The Difference between Bilingual Acehnese-Indonesian and Monolingual Indonesian Students’ Learning Behavior in EFL

Abstract

This study was conducted in qualitative research aimed to discover the difference in learning behavior between bilingual Acehnese-Indonesian and monolingual Indonesian in EFL. The data of this study was obtained from the 7th grade at SMP Teuku Nyak Arif Fatih Bilingual School, Banda Aceh. The participants were five bilingual and five monolingual students. The data were collected through observation and interviews. The observation data was students’ learning behavior during English class and was analyzed in descriptive statistics (percentages). The interview data included transcripts of supporting information about the reason for the learning behavior displayed in the English classes. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed following Miles Huberman’s interactive model analysis. Furthermore, the results of this study showed that bilingual students showed less negative behavior in terms of competence motivation, attitude toward learning, and strategy/flexibility than monolingual students, but they were found to show the same amount of attention and persistence of negative issues along with monolingual students. Meanwhile, interview findings revealed that reason from both bilingual and monolingual students displayed those issues were mostly affected by internal factors and several external factors