a. Definition of Perceptions
The understanding of the perceptions can be derived from some experts. According to Kreitner and Kinicky 1992: 126, “perception is a mental cognitive
process that makes people interpret and understand their surrounding.” Borger and Seaborne 1966: 105 add that perception is “an awareness of the environment,
through which a person processes incoming sensory data in a certain way to arrive at useful impression of his surrounding.” Huffman and Vernoy 1997: 79 argue
that “perception refers to the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory data into useful mental representation of the world. Meanwhile, Cook,
Hunsaker, and Coffey 1997: 150 state that “perception is an important process that covers the selection, organization, and interpretation of sensory data which
help people to define their world and influence their behavior”. According to Vygotsky 1978: 33, “perception is a dynamic system of
behavior which is always changing”. Warga 1983: 207 adds that perceptions begin with a stimulus which creates sensation. Hence, Warga explains that
perceptions are influenced by people’ past experience.
b. Perceptual Process on Learning
To form perceptions, there was a process inside. The process of perception covers stimulus which come from the environment, recognizing and interpreting
the incoming stimuli into messages, then creating stereotype, and deciding the appropriate action or attitudes and behavior to respond to the message.
Figure 1 shows how the perception process occurs.
Figure 1. The Perceptual Process Altman, Hodgett, and Valenzi, 1985: 86
From the perception process shown in Figure 1, it is seen that perception comes from the stimuli. According to Warga 1983: 207, stimuli are forms of
physical energy that strike the sensory receptors. The stimuli then are selected in the brain and the brain interprets as a sensation. Combinations of sensations are
translated into meaning. The results of the meaningful information of the translation are then called perception. Furthermore, the perception, organization,
and interpretation of stimuli create behavioral responses. It means that if someone has positive perception toward something, he will respond it with positive
behavior. Therefore, for students, if they have positive perception toward the English subject, they will create positive behavior on it.
In teaching-learning activities, students have their perceptions about the subjects they learn. Their perceptions are formed by the stimuli that come from
the environment, in this case the classroom. Thus, the perceptions they have will influence their behavior toward the learning. Biggs 1992 as cited by
Astutiningsih 2006: 11 states that perception on learning deal with belief about knowledge which influences students’ approaches to learning. Biggs also argues
that there is a system that relates the concepts with the environment which is
Stimuli Sensors’
selection of stimuli
Perception, organization, and
interpretation of stimuli
Behavioral response
called interactive system. The system is called interactive because the concept as the stimuli interacts with the environment. This system has three components;
those are presage, process, and product or learning outcome. Presage is a factor that includes students’ belief about knowledge and
learning conception. Presage also covers learning context, such as teachers and school attributes, and also students’ understanding about knowledge. The
examples of presage according to Biggs 1989 as cited by Astutiningsih 2006: 12 are educational practices, students’ preparations, approaches to learning, and
changes to assessment product. The second component is process. Process is a factor that includes
students’ perceptions on learning environment and specific learning strategies that they experience in learning tasks Biggs as cited by Astutiningsih, 2006: 12. This
factor is related to the atmosphere of learning that teacher creates in the classroom. An example of process is the process how students learn the target
materials during English teaching-learning activities. The third component is product. Product or learning outcome is influenced
by the learning strategies applied in the classroom. It means that students can have good learning outcome if the learning strategies applied are suitable for them. It
then makes them have positive perception on the learning. Therefore, it can be said that students’ perceptions on English learning is tightly influenced by the
implementation of English teaching-learning activities. Moreover, according to Champbell 2001 as cited by Krisnawati 2008:
12, there are five elements of language teaching-learning activities PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
implementation that build students’ perceptions. Those are 1 how the teacher teaches the students, 2 what the teacher wants students to learn, 3 how the
students learn in class, 4 what the students learn, and 5 what the purposes of learning the language are.
According to Vygotsky 1978: 33, perception of someone is always changing. It means that he can make changes in his behaviors overtime through its
process. For example, at first a student does not like English subject because he considers it as a difficult subject. However, after he finds some interesting
activities that he likes, he then changes his perception about English subject. This perception is influenced by those five elements.
2. Dialogue Journals in Educational Context
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