| dc.description.abstract | This classroom action research was intended to improve the year eight
students‟ tense achievement by giving non verbal reinforcement at SMPN 1
Balung in the 2011/2012 academic year. The preliminary study was conducted in
the form of interview and class observations. Based on the interview done with
the English teacher, it was found that the students of class VIII-D still had
difficulties in comprehending tenses. It was supported by the students‟ mean score
on the previous tense test that was 67. Besides, based on the class observations
done in preliminary study, it was found that the students were fairly passive
during the tense teaching and learning process because they were lack of interest
and motivation to learn tenses. Thus, the research subjects of this research were
the students of class VIII-D.
In this research, the researcher tried to overcome the problem by
applying a different technique in reinforcing the students in the classroom that is
giving non verbal reinforcement. It was under the reason that non verbal
reinforcement can be used as motivational device to encourage the students‟
interest and motivation, since the English teacher only administered the verbal
reinforcement in the classroom. She claimed that she did not have enough time to
prepare non verbal reinforcement.
In delivering verbal reinforcement, the teacher always used the same
words to appreciate the students‟ work, for examples „Good!‟, „Great!‟, and
„Clever!‟. She did not try to use more various words in reinforcing the students.
As the result, the students were not interested on the teacher‟s verbal
reinforcement and regarded the reinforcement given as a joke by counting the
words used by the teacher. It showed that the verbal reinforcement that the teacher
used was not successful in encouraging the students‟ interest and motivation in
learning English especially tenses. Thus, the researcher used a different technique
in reinforcing the students‟ behavior that was giving non verbal reinforcement. In
this research, the non verbal reinforcement used was in the form of gestures,
physical contact, symbols or things. The reinforcement was delivered by using a
schedule that was variable ratio schedule in which non verbal reinforcement was
administered by using ratio.
This research was done in two cycles in order to achieve the objectives of
this classroom action research. Each cycle consisted of four stages of activities
namely the planning of the action, the implementation of the action, observation
of the action and reflection of the action. The data collection methods used were
tense test and classroom observation which were done to get the primary data,
while interview and documentation were used to get supporting data. The actions
were implemented in three meetings including the tense test.
Based on the result of the classroom observation in Cycle 1, it was
known that there were 18 out of 35 students or 51% who actively participated in
the first meeting. In meeting 2, there were 23 students or 66% students were
active in the tense teaching and learning process. It showed that there was an
improvement on the students‟ active participation from the first meeting to the
second meeting. Concerning with the tense test, the results showed that the
students‟ mean score on tense test was 73. In addition, there were only 22 out of
35 students or 63% students could achieve the standard score that was 75. In other
words, the results of both classroom observation and tense test had not achieved
the target requirement yet. Therefore, the action was continued by revising the
weaknesses found in Cycle 1. The revisions made were the size of the stickers and
the ratio used in administering non verbal reinforcement to the students. It was
intended to make the non verbal reinforcement worked more effectively, and then
finally it could improve the students‟ tense achievement and active participation.
Having conducted the actions in Cycle 2, the results of class observation
and tense test showed an improvement. The result of observation showed that
there were 26 out of 35 students or 74% who were active in the first meeting and
it increased to 83% or 29 students in the second meeting. Furthermore, the
percentage of the students who got the score at least 75 also increased that was
83% or 29 students. The students‟ mean score on the tense test also improved
from 73 in Cycle 1 to 82 in Cycle 2. Based on the results, it could be concluded
that the actions in Cycle 2 were successful because the results of classroom
observation and tense test fulfilled the criteria of success of the research.
Finally, the results of actions in Cycle 2 led to conclusion that giving non
verbal reinforcement could improve the students‟ tense achievement and active
participation in the tense teaching and learning process at SMPN 1 Balung
Jember. Therefore, it is suggested to the English teacher to apply this technique
that is giving non verbal reinforcement in English teaching learning process in
order to help the students who have difficulties in learning grammar especially
tenses to improve their tense achievement and active participation. | en_US |
