STUDENTS’ ENGAGEMENT IN ENGLISH
LEARNING
A Paper
Submitted to Department of English Education of FPBS UPI as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement of Undergraduate Degree
Lathifah Ghoida Azhar
0807335
English Education Department
Faculty of Languages and Arts Education
Indonesia University of Education
Stude ts’ E gage e t i E glish
Learning
Oleh
Lathifah Ghoida Azhar
Sebuah skripsi yang diajukan untuk memenuhi salah satu syarat memperoleh gelar Sarjana pada Fakultas Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni
© Lathifah G. Azhar 2013 Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia
Juni 2013
Hak Cipta dilindungi undang-undang.
PAGE OF APPROVAL
STUDENTS’ ENGAGEMENT IN ENGLISH LEARNING
By:
Lathifah Ghoida Azhar 0807335
Approved by:
Supervisor I
Prof. Dr. Didi Suherdi, M.Ed
196211011987121000
Supervisor II
Drs. Prawoto S. Purnomo, M.Pd.
195110081980021002
Head of English Education Department Faculty of Languages and Arts Education
Prof. Dr. Didi Suherdi, M.Ed
ABSTRACT
Main Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Didi Suherdi, M.Ed
Co-Supervisor: Drs. Prawoto S. Purnomo, M.Pd.
This paper entitled Students’ engagement in English Learning is a report of qualitative study which explores characteristics of students’ engagement in English learning at one of junior high schools in Bandung. It used descriptive method to present the findings and data discussions. The data were gained using questionnaire, observation, and interview aiming to provide description on students’ engagement in English class and students’ perception on their own engagement. The result shows that students’ engagement in English learning does not yet reach the full level of engagement, but it has reached more than half of it. Students’ engagement has been believed as an essential factor in leaning, so hopefully the result of this research can help teachers in improving students’ engagement in English learning and enhancing their teaching skill.For further research, it is suggested to add other characteristics and try to conduct the research in different level of education in order to provide broader description on students’ engagement in English learning.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This research is a qualitative study of students’ engagement in English
learning at one of junior high schools in Bandung. First chapter provides
background of the research, research questions, aim of the research, scope of the
research, significance of the research, brief description of research methods, and
clarification of terms. The chapter is closed by presenting the organization of the
paper.
1.1 Background
English has an important role in the development of Indonesia because it
takes part as international language (Nurkamto, 2001) and half of the world’s
scientific literature is written in English (Broughton, 2003). The importance of
English leads into recommendation of Indonesian government on making English
as compulsory subject in secondary schools (Nurkamto, 2001). Nowadays
students are expected to learn English since primary level for English has been
introduced in elementary schools and it has been part of national final
examination in junior high schools.
Learning is an active process (Pinter, 2006) and so is English learning. It
can be done if students decide to take part in the activity, as Barkley (2010) cited
Angelo and Cross’s (1993) statement that learning can happen without teaching
talking. Most students will not do their best when they think teacher does not care
and is not interested in them (Jones, 2008), and they also will not give their best
when they do not enjoy and value what they do (Barkley, 2010). In other hand,
they need to be motivated.
Students who believe that achieving, working hard, and doing task as the
way to enhance their lives are more likely to be engaged in the classroom (Sullo,
2009). Shulman (2002) says that students’ engagement is the beginning of
learning (Barkley, 2010).
Students’ engagement occurs when students are motivated and actively
learning. Students will not willingly put effort in task that are meaningless and
not enjoyable for them even if they could perform the tasks well, nor they
willingly put effort in meaningful tasks they believe they cannot do the tasks well
no matter how hard they try (Barkley, 2010). In other words, students’ motivations are influenced by what they think is important and what they believe
they can accomplish (Ibid). Students who actively learn relate their learning to
their past experiences and knowledge making it a meaningful learning (Brown,
2001; Barkley, 2010).
Students’ engagement has been believed as an essential factor in learning. It
has been suggested that students’ engagement can be used as an indicator of
institutional teaching quality (Kuh, 2001) in Beer et al. (2010). High motivation
and engagement in learning have consistently been related to dropout rates and
increased levels of student success (Blank, 1997; Dev, 1997; Kushman, 2000;
student engagement is linked positively to desirable learning outcomes such as
critical thinking and grades (Carini, 2004).
This research of student engagement entitled “Students’ Engagement in
English Learning” is conducted in order to give description on students’ engagement in English class and students’ self-evaluation on their engagement.
The research focuses on students’ engagement of eight graders in English class.
1.2 Research Questions
There are two research questions addressed in this research:
1. How do students engage in English class?
2. How do students evaluate their own learning engagement in English class?
1.3 Aim of the Research
The aim of the research is to get description of:
1. students’ engagement in English class,
2. students’ self evaluation of their learning engagement in English class.
1.4 Scope of the Research
The research focuses on students’ engagement that can be seen through students’ interaction with the teacher and peers, and through their attitude towards
can be seen from students’ answer for self-checklist questionnaires and interviews
is also included in this research.
