PBI students` perceptions on the study of literature in English language teaching.

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PBI STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS ON THE STUDY OF LITERATURE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

A Thesis

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

Dian Natalia Wigatiningrum Student Number: 051214111

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

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PBI STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS ON THE STUDY OF LITERATURE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

A Thesis

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

Dian Natalia Wigatiningrum Student Number: 051214111

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

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STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY

I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and references, as a scientific paper should.

Yogyakarta, 13 January 2010 The Writer

Dian Natalia W 051214111

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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN

PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma : Nama : Dian Natalia Wigatiningrum

Nomor Mahasiswa : 051214111

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul :

PBI STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS ON THE STUDY OF LITERATURE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, me-ngalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta

Pada tanggal : 13 Februari 2010 Yang menyatakan

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So do not fear, for I am with you; Do not dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my

righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)

He has made everything beautiful in its time (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

I dedicate this thesis to My Heavenly Father, My lovely parents and brother,

All family, Partners and friend

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vii ABSTRACT

Natalia, Dian. 2010. PBI Students’ Perceptions on the Study of Literature in English Language Teaching. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.

Literature Courses in English Department are important since it helps the students to increase their English language skill, to optimize the functions of the brain of the right hemisphere and the left hemispere, to extend the mastery of vocabulary and idiom. Students’ perceptions on English teaching-learning activities are important since the students’ perceptions influence students’ motivation to learn English and behavior or attitudes in English learning activities. It plays an important role in education process since it helps the teachers or the lecturers to plan the appropriate teaching – learning activities when they know their students’ perceptions. Based on that fact, the researcher conducted this research.

Trying to analyze PBI students’ perceptions on the study of literature in English Language Teaching, there are two problems formulated in this thesis. First, this study is aimed to find out PBI students’ perceptions on the study of literature in ELT. Second, this study attempts to know the contribution of literature in ELT.

This study employs qualitative survey in order to complete the analysis. Therefore, this research gathered non – numerical data about the PBI students’ perceptions on the study of literature. Dealing with the study, the researcher uses questionnaires and verifying interview as a tool to analyze the study.

The data of the first question revealed that the learners had positive perceptions on the study of literature in English Language Teaching. The positive perceptions were shaped because they are interested in learning literature and obtain a lot benefits. Although, according to some students, the teaching activities are not always fun and interesting. Even, they feel that they are not motivated to be active in class.

The last research question aimed to find out the contributions of the study of literature in English Language Teaching. There are four contributions on the study of literature in ELT: 1. to understand humans’ character., 2. to develop English skills., 3. to balance the right and left hemisphere of brain., 4. to understand other culture.

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viii ABSTRAK

Natalia, Dian. 2010. The PBI Students’ Perceptions on the Study of literature in English Language Teaching. Yogyakarta: Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Kelompok mata kuliah literature di Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris sangat penting karena dapat membantu mahasiswa untuk meningkatkan kemampuan bahasa Inggris, mengoptimalkan fungsi otak kanan dan kiri, dan meningkatkan kemampuan penguasaan kosakata dan idiom. Persepsi para siswa terhadap aktivitas belajar mengajar Bahasa inggris penting karena persepsi tersebut mempengaruhi motivasi para siswa untuk belajar Bahasa Inggris dan juga mempengaruhi perilaku atau sikap siswa dalam aktivitas belajar mengajar Bahasa Inggris. Study tentang persepsi mempunyai peran yang penting untuk proses pendidikan karena dapat membantu para guru atau dosen untuk merencanakan kegiatan belajar mengajar yang sesuai, ketika para pendidik tersebut mengetahui persepsi murid mengenai hal tersebut. Untuk itulah peneliti melakukan penelitian ini.

Mencoba mengalisis persepsi para mahasiswa PBI dalam pembelajaran literature di pengajaran bahasa Inggris, skripsi ini merumuskan dua permasalahan. Pertama, skripsi ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui persepsi para mahasiswa PBI dalam pembelajaran literature di pengajaran bahasa Inggris. Kedua, skripsi ini mencari tahu kontribusi pembelajaran literature di pengajaran bahasa Inggris.

Studi ini menerapkan peninjauan kualitatif untuk menyempurnakan analisa skripsi ini. Dengan demikian, data yang dikumpulkan dalam bentuk bukan angka mengenai persepsi para mahasiswa PBI dalam pembelajaran literature. Dalam studi ini, peneliti menggunakan kuesioner dan wawancara pembuktian sebagai sarana untuk mengalinis permasalahan.

Data dari pertanyaan pertama mengungkapkan bahwa para mahasiswa mempunyai persepsi positif dalam pembelajaran literature di pengajaran Bahasa Inggris. Persepsi positif tersebut terbentuk karena para siswa sangat berminat dan mendapat banyak manfaat dalam pembelajaran literature. Meskipun untuk beberapa mahasiswa, kegiatan belajar mengajar tidak selalu menyenangkan dan menarik. Bahkan para siswa tersebut kurang termotivasi untuk lebih aktif di kelas.

Pertanyaan terakhir bertujuan untuk menemukan kontribusi pembelajaran literature di pengajaran Bahasa Inggris. Ada empat kontribusi dalam pembelajaran yaitu: 1. untuk memahami karakter manusia., 2. untuk mengembangkan kemampuan Inggris., 3 untuk menyeimbangkan otak kanan dan otak kiri., 4. Untuk memahami budaya yang lain.

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ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS

Finally, I could arrive at this great opportunity, writing special gratitude to everyone helping me completing this thesis, since I could not do this alone.

First of all, I would like to present my greatest gratitude to Jesus Christ who grants me endless assistance in blessing and encouraging me to complete this thesis. His strength and love lead me to believe that He knows the best for me and has a great and a perfect plan.

My deepest gratitude goes to my lovely parents, Yohanes Sukamdi and Sumaryati, who always support and encourage me to do the best in my life. Their endless prayer and patience inspire me to do my best in every single life. I also thank Didik Andi Purnomo, the only brother that I have. I truly thank him for his support and love he sincerely gives to me. I also thank bulek Darmi, ohm Ami, grandmother, and all of my family.

I thank Mrs. C. Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd. very much for being my sponsor who helps me a lot during the process of writing this thesis. I really thank her for the guidance, patience, and support to complete this thesis. Her contributions in spending her valuable time to correct my thesis means a lot to me. I would also express my gratitude to Mrs. Laurentia Sumarnie, S.Pd., my Academic Advisors. I would also thank to L.Romo Harjiyanto, S.J who was willing to read my thesis.

I do present my deep appreciation to all PBI lecturers for such worthy knowledge, experiences and skill that they have shared during my periods of study. I also thank Mbak Dani, Mbak Tari and all PBI staffs who gave me a lot of contributions throughout these 4,5 years.

I would also express my gratitude to my beloved sisters and brother ever after, especially Nita, Patrice, Lia and Michael RAN. I am thankful for the laughter and tears we have shared together. Their support, care, love and prayer encourage me in passing through this life. What a beautiful friendship it is.

Moreover, I could finish this thesis due to the support and prayer from all of my friends. I’m so thankful to the family of Tim Pembimbing Siswa

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Yogyakarta, especially Cik Nia, Mima, Verdi, Cik Vany, Mbak Ida, Pepep and many others whom I cannot mention one by one. I also thank Dani and Kak Prast, the family of Team Pelayanan Bantul, who encourage and support me to finish this thesis. Their prayer and care give me strength to finish this thesis.

I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to my sister in Jesus Christ: Kak Fona, Elisabeth, Riris, Ida, Bekti, Danis, Uca, Dera and Mayang, for the great vission and moments both joy and sorrow, laughter and tears we have shared. I thank them for their support, care, endless love and prayer to face this cruel world.

I also thank the big family of Komisi Pemuda GKJ Sidomulyo and Efata Fellowship who also support me and pray for me.

My gratitude also goes to all members of PBI 2005 for the unforgettable journey we have shared. Special thanks for the PPL SMA N 9 (Siska, Patrice and Verdi), “Geisha” crew, “Spring” member, and KKN 37 Gunting.

Last but not least, I also thank everyone who supports me but I cannot mention one by one on this page.

With love

Dian Natalia Wigatiningrum 051214111

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TITLE PAGE ………... i

APPROVAL PAGES ………... ii

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ……… iv

DEDICATION PAGE ……… v

ABSTRACT ……….. vi

ABSTRAK ……….. vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……… viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ……… x

LIST OF FIGURES ... xiii

LIST OF APPENDICES ... xiv

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ……… 1

A. Research Background ……… 1

B. Problem Formulation ……… 3

C. Research Objectives ……… 4

D. Problem Limitation ……… 4

E. Research Benefits ……… 4

F. Clarification of Terms ……… 5

CHAPTER II : LITERATURE REVIEW ……….... 8

A. Theoretical Description ……… 8

1. Perception ……… 8

a. Definition of Perception ……… 8

b. Perceptual Process ………... 10

c. Component of perception ... 11

d. Factors that Affect Someone’s Perception ……… 12

2. Literature ………... 16

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b. