The Understanding of Interest

Those three kinds of aspect we can use to know whether students are interested in something or not.

2. The Roles of interest

Interest is a popular term in psychology because its relations to many terms. 22 It has an important role in teaching and learning process. However, whether interest popular or not, it can affect the students‟ learning activities including speaking. The important role of interest in a whole life is to: a. provide a strong motivation to learn b. influence the form and intensity of children aspiration c. add enjoyment to any activity the individual engages in d. Lead the people to achievement. 23 Related to the statement above, Crow and Crow said interest may refer to the motivating force that impels students to attend to a person, a thing, or an activity. 24 In other words, interest is as a power to force students to learn. Someone who has interest in speaking will be forced to learn and practice it. But, someone who has no interest in speaking will have no motivated to learn moreover have no motivated to practice it.

C. Affecting Factors of Interest

As we know, interest does not exist itself. Interest cannot possessed by anybody just that way, but it is something that can be developed and trained. A child‟s experience interferes whether he or she is going to be interested in something or not. According to L D Crow and Alice Crow in Ahmad Muhajir, 2007: 11-12 there are three factors in raising students‟ interest: 22 Drs. H. Mahmud, M.Si, Psikologi Pendidikan Mutakhir, Bandung: Sahifa, 2005, p. 95. 23 Elizabeth B. Hurlock, Child Development , … P. 420. 24 Lester D. Crow and Alice Crow, Educational Psychology, Revised Edition, New York: American Book Company, p. 248. 1. The factor inner urge: Rangsangan yang datang dari lingkungan atau ruang lingkup yang sesuai dengan keinginan atau kebutuhan seseorang akan mudah menimbulkan minat misalnya, cenderung terhadap belajar, dalam hal ini seseorang mempunyai hasrat ingin tahu terhadap ilmu pengetahuan. The stimulus which is come from the environment related to someone‟s desires and needs is easier for himher to build the interest. Such as, someone who tends toward learning, in this case he has a higher desire to know knowledge. 2. The factor of social motive: Minat seseorang terhadap obyek atau sesuatu hal, di samping dipengaruhi oleh faktor dari dalam diri manusia juga dipengaruhi oleh motif social, misalnya seseorang berminat pada prestasi tinggi agar mendapat status yang tinggi pula. Someone‟s interest in one object or something not only caused by something come from inside of him or herself but also caused by social motive. For an example someone who is interested in getting high achievement is in order to get a high social status also in the society. 3. The factor of emotional: Faktor perasaan dan emosi ini mempunyai pengaruh terhadap obyek. Misalnya perjalan sukses yang dipakai individu dalam suatu kegiatan tertentu dapat membangkitkan perasaan senang dan dapat menambah semangat atau kuatnya minat dalam kegiatan tersebut. These factors of feeling and emotion have effects to the object. Such as someone‟s experience in getting success in hisher life, it can raise enjoyment and spirit or have more interest in that activity. Translated by the writer. According to Erwin Ridha Ardhi 2007:7, there are three factors affecting students‟ interest in speaking: 1. The Material Material is one of several ways in which attention can be paid to the learners themselves. No set of materials is likely to be perfect. Some speaking materials have been designed in order for learners to become more closely involved with the materials so that they can have more meaningful things to talk about and thereby learn more readily and efficiently. Some materials may seem attractive for the teacher but would not be very motivating for the learners. A balance therefore has to be sought. At this stage it is also useful to consider how the material may guide and frame teacher-learner interaction and the teacher-learner relationship. Teachers in MTsN Parung use many kinds of speaking material. Usually it is taken from English text book. 25 Sometimes it is taken from many kinds of article related to the subject learned. The important one is the teachers try to give speaking material which involved the students and make them have an eager to learn it. 2. The Teacher Teacher is affected directly and indirectly. Heshe has to be able to influence or even control. The role of teacher in the modern system of education is indeed a complex and important one. Hisher duty is not merely assign lesson to the students and check to see whether the lessons have been learned. In the new system of curriculum, which broadly gives chance to the school to manage their own curriculum, teachers are demanded to be more creative, and be brave to make new innovation and convince the public in its application. There are several roles of teacher in teaching and learning process as follow: a. the teacher as controller of everything that goes on in the classroom b. the teacher as organizer classroom manager of a range of activities 25 See appendices, p. 35. c. the teacher as assessor, obviously the examiner role is one of our traditional functions d. the teacher as participant co-communicator in an organized activity such as debate or role play e. the teacher as resource consultant, adviser, most obviously as language informant These various roles can be put together under the „umbrella‟ idea of teacher as facilitator. Teacher is not only as an information giver in the learning process, but also heshe should have an ability to raise students‟ interest in subject in this case raise students‟ interest in speaking. The good teacher is ….. constantly striving for congruence among several related variables: teaching materials, methodology, students, course objectives, the target language and its context, and the teacher‟s own personality and teaching style. MTsN Parung has about five English teachers. Most of them have graduated from English Department of several Universities in Jakarta and Bogor such as State Islamic University “Syarif Hidayatullah”, Ibnu Khaldun University, and Pakuan University. But, one of them has graduated not from English Department. But, they have competence and experience in teaching English for several years. In teaching speaking, theachers at MTsN Parung have their own technique in delivering speaking material. Most of them usually use “Role Play” technique to get students ‟ attention. According to Ade Rahmalia English teacher at MTsN Parung, it is not easy to make students have an interest in speaking especially having their attention, it is because English is not their own language. 3. Purpose There are many reasons why people may wish to speak in any language. If we are hoping to make the learners communicatively competent in English