EFL classrooms in the Indonesian context: How do eleventh-grade students perceive rewards in EFL instruction?

Abstract

Perception is a cognitive process when a person interacts with their surroundings while accepting information from the brain. Students perceive of rewards during English as a foreign language instruction is important because perception can affect their learning ability. However, the eleventh-grade students perceive of rewards in EFL instruction was still unclear, this research aimed to investigate the perception of rewards among eleventh-grade students in a vocational high school in EFL instruction. The approach of this research was quantitative. With the help of Microsoft excel, eighty-one students in the eleventh grade were chosen randomly to answer the questionnaire, and 10% of them were chosen to be interviewed. A questionnaire and interview were employed to get the data about the eleventh-grade student's perceptions of rewards in EFL instruction. Then, the interview data were analyzed using Miles and Huberman data analysis, which consists of data condensation, data display, conclusion, and verification. Meanwhile, the data collected through a questionnaire was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results showed that rewards in EFL instruction could increase students’ motivation in learning as well as make them happy and excited during the learning process. Besides that, students picked words of praise as the reward that could make them happy and followed by any tangible rewards the teachers gave. Several suggestions for future research follow the findings of this study.