THE STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS L2 USED BY THE TEACHER IN EFL CLASSROOM Restu Kamila Dewi Agasty1 Rahmat2 Siliwangi University 2014
[email protected] 112122049 Abstrak Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui sikap siswa kelas X SMAN 3 Tasikmalaya terhadap Bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa sasaran yang digunakan oleh guru dalam kegiatan belajar mengajar, apakah sikap mereka positif atau negatif. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah kualitatif dimana fenomena yang terjadi dijelaskan secara rinci dan jelas. Teknik pengumpulan data diperoleh dengan menggunakan kuesioner yang diberikan kepada responden. Data yang terkumpul dianalisis berdasarkan teori komponen – komponen attitude dari Gardner (1985) yaitu, kognitif, afektif, dan tingkah laku. Hasil dari kuesioner menunjukan bahwa 58,42% siswa memiliki sikap positif dan 42,58% menunjukan sikap negatif, dimana sikap positif didominasi oleh komponen kognitif. Berdasarkan hasil yang diperoleh menunjukan, siswa memiliki pengetahuan dan keyakinan bahwa penggunaan bahasa sasaran oleh guru dalam kegiatan belajar mengajar itu penting dan bermanfaat. Namun, partisipasi siswa dalam kegiatan belajar mengajar masih sangat kurang. Hal ini disebabkan karena siswa kurang percaya diri untuk berkomunikasi menggunakan bahasa sasaran dan lebih senang jika guru mengajar menggunakan bahasa ibu. Dapat ditarik kesimpulkan bahwa siswa yang memiliki sikap positif perlu dipertahankan dan ditingkatkan sementara siswa yang memilik sikap negatif perlu dirubah menjadi positif. Kata kunci: Sikap Siswa, Bahasa Inggris sebagai Bahasa Asing, Bahasa Inggris yang digunakan oleh guru. Abstract This research aims to know the students’ attitude towards L2 used by the taecher in EFL classroom, whether it is positive or negative. Qualitative method is used in this research to describe a phenomenon clearly. The data is collected by giving questionnaire to the respondent. Further, the data are analysed based on the components of attitude from Gardner (1985), they are cognitive, affective, and conative. The results show that 58.42% students have positive attitude and 42.58% students are negative. Positive attitude is dominated by cognitive component. Based on the results, the students have knowledge and belief that L2 used by the tacher in teaching learning process is important and useful. However, the students’ participation are low. It because the students lack of confidence to use L2 in classroom interaction. Besides, they prefer if the teacher teaches using The Writer 1 The Supervisor 2
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L1. Therefore, it can be concluded that the students’ positive attitude have to be maintained and increased. While the students’ negative attitude have to be changed. Keywords: Students’ Attitude, EFL Classroom, Teacher’s L2
A. Introduction The use of language in foreign language learning still be a controversial issue. Some theories argue that using target language (L2) in foreign language learning is more effective than using L1. Regarding to these problems, there is an important thing that can be a consideration before teaching learning process, it is knowing the studets’ attitude. According to Inal, Sevim, et al. (2003:38), “...attitude is an integral part of learning and that it should, therefore, become an essential component of second language learning pedagogy.” It means, students’ attitude as an essential component in langauge learning is important part in teaching second language. Therefore, it must be known by the teacher to support learning process. On the other hand, knowing students’ attitude help the teacher to use the language properly. This kind of research have been conducted by Rukh, Samar, et al. (2014) that investigated the business students in Sargodha attitude towards teacher’s code switching/code mixing to L1 in learning L2. They found that the students have positive attitude and positive effect on L2 learning. Meanwhile, this research aims to know the attitude of the tenth grade students of SMAN 3 Tasikmalaya towards L2 used by the teacher. This need to be known because teacher’s language is a part of the way of teaching that can influence the students motivation to learn the language. 1.
