ATTRIBUTIONS OF SUCCESSFUL EFL LEARNERS IN A
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Arya Avriandi Listanto 112013110
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS
UNIVERSITAS KRISTEN SATYA WACANA
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COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or accepted for fulfillment of any degree of diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text.
Copyright@2017. Arya Avriandi Listanto and Yustinus Calvin Gai Mali, M.Hum.
All right reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the permission or at least one of the copyright owners or the English Language Education Program, Faculty of Language and Arts, Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana, Salatiga.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
APPROVAL PAGE………...i
PERNYATAAN TIDAK PLAGIAT……….ii
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN AKSES………...……iii
PUBLICATION AGREEMENT DECLARATION………...iv
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT………..v
TABLE OF CONTENTS………vi
ABSTRACT………...1
INTRODUCTION………...2
LITERATURE REVIEW………....3
Advantages of Attribution in English Language Learning……….……….3
Previous Studies on Attribution………..……….4
THE STUDY………...6
Method………...6
The Context of the Study……….……...7
The Research Participants………...……….8
Data Collection Instruments………....8
Data Collection Procedures………....10
Data Analysis……….10
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION………...11
Male students’ attributions……….11
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Differences between male and female attributions………....17
CONCLUSION………..18
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………20
REFERENCES………...21
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ATTRIBUTIONS OF SUCCESSFUL EFL LEARNERS IN A
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Arya Avriandi Listanto
ABSTRACT
In the past, the researchers have investigated of students' attributions in various English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. Nevertheless, the exploration of students' attributions particularly in EFL contexts has never been done before in Senior High School students in Indonesia. Attributions deal with how students explain the result of their learning, especially how they explain success and failure, by attributing causes to them. This study aims to investigate students’ attributions of the eleventh grade of Senior High School students. The study particularly reflected on the male and female students attributions, and the attributions differences between the two groups of students. The study used a semi-structure interview as the research instrument. The result of the study found that the attribution of male students mostly came from internal factors such as future interest, while attributions of female students mostly came from external factors such as teachers’ influence.
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INTRODUCTION
The importance of students' attributions attracted many researchers' attention in recent years. Attribution itself are refers to a "field of study which concerns with how people answer a question, such as ‘why did I fail my exam?" (Fatemi, Pishghadam, & Asghari, 2012, p. 231). Besides, attributions are related to a motivation theory which deals with reasons a learner attributes to his/her success or failure in learning the target language (Gonzalez, 2011). With similar views, attributions deal with how students interpret their learning outcomes, particularly how they explain success and failure, by attributing causes to them (Yilmaz, 2012). However, the exploration of students' attributions particularly in EFL contexts has never been done before to Senior High School students in Indonesia
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are the differences of attributions between successful male and female students at
the school?
The study hopes to provide some benefits. For students at the school, this study hopes to provide opportunities to learn from their successful classmates, such as what to do to become successful EFL learners. For teachers at the school, this study is expected to help them to understand students' feelings, motivate their students to be successful language learners, and probably find better solutions to make students more enthusiastic in learning English at the school. For the field of ELT (English Language Teaching), the study hopes to contribute to wider discussions of attribution studies. This study also provide some details of attribution reflected by successful students in learning English at Senior High School context.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Advantages of Attribution in English Language Learning
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on their success and failure can significantly have an impact on their future performance of academic tasks.
Previous Studies on Attribution
In recent years, there have been a considerable number of studies investigating the students' attribution about success and failure in EFL context with varying findings and conclusions. Gonzales (2011) found out the fact that learners’ perceptions of success and failure in English language learning can be
influenced by their own culture. The analysis revealed that the most of the reasons concerned the duties and responsibilities of individuals, the degree of autonomy and authority, affiliation, and the attitude.
Meanwhile in Turkey, Sahinkarakas (2011) examined the factors that affect young students’ successes and failures in learning a foreign language with specific
focus on the role of perceived causal attributions. The content of self-assessment papers of 52 young learners studying English was analyzed to investigate the students’ success and failure attributions. It was found that both attributions were
linked mostly to internal and unstable factors, with listening to the teacher and doing homework being the most significant. The results highlight the importance of language teachers’ awareness of their students’ attributions.
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personality traits and sub-scales of attribution theory. The results of Regression Analyses also demonstrated that some of personality factors are good predictors of the factors learners attribute their successes or failures.
Yilmaz (2012) sought to investigate students’ attributions for success and failures in second language reading and to examine the ways in which these vary according to gender, proficiency, and teacher opinions. The results were students’ attributions for doing well in reading comprehension. Some of the reasons were good strategies, positive mood, interest in reading, good teachers’ feedback, and
positive environment. Environment become the frequently cited attributions by the students.
In Indonesia, Mali (2014) undertook another related study. The purpose of the study was to investigate the attributions that students had for their English-speaking enhancement. The participants were eighteen students at Sekolah Tinggi Pariwisata Ambarukmo Yogyakarta (STIPRAM). The results revealed that a clear purpose of doing particular English speaking activities, strategy, and the positive motivation/encouragement from friends as well as from the teacher became the major students’ attributions on their English-speaking enhancement.
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and females in ability as an internal attribution and luck as an external attribution. It seems that male students attribute their success to ability more than female students. In other words, females attribute their success to luck more than male learners.
The previous related studies (Gonzales, 2011; Sahinkarakas, 2011; Fatemi, et al., 2012; Yilmaz, 2012; Mali, 2014; Mohammadi, et al., 2016) explored the students' attribution in ESL and EFL contexts. However, there have not been studies that attempt to explore students’ attributions in a Senior High School context in Indonesia, where English is considered as a foreign language. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to explore the attributions of successful students in a Senior High School context. Furthermore, the previous studies inform the present study that reasons for success experienced by EFL learners were mostly related to students' learning experiences, and internal and external influences.
THE STUDY
Method
The purposes of the study are to answer these questions: (1) What are attributions of successful male students? (2) What are attributions of successful
female students? (3) What are the differences of attributions between successful
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There are some characteristics of qualitative approach. First, it is concerned with finding the answers to questions which begin with: Why? How? In what way? (Hancock, 1998). Second, qualitative research is to inquiry the collection of data in a natural setting and data analysis that is inductive (Creswell, 2007). It means that to analyze the data, it begins with specific observations and measures, begins to detect patterns and regularities, formulates some tentative hypotheses and finally ends up in developing some general conclusions or theories. In a qualitative approach, the inquirer deals with data that are in the form of words or pictures rather than numbers and statistics. The data collected are the participant experiences and perspectives. The qualitative researcher attempts to arrive at a rich description of the people, objects, events, places, and conversations (Ary, Jacobs, & Sorensen, 2010). Based on the selected approach that in line with this study. This study dealt with exploring reasons behind the successful students in learning English. The study was conducted in a natural setting. The researcher collected the data in a school. The result of this study included the transcription of the participants’ voice from interviews.
The Context of The Study
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due to the interesting trait of the school setting. In that, despite the school's rural region location, the region does not influence students' English competence. In fact, there were many students that still get a good score in English.
The Research Participants
This study involves two male and two female students of SMAN 1 Bringin. All of them are eleventh grade students. The participants were chosen because they met the following criteria of successful language learners. First, their English score at the first-semester final exam is more than 90. Second, their activeness in English class is more dominant than the others. To keep the confidentiality, the following name of the participants were pseudonyms. The two male students’ name was Ozil and Alexis, while the two female students’ name was Sakura and Ino.
Data Collection Instruments
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context of the study. After collecting the data from the questionnaire, the researcher started the interview. It should be noted that the questionnaire in this study functioned only as the guideline for the interview. The results of the interviews would be the main focus of the study.
In the interview, the researcher asked the respondents to clarify the statements they had responded. Showing the list before the interview was also intended to give participants time to think of their answers in a less threatening setting.
Table 1. Students’ Attributions
No. Reasons behind their success Previous study Agree Disagree
1 Mastering English is important for my future.
Gonzales (2011) 2 My parents wanted me to mastering
English.
3 My parent/s always motivate me to learn English.
4 I listen to the teacher very carefully.
Sahinkarakas (2011) 5 I do my homework regularly.
6 I didn't feel embarrassed to talk in English even if I did some mistakes.
7 I study hard and my teacher always appreciates this.
8 I study hard because I love my teacher. 9 My parents are happy because I study hard.
10 I love learning English. Fatemi, Pishghadam, and Asghari (2012) 11 I always bring the dictionary during English
class.
Yilmaz (2012) 12 I always ask when I need explanation.
13 I always take notes to remind me the important things.
14 The teacher teach nicely and enjoyably. 15 Movies, video games, music, social media,
etc are helped me to learn English.
16 My friends always help me and motivate me to learn English.
17 My environment/community requiring me to mastering English.
18 I take an English private course in outside of the school.
19 I practice speaking in English at home.
Mali (2014) 20 I often communicate with foreigners
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Data Collection Procedures
To collect the data, the researcher followed the following steps. First, the researcher went to the school and met the headmaster. Then, the researcher explained the purposes of the study and asked the permission to collect the data in the school. Next, the researcher invited the students (the participants) to do the interview. Before the interview begun, the researcher asked the participants to fill the questionnaire and explained to the participants about the purposes of the study. This is to make sure that the participants understand the purposes of the study. After that, the interview started. The interview was based on the answers from the questionnaire. The interview that had been recorded was then transcribed by the researcher. Then, the transcription were analyzed by the researcher in order to support the data obtained from the questionnaire.
Data Analysis
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based on the themes emerged. Fourth, the researcher identified the differences between male and female students’ attributions.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The research aimed to answer these questions; (1) What are attributions of successful male students? (2) What are attributions of successful female students?
(3) What are the differences of attributions between successful male and female
students at the school?
To answer those research questions, the researcher divided the discussion parts in three main sections: Male students’ attributions for the success, female students’ attributions for the success, and the differences between male and female students’ attributions.
Male students’ attributions
In the questionnaire, both of the male student participants answered that their attributions for the success were future interests, showing one's capability, and modern media's influence as having a big role in their success. Further analysis and explanation of the results are explained as follows:
Future Interests
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I like learning English because it’s very important in this modern era because English is an international language. So, it is important for my future because so many jobs or profession that required to mastering English (Ozil/ interview/ translated by the researcher).
Excerpt 2
I like English because this is a language that I have to learn, because English is an international language. Therefore, it is important for my future because my dream is to go around the world (Alexis/ interview/ translated by the researcher).
The result above shows that both of the male student participant said that they like English because they realized that English is important for their future. There is no denying the importance of English in across the world (Tinsley & Board, 2013). The main point that have to be highlighted was their "realize". Their "realize" was absolutely came from their internal attribution.Weiner (1986), as cited in Thang, Gobel, Nor and Suppiah (2011), proposes that internal attributions produce greater changes in esteem-related affect than external attributions. It means that the attribution of successful learners mostly came from themselves.
Showing One’s Capability
13i and I also often to communicate with them through social media. While in a class, many of my friends asking me about English, because of that I feel motivated by myself to be better in learning English, in order to help my friends(Alexis/ interview/ translated by the researcher).
Weiner (1986), as cited in Thang et al (2011), argued that students’ beliefs
about their ability to control the outcome of a given task are assumed to play an important role in their actions, motivation, and achievement. In this context, the challenges that are given to the students such as, pronounce the words correctly, remembering the script, or knowing some unfamiliar words, will make them motivated because they can show their abilities and their skills to everybody around them.
Modern Media Influence
There is no doubt anymore that modern media nowadays has many big effects for everyone. For example is Google, almost all of the people use Google in their phone, tablet, laptop, computer, even in their watch. For students, they usually use Google to get the information for their assignments or just looking something for what they need. They like to use Google because it is simple, fast, and easy to use. The participants explained in the interview as follows:
Excerpt 5
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that come from the actor with the subtitle. I also often to communicate with the foreigner using English through social media (Ozil/ interview/ translated by the researcher).
Excerpt 6
The modern media nowadays are really help me in learning English, especially in order to find some new vocabulary. Like when I watched an English movie, I learnt English by noticed the subtitle. I also often to participate something like a quiz in internet and of course using English. I also often to communicate with the foreigner through social media (Alexis/ interview/ translated by the researcher).
Modern media has a positive impact on student learning. Modern media causes students to be more engaged. Thus, students often retain more information (Costley, 2014). Reflect on the students' attribution above, modern media has the important role in learning English based on their experience.
Female students’ attributions
The answers of the female student participants’ attributions for the success are love learning English, parents’ influence, and teachers’ influence. For them, teachers' influence is a big role for their success.
Love Learning English
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The motivation of learners greatly affects their willingness to take part in the process of learning (Othman & Shuqair, 2013). In this case, the first motivation came from the teacher. A teacher has a role to motivate student. The teachers can encourage students to develop positive attitudes toward learning the language (Othman & Shuqair, 2013). For example like Sakura said in the interview that she love learning English because the teacher was nice and really close to her. Another motivation came from students' attitude toward the target language. Ino in the interview said that learning English is easier than the others, because English can be learned by herself.
Parents’ Influence
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My parents always motivate me to learn English because they know that English is important for my future, and also according to my parents, if I get a good score in English, it will help others score too (Ino/ interview/ translated by the researcher).
Tse (2000) as cited in Mori, Gobel, Thepsiri, and Pojanapunya (2010) suggested that the main attributions for success in foreign language learning were family (parents) assistance. Although that the parents do not know anything about English, they still have vital role in supporting and motivating their children.
