5 students’ perception toward the debate activities in improving their speaking
skills. Public speaking skills can be developed through debate because debating
provides people with an opportunity to develop their debating skills, which include: English proficiency, logical and critical thinking, public speaking, and
ability to formulate, present, and defend arguments. In addition, since competitive debating aims to convince the judges that a certain team’s argument is better, it
gives the opportunity to use analytical, critical thinking and public speaking skills which are useful in daily life.
The debate extracurricular has been carried out for some years in SMAN 8 Yogyakarta. Therefore, the students experienced the debate activities and they
have formed perception of the activities. This research is concerned with the students’ perception on the implementation of debate activities in improving
speaking skills.
B. Research Questions
There are two research questions in this research. The research questions are presented s follow.
1. What is the eleventh grade students’ perception on the use of debate to
im prove students’ speaking skills?
2. To what extent do debate activities help students improve their
speaking skills?
6
C. Research Significance
This research is expected to be beneficial for the following people:
a. Students
The materials in this research can motivate the students to improve their speaking skills through debate. If they have good speaking skills, they will
be able to share their ideas and work with others without being nervous and shy.
b. Teacher
English teachers can apply debate as a technique to improve students’
speaking skills. This research will help the teachers to implement a new technique and improve students’ speaking skills.
c. Future Researchers
The result and discussion of this study can be used as the materials to administer a study in the same field with different group of students.
Future researchers, for example, can observe other senior high school students or undergraduate students.
D. Definition of Terms
In this research, the researcher defines some terms which are related to the study. This section is used to avoid misinterpretation. Those terms are as
follow:
7
1. Debate
According to Hornby 1987, debate is a formal discussion, for example in public speaking; contest between two speakers or two group
speakers, to show ability in arguing p.221. Freely 1969 provided other definition. He mentioned that debate consists of argument for or against a
given proportion p. 3. In this study, debate is an activity where two groups of speakers show their arguing ability for or against a given
proportion.
2. Perception
According to Kreitner Kinicki 2008, perception is a cognitive process that enables us to interpret and understand our surroundings p. 183.
Perception involves receiving stimuli, organizing the stimuli, and translating or interpreting the organized stimuli to influence behavior and
form attitudes such as thought, opinion, and feeling. In this study, perception is SMAN 8 Yogyakarta student
s’ thought, opinion, and feeling toward the implementation of debate in improving their speaking skills.
3. Extracurricular
Hornby 1987 defined extracurricular as “outside of the regular course of work or studies at a school or college
” p. 399. In this study, extracurricular is an activity which is done outside the regular school
time.
8
4. SMAN 8 Yogyakarta
SMAN 8 Yogyakarta is one of senior high schools in Yogyakarta which was built on 8 Januari 1974. It is located in Jalan Sidobali nomor 1,
Mujamuju, Yogyakarta. The school participates in many debate competitions every year. Also, the school has many good English
speakers.
9
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter discussed the theories underlying the research. To assist the organization, this chapter consists of two sub-sections; there are: 1 Theoretical
description, and 2 Theoretical framework.
A. Theoretical Description
There are explanations on several theories which support this research. To make it well-organized, the explanations are divided into two main sections as
follow.
1. Perception
Theory of perception explains the definition of perception from some experts, components of perception, the process which is creating perception, and
factors which might influence the process of forming perception.
a. Definition of Perception
Robbins 2001 stated that “perception is a process by which the
individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment
” p. 55. According to Kreitner Kinicki 2008, perception is a cognitive process that enables us to interpret and understand our
surroundings p. 183. According to George Jones 2005 perception is the 9
