speaking class then the students could have good motivation to make their progress better.
B. Problem Limitation
Learning English as a foreign language, especially learning to speak, is not easy because the speakers have just very few opportunities to speak the target language in
daily conversation. Nunan 2003:48 stated that many people feel that speaking in a new language is harder than other skills. To anticipate this problem, teacher can use
some techniques to teach the students in learning speaking. Techniques are chosen because they are the most applicable than approach and
method, as it is stated by Anthony in Richards and Rodgers 1986. He says that a technique is implementational- which actually takes place in a classroom. In general
classroom, the students are not given enough time to practice speaking in more relaxing situation. As a result, when the students have to speak with native speakers,
the students find it difficult to communicate with them since the students do not have enough ability to speak English. However, many experts said that there is no certain
explanation that one technique is better than another because each technique has its own characteristics which differ one from the others. Therefore, the teacher should
be careful in determining the technique to help the students to do the speaking practice. Group activities seem appropriate because some students may find
difficulties in speaking. Some of them may get shy and some other may be so talkative that they will dominate the class. For young learners, group activity
techniques roles plays, debate and games can facilitate them to create, promote, and reinforce behavior that can be conducive to the goals of the classroom learning, so
that it can help them to speak English fluently. Considering most of new students of university have to face the new situation in
learning, they need a technique which can attract their attention to follow the lessons. In this study, role play technique is proposed as a technique in learning speaking.
Here, by using role play, students are trained not only to improve their self confidence but also to learn how to cooperate with someone else. In role play,
everybody will get chance to speak and they will be forced by the condition to speak. Based on the explanation above, the researcher focuses on the students’
perceptions on the use of role play in speaking class. This research takes place in Interactional Speech classes in the academic year of 20072008 in English education
study program of Sanata Dharma University. The researcher chooses this class because it applies role play in learning speaking.
C. Problem Formulation
Referring to the explanation above, the researcher formulates the following research questions:
1. How does the implementation of role play technique in speaking class in the
English Education study program reflect the features of a good role play? 2.
What are the students’ perceptions on the use of role play technique in speaking class in the English Education study program?
D. Research Objectives
Based on the problem formulation, this research aims to understand the implementation of role play in speaking class technique in the English Education
study program. The second objective is to find out the students’ perceptions on the use of role play technique in speaking class in the English Education study program.
E. Research Benefits
It is expected that the result of the research will be beneficial for:
1. Students of English Education
The researcher hopes that this research gives positive contribution to the students of English Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University. By knowing how
to perform a good role play, they can learn more on many factors in the play and thus be well prepared before they do the role play in class. Students who have good
understanding and are aware of the contribution of role play to their study in English Education study program of Sanata Dharma University will have high motivation in
the learning process. This condition leads the students to get a maximum achievement and to enhance their speaking ability.
2. Lecturers of Interactional Speech Class
By knowing the students’ perceptions on the use of role play, the lecturers of speaking class are expected to develop the role play technique for their strategy to
improve their students’ achievements. If the students do not have positive perception on the use of role play, then the lecturer can make this technique more interesting for
the students. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
3. The Researcher
This research also gives some benefits for the researcher since the researcher also get useful experiences by using role play in speaking class. The researcher as a
future teacher will apply this technique and if necessary make a revision so that the technique can be applied better.
F. Definition of Terms
There are three terms in this study that particularly need explicit definitions to avoid misunderstanding in this research.
1. Perception
According to Szilagyi and Wallace 1980:70, perception is defined as a process by which individuals attend to incoming stimuli, organize, and then interpret such
stimuli into a message that in turn indicates an appropriate action or behavior. Huffman, Vernoy.M and Vernoy. J 1997:79 stated that perception is the process of
selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory data into usable mental representations of the world. This means that someone can receive something as a
good or bad perception depends on what they feel in facing the object. Robbins 2001:121-122 defined perception as a process by which individuals organize and
interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. In this study, perception refers to how the students of Interactional Speech I
think, reflect, and give impressions on the use of role play in learning speaking and its contribution to their learning process.