Teachers’ Influence
Same like parents, teachers are also known as a student's parent in school.. Everything that teachers' doing will effect to their students no matter how small it is. A great teacher will create great students too.
Excerpt 11
Actually I had love learning English since in Junior High School, it happened because the teacher was nice and really close to me. Now, I also like my English teacher because she is kind, nice, enjoyable, and often to give some kind of game in her teaching(Sakura/ interview/ translated by the researcher).
Excerpt 12
I like my English teacher, she is patient, pretty, and easy going. The way she teach is fun, and easy to understand (Ino/ interview/ translated by the researcher).
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nice, and friendly to the students, it will make students feel comfortable and make them love the learning process.
Differences between male and female attributions
The differences between male and female student participants’ attributions are quite significant. Both male and female student participants love learning English, but their reasons made it different. The male students would rather to show their capability to other people, while the female students prefer to pay attention to their parents’ influence. For male students, modern media was the big role for their success, while female students showed that teachers' influence was the most important.
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CONCLUSION
As reported above, the results of this study show that either male or female students have their own attributions for their success in learning English. Male attributions are showing one’s capability, future interests, and modern media influence. While female attributions are love learning English, parents’ influence, and teachers’ influence. The differences between them are male student attributions tend to be the internal factors, while the attributions of female students are mostly categorized as the external factors.
On the whole, the result implied some pedagogical practices. For students, the modern media can be useful. The students can search everything they need on the internet about EFL context such as new vocabulary. They also possibly practice their English skill by watching English video or having a conversation with the foreigner in social media. This theme gave students possibility to gain more information to become better EFL learner.
For teachers, they have to understand that teachers’ learning strategies and teachers’ feedback gave significant effect on students’ success in EFL learning. In the future, the teachers possibly change their learning strategies to gain students comfort during learning.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Foremost, I would like to express my great gratitude to God Almighty for blessing me and helping me until the end of my thesis. Then, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Mr. Yustinus Calvin Gai Mali, M.Hum. For his patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge. His guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. I could not have imagined having a better supervisor for my thesis.
Besides my supervisor, I would like to thank to the second reader of my thesis, Miss Yustina Priska Kisnanto, M.Hum. For her encouragement, and insightful comments. My sincere thanks also goes to the English teacher of Bringin 1 Senior High School, Mrs. Alifyani Khorunnisa for the permission to do the research and being so cooperative during the collecting data.
I also thank to entire of my family, and my beloved parents, Aiptu Sumianto and Tri Yuli Setyaningsih, for supporting me physically and spiritually throughout my life from the first time I was born. In addition, exclusively thank to my friends in Mr. Calvin thesis squad, Atika, Kendil, Ima, Ika, Kezia, and Mikha for our collaboration and our struggle during the making of the thesis. Moreover, special thanks to my PPL's friends, Atika, Lusi, Mikha, Sari, and Sulis for the various moments and memories during the teaching practicum in Bringin 1 Senior High School.
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REFERENCES
Arbic, C.J. (2009). Promoting internal attribution as a motivating factor for students who exhibit learned helplessness. Post-Graduate Thesis. 1-34 Ary, D., Jacobs, L.C., Sorensen, C.K. & Razavieh, A. (2010). Introduction to
research in education. California: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Costley, K. C. (2014). The positive effects of technology on teaching and student learning. Reports-Evaluative.
Creswell, J.W. (2007). Designing a qualitative study. California: Sage. Evans, G.L. (2013). A novice researcher’s first walk through the maze of
grounded theory: Rationalization for classical grounded theory. The Grounded Theory Review, 12(1), 37-49.
Fatemi, A.H., Pishghadam, R., & Asghari, A. (2012). Attribution theory and personality traits among EFL learners. International Journal of Linguistics, 4(2), 229-243.
Gaier, S.E. (2015). Understanding why students do what they do: Using attribution theory to help students succeed. RTDE, 31(2), 6-19.
Gonzalez, A.S. (2011). Attribution theory and culture: Using focus groups to uncover parameters of influence. Language Studies Working Papers, 3, 29-37.
Hancock, B. (1998). An introduction to qualitative research. Trent Focus Group. Mali, Y.C.G. (2014). Students’ attributions on their English speaking
enhancement. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 4(2), 32-43. Mohammadi, A., & Sharififar, M. (2016). Attributions for success and failure:
Gender and language proficiency differences among Iranian EFL learners.
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 6(3), 518-524.
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Othman, F.H.M.A, Shuqair, K.M. (2013). The impact of motivation on English language learning in the Gulf States. International Journal of Higher Education, 2(4), 123-130.
