Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the introduction of this study. This chapter is divided into seven sections, namely background of the study, problem formulation, research objectives, research limitation, research benefits and definition of terms. The background of the study describes the explanation about the topic of the study. The problem formulation consists of two questions, which generally describes the problem that will be analyzed. The research objectives mainly deal with the main purpose of the researcher’s writing in this thesis. Next is the research limitation, which limits the scope and focus of the research. The research benefits describe the explanation of who can obtain the benefits of the study. The last part is the definition of terms, which deals with some terms used in this research.

A. Background of the Study

English Education Study Program is one of the programs in the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education. This study program is meant to prepare its students to become English teacher for Senior High School and Junior High School. To fulfill the demand of this competencies the teacher’s candidate competence, the curriculum has been designed based on the institution guideline. All of the courses are designed to help the students to master English skill and knowledge. There are also general courses which support the achievement of 2 objectives for being English teacher. English language teaching is not merely related to linguistic and research. One of the group courses of language teaching is literature. As a part of learning, literature courses give many contributions in English Language Teaching, such as to optimize the functions of the brain, the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere, to extend the mastery of vocabulary and idioms, to increase English language skill Rees, 1973. As a part of activity, literature can be one of the subjects. In most ELT English Language Teaching classes, literature is perceived as an integrated learning which combines four basic language skills; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Literature courses in English Study Program Sanata Dharma University consist of Introduction to Literature, Poetry, Prose I, Prose II and Prose 3 for supplementary materials, Drama, and Play Performance. All courses, except Play Performance which has 3 credits, have 2 credits and 2 contact hours. Nevertheless, based on the interviewed conducted on August 2007, some of the fifth 2007 students and the last semester students 2005 students of PBI Study Program Sanata Dharma University perceived that the study of literature was not important and quite difficult since they mainly learned language teaching. They thought that there was no relation between language teaching and literature. Having much concern to the fact stated above, the researcher tries to find out the students’ perception on the study of literature in English Language Teaching. Perception is one of the factors in the success of learning English. Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment Robbins, 1997. 3 Perception plays an important role in language learning process since it influences someone’s behavior or attitudes and motivation to learn Szylagyi and Wallace, 1980. Moreover, people’s behavior is influenced their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself so that they perceive something based on their perceptions. Mostly, it will not be objective as they judge something based on their perceptions. Since perception refers to the acquisition of specific knowledge about objects or events at any particular moment, it occurs whenever stimuli activate the senses. If someone believes that stimuli will bring his needs, it will cause him to have positive perception toward the stimuli. This positive perception also occurs when someone has a big expectation toward the stimuli. The differences in someone’s needs and expectation when experiencing something cause the differences of perceptions from one person to another Bootzin, 1983. Student’s perception on teaching learning activities is important as it influences students’ motivation to learn English, which also influences their attitude and behavior. Moreover, students’ perceptions also influence further teaching-learning strategies Wenden, 1987. Knowing students’ perception on teaching learning will help teacher to plan appropriate strategies, methods, and activities. It will also encourage students to enjoy the teaching – learning activities on the study of literature. Therefore, the students will have good perfomance to be active in class. They have better understanding of the topic which is discussed and their score will be increase. 4

B. Problem Formulation