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to convey their meaning to their friends in the presentation day. PBL lets the students to have integrative learning as well. Guo 2006 on her research found
that the professors in China agree that PBL is an effective tool for the integration of language, content, and skills. In making the project, the students have to search
for theories supporting their topics. It means that they have to search for anything related to their topics and integrate all the information they get to solve the
problem they have made. The student wrote: It gathers all the linguistic information I have, not only the one I obtained
from sociolinguistics class but also other linguistic courses morpho- syntax, etc. Respondent 26
Through experiencing PBL, the students are able to learn from their own experience. It is the thing that creates natural learning; because the students gain
knowledge by what they see, what they hear, and what they experience. The student wrote:
Learning by doing is more make sense than only listening. Respondent 36
Several students show negative responses toward this question. They consider that they can only understand deeply about the topic they investigate not all aspects of
sociolinguistics. They wrote: It only supports certain topics of sociolinguistics especially the topic that
I’m working on. Respondent 29
c. The benefits of PBL according to the students
There are many benefits the students toward PBL which the students write. The researcher tries to divide the benefits into three big scopes. There are three
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general things becoming the benefits of PBL according to the students; working in group which lead to some benefits as well, help them to learn about
sociolinguistics deeply, and improve their English skills. Working in group while making the projects lead the students learn how to
have a good team work, how to be cooperative and creative Hedge, 2000, how to share ideas, how to be confident in giving their opinion, and how to be critical and
active in discussion. It also develops the students’ problem solving skills Baron, 1998; Barrow Milburn, 1990; Blumenfeld et al., 1991; Breault Breault, 2005;
Dewey, 1924, communication skill, and social skill Becket, 2005; Mohan Beckett, 2003.
On the other hand, PBL let the learners learn deeper about sociolinguistics by experiencing it. They are given outside-class assignment which allows them to
learn naturally because they are learning by doing it and the problem they have to solve is a real life problem. They will absolutely gain new knowledge from what
they have done while making the projects and it makes them comprehend more about the topics they investigate.
The products expected as the result of making this project are publishable papers and presentable papers. Therefore, the students have to make scientific
papers. It becomes the students big opportunities to have practices on how to write scientific papers which will be obviously important for making the further papers;
thesis, for instance. Besides PBL improves students writing, it improves students reading and speaking skills as well. In the process of making the project, in order
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to make their papers scientific, the students have to read many articles, journals, and theories related to their topic. It makes the students reading skills improved.
When it comes to present their work, they have to speak in front of the class delivering the result of their project. It obviously improves the students’ speaking
skills.
2. Discussion on the students’ perception toward PBL implemented in sociolinguistics class
According to the result of the questionnaires and interview, the students have the positive and negative perceptions toward PBL which is implemented in
sociolinguistics class. The “SA” and “A” answers were considered as positive perception. Meanwhile, the “D” and “SD” answers were considered as negative
perception. Based on the data gained from the questionnaires, the positive perception on PBL are higher than the negative perceptions. As mentioned before,
there are four stages of perceptions namely observation stage, influence stage, interpretation and evaluation stage, and response stage.
1. Observation stage
On the observation stage, 89 of the students observed that PBL is interesting. Therefore they claim that it is a useful means to be implemented in
sociolinguistics. They feel comfortable and less pressure in undergoing sociolinguistics through having project-work, so they can develop their ideas and
creativity better.
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2. The influence of PBL to the students
On the second stage, the students start to find the influence of PBL in them. There are 91 of the students stated that PBL gains their understanding about
sociolinguistics especially on the topic that they investigate. PBL develops their problem-solving skill, communication skill, decision-making skill, and develops
their critical thinking. The students also agree that PBL create a natural learning environment, so that they can learn something by experiencing, moreover the
problem that they investigate in the phenomena happen in their surroundings. That is why the students feel motivated to investigate the topics of sociolinguistics
deeper. 3.
The interpretation and evaluation stage On the third stage, the students evaluate and interpret the stimuli inside their
minds. As much as 86 of the students evaluate and interpret PBL in positive ways. They evaluate that PBL lets them have the depth-exploration and
investigation toward the topic they investigate and it lets them learn from their personal experience. It also makes them get more accustomed to deal with
technology. They interpret that PBL is able to make them doing self-learning. It encourages their cooperative working skills as well. They consider that it is less
burdening than individual work. Hence, they prefer to work in group instead of work individually.
4. The response stage
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On this stage, 71 of the students have the positive response toward PBL. They are active in developing their ideas, creativity, and critical thinking after
they undergo PBL. Some of them also find theories that are related to the things that they are curious about. From that, they conduct their own in-depth learning
toward something. Generally, 85 of Sociolinguistics class VI B have positive perception on
PBL and 15 others have negative perception. There are more than half of Sociolinguistics class students have positive perception. Hence, it can be said that
overall the students enjoy Sociolinguistics class through having PBL.
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CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