Sahinkarakas, S. (2011). Young students’ success and failure attributions in language learning. Social Behavior and Personality, 39(7), 879-886. Thang, S.M., Gobel, P., Nor, N.F.M., & Suppiah, V.L. (2011). Students’
attributions for success and failure in the learning of English as a second language: A comparison of undergraduates from six public universities in Malaysia. Universiti Putra Malaysia Press, 19(2). 459 – 474.
Tinsley, T., Board, K. (2013). Languages for the future. British Council. Yilmaz, C. (2012). An investigation into turkish EFL students’ attributions in
reading comprehension. Academy Publisher, 3(5). 823-828.
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APPENDIX
Questionnaire:
Kepada Responden,
Nama saya Arya Avriandi Listanto. Saya mengambil program studi S-1 Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris di Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana. Sebagai bagian dari studi saya, saya melakukan penelitian tentang alasan bagaimana siswa SMA dapat mempelajari Bahasa Inggris dengan baik dikelasnya. Dalam kesempatan ini, saya ingin meminta bantuan anda sebagai peserta yang bersangkutan dengan menjawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang terdapat di dalam kuesioner ini. Saya menggunakan pertanyaan-pertanyaan tersebut untuk mendapatkan informasi mengenai alasan dibalik keberhasilan anda dalam mempelajari Bahasa Inggris di kelas.
Perlu diketahui bahwa kuesioner ini bukanlah sebuah tes, ulangan, maupun ujian. Tidak ada jawaban benar atau salah dalam kuesioner ini. Selain itu, jawaban anda tidak akan mempengaruhi nilai anda di kelas Bahasa Inggris anda. Oleh karena tu, anda bebas untuk menanggapi setiap pertanyaan yang ada sesuai dengan perasaan anda dan pengalaman anda terkait dalam pelajaran Bahasa Inggris. Jika anda memiliki pertanyaan lebih lanjut tentang penelitian ini, anda dapat menghubungi saya di nomor telepon berikut;
___________________________
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Jenis Kelamin : Usia : Kelas :
Kuesioner (close-ended)
Ini bukanlah sebuah tes maupun ujian, jadi tidak ada jawaban yang benar atau salah di dalam kuesioner ini. Selain itu, jawaban anda tidak akan mempengaruhi nilai anda di kelas Bahasa Inggris nantinya. Oleh karena itu, anda bebas untuk menanggapi setiap pertanyaan yang ada sesuai dengan perasaan anda dan pengalaman anda terkait dalam pelajaran Bahasa Inggris
No. Alasan Dibalik Keberhasilan Setuju Tidak Setuju
1 Saya menyukai pelajaran Bahasa Inggris. 2 Saya selalu membawa kamus setiap jam
5 Menguasai Bahasa Inggris sangatlah penting untuk masa depan saya.
6 Guru Bahasa Inggris saya mengajar dengan baik dan menyenangkan.
7 Saya selalu memperhatikan apa yang guru saya terangkan.
8 Saya selalu mengerjakan tugas dengan baik dan teratur.
9 Saya tidak merasa malu untuk berbicara dalam Bahasa Inggris meskipun saya masih sering melakukan kesalahan.
10 Saya belajar Bahasa Inggris dengan giat dan guru saya pun menghargai saya.
11 Saya belajar Bahasa Inggris dengan giat karena saya menyukai guru saya.
12 Orang tua saya senang kalau saya belajar Bahasa Inggris dengan giat.
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14 Orang tua saya selalu memotivasi saya untuk belajar Bahasa Inggris.
15 Film Barat, Video Game, musik Barat, sosial media, dll membantu saya dalam belajar Bahasa Inggris.
16 Teman-teman saya selalu membantu dan memotivasi saya dalam belajar Bahasa Inggris. 17 Komunitas Bahasa Inggris (English Club) saya
mengharuskan saya untuk bisa berbahasa Inggris.
18 Saya melatih kemampuan Bahasa Inggris saya ketika dirumah.
19 Saya melatih kemampuan Bahasa Inggris saya dengan seorang guru privat.
20 Saya sering berkomunikasi dengan orang asing menggunakan Bahasa Inggris baik melalui sosial media maupun di kehidupan nyata.
21 Apakah ada alasan yang lain?
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Pernyataan Persetujuan
Jika saya membutuhkan informasi lebih lanjut tentang kuesioner anda, bolehkah saya menghubungi anda untuk melakukan sebuah wawancara?
Ya / Tidak (lingkarilah jawaban anda)
Jika anda menjawab Ya, lengkapilah informasi berikut: Nama :
HP : Email :
