Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This research investigates the students’ perception of English teaching learning activities in Sekolah Alam Nurul Islam Yogyakarta. This chapter presents background of the study, problem limitation, problem formulation, research objectives, research benefit and definition of terms.

A. Background of the Study

There are a lot of factors that influence successful English learning. One of the factors is perception. Perception is a process of organizing information from the environment, then interpreting it in order to make the information meaningful Robbins, 1997. Perception plays an important role in learning process since it influences someone’s behavior or attitudes and motivation to learn Szilagyi and Wallace, 1980. Positive perception on the learning activities brings positive behavior for students during the learning activity process and positive attitude to have high motivation in learning activities. In other words, what the students think about the learning activities will affect their attitude during the learning process. Their positive behavior and attitudes can be seen through their interest in the target that is being perceived. Students’ perception on English teaching-learning activities is important since they influence students’ motivation and interest to learn English and behavior or attitude in English learning activities. Students’ interest will cause greater willingness to learn English. Based on the research by Kitao and Kitao 1995, when students have negative perception on learning English, there is a tendency that the negative perception blocks students to learn English. One of the reasons is when they have negative perception on English learning; they will not be willing to learn English well. Then, during the teaching-learning activities, the teacher often found dissatisfaction with students since they do not participate actively in teaching-learning activities or they do not understand what the teacher explained because they did not enjoy the class. On the other side, students also find dissatisfaction whenever the instructional activities are different from students’ expectation on teaching learning activities. After knowing students’ perception on the English teaching-learning activities, it would be easier for the teacher to plan their English teaching-learning activities. Perception on the first grade students of junior high school on English teaching-learning activities is also very important. When they enter their school on junior high school, it is their first time to learn English as a compulsory subject. Therefore, their perception on English teaching-learning activities during the first year in junior high school will influence their further perception on English learning activities. In other words, what students think about learning English will affect how they deal with English learning. This research is conducted in order to find out students’ perception on their English teaching- learning activities. In order to know students’ perception on the English teaching- learning activities, first, the implementation of the English teaching-learning activities has to be observed. The first grade students of junior high school are at the age of puberty. Puberty is a normal phase of development that occurs when a childs body transitions into an adult body and readies for the possibility of reproduction O’Donnell, 2013. In this period, their emotions play an important role in all aspects of their activities, including their activities in perceiving something Leontiev, 1981. Students at this age have a different way in perceiving something. It is because they are influenced by their emotions, which are not stable yet. Therefore, in order to build students’ positive perception on English teaching learning activities, teachers have to implement teaching-learning activities which consider students’ condition; whether the students are tired, bored, or not ready yet to do the teaching-learning activities, using appropriate materials and activities Thorndike, 1975. For example, the teacher invites students to get out the class in order to avoid students’ boredom. They need interesting activities that can be done outside the class. Students can learn through the nature and find the real example of the material; they do not just imagine through the pictures and practice directly. Through this activity, students will not find boredom, more active and more enthusiastic during the teaching learning activities. Besides, they will be more aware to the nature around them and know how to implement the material they have got. This kind of teaching learning activity has been implemented in Sekolah Alam that is becoming a trend in education today. Sekolah Alam is a school where students are not pressed to study in the classroom and wear uniform. Most of the teaching learning activities were done outside the class. The aim of this activity is to avoid students’ boredom and to invite the students more active, creative and enjoys the teaching learning activities. Besides, it would build students’ confidence because they have more interaction with others. Rousseau 1712-1718 describes how childrens education from birth through adolescence. Rousseau suggested back to nature and the approach is natural in childrens education, namely: Naturalism. Naturalism is natural that spurred the development of quality such as happiness, sportsmanship and curiosity. In practice, reject naturalism uniform dress code, standardization of the minimum basic skills and strongly encourage freedom of the child in learning. The teacher who is teaching in Sekolah Alam Nurul Islam Junior High School has applied Curriculum Based-Competence CBC in teaching learning activities, but in the implementation in the class, they have some differences from the conventional school which is teacher explains the whole materials then students do the assignments. In Sekolah Alam Nurul Islam Junior High School teacher explains the material in the beginning of the lesson then teacher asks the students to find out more information about the materials by themselves. The students can use internet or everything that provides the information, but most of the students use internet to find the information. These activities make the students more active and confident, so it will not make the teaching learning activities get boring. Thus the students will be more enthusiastic in following the class. Besides that, sometimes teacher invites the students to public place, such as railway station, bus station, restaurant, etc., thus the students get more information on the location not just material in the classroom. For the teaching learning method, this school refers to experiential learning and problem solving based learning concept. Through those teaching learning activities, the students are more active because they solve the problem by themselves, either individual or in a group; they also learn based on what they saw or experienced. In researching English teaching-learning activities there are some elements that are observed. Those are how a teacher in Sekolah Alam teaches his or her students, what a teacher wants his or her students to learn, how students learn, and how students want to learn, what students learn, and what the purpose of learning the language are Champbell, 2001. In teaching-learning activities teachers can combine those elements in planning English teaching-learning activities in order to meet students’ and teacher’s expectation. The knowledge of students’ perception on English learning especially on English teaching-learning activities is an important step to understand the etiology of language learning Kitao and Kitao, 1995, and that is the reason why this research is conducted; to find out students’ perception on their English teaching- learning activities in Sekolah Alam so teacher can choose the most appropriate teaching-learning strategies to be applied in teaching-learning activities.

B. Problem Formulation