Research Objectives Research Benefits

Meanwhile, Cook 1994: 150 remarks that, “perception is the selection, organization and interpretation of sensory data.” It shows that perception is important process that helps people define their world and guide their behaviors. Robbins 2001: 122 adds that, “perception can also be defined as conscious mental process of observing, viewing, responding and understanding, in which someone gives a meaning on the stimulus he receives.” Perception does not solely involve sensory process for it is also a mental process. In addition Hardi and Heyes 1988: 85 states that, “the basic form of perception is people’s born talent, meanwhile perceptional ability is the result of learning, which is determined by the environment.” Robbins 2001: 122-124 states that, “perception has three components.” The components are a perceiver, target and the situation in which the perception is occurring. Each of these components influences the perceiver’s impression or interpretation of the target. First impressions are important in forming the perception toward certain stimuli. When someone is interested in perceiving certain stimulus at the first time, he will intend to know and learn more about it. Having good impression can encourage someone to learn about it. These impressions will ultimately lead to the positive perception, in which the person feels happy and like the thing. In contrary, having bad impression will lead people to develop negative perceptions, in which people will feel unhappy and dislike the thing. Therefore, if the Stella Duce 1 Senior High School students have good impression toward Yahoo Messenger, it is expected that they will perceive Yahoo Messenger positively. The students’ perception on the use of Yahoo Messenger is really strong since they experience it by themselves. The experience occurs when they have a chat with native speakers using Yahoo Messenger. It will be different if the perception is received from the other person. The students are really doing the conversation with the native speakers using the Yahoo Messenger. Their perception on the use of the Yahoo Messenger is based on their experience when doing the conversation. The students will have positive perception if their first impression of using Yahoo Messenger is good. On the contrary if the students’ first impression on the use of Yahoo Messenger is bad, they will have negative perception. Then, it can be inferred that the students’ positive perception toward the use of Yahoo Messenger encourages the improvement on the students’ speaking skill. On the other hand, the negative perception will discourage the speaking skill improvement. During the process of shaping the perceptions, an individual might be influenced by some factors which possibly obstruct his or her perception. According to Warga 1983: 210-213, the factors influencing perceptions are stated as follows: a. Stereotyping Stereotyping is a kind of judgment. Everyone will have different perception from the others since each person has different point of view to stereotyping. Stereotyping can influences perceptions because of an individual’s restricted amount of information about what he or she has experienced and observed.