Handling Five-Year-Old Pupils Who Lack Motivation in Learning English at Creative Learning.

(1)

Maranatha Christian University

ABSTRACT

Berdasarkan pengalaman magang di Creative Learning sebagai salah satu staf pengajar, saya memutuskan untuk membahas mengenai kesulitan saya dalam menangani anak lima tahun di kelas Runner_{yang kurang}

motivasi dalam belajar bahasa Inggris. Oleh karena itu saya membahas latar belakang masalah yang saya alami dan juga dampak-dampak dari

permasalahan tersebut.

Saya menganalisa masalah yang saya alami disertai dengan sebab akibat dari ketidakmampuan saya dalam memotivasi anak-anak didik saya tersebut. Salah satu penyebabnya adalah saya tidak memiliki pengalaman mengajar sebelumnya. Hal ini berdampak pada peningkatan hasil belajar anak didik saya. Selain itu, saya juga menganalisa beberapa pilihan solusi yang sesuai dengan permasalahan saya. Solusi-solusi tersebut juga disertai dengan dampak positif maupun negatif.

(2)

APPENDIX

A. FLOWCHART

I have a difficulty in handling two five-year-old pupils in the Runner level who lack motivation in learning English

Causes:

1. I have no experience in teaching young learners 2. I do not vary the techniques of teaching

3. The activities for teaching the topics are limited based on the workbooks

4. I do not know the pupils well

Potential Solution I: Observing the ways other teachers handle the pupils

Potential Solution III: Making fun activities based on the topics Potential Solution II: Exploring some variations of teaching techniques

Effects:

1. Class activity will be distracted 2. Pupils can not finish the target learning of the assigned materials

3. The pupils will not make any significant improvement in learning English

4. Pupils just play around in class

Negative Effects:

1. It might distract pupils’ concentration

2. I will not be able to find out my own way in handling the pupils

Positive Effects:

1. Pupils will be excited to learn the topics

2. Teacher will be able to create an enjoyable atmosphere

3. Pupils may have a good academic improvement

Positive Effects:

1. It can give me some insights to handle the pupils

2. I can know the pupils’ behavior in class

Negative Effects:

1. It might distract pupils’ concentration

2. I will have difficulty to gain the pupils’ attention back 3. The class will be dismissed late

Positive Effects

1. I will learn how to teach English better to five-year-old pupils

2. I can know which

techniques will be suitable for five-year-old pupils

Negative Effects:

1. It can make me confused to choose which one is the most suitable to be used

2. Teacher will spend extra time to prepare the teaching

techniques

Potential Solution IV: Having communication with parents and pupils Negative Effects:

1. Parents might think that the teacher is not competent to handle the pupils

2. Pupils will possibly try to make a distance with the teacher

Positive Effects:

1. Parents will think that the teacher cares about the pupils and their progress in learning English 2. Pupils and teacher can get to know each other better

Chosen Solutions:

1. Making fun activities based on the topics

(4)

1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

People should experience a learning process during their lives if they

want to be competent in English. We need to practice English much, do many

exercises and apply it daily. Besides, we also need motivation during our

learning process. Motivation can help us to reach the learning goal. Tileston

states that “Motivation relates to the drive to do something and it drives us to

try again when we fail” (2). I think that motivation is needed in our daily life,

especially for academic achievements.

Tileston says, “Every learner has two types of motivation” (3). The first one

is intrinsic motivation. Tileston says, “Intrinsic motivation is the drive that

comes from within; students do something for the sheer joy of doing it or they

want to discover something, answer a question, or experience the feeling of

self-accomplishment” (3). Tileston says, “Extrinsic motivation is motivation

that comes about because of the promise of tangible reward, the desire to do

(5)

2

motivation comes from ourselves, people around us and our surroundings.

People and our surroundings can help to increase our motivation. Besides the

result, sometimes punishment is also needed to motivate us. For example, a

student who is expelled from class because he make noise, later he will learn

from that mistake and try to avoid doing the same mistake.

Thus, motivation can be a force from inside us to get the best in our academic

achievements or it can also be from our surroundings that force us to prove

that we can achieve the target of learning.

After analyzing what motivation is and the types of motivation, in this

paragraph, I would like to discuss the teacher’s role towards the two types of

motivation. Donna Walker Tileston (3) believes that a teacher’s goal is to

guide the students to use their intrinsic motivation and give the students the

right perceptions about the use of rewards as celebrations for the good work.

It means that a teacher can combine the use of both intrinsic and extrinsic

motivation to help the pupils in their academic achievement.

Based on my observation during my internship and teaching experience at

Creative Learning, (henceforth CL) I found it difficult to help the pupils have

motivation in learning English. The two five-year-old pupils, Abiel and Nico, in

my Runner class often could not take the final test as it was scheduled but

just wanted to play computer. I used to teach them how to read and write with

different topics and activities. Meanwhile, I had to be able to use different

(6)

3

class. Taking different roles as a teacher gave me more difficulties, not only in

handling the pupils but also using my roles as a teacher appropriately.

Considering the important role of a teacher to help the pupils have

motivation in the learning process, in this term-paper, I have decided to

analyze how I, as a teacher, can handle two five-year-old pupils in Runner

class, Abiel and Nico, who lack motivation in learning English.

B. Identification of the Problem

The problem that I am going to analyze will be summarized in the

following questions:

1. Why do the two five-year-old Runner class pupils at CL lack motivation

in their learning process?

2. How can I, as a teacher, help the pupils to increase their motivation?

3. How can the parents and teachers help the pupils to have motivation in

learning English?

C. Objectives and Benefits of the Study

The objectives of the study are described in the following sentences:

1. To find out the causes of why the two five-year-old Runner class pupils

at CL do not have motivation in learning English.

2. To find out some creative ways to increase pupils’ motivation in

(7)

4

3. To find out the best way to help the pupils to have motivation in

learning English.

For the teachers of CL, I would like to make them realize that this kind of

problem really exists among their pupils, thus after they notice it, they can

create ways to increase pupils’ motivation. For the readers, especially the

parents, I hope that they can realize how important motivation is for their

children and they can also find out how they can increase their children’s

motivation. Finally, for myself in writing the term paper, I can get knowledge

about the characteristics of five-year-old pupils and relate it with the

appropriate teaching techniques and activities that can increase their

motivation in learning English.

D. Description of the Institution

CL started in 2001. At first its name was Kids 2 Success, but since the

ownership of this institution has changed, now the name has become CL. It

only has one main branch, which is located in Jl. Setrasari Plaza A/2. The

owner of CL is Mr. Setia Budi Teja.

CL is an educational institution which is established and programmed to

give English education as a foreign language to young learners. CL is not

only established for children to learn English, but also to develop children’s

intellect and emotional skills. Children study in a comfortable and pleasant

(8)

5

containing different topics for each level. Children will study the materials with

the main character, that is, a wallaby wearing black shoes; therefore, it is

called Blackfoot Wallaby. In each topic, there are some learning activities for

the children, for example, matching pictures, listening, reading, and finding

differences between two pictures.

CL has five levels and each level represents the ability of children.

There is Pre-K for children under five years old. Runner, Sprinter, and Jumper

are for children from kindergarten to elementary, while General English is the

highest level of all.

The vision of CL is to provide the right place for the children to learn

English with fun new teaching techniques. Besides the vision, CL also has a

mission, which is to make children like learning English and make the learning

process fun.

E. Method of the Study

The topic of my term paper is based on the analysis of the problem that I

found when I was doing my internship last semester. While I was doing my

internship, I did observation about the way they teach the children and how

they handle the children. I would like to use my observation and teaching

experience at CL to be able to find the best solution to the topic that I am

going to discuss in my study. The data for my analysis is taken from the

(9)

6

F. Limitation of the Study

The focus of my analysis is how to handle two five-year-old pupils, Abiel

and Nico, in Runner class at CL who lack of motivation to learn English at CL.

In order to find the best solution, I will analyze the causes, and the effects of

the problem, the characteristics of five-year-old pupils in my Runner class and

the best way to cooperate with parents to increase pupils’ motivation.

G. Organization of the Term Paper

The term paper starts with the Abstract as the outline of the whole term

paper, in Indonesian. The next part is the Declaration of Originality, which is

followed by the Acknowledgements, which contains the expression of

gratitude to the people who are related to my writing this term paper.

Afterwards, I put the Table of Contents, which presents the contents of term

paper, with the page numbers.

This term paper contains the following chapters. Chapter I presents the

introduction of the study. Chapter II explains all the causes and effects of the

problem. Chapter III describes the potential solutions related to the causes of

the problem. Chapter IV states the two suitable chosen solutions, which are

supported with some theories and examples to solve the problem.

I will also include Bibliography, which contains the sources of all the

theories that are used in the study, and Appendix, which contains the

(10)

(11)

18

CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION

In the previous chapters, I have analyzed the problem that occurred when

I was doing my internship. The problem is I had a difficulty in handling two

five-year-old pupils in the Runner class who lacked motivation in learning

English. There are four possible causes of the problem, namely, I did not

have any experience in teaching young learners, I did not vary the teaching

techniques, the activities for teaching the topics are limited based on the

workbooks, and I did not know the pupils well. There are also four effects that

the class activity would be distracted, pupils could not finish the target

learning of the assigned materials, the pupils would not make any significant

improvements in learning English, and pupils just played around in class.

There are four potential solutions to solve the problem; by observing the other

teachers’ ways of handling the pupils, exploring some variations of teaching

techniques, making fun activities based on the topics, and having

communication with the parents and pupils.

After analyzing the problem and the potential solutions, I would like to

(12)

19

problem. I have combined two potential solutions, which are making fun

activities based on the topics and having communication with parents and

pupils.

First, I try to increase pupils’ motivation by making fun activities based on

the topics. Even though the activities for teaching the topics are limited based

on the workbooks, as a teacher, I can relate the topics with fun activities to

make pupils more involved. Gonzalez says that “teachers can create

classroom environments that motivate young learners to engage in the

learning activity” (44). For example, I provided some fruits and vegetables for

the pupils in my Runner class to do the role play in a supermarket when we

discussed about supermarket.

