Teachers’ reinforcement and students’ perception to the teachers in English classroom

Article Info ________________ Article History: Received in 2 January 2020 Approved in 23 July 2020 Published in 30 July 2020 ________________


INTRODUCTION
The aim of this study are to describe the use of reinforcement by the English teachers in SMA Kristen YSKI Semarang, find out which type of reinforcement that mostly used by the teachers, and to describe the students perception towards reinforcement used by the teachers in the classroom.
A large body of research has been carried out to find out the use of reinforcement to support the current study. A study conducted by Pintel in 2006. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of positive reinforcements on the performance of third grade students in their spelling test. She hypothesized that third grade students who experience positive reinforcement in the form of rewards will have significantly higher grades on the end of the week spelling post-test, than when the same students did not receive positive reinforcement in the form of rewards for the end of the week spelling post-test. The participants of this study was fourteen students in third grade of elementary school in southern New Jersey. She conducted the research for 8 weeks consecutively (four weeks without positive reinforcement and four weeks with positive reinforcement). Students who got 92 above would be given a gift as the reward. She compared the test result for four times. Based on the result of the t-test, there was significant improvement in the achievements of the students' grades in their Friday spelling test when they received positive reinforcement in the form of rewards, than when these same students did not receive positive reinforcement for the Friday spelling test. The researcher concluded that positive reinforcement in the form of rewards was able to improve the achievement of 3rd grade students in their end of the week post spelling test.
Next study was from Hoque in 2013. He wanted to find out the effect of positive reinforcement in teaching and learning process. The researcher hypothized that there was no significant difference in the unit test result of the control group and experimental group and there was no significant difference in the attendance of the control group and experimental group. The researcher chose five school to be the subject of the research. One hundred students were chosen randomly from those five school. Fifty students were the control group, the rest were the experimental group. The researcher used statistical technique for analyzing the data, there were mean, standard deviation, and t-test. Based on the result of the study, there were significant difference between control group and experimental group. The experimental group performed better than the control group and had a higher interest of learning than the control group. The researcher concluded that he supported the importance of Skinner's theory about Operant Conditioning in teaching learning process.
Next study was conducted by Latifah in 2016. The researcher wanted to find out what kinds of positive reinforcement that was used by the teacher, to find out how the teacher used positive reinforcement to maintain and motivate a good behavior of their students in learning English. The researcher collected the data by observing and interviewing the observed teachers. She used video recording in order to make the observation was valid. Based on the result of the analysis, the researcher concluded that the observed teachers almost used all kinds of positive reinforcement. The teachers gave the reinforcement whenever the students answered the teachers' questions or did the assignment well. However, in this study the researcher did not find out what the students perception toward reinforcement is, because of that the researcher will find it out.
Since most of the study above only focused on the used of reinforcement, the current study also investigated the students' perception about the reinforcement used by the teachers. Not to mention, Furthermore the current study used a theory from Moore (2007) who suggested five types of positive reinforcement that can be used in English classroom.

METHODS
This study used qualitative design which focused on analyzing and describing the data in form of sentences. This research was naturally conducted and involved human behavior in its natural settings, as Cresswel (1994) states that qualitative research occurs in natural setting where human behavior and events occur.

Participants of the Study
The participants of the study were two English teachers and students in grade ten in the academic year 2018/2019 in SMA Kristen YSKI Semarang.

The object of the study
The object of the study was the types of reinforcement used by the teachers and students perception toward reinforcement that the teachers used during classroom.

Instruments
To collect the data, observation sheet, quetionnaire sheet, audio-video material, were used in this study. The observation sheet was used to record everything ahppen in the observation on the field notes. Questionnaire sheet was used to gather information from the student. The questions were close-ended questions. I took some pictures, and record videos during the observation and also during the interview process.

Data analysis procedures
To analyze the data the researcher used some steps from Siedel (1998). The first is transcribing. The researcher transcribed the data got from audio-video recording. Next is noticing things, in this step I did "code" step which means naming or labeling something. Qualified Reinforcement QR Next step is collecting and sorting instances of things. In this step, I sorted the data based on the types of reinforcement by Moore (2007). The next is thinking about things, in this process I examined the things I have collected. I counted the percentage of the use if reinforcement.
The last step is describing. I described the result of the analysis in thinking process. the description was also supported by the result of students' questionnaire and interview.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The use of reinforcement during teaching and learning process Based on my observation, the teachers used various types of reinforcement and almost used all types of reinforcement. The researcher classified the types of reinforcement based on Moore (2007) theory. There are Verbal, Non-verbal, Vicarious, Delayed, and Qualified Reinforcement.

