urai Salam, Zainal Arifin
Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris FKIP Untan Pontianak
email:[email protected]
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the rural students’ attitude towards English
language learning in term of affective, behavioral and cognitive aspect. In order to collect data, a language questionnaire was designed with thirty closed questions. The questions were put in Likert Scale and focused on the repertory grid technique for studying attitudes towards school subject. The grid was interest, difficulty, freedom of expressing idea and social benefit that connected with three aspects of attitude. The study took place at one of rurals School in Paloh, Sambas regency. The participants were fifty-five students from grade tenth and eleventh at SMAN 2 Paloh. This study was conducted using a survey method. In the end of the study, the collected data analyzed by using formulas designed for attitude. Based on the calculation, the mean score for the affective aspect was reached 76.25%, behavioral was 60.76% and cognitive was 67.82%. Based on the interpretation
score, the students’ result ranked positive. In conclusion, the rural students’ of SMAN 2 Paloh have positive attitude towards English language learning in term of affective, behavioral, and cognitive aspects.
Keywords: Attitude, Affective, Behavioral, cognitive, Language Learning, Rural Students
English is important language all over the world in this era. It becomes the international language and the Lingua Franca. Lingua Franca is a language that used for communicating by people who do not share the same language. In Indonesia, English is taught as foreign language. However, English is a compulsory subject in examination and taught in elementary school, junior high school, senior high school and university. Nevertheless, the English language ability of Indonesian is still low. It is proved by the data from a research conducted by English First (EF) which is to know the level or of the ability of English for adults that showed from 70 countries Indonesia ranks 32 below Malaysia, India and Singapore (Wurinda, 2015).
This case might be because of Indonesian government wants to concern more to the mother tongue and national language rather than foreign
language. The reason is for maintaining the cultures of Indonesia. Despite of it, English is still language that has important role in Indonesia education, to pass the examination the students have to pass the English test. For passing the test is not easy, because English structure and pronunciation are different from Indonesian language and also in learning English there are four skills the students need to be learnt: speaking, listening, writing and reading skill.
language. Student who has positive attitude show more interest and motivation in learning a language. Thus, the student will enjoy the teaching learning process whatever the situation is, show the desire to learn and make the classroom atmosphere alive. Students who has negative attitude shows low interest and dislike the language. The students has no desire to learn the language and ignore the teaching learning process.
There were many researcher conducted
research on students’ attitude, it is because of
the importance of attitude. The previous
research deals with the students’ attitude
towards English was conducted by S. E. Safaye and Sanae Tsuda from Tokai Gakuen University, Japan in 2002. Safaye and Sanae tried to investigate the attitude of higher education students in Japan toward English. The result showed that the Japanese students had negative perception toward English. The students dislike English because it is hard to learn, and in addition the history of the background also influenced the students in learning English, nevertheless, the students had positive opinion about the usefulness of English.
Another similar research dealing with the
students’ attitude towards English language was
conducted by Akbar Azizifar, Iran 2014
conducted research to investigate the learners’
attitude toward learning speaking in term of cognitive, emotional and behavioral aspects in Islamic Azad University. The result of the study showed that the learners have negative behavioral attitude towards speaking skill but have positive emotional and cognitive attitude.
Regarding to the explanation and the empirical finding above, the writer is interested
to conduct a research on the students’ attitude
towards English language learning at SMAN 2 Paloh. This school is located at Temajuk and it is the one and only senior high school in the area. The education quality in this place is still needed to be concerned. Because, living in the rural area
has many obstacle to reach a better education quality.
