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STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN LEARNING ENGLISH
Nemi Zuniarti, Urai Salam, Zainal Arifin
English Education Study Program Language And Art Education Department Teacher Training And Education Faculty Tanjungpura University, Pontianak
Email: Zuniartinemi@yahoo.com
Abstrak: Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui jenis motivasi siswa yang paling dominan dan tingkat motivasi siswa dalam belajar bahasa inggris. Partisipan dalam penelitian ini berjumlah 34 siswa. Data penelitian diperoleh dari kuesioner dan interview. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa 91.2% motivasi siswa dalam belajar bahasa inggris masuk dalam kategori cukup baik. Dari hasil kuesioner ditemukan 58.8% memiliki motivasi intrinsik to experience dalam belajar bahasa inggris. Hal ini diperkuat oleh hasil inteview bahwa alasan siswa belajar bahasa inggris karena bahasa inggris sebagai bahasa internasional sangat penting untuk dipelajari dan dikuasai. Walaupun mereka memiliki hambatan ketika mempelajarinya, mereka tetap memiliki keinginan untuk mempelajarinya.
Kata Kunci : Motivasi siswa, Belajar bahasa inggris.
Abstract: This is a descriptive-survey research of third grade students of SMP Negeri 2 Pontianak in academic year 2014/2015. It was conducted to figure out the type of motivation that students mostly have and the level of students’ motivation in learning English. In this study, there were 34 students participating in ths research. The data were derived from questionnaire and interview. The data showed that 91.2% of the students’ motivation in learning English mostly was qualified in average to good level. From the questionnaire, it was found out that 58.8% of the students had intrinsic motivation to experience as their motivation in learning English. In addition, the interview showed that students learned english because they thought Englsih as an international language, English is important to be learnt and mastered. Even though they had obstacles while learning, they had motivation to learn English.
2 n recent years, English as a foreign language had indeed developed rapidly. It could be seen from the number of people who spoke English not only as a tool to communicate with others, but also as an opportunity to achieve success; success as a chance to maximize their competence and passion, either in a job or career, education or life.
As an illustration, in a career or job, English is the main requirement for a person to achieve an important position in a company, whether it is general manager or other higher positions. It was proven that most of the people who occupy these positions could master at least one foreign language. In education, English could facilitate a student to continue his or her education when study abroad, achieved bachelor degree or continue master and doctor degree. The last, English could expand friendships with people in various countries. This was a picture of a success in life, where language was not a chasm among people.
In fact, there were students who had barriers to master English as a compulsory subject in school. It was caused by some reasons whether from students or teachers which affected their motivation to learn English. Based on a pre research conducted by the writer, it was found that the teacher admitted students had different level in mastering English which caused the difficulties for the teacher to generalize students’ ability in learning English. Therefore, the teacher couldn’t apply students centered learning method and had to explain more details about teaching material. Besides, students’ passiveness while teaching learning processes also occurred as the problems for teachers to know whether students got confused or understood about teaching material.
On the other hand, the students revealed that they were more understand
about teaching material from teacher’s explanation than learning by themselves,
such as reading the books by themselves or searching the information in the internet about teaching material. Therefore, motivation plays a big role in engaging students to learn.
As schunk said “Motivation can influence what, when and how we learn (as cited in Pintrinch, 2008, p.5)”. It was concluded that if students had motivation in learning whether intrinsic or extrinsic, they could independently decide what they had to learn, the length of time that they needed to spend, and what are the techniques that helped them to understand the subject easily.
As it is in line with Zimmerman “student motivated to learn about a topic are apt to engage in activities they believe will help them learn, such as attend carefully to the instruction, mentally organize, and rehearse the material to be learned, take notes to facilitate subsequent studying, check their level of understanding, and ask for help when they do not understand the material (as cited in Pintrinch, 2008, P.5)”.
Considering the facts found by the writer, a study was conducted to find out students' motivation in learning English. A similar study had been done by Munipah (2008) in her study "The Students' Motivation in Learning English." She
identified how high the students’ motivation in learning English in second grade
students of SMP Negeri 235 Jakarta. The result was that 9% who had high motivation, 91% who had medium motivation and 0% who had low motivation. The difference of this study to Munipah was that the writer analyzed
3 the level of students’ motivation and type of motivation which was most dominantly used by student in learning English.
Derived from the explanation above, the writer was concerned in conducting a study entitled “An Analysis on Students’ Motivation in Learning English” to the third grade in SMP Negeri 2 Pontianak. The consideration was because the students had learned English in first and second grades of junior high school. So, the writer assumed that they had experiences in learning English and would be motivated whether intrinsic or extrinsic to learn English more in third grade of junior high school. Consequently, the writer was interested to know the level of students’ motivation and the type of motivation that dominantly had by students in learning English. The result of this study was given back to the English teacher and students in order to give the information and clues to direct the right learning motivation that was appropriate for students to master English.
METHOD
This study was descriptive-survey research. Cohen (2000:169) said “surveys gather data at a particular point in time with the intention of describing the nature of existing conditions, or identifying standards against which existing conditions could be compared, or determining the relationships that exist between specific events.”. Considering the topic of this study was motivation which is as the nature of the existing condition among students and teacher in teaching learning process, so defines the level of students’ learning motivation and the kind of learning motivation that mostly students’ have in learning English become the main problem that would be answers through this study. In this issue, the writer used questionnaires and interview as data collections, as Cohen (2000:169) continued “descriptive-survey research gathering the data from a large of people through self-report using questionnaire or interview”.
The participants of this study were third grade students on SMP Negeri 2 Pontianak in academic year 2014/2015. The writer chose the third grade students as participant because the headmaster of SMP Negeri 2 asked the writer to do this study on IX F students. His consideration was because the students have learned English in first and second grades. So, the headmaster assumed that they have experiences in learning English and will be motivated whether intrinsic or extrinsic to learn English. Consequently, knowing the level of motivation and the kind of motivation that mostly students’ have would help both teacher and students to improve students’ motivation in learning. The numbers of participants were 34 students who completed the questionnaires and 6 students were chosen afterward to be interviewed. Six students were chosen randomly without considering the background of the students or the result of students’ questionnaire.
Questionnaire was used as the main data to find out the level of students’ motivation in learning English and the type of learning motivation that students mostly have. There were 5-Likert scale questionnaires ranged from strongly agree
to strongly disagree which the respondents were asked to indicate the extent to
4 the students’ responses on questionnaires based on Likert scale type, those are as follows:
Table 1 Students’ Questionnaires Responses Scoring System
Calculating level and type of students’ motivation by using score criteria of Likert scale.
M% = 𝑋
𝑌× 100
M% = students’ extrinsic motivation score in percent X = the score of students’ motivation score
Y = the highest score of students’ motivation score (35x5 = 175)
The level of students’ motivation in learning english was classified by using this table of qualification.
Table 2 Students’ Motivation Classification Score
Harris (1969:134)
Interview was also used as a source of data in this study. In interview, the writer used semi structured interview and asked the questions to the interviewees one by one. The writer recorded and noted any answers by the interviewees. The information obtained used as confirmation for the questionnaire and gain deeper information on the type of learning motivation that students mostly have in learning English. Therefore, the writer chose 6 interviewees that represented intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as it referred to the result of the questionnaire where most of the student categorized in intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
Type of item
Strongly disagree
Disagree Neither Agree Nor Disagree
Agree Strongly Agree Positive
question
1 2 3 4 5
Reversed question
5 4 3 2 1
Qualification Range of score Good to excellent motivation 80% – 100%
5 Therefore, the writer chose 2 students who were categorized in intrinsic motivation and 4 students who were categorized in extrinsic motivation.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The Level of Students’ Motivation in Learning English
This section reports the results of knowing the level of students’ motivation in learning English. The level of students’ motivation was revealed through students’ responses that have been gathered from questionnaire.
Chart 1 Level of Students’ Motivation in Learning English The finding of this study revealed that 91.2% of the level of the students’ motivation in learning English was categorized as average to good. It indicated that students have known the importance of learning English for themselves, so they have intention to learn English. They realized English as an international language will be useful for their future, whether for got a job or study abroad. It is also affected their motivation to learn English. They become motivated to spend their free time to learn English at home which is doing all of the excercises on the textbook or anything that could improve their English. Even though they have less of interest to learn English, they try quite hard in order to understand teachers’ explanation in class by getting English course at home and learning by themselves at home.
There was only 1 student (2, 99%) was categorized as good to excellent in the level of motivation, which means she has high of motivation in learning English because she realized the importance of mastering English well. It could be seen in the way she worked on the test and spoke English fluently with her friends. Whenever she found any difficulties, she would make herself confident while she spoke English in an English community. Besides that, parents also supported her enjoyment to learn English in her free time. Moreover, when she got the difficulties in learning, she tried to solve it because she could learn new things from it. Then, when she worked on the test or any tasks, she would be a well- prepared student and might be doing her best efforts. She would study not
91,20%
2,90% 5,88%
6 only from the books but also trying to remember teacher’s explanation in the classroom.
Student who was categorized as good to excellent level mostly influenced by peer group as factor that influenced their motivation in learning English. Based on students’ response on the questionnaires, it was shown that students who had high motivation tend to be competitive in learning. It happened because they had high self confidence, as a result when they failed or got a lower score, they would be able to handle it. Therefore, peer groups also play an important role as a trigger to motivate them in learning.
There were only 2 students (5, 88%) was categorized as poor to average level of motivation. Students who were categorized as poor to average level tend to learn English because their parents asked them to do so. Parents emphasized the importance of learning English and asked them to learn English at English course, yet they did not guide or involve their children to learn together at home,
Even though they only had low motivation to learn English, they tried their best to understand the learning materials. It was shown while they were facing the difficulties to understand the learning materials; they would ask their friends or their teacher until they got the solutions of their confusion. Besides, they literally had an intention to improve their English in their future plans. They realized English, as international language, were important, but they lost their willingness to learn because it’s difficult. It was revealed when they were asked whether they have future plans to improve their English.
“Yes, I do because English is an international language. But, Ee.. It is so difficult for me to understand the language; it makes me lost my willingness to learn English.” (Interview: Learner 1).
Besides, the external factors also have big influences whether increasing or decreasing students’ motivation in learning English. The writer figures out that there are three of five factors that dominantly in influencing students’ motivation, which is parental family, teacher, and peers. Based on the result, parental and family became the highest (25 students) factor that influence students’ motivation. Parenting style is determining for students’ motivation development whether increasing or decreasing.
As pintrinch (2008:284) divided four different parenting styles “An authoritarian parenting style is characterized by high control, low responsiveness and nurturance. Then, authoritative parents set clear standards and limits for behavior, but they provide rationales for rules and decisions. The next, permissive-indulgent parents are highly responsive to their children, but place few demands on them. Last, permissive indifferent parents are emotionally detached, and not involved in their children’s lives.”
7 about the rules and what is good for their children. Thus, children become more open and responsible for their choice.
The Type of Students’ Motivation in Learning English
Based on questionnaire and interview findings, students in class IX F dominantly have intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation as their motivation in learning English. As Dᴕrnyei and ushioda (2011) said that fun and excitement are the reasons for people in doing something. In this study, students who have intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation tend to learn English because their willingness in order to get pleasant in learning. They think English as an international language, English is important to be learnt and mastered. It can be seen from the student’s answer while interview.
The writer has figured out that 77.6% students have intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation. It could be seen that they were intrinsically motivated and thought that learning English was fun and full excitement because they prefer to practice English by doing conversation and finished all the exercises from textbook. Besides, they also figured out the problems while they did not understand of teacher’s explanation by themselves in their free time, but if they still confused, they asked their teacher to get the explanation of the answers. Many of them also got the support from family that made them more enthusiastic to learn English.
