Academic Essay Revisi3

7/30/2019 Academic Essay Revisi3

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The Introduction

The Ministry of Foreign and Trade of New Zealand provides scholarships for talented people from the

south East Asia region each year. The scholarship is named NZAS that is stand for New Zealand

ASEAN Scholarship. Selected candidates are provided English courses, for at least six months, at

IALF Surabaya for increasing their English proficiency. Since candidates take six-month Englishcourses, they may feel boredom. Thus, this academic paper is aimed to explore how boredom can be

prevented among NZAS scholars.

In general, IALF Surabaya has some efforts to prevent its students from boredom. Some efforts to

reduce boredom are including providing interesting class atmosphere and providing entertainment

facilities. For example, teachers may ask students to play games such as exchanging seats, speaking

simulation and watching movies. In addition, IALF Surabaya also provides entertaining facilities such

as collection of movies, podcast collections and special or artistic events at the end of English courses.

Those facilities are aimed to refresh students minds and body after and while taking the courses.

Thus, students are prepared to endure their concentration and reduce their boredom when takingEnglish courses at IALF Surabaya.

IALF Surabayas efforts to provide interesting courses are rather successful as my survey shows that

almost all of NZAS scholars enjoy their courses there. Another indication that they enjoy their courses

is that they do self study at the Study Centre daily at least 1 hour.

Figure 1. Percentage of NZAS scholars who enjoys the courses

On the other hand, according to my survey I conducted, all of NZAS scholars did leisured activitiessuch as going to cinema and listening to music regularly to tackle their boredom. However, all

scholars experienced boredom. This result is not coincidently, because when people study, especially

studying one subject for a long time, they may face boredom more frequently than anxiety and

boredom correlates significantly and negatively with enjoyment [Goetz, Frenzel, Pekrun, and Hall

(2006)]. Consequently, NZAS scholars may hard to get an appropriate IELTS score as the final aim of

their English courses since the results of the existing studies imply that boredom is a highly relevant

emotion in students' behaviour and that it tends to be associated with negative outcomes [Nett, 2010].


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Figure 2. Percentage of NZAS scholars who feels bored

According to Baker [2010], boredom is very persistent across learning environments and is associated

with poorer learning and problem behaviour. Frustration is less persistent and less associated with

poorer learning. In addition, if we compare boredom and anxiety, although both of them have

negative influence to learning but while boredom has low level of arousal, anxiety has high level of

arousal. In short, anxiety may awake or push students to study hard as frustration has high level of

arousal. In contrast, bored students may not be pushed to study hard as boredom has low level of

arousal [ Russel (2003) in Baker (2010)].

Figure 3. depicts many positions of emotional situation[Adapted from Russel (2003) in Baker (2010)]

Note: FR (Frustration), BO (Boredom), EC (Engaged Concentration), SU (surprise), DE (delight), CO (confusion).


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Analysis of alternative solutions

The first proposed solution is to compress the courses. It means compress two or more English

courses so students can finish their courses earlier. It also can be done by compressing the material

courses. This alternative will likely to save time and costs. In addition, the scholars may reduce their

boredom and homesickness because English courses could be shortened.

In contrast, according to Mr. Gough, the manager at IALF Surabaya, this solution may not be easy to

implement. Generally, every English course has its specific aims and characters. For instance, IEPOS

1 and IEPOS 2 courses have different characters. While IEPOS 1 contains 20 % IELTS materials,

IEPOS 2 contains 40% of IELTS materials. Next different character is while IEPOS 1 will provide

scholars basic foundation for academic writing that is very important, especially when the scholars

start their study abroad, IEPOS 2 will not only to deepen academic writing but also to deepen

speaking skills in academic situation. As a consequence, compressing the course seems very difficult

as each course has robust materials.

Another alternative is to add full entertainment facilities such as adding collection of movies,providing karaoke facilities and so on. As each scholar may have different hobbies or interests, adding

completed entertainment facilities should cover each scholars interests. What I mean is if we only

enrich collection of movies, it may not be suitable solution for all as each scholar has different

hobbies. However, although adding collection of movies may possible but adding the collection of

movies together with karaoke facilities may be difficult. It is caused there is limited space to provide

karaoke facilities and other facilities such as cinemas.

The last proposed solution is to provide study tours between the course breaks. Actually, this solution

is chosen by all scholars. Based on each course schedules, study tours is likely to implement easily.

After finishing an English course, there is three-week break before students start their next English

courses. Moreover, there are many options of destinations to visit for study tour. Some of amazing

tourist destination can be reached within short time from Surabaya. For instance, Jatim Park, the zoo

and Suramadu Bridge can be reached less than a half day by bus. Thus, this solution is not only

practical but also affordable.

Proposed Solution Advantages DisadvantagesStudy Tours Refresh scholars mind and

body;

Reduce boredom and increasefriendship among scholars;

Scholars may have different

places of interest.

Compressing Courses Shortening courses;

Reduce boredom and

homesickness;

Courses may not enough for

under- averaged scholars;

Adding Entertainment Facilities Provide different facilities for

different interests;

Reduce boredom;

Need high cost, time and more

spaces;

Figure 4. Summarize the advantages and disadvantages of all proposed solutions


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Recommendation and Implementation

I think that the last solution, study tour, is the best solution. The solution is not only practical but also

the most favourite solution by scholars. In addition, the solution is cost-effective and it can enhance

awareness and friendship among the scholars. The possible disadvantage of this solution is scholars

may have different places of interest but this flaw can be tackled by visiting different types of places.

On the other hand, other possible solutions such as compressing the courses and adding full

entertainment facilities should be considered. What I mean is there are possibilities in future that

study tours are not the best solution. For example, if main scholars come from close places to

Surabaya, they may argue that visiting or doing study tours is not effective as they have visited the

destinations around Surabaya frequently. In addition, almost all NZAS scholars agree that the course

that too long as the cause of their boredom. For this reason, I strongly believe that compressing

courses should be implemented as soon as possible.

Research indicates that the causes of boredom can be either external (the state of boredom) or internal

(boredom as a trait, or boredom proneness) [Farmer and Sundberg, 1986 in Martin, Marion.,Sadlo,Gaynor and Stew, Graham (2010)]. While length of course is an external factor that may cause

boredom, little motivation is internal factor that may cause boredom. For these reasons, I would like

to recommend that NZAS scholars should have high motivation to prevent boredom.

Finally, I strongly believe that all proposed solutions should be followed simultaneously as each

solution has different advantages. For example, while compressing courses may save time, health and

reduce homesickness, adding full entertainment facilities will put IALF Surabaya as one of the most

favourite places to learn English in Indonesia.

References

Baker, Ryan S.J.D., Mello, Sidney K.D., Rodrigo, Mercedes., Graesser, C, Arthur. (2010). Better to

Be Frustrated than Bored: The Incidence, Persistence, and Impact of Learners Cognitive-Affective

States during Interactions with Three Different Computer-Based Learning Environments.Pittsburgh.

Carnegie Mellon University Press.

Goetz, T., Frenzel. A. C., Pekrun, R., & Hall, N. C. (2006). The domain specificity of academic

emotional experiences.JournalofExperimentalEducation, 75( I ). 5 29.

Martin, Marion., Sadlo,Gaynor and Stew, Graham. (2010) The phenomenon of boredom. Journal

Qualitative Research in Psychology,3, 193-211.

Nett, Ulrike E.,Goetz, Thomas., Daniels, Lia M. (2010).What to do when feeling bored ? Students'

strategies for coping with boredom.Journal Learning and Individual Differences,6, 626-638.

Russel, A. J., (2003).Core affect and psychological construction of emotion. Psychological Review,

100, 145-172.

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Academic Essay Revisi3