1 English Education Study Program – STKIP PGRI West Sumatera [2017]
LEARNING STYLE OF LOW GRADE STUDENTS IN ENGLISH LEARNING PROCESS
( A Study at The Third Grade of SMA N 11 Padang )
Wike Marta*), Melvina, M.Ed**), dan Hevriani Sevrika, M.Pd***).
*)Students of English Department STKIP PGRI Sumatera Barat E-mail : martawike2@gmail.com
**)Lecturer at English Department STKIP PGRI Sumatera Barat E-mail: melvina.stkippgrisumbar@gmail.com
***)Lecturer at English Department STKIP PGRI Sumatera Barat E-mail: sevrikariecha@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
This research was aims to find out what are learning styles of low grade students in English learning process. This research could reveal the information about learning styles of low grade students in English learning process. Furthermore, this research is categorized as descriptive qualitative research. The subject in this research is low grade students in SMA N 11 Padang.
Meanwhile, the participants are class XII IPA 4 were chosen by using cluster sampling technique.
In collecting the data, the researcher distributed the questionnaires that consisted of the indicators about the types learning styles to participants. Based on the data analysis, the students of XII grade especially low grade students have different learning styles, such as vary auditory learning styles, visual learning styles and kinesthetic learning styles. In this research showed low grade students mostly have kinesthetic learning style with a percentage of 36%.
ABSTRAK
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui apa saja gaya belajar dari siswa yang berada di dalam kelas yang tidak unggul dalam proses belajar bahasa Inggris. Pelaksanaan penelitian ini menemukan informasi tentang apa saja model gaya belajar dari siswa yang berada di dalam kelas yang tidak unggul dalam proses belajar bahasa Inggris. Lebih lanjut, penelitian ini adalah penelitian deskriptif kualitatif. Subject dalam penelitian ini adalah siswa kelas tidak unggul di SMA N 11 Padang. Sedangkan yang menjadi partisipan adalah kelas XII IPA 4 yang ditentukan menggunakan teknik cluster sampling. Dalam mengumpulkan data, peneliti menyebarkan angket yang berisi indikasi-indikasi dari tipe gaya belajar kepada para partisipan. Dari analisa data, siswa kelas XII IPA khususnya kelas yang tidak unggul memiliki gaya belajar yang berbeda-beda, yaitu gaya belajar auditori, gaya belajar visual, dan gaya belajar kinesthetic. Dalam penelitian ini menunjukan siswa kelas tidak unggul lebih banyak memiliki gaya belajar kinesthetic dengan persentase sebanyak 36%.
Keyword : Learning Style, Auditory, Visual, Kinesthetic.
**) Melvina, M.Ed
***) Hevriani Sevrika, M.Pd
2 INTRODUCTION
Learning is something that is already owned by someone without their prior learning. It will not be lost, but it will increase if they continue to learn continuously. To get learning, who can also with learning process in the school or any environment. The activity or process of gaining knowledge or skill is studying, practicing, being taught, or experiencing something and the activity of someone who learns. Learning process is the place to get knowledge, information and develop our skills. In the learning process, the students can use good learning styles to get good learning outcomes. It can make students to feel comfortable when learning. Learning style is style of someone in learning to get knowledge and information. Every student has different style in the class. For example some students will find it more effective and better by using more listening, but others feel better by reading and some even feel that the result will be optimal if they learn to immediately put into practice what they learn.
Based on the researcher experience, when researcher had practice teaching at SMA N 11 Padang, researcher found some problem in school. Researcher found there are some students who get low achieving and high achieving in English learning process. SMA N 11 Padang has two kind of pieces of the grade. The grade is high or good grade students and low grade students.
Some students come to the low grade because she does not care about knowledge.
Low grade students come to the school and play with their friend as long as learning process. When learning process, the students do not understand with the material. Low grade students are just busy with themselves.
Low grade students also do not have good learning style in learning process.
Based on the phenomena above, the researcher concluded that, learning style of the students can give effect for learning outcomes of the students. Because learning style also gives influence in learning process. Therefore, the researcher interest does this research about learning style of students achieving especially low grade students.
Definition of Learning Style
Learning style is how the characteristics’ of the students to get knowledge in the class environment. Honey and Mumford (2011:114) describe that learning style as an individual preferred or habitual ways of processing and transforming knowledge. It means that learning style is the way of the students to get knowledge and transforming knowledge.
Therefore, learning style can be improved of students’ knowledge. Knowledge is something good to be relevant to get achievement or academic achievement of students. Learning style is characteristic of the students to get knowledge and transforming ideas in learning process.
