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8/9/2019 Motivating Underachievers: Make Them Want to Try
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MOTIVATING UNDERACHIEVERS: MAKE THEM WANT TO TRY
Sri S. Billah
Peflgajar Jllrilsa/l Bahasa lnggris Sekolah Tinggi Bahasa Asing LIA Jakarta
Abstract
Despite th e effort
s
many times, a teacher doesn make underachievers work harder.
Some underachievers feel that they will not
be
able to do Ihe lasks given by the teacher
regardless their efforts. Many others ure
slIre
of their ability,
m
they are afraid of failure.
Therefore, they choose
01 tryil l
instead.
II
saves them from
th
e
di
sappointm ent ami
humiliation. In order to Ol e rcome this, the teacher should pay attention to the siudents
emotiona l faclOr as well
us
their self
co
nfidence.
Kllowing th
ese will help the teacher make the
und
erachievers work harder.
Key words: underachievers, effort affective factor,
self
esteem
Sooner or later,
no
matter what
su
bj
ect you are teaching, you will notice
an underachi ever
in
your class. As the regular students work to complete tasks,
the underac hi evers lag behind, challenging your teaching skill, a nd your
patience, with failures of turning in assignments, makin g complaints or
excuses. Challenged and determined to help your stud ents, you decide to stay
after class for studenHeacher conferences and to find out what goes on behind
this impassiv
it
y.
You search for special projects
to
arouse their interest a
nd
encourage positive attitudes. However, no matter how hard you tried, such
strategies have had only limited success.
Why try?
Ho w do you cope with learners who do not seem to be mo tivated much
in
a g
iv
en activity? Are they rea
ll
y making enough
ef
fo
rt to
succeed? Or are
they merely performing the motion to fulfill requirements or to satisfy some
authority- parents, teachers, and peers? There are several causes of
unde
ra
c
hi
evement. Boredom, laz
in
ess, and apathy do not rea
ll
y explain this
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problematic behavior. For many smart students who are weak
in
their subjects,
n f
trying makes more sense than otherwise.
Take Anita, for exa
mpl
e. Anita, an intelligent sophomor
e
rarely hands
in homework, or fails to show up on the day an assignment is due. Wh en given
in-class she compl ains, That
s
too ha
rd
or I can t
co
ncentrate, until help comes from a fellow student or teacher. On tests
Anita tries
1
copy from a neighbor. Another student , Bernard, would never
cheat on a test or seek help from a teacher or a fellow student. Yet, he is
obv
iou
sly
in
attentive
in
class. A
co
ntinual 'bad luck keeps him f
ro
m
co
mpl
e
tin
g a good number of tasks, parti
cu
larl y ones dealing with newly-
pre se nt ed
material
s.
He
mi
splaces course-books or notes somewhere.
He lo
ses
his assignm ents because the computer breaks down, etc.
Both Bernard and Anita pay a price for Ihe ir lack of effo
rt:
bad grades,
reprimands from teachers, detentions from taking exams, etc. Yet, th
ey
persist
in
their
be
h
av
io
r.
Wh
y?
The answer is simpl
e:
th
ey
see
the
benefits of not
tr
ying are worth the costs. Anita is sure she c nnot do
th
e assigned wo rk , no
mailer how hard she tries. S
in
ce efforts or lack
of
efforts
will
lead
to
th
e same
end , i.e. fai lure, it is qu ite
lo
gical to make the least possible effort. As a result,
Anita continues to rely on teachers and fellow student s to get her through tasks
and assig
nm
ents. Unlike Anita, Berna
rd
wanls so
mu
ch to believe
th
at he is
inte lligent and competent. However, he has serious doubts. He is afraid to try
hard an d fail. That is why Bernard resorts to n ttrying-and flaunting his lack
of effort. This enables himself to ho
ld
on to the
se
lf-image of competence.
Self-esteem
According to H. Douglas Brown, self-esteem is the most pervasive
aspect
of
any behavior. Self-esteem is essentially the way we feel about
M
i
v4
ling U
nd
chi n ,s: Them W. nl lo Try (Sri S.
8i11ah
)
109
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ourse lves, the extent
in
which we va
lu
e or admire ourselves. t is the sense of
personal worth we associate with ou r se lf-concept. (Atwater: 11 3) Thus, no
successf
ul
l
ea
rning ac tivi
ty
can be ca
rri
ed out witho
ut
some degree of self-
estee m, se lf-confidence, kn owledge of yourself, and beli
ef
in
yo ur own
capabilities for
th
at activity. The fo
ll
owing is a we
ll
-accept ed definition
of
se lf-esteem (Coopersmi th 1967: 4-5):
By self-esteem, we refer
to
t
he
evaluation which the indivi
du
al makes and
customarily
mai
n
ta
ins with regard
to
himself; it expresses an attitude of approval or
disapproval, and indicates t
he
extent to which an individual b
el
ieves
hi
mself
to
be
capable, significant, successful and
wo
rthy. In ShOft, self-esteem is a personal
judgment of worthiness that is expressed in the atti tudes that the individual ho lds
towards himself. t is a subjective experience wh
ich
the ind ividual conveys to others
by verbal reports and o
th
er ove
rt
expressive
be
havior.
App aren tl
y
underachievers
like
Ani
ta
and Be
rn
a
rd
have somewhat low
se lf-esteem. When Anita does do we
ll
on an assignm ent or test, she asks
herse lf Me doing we
ll
? How can this be? Maybe the teacher made a mistake
in grad
in
g the papers. May be he likes me or feels sorry for m
e.
It
s
p
ro
bably
just luck. t won't happen aga
in
In
stead of attributing ac
hi
eveme
nt to
her
effort of st
ud
y
in
g, she evide
ntl
y thinks it is a ma
il
er
of
luck or the teacher's
help that she succeeds. In doing so, she also denies her actual experience of
success, a
nd
fa
il
s to discover her potential. Thus, an occasional success will
probab
ly
not boost her self-confidence nor
nu
rture responsibili
ty
for her own
endeavor. Wh al rea
ll
y needs 10 be changed is her be
li
ef thai no effort will
improve her chances of succeeding.
Low-
aC
hi
ev
in
g st
ud
e
nt
s f
ee
l anxious and defensive about criticism of
the ir work, but th e high achievers fee l less anxious and defensive about their
wo
rk
(Coopersmith, 1967). People with high se lf-estee m may bounce back
fro m
fa
ilures with little time spent in
bl
ame or se lf
pi
ty. At thi s juncture,
Bern ard should reflect on th e beli
ef
that making mistakes is not a sign
of
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stupidi
ty
or incompetence, but a natural part
of
the learning process. Only then
wi
ll trying make sense to him.
Affective factor
Learning should be viewed as a
ve
hicle
for
consciousness which
in
corpo
rat
e affective factors
in
the process. ffect refers to emotion or feeling.
Thus, learning should take into
co
ns iderat ion learners' feeling, emotions, and
social experience in the process. Tomlinson (2003: 13) recomme
nd
s
hum anizing mater ial s, which refers to adding activities which help to make
the language learning process a more
affective
experience, and finding ways
of
helping the learners to connect what is
in
the learn
in
g materials
to
what is
in
their minds.
The above belief clicks with that
of
H. Douglas Brown (Brown 1994:
136-137) who states f we were to devise
th
eo
ri
es
of
second language
acquisition or teach ing methods that were based only on cognitive
cons iderations, we would be omitting the most fundamental side of human
behavior...
In
recent years there has been
an
increas
in
g awareness of the
necessity in second language research a
nd
teaching
to
examine human
personality in order to find solutions
to
perplexing prob lems. (Brown 1994;
136- 137). In support of Ernest
Hil
gard who observes th at purely
cogn
iti
ve theories
of
learning will be rejected unless a
rol
e is assigned
to
affectivity (Hilgard 1963: 267), Brown underscores
th
e importance
of
the
affective domain in the language learn ing process
The affective domain or
th
e emotional si
de of
human behavior is
th
e
subject of
re
search by Patricia A Richard-Amato (Richard-Amato 1988: 54),
who states:
The affective domain includes several variables that can either enhance seco
nd
language acquisition or hinder it
,
depending upon whether
th
ey are positive or
MOlivaling Und
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1 Make sure that the ass igned tasks are realistic, so that all students can
complete them when they really try. When your class is a mixed-abi lity
one, this is not easy 10 do. But you can use such techniques as teaching
in sma
ll
groups; creating cooperat
iv
e work g
ro
ups or setting up a peer
teaching program. To minimize the additional burden this places on
you, have your students check some of their own or one ano
th er s
assignments. This also gives stude
nt
s a sense of responsibility for their
own learning
2 Focus students attention on their own progress, not on their fellow
st
udents performance. When students measure th eir success by their
peers performance, those who do not do as
we
ll are bound to feel like
failures. Base grades on mastery or improvement , not on relative
performance. Have slUdents continue to work on assignments for
revision
th
at allows them many opportunities
to
improve perfonnance.
3 Reward effo rt , whatever the outcome. Tell your students that in
learning, as
in
any endeavor, setbacks are
in
evitable But effort and
perseverance
o
payoff.
Praise those when they make progress, not
just when they get everything
ri
ght. If o
nl
y success is praised, some
stu
dents may become demotivated when their efforts
do
not lead
to
immediate mastery-which is a likely outcome when they are studying
new material. And when a student does immediately master a new
skill, take care not to be overly enthusias tic. Otherwise, you w ill risk
sending the message that you really va lue brilliance rather than
diligence, a
nd
slower learners may become di scouraged.
4 Give every stude
nt
opport
un
ities to demonstrate competence in class.
Consider setting aside a few minutes each week for
th
e students
to
demonstrate an nonacademi
s
kill. For example, ask a
Unde ••chievers, Mak e Them Want to Try (Sri S Rillah)
113
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student to pl aya mu sical in st rument and sing solo. This way, even
academically weak students will get a good dose of self-confidence.
Allow students to set their own goals. (Of course, you need to make
sure that these goals
ar
e realist ic but challenging.) For example,
encourage a student w
ho
consiste
ntl
y fails
the
weekly quiz
to
set a goal
for
next week's quiz (say, getting two more problems correct) . Have
the student record the goal and hi s or her ac tu al perfo rm ance on a chart
This will give the s tudent a concrete picture of his or her own progress
and will foster personal responsibility. It will also reinforce the
importance of perseverance.
Good luck for trying
REFERENCE
Atwater, Eastwood 1979. Psycho
lo
gy of Adjustment , Pren tice Hall
Brown, H Douglas, 1994. Principles of Language Learning
an
d Teaching,
Pre
nti
ce Hall
Clouse, Barbara Fine, 1996. Progressions, Prentice Ha
ll
Regents
Dona
ld
, Robert H, et
al
1996. Writing Clear Essays, Simon Schuster
Ri
cha
rd
-Amato, Patricia, 1988. Making It Happen, Longman
Jo
hn
W Santrock, 2001 C
re
ative
Id
eas
an
d Activities
for
Teachers, Learn ing
2
1
11
4 LINGu Vo
l. 5 No.
2
OklObt. 2006 100001l J
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