1.5 Significance of the Research
The results of this research are expected to provide teachers with the
description on students’ engagement in English learning. Hopefully the result can
help teachers to enhance their teaching skill and motivate their students well.
1.6 Research Method
This part presents reseach methodology used in this paper.
1.6.1 Research Design
Qualitative approach is used in this research because there is a problem or
issue which needs to be explored, it is conducted for a need to study a group or
population (Creswell, 2007). The issue to be explored in this research is students’ engagement in English learning.
1.6.2 Research Participants
The participant of this research is a group of second graders from the same
1.6.3 Data Collection Method
In collecting data, questionnaires were distributed to the students in order to
get students’ self-evaluation on their engagement in English learning. The
questionnaire is adaptation of Jones’s (2009) framework. Then observation was
taken place to see how the students behaviorally engaged during the class, this
way human behaviors within the contexts of their natural occurrence was able to
be explored (Bogdan & Biklen, 1992; Erickson, 1986; Hammersley & Atkinson,
1983; Jacob, 1988; Lincoln & Guba, 1985) as stated by Hatch (2002). The next
step was interviewing the teacher and 13 students to investigate their inner
thought regarding this issue.
1.6.4 Data Analysis
The data from the questionnaires and interview are analyzed according to
related literature to get the description of students’ self-evaluation on their engagements in English learning.
The observation is used to make a description of students’ behavioral
engagement based on what researcher saw, the purpose is to explore significant
features of the issue and later interpreted what is observed (Bassey, 1999).
In this research, the data are analyzed using related theories to get some
1.7 Clarification of Terms
1. Students' engagement: In this research, students’ engagement refers to
combination of students’ time on task and their willingness to participate
in activities as Beer et al. (2010) cited Stovall (2003).
2. English learning: the process of getting new knowledge (of English) by
studying it at school.
3. Students: the second graders of one junior high school in Bandung who
belong to same class.
4. Self-evaluation: students fill out the questionnaire regarding their feelings
on English learning.
1.8 Organization of Paper
The paper will be presented into five chapters:
Chapter I
The first chapter is the introduction. It consists of background of the research,
research questions, aim of the research, scope of the research, significance of the
research, research method, clarification of terms, and organization of the paper.
Chapter II
The second chapter talks about the framework of the study and the basis theory
Chapter III
The third chapter is about the research method of the study, data collection, and
the data presentation.
Chapter IV
The forth chapter is the chapter of findings and discussions. The chapter contains
the analysis of data according to related theory.
Chapter V
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The method used in this research is presented in this chapter. It includes the
description of research design, the description of data collection, the description
of data analysis, and the participants.
3.1 Research Design
Researchers arrive at the gate of qualitative research with topic or
substantive area of investigation (Creswell, 2007). This research was started by
choosing students’ engagement in English learning as the topic. It was conducted
using qualitative approach and descriptive method.
The purpose of this research was to explore human behaviors within the
contexts of their natural occurrence (Bogdan & Biklen, 1992; Erickson, 1986;
Hammersley & Atkinson, 1983; Jacob, 1988; Lincoln & Guba, 1985) as stated by
Hatch (2002), thus observation was used.
Qualitative research aims to understand the world from the perspective of
those living in it (Hatch, 2002) and capturing their perspectives may be a major
purpose of a qualitative study (Yin, 2011). In order to get the students’
perspective on their learning engagement, questionnaires were delivered and
3.2 Site and Participant
The data in qualitative research tend to be collected in the field at the site
where participants’ experiences the issue or problem under study (Creswell, 2007)
to get the perspectives what actors use as a basis for their actions in specific social
setting (Hatch, 2002). In this research the site or social setting was one of junior
high schools in Bandung, West Java. The participants were a group of eight
graders who belonged to the same class.
The school was chosen because first, it was the place where researcher did
her teaching internship. Second, the staff of the school gave a warm welcome
toward this research. Third, the school was easily reachable because it was not
too far from where the researcher stayed.
The eight graders were chosen in agreement with the teachers. It was
believed that seventh graders still had the vibe of elementary students and ninth
graders could not be disturbed for they were already in their preparation to face
national examination.
3.3 Data Collection Methods
In collecting the data, three steps were taken in this study. First the
questionnaires were distributed, and then the observation was taken place, and last
interviews were conducted.
3.3.1.Questionnaire and Interview
experiences. In this study, it aimed to gather information of how students
evaluated the degree of their own engagement.
There is a large range of types of questionnaire but a simple rule of thumb
exists: the larger the size of the sample, the more structured, closed and numerical
the questionnaire may have to be, and the smaller the size of the sample, the less
structured, more open and word-based the questionnaire may be (Cohen et al,
2007). Since the participants for this questionnaire were large in number (42
students), the questionnaire was made as a rating-scale one.
There is a tendency for participants to choose for mid-point of a 5-point or
7-point scale and one of the options to overcome this is to use an even number
scaling system, as there is no midpoint (Cohen et al, 2007). For that reason, the
questionnaire used 4-pointed Likert Scale to make an ipsative (forced choice)
measure where no indifferent option was available (Bertram, 2007).
The weakness of using questionnaire is to make sure the participants fill and
then return the questionnaire (Alwasilah, 2011). To overcome it, the participants
were accompanied throughout the process so they handed the questionnaires back
at once after filling them.
This step was conducted anonymously in order to let the participants be
honest with their answers without any pressure (Alwasilah, 2011).
Interview using Jones’s (2009) framework was also taken place for enabling
participants to discuss their interpretations of the world in which they live, and to
express how they consider situations from their own point of view (Cohen et al,
3.3.2.Observation
Observing the participants was performed to see how the students were
engaged during the class; to explore students’ behaviors within the contexts of
their natural occurrence (Bogdan & Biklen, 1992; Erickson, 1986; Hammersley &
Atkinson, 1983; Jacob, 1988; Lincoln & Guba, 1985) as cited by Hatch (2002).
The observation was conducted using Students’ Engagement Observation
Sheet adopted from Student Engagement Class Observation Guide (available
online at wmpeople.wm.edu) that was provided with codes of on-task and off-task
activities. The observation sheet was in line with Stovall’s (2003) suggestion that
the definition of students’ engagement was students’ time-on-task and their
willingness to participate in activities (Beer et al., 2010). The codes for
observation sheet using in this research is displayed in Table 3.1.
Table 3.1
List of Codes in Observation Sheet
On-Task Activities Off-Task Activities gadgets such as cell phone and music player
sharing opinion in class discussion F 5
being passive in the learning
N 6
3.4 Data Analysis
The analysis in this research was made after collecting the data from
questionnaire, observation, and interview to answer the research questions. The
analysis would be presented in the form of descriptive explanation.
3.4.1 Questionnaire and Interview
The qualitative data works inductively from particulars to more general
perspective, whether these perspectives are called themes, dimensions, codes, or
categories (Creswell, 2007), Erickson called them assertions, a form of
generalization (Stake, 1995) as cited by Bassey (1999).
Both questionnaire questions and interview questions were adaptation of
Jones’ (2009) framework. Each question represented a characteristic of students’
engagement. The characteristics explored in this research using questionnaire and
interview were individual attention, clarity of learning, meaningfulness of works,
rigorous thinking, performance orientation, motivated in learning English,
exhibiting positive body languages, consistent focus, and verbal participation.
3.4.2 Observation
Data from observation were analyzed by categorizing the codes into on-task
activities and off-task activities. There were six codes belonging to on-task
activities and five codes belonged to off-task activities (see Table 3.1).
by looking into on-task activities percentages in each time-slot while verbal
participation was acquired from three codes in on-task activities. They were
asking question appropriate with the learning (N4), sharing opinion in class
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
This chapter presents conclusions of the research based on findings and
analysis. It also presents suggestions related to students’ engagement in English
learning for further research, and for readers who concern about teaching English
especially in secondary level.
5.1. Conclusions
This research investigates students’ engagement of secondary level in
English learning. The aim of the research is to describe students’ engagement and
students’ perception of their engagement in English learning. Observation data
findings show 76.30% of the whole activities during observation is positive. It is
dominated by writing activities and no reading activity is found since the lesson is
mainly about completing sentences in written form. Consistency of students’
behavioral engagement during English class tends to go up and down in each
time-slot but it never falls below 50 percent.
Questionnaire and interview data findings reveal students’ perception
toward their engagement in English learning. The result of the questionnaire and
the interview show that there is positive attitude toward students’ motivation in
learning English. There are nine characteristics of students’ engagement being
nine of the characteristics. Unfortunately one of the interview data is at odds with
the result from questionnaire data because of certain reason.
From the whole data, it can be concluded that students’ engagement in
English learning does not yet reach the full level of engagement, but it has
reached more than half of it.
It have been found that students’ engagement is connected positively to
desirable learning outcomes such as critical thinking and grades (Carini, 2004), so
hopefully the result of this research can add useful information to be a help as a
reference to improve students’ engagement in English learning.
The research only covers several characteristics of students’ engagement
that are quite easy to be seen in one level of education. That is why for further
research, it is recommended to add other characteristics and try to conduct the
research in different level of education in order to provide broader description on
5.2. Suggestions
There are several suggestions which are derived from the data findings and
discussion for the readers who concern about teaching English, especially in
secondary level. The suggestions are as follows:
1. Provide learning activities that enable students to explore and to find
solutions and answers themselves, such as problem-based learning.
2. Make a clear description of how students will be assessed in the beginning
of the learning so they will have better understanding of what to do and
what not in their performances during English learning.
3. Make English class to be as engaging as possible so students will have
consistent focus.
4. Build a comfortable atmosphere to encourage students to be active in
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