Learning style is how style of the students in classroom. For example style of the students when interaction with their friend or teacher, and then how the students answer the question of the teacher, thus how the student style when do discussion with their group.
With learning style, the students also improve skill and knowledge to get achieving. With learning style the students can improve their skill.
The Types of Learning Style Visual Learning Style
Visual is related to sight or everything that can be seen. According to Yong (2010:481), visual learning style refers to preference learning for through vision and visual learners rely on their sight to take the information. They organize the knowledge in terms of spatial interrelationship among ideas and store it graphically. It can be comprehended that visual learning style is students’ preference ways to acquiring, using, and thinking of knowledge on visual sense. Visual learners tend to talk active, reader speed and diligent and tidy. Thus, they learn best by seeing and tend to less in verbal things.
There are some characteristic of the students visual learning style, they can memorize the material better when it is presented by using visual media such as power point presentation, videos, pictures, diagrams and graphs. Gecowets (2008:17) visual learners can retain more information
3 when they can see something that
graphically depicts what they are trying to learn. these students, when asked to spell a word, often need to write it down rather than spelling it out loud. they do well outlining material they have read and going back to highlight and picture important points in their minds.
Auditory Learning Style
Auditory learning is a learning style in which a person learns through listening.
Gilakjani (2012:106) pointed out; auditory learners discover information through listening and interpreting information by the means of pitch, emphasis and speed. It means, auditory learners is based on what he listen and discover all information with listening. Auditory learners learn best through hearing and also can remember the details of conversations.
Here are the characteristic of auditory learner, elaborated by Potter and Mike (2005:118), they pointed that auditory learners talking to own self when working, getting easy to be disturbed by noise, making lips move when they are reading a book, prefer reading loud and listen, feeling difficult to write, but great in telling story, speaking in the good rhythm, used to be fluent speaker, listening to music rather than art, learning by listening and remembering what they discussed rather than seeing, speaking, discuss and telling story completely, having a job problem which to commit to visualization, spelling loudly rather than to write, making a joke than to read comic.
Kinesthetic Learning Style
Kinesthetic Learning Style is the way people absorb information through physical, likely they use their body or sense of touch to learn and understand the world around them. Reid (1987:89) stated, Kinesthetic learning: experiential learning that is total physical involvement with a learning situation. The point is the way someone in learning by involving their bodies to understand something and also it so easy they are to learn.
The characteristic of kinesthetic lerners is Kinesthetic students prefer the tactile sense. They are poor listeners, learn by doing, express emotions physically, and have an outgoing personality. They must touch or feel to understand. They learn best by engaging in hands-on activities (Vincent
& Dianne 2000:6). If they can touch and feel whatever they are learning about, the kinesthetic/tactile learner will process and remember the information quite well. As students in a classroom, these people are usually quite restless, have more difficulty paying attention, and “can’t seem to get focused” (a visual term). These learners like to speak about learning in terms of their feelings and say things like “I feel” or “I’d like to get a better handle on this information.”
Low-Achieving Students
Achieving is covers learning in other areas of the life of the school, and in the variety of activities children and young people are involved. Achieving it is important recognize and support students’
achieving. It can help to develop their confidence and motivation for learning. It can also help them to reflect on their learning and plan appropriate next steps.
Achieving has two parts, such as high achieving and low achieving.
Here the characteristic of low-achieving students. Valas (2001:30) stated the following characteristic displayed by low- achieving students: attribution, expectations, helplessness, selfesteem, and deppression.
an additional the characteristic of low achieving students. According to Brown &
Hazel (1988:11) Possible Characteristics of the Low-Achieving Student is academic difficulties, lack of structure (disorganized), inattentiveness, distractibility, short attention span, low self-esteem, health problems, excessive absenteeism, dependence, discipline problem, narrow range of interest, lack of social skills, inability to face pressure, fear of failure (feels threatened by learning), lack of motivation.
4 RESEARCH METHOD
This study was expected to analyze learning styles of low grade students in English learning process. Descriptive research is meant to analyze the types learning style of low grade students in English learning process. In this research, the researcher investigated the types of learning styles in English learning process in SMA N 11 Padang. The researcher took low grade students of the population. Thus, to choose the sample the researcher chose grade XII IPA 4.
However, In this research questionnaire were used as the instruments.
In collecting the data for questionnaire, the researcher distributed the questionnaires to the low grade students. Then, after the students finished filling the questionnaire, the researcher collected all of the questionnaires to be analyzed to get the results of the research so that the research question can be answered. Based on the questionnaires that had been filled by the respondents, the researcher counted the respondents’ choices for each item about the types learning styles of low grade students.
After that, the researcher analyzed the result for each indicator and elaborated her analysis toward this result.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
the researcher found the answer for the research question that had been stated previously. The researcher found that the types learning style of low grade students is auditory learning style, visual learning style, and kinesthetic learning style. The low grade students has different learning style in English learning process. The low grade students mostly used kinesthetic learning style than visual or auditory learning style in English learning process. The result of questionnaire face differences between all types of learning style that low grade students used in learning process. The findings are represented by the table below:
Figure 1 : Research finding
Based on the table above, it could be seen that the third grade science students of SMA N 11 Padang had different learning style in English learning process. The low grade students used all the types of learning styles in English learning process.with the learning styles, the low grade students learn best by auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning to get knowledge in learning process.
In this research, researcher can found the low grade students always use some type learning style in English learning process.
Based on the characteristic of auditory learner, elaborated by Potter and Mike (2005:118) they pointed that auditory learners talking to own self when working, prefer reading loud and listen, listening to music rather than art. Auditory learning get help students learn best by listening and memorize information with song and something their can learn. Than, Visual learning help students learn best by seeing, reading, and watching to make remember about something in learning process. Potter and Hernacki (2005:116) were covering the characteristic of visual learners, visual learners are good in remembering what they see and good in memorizing using visual association. Next Kinesthetic learning help students learn best by handling the texture and shapes of objects in learning process.
Vincent & Dianne 2000:6) said kinesthetic learners is learn by doing, express emotions physically, and have an outgoing personality, and they must touch or feel to
Auditory 35%
Visual 29%
Kinesthe tic 36%
Learning Style of Low
Grade Students
5 understand. Kinesthetic learners learn best
by engaging in hands-on activities.
Sometimes the low achieving students use different learning style in learning process it depent on their need in learning.
Based on the explanation above, the low grade students used different learning style such as auditory, visual, and kinesthetic in English learning process. It is based on the questionnaire of low grade students researcher got.
CONCLUSION
In collecting the data about learning style by low grade students in English learning process. The researcher give questionnaire for the students. The respondent of this research were 24 students of one class. The participants are taken by cluster sampling. The researcher used questionnaire as instrument. After getting the data from responden, researcher analyzed the data by reading or memoing, describing, classifying and interpreting, that was stated in the research design.
In the fourth chapter, based on the questionnaire, researcher found some type of learning styles by low achieving students in English learning process. The low grade students used all the types of learninng styles such as auditory, visual, and kinesthetic as long as English learning process. Based on result of questionnaire, the low grade students more used kinesthetic learning style in English class. Because they learn best by experience, touching feeling and manipulate object as long as learning process.
SUGGESTION
Based on the data found by researcher, there are learning styles by low grade students in English learning process. First, the teacher knows about what learning styles of low grade students in English learning process in SMA N 11Padang. Second students know about the learning styles in learning process in SMA N 11 Padang.
Third, readers are given new knowledge about learning styles. Last, researcher not only gets new knowledge but also has preparation to teach for the future tense as educators in inside and outside classroom.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Alhamdulillahirabbil’alamin. Praise to The Almighty Allah S.W.T and to The Beloved Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. A very special thanks and appreciation are given to the advisors, Melvina, M.Ed., and Hevriani Sevrika, M.Pd., who have been kind and willing to give their times, energy, opinions, suggestions, and supports in completing this thesis. The researcher’s appreciation also goes to the contributors, Willy Satria, M.Pd., Syayid Sandi Sukandi, S.S, M.A., and Astuti Pratiwi, M.Pd., who have given contributions to make this thesis better.
Then, the researcher would also like to express her deepest thanks to her family who always give support and motivation in finishing this thesis.
REFERENCES
Gecowets, M. 2008. Are You Ready to Teach?. United State of America.
Gilakjani AP. 2012. Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic Learning Styles and Their Impact on English Language Teaching.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/jse.v2il.10 07.pdf
Honey and Mumford. 2011. Learning Styles and Overall Academic Achievement in Specific Educational System. Vol.1
Keefe. 2011. Learning Styles and Overall Academic Achievement in Specific Educational System. Vol.1 Porter DB and Hernacky M. 2005.
Quantum Learning Unleasing The Genius in You by Alwiyah Abdurrahman.
Reid Joy M. 1987. The Learning Style Prefences of ESL Students. TESOL QUARTERLY. Vol.21 No.1
Reid Joy M. 1998. Understanding Learning Styles in the Second Language Classroom. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall Regents.
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