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 efforts, 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, bm they are afraid of failu re.

Therefore, they choose

/101 tryillg

instead. II saves them from the disappointment ami

humiliation. In order to Ol'ercome this, the teacher should pay attention to the siudents'
emotional faclOr as well us their self confidence. Kllowing these will help the teacher make the
underachievers work harder.
Key words: underachievers, effort, affective factor, self esteem

Sooner or later, no matter what subj ect you are teaching, you will notice
an underachi ever in your class. As the regular students work to complete tasks,
the underachi evers lag behind, challenging your teaching skill, and your
patience, with failures of turning in assignments, making complaint s or
excuses. Challenged and determined to help your students, you decide to stay
after class for studenHeacher co nferences and to find out what goes on behind
this impassivity. You search for special projects to arouse their interest and
encourage positive attitudes.

However, no matter how hard you tried, such

strategies have had only limited success.

Why try?
How do you cope with learners who do not seem to be motivated much
in a g iven activity? Are they really making enough effort to succeed? Or are
they merely performing the motion to fulfill requirements or to sat isfy some
authority- parents, teachers, and peers? There are several causes of
underachievement. Boredom, laz iness, and apat hy do not really explain this

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problematic behavior. For many smart students who are weak in their subjects,
nOf

trying makes more se nse than otherwise.

Take Anita, for exampl e. Anita, an intelligent sophomore, rarely hands

in homework, or fails to show up on the day an assignment is due. When give n

in-cl ass

she complains, "That 's too hard," or "I can't

co ncentrate," until help comes from a fellow student or teacher.

Anita tries

10

On tests,

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 iously inattentive in class.

A continual 'bad luck" keeps him from

completing a good number of tasks, particularl y ones dealing with newlypre sented material s. He misplaces course-books or notes so mewhere. He loses
his assignments because the computer breaks down, etc.
Both Bernard and Anita pay a price for Iheir lack of effort: bad grades,
reprimands from teachers, detentions from taking exams, etc. Yet, they persist
in their behav ior. Why? The answer is simple: they see the benefits of not
trying are worth the costs.

Anita is sure she cannot do the assigned work, no

mailer how hard she tries. Since effo rts or lack of efforts will lead to the same
end, i.e. fai lure, it is qu ite logica l to make the least possible effort. As a resu lt,
Anita continues to rely on teachers and fellow students to get her through tasks
and assignments. Unlike Anita, Berna rd wanls so much to believe that he is
intellige nt and competent. However, he has serious doubts. He is afraid to try
hard and fail. That is why Bernard resorts to not trying-and flaunting his lack
of effort. This enables himself to hold on to the self-image of competence.

Self-esteem
According to H. Douglas Brown, self-estee m is the most pervasive
aspect of any behavior.
MOI iv4ling Und ... chi.n,s:

Self-esteem is esse ntiall y the way we feel about

The m W. nl lo Try (Sri S. 8i11ah)

109

ourselves, the extent in which we value or admire ourselves. It is the sense of

personal worth we associate with ou r self-concept. (Atwater: 11 3) Th us, no
successful lea rning activity can be carried out without some degree of selfestee m, self-confidence, knowledge of yourself, and belief in your own
capabilities for that activity. The following is a well -accepted definition of
self-esteem (Coopersmith 1967: 4-5):
" By self-esteem, we refer to the evaluation which the individual makes and
customarily maintains with regard to himself; it expresses an attitude of approval or
disapproval, and indicates the extent to which an individual believes himself to be
capable, significant, successful and worthy . In ShOft, self-esteem is a personal
judgment of worthiness that is expressed in the attitudes that the individual holds
towards himself. It is a subjective experience which the ind ividual conveys to others
by verbal reports and other overt expressive behavior."

Apparently, underachievers li ke Anita and Bernard have somewhat low

se lf-esteem. When An ita does do well on an assignment or test, she asks
herse lf " Me doing well ? How can this be? Maybe the teacher made a mistake
in grad ing the papers. Maybe he likes me or feels sorry for me. It 's probably
just luck. It won't happen aga in" Instead of attributing achievement to her
effort of studying, she evide ntl y thinks it is a mailer of luck or the teacher' s
help that she succeeds. In doing so, she also denies her actual experience of
success, and fa il s to discover her potential. Thus, an occasional success will
probably not boost her self-confide nce nor nu rture respo nsibility for her own
endeavor. Whal reall y needs 10 be changed is her belief thai no effort will
improve her chances of succeeding.
Low-aChieving students feel anxious and defensive about criticism of
their work, but the high achievers fee l less anxious and defensive about their
wo rk (Coope rsmith, 1967). People with high self-estee m may bounce back
fro m fa il ures with little time spent in blame or se lf pity.

