CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
Globalization era has come. The acquisition of foreign language especially English as an international language has become more and more important in facing the globalization. In relation to the importance of English, Indonesian government has determined English as the first foreign language to be learned by the students of Indonesia. It is included in the curriculum as a compulsory subject for Junior and Senior High Schools and also Vocational Schools.
Although English is a compulsory subject, the result has not been satisfactory enough yet. In fact, many students have been graduated from their school with minimum ability in using English. It is caused by some factors. One of them is inappropriate technique used by the students' age, while teachers did not pay attention in the aspect of motivation of the students. Whereas motivation is one of important factors which influence the result of teaching and learning process.
Problem faced by teacher is students are not interested in learning English. The low interest in learning process causes the students' attention to the taught material becomes low. It causes some students get less motivation in learning English. Consequently, their low motivation can cause their unsatisfied result in learning. One of the cases is that students often underestimate their own capacity in learning English, because they think that English is difficult to learn. It means that they are less motivated in learning English. So, they need to be encouraged to have a motivation in learning English.
Another problem also occurs since lack of enjoyable atmosphere in learning English. It seemed that students feel bored with the routine activities conducted by the teacher.
Students' learning motivation should be improved because motivation cannot be separated from teaching learning process and finally it influences the teaching learning itself in this case, achievement. This is supported by Ur (1996:274) that various studies have found that motivation is very strongly related to achievement in language learning. Motivation is essential for teaching and learning process. It is a crucial factor that determines students' willingness to engage in lesson and learning activities and their reason for doing so.
Motivation also becomes the determinant factor that explains the success and the failure of learning. There is a statement that "There can be no doubt that motivation plays a vital part in most students' success or failure as language learners" (Harmer, 1998:4). This statement is supported by Brown's opinion (1994:152) stating that motivation is probably the most frequently used catch all of them for explaining the success and the failure of any complex task. He also claims that someone's success in task due to the fact that he or she is motivated.
The motivated student does not only have high motivation in learning but also have to know his or her own ability. What his or her weakness and strength is. Doing a reflection is the appropriate way to know it.
Reflection has an important role in the teaching and learning activities. Reflection here means that human's activity in recapturing his or her experience, thinking about it, mulling it over and then evaluating it (Boud et al, 1985:19). The reflection process is usually followed by a reflective thinking. Reflective thinking is a critical thinking process that aimed to evaluate what are already done by someone and also to find the strengths and weaknesses. The result can be used as a guidance to develop his or her capacity. To develop the capacity motivation is needed. Someone's motivation makes his or her action possible.
The reflective thinking can be applied in the classroom not only by teacher (reflective teaching) but also by students (reflective learning). Reflective learning means a reflection activity by students to reflect their learning and what they get from learning process. Some functions of reflective learning given by Ellis (in Pinder: 2007): (1) to accept responsibility for their personal growth, (2) to help students see a clear link between the effort they put into their development activity and the benefits they get out of it, (3) to help students see more value in each learning experience, by knowing why they are doing it and what is in it for them, (4) to help students "learn how to learn" and add new skills over time.
In this study, to improve students' motivation in learning English, the writer uses Reflective Learning by the reason that reflective learning is a simple way for students to know themselves deeply. By doing the reflective learning, students will know their understanding, what item or lesson they have understood, and also they know what less understanding after the lesson is. By knowing their own ability, it is expected for the students to have a motivation to improve their ability. They can change their techniques of learning or study to be better than ever, or they can discuss to their English teacher. If they have high motivation in learning, their ability will be improved, and they will get satisfying result of learning process. The students can also write everything to express they feel during the lesson. After doing the reflection, the students will have a reflective thinking. Surely, the reflective thinking will help the students to motivate themselves to reach better understanding.
That's why the writer conducts a research which aims to improve the students' motivation in learning English in SMKN X through reflective learning. This research is conducted under the title: THE USE OF REFLECTIVE LEARNING TO IMPROVE STUDENTS' MOTIVATION IN LEARNING ENGLISH (A Classroom Action Research in the Tenth Grade of SMKN X in XXXX/XXXX Academic Year)".
B. Problems Statement
Based on the background of the study explained before, the writer in formulates the problems as follows:
1. Will reflective learning improve students' motivation in learning English?
2. To what extent does reflective learning become an appropriate way to improve the students' motivation in learning English?
C. The Objectives of the Study
The objectives of this study are to know whether reflective learning can improve the students' motivation in learning English or not. It also aims at give general description about the implementation of reflective learning in the classroom and about the things happening in the class when it is implemented (its effects to the students).
D. Benefits of the Study
The research result is expected to give some benefits for several sides. Firstly, the study will give a clear description about how reflective learning is implemented by both the students and the researcher who plays a role as the teacher in order to improve students' motivation in learning English.
The second benefit, for students, it is expected that the result of this research can give some advantages for the students of Vocational School to have a higher motivation in learning English and to have the appropriate behavioral change during the teaching learning process.
Next, it is also hoped that through this research, the information can be useful for teaching English in Vocational School especially SMKN X as the place where the research is conducted and it is expected that the school is able to improve its quality of teaching learning process.
The last, for Teacher Training and Education Faculty, it is expected that the result of this study can be a medium and provide contribution to explore one of the aspects in teaching English. It is hoped to be one field work that can be used as comparison for the students of Teacher Training and Education Faculty that are doing the same research.
