Case Study

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Non-English student’s motivation in learning English

 (A case study of three non-English department students)

Nia Zahara, Nenden Dwi Puspita Sari, and Syarifah Rahmah

2016

Islamic State University of Ar-Raniry

a.      Background of study

English is an international language used as a tool for communication in daily life and school. Learning English is a necessity and a must for all the people in the world, especially for the country that use English as a second or foreign language. In Indonesia, English is a foreign language. Every people need to learn English basically, because there are four skills to be mastered in English, there are listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

To achieve all of these skills, students need some motivation to learn English hardly. According to Uguroglu & Walberg (1979) motivation is essential for learning and achievement in all fields of human endeavor. Motivation and educational achievement as reflected in grade point average are positively correlated at all levels of schooling, elementary through college. The aim of this research is to know the motivation of non-English students in learning English.

b.      Research question

1.      How does non-English department students motivation in learning English?

c.       The Aim of Study

The aim of this research is to measure how does non-English students motivation in learning English.

d.      Terminology

According to Hornby’s dictionary motivation is something that makes people to do something.  Suhib Munir (2009) pointed out that motivation is one of factor which influences the successful of any activity, for instance language learning. This statement showed that learning English without motivation cannot be successful easily.

Based on Gardner and Lambert (1959) as stated in Hernandez (2008) instrumental motivation is the willingness of the learners to learn a new language and get some benefit by practicing it. Meanwhile, integrative motivation is the willingness of the learners to learn the culture of target language and engage in target language community.

e.       Research Methodology

This research was conducted in Islamic state university of Ar-Ranirry in Darussalam, Banda Aceh. This research was focus on small group of three social science learners as the participants. This research used qualitative approach. The researchers did an interview to collect the data and type of question is open-ended question that related to the topic.

f.       Finding and discussion

The first participant is Dessy Arinda, she is studying at PGMI in 7^th semester. She likes English, but she cannot speak English, because she does not studying well and the lack of vocabulary. The effort to increase her English, she tries to watching English movie frequently to improve her level in understand English. Then, her English ability has increase little by little. Her motivation in learning English is to pass the TOEFL test as the one of the requirement to graduate.

The second participant is Novia Athika, she is studying at Architecture Department in 3^rd semester. She likes English; she can speak English but not really well. She has two reasons why her English is not really well. The first is the factor of environment and the second is seldom to speak in English with who can speak in English too. The effort to increase her English, she tries to speak in English, although the grammatically is wrong. She said that she really want to be able speak in English fluently, because she want to go abroad someday.

Based on the result of interview with Indri Nadia as the third participants, she said that she likes English; even English is not her major. She said that English is very important in this globalization era; however she cannot speak in English. She said that speak in English is very hard for her. What has been written and how to pronounce is very different and it is confusing her very much. She wanted to learn English; however, whenever she tried to learn it, she felt down and say to herself that she never can understand English. One day, she realized that she needs to pass the TOEFL test as the requirement to graduate. As a student in last semester, she learns English very hard.

To sum up, based on the result by interview them, most of the motivation to learn English is to pass the TOEFL test and to be able go abroad. Because of this motivations, they learn English very hard than before they have the motivation. Learning with motivation will give best result for the learner.

Conclusion

This study aimed to describe the factor of lack motivation in learning English. This case study was conducted at Islamic states university of Ar-raniry which three learners in random sampling. They are from PGMI, Architecture, and Ilmu pustaka learner. The data was collected by interview method and the result show that the different factors, suggest like of vocabulary, environment and the last is hard to read and pronoun the word in English. Moreover, the main factors is English is very hard for them.

References

Gardner, R.C and Lambert. WE. (1959). Motivational variables in second language acquisition. Canadian Journal of Psychology: 13, 26-72.

Shuib. Munir (2009). Motivation and attitudes toward learning English: a study of petroleum engineering undergraduates at Hadhramout University of sciences and technology. GEMA online Journal of Language studies 9 (2). 2009.

