CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. Data analysis on the questionnaires for students
3.1.3. Students’ perception on factors affecting their attitudes towards learning English
3.1.3.1. Demotivational factors to learn listening skill of students
Items
Strongly Agree
(%)
Agree
(%)
Disagree
(%)
Strongly Disagree
(%) 1. My teacher is very unfriendly 37.5 22.5 28.3 11.7) 2. My teacher only care for good 40 20.8 27.5 11.7
students, so the other students feel unconfident and dissatisfied
3. My teacher is not fair in accessing
students’ learning outcomes 38.3 19.2 31.6 10.9
4. My teacher seldom uses teaching
aids to motivate us 32.5 30.8 20 16.7
5. My teacher’s teaching method
makes me feel bored 40 25 20.8 14.2
6. Listening tasks are too difficult to me 37.5 29.2 20 13.3 7. Listening topics do not meet my interest 16.7 15 44.2 24.1 8. English tests do not check listening
skill, so I need not to learn it 48.3 10% 29.2% 12.5%
9. My parents advise me to focus on reading comprehension and grammar to get good results in tests and exams, learn listening skill later
0 20 39.2 41.8)
10. Too large class makes me lose
concentration 15 21.7 35 28.3
11. The class atmosphere is usually stressful, which makes me afraid of learning listening skill
4.1 27.5 19.2 19.2
12. The school facility for teaching
listening skill is so poor 60 40 0 0
Figure 7: Demotivational factors to learn listening skill of students.
The first five items indicate the factors affecting students’ attitudes towards learning listening skill pertaining to the teacher.
Sadly, 60% of the subjects agreed that their teachers were not friendly while only 40% of them advocated item 1, in which just 14 respondents (11.7%) actually found their teachers friendly.
Furthermore, 60.8% of the students were not satisfied with their teachers’
behaviors, instead of giving care to all students in class, he/ she just spent time with good students. The low level students, hence, felt pessimistic and down.
Besides, teachers were not fair in assessing them (57.5%), which obviously puts a negative impact on students’ feelings and emotions, which were components of learning attitudes. These students were males studying Basic Science subjects.
There were merely 11.7% of the participants agreed with item 2.
The uncreative teaching method and teachers’ infrequent use of teaching aids also impair students’ positive attitudes in listening lessons. Particularly, 63.3% of respondents approved that their teachers seldom used teaching aids in listening lessons while only 36.7% opposed. Next, 65% students felt bored with learning listening skill. This figure was, to be honest, shocking to the researcher. It can be inferred that teaching method plays a decisive role in fostering students’ positive attitudes towards learning.
Items 6 to 8 were designed to examine whether listening topic, the difficulty level of listening tasks and the curriculum affected students’ learning attitudes. As can be seen from the table, the listening tasks seemed to be too hard for students, which lessened their motivation for learning listening (approved by 66.7% of the students).
However, most respondents (66.3%) realized that the listening topics were suitable for their age and met their interest meanwhile only 31.7% of them did not like listening topics. The listening topics did not thus have much influence on students’ learning attitudes in this case.
In addition, the curriculum, especially the test form swayed students’
learning attitudes, 58.3% thought that they did not need to learn listening because their tests did not check listening competence, while 41.7% found it necessary to learn this skill.
Item 9 proclaims there was little effect of parents’ opinions on their children’
learning attitudes, only 24 (20%) students agreed with this whereas 96 (80%)
disagreed and strongly disagreed.
Data collected from responses to item 10 reveals that most of the participants (63.3%) opposed that large classes affected their motivation in learning to listen.
Consequently, students’ attitudes were not affected by class size in this study.
However, the class atmosphere and the facility condition had a deep impact on students’ attitudes towards learning listening skill. 61.6% of the responses were in agreement with item 11 and incredibly, 100% wanted improvement for teaching and learning facility from school because they were too poor.
3.1.3.2. Motivational factors to learn listening skill of students
Items
Strongly Agree
(%)
Agree
(%)
Disagree
(%)
Strongly Disagree
(%) 1. I want to listen to and understand
English songs and watch foreign films with English subtitle
35.8 30 12.5 21.7
2. I want to get a good 40 20 22.5 17.5
3. I want to study English people
and culture 15 21.7 43.3 20
4. I want to learn the pronunciation of native English speakers and to be native – like
15 29.2 35 20.8
Figure 8: Motivational factors to learn listening skill of students
When being investigated on the learning attitudes in listening lessons, a large proportion of the participants found themselves motivated in learning this skill because they desired to have a good job (60%) or they wanted to listen to and comprehend their favorite English songs or watch foreign films with subtitle in English (65.8%). On the opposite extreme, only 36.7% try to be like native English speakers, and of course, the same number of the respondents was interested in studying English people and culture.
In brief, the students mainly found themselves instrumentally motivated in learning
listening skill rather than integratively motivated in it.
3.1.3.3. The teachers’ use of teaching aids and motivational strategies in listening lessons
Items Always
(%)
Usually (%)
Sometimes (%)
Rarely (%)
Never (%) 1. Authentic listening (daily
conversations, native speaker’s voice)
0 0 20 24.2 55.8
2. Cassette tapes/ disc 0 5.8 21.7 35 37.5
3. Teacher’s voice (teacher
read the listening passage) 40 29.2 19.2 11.6 0
4. CD/ VCD/ projector 10 9.2 15 47.5 18.3
5. Only tasks given in the
textbook 48.3 28.3 13.4 10 0
6. Adapt tasks relevant to
your students’ level 10.8 14.2 29.2 12.5 33.3
7. Handout (extra tasks to help your students understand thoroughly the listening passage)
7.5 4.2 15.8 19.2 53.3
8. Pictures/ board/ video clips 9.2 10 15 30 35.8
9. Music (songs, ) 10 11.7 14.2 32.5 31.6
Figure 9: The teachers’ use of teaching aids and motivational strategies in listening lessons
It can be drawn from the table that there was a problematic reality of using teaching aids in order to motivate students in listening lessons. 80% of the students responded that their teachers rarely or never used authentic materials when teaching listening.
Problematically, no student responded that their teacher usually used cassette in listening lessons and 72.5% of the subjects gave answers of “rarely” and “never”
to this item. This finding entails the results of the next item (item 3) that students
just learn listening skill by their teacher voice (69.2%).
Moreover, the teaching aids were likely to be insufficient, 65.8% of the students complained that they rarely or never had chance to attend the class with DVD/ VCD or head projector.
Additionally, the teachers purely covered the tasked given in the textbook (76.6% of students), but not used different sources of listening tasks to get students higher motivated in listening lessons to obtain better outcomes. Only a small percentage of the students (13.4%) showed that their teacher sometimes followed the tasks given in the textbook and 10% of the respondents revealed that their teacher rarely conducted listening lessons by following the textbook.
Item 6 discloses that teachers did not give students handouts with extra exercises to help them understand more thoroughly the listening passages, particularly a remarkable proportion (45.8%) of the students whose teacher seldom and never delivered handouts to them and only 25% gave the opposite responses of “usually” and “always”.
Item 7,8 and 9 show another factor leading to students’ negative attitudes in listening lessons. The teachers did not use teaching aids and motivational strategies very often, or even did not use them at all in their teaching career. In particular, 72.9% of responses were for that teachers rarely or never use pictures, video clips in listening lessons, 65.8% for that in terms of using music (songs) and 64.1% of using games.
To conclude, the reality of the teachers’ use of teaching aids and motivational strategies was tricky. Most of them mainly followed the tasks given in the textbook and hardly utilized teachings aids or motivational strategies in their teaching to foster their students’ positive attitudes to learn listening skill. This may put a negative impact on students’ attitudes in listening classes.
3.1.4. Students’ expectation on learning listening skill