Before choosing the school the researcher had already done a simple observation by asking the English teacher and some of the students. Then, the researcher concluded some reasons to choose the school. First, the place of the school is far from the big city and get less of government attention. Second, the students rarely explore the outside of the place and do not really know the advancement of English. Third, the students are unmotivated in learning English, the students just make a little progress and learn English just for passing the exam. Furthermore, living in the rural area makes the students’ lack of opportunity to use English in daily lives. Those issues might be influenced by the
students’ attitude towards English. So, the issues of this research is investigating the students’
attitude towards English language learning in term of cognitive, affective and behavioral
aspects. The function is to know the students’
emotion, perception and behavior deeper towards English language learning. Therefore, the writer will conduct this study entitle
“Attitude towards English Language Learning” on the rural students of SMAN 2 Paloh in academic year 2016/2017.
SMAN 2 Paloh, whether it is negative or positive attitude in term of behavioral aspect. (3)To investigate the kinds of attitude towards English Language Learning of students at SMAN 2 Paloh, whether it is negative or positive attitude in term of cognitive aspect.
In 1862, attitude is generally defined as a
person’s mental status and physical posture. The
word attitude comes from Latin word apto (aptitude or fitness) and acto (postures of the body), both of which have their origin in the Sanskript root ag, meaning to do or to act (John T. Cacioppo, 1994, p. 261). The various definitions of attitude are inserted into one of the three framework. According to Saifuddin Azwar (2016, p. 4) the first framework that is represented by Louis Thurstone, Rensis Likert and Charles Osgood defined attitude as the evaluation form or feeling reaction. Moreover, attitude is an evaluation of an object of thought Dickel G. B., (2011, p. 392) and Malhotra (2005) cited in Jain (2014, p. 2). In this framework, attitude is about favorable or unfavorable feeling towards an object. In addition, Fishbein (1975, p. 216) states that an
attitude represent a person’s general feeling
favorable or unfavorable toward some stimulus object, issues, other people and the person itself.
The second framework defines attitude as readiness to react. Adding to it, Jung (1971) cited in Jain (2014, p. 2) expresses several attitude within the broad definition readiness of the psyche to act or react in certain way. Therefore, the way a person act or react to the surroundings is called attitude. The last framework defines attitude is a constellation of cognitive, affective and behavioral components which are interacting between each other to comprehend, act and feel toward an object Saifuddin Azwar (2016, p. 5) this framework is also known as the triadic scheme. In the other word, an attitude is a perspective of thinking, doing and feeling towards an object. In addition, Herald (2003, p. 4) states that attitude is the position or direction that indicates your actions, feeling or moods. The feelings, emotions,
moods, actions, responds like or dislike, favorable or unfavorable toward an object do not just a classification of attitude definition, but it is a deeper study of attitude. Therefore, Keller (2001, p. 18) states that attitude is everything, change attitude means change life. For instance, change the way of thinking, feeling, and acting
towards an object can change the person’s
attitude. Hence, attitude has a big role in life even in education case, such as in learning language, the role of attitude is an essential issue. Attitude in learning a language is divided into two, instrumental and integrative attitude. The instrumental attitude is the interest or the desire of the students to learn the language but integrative one is the students have the specific reason to learn the language such as to be able to use the target language to be integrated into certain community that speaks the target language.
A genuine interest in English subject is
important. Therefore, the students’ attitude in
learning language is needed. Because, a successful learner is one who possesses positive attitude towards the target language (Pan, Zang, and Wu (2010) cited in Akbar Azizifar (2014, p. 1755). Positive attitude in learning language help learner improve the knowledge of the target language if the students learn the language properly rather than just have good emotion and belief, because an action is also needed as a proof of learning.
In learning an individual’s attitude cannot
the students like or dislike the English language learning. For instance, a student may indicate that learning English makes him feel proud or
anxious where it is as the student’s emotion.
Behavioral component is a behavior or tendency of behaved towards an object attitude whether it is a verbal or nonverbal action. Jain (2014, p. 6) Adds that behavioral tendency by form of statements or words. So, a student who dislikes English will not always show an action that the student will leave the class every meeting but rather to stay in the classroom, does not pay attention to the teacher and just copy
homework from the student’s friends. Those
actions or behaviors are already shown a negative attitude in term of behavioral aspect. Or, a student might possess a positive attitude towards English language learning because of positive behavioral experiences that the student gets from the teacher or friends in the classroom.
Cognitive component is individual’
perception, belief and stereotype regarding an object (Mann, 1969) cited in Saifuddin Azwar (2016, p. 24). In addition, Jain states that cognitive component is an evaluation of
individual’s opinion whether the individual
belief or disbelief about the object. But, an
individual’s belief is not always accurate.
According to Saifuddin Azwar (2016, p. 26), sometimes belief is formed because of the less of information about the object. If the students never know the benefit and the importance of English, so it can be concluded that the students have negative belief towards English language. For instance, a student may or may not believe that learning English is important for future and their carier.
Those three components will help for
determining an individual’s attitude toward an
object. In determining an individual’s attitude,
the consistency among the feeling, behavior and belief is needed, it is useful for deciding whether the individual has positive or negative attitude. Some social psychologists have a hunch that those three components are consistent and harmonious. According to Maio (2004), the consistency of affective and cognitive
components are the root of an individual’s
attitude. For instance, if a student maintains unfavorable attitude towards English language learning, the cognitive consistency would imply
that the student’s belief about learning English
is also negative. Then, the consistency of behavior component is the result of those two components. The behavior consistency will exist when there is a strong relation between belief and actions. In addition, the behavior consistency is imporant because much of the usefulness of the attitude concept is derived
from the idea that individual’s belief, think, and
feel will guide actions. It can be said that affective and cognitive are influenced the behavioral component.
A student who has a positive attitude towards a target language will attempt to do well in the classroom and study hard. Hence, (Merisuo-Storm, 2007; Oxford, 1990) cited in
Ozonder (2015, p. 723) states that the learners’
negative attitude and feeling pose and obstacle to progress, positive emotions and attitudes make a language learning far more effective and enjoyable.
Furthermore, the positive attitude
also can increase the students’ motivation in
teaching learning process
. A student who has a high positive attitude towards target language will have high motivation in learning the language (Nemi Zuniarti, (2016).Adding to it, Eshghinejad (2016, p. 3) states that if a learner does not have the interest and tendency in acquiring the target language to communicate with other, this learner will possess a negative attitude and will not be motivated and enthusiastic in language learning. Adding to it, Gardner R. C., (1985) stated that students who maintain favourable attitudes would be more attentive, serious, rewarded, and the like, than those negative attitude.The negative attitude occurs because of many factors. For instance, the difficulty of the language, the pleasure of the students while language learning, and also the teacher. Still there are many students believe that English is a complicated and difficult to be learnt, this mind set make the students donot enjoy the language learning. Bartram (2010) claimed that lack of enjoyment also as a key factor of negative attitude. The enjoyment of the students learning English language can be created by the teacher. A teacher also has an important role in influencing the English attitude of the students. A good attachment between teacher and students are necessary, it is for developing the enjoyment of the classroom activities. Clark and Trafford:1995 cited in (Batram:2010) found that the teacher themselves shared pupils’ views on the importance of the teacher-pupil relationship and teacher can be the most significant variable
affecting pupils’ attitudes towards languages. In the other words, the enjoyment and the
relationship between teacher and students in learning English are needed to be concerned. Gardner R. C., (1985) also stated that attitude towards language learning have been shown to relate other factors, means it is not only teacher pupil relationship, but sex, geograpical area and
parents role also influenced the students’
attitude.
In conclusion, the students’ attitude towards language learning can be negative and positive attitude. Yet, the negative attitude can be changed by giving the information of the importance and benefit of the target language. According to Peter Garrett (2003, p. 4), attitudes as a fundamental part of what is learned through human socialization. Therefore, by having the information and interaction with people at the surrounding places can change someone attitude towards the language. The relationship between attitude and language learning is a crucial relation where there are many factors that need to make the relation turns into positive. In short, this relationship between these two is to know the effect of attitude on language learning. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The method of this research was a survey research. According to Singh (2006, p. 111)
survey method in research is to tell “what is”
that is to describe the problem or phenomenon. Adding to it, survey method can answer a wide
The population of this research was the students of SMA Negeri 2 Paloh in academic year 2016/2017, Temajuk. Population is the group of individuals having one characteristic that distinguishes them from other groups Creswell (2012, p. 381).The tenth and eleventh grade students as the sample, there were fifty five students.
The researcher collected qualitative data that would be quantified. The technique of data collection that was applied in this research was questionnaire. According to Fellegi (2010, p. 15) a questionnaire (or form) is a group or sequence of questions designed to obtain information on a subject from a respondent. It was applied in order to know the students attitude towards English language learning in term of affective, behavioral and cognitive aspect. The questionnaire would be in the
written form and closed- ended question. The students were provided with some questions that had been prepared by the researcher which must be answered by the students. The questions
focus on the students’ attitudes towards English
language learning in term of affective, behavioral, and cognitive aspect. The questions were based on the repertory grid technique for studying attitudes towards many school subject. According to Duckworth and Entwistle (1974) cited in Gardner R. C., (1985) the grid consists of four scale, there are: interest, difficulty, freedom to express idea, and social benefit. In short, the questionnaire consists of question based on the grid and focus on the three aspect of attitude. Those 30 questions were put in a Likert scale and the scale value ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree.
The questions were partly adapted from Attitude/Motivation Test Battery by R. C. Gardner (2004) and the other questions were taken from Kassem (2013) and Boonrangsri (2004) cited in Eshghinejad (2016, p. 12). After collecting the data, the researcher analyzed the data. Firstly, counting the
students’s result in answering the questionaire that have been put based on the Likert Scale. After counting the reseacher
put the result into
formula below:
𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑤𝑒𝑟
𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 X 100%……….. (1) Secondly, the reseacher summed the result all of the students, then put the score into formula below to get the mean score.
M% = 𝑓
𝑁x 100% ……….(2) f = the total score of the student
N= the maximum score
The result of the students’ mean score were
classified on the interpretation score:
Table 1. Interpretation Score
Frequency Criteria
0%-20% Very weak
21%-40% Weak
41%-60% Enough
61%-80% Strong
81%-100% Very strong
RESEARCH FINDING AND DISCUSSION Research Findings
The research was conducted at SMAN 2 Paloh in academic year 2016/2017 in April 25th,
2017 done in one meeting and conducted to get
the accurate data and quantify the students’
attitude towards English language learning in term of affective, behavioral and cognitive aspect.The attitude of the students found out by using questionnaire that was designed properly for knowing the students attitude in term of those three aspects. There were 30 positive questions, where, each of the ten questions belong to the each aspects. The researcher took
the tenth and eleventh
grade students as the
sample in this research, there were 55
students in total. The
students were asked toanswer the questionnaire based on the students’
personal feelings, experiences and opinions about English language learning. After collecting and counting the questionnaire that has been answered by the students, the frequency of the students answer for every
perception and the mean score of the students’
attitude towards English Language Learning can be known. Below is a Chart for the mean
score of the students’ attitude.
Chart 1. The Mean Score of Students’ Attitude
From the bar chart above, it can be concluded that the students have a strong affective and cognitive attitude, but the behavioral attitude of the students is just get enough score. In conclusion, the students have positive attitude towards English language
learning in term of affective, behavioral and cognitive aspect. Even though, the behavioral attitude was not maximum yet. Because, based on the calculation of every aspect, almost every student has the lowest score for behavioral aspect rather than affective and cognitive aspect. 76.25%
60.76%
67.82%
0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00% 80.00% 90.00%
Discussion
Based on the result of data analysis and the finding above, it can be seen the result of attitude for students individually, mean score and every perceptions in the questionnaire towards English language learning in term of affective, behavioral and cognitive aspect.