Uguroglu, M.E and Walberg, H. (1979), Motivation and achievement: a quantitative synthesis, American             Educational Research Journal, 16. 375-390.

Quotation

Quotation is quote or takes someone’s idea or opinion that is famous and well knows. Commonly, we quote someone’s idea of book, newspaper, journal article, magazine, etc. There are two kinds of quote, direct quote and indirect quote. In direct quote, you should write it as same as the author write in his book by putting the quotation mark (“…”).  The second one is indirect quote. In indirect quote, we have to re-write someone’s idea with our own words, it is mean paraphrase. If you take someone’s idea purely, you do a plagiarism, this is a serious crime.

I will give you an example of direct quote and indirect quote.

1.      Direct quote:

“Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM) can be used to teach new vocabulary. Learners will classify their new words when they see the pictures, then building the concepts that will enable them to make a sense of words they have not seen before. They will develop word families and learn that the generalizations they make will enable them to unlock about 70 percent of new words they encounter.”

                                                                                                            - Xiaobin Li (2011)-

2.      Indirect quote:

Xiaobin Li (2011:6), it is stated that to teach new vocabulary, teacher can use Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM). Students will classify their new word when they look at the picture, then they will try to make a sense of the new words they never seen before. They will build word families and it will unlock about 70 percent of new words they face.

Paraphrase a Journal Article

Thesis needs lots of references. One of them is journal article. We can take information from journal article and put it in our thesis, but we cannot only take it purely. We need to paraphrase it by our own word to avoid plagiarism. Here is the example of paraphrasing the journal article.

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING PROCEDURE TEXT THROUGH PICTURE WORD INDUCTIVE MODEL

Werdi Rolando Damanik

Sri Juriaty Ownie

Introduction:

           

            Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing are four basic language skills which every student must master. However, nowadays active skills such as speaking and writing are very needed for education and business. Based on School Based Curriculum (KTSP), Junior High School Students are expected to write descriptive, procedure, recount, narrative, and report text. The researcher found the problem in students’ writing skill, according to researcher’s experience in Teaching Practice Program (PPL) in First Grade Senior High School. The researcher found some reasons by doing the interview and found that the students cannot organize ideas well, lack of vocabulary, always waiting the help from teacher, and the teaching technique that applied by teacher. Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM) was being chosen by the researcher to solve the problem. Students can evolve their idea through the picture to compose a sentence or paragraph. The researcher extracted to know if PWIM can improve students’ achievement in writing procedure on X grade students. The problem of this study is “Does Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM) improves students’ achievement in writing procedure text?”  The scope of study will be only focus on investigating the students’ achievement of X grade Students of SMA Negeri 1 Pematangsiantar in writing procedure text through the Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM) in order to get the best result.

The results of the study are expected both the theories and practice to be useful for:

1. The students who want to improve their ability in writing procedure test through the P icture Word Inductive Model (PWIM)

2. English teacher who teach writing particularly those who want to improve their students’ achievement in writing procedure text through the Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM) in order to decrease the problem of the study in the class.

3. The readers who are interested in conducting further study related to the improvement of students’ achievement in writing procedure text through the Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM)

Literature Review:

            According to Calhoun (1999, p.21) Picture Word Inductive Model is an art strategy to help students develop titles, sentences, and paragraph through the picture that given and labeled by the teacher. PWIM can help students to explain the picture into the sentences according to word charts on the picture. Help students to connect speaking-writing-reading is a major goal of PWIM.

The Procedure of Applying Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM)

The ten phases of PWIM that developed by Calhoun (1999) are:

1.      Selected a picture

2.      Ask student to identify what they see in the picture

3.      Label the picture parts identified

4.      Read and review the picture word chart aloud

5.      Ask the students to read and classifying the words

6.      Read and review the picture word chart (say the word, spell it and say it again).

7.      Add words,

8.      Lead students into creating a title

9.      Generate sentences and paragraphs

10.  Read and review the sentences and paragraphs.

The Advantages of Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM):

According to Wood, K.D., & Tinajero, J., (2002)

1.      PWIM helps second language learners to start learn a new language in their native language by accentuating phonics, grammar, mechanics, and usage of Standard English.

