Role Play Theoretical Description

20 students. Larsen and Freeman 1986 stated that role play gives an opportunity to the students to practice communicating in different social contexts and roles. It is supported by Lucatoni 2002. Lucatoni 2002 stated that role play can help the students to develop their speaking fluency in their real life. In this research, the researcher finds a fact that role play is a suitable teaching technique which can be implemented as a learning activity. Doff 1990 also gives some explanations about the benefits of using role play as a learning activity in the class. The first benefit of role play is that role play is a fun technique. The second benefit is that role play allows the students to have some experiments with language they have learned. The students will have a chance to apply some kind of expressions which is usually used in target language conversation. The third benefit is that role play provides a special opportunity to go beyond what has been taught in class and to draw on the full range of their language competencies. It gives the students a great chance to apply what they have learned in the class. The students also can make some improvements in their role-play performances. The fourth benefit is that role play engages the learners’ physical activity. By having role play as a learning activity in the class, it forced the students to have some kind of physical activities. When the students have their role-play performances, they have to act as the role that they are played. The next benefit is that role play provides a context for understanding attitudes, expectations, and behavior related to the target culture. Before the students have their performances, they have to understand the culture background 21 of their role. By understanding the culture background of their role in the role play, the students are expected to be able to have a good role-play performance. The other benefits are that role play allows students to express who the students are, students’ sense of humors, and the students’ personal communication style. As one of the teaching techniques, role play allows the students to express themselves freely. The students are free to build up their expressions and their communication style during their performances. The last benefit is that role play offers good listening practice. Based on Doff’s 1990 theory about the advantages of role play, it is hoped that role play can be an effective technique to improve students’ speaking skill. As one of the learning activities, role play should be able to make the students have good experience about it. It can influence the students’ perceptions on the use of role play as one of the learning activities. According to Gibson, Ivancevich and Donnely 1985, there are six factors which can affect the people to build their own perceptions. Those six factors are stereotype, self-concept, situation, selectivity, emotions, and needs. It is important for the teacher to pay attention on those six factors. The teacher should be able to make the students have positive perception about the learning activities. Glynn 2005 stated that there is a relationship between the positive perception of the students and the learning motivation. If the students already have positive perception during the learning process, they will have big motivation to learn. In this research, the teacher should be able to make the students have positive perception about role play. 22 It is not an easy way to make the students have positive perceptions about role play. Firstly, the teachers should pay attention to the six factors which influence people to create their perceptions. Then, if the teachers have already made the students to have positive perceptions, the students will have motivation to improve their speaking skills. After the teachers know that the students already have positive perceptions on the use of role play as one of the learning activities. It will help the teachers to create good learning activities which are suitable to the students’ needs. In this research, the researcher also used questionnaires and conducted an interview to answered the first research question about the implementation of role play for XI grade students of tourism department in SMK Negeri 7 Yogyakarta and the second research question about the students’ perceptions on the use of role play for XI grade students of Tourism Department in SMK Negeri 7 Yogyakarta.