The power of constructive criticism and its effect on students ’ learning motivation

A plethora of studies have reported positive results on the use of constructive criticism across different academic contexts and levels. However it has remained little understood whether EFL students in Indonesian context respond the use of constructive criticism in the classroom positively. The present study sought to understand EFL students ’ perception on the use of oral constructive criticism given by faculty members in the classroom and whether it has any effect on the students ’ motivation in learning English. The participants of the study were 86 EFL students from 5 outstanding universities in Malang, East Java, Indonesia. The data were collected through a questionnaire and an interview. The results of the study revealed that the 86 EFL students had positive perceptions on the use of oral constructive criticism. The students were helped in some ways in learning English by means of receiving oral constructive criticism from their faculty members. The students considered oral constructive criticism a confirmation whether they did the right things in the learning process. More prominently, the result showed that the use of oral constructive criticism played a big role in boosting the students ’ motivation in learning English. The students did not feel constructive criticism as a thread that inhibited them from being the best version of themselves in learning English. Instead, the students were strongly motivated to study hard and get good scores because of oral constructive criticism that they received during the teaching and learning process.


INTRODUCTION
In the learning process of English as a foreign language, students often have their own difficulties.Suryanto & Sari (2020) revealed that the difficulties students encountered were grouped into five categories, namely: vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, listening, and speaking.As the difficulties that the students faced were complex and varied, it is undeniable that EFL students in Indonesian context make mistakes in their learning progress.The most common mistakes that the students make are among other things: mastering very limited vocabularies, unsuccessfully comprehending grammatical rules, having poor pronunciation, lack of understanding in catching the speed of words in listening English utterances, and having problems in conveying meaning spontaneously.When the mistakes continuously happen during the teaching and learning process, it leads faculty members to criticized students' performance.Generally, by giving criticisms for the students' poor performance, some faculty members expect their students to understand their mistake and fix it immediately.
However, there are times when some students find that they are only treated as the blame when they receive criticism from their faculty members.This situation does happen only if faculty members criticize students' performance without providing suggestion for the betterment of the students learning progress.Consequently, the students interpret the criticism as an indication of their failure in learning English (Fong et al., 2018).
Previous studies have contributed to our understanding on the use of criticism in educational settings.Studies conducted by Leece et al., (2011) and Mizokawa & Leece (2017) demonstrated that the deeper understanding of teacher criticism the children had, the better academic achievement they would obtain in their later years.However, both of the studies seem to focus on general criticism employed by teachers in the teaching and learning process.In addition, the subjects of the studies were Italian and Japanese preschoolers and school-aged children.Another study conducted by Hyland & Hyland (2001), revealed that the use of hedges in criticism could only lead to confusion and indirectness.But, the criticism that they analyzed was a general criticism and it was in the form of written feedback.Moreover, a study proposed by Fong et al., (2016) mainly focused on finding out students' perception and emotional reaction on constructive criticism.Additionally, the subjects of the study were educational psychology students.Nguyen (2013) also proved that exploiting full instruction on the use of constructive criticism could improve EFL students' ability in using varied modal auxiliary, hedges, downtowners, and understates to give constructive criticism for their peers.
It is obvious that all of the reviewed studies above have reported positive responses on the use of constructive criticism across different academic contexts and levels, however it has remained little understood whether EFL students in Indonesian context respond the use of oral constructive criticism in the classroom positively.Different from the reviewed studies above, which focused on finding out the correlation between students' sensitivity to teacher criticism and Theory of Motivation (Leece et al., 2011), improving students' ability to give constructive criticism (Nguyen, 2013), and knowing students' perception and emotional reaction on the use of constructive criticism in several different field of studies and age (Fong et al., 2016), the current study focused on knowing undergraduate EFL students' perception on the use of oral constructive criticism employed by faculty members and whether it gives any effect on the students' motivation in learning English.Fong et al., (2018) introduced constructive criticism as a tool used by faculty members to evaluate students' work and direct them to greater learning and conceptual development.When students receive constructive criticism from their faculty members, they will compare between the criticism and their failure they have been through.For example, when a student makes mistakes in writing his essay, a faculty member may say "The topic for your essay is quite unique, however you provided very limited reputable references for your essay.Next time, please be resource-able and use some reputable references for your essay, because this is supposed to be an academic essay" to the student.In this case, by receiving the constructive criticism, the student can be able to generate solution and transform it into cognitive, affective, and also motivational benefits (Fong et al., 2018).Hence, constructive criticism can be one of the sources of students' learning motivation by improving their thinking and task performance in the learning process.Besides being a source of motivation, constructive criticism also proved to be a non-threatening way of criticism, since it was specific and delivered promptly (Leung et al., 2001).Nguyen and Basturkmen (2010) also emphasize that constructive criticism aims to improve receiver's current or future performance and it involved "the identification of a problematic action, choice, or product, as well as advice on how to change or correct the problem".Petress (2000) mentions several purposes of constructive criticism.First, constructive criticism enables the receivers to get external views of their performance, so that they can compare their own point of view with another point of view.Second, constructive criticism helps the receivers to recognize their past performance and provide ways to improve their future performance.Giving criticism constructively not only makes the receivers recognize what their problems are, but also provides them some ways to improve their performance or work for their future.Third, constructive criticism makes the receivers feel appreciated instead of being ignored and left behind.The receivers will consider the constructive criticism as a reward for their performance or work, so that they will be glad of receiving such kind of criticism.The last purpose of constructive criticism is to develop the receivers' confidence since the notion of constructive criticism itself is rather on encouraging instead of blaming the receivers.
It is important to take language learning motivation into account since the essence of constructive criticism is closely related to build up a person's motivation to be a better version of oneself.From time to time, motivation has become one of the prominent factors on determining the success of second or foreign language learning.Some scholars have introduced how motivation in second or foreign language learning works.Dornyei proposed three components of L2 Motivational Self System, namely: (1) Ideal L2 Self, (2) Ought-to L2 Self, and (3) L2 Learning Experience (Dornyei & Ushioda, 2009).In the concept of Ideal L2 Self, if a student wants to master a second or foreign language, then he must be his own powerful motivator for himself.For example, a student wants to have an ability to speak English fluently, then he works hard on his pronunciation or even learn to speak English with native speakers.In this case, the motivational system works within himself rather than for other external factors such as teachers' obligation and parents' expectations.On the other hand, in the concept of ought-to L2 Self, if a student wants to master a second or foreign language, and then he may have something to possess and to avoid negative outcomes.For example, a student wants to learn English because he believes that English will help him a lot for his future job or he needs to be able to meet his parents' expectations.The last concept, which is L2 Learning Experience, is situationspecific motives closely related to the classroom environments and experiences such as the curriculum, the impact of teaching styles, and the impact of students' learning styles.Dornyei (2019) noted that L2 Learning Experience and the notion of student engagement are an inseparable system.Student engagement is understood as the meaningful learning activities which involve students' active participation in the learning process.
Besides giving an effect on motivational aspect, constructive criticism can also give another effect on students' emotions (Fong et al., (2016), Fong et al., (2018).In foreign and second language learning, emotion is seen as the fundamental process of students' language learning, performance, and wellbeing (Shao et al., 2019).Control Value Theory (CVT) proposes two kinds of emotion in academic circumstance, namely: positive activating emotions and negative deactivating emotions (Stockinger et al., 2021).Mokhtar et al., (2021) found that positive emotions such as joy and hope can enhance students' engagement with their learning materials and also help promote effective learning strategies.Negative emotions, in contrast, such as hopelessness and dissatisfaction can discourage students to do some efforts in their learning process, thus it will affect their motivation and performance.Since the emotions that students feel can have huge impact on their relationship with the target language, therefore the role of students' emotion must not be neglected.Rahimi and Bigdeli (2014) encourage teachers of English as a foreign or second language to design some types of learning environment and activity which ignite and spread more activating positive than deactivating negative emotions.
Based on the reviewed studies and the research gap, the current study sought to find out the following research questions: 1. What is undergraduate students' perception on the use of oral constructive criticism employed by faculty members in the classroom?2. Does the use of oral constructive criticism has any effect on the students' motivation in learning English?

Research Design
In order to obtain appropriate answers for the two research questions, this study employed a survey research design.As supported by Latief (2019), survey research design helps researchers to describe people's perception, opinions, preferences, and attitudes on certain trends or beliefs.The representativeness of the sample to obtain data is one of the keys to determine the quality of survey research (Latief, 2019), hence this study involved some representative students from several universities as the research participants.

Participants
The population involved in a survey research design is usually large (Latief, 2019), therefore 86 undergraduate students enrolling in the fourth semester of English Language Teaching Department at several universities in Malang, East Java were chosen purposively as the research participants.After all of the students finished filling out the questionnaire form, they were assigned into some random numbers.The random numbers were added to a web-based random numbers picker in order to have 3 selected participants for interview sessions.The fourth semester students were chosen because they were on their early 19s or 20s, meaning that they were adult language learners.According to Harmer (2001), adult learners have enough life and academic experiences, consequently they tend to be more critical and disciplined than young learners.In terms of their language learning motivation, they also have better understanding of why they learn English and what kind of outcomes they expect from learning English.Also, the fourth semester students joining this research stated that they had already taken English Grammar course.English Grammar course was the class where they received and asked for several types of criticisms during the learning process.The demographic information of the research participants is drawn in Table 1.The items of the questionnaire were all written in English.The items of the questionnaire covered several aspects, namely: the essence of constructive criticism, the advantages of constructive criticism, the emotional reactions that students had after receiving constructive criticism (tiresomeness, worried, pleased satisfaction, and hopeful), and the effect of constructive criticism on students' motivation in learning English.The questionnaire was distributed through Google Form link.In the questionnaire form, the researchers already explained the meaning of oral constructive criticism in Bahasa Indonesia to avoid misunderstanding.
The second instrument was interview.The interview guide was also adapted from the previous study conducted by Fong et al., (2016) (see Appendix 2).The interview guide consisted of seven questions written in English.The items of the interview guide focused on investigating several aspects, namely: The reason underlying the essence of constructive criticism, the reason why the students had such emotional reactions after receiving constructive criticism, and the reason why the students' motivation in learning English was affected by the use of constructive criticism in the classroom.The interview session was conducted through having a phone interview.During the phone interview, the researchers used as the medium of communication while the interviewees were allowed to answer the questions in Bahasa and English.The researchers allowed the interviewees to speak Bahasa and English because they wanted the interviewees to be flexible and comfortable in answering the questions.

Data Analysis
After the data were completely collected, the data gathered from the questionnaire were analyzed by using simple statistical techniques to find out the percentage of each statement and then the data were interpreted descriptively.The data collected from the interview sessions with the selected students were all transcribed and analyzed thematically for finding out the key features which were related to the use of oral constructive criticism in the classroom.The stages of thematic analysis related to the data taken from the interview session were as follows: familiarization, coding, generating themes, reviewing themes, and writing up.Firstly, the researcher familiarized herself with the transcript by transcribing the audio, reading the transcript, and taking initial notes.Then, the researcher coded the data by highlighting the key features and content related to the use of constructive criticism in the classroom.Next, the researcher identified the patterns of codes and start writing the themes of the codes.After the themes had been selected, the researcher reviewed all the selected themes carefully.Finally, the researcher wrote the results of the thematic analysis.

Undergraduate students' perception on the use of oral constructive criticism in the classroom
To answer the first research question, the result of the online survey involving 86 undergraduate EFL students at several universities around Malang are summarized in Figure 1.The result of the interview sessions with the selected students are also presented in this section, hence the researchers use some codes as follows: (S1) for Student  Out of the total number of the respondents (N=86), it was found that 42 students chose strongly agree, 40 students chose agree, and only 4 students chose disagree with item 1.Since 82 students (95%) gave positive response towards item 1, then it could be interpreted that the use of oral constructive criticism given by faculty members affected the undergraduate students in a way that they became more aware of their mistakes in learning English.Related to item number 2, it was found that 36 students chose strongly agree, 45 students chose agree, and 5 students chose disagree.In this case, the students believed that the path and solutions resulted from the oral constructive criticism were helpful to solve their difficulties and problems in learning English.The fact that oral constructive criticism provided the students with path and solution for their problems in learning English (Item 2) seemed to support and strengthen the students' positive response towards item 1.Furthermore, for item number 3, there were 46 students chose strongly agree, 37 students chose agree, and 3 students chose disagree.This response was the proof that oral constructive criticism that they received in the teaching and learning process really helped them learn from their previous mistakes.Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree In the interview session, the students admitted that the use of constructive criticism helped them aware of their mistakes, hence they could avoid making the same mistakes in the future.They also tried to relate the function of oral constructive criticism and the essence of learning a language.The following are some excerpts taken from interview sessions with the selected students.
Because learning a foreign language is not easy.When we learn a language, we learn the culture of the language as well, so there must be trials and errors in the process of learning the language.In this case, constructive criticism is needed, because with the help of constructive criticism we are able to know which one is right and which one is wrong.Constructive criticism can be the tool to measure our capability in learning English and it also becomes the booster to make us be better.(S1) Because with constructive criticism, I will know which mistake I made and then I can improve my English.(S2) From the excerpts above, we can see the students' positive response towards the use of oral constructive criticism that they received in the classroom.Their words indicated that the use of oral constructive criticism was necessary for boosting their performance in learning English.
For item number 4, there were 46 students chose strongly agree, 33 students chose agree, and 7 students chose disagree.The result of the online survey related to item number 4 indicates that the students took oral constructive criticism as a warning to make them stop repeating the same mistakes in their future performance.When they were asked whether constructive criticism was valuable for their future performance (item 5), surprisingly the result revealed that there was only 1 students who were disagree with item number 5.This particular response generally means that the students considered the use of oral constructive criticism important for their future performance in learning English.Since the students really took the use of oral constructive criticism seriously, they showed their real preference on item number 6.For item number 6, it was found that 47 students chose strongly agree, 32 students chose agree, and only 7 students chose disagree.In this case, it could be concluded that the students considered oral constructive criticism a confirmation whether they did the right things in their learning process.Hence, it makes a lot of sense if they would rather be criticized than being ignored.
The findings indicated that the undergraduate students had positive perception on the use of oral constructive criticism in the classroom.The students felt the use of oral constructive criticism in the classroom was very vital for their progress in learning English.Moreover, the students considered oral constructive criticism beneficial hints to tackle their challenges and difficulties in learning English.From oral constructive criticism that they received during their learning process, they could take beneficial effects such as being aware of their mistakes, utilizing the paths and solutions to overcome their difficulties in learning English, and also taking lessons from mistakes that they have made.This finding seems to replicate the studies conducted by Lecce et al., (2011), Mizokawa & Lecce (2016), Fong et al., (2016), and Nguyen (2013) which showed that constructive criticism had powerful and positive effect on students' learning progress.
When the students were asked about their feelings after receiving constructive criticism from their faculty members, they gave varied and complex emotional responses.The result of the online survey related to the students' emotional reaction towards the use of oral constructive criticism in the classroom is drawn in Figure 2. As displayed in Figure 2, it was found that 23 students (26%) were tired and bored after receiving oral constructive criticism (item 7), 14 students (16%) admitted that they lose their interest in learning English after receiving oral constructive criticism (item 8), 31 students (36%) were embarrassed after receiving oral constructive criticism, 69 students (80%) were satisfied after receiving oral constructive criticism, 83 students (97%) were hopeful about their progress in learning English after receiving oral constructive criticism, and 78 students (91%) were optimistic after receiving oral constructive criticism.