Teaching L2 in EFL Classroom Second language is the language acquired after the first language through a process called second language acquisition. According to Ellis, Rod (1997:3), “... ‘second’ can refer to any language that is learned subsequent to the mother tongue.” It means that the language which is learned or acquired after the first language is called second language.Teaching and learning the target language by using the target language itself is the best way to get the best result. It makes the learners become accustomed to hear and try to speak in the target language. Knop, Constance K. (1980:2) says, “ Thus, it is important for foreign language teachers to consider how they can increase the use of the target language in classroom interactions so as to promote students’ oral proficiency.” It means teaching the target language by using the target language itself as a rule in teaching learning process is an important way to gain the best result. In line with it, Crouse, Douglas (2012:24) says, “ACTFL (American Council of Teaching Foreign Language) The Writer 1 The Supervisor 2
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therefore recommends that language educators and their students use the target language as exclusively as possible (90% plus) at all levels of instruction during instructional time and, when feasible, beyond the classroom.” It means, using the target language as much as possible by the teacher and students in EFL classroom activity will make the target language acquisition effectively. Thus, using target language in language learning is important to make language acquisition more effective and gain the best results. Students’ Attitude and the Components of Attitude There is an essential part that should be noticed in language learning, it is students attitude. Attitude is shown as a reaction of an object or circumtances. Gardner, R. C. (1985:9) states, “An individual attitude is an evaluative reaction to some referent or attitude object, inferred on the basis of the individual’s beliefs or opinions about the referent.” Further, Schiff, Myra R. (1970:6) says, “An organized set of definition of feelings and beliefs which will influence an individual’s behavior.” It means, attitude is the result of an individual’s beliefs or point of view which stimulates evaluative reaction and it influences to his or her behavior. There are two kinds of attitude, positive and negative. Attitude is formed by the three main components, they are cognitive, affective and conative. According to Baker (1992) as quoted by Kansikas, Minna (2002:12), “More precisely, attitudes can be defined into three main components: cognition, affect and readiness for action.” In line with it, Gardner, R . C. (1985:8) says, “Attitudes are said to have cognitive, affective, and conative components. Harding et al. 1954. The cognitive component refers to the individual’s belief structure, the affective to emotional reaction, and the conative tendency to behave toward the attitude object.” Based on those statements, attitude contains three components. They are cognitive, affective and conative. Cognitive refers to belief which means the evaluation towards an object based on experience. Affective refers to emotional reactions or feelings to an object, whether it is favourable or unfavourable. Conative refers to someone’s action that is related to the all components. It is also called behavioral or readiness for action. Every students has own attitude that is formed by the direct experience or modelling others. It is influenced by the students’ close environment, such as family and school environment. As Lennartsson, Frida (2008:7) says, “The attitudes are shaped by the social factors mentioned, which, in turn, influence learner outcome.” It means that environment has a great role to shape students attitude. The previous explanation state there are two kinds of attitude and they can be changed. Those influence to the students’ language learning. To change the students’ attitude, the teacher needs to consider all aspect of attitude. Pickens, 2.
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Jeffrey (2005:50) says, “To change a person’s attitude you need to adress the cognitive and emotional components.” In the other words, changing someone attitude can be done by considering the cognitive and affective component first. Because behaviour is based by those both components. Knowing the students’ attitude before teaching learning process help the teacher to consider the way of teaching, included the students’ attitude towards L2 used by the teacher. It can help the teacher to use the language properly. B. Method of the Research Qualitative method is used in this research. It aims to describe the phenomenon clearly. Likert scale that designed into two options “Yes or No” representated agreement and disagreement is used to measure the students’ attitude. The research is conducted in the tenth grade of SMAN 3 Tasikmalaya by giving the questionnaire to 335 students. The results of the questionnaire is analysed based on the theory of components of attitude from Gardner (1985), they are cognitive, affecive and conative. C. Results and Discussion The results shows that 58.42% students have positive attitude. It means, the students’ attitude in accordance with cognitive, affective and conative components towards L2 used by the teacher are positive. Theoritically positive attitude refers to good thought and belief, emotion or feeling and behaviour towards L2 used by the teacher. These condition influence the students interest and motivation to learn English. So that, the second language acquisition will be processed more effective. However, there is 42.58% negative attitude of the students. It means, the students have negative belief and thought, feeling or emotion and behaviour towards L2 used by the teacher. This condition will hamper the language learning. It can be seen on the pie chart 1 belows. Pie Chart Students' Attitude towards L2 Used by the Teacher
