THE PROBLEMS OF SECOND GRADE STUDENTS OF SMPN 4 MALANG IN LEARNING ENGLISH AND THE EFFORTS MADE TO OVERCOME THEM

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1 THE PROBLEMS OF SECOND GRADE STUDENTS OF SMPN 4 MALANG IN LEARNING ENGLISH AND THE EFFORTS MADE TO OVERCOME THEM Devie Nurhanifah and Sri Widayati State University of Malang devie.nurhanifah@yahoo.com; wied@tech .com ABSTRACT: This study was purposed to find out the students problems in learning English and the efforts made to overcome them. This study was a descriptive qualitative in nature. The subjects were the students and the English teacher of class VIIIE at SMPN 4 Malang. The data were collected through questionnaires, interview, and observation. The results showed that almost all of the students had problems in learning English. Both the students and the teacher made some efforts in order to overcome those problems. Keywords: students problem in learning English, efforts to overcome In Indonesia, English has been decided to be the first foreign language to be taught at school. It is taught from elementary school till university level. In secondary school, English is taught as a compulsory subject. It is also included in the National Examination. Based on this fact, students are expected to master this subject in order to be able to pass the national examination. However, mastering English, especially for Indonesian students is not easy for English is not their first or second language. Since English is taught as a foreign language, English is rarely used outside the classroom. Even in the classroom, not many students take the chance to practice it. In the daily lives, students lack of practice. This condition naturally affects the students mastery of English. Indonesian students mastery of English tends to be unsatisfactory. According to Mistar (in Braine, 2005), the students achievement in English based on the objectives stated in the standard competence and basic competence is still far from satisfactory. Many students still find problems in understanding oral and written texts (Handayani, 2009). Even though English has been taught for so many hours and become part of high school s sixyear curriculum, there are still very limited numbers of students who are able, for instance, to read a simple English book (Thalal, 2010). The students unsatisfactory mastery or low achievement in English might be caused by a number of factors, one of which is the problems faced by the students in learning English in the classroom. Dimyati and Mudjiono (2009) mention that problems in learning can be caused by both internal and external factors. Internal factors include attitude toward learning, motivation, concentration, self confidence, intelligence, and study habit, while external factors include the teachers, teaching and learning facilities, learning environment, and curriculum. Those internal and external factors bring several problems for the sudents in learning English. Learning English is usually considered difficult for many students. In order to master English, the students must be able to master all English language skills, including listening, speaking, reading, and writing. However, many students usually have problems in learning those skills. Listening and speaking are major components in learning English. In listening, the learners are supposed to be able to comprehend what is being spoken, while in 1

2 speaking the learners are to imitate what they have listened in order to communicate. From a communicative, pragmatic view of the language classroom, listening and speaking skills are closely intertwined (Brown, 2000). Dunkel (1991), Richard (1983), and Ur (1984) in Brown (2000) mention some factors that caused problems in listening and speaking. Some of them are rate of delivery, stress, rhythm, and intonation, and interaction. Brown (2000) also mentions some characteristics of written language that possibly cause problems in learning reading and writing. In reading, some of those characteristic are processing time, distance, orthography, complexity, vocabulary, and formality, while in writing some of those characteristic are contrastive rhetoric, orthography, complexity, vocabulary, and formality. Problems in learning English, both caused by internal and external factors in all of the English language skills, are crucial and need to be solved. If the appropriate solutions are not immediately found, they can be the most influential factor that brings the students to low achievements problems and later on will lead them to the academic failure. In overcoming those problems, students have their own responsibilities. Yet, the teacher should play a role in it. As stated by Byrne (1992) and Brown (2001) in Rahmajanti (2008), some of the roles are as a controller, conductor, manager, facilitator, and resource or consultant. When the students have problems in learning, teacher should play the role as resource or consultant. Teacher is the one who is expected to help the students whenever they find problems in learning. Handayani in 2009 conducted a research entitled The Problems of Learning English at SMP Negeri 9 Malang. She found that there were several problems faced by the students in learning English. The problems were in all the language skills, including listening, speaking, reading, and writing. However, the problems faced by the students at one school might be different from those at other schools. For that reason, a study was conducted a study in SMPN 4 Malang, in which the researcher previously did her internship. The majority of the students of the second grade in SMPN 4 Malang, especially in class VIIIE, still found problems in learning English. It was indicated by their unsatisfactory scores in the daily tests and midterm test. This study focused on not only the problems faced by the students, but also on the efforts made to overcome. METHOD The design of the study was descriptive qualitative. As stated by Fossey et al. (2002), qualitative research aims to address questions concerned with developing an understanding of the meaning and experience dimensions of humans lives and social worlds. Suryabrata (2008) states that the aim of a descriptive research is to describe the characteristics of a population or certain area systematically, factually, and accurately. The subject of this study were the students and the English teacher of class VIIIE SMPN 4 Malang in academic year of 2011/2012. The data in this study were gained from the questionnaires distributed to the students, interview with the teacher, and observation. There were two questionnaires used in this study, the questionnaires about the students problems in learning English and the questionnaires about the efforts students made to overcome the problems. Both of 2

3 the questionnaires were distributed on February 25 th The interview with the teacher was conducted on March 3 rd The observation was started from February to March The researcher attended the class for 6 meetings to make sure that she has observed the teaching and learning activities that involved the learning of all language skills, including listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In this study, the data analysis was organized into five steps. First, the researcher collected all the data from the questionnaires, interview, and observation. Second, the data were organized based on categories, the data from the questionnaires, the data from the interview, and the data from the observation. The data from the questionnaires were presented in the form of percentage by dividing the number of the students who experience the condition by the total number of the students and then multiplying the answer by 100. After that, the data were organized in points of discussions, general problems in learning English, problems in learning English language skills including listening, speaking, reading, writing, and the students efforts to overcome the problems and the teacher s efforts to help the students to overcome the problems. Third, the data were summarized and grouped them into two main groups: the students problems in learning and the efforts made to overcome. Fourth, the data were sorted and synthesized. The data which were considered irrelevant to the study were eliminated. Fifth, conclusions were drawn based on the result of analysis. FINDINGS Based on the data analysis it was found that many of the students, about 69%, said that English is a difficult subject and almost all of them, about 94%, said that they find problems in learning English. Furthermore, the students have problems with all of the English language skills. Eighty-nine percent of the students said that they find problems in learning listening, 89% of them find problems in learning listening, 54% of them find problems learning reading, and 74% of them find problems in learning writing. It was also found that many of the students were not enthusiastic in learning English. Almost of all the students were reluctant to ask questions when they did not understand what the teacher had already explained. Many of the students were not actively involved in the discussion when the teacher was talking about certain topics that they would learn. The results of the study also indicates that speaking and listening were two language skills in which most students have difficulties. However, many of the students, about 74% of the total students also had problems in learning writing. Some of them, about 54% of the total students also had problems in learning reading. To be more spesific, it can be summed up that 86% of the students had problems in learning listening. The finding on students problems in learning listening is summarized in Table 1. 3

4 Table 1 The Students Problems in Learning Listening Problems in Learning Listening Students who experienced the problems Problems in catching what is being spoken by 21 60% the speaker Problems in understanding the meaning of what 18 51% is being spoken by the speaker Problems related to the teacher s speed of 14 40% speech Problems related to the instruction given by the 10 29% teacher Problems to concentrate 9 26% It was also found that students had problems in learning speaking as well. It is confirmed by the fact that 31 or 89% admited having problems. Table 2 summarises the finding. Table 2 The Students Problems in Learning Speaking Problems in Learning Speaking Students who experienced the problems Problems in self confidence 22 63% Problems in pronunciation 21 60% Problems in vocabulary 18 51% Problems in grammar 15 43% Problems in diction 10 29% Although not many students had problems in reading, still some of them did. The finding shows that 15 or 54% of the total students still had problems in learning reading, as presented in Table 3. Table 3 The Students Problems in Learning Reading Problems in Learning Reading Students who experienced the problems Problems in understanding the main idea of the 14 40% texts Problems in finding implicit information 8 23% Problems in finding explicit information 9 26% Problems related to the topics of the texts 13 37% Problems related to the length of the texts 11 31% The next finding is about problems with writing. Twenty-six or about74% of the total students said that they found problems in learning writing. Table 4 summarises this. Table 4 The Students Problems in Learning Writing Problems in Learning Writing Students who experienced the problems Problems in vocabulary 20 57% Problems in grammar 20 57% Problems in diction 14 40% Problems in spelling 11 31% Problems related to the topics 9 26% Problems related to the levels of difficulty of the topics 10 29% 4

5 The Efforts to Overcome the Problems In order to overcome the problems they encountered in learning English, the students made some efforts. However, not all of them did. Only 31 or 89% of the students made some efforts. Since almost of all the students found problems in learning listening, all of them said that they made some efforts in overcoming the problems in learning listening. Those efforts are presented in Table 5. Table 5 The Students Effort to Overcome Problems in Learning Listening The Students Efforts Students who made the efforts Trying to get accustomed to listen to English 23 66% songs Trying to get accustomed to watch English 20 57% movie Concentrating while listening 18 51% Taking note on what the speaker said 25 71% As the researcher has mentioned previously, speaking was one of the English skills in which the students found many problems. However, from 86% of the students that declared themselves found problems in learning speaking, only 83% of them made efforts to overcome the problems. Those efforts are presented in Table 6. Table 6 The Students Effort to Overcome Problems in Learning Speaking The Students Efforts Students who made the efforts Trying to speak in English with the teacher, 16 46% their friends, or their family Checking in the dictionary when they did not 24 69% now the English words they wanted to say Checking in the dictionary when they did not 12 34% now the pronunciation of words they wanted to say Asking the teacher, their friends, or family 16 46% when they did not now the English words they wanted to say Taking the chance to speak English in the classroom 5 14% Some of the students were not consistent in providing the answers to the questionnaires. In the first questionnaires, or the questionnaires about students problems in learning English, the researcher found that about 54% of the total students said that they found problems in learning reading, yet in the second questionnaires more students or about 71% of the total students said that they made some efforts to overcome the problems in learning reading. This inconsistency could be caused by the fact that some students also did some efforts stated in the questionnaires even though they did not think that they found problems in learning reading. The efforts that the students made in overcoming problems in reading are presented in Table 7. 5

6 Table 7 The Students Effort to Overcome Problems in Learning Reading The Students Efforts Students who made the efforts Checking in the dictionary when they found 28 80% difficult words from the texts Asking the teacher, their friends, or family 23 66% when they found difficult words from the texts Asking the teacher when they found difficulty 16 46% in understanding the main idea of the texts Practicing to read any kinds of texts in English 9 26% In addition, 28 or 80% of the total students said that they made some efforts to overcome the problems they found in learning writing. They mentioned that they had made various efforts, as presented in Table 8. Table 8 The Students Effort to Overcome Problems in Learning Writing The Students Efforts Students who made the efforts Learning grammar 17 49% Checking in the dictionary when they did not 26 63% know the English words of the words they wanted to write Asking the teacher, their friends or family when 9 26% they did not know the English words of the words they wanted to write Practicing to write any kind of text in English, such as a diary, poem, or short story 16 46% The Teacher s Effort to Help the Students to Overcome the Problems The teacher also made some efforts to help the students to overcome their problems in learning English. In general, what the teacher did was to encourage and support the students to learn more. The teacher also cared about the students. As the teacher knew that some of the students wanted the teacher to pay more attention to them, the teacher did that. The teacher also tried to know the students characters. The teacher tried to find materials from many sources. The teacher also used various techniques in teaching, sometimes they played games. Those efforts were made to avoid the students boredom in learning English in the classroom. In listening, before the listening exercise, the teacher usually gave the students the list of vocabulary that will be used in the listening material and asked them to memorise. Moreover, if the students could not understand the instruction given to them in English, usually the teacher translated them in bahasa Indonesia. In speaking, before they have the speaking test, usually the teacher asked them to write and learn first. In reading, if the answers of the questions were implicit, or not written in the text, the teacher usually encouraged them and gave them additional information. For example, if the topic was about flora and fauna. Then, the answer of the question was not written in the text, usually she said, it is from biology lesson, etc. While in writing, the teacher encouraged them and trained them to write sentence in good order based on SPOK. Sometimes, the teacher also taught grammar to help students in writing. 6