The students' emotional reactions that were found in this study belonged to four categories, namely: tiresomeness (26%), discomfited worried (36%), pleased satisfaction (80%), and hope (97%).Clearly we can see the role of hope is the most outstanding emotional category compared to tiresomeness, discomfited worried and pleased satisfaction.
After receiving oral constructive criticism, surprisingly the students were hopeful about their progress in learning English.Asides from feeling hopeful about their progress in learning English, 91% of the students were optimistic after receiving oral constructive criticism in the classroom.This meant that the students were beyond emotionally ready to receive constructive criticism in the teaching and learning process.This finding is in line with the study conducted by Fong et al., (2016) which revealed that hope was found to be very dominant in affecting the students' emotional reaction when they dealt with constructive criticism.It is obvious that in this study the positive emotional reactions have already overpowered the negative emotional reactions.The positive emotional reactions such as hope, pride, and satisfaction can enhance students' attentiveness and excitement, and also trigger the students' utilization of learning strategies (Mokhtar et al., 2021).

The use of oral constructive criticism and its effect on the students' motivation in learning English
To find out the answer to the second research question, the result of the online survey involving 86 undergraduate EFL students at several universities around Malang are summarized in Figure 3.The result of the interview sessions with the selected students are also presented in this section, hence the researchers use some codes as follows: (S1) for Student 1 and (S2) for Student 2.

FIGURE 3 | Undergraduate Students' Perception on their Motivation in Learning English
Note: Item 13: Constructive criticisms have such a great contribution for my motivation to learn English Item 14: My main reason to study hard is constructive criticism that I receive.Item 15: Constructive criticism motivates me to get a good score.Item 16: Constructive criticism makes me feel motivated to be a good learner.
Item 17: I want to improve my performance, because I don't want to receive constructive criticism from my faculty members.Item 18: I want to improve my performance, because I want to receive constructive criticism from my faculty members.
For item number 13, there were 35 students chose strongly agree, 44 students chose agree, and 7 students chose disagree.This response means that most of the undergraduate students (79) believed that constructive criticism gave a great deal of contribution for their motivation in learning English.In other words, they really believed that the use of oral constructive criticism they received in the classroom was one of the sources of their motivation in learning English.It was seen from the result of the online survey of item number 14 and 15.For item number 14, there were 68 students gave positive response about their main reason to study hard.Meanwhile, for item number 15, almost all of the students (76) agreed that the use of oral constructive criticism motivated them to get a good score.From the result of these two charts, it is obvious that the students' motivation in learning English were positively affected by the use of oral constructive criticism given by their faculty members in the classroom.
When the students were asked whether the use of oral constructive criticism affect their motivation in learning English, all of them gave their straightforward answers.The following are the excerpts showing the students' answers about the use of oral constructive criticism affects their motivation in learning English.
Because with constructive criticism, I feel like I find someone who can criticize me.It feels like finding a new learning partner who are smarter and much better than me.It means that there is a new friend, a new knowledge to understand English.Since some of the materials are in English, so sometimes I find them have multiple and complex interpretations.Hence, I need the correct partner to share my difficulties.The partner that I expect is the one who can give me constructive criticism.(S1) After receiving constructive criticism, I am able to know which one is correct or wrong, then I take a note.Sometimes, I can go back to my note when I find similar problems.Finally I can solve the problems and get a good score.(S1) S1 confirmed that she really needed oral constructive criticism to boost her learning motivation.From her explanation, clearly we can see her way of utilizing oral constructive criticism that she received as a source of solution to overcome her problems in learning English.Further, she admitted that the use of constructive criticism helped her to gain a good score.There is another surprising answers came from S2.The following is some excerpts detailing the answers from S2.
Because I keep improving and it will make my progress move, not stuck.(S2) Of course, because constructive criticism makes me understand which part I'm weak at in learning English.For example, I am really bad at grammar and I always ask to the lecturer for tips and their criticism to help improve my grammar.From that, I know which part I should've focus on more.(S2) From the excerpts above, S2 was very sure that oral constructive criticism helped her progress during the learning progress.She also gave detailed explanation that she always asked for tips and criticisms from her faculty members in order to improve her grammar.In this particular case, she realized that she was far from the definition of a good EFL student, so she initiatively asked helps from her faculty members.Once again, the result of the interview proofs that the students considered faculty members as the experts who can evaluate their performance in their learning process.
Related to item number 16, it was found that there were 39 students chose strongly agree, 41 students chose agree, and 6 students chose disagree.This positive response supports the fact that the use of constructive criticism played a big role in boosting the students' learning motivation (item 13).For item number 17, there were 51 students chose agree with the statement and 35 students chose disagree with the statement.While item number 18, there were 63 students chose agree with the statement and 23 students chose disagree with the statement.These particular responses indicate that most of the students' learning motivations were affected by the use of oral constructive criticism.From the result of their preference on item 17 and 18, we can also see the students had a great level of perseverance in learning English.They were strongly motivated to study hard, be good students, and get good scores because they wanted to receive oral constructive criticism from their faculty members.
Pertaining to the second research question, the finding indicated that the use of oral constructive criticism affected the students' motivation in learning English positively.The word positive means that the students did not feel constructive criticism as a thread that prevented them from being their best version of themselves in learning English.Instead, the students were strongly motivated to get good scores and be good students because of the oral constructive criticism that they received in the teaching and learning process.This finding corresponds closely with the concept of constructive criticism and the source of motivation stated by Fong et al., (2018).By receiving oral constructive criticism, the students obtained motivational benefits, so that they could improve their way of thinking and learning (Fong et al., 2018).
The students also considered their faculty members as the experts who had the rights to evaluate their performance in learning English.They really put their trusts on their faculty members to give them appropriate judgments about their performance in learning English.They also asked for helps and criticisms in order to know whether they did the right things in their learning.They would be worried if they did not get any criticism for their performance.If they did not get any criticism from their faculty members, they felt confused and lost.This is a sign that oral constructive criticism was appropriately used by the faculty members to evaluate students' work and direct their students to greater learning and conceptual development (Fong et al., 2018).
This study also revealed that the type of L2 motivational system affected by the use of oral constructive criticism was the L2 Learning Experience as introduced by Dornyei (2009).The students wanted to improve their performance and get good scores because they simply wanted to receive oral constructive criticism from their faculty members.It meant that the use of oral constructive criticism given by the faculty members was necessary for the students' motivation in learning English.In this case, oral constructive criticism that motivated the students was a medium to facilitate learning engagement in the classroom.

CONCLUSION
This study confirmed that the undergraduate students have positive reaction towards the use of oral constructive criticism in the classroom.In the opinion of the respondents in this online survey, the use of oral constructive criticism is effective in helping them overcome their difficulties in English language learning such as helping the students recognize their mistakes, learn from their mistakes, and stop repeating the same mistakes in the future.However, it is important not to focus only on the positive reaction towards the use of oral constructive criticism in the classroom.Oral constructive criticism is also valuable for the undergraduate students' motivation in learning English.It played a prominent role in boosting the students' motivation in learning English.By receiving oral constructive criticism, the students were strongly motivated to study hard, get good scores, and be good EFL students.
This study provides some suggestions for future researchers and further research works.Since the present study only targeted college students, especially the fourth semester students of English Language Teaching Department at several universities around Malang, East Java as the research participants, therefore future researchers are suggested for investigating the use of oral constructive criticism combined with another psychological impact such as language anxiety and emotional reaction across different

TABLE 1 |
The Demographic Information of the Research Participants disagree, (3) agree, and (4) strongly agree.Since 4 point likert scale is a forced likert scale, therefore it helped the researcher to form specific responses on the use of oral constructive criticism in the classroom.