At this juncture,

Bernard should refl ect on the belief that making mistakes is not a sign of
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stupidity 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
incorporate affective factors in the process. Affect refe rs to emotion or feeling.
Thus, learning should take into co nsiderat ion learners' fee ling, emotions, and
social experience in the process.

Tomlinson

(2003:

13)

recommend s

hum anizing material s, which refers to adding "activities which help to make
the language learning process a more affective experience, and finding "ways
of helping the learne rs to connect what is in the learn ing materials to what is in
their minds."
The above belief clicks with that of H. Douglas Brown (Brown 1994:
136-137) who states " If we were to devise theories of seco nd language
acqu isit ion or teach ing methods that were based on ly on cognitive
cons iderations, we would be omitting the most fundamental side of human
behavior...

In recent years there has been an increasing awa reness of the

necessity in second language research and teaching to examine human

personality in order to find solutions to perplexing prob lems." (Brown 1994;
136- 137).

In support of Ernest Hilgard who observes that "purely

cogn itive theories of lea rning will be rejected unless a role is assigned to
affect ivity" (Hil gard 1963: 267), Brown underscores the importance of the
affective domain in the language learn ing process.
The affective domain or the emotional side of human behavior is the
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 second
language acquisition or hinder it, depending upon whether they are positive or
MOlivaling Und<r4ch ievers: Make Them Want to Try (Sri S. Billah )

ill

negative, the degree to which they present, and the combinations in which we find
them. Because these variables are difficull to isolate and are often 50 subtle they
can scarcely be detected .... All of these intangible concepts interact to form
changing patterns usually operating out of the subconscious. We do know that
factors or combinations of fa<"10rs having to do with attitudes, motivation and level
o f anxiety are central to the affective domain. "

Efforts to change
It is not easy but quite possible for students like Bernard and Anita to

change their beliefs about personal abilities and the costs and benefits of effort.
In acade mic writing, for example, fo r which students are forced first to
think of ideas, they can do it ollly in their own language. As a resu lt, academic
writing beco mes an exercise in very difficult and fru strating translation. Many
mistakes occur because the translation is too difficu lt for them.
To help overcome such problems, you may ex pose students to wellchosen and realist ic texts. Articles from The Jakarta Post, Readers' Digest or
the Tempo Magazine, the English version, make a very good choice to serve
this purpose. As you discuss these texts; stude nts' own memories of similar
experiences will begin to surface. After the students have hea rd, discussed,
and become excited by these texts, you can point out telling deta ils, good
expressions and other effective features of the rcad-aloud selections.

Tell

students that they might want to use some of these techniques when they are
working on their own writing. Only make sure that they do it in class under
you r supe rvision.
In the San Diego County Public Schools, reports John W Santrock
(Santrock 200 1: 139), the Achieving Via Individual Determination (AVID)
program provides support for underachieving students.

The following

guide lines will help you make sure that the benefi ts of trying outwe igh those of
not trying- for all your students.

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Make sure that the assigned tasks are realistic, so that all students can
complete them when they really try. When your class is a mixed-ability
one, this is not easy 10 do. But you can use such techniques as teaching
in small groups; creating cooperat ive work groups 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 another's
assignments. This also gives students a sense of responsibi lity for their
own learning.

Focus students ' attention o n their own progress, not on their fellow
students' performance. When stu dents measure their success by their
peers' performance, those who do not do as we ll are bound to feel like
failures.

Base grades on mastery o r improve ment , not on relat ive

performance.

Have slUdents continue to work on assignments for

revision that allows them many opportunities to improve perfo nnance.

3

Reward effo rt, whateve r the outcome.

Tell your studen ts that in

learn ing, as in any endeavor, setbacks are inevitable.

But effort and

perseverance do payoff. Praise those when they make progress, not

just when they get everyt hing right. If onl y success is praised, some
students 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 en thusiastic. Otherwise, you will risk
sending the message that you really value brilliance rather than
diligence , and slower learne rs may become discouraged.
4

Give every student opportun ities to demonstrate competence in class.

Consider setting aside a few minutes each week for the students to
demonstrate an

nonacademic-skill. For example, ask a

Unde chievers , Make The m Want to Try (Sri S. Rillah)

113

student to pl aya musical instrument and sing solo. This way, eve n
academicall y weak students will get a good dose of self-confidence.

S Allow stu dents to set their own goals. (Of course, you need to make
sure that these goals are realist ic but challenging.)

For example,

encourage a student who consistentl 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 his or her actu al perfo rmance on a chart.
This will give the student 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. Psychology of Adjustment, Prentice Hall

Brown, H. Douglas, 1994. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching,
Prentice Hall
Clouse, Barbara Fine, 1996. Progressions, Prent ice Hall Regents
Donald, Robert H, et al. 1996. Writing Clear Essays, Simon & Schuster
Richard-Amato, Patricia, 1988. Making It Happen, Longman
John W Santrock, 2001. Creative Ideas and Activities for Teachers, Learn ing
2001

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