Second, I try to have communication with parents and pupils. Parents and

teachers can cooperate together to solve the pupils’ academic problems in

order to know the best way to motivate the pupils. Due to the fact that pupils

spend most of the time with their parents, parents should know better about

the pupils’ needs. In addition, teacher needs to be close with the pupils. By

having communication with the pupils, I will have opportunities to know them

better, and furthermore, I will notice the suitable ways as to motivate them.

While I was doing my internship, I tried to be close with the pupils. I played

and chatted with them after class. As a result, I knew what I had to do to

motivate them in learning. For example, I could have asked Nico to pratice

(13)

20

to his brother, thus I could have used it to motivate him practicing to write by

writing his brother’s name.

I choose to combine these two potential solutions because Creative

Learning should pay more attention to pupils who lack motivation. Lacking of

motivation may lead to the failure of the pupils to achieve the learning goal.

Teachers at CL have to provide activities that give space for the pupils to

experience English by being involved in the activities. By doing those kind of

activities, pupils will be more motivated to learn and will also have curiosity

about the lessons. In conclusion, most five-year-old pupils still need help to

increase their motivation in learning English, both intrinsically and extrinsically;

(14)

(15)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Printed Source

Brumfit, Christopher, Jayne Moon, and Ray Tongue. Teaching English to

Children. London: Longman Group Ltd, 1996.

Dornyei, Zoltan, and Kata Csizer. “Ten Commandments for Motivating

Language Learners: Results of An Empirical Study.” Language Teaching

Research. July 1998: 203-229.

Eloctronic Sources

Gonzalez, Mena J. “Classroom Environment.” Major Trends and Issues in

Early Childhood Education. New York: Teacher College Press, 2003. 22

Oct 2009

<http://books.google.co.id/books?id=65gegDaEsToC&dq&lr=&as_brr=3&h

l=en&source=gbs_navlinks_s>.

Kelly, Melissa. “Choosing Your Roles.” The Everything New Teacher Book.

Boston: Everything Books, 2004. 13 Oct 2009

<http://books.google.co.id/books?id=_OfubFo956gC&dq=The+everything

(16)

Maranatha Christian University Macaro, Ernesto. “Target Learning Process.” Target Language, Collaborative

Learning and Autonomy. Canada: Multilingual Matters, 1997. 13 Oct 2009

<http://books.google.co.id/books?id=2bnmj2yqe5AC&printsec=frontcover

&dq=Ernesto+Macaro&hl=en#v=onepage&q=&f=false>.

Morris, Sidney. “Variation Teaching Techniques.” Teaching Practice:

Problems and Perspectives. London: Taylor and Francis, 1982. 13 Oct

2009

<http://books.google.co.id/books?id=89AOAAAAQAAJ&dq=Teaching+pra

ctice&hl=en&source=gbs_navlinks_s>.

Oesterreich, Lesia M.S. “Ages and Stages-Five-Year-Olds.” Par.2. 20 Oct

2009. <http://www.nncc.org/child.Dev/ages>.

“Parent/Teacher Conferences.” A to Z Teacher Stuff 10 Oct 2009. 20 Oct

2009.

<http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/Tips/Parent_Teacher_Conferences/>.

Ransom, Marsha. “Hands-On Projects.” The Complete Idiot’s Guide to

Homeschooling. Arkansas: Alpha Books, 2001. 19 Oct 2009

<http://books.google.co.id/books?id=ur_qaNhWCdQC&printsec=frontcove

r&dq=The+complete+idiot%27s+guide+to+homeschooling&hl=en#v=onep

age&q=&f=false>.

Richards, Jack C. and Theodore Stephen Rodgers. “Teacher Roles.”

Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridgeshire:

(17)

Maranatha Christian University <http://books.google.co.id/books?um=1&hl=en&q=Approach+and+method

+in+language+teaching&btnG>.

Roberts, Sylvia Mae. “Study Group.” Schools as Professional Learning

Communities. California: Corwin Press, 2003. 22 Oct 2009

<http://books.google.co.id/books?id=_SrjXabJBgIC&dq=Schools+as+prof

essional+learning&hl=en&source=gbs_navlinks_s>.

Tileston, Donna W. “What Every Teacher should know about Students’

Motivation.” What is Motivation?. California: Corwin Press, 2004. 13 Oct

2009

<http://books.google.co.id/books?id=_s7LOEISxYkC&dq=What+is+motivat

ion%3F&hl=en&source=gbs_navlinks_s>.

Wilson, William C. “School Teachers.” The Teacher’s Visitor. Canada: Oxford

University, 2006. 29 Oct 2009

<http://books.google.co.id/books?id=MjAEAAAAQAAJ&dq=the+teacher's+

(18)

Handling Five-Year-Old Pupils Who Lack Motivation in Learning English at Creative Learning.

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPENDIX

A. FLOWCHART

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

B. Identification of the Problem

C. Objectives and Benefits of the Study

D. Description of the Institution

E. Method of the Study

F. Limitation of the Study

G. Organization of the Term Paper

CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY