Empowering Indonesian students’ regulation of feelings and attitudes in EFL learning through action-oriented reflections

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on Indonesian students’ regulation of feelings and attitudes in EFL learning. It considers one research question i.e. to what extent can Indonesian students regulate their feelings and attitudes in EFL learning? To answer the question, classroom action research was adopted. The participants of the research were 24 first semester students of a Primary School Teacher Education Study Program at a university in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The study lasted for six monthswhere students submitted five reflections and completed a pre- and post-participation questionnaire. Results from data analyses indicated that the students had negative feelings and attitudes towards English before participating in the action research but showed more positive feelings and attitudes as a result of their participation. They also demonstrated increased ability to regulate their feelings and attitudes towards learning English, independently of the teacher’s supervision. This was attributable to: (1) the teachers’ and students’ mutual awareness of the importance of identifying and regulating students’ feelings and attitudes in EFL learning; and (2) the students’ focus on self-regulated learning strategies rather than academic achievements. This study offers pedagogical implications for EFL/ESL teachers and suggestions for future researchers.

KEYWORDS:

• Feelings
• attitudes
• EFL
• self-regulated learning
• action research

Acknowledgments

I would like express my gratitude to Dr. Renata Phelps and Dr. Robert Smith, my thesis supervisors at Southern Cross University, Australia for teaching me the skills to survive academically. My gratitude also goes to Prof. Dr. Martin Hayden, Dean of the School of Education and all the teaching staff at Southern Cross University, and Sanata Dharma University management for their support during my doctoral study. Last, I owe much to my wife and three children for their never-ending love and support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. This derives from a doctoral thesis which is available at Southern Cross University (Mbato 2013).

2. ‘Feelings’, ‘emotion’ and ‘affect’ tend to be used interchangeably in the literature and therefore are not treated as different constructs in this article; cf. (Deigh 2008; Dewaele 2005; Jaber and Hammer 2015; Zimmerman 2013; Zimmerman & Kitsastas, 2014).

3. Some reflections were written in English; others have been translated from Indonesian by the author.

4. The students’ responses strongly disagree and disagree (1–3 on the scale) were collapsed, as were agree to strongly agree (5–7).