EXPLORING STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE IN LEARNING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE AT AN ENGLISH DEPARTMENT IN A PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN YOGYAKARTA
Abstract
Successful teaching and learning were not only obtained by suitable methodology and technique but also by students’ attitude involving in the class. Students with positive attitude would have positive performance and students with negative attitude would have negative performance. Furthermore, attitude was divided into three such as cognitive attitude (beliefs), affective attitude (feeling), and behavioral attitude (action). In addition, the purpose of this research was to find out about students’ attitude in learning English as foreign language (EFL) in terms of cognitive attitude (beliefs) and affective attitude (feeling) at one of private universities in Yogyakarta majoring English. The participants of this research were three students of batch 2014, and the collection process of the data was obtained through interview as data collection method. Also, qualitative method with descriptive research design was applied in this research. In addition, two major findings were found in this research regarding cognitive attitude and affective attitude. Firstly, the result of the findings about the participants’ beliefs (cognitive attitude) in learning English as foreign language was sharpening students’ performance of language, improving students’ communication skill, improving students’ language details, providing future career opportunity, and increasing students’ self-confidence. Secondly, the finding about participants’ feeling (affective attitude) in learning English as foreign language was as feeling enjoyable, being inspired, feeling comfortable, feeling happy, and being persistent.