GROUP WORK TO IMPROVE CLASSROOM INTERACTION AND STUDENTS’ SELF-ESTEEM OF STAIN GPA Sungkawati Kardi Wahyuningsih STAIN Gajah Putih Takengon, Aceh Tengah, Aceh - Indonesia

This research aimed at observing and describing the process and the results of the action implemented in improving the classroom interaction and the students’ self-esteem of STAIN GPA. This research was a classroom action research. The subject of the study is the semester 6 students of English department in the academic year of 2014/2015. The purposive sampling was used in this study. This research consists of three steps, namely: input, transformation, and output. The finding of the research is that the implementation of group work is able to improve the classroom interaction, as they: interaction between student and student, student and teacher, student and learning sources, and student and the environment. In relation to the students’ self-esteem, the implementation of group work was able to improve: feeling of competence, feeling to be respected, feeling to be loved, feeling to have a chance for success, and feeling of confidence.


Introduction
Classroom interaction accommodates the teaching learning process.It facilitates the transfer of knowledge in the classroom.Brown (2001, p.165) states that interaction is collaborative exchange of thoughts, feelings, or ideas between two or more people, resulting in reciprocal effects on each other.It gives change the students to communicate with the learning sources.
Communication with the learning sources are not only interaction between student with the other students, it also interaction between students with teacher, learning material, and learning environment.Malamah (1987, p.37) gives explanation that interaction can be seen as a process of mutual accommodation, with the addresser acting upon the addressee to cause a reaction, which in turn informs an action performed by the previous addressee, which causes a reaction in the same way, and so on.
The interaction is not just exploring the ideas.However, it includes the way how the listeners understand the information.Moreover, they respond the ideas.Rivers (1987, p.5) states that, in a second language situation, interaction becomes essential to survival in the new language and culture.In this case, it is important to help the students to find their styles of interaction.
Finding the students' interaction style concern to the students' self-esteem.It relates to the students' motivation, confidence, and feeling.Self-esteem is the value each of one's places on their own characteristics, abilities, and behaviors Slavin (2006, p. 80).
Self-esteem plays an important role in attaining students' target learning.The low academic performance is the result of the low self-esteem.The students feel incompetence in learning process.Furthermore, they find it difficult to set goals and to solve problems.Consequently, they tend to place little value on their successes.Malbi & Reasoner (in Kumar, V. et al., 2009, p. 27) said that self-esteem can be broadly defined as the overall evaluation of oneself in either a positive or negative way.It indicates the extent to which an individual believes himself or herself to be competent and worthy of living.Plumer (2005, p. 20) states that a person who believes in himself and who has developed a degree of self-reliance is more likely to be able to cope with life's inevitable difficulties and failures.The students who had high self-esteem will be able to build confidence for future challenges, recognize and develop specific strengths and cope with changes successfully, and enjoy life and fulfill relationship.Moreover, they had flexibility to take chance to reach their success than fear of their mistake.
In contrast, people with low self-esteem often lack energy and confidence and feel depressed, insecure, and inadequate (McDonald & Kirby, 2009, p.77).The students' characteristics are not supportive towards the teaching-learning process.The students have low confidence in presenting ideas, asking questions, and attending the classroom activities.They do not act and follow the process of learning actively.
According to that problem, it is important to improve students' self-esteem to help them attain their target learning.McDonald & Kirby (2009, p.78) mention some ways to improve students' self-esteem, as they: focusing on hope and success, making lessons meaningful, providing challenges, focusing on careers, considering the importance of self-esteem, and expressing positive beliefs.
One of the solving of classroom interaction and self-esteem is by using group work.
Group work is a teaching and learning technique where the learners work in small groups to do activities in classrooms.Davis (2009,p.190)students who work in groups also appear more satisfied with their classes and group work provides a sense of shared purpose that can increase morale and motivation.
According to Harmer (2001, p.117) group work increases the amount of talking individual students can do.On the other hands, group work provides a sense of shared purpose which is able to improve students' morale and motivation (Davis, 2009, p. 190).Moreover, Kusuma, Sutadji, and Tuwoso (2014, p. 6) found that motivation give contribution to the achievement of the competencies.When students had high motivation to learn, the classroom interaction will automatically improve.It cause by dividing the class into groups, students get more opportunities to talk than in full class organization and each student can say something.
In this study, group work was offered to improve the classroom interaction and the students' self-esteem.As a learning technique, group work can increase self-esteem and learning achievement, enhance empathy and social skills, improve ethnic and social relations, facilitate inclusion, and increase liking for class and academic contents.In conclusion, the classroom interaction and students' self-esteem can be raised by group work.
The objectives of this study are to observing the process of the action implemented in improving the classroom interaction and self-esteem of the English education department students of STAIN GPA, and describing the results of the action implemented in improving the classroom interaction and the self-esteem of the English education department student of STAIN GPA.

Methods
The research type used in this study is classroom action research.In this study, the researcher worked participatory.It means that the research was designed and done by the researcher (Endang Mulyatiningsih, 2011, p. 63).This research used Lewin's model (Endang Mulyatiningsih, 2011, p. 69;Pardjono et.al, 2007, p. 22).which consist of three steps, as they: input, transformation, and output.The first step is input.The purpose is to identify the problem and to plan the action to solve the problem.The second step is transformation which is used to conduct the action plan.The last step is output.The purpose of this step is to reflect the action and to see the result of the action.
The subject of the study is the semester 6 students of English department of STAIN GPA in the academic year of 2014/2015.The total number of the population was 75 students that belong to three classes.The result of the purposive sampling took unit C students because they had the lowest degree of self-esteem and passive in teaching learning process.The total subject number is 25 students.
There were two kinds of data, qualitative and quantitative data.The qualitative data were gathered from observation.The data were analyzed using the descriptive analysis.
On the other hands, the quantitative data were gathered from questionnaires.The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistic.For this purpose, the central tendency measure (means) and the variability measure (standard deviation) of the students' responses were used.They enable the researcher to use one or two numbers to represent all the individual scores (Gall, Gall, & Borg, 2003, pp. 290-291).This research used the mean to analyze the response using Likert scales.The Likert scales are the most common technique when asking people to give the degree to which they agree with sikap, pendapat, perception, and opinion (Burhan Nurgiyantoro, 2001, p. 55;Sugiyono, 2010, p. 134;Erwan Agus Purwanto & Dyah Ratih Sulistyastuti, 2011, p. 63).
The assessment of the opinion on the questionnaire uses scales in the form of five points of agreements: 1 or SD if the respondents strongly disagree with the statement, 2 or D if the respondents disagree with the statement, 3 or U if the respondents neither agree or disagree or doubt with the statement, 4 or A if the respondents agree with the statement, and 5 or SA if the respondents strongly agree with the statement.

Results and Discussion
This research study consists of three steps, namely: input, transformation, and output.
Below is the explanation.The first step is input.In this step, the problems were identified based on the observations and questionnaires.It is used to formulate the problems.The identification was done on March 2015.The data presentation of the respondents and the result of the questionnaire are described below.  1 shows that the mean or the average score of the respondents' agreement toward the questionnaire items ranged from 1.88 to 2.20 as a matter of fact, the minimum acceptance of the average score or mean was 3.00 and the maximum score was 5.00.
Therefore it can be concluded that the classroom interaction in this class is low.It can also be seen that the students relatively had similar opinions towards the statements of the questionnaire since the value of standard deviation of each statement of the questionnaire was small.This was also supported by the result of the observation.
The interaction between student and the other students in the classroom is low.They are silent in the teaching learning process.The mean of the interaction between student and students was 2.20.It can be concluded that there are limited interaction between students.The value of the standard deviation was 0.76.It showed that the learners relatively had the similar opinion.Based on the observation, the students were passive to give their opinion in the teaching learning process.
In relation to the interaction between student and the teacher, the mean score of the students' statement was 1.88.It can be concluded that there are limited interaction between students and their teacher.The teacher dominated the classroom activities.The standard deviation was 0.73.It means that the students had the relative similar opinion toward the interaction between student and the teacher.
The interaction between student and the learning sources was low.They were passive in finding the learning sources, tasks, and material to support their learning.It can be seen through the mean of their statement was 2.00.They had the relative similar opinion toward the interaction between student and the learning sources that was 0.65.
In relation to the interaction between student and the environment, the mean score of the students' statement was 2.00.It can be concluded that the interaction are low.The students do not care to the situation of their learning environment.They do not keep their classroom comfortable.The standard deviation was 0.41.It means that they had relative similar opinion toward the interaction between student and the environment.
Based on the observation, the students learn in the untidy classroom.Table 2 shows that the mean or the average score of the respondents' agreement toward the questionnaire items ranged from 1.76 to 2.12 as a matter of fact, the minimum acceptance of the average score or mean was 3.00 and the maximum score was 5.00.
Therefore it can be concluded that the classroom interaction in this class is low.It can also be seen that the students relatively had similar opinions towards the statements of the questionnaire since the value of standard deviation of each statement of the questionnaire was small.This was also supported by the result of the observation.
The students' feeling of competence was small.The teaching learning processes seem silent and passive.The mean of the feeling of competence was 2.12.The value of the standard deviation was 0.53.It showed that the learners relatively had the similar opinion.
In relation to the feeling to be respected, the mean of the students' statement was 1.76.
It means that the students do not care whether their friends care to them or not.They had the relative similar opinion toward the feeling to be respected.It can be seen from the value of the standard deviation that was 0.69.
In relation to the feeling to be loved, the mean of the students' statement was 1.92.It means that the students do not aware about the admiration feeling.They seem stiff in the classroom communication.The students had relative similar opinion toward the feeling to be loved.It can be seen from the value of the standard deviation that was 0.64.
The feeling to have a chance for succes was 1.84.It mean that the students had low level of motivation to reach their success.The value of the standard deviation was 0.69.
It means that they had relative similar opinion toward the feeling to have a change for success.
In relation to the feeling of confidence, the mean of the students' statement was 1.17.It means that the students had low level confidence.It was the reason of the passiveness of the teaching learning process in the classroom.The students had the relative similar opinion toward the feeling of confidence.It can be seen in the value of the standard deviation that was 0.52.
Based on the real situation that was indicated by the result of the identification and the observation, it can be concluded that the students had a low level of interaction and a low level of self-esteem.The plan was design to solve those problems by using group work.Moreover, the plan included three activities, as they: choosing the topics and items of learning, selecting teaching materials and learning procedures, and making up the syllabus.Below is the result of the syllabus development.The second step is transformation.In this stage, the action plan was implemented in the teaching learning process.The classes were held in six meetings.In each meeting, both the teaching learning process and the students were observed.Below are the descriptions of the six meetings.
The material of the first meeting was Grammar Translation Method.The learning procedures were watching short video, discussion, and role play.The material was started by watching short video about Grammar Translation Method.After that they discussed the material.Then, every group presented the result of the discussion.In the end of the discussion, the students participated in role play.
In the second meeting, the material was Direct Method.The learning procedures were watching short video, discussion, and role play.The material was started by watching short video about Direct Method.Then, the teacher delivered some educational issues that should be discussed by the groups.In the end of the discussion, the students participated in role play.
Audio-Lingual Method was the material of the third meeting.The learning procedures were discussion and game.The material was started by game.The next activity was discussion in group.After that, the students participate in game.The material of the fourth meeting was Total-Physical Response.The learning procedures were watching short video, discussion, and competition.The material was started by watching short video.After that, the teacher grouped the students into five students in each group.The discussion was used to make questions for the next activity.In the end of the teaching learning process, the students participated in competition.
In the fifth meeting, the material was Communicative Approach.The learning procedures were watching short video, discussion, and short performance.The material was started by watching short video about Communicative Approach.The next activity was discussion.Then, every group presented the short performance.The material of the last meeting was Natural Approach.The learning procedures were watching short video, discussion, and short performance.The material was started by watching short video about Natural Approach.After that, the discussion was used to plan performance.Then, every group presented the short performance.
The last step is output.In this step, the reflections were done.The reflection of the implementation of the action plan was done at the end of every meeting.The reflection was done according to the observation.The questionnaires were completed by the students at the end of the action implementation.The data presentation of the respondents and the result of the questionnaire are described below.4 shows that the mean or the average score of the respondents' agreement toward the questionnaire items ranged from 4.00 to 4.32 as a matter of fact, the minimum acceptance of the average score or mean was 3.00 and the maximum score was 5.00.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the classroom interaction in this class is high.On the other word, the action plan was success to improve the classroom interaction.It can also be seen that the students relatively had similar opinions towards the statements of the questionnaire since the value of standard deviation of each statement of the questionnaire was small.It ranged from 0.48 to 0.76.
The interaction between student and student improved by the implementation of the action plan.The improvement of the interaction between student and student can be seen in the mean of the students' agreement toward the statement.The mean was 4.20.
It raises 2.00 point from the beginning identification.It means that group work is able to motivate the students to work cooperatively with their friends in the teaching learning process.The standard deviation was 0.05.It means that the students had the relative similar opinion toward the interaction between student and student.
In relation to the interaction between student and the teacher, the mean score was 4.12.
It raises 2.24 point from the first identification.It means that the implementation of group work in the teaching learning process is able to improve the communication between students and the teacher.The students had the relatively similar opinion toward the statement.It can be seen from the value of the standard deviation that is 0.76.
The interaction between student and the learning sources improved 1.80 point from the first identification.The mean of the interaction between student and the learning sources is 4.00.It means that the implementation of group work in the teaching learning process was able to improve students' awareness to the learning sources.They are active to find sources to support their learning.The students relatively had the similar opinion toward the interaction between student and the learning sources.It can be seen through the value of the standard deviation that is 0.65.
In relation to the interaction between the student and the learning environment improved 2.32.The result of interaction between student and the learning environment was 4.32.
It can be conclude that the implementation of the group work was able to improve students' awareness of the situation where they learn.They keep the classroom atmosphere comfort and enjoy during the teaching learning process.The value of the standard deviation was 0.48.It means that the students had relative similar opinion toward the interaction between student and the learning environment.Table 5 shows that the mean or the average score of the respondents' agreement toward the questionnaire items ranged from 3.92 to 4.36 as a matter of fact, the minimum acceptance of the average score or mean was 3.00 and the maximum score was 5.00.
Therefore it can be concluded that the classroom interaction in this class is high.It means that the group work was success to improve the students' self-esteem.It can also be seen that the students relatively had similar opinions towards the statements of the questionnaire since the value of standard deviation of each statement of the questionnaire was small.This was also supported by the result of the observation.
The feeling of competence improved by the implementation of the group work.The improvement can be seen in the mean of the students' agreement toward the statement.
The mean was 4.04.It raises 1.92 point from the beginning identification.It can be concluded that group work is able to improve the students' motivation to compete in the

Table 1 .
Data of the Classroom interaction Identification

Table 2 .
Data of the Self-Esteem Identification

Table 3 .
Syllabus of the Teaching Learning Process

Table 4 .
Data of the Classroom interaction Result

Table 5 .
Data of the Self-Esteem Result