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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter presents all the references and quotations that are used to support the research. There will be two parts of the research. They are theoretical
description and theoretical framework.
A. Theoretical Description
1. Perception
a. Definition of Perception
Perception is the main term in the research to be discussed firstly to answer the first problem of the research. In this section, the researcher will discuss not
only about the definition of perception but also the related theories to the perception.
According to Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary Hornby, 1995: 859, perception is defined as a way of seeing, understanding, and interpreting
something. In this research, the perception refers to what we feel and think that comes up
to the students’ feelings and thoughts about the use of mind mapping as a method to foster students’ writing skills in prewriting step.
Szilagyi and Wallace 1980: 70 said, “Perception is defined to process by which individuals attend to incoming stimuli, organize, and then interpret such
stimuli into a message that in turn indicates an appropriate action and behavior”. This statement means that perception equals to the interpretation of the
environmental stimuli, both behavior and phenomenon. While according to Hardi and Heyes 1988: 85 “The basic form of
perception is people’s born talent, meanwhile perceptional ability is the result of learning which is determined by the environment.” In other words, the researcher
can conclude that perception is the way a man views a phenomenon based on their own experiences toward the phenomenon.
Stipek 1993: 141 stated that perceptions of ability play an important role in achievement motivation. In conclusion, those individuals’ motivations in
achieving objective of learning are affected by the learners’ perceptions toward the subject matter, whether he has a good or bad perception. As what Sarah and
Hawes argued in English Teaching Forum October 4 1994:22-24, teachers have to shape learners’ positive perceptions to exploit their motivation to improve the
ability to speak English fluently.
b. Factors Influencing Perception
Individuals’ perceptions toward the subject matter are influenced by some factors. Altman, Valenzi and Hodggets 1985: 86 stated that there are four
important factors influence a person’s perception. They are selection of stimuli, organization of stimuli, the situation and the person’s self-concept.
1 Selection of Stimuli
Selection is a process which focuses only on a small number of stimuli. Gerson 2003: 86 argued why people perceive things differently-each person
selects specific cues and filters, or screens, out the others. The statement means the selection of stimuli is the reason why people have different perceptions
because each person accepts different stimuli and selects the stimuli of things to them.
2 Organization of Stimuli
This factor means that person’s information which has come to the person is filtered, and then it must be arranged to become meaningful information.
Afterwards, the person accepts the information well.The mind brings order out the disorganized information by selecting certain things and putting them in a
meaningful way.
3 The Situation
Both situations and experiences affect people’s perceptions. A good perception of the situation brings someone to adapt his behavior to the situation.
If the people have good experiences in doing a kind of prewriting strategy, they will perceive the strategy positively.
4 Person’s Self-concept
Self-concept has the equal meaning to the way a person feels about and sees them. Self-concept is important to determine someone’s mental picture of
what their perception about things and what he does. For example: people who have competence in drawing will be more comfortable working with mind
mapping by drawing and coloring compared by the opposite people.
2. Writing
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