7 Beside those efforts, the teacher actually wanted to make other efforts, like finding authentic material from the Internet, and finding more audio visual materials. However she still could not do that due to some problems. DISCUSSION Generally speaking, the students problems in learning English were caused by both internal and external problems. The internal problems include the problems related to low motivation, bad learning habit, and attitude toward learning. Dimyati and Mudjiono (2009) state that motivation has a close relevancy to interest. Yet, many of the students did not seem to be interested in this subject as indicated by their irregular learning habit. They also considered that English as a difficult subject that made them lazy to learn. The external problems that hampered the students in learning English were related to learning equipment, especially the classroom condition. Emmer et al. (1984) and Underwood (1987) (in Rachmajanti, 2006) mention some of the physical features of the language classroom. Some of them were the brightness and the acoustic of the classroom. In general, the condition of the classroom involved in this study was good enough. However, there were some disturbances that were caused by the problems with illumination and the noises from the nextdoor classroom. In addition to the general problem, more specifically the students also had problems in learning English language skills. In listening, the most common problem that hampered the students was the problem related to the students ability to catch the words spoken by the speaker. It could happen because the students lacked of vocabulary and concentration. Based on University of Cambridge Counselling Service (2012) concentration depends on many things, one of them is environment. In the case of the subject of the study, the most common problems that hampered them to concentrate well in listening were related to classroom condition. Besides, since the teacher rarely used recording material and prefer to use live presentation, the teacher s speed of speech and pronunciation could also be the problems that hampered the students in listening. Some of the students mentioned that the teacher spoke too fast and they could hardly catch what was being spoken by the teacher. Concerning the problems with speaking, most of the students had problem in self confidence. This condition greatly hindered the students in learning speaking since in learning this language skill, self confidence is indeed important. When the students learn to speak they have to believe themselves that they can speak. Brown (2000) states that learners belief that they indeed are fully capable of accomplishing a task is at least partially a factor in their eventual success in attaining the task. In addition, attitude toward learning could also hamper the students in learning. Dimyati and Mudjiono (2009) describe attitude as the ability of giving estimation toward something. There were some students who said that they lack of vocabulary, did not master grammar, and could not choose the right diction to be used. Those estimation will lead them to think that they could not speak in English, then those students will be afraid in making mistake if they try to speak 7

8 in English. Lately, this self estimation can bound those students from practicing speaking. In reading, the most common problem that hamper the student was the problem in understanding the text. The students usually found problems with the difficult words used in the text. This problem related to the vocabulary lead the other problem, namely the other problems in answering the questions related to the text. The students had the problems in answering both explicit and implicit questions, though actually finding explicit information is usually easier than finding implicit information. With regard to the problems with writing, the most common problems that the students encountered were related to the vocabulary or diction, grammar, and mechanics. Besides, other factors like the topic selection also hampered the students in learning this skill. Blauensteiner (2000) states that in reading or writing teaching and learning process, one of factors that also influences is the topic. So, teachers should not force a topic to students in which they are not interested. In contrast with that, there were some students who said that the topics given by the teacher sometimes were not interesting. In addition, some of them also mentioned that the topics given by the teacher were too difficult. In response to the problems faced, the students and the teacher made some efforts to help them overcome the problems. Some of the efforts are considered good since they match with the problems. For example as stated by Ellis (2012), English learners must have numerous opportunities to use English in different social settings and for different purposes. In line with that, in overcoming the problems in learning speaking, some of the students took the chance to practice to speak English to their friends and their family. By practicing to make a conversation in English, they had also learnt how to listen. In overcoming the problems in learning reading, some of the students liked to read any kind of texts in English to make themselves accustomed to English texts. That can also be called as a part of extensive reading. Kharsen (1993) and Bamford (1998) in Brown (2000) make the case that extensive reading is a key to students gains in reading ability, linguistic competence, vocabulary, spelling, and writing. One of the efforts that the students made to overcome the problems in learning writing were writing any kind of texts in English, for instance in the form of diary, short story, or poems. According to Brown (2000), this can be categorized as self-writing and this is one of a good writing performance that can be suggested to overcome the students problems in learning writing. Even though their efforts are considered good, they still could not give maximum result because the students did not do those efforts continouesly and regularly. For the clear example that can be seen through the observation, even though many students said that they made some efforts in overcoming their problems in learning reading, for example by checking the dictionary when they found difficult words, in fact not many of them did. During the observation, the researcher found that not more than 20% of the total students brought dictionaries in the classroom. Some of the students also mentioned that they asked the teacher when they did not understand the main idea of the texts, the meaning of difficult words, or the English words or the pronunciation of the words they wanted to 8

9 write or say. Yet, in fact only small number of them did and that was rarely. There appears inconsistency between the students said in the questionnaires and they did during the observation. Beside the students themselves, the teacher also made some efforts to help the students overcome their problems. The teacher tried to find materials from many sources to complete the students needs of materials. The teacher also encouraged and motivated the students to learn more. The teacher used various techniques in teaching to prevent the students boredom in learning English in the classroom. Sometimes, the teacher played games and tried to make the students got involved actively, for instance by dividing them into groups and asking them to make their own material for the game. This effort can be said to be successful since the researcher saw that the students were enthusiastic both when they made the material and when they conducted a game. Sometimes the teacher also gave reward to motivate the students to achieve better. Beside those efforts, actually the teacher also intended to make other efforts, for example finding authentic material from the Internet to be brought in the classroom and finding more audio-visual material for learning all English language skills, especially for listening. However, she still could not do that since she lacked of facilities and time. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS Learning process is complex. This process involve both the students and the teacher. In learning, it is quite normal that the students usually find internal and external problems. It also happen in SMPN 4 Malang, in which the study was conducted. The majority of the second grade students in class VIIIE had problems in learning English. In general, the problems were related to the low motivation, bad learning habit, and attitude toward learning. However, external factor like the classroom condition also hampered the students in learning English. The students also had problems in learning all English language skills, including listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In general, the problems in learning those language skills were related the problems in vocabulary or diction, grammar, mechanics, self confidence, and concentration. In overcoming those problems, the students made some efforts. The efforts made are considered good since they matched with the problems. However, they could not give maximum result since the students did not do those efforts continously and regularly. In helping the students to overcome the problems, the teacher also made some efforts. Yet, the teacher could not make maximum efforts because she lacked of facilities and time. With the regard to the above phenomena, it is suggested that the students be aware to their problems in learning English. They should know their own problems in learning English, so that they can make some efforts to overcome their problems. The teacher as one of the keys to success the learning should be more concerned to the students. Some strategies are needed to help the students to overcome their problems and make them to be more enthusiastic. Based on the observation, the classroom condition was quite good. However, sometimes, it was not quite conducive. The classroom is too dark, so the light must be turn on at day time. The acoustic was also not quite good since in some condition, for example when the next-door classroom was noisy, the students in 9

10 the classroom, especially those who sit in the back row, would not be able to listen to the teacher. Based on that fact, it is suggested that the headmaster or the committee pay attention to that case and find the best solution to overcome the problems. REFERENCES Bartha, K. & Fóriz-Forenczi, R Text Comprehension Learning Styles School Performance, (Online), ( retreived on March, 3 rd 2012 Blauensteiner, K Paying Real Attention to Students. Pilgrims Braine, G Teaching English To The World: History, Curriculum, and Practice. United State of America: Lawrence Erlbaum Associstes Brown, H. D Teaching by Principles (2 nd Edition). San Francisco: Longman Dimyati and Mudjiono Belajar dan Pembelajaran. Jakarta: Rineka Cipta Ellis, K ESL: English as A Second Language, (Online), ( retreived on April, 24 th 2012 Fossey, E. et al Understanding and Evaluating Qualitative Research, (Online), ( retreived on March, 10 th 2012 Handayani, D. N The Problems of Learning English at SMPN 9 Malang. Unpublished thesis. Malang: State University of Malang Rachmajanti, S Managing a Language Classroom. Malang: State University of Malang Suryabrata, S Metodologi Penelitian. Jakarta: PT Raja Grafindo Persada Thalal, M New Insights into Teaching of English Language to Indonesian Students, (Online), ( f_english_language_to_indonesian_students.html), retreived on February, 15 th 2012 University of Cambridge Counselling Service Concentration, (Online), ( retreived on March, 10 th