ten subject matters included in the curriculum for basic education primary and junior high school. They are Pancasila education, religion, Indonesian language,
Mathematics, Sciences, Social Sciences, Handicraft and arts, Health and sport, English language, Local content.
c. Reading in Junior High School
The focus of English for Junior High school in 2013 Curriculum is to communicate in English related to daily life. They are able to understand the
factual, conceptual and procedural knowledge according to phenomenon and event surrounding them. For reading skill especially, students are able to
understand social function, text structure and language features in each topic they are learning.
3. Theory of Perception
To know whether student like or dislike certain teaching method, for example using Interactive PowerPoint Application in developing students’ reading
comprehension skill, it is important to check their perception. This part discusses the definition and the component of perception. According to Piaget 2001: 59
perceptions is defined as “the knowledge we have of objects or of their movements by direct and immediate contact”. Noë 2004: 1 supports Piaget idea
about perception in which perception is available through physical movement and interaction. To perceive means to understand, implicitly, the effects of movement
on sensory stimulation. Based on the definitions according to the experts, it is concluded that perception includes objects or movements, interaction or direct
contact and human body sensory.
Merleau-Ponty 1962 states that perception awakens attention and judgment. To discover the construction of perception by reflection, it will be better observed
by not only explaining the attention but also examining the judgment. Attention, according to Merleau-Ponty 1962, is known as ‘a general and
unconditioned power in the sense at any moment can be applied indifferently to any content of consciousness. Attention presupposes a transformation of the
mental field, a new way for consciousness to be present to its object. Judgment, on the other hand, is seen as ‘the taking of a stand, as an effort to know
something…’ Merleau-Ponty 1962:34. To support Merleau-Ponty’s definition of attention, Vernon 1971 related the
notion of attention with motivation.
When we wish to perceive something clearly and correctly we concentrate our attention upon it. On the other hand if we idly contemplating the scene of view, with
no great of desire to perceive anything in particular, we may notice very little and overlook many things around us because we are not attending Vernon 1971:147.
Vernon’s statement about perception and attention is almost similar with Marleau-Ponty’s in which perception awakens attention. If we want to get clear
and correct attention, it requires great attention. However, attention and motivation according to Vernon is closely related. The degree of attention
depends upon the physiological ‘arousal’ of the brain. General arousal increases in states of motivation and emotion and decreases with boredom and lack of interest
Vernon, 1971. Therefore, to make the students pay great attention to Interactive PowerPoint, it important to increase their motivation by designing interesting
learning media.
4. Interactive PowerPoint