2.      New word, phrases, and sentences could be more real if given along the picture.

3.      Picture can help students to engage in the classroom activities about the current material and be a part of the teamwork.

4.      Frequently heard and pronounced the word correctly.

5.      Second language learners will guided by the tutor that can give them the word that has the close meaning with their native language.

6.      Picture word chart that given by the teacher also can enrich their vocabulary.

7.      Students can correlate the English language pattern and make them can use it appropriately.

8.      Students can spell and write the word correctly by hearing it frequently.

9.      Second language learner can learn from friends, parents, or teacher to give an example from the key concept.

Methodology:

This research use action research that focus on classroom action research. According to Burns (2010:2) generally, for some time in education, action research is a part of broad movement. Classroom action research implicate repeatedly phases, such as planning, acting, and reflecting.

The Subject of Research

The subject of this research was first grade, X-1 students of SMA Negeri 1 Pematangsiantar Academic Year 2012 which consist of 30 students. This school are consist 3 English teachers for the first grade. And there are ten classes of first grade, class X-1 to X-10.

The Instrument of collecting data

1.      Observation sheet

2.      Diary Note

The Procedure of Action Research

1.      Planning

2.      Action

3.      Observation

4.      Reflection

The Technique of Analyzing the Data:

The researcher uses qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative will analyze the observation sheet and diary note and quantitative data will analyze the result of students’ writing test.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The researcher found the improvement of students’ achievement on writing procedure text by using Picture Word Inductive Model by quantitative data analysis. It can be seen by data, which showed that the mean of the students in Test III (81.16%) was higher than in test II (67.13%) and also in Test I (52.40%). The improvement was not only happened in the mean of students’ score but also in the percentage of master students who got 70 points up. The percentage was improved from 10% in the Test I to 33.33% in the test II and 96.66% in the Test III.

The researcher also found the improvement by qualitative data analysis that the students enthusiasm and interest during teaching learning process was increased.

Based on the result above, PWIM had been successful to improve improved students’ achievement in writing procedure text.

There are positive results that students enjoy in writing and do not find any difficulties during teaching learning process using PWIM, also PWIM improve the students’ score because of this condition.

Based on the conclusion above, the researcher give some suggestions:

1.      Teacher can use PWIM in teaching writing because students really like it and it can increase students’ score.

2.      PWIM can help students easier to write and make the teaching learning process more interesting.

3.      May this research can help all reader to understand how to improve students’ achievement in writing through PWIM.

Reference:

Damanik, W.R, and Ownie, S.J. Improving Students’ Achievement in Writing Procedure Text through Picture Word Inductive Model.

Write a Formal e-mail

We used to send an e-mail to our friends and families. Of course, it must be non-formal e-mail. We do not need to write an e-mail formally for them. As a student university, we need to learn how to write a formal e-mail. Why? Because we need it to write an e-mail for lecturer, job application, scholarship, etc. I will give some information how to write a formal e-mail.

First, you need to write “Subject e-mail” clearly and shortly. The e-mail receiver will look at your e-mail as an important e-mail not as a spam. Second, use a polite word. Choose as polite as possible to greet the e-mail receiver. Do not forget to introduce yourself.  Then, deliver your purpose clearly and politely. Avoid the grammatical and spelling error.

Here is the example of formal e-mail to lecturer:

Subject e-mail: English Department Student-Proposal

Assalamu’alaikum

Greeting: Dear Mr. Mustafa

Introduction: I am Nenden Dwi Puspita Sari from English Department. Purpose: You are my proposal advisor. I want to discuss about my proposal with you. When do you have a time, sir? Wassalam.

Journal Analysis

As last semester students, we need to write a thesis. We need some journal article as our references. In analyzing journal article, firstly, we need to know the method. How the writer collected the data. Next, we need to know the finding of the journal. Then, the discussion and last is the conclusion. Here is the example of journal analysis.  

TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY USING

PICTURES TO THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS OF

SDN TUGU JEBRES NO. 120 SURAKARTA

Himayatus Sholihah

2009

This research use qualitative methodology. The writer did a classroom research at the fifth grade students of SDN Tugu Jebres. The writer tells the reader the step of the process of teaching English vocabularies by using pictures in this class.

The Influences of Using Pictures in Teaching English Vocabulary

1. To improve the students’ motivation

Students enthusiastic were very high when the teacher showed them the picture. Their motivation to learn English also high and it make them really like to learn new vocabulary. This makes the improvement of students’ vocabulary. 

2. To attract the Students’ attention

Picture is always success to attract students’ attention. Because when the teacher teach them a new vocabulary and show the picture of it, the students will focus on the lesson. When their attention is on the lesson, they will learn it easily.

3. Pictures help the students to memorize the vocabularies

When the teacher uses the picture when teaching a new vocabulary, the student will understand it easily. Because by using picture is important to make a vocabulary related to its meaning. When the student can understand it, they will remember it easily.

4. To make the teaching learning activity more interesting

Student really likes to learn something new with an interesting method. Using picture is one of it. When the teacher shows them the picture, they will enjoy the lesson and never get bored. As the result, the class will be more interesting.

Conclusion

By the positive points above, using picture in teaching vocabulary is good technique to enhance the students’ vocabulary. The student can remember easily and use the vocabulary appropriately. It can make a conclusion that using pictures is effective in the teaching English vocabulary.

Free Websites for English Learner

Language is a skill, means that it does not come easily to our life. We need to learn it if the language is not our mother tongue, such as English. By learning and practicing, we could understand and use English as our language. There are a lot of websites that provide English learning content for free. For instance are Colorin Colorado, EverythingESL, and Manythings.org.

Colorin Colorado (Colorincolorado.org) is the website that provides several features which we can use to improve our English skill. One of the features that interest me is resource library. In resource library, it filled with tools and materials that we can use in the classroom, with parents, for our professional development. As a future teacher, I need to learn not only about English but also need to know which material that best for my student in the appropriate grade.

The second website that interested me is EverythingESL.net. In this website, there is a feature that provides teaching tips. I saw a lot of articles that give the reader a lot of tips how to face  many type of students. This is very useful for me as a future English teacher to face the real student with various types and various problems. Also, we can contact the admin of this website directly if we have a problem in learning and teaching English.

The last website is Manythings.org. There is a feature named “slang & idiom”. In this feature, we can a lot of idiom/slang with the meaning below the sentence. It will enrich my list of idiom & slang , also let me know the meaning easily, so I can use the idiom and slang appropriately.

To improve our English and teaching English skill we need to learn, learn, and learn. We can learn it from everywhere. Those websites above are the example that we can learn English much easier. Those websites are really useful to improve my English and teaching English skill.

Critically Reading Journal Articles

Read a journal article is not easy. To comprehend the journal article, we need to do some step to read a journal critically

First of all, we need to understand about the meaning of the topic. By the title, we will know what the journal will discuss. Then, read the abstract of the journal. Abstract will explain about the summary of the whole journal. You are disallowed to only read the abstract, however abstract will help you to comprehend the whole journal. Then, read the introduction. In introduction, we will know what and why the research is conducted. The most essential thing is you have to know the method that the researcher used in composing the journal. Does the researcher used the appropriate method or does the method give the accurate result? Another essential thing is reading the result of the research. Does it related between the hypothesis and the result. Then, read the advantages of the result of this journal that can we use in our real life. Does the result give us a new knowledge that we never seen before. Last is the conclusion. In conclusion, we can read the important summary of the journal. Then, we will know about the next research based on the findings in the journal.