often occur than students who sit in the front or middle row. One student said, “Yes, because when we sit at the back, we can not concentrate very well, we tend to chat to
other friends or sleep.” The behavioral problems such as chatting with their friends or sleeping happened because there were more opportunities for the students to do that,
especially if the lecturers seldom moved around the class, so the lecturers did not know whether the students paid attention to them or not.
b. The students could not work in group work well.
Some students were not really comfortable if they had to do group work with their friends using traditional seating arrangement. The arrangement did not
encourage the students to do group work efficiently. Different with their friends who thought that traditional seating arrangement was appropriate for group work, there
were 29 of the students who did not agree if they had to move chairs or tables for group work. One of the student said, “ No, I couldn’t, because it is difficult to arrange
where we have to take a seat, if we have to move the chair or the table first which will waste the time.” The students felt uncomfortable if they had to move heavy chairs or
tables in good position for group work and it would could bad noise. That activity would waste the time for the discussion in the group. In group work, the important
thing was the member of the group could corporate with the other member well. Some of the students also thought that that the traditional seating arrangement was
not appropriate for group work because they did not sit face to face each other, it would make them difficult in getting attention, sharing problems and corporate with
other friends. 62
B. The Lecturers’ Perceptions on the Traditional Seating Arrangement in Public Speaking I Class Based on the Interview.
To dig out lecturer’s perception on traditional seating arrangement in Public Speaking I class, the researcher conducted interview with two of Public Speaking
lecturers in fourth semester, and they were Ms. Siska and Ms. Dianne. Both of the lecturers had a positive perception on traditional seating arrangement. Although the
seating arrangement was not really appropriate for Public Speaking I class, they tried to overcome the problems which often appeared when the students did group work
activity and group performance. Traditional seating arrangement was good seating arrangement but it was not ideal for Public Speaking I class.
The lecturers had the same opinion that they faced small problems when they had to give explanation to the students whether the students who sat in the back paid
attention to them or not, interacted with all of the students easily and the problem when the students had to do group activities. One lecturer said that there were too
many tables in the class, where in the Public Speaking I class the students seldom did writing task. Most of the time in the Public Speaking I in fourth semester were used
for group work activities because in the group students shared their opinion by speaking directly. The situation in this class with too many tables in row and column
made the lecturers difficult to interact with the students. The lecturers said: “Actually, there are too many tables in this class; in the class the students
seldom do the writing task. The tables in class K03 make the students lazy especially the students in the back row; some of them sometimes sleep when I
give them explanation about the materials.” 63
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