The Effect of Adaptability of 2014 Academic Year Thai Students toward the Learning EFL in English Department Faculty of Humanities Jember University

SUMMARY

 

The Effect of Adaptability of 2014 Academic Year Thai Students toward the Learning EFL in English Department Faculty of Humanities Jember University; Yuniatri Intan Kusumaningrum, 110110101032; 2016: 167 pages; English Department Faculty of Humanities Jember University.

Learning a second language is a complex undertaking because learners need to struggle facing a new language, culture, and environment. Thus, learners might possibly find problems during the acquisition. This also happens to Thai students of 2014 academic year in English Department Faculty of Humanities Jember University.

From some series of personal interview, they assumed that their learning process was able to be said as an unsuccessful process because their English skills scores are low. Their assumption leads to the consideration that it might be affected by their language aptitude. Language aptitude can be defined as a natural ability for learning an L2 and is believed to be in part related to general intelligence (Ellis, 1997:73). Besides considering language aptitude, the researcher also take into account the adaptability in which the respondents build their relationship. Adaptability is the internal ability of human as individuals or groups to adapt in a new cultural environ ment and/or situation by changing their behaviour to be fit and compatible with their society successfully.

The goals of this study are (i) give clarification about the unsuccessful English language learning process of 2014 academic years Thai students of English Department Faculty of Humanities Jember University through the measurement of their English language aptitude using PLAB and (ii) elucidate how the adaptability of 2014 academic years Thai students give effects toward their present learning EFL in English Department Faculty of Humanities Jember University onto their remaining periods of study. Besides, this study is qualitative research because it deals with describing, understanding, and clarifying human experience (Dornyei, 2007:126).

The result of this study shows that R1 is not classified as unsuccessful student because his English skills’ score and his score in PLAB show good assessment. In addition, his GPA i.e. 2.29 is a safe score and his motivation in learning L2 is high. The rest of the respondents, i.e. R2 and R3,  are considered  as unsuccessful learners because their scores of PLAB test and English skills’ scores are relatively poor. Besides, their GPA decreases in the second semester 2.14 to 1.97 for R3 and 2.09 to 1.63 for R2 which is regarded as poor grade. Their difference is only about their level of motivation. R2 has higher motivation than R3.

Besides, from the analysis of interview’s transcript from the respondents, the researcher concludes that their adaptability does affect their learning L2. The researcher finds that it affects the way they interact with peers and lecturers both inside and outside the classroom, their motivation, and also their method in learning. They said that they prefer to learn by themselves instead of having group discussion.

 

 

 

 

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