Verbal Reinforcement
The teachers praised the students orally for what they have done during teaching and learning process. Here is the extract: Based on the extract 1 and 2, the researcher found that every time the students answered correctly, the teachers would give verbal praises directly, as can be seen in extract 1 line 2 and extract 2 line 4 and 6. During observation, the researcher also found that the teachers sometimes used two types of reinforcement at the same time, as can be seen in extract 3 and 4: From extract 3, the teacher applied verbal reinforcement and followed by non-verbal reinforcement at the same time. Furthermore, extract 4 showed that the teacher used Non-verbal Reinforcement and then followed by Vicarious Reinforcement.

Non-verbal Reinforcement
This reinforcement refers to the use of some physical actions for responding students' action or behavior. Here is the extract: Extract 5 and 6 showed that the teachers often gave Non-verbal reinforcement to the students. The teachers simply gave nod or smile to show their appreciation to the students.

Vicarious Reinforcement
This reinforcement needs people to observe others. The students will probably do the same thing if their partners have done it previously. Thus, this type of reinforcement is expected to be able to help students do something desirable. The use of Vicarious Reinforcement can be seen in extract 6: In line 1 we can see that the teacher tried to encourage the students to do something by observing other's behavior. When the other students did something desirable, perhaps the others also did the same thing.

Delayed Reinforcement
Based on the result of transcription, the researcher did not find any Delayed Reinforcement applied by the teachers. It was because the teachers tended to give praises directly to the students every time they do something desirable.

Qualified Reinforcement
The teachers tried to encourage the students to do what the teachers wanted. The teachers sometimes reminded the students to keep speaking English in her classroom. Here is the extract: (students were preparing for the presentation) Oke friends, we will present our song..
In extract 7 line 3, the teachers tried to encourage the students to speak English. Even though the students did some grammar mistakes, the teachers still appreciated their effort to try. Extract 8 line 1 and 2 above showed that the teacher was trying to make the students to be confident when they did the presentation.

Types of the reinforcement used by the teachers
Each teacher applied reinforcement the way they preferred. This part presents the findings of types of reinforcement used by each teachers. From the table above, teacher A and teacher B used various types of reinforcement. They reinforced they way they preferred. The researcher found that they used different amount of reinforcement according to the students' need. Both teachers did not use any Delayed Reinforcement, since they used reinforcement spontaneously in their classroom.
Teacher A used Non-verbal reinforcement mostly in her classroom, it is showed in the table that 51.06% of reinforcement is Non-verbal Reinforcement. Whereas, teacher B had different result. She used Verbal Reinforcement mostly in her classroom, since she used 36.21% Verbal Reinforcement in her classroom. In general, the researcher found that Non-verbal Reinforcement was mostly used by the teachers followed by Verbal Reinforcement in the second place.

Students perception towards reinforcement
The questionnaire and interview were done by the researcher to gain data about students' perception towards teachers' reinforcement. The questionnaires were given at the end of the lesson. The students' comments may vary from one class to another class, depending on the teacher that taught them in the class. The table above is the table of students comment for teacher A. There were 25 students. From the table above, we know that the students found the lesson was the same as usual, nothing special with the lesson. There were only 2 students said that the lesson was "very interesting", and 7 students said the lesson was "quite interesting". And only one student felt the lesson was "rather boring".
The students thought that the teacher has implemented reinforcement appropriately, but few of them were not aware about reinforcement used in the classroom, it is proven by 10 students chose "tidak tahu" as their answer. Even though the teacher had given the proper reinforcement for the students, as found in the table above, the reinforcement had only been given rarely to the students, since 20 out of 25 students chose "rarely/kadang-kadang".
On that table, 19 students thought that reinforcement is important and useful for them in classroom. Even though only few of the students (9 out of 25) have been given personal reinforcement by the teacher.
Interview was done to gain more information about their perception towards reinforcement. The interview was conducted after the lesson. The researcher chose the students randomly. From general result of the interview, all of them agreed that reinforcement is something useful and important for them in the classroom. They thought it was one of the way the teachers used, to build their enthusiasm in learning English.
Based on their opinion, giving additional score for them was one of the effective way to reinforce them. They agreed that it could make them to be more active in the classroom, so that they expected that reinforcement should be given to all students.

Teachers' reinforcement
An effective classroom must have an effective teacher who takes part in every process of learning. Cruickshank et al., (2012) suggested that an effective teacher is one who is able to help the students to learn more in ways that can be measured. The teachers are to help the students to feel acceptable as individuals and recognize effort and potential. One of the way to make them feel acceptable is giving reinforcement. From general result of the study, the teachers had implemented the reinforcement quite well. They could apply it in a proper time and sometimes the students responded it well.
Based on the findings above, the teachers used reinforcement as the way to appreciate students' efforts and enthusiasm. "Positive reinforcement in practice can build self-positive concept, develop an attitude of success, and enhance instructional motivation for the students" (McDaniel, 1987). Each teachers must have different preference of reinforcement since they have different style of learning. Not only did the teachers use one type of reinforcement but also they used two types of reinforcement at the same time. They sometimes combined it because it was very effective to show their respect and appreciation to the students. For instance, the teachers gave thumbs up while saying "good" or "nice". This is the combination of Verbal Reinforcement with Non-verbal Reinforcement.
Delayed Reinforcement is one of the types of reinforcement that was not used by the teachers, based on the findings above. Giving reinforcement directly to the students may raise their confidence as they had done well in the classroom. This result is not in line with the result of the study conducted by Hanjayani (2010), since her study showed that all types of reinforcement were applied by the teachers.

Types of reinforcement used by the teachers
Non-verbal reinforcement was the types of reinforcement that mostly used by the teachers. The teachers simply gave smile or nod to show their respects the students. "Most teachers eventually learn to use smiles, nods, and touch, to show approval" (McDaniel, 1987). This findings latter in line with study conducted by Adibsereshki et al., (2014) which showed that tangible reinforcement is more effective than social reinforcement. Tangible reinforcements are concrete objects that a student needs or wants, it refers to the use of extrinsic rewards, such as, stickers, food, award certificate, or points (Cruickshank et al., 2012). On the other hand, this findings contrast with the study by Hanjayani (2010). Her study showed different result, which was Verbal Reinforcement that had the highest frequency during teaching and learning process.

Students' perception
During teaching and learning process, there must be interaction happened between students and teachers. Based on the students' perception above, they all agreed that reinforcement positively helped them in the classroom. This is in line with the result of study conducted by Pratiwi (2015) which showed that more than half of students agreed it helped them improving students' grade. This is also supported by the study by Hoque (2013) which showed that students treated by positive reinforcement was performing better.
In addition, the students perceived that reinforcement is important and useful. This one is supported by the study by Burnett and Mandel (2010), the students perceived that they felt good inside when they were praised. Thus, this study supported praises as one of the Verbal Reinforcement that are important and positively help the students to work harder.
Most of the students agreed that giving additional score was often used by the teachers. They thought that it will help them to be more enthusiastic. This finding is supported by the study of Pintel (2006) which showed that there was improvement in students' achievement who had been given positive reinforcement in form of rewards. The tangible reinforcement was effective to be implemented in the classroom compared with social reinforcement, as showed in Adibsereshki's study.

CONCLUSION
There are five types of reinforcement that are suggested by Moore (2007), there are Verbal Reinforcement, Non-verbal reinforcement, Vicarious Reinforcement, Delayed Reinforcement, and Qualified Reinforcement. Based on the result of this study, it can be concluded that both teacher A and teacher B used reinforcement the way they preferred in the classroom. From the result findings, the teachers used various types of reinforcement. Teacher A used Non-verbal Reinforcement the most during lesson, whereas teacher B used Verbal Reinforcement the most. In general after the researcher did the recapitulation, it can be concluded that Non-verbal reinforcement was mostly used by the teachers.
Based on the result in chapter IV, most of the students agreed that reinforcement is a way that is used by the teachers to motivate the students. They thought that reinforcement is similar to motivation. They also agreed that reinforcement is very useful and important for them, especially when they made some effort during classroom. They felt appreciated and motivated. Furthermore, it can be concluded that the teachers have already implemented reinforcement properly during teaching and learning process.
From the result of students' interview, it can also be concluded that Non-Verbal Reinforcement, such as, giving additional score for the task, was mostly responded by the students. From the interview result, they preferred Non-verbal reinforcement as the most useful reinforcement for the students.