FACTOR THAT INFLUENCE INTENSIVE BAHASA INGGERIS STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION TOWARDS LEARNING ENGLISH AT ALPHA COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY IN SEREMBAN 2 Essay

In the era of information and technology, there is a great need for individuals to learn and master the English language. Nowadays the English language is important to get a job easily. English is also used for different purposes such as news and information, business, diplomacy, entertainment and others, supported by Kitao as cited in (Kasuma, 2002). According to Travil as cited in (Kasuma, 2002) knowing the language can help us to express our opinions, hopes, and even our dreams. In Malaysia every school uses English as the language for teaching subjects such as Mathematics and Science, and a lot of people learn English at school, where English language is used as a common subject. Learning the language is important and people learn to read and write in English to make sure they can communicate with other people. However, there are still some people who may not read and speak in the English language fluently. In the primary and secondary schools English is taught as a second langua ge. By studying English, students can prepare themselves to improve their thinking and communication skills. Based on Rosli Talif as cited in (Kasuma, 2002), English could 2 contribute to knowledge, understanding and skills of students, who need to be equipped with such skills in order to be prepared for more complex problems in the future. As we all know English is important but there are still people who don’t want to take the opportunity to learn the English language because of their lack of motivation. Motivation is suggested to be an important factor to start learning English. Motivation is defined as the extent that one strives to acquire the language because of the desire to do so and satisfaction derived from it supported by Gardner as cited in (Wimolmas, 2001). For students to achieve their success they need to have a strong motivation for themselves. Motivation can influence the students learning results. Motivation is the biggest single factor affecting a language learner’s success. According to Tuan L as cited in (Jafari, 2013) one of the factors influencing the success of the learners in learning English is the person’s motivation. Students who have low motivation will  not attend the class, or enter the class late, that is why motivation is needed to make the students more likely to enter the class and want to learn English or other subjects. Motivation is one of the factors or keys to success in anything. When they lack motivation the students also get poorer results. Every student has his own goal and target. Some of the students have the motivation to learn and some students learn by working harder in understanding the subject. They will have different results, as some students may have good results and some student may not even though they have worked harder, because the student that have a higher motivation will get the credits and have better results. 3 1.1. Background of Study This research is done in Alpha College of Technology (ACT) which is one of the Private Colleges in Malaysia. The population of this college is about 1143 students. The topic that has been choose by the researcher is the factors that influence Intensive Bahasa Inggeris (IBI) students’ motivation towards learning English at Alpha College of Technology in Seremban 2. In this research the respondents that have been chosen is students from Alpha College of Technology, who are from Semester 1 to Semester 6. In this research students can be motivated by many factors, and the researcher will focus on four independent variables to examine the factors that influence students’ motivation in learning English. Intensive Bahasa Inggeris (IBI) is a programme that takes two month for the students to complete. Students who enter this program will gain a lot of knowledge. The objective in this IBI programme is after two months the students, they should be able speak English using correct grammar and they should be able have a confidence when speaking and communicating with others. In this IBI programme, the students will learn everything in English also speak in English with the lecturers. It is because Alpha College of Technology has decided to take lecturers from the other countries so that they can’t speak our language which is Bahasa Malaysia. With this method, the students will not have an option to communicate in Bahasa Malaysia. They need to speak English to communicate with the lecturers. So the students will be able to have a confidence in themselves to speak with others. The college also has provided good facilities to learn the language in two month. The students will have a comfortable classroom. Other than that the students will also do some activities in the class such as presentations, public speaking, acting, and many more. All of these activities will be in the English language. Some of the students will do the activities individually and in groups so this will make the students have more confidence in communicating with others using the English language. Other than that, the IBI programme also uses technology in the lessons, such as using a projector which teaching in class. This will make the students understand the lectures. The lecturers may use the projector in teaching grammar using presentations. The college also provides good audio systems in every classroom to make sure the students can hear the lecturers during lecture. The audio system also will be used in the listening activities. With all these facilities, the collage hopes to mak e the students have high motivation in learning English in the two months. Although after the two months, if the student still can’t have good grammar skills, at least they have confidence in communication and can speak with everyone. 1.2. Problem Statement English is important nowadays, because it is used in all our daily activities. English is the fourth most widely spoken language in the world. It is the most spoken official language in the world. In Malaysia English is known as a second language which is used every day and it is an international language. English language can help create many opportunities in international markets because English is used as an international language and it will be easy to communicate with others from different countries. Many of the world’s top films, books and music are published and produced in English. Therefore by learning English you will have access to great entertainment and have a greater cultural understanding. Other than that, most of the content produced on the internet is in English. So, by knowing English will allow you to access and get more information easily. There are several factors that motivate IBI students in learning English. Learning will not happen without good motivat ion, some students may have a good motivation but when it comes to learning English they will lose their motivation because they have a negative view to learning English. So, in  this research the researcher will view the factors that influence IBI students to learn English. There are four factors that influence IBI students’ motivation in learning English which are the activities, facilities, the lectures ability and the technology. Specifically, the research explored that with suitable activities, it will help students’ motivation in learning English. Learning English will not be effective if the students only learn theory without activities, because students will have better understanding of the language and have the courage to speak in front of others. As we notice, most of students who learn English do not fully understand and can’t speak and communicate well with others. This is because they do not have the motivation to do so. In Malaysia, some of the institutes don’t have effective activities for the students to give them motivation to learn English. The colleges must know what activities can be used to make the students want to learn more English. They can give activities such as public speaking, poem recitations, and spelling contests. With correct activities, the students will have good motivation to learn English, because they will not face any stress in learning English. Next the researcher also examined the facilities of the college to see if they are suitable for the students to learn English. The college must provide good facilities to make their students learn English. A college which does not have good facilities will not inf luence student’s motivation in learning English. The facilities will include whether the college provides a good class, which has air-conditioning or not, enough tables and chairs for study, and has a whiteboard or not. Good facilities are most important to make the students have motivation in learning English. Some of students don’t want to enter the class because they are not satisfied with the facilities that are provided by the college. In this case the students will not come to class and will study at the hostel. This show that the students have poor motivation because they don’t have the desire to learn and may be they will stop leaning in the college. The lecturers’ ability is also important in determining the students’ motivation in learning the English language. The lecturers need to have a willingness to teach the students and if the lecturers don’t have the willingness to give lectures to the students 7 than the students will not have the motivation to learning English. Lecturers play an important role in developing student’s minds and motivation in learning the English language. Some colleges may have all foreign lecturers to give a lesson to the students so that the students will have to speak in English to communicate well with the lecturers because the lecturers only understand English. With a good lecturer’s ability, the students will be able to learning English with a higher motivation. Also some students may not be liked by the lecturers. This is normally because they are biased, and some students may refuse to enter a class because they do not like the lecturers, either personally or professionally. Other than that, technology also may be a factor that influences students to study the English language. The college needs to update their technology for the betterment of the students. Technology that may be used by the college like projectors, for lectures can make students understand more clearly. Also with the use of technology, the lecturers can give a lecture to the students faster. For some students they can learn faster when using a technology because they enjoy themselves during the lectures and get the main point in the lecture easily. The lecturers also do not need to worry about insufficient time to give lectures to the students. 8 1.3. Research Question This research focuses on factors that influence IBI students’ motivation towards learning English. The research questions are: 1.3.1. Are activities a factor that influence IBI students’ motivation towards learning English? 1.3.2. Are facilities a factor that influence IBI students’ motivation towards learning English? 1.3.3. Is the lecturers’ ability a factor that influences IBI students’ motivation towards learning English? 1.3.4. Is technology a factor that influences IBI students’ motivation towards learning English? 1.4. Research Objective The specific objective for this research is the factors that influence IBI students’ motivation towards learning English. The research objectives are: 1.4.1. To identify whether activities are a factor that influence IBI students’ motivation towards learning English. 1.4.2. To identify whether facilities are a factor that influence IBI students’ motivation towards learning English. 1.4.3. To identify whether the lecturers’ ability is a factor that influences IBI students’ motivation toward learning English. 1.4.4. To identify whether technology is a factor that influences IBI students’ motivation towards learning English. 9 1.5. Significance of Study The significance of this study is to find the factors that influence IBI students’ motivation towards learning English at Alpha College of Technology in Seremban 2, Negeri Sembilan. It is believed that those students that have motivation in themselves will want to continue learning English and take the IBI programme. 1.5.1. Researcher This research, can be used by other researchers as their references. The researcher will also get more knowledge and get more information about the factors that influence IBI students’ motivation towards learning English at Alpha College of Technology in Seremban 2, Negeri Sembilan. Other researchers may use the information that is obtained in this study and apply it in other areas by using different or more samples. With this research also the researcher may increase his self-confidence and communication skills when dealing with other people in the future. 1.5.2. Intensive Bahasa Inggeris (IBI) students Through this research, the student will get the knowledge about the factors that influence IBI students’ motivation towards learning English in more detail. In addition, with this research, the researcher can also help the students to identify the factors that influence them to learn English. 10 1.5.3. Readers This research is important and very beneficial to the reader because it can be used as information in understanding the factors that influence IBI students’ motivation towards learning English. 1.5.4. Future researcher This research will be able to help others in their future research. It is important because future researchers can use this research as a guide for a new area of research with similar topics. The researcher also will be able to use this research as a reference to gain more knowledge about the factors that influence IBI students’ motivation towards learning English at Alpha College of Technology in Seremban 2, Negeri Sembilan. 1.6. Scope of the Study Student motivation for learning something is the factor for the students to continue studying. For the purpose of this research, the study will focus on factors that influence Intensif Bahasa Inggeris (IBI) students’ towards learning English at Alpha College of Technology. 11 1.6.1. Subject This research focuses on factors that influence IBI students’ motivation towards learning English at Alpha College of Technology. In this research, the researcher will know what are the factors that will influence the students’ motivation. For this research it focuses on four motivation factors that have been identified. They are activities, facilities, lecturers’ ability, and technology. 1.6.2. Respondents The respondents in this study were selected from students who have taken an IBI programme at Alpha Collage of Technology, Seremban 2. As many as 100 respondents were selected to answer the questionnaire that was already prepared. The questionnaire is based on the factors that influence IBI students’ motivation towards learning English based on the independent variables. 1.6.3. Location The location of the study that was chosen by the researcher is at Alpha College of Technology, Seremban 2, Negeri Sembilan. This place was selected because it is close to the researcher’s residence, and it is faster for the researcher to distribute and collect the questionnaire from the students. The researcher also selected this place because it is easy to get permission from the authorities to do the research. It is also suitable for 12 the researcher to get the respondents because it is easy to find respondents as they are in the IBI programme at Alpha College of Technology. 1.7. Limitation of the Study 1.7.1. The respondent This research focuses on 100 respondents who had entered the Intensif Bahasa Inggeris (IBI) programme, which is a two month programme. The researcher had difficulties when distributing the questionnaire because the researcher needed to give the questionnaire to persons who have entered the IBI programme only. The researcher will get late feedback from the respondents because the researcher may need to explain the questions to them. Also some respondents did not answer the entire questionnaire and gave false information while filling in the questionnaire. Other than that there were a few respondents who did not give their cooperation to the researcher. 1.7.2. The location This study was done at Alpha College of Technology which has an Intensif Bahasa Inggeris (IBI) programme. This study was only conducted in a specific area which is at Alpha Collage of Technology in Seremban 2, Negeri Sembilan. 1.7.3. Limitation of data The researcher found that the data needed was available only in Alpha College of Technology. Therefore the data may not be very accurate because it is only from the students of Alpha College of Technology. 1.8. Chapter Summary As a summary, this chapter explains the overview and background of the study. In addition, this chapter also explains about the problem statement of this research which explain about the problem that make the researcher make this research. Next the researcher will create a research question and research objective which will be used as an independent variable in this research. The dependent variable of this research is motivation and Intensive Bahasa Inggeris (IBI). After that the researcher will need to explain about the significance of the study which contain researcher, IBI students, and for the future researcher. Beside that the researcher will explain about the scope of the study which is subject, respondents, and location. Lastly the researcher will explain about the limitation that the researcher have during completed this research.