According to the total score that has been counted, those three aspect stand for the positive attitude, but the score that reached was just reached 76% and 60%. In this case, the affective aspect got the highest score among the three aspects, the students have good emotion responds about learning English language and to have a positive attitude towards an object the subject must be liking the object first. Azwar (2016) stated that affective aspect is the root of component attitude (p. 24), then, come the cognitive and the behavioral aspect. The behavioral aspect is influenced by emotion and belief. Yet, in this research the behavioral aspect did not go consistently with the two aspects. Based on (azwar, 2016), there is no guarantee that the tendency of behaved will be shown in behavior form that agree with the tendency of belief and emotional, and Garret et al. (2003) stated that the third component-behavior is where much contoversy lies in the study of attitude.
Means, even though
the students liked and believed the English language is important, it did not mean the students would show enjoy the class activities and relax to speak English in the classroom.It was proved by the result of the student’
perception for every aspect. In aspect affective, the students were have a good feeling/liking the English language and it make the students feel enjoy learning this foreign language. This is a line with the theory of (Merisuo-Storm, 2007; Oxford, 1990) cited in Ozonder (2015, p. 723)
that stated the learners’ negative attitude and
feeling pose and obstacle to progress, positive emotions and attitudes make a language
learning far more effective and enjoyable. Even the students enjoy learning English language and confident did not make the students brave to answer questions in English class. The students liked English does not mean the students have good knowledge about the lesson, for example, the students are lack of vocabulary can be the reason why the students get anxious to answer
the teacher’ questions.
In behavioral aspect result, the students really looked forward to go to English class because of the teacher is good, this item got a positive respond from the students. To be liked by the students is a good stage to improve the students attitude towards the language learning.
There seems to be little doubt that a teacher’s
role is hugely impotant in influecing how pupils feel about foreign language learning (Bartram, 2010). Yet, the students have a good respond to learn foreign language was just because the students like the teacher individually not because the teacher capable to teach English good in certain way. It was proved by the item number nineteen, where the students could not decide whether the students enthusiastic or not to come to the class when English is being taught. If a learner does not have the interest and tendency in acquiring the target language to communicate with other, this learner will possess a negative attitude and will not be motivated and enthusiastic in languagelearning (Eshghinejad 2016). That is why the students feel embarrassed and not relaxed to speak because the students cannot use English and do not want to learn it properly.
the target language. As long as those three aspects go consistenly, it would be easier for students to have a positive attitude towards the language learning.
The result has answered all of the research questions. Overall, the complete result and
finding of this reseach has proven that students’
attitude towards English language learning in term of affective, behavioral and cognitive aspect on the rural students of SMAN 2 Paloh in academic year 2016/2017 is kindly positive. The affective attitude as the of the attitude aspects that mostly owned by the students which has the highest mean score 76. 25% and the students behavioral attitude in the future. It will also provide a better chance for the teacher to teach the students based on their need in teaching learning process, especially learning English.
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION Conclusion
Regarding the research finding, it has proven that students at SMAN 2 Paloh have positive attitude towards English language learning in term of affective, behavioral and cognitive aspect. It was proved by the total score of those three aspect, where affective aspect reached 76.25%, behavioral aspect reached 60.76% and cognitive aspect reached 67.82%. This result uncovered that the students have a low participation in English language learning. The students need to increase their behavioral attitude or the students’ action in the classroom and the teacher needs to improve technique, material and etc, which has a connection with the way of students behaved. Because, a teacher have a big role in influencing the students feeling about language learning.
Suggestion
Based on finding and conclusion above, the writer suggests: (1) the teacher may capitalize for the students and improving the efficiency of teaching learning, for instance developing the teaching material. Which is focused on the
students’ need and interest. (2) The teacher and the students might have time together to consider the concept of attitudes towards language and discuss the learning strategies, so the students may improve the efficiency of their learning. (3) The other researcher could conduct
relevance research about students’ attitude
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