Based on the response of students’ answers shown Intrinsic motivation to know became the second highest motivation that students’ had, which means that students intrinsically motivated and thought English as challenges for them to learn something new and got fully understanding. Evaluation practice and parental family were the most dominant factors that influenced students’ intrinsic motivation to know in learning English.
Students who showed intrinsic motivation to knowledge as their motive in learning English had desires to learn English because they liked it and they really loved to learn new vocabularies while they watched movies or listened to the English songs. They were curious in learning, Even though they got bored on their teacher’s explanations, they still had motivation to learn English in order to understand about English conversation, the story of movies and the meaning of songs. Dᴕrnyei and Ushioda (2011) define that Intrinsic motivation to know refers to motivation in doing an activity for satisfaction or pleasure of understand something new, satisfying one’s curiosity, and exploring the world.
Meanwhile, Integrated Motivation got the second lowest in this level. This indicates the students counted on their classmates in influencing them learning and being active while teaching and learning processes. Students also think that English was a very important language because it would help them in future and their parents always encouraged them to use English as much as possible in daily life.
8 they would ask their friends or teacher in order to get the answer. After school, they prefered to attend an English course than learning by themselves at home because they think it would be helpful.
The lowest percentage score was got by External Regulation. This indicates that students felt no confidence to speak English because their friends would laugh at them and worries about test. Students who have external regulation as their motive tends to learn English because of their parents asked them to do.
As Deci and Ryan (1991) states that the behavior in external regulation is teacher’s explanation at class doesn’t improve their motivation to learn because it’s boring.
Besides, the writer not only found the result of the research problems, but the writer also found out the students’ difficulties while teaching learning processes in class. There were two factors that dominantly influence students’ low motivation in learning English that were teacher and peers.
Teacher actually has big roles to improve student’s motivation in learning English because students on IX F think teacher as center of learning in the class, so the students always pay attention on teacher’s explanation about the learning material. As described by pintrinch (2008) that the relation between teacher and students in learning processes divided into three teaching functions, different forms of feedback: performance, motivational, attribution and strategy feedback which each feedback have contribution in encouraging student motivation to be enthusiastic in learning.
In contrast, based on the students’ responded on questionnaire, there were none of students motivated by teacher while teaching learning process in the classroom. Students feels that their teacher explanation always monotones and bored. The teacher only give the explanation about learning material and giving the tasks to the students without any explanation about it.
In line with interview, some students thinks that teacher explanation were complicated, they sometimes difficult to understand the teacher’s explanation. Besides, there were some students feel unmotivated with teacher explanation and felt bored in classroom and teacher used teaching technique to attract students’ attention as the last options. It is contrast with Pintrinch explanation, Pintrinch (2008) explained that teachers affect students’ motivation through their planning and instruction, situational and implementation strategy that can exert influence in engaging students’ interest in learning
9 high school students, peer was their source of learning. It means that when they were not understand or have difficulty on learning, they prefer to ask their peer first than their teacher.
Based on the findings, it was shown that peers’ behaviour in the classroom influence students’ motivation in learning at classroom. Some students feel bothersome with their peers while teacher’s expalanation because their peers only focus on their gadget than teacher’s explanation. Besides, some peers also prefer to talk to the other students than doing the task. As a result, the students could not concentrate and feel lazy while learning in the classroom.
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION Conclusion
After conducting the study and analyzing the data, it is revealed that most of the students’ motivation categorized in average to good level, even though there were some students who achieved good to excellent level and poor to average level. Besides, this study also discovered the type of motivation that students’ mostly have in learning English. Most of students in class IX F have Intrinsic Motivation to stimulation experience as their motivation in learning English. it is based on the analysis of the level of students’ motivation revealed that most of students who categorized in average to good and good to excellent have intrinsic motivation as their motivation in learning English. In contrast, students who were categorized as poor to average had extrinsic motivation as their motivation in learning English.
Suggestions
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