Positive Attitude 58.42%
42.58% 58.42%
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Negative Attitude 42.58%
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The highest positive attitude is contributed by cognitive component, it is 27.35%. It means, the students mostly have knowledge and certainity that using English while teaching learning process is good for their language development. However, the result shows 17.09% students’ answer represent negative cognitive attitude. The students have less knowledge that using English more while teaching learning process is beneficial. Furthermore, the students have positive attitude affectively. The result shows that 20.25% students feel happy when the teacher teaches using English. They also know the importance of using English in teaching learning process for their language development. Oppositely, there are 13.08% students’ that shows negative attitude. It proves that the students dislike if the teacher teaches using English. On the other words, the students are prefer the teacher teaches using L1. Moreover, the students have negative conative attitude. It is proved by the students’ negative answer is higher than the positive one. The 11.41% students answers are negative while 10.81% students answers are positive. It is clearly enough that the result shows the students have negative conative attitude. In the other words, it proves that students do not involve to perform in English class. Based on the explanations, generally the students have positive attitude towards L2 used by the teacher in teaching learning process.In the other words, basically the students have belief that using English as much as possible in teaching learning process is useful. Besides, most of the students enjoy and enthusiastic when the teacher teaches using L2. However, the students have negative attitude towards L2 used by the teacher in the conative component. So that, besides increasing the students knowledge about the benefit of the use of L2 in teaching learning process, the teacher has to change the students’ negative attitude into positive one. 1. Description of Cognitive Component of Students’ Atitude No 2
6
8 9
Cognitive aspect Mendengarkan guru mengajar menggunakan bahasa Inggris mempertajam kemampuan menyimak saya. Menggunakan bahasa Inggris ketika belajar membuat saya percaya diri untuk bisa berbicara bahasa Inggris. Saya yakin belajar bahasa asing menggunakan bahasa itu sendiri lebih efektif. Semakin banyak penggunaan bahasa Inggris oleh guru saya
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Yes
No
Att.
72.84%
27.16%
+
64.78%
35.22%
+
76.42%
23.58%
+
66.27 %
33.73 %
+
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No
Cognitive aspect ketika mengajar membuat saya semakin suka belajar bahasa Inggris. Bahasa Inggris yang digunakan 14 guru saya sangat mudah dipahami Bahasa Inggris yang digunakan 27 guru saya sangat bagus Saya merasa terhambat jika guru 13 saya mengajar bahasa Inggris menggunakan bahasa Indonesia. Saya mendapatkan banyak kosakata baru ketika guru saya 17 mengajar menggunakan bahasa Inggris. Banyak mendengar guru mengajar dengan menggunakan 20 bahasa Inggris akan memperkaya pengetahuan saya tentang bahasa tersebut. Penggunaan bahasa Inggris oleh guru saya ketika mengajar 10 membuat nilai bahasa Inggris saya lebih baik. Saya selalu bisa mengerjakan PR 11 bahasa Inggris dengan benar. Saya selalu mendapat pujian 16 ketika berbicara bahasa Inggris dengan guru saya. Total cognitive attitude Cognitive component contributing to students’ attitude
Yes
No
Att.
69.25 %
30.75 %
+
81.19 %
18.91%
+
11.94 %
88.06 %
-
87.76 %
12.24 %
+
91.64 %
8.36 %
+
58.81%
41.19%
+
36.42%
63.58 %
-
21.19 %
78.81%
-
61,54%
38,46%
27,35%
17,09%
2. Description of affective component of students’ attitude No 24 25
26
Affective aspect Saya suka Bahasa Inggris yang digunakan oleh guru saya. Saya tidak suka jika belajar bahasa Inggris dicampur menggunakan bahasa lain. Saya lebih suka jika guru saya mengajar menggunakan bahasa Inggris saja.
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Yes
No
Att.
71.04 %
28.96 %
+
24.18 %
75.82 %
-
15.22 %
84.78 %
-
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No
Affective aspect Belajar dengan menggunakan bahasa Inggris penting karena 1 bisa meningkatkan kemampuan saya. Banyak menggunakan bahasa Inggris ketika proses belajar itu 18 penting untuk membantu saya agar lebih cepat menguasai bahasa tersebut. Mengajar menggunakan bahasa asing penting untuk melatih saya 22 berkomunikasi menggunakan bahasa tersebut. Saya senang jika guru saya 3 berbicara menggunakan bahasa Inggris. Saya lebih semangat belajar jika 4 guru saya mengajar menggunakan bahasa Inggris. Saya tidak kesulitan jika guru 5 mengajar menggunakan bahasa Inggris. Total affective component Affective component contributing to students’ attitude
Yes
No
Att.
98.21 %
1.79 %
+
88.06 %
11.94 %
+
92.24 %
7.76 %
+
65.97 %
34.03 %
+
47.76 %
52.24 %
-
44.18 %
55.82 %
-
60,76%
39,24%
20,25%
13,08%
3. Description of conative component of students’ attitude No 7
19 21
12
15
Conative aspect Saya selalu aktif menjawab pertanyaan guru yang disampaikan menggunakan bahasa Inggris. Saya lebih aktif saat diskusi menggunakan bahasa Inggris. Saya selalu memperhatikan penjelasan guru bahasa Inggris saya dengan baik. Saya lebih banyak berkomunikasi menggunakan bahasa Inggris dengan guru saya. Saya ingin jika guru saya mengajar lebih banyak menggunakan bahasa Inggris.
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Yes
No
Att.
35.82%
64.18%
-
6.27 %
93.73 %
-
83.58 %
16.42 %
+
6.27 %
93.73 %
-
55.52%
44.48%
+
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No
Conative aspect Menggunakan bahasa Inggris 23 ketika belajar membua saya lebih banyak berlatih bahasa tersebut. Total conative component Conative component contributing to students’ attitude
Yes
No
Att.
92.54 %
7.46 %
+
48,66%
51,34%
10,81%
11,41%
D. Conclusion Attitude is as an essential part of language learning. Attitude contains of belief, feeling or emotions that is represented into action. Knowing the students’ attitude towards L2 used by the teacher is important because it influences the students’ attitude and their motivation towards foreign language learning. Besides,the teacher knows whether the use of L2 in teaching learning process is helpful or no. Further, the teacher is able to decide how teach them properly. The tenth grade students of SMAN 3 Tasikmalaya have positive attitude towards L2 used by the teacher. The result shows 58.42% students have positive attitude. In the other words, basically the students have positive belief, feeling and behaviour towards the use of L2 by the teacher. They are certain that using L2 in teaching learning process is helpful to increase their language proficiency. They feel enjoy and favourable when the teacher teaches using target language. Meanwhile, 42.58% students shows negative attitude. In the other words the students have unfavourable belief, feeling and behaviour towards L2 used by the teacher. It is dominated by the conative component. It indicates that the students tend to avoid interacting in the target language learning process. Based on the explanations above, the students who have positive attitude have to be maintained, while the students who have negative attitude have to be changed. Changing attitude can be done succesfully if both the teacher and the students are able to be cooperated. The students’ attitude has to be a consideration for the teacher to decide the appropriate method to teach them. E. Suggestions After knowing this research results, the teacher need to consider the use of L2 in teaching learning process, whether it is helpful or not. The teacher has to maintain the students’ positive attitude and change the students’ neagtive attitude into positive one.
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This research focuses on the students’ attitude towards L2 used by the teacher. The further researcher is suggessted to conduct the comparative study about the use of L1 and L2 in EFL classroom. It is to prove which language that most influences and effective for the English foreign language learning, whether L2 or vice versa. References Crouse, Douglas. (2012). How to Stay in the Target Language. The Language Educator: American Council Teaching Foreign Language (ACTFL) Ellis, Rod. (1997). Second Language Acquisition. New York: Oxford University Press. Gardner R. C. (1985). Social Psychology and Second Language Learning: The Role of Attitudes and Motivation. USA: Edward Arnold. İnal, Sevim, et al. (2003). “The Relationship between Students’ Attitudes towards Foreign Language and Foreign Language Achievement”. 1st International Conference on Approaches to the Study of Language and Literature. İzmir, October 1-3 2003. Kansikas, Minna. (2002). “As Many Men So Many Minds”: A Study on Attitude towards Foreign Languages in Finland. Finland: University of JYVÄSKYLÄ. Knop. Constance K. (1999). Increasing Use of the Target Language in Classroom Interaction. [Online] Available. http://www.oomroom.com/resources/knop_article.PDF. [January, 13th 2015]. Lennartsson, Frida. (2008). Students’ motivation and attitudes towards learning a second language. Sweden: Växjö Univesrity. Pickens, Jeffrey. (2005). Organizational Behavior in Health Care: Attitudes and Perceptions. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Rukh, Samar, et al. (2012). “Students’ Attitudes towards Teachers’ CodeMixing/Code-Switching to L1 and Its Influence on Their L2 Learning: A Case of Business Students in Sargodha.” IJSR. (Vol. 3 (1)).
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