Developing Motivational Activities for Teaching Literature in Junior High School

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Literature is a written art that serves as a channel for expressing ideas and histories in long ago eras. But despite the richness that literature offers, most students are still uninterested in learning it because they think that it is boring and it has no appeal to them. Another reason why students nowadays do not like literature is their point of interest. in this study, the teacher's use of motivational macro techniques in teaching literature and its relation to the performance of the junior high school students in literature was analyzed which led the researcher to the development of motivational activities that will further improve students' learning of literature in junior high school.

METHODS

A descriptive design with the Input-Process-Output paradigm was used in the study. A researcher-made questionnaire served as the main data gathering instrument which undergone the process of construction, validation, and administration. 299 grade seven students, 295 grade eight learners, 290 grade nine students and 286 grade 10 learners answered the questionnaire while their teachers provided the researcher a copy of their grades in English. The subjects' responses were checked, tallied, analyzed and interpreted.

RESULTS

Results of the study revealed that grade seven, eight and nine learners had a satisfactory performance in English while grade 10 respondents performed very satisfactorily. On the other hand, when it comes to the level of performance in literature, all grade levels had a very satisfactory performance in literature. The findings of the study also showed that a significant relationship between the performance of grade seven, eight and nine students in English and their level of performance in literature existed. However, the same result revealed that there is no significant relationship between the performance of grade 10 students in English and their level of performance in literature. When it comes to the utilization of motivational macro techniques in teaching literature, data showed that teachers utilized them moderately.

DISCUSSIONS

The results showed the need for developing motivational activities in teaching in order to improve the learners' satisfactory and very satisfactory level of performance in literature into outstanding. Students' literary performance will continue to hang back when teachers provide activities that would not fully meet and engage the learners in the lesson. Motivation is undoubtedly an important factor in achieving a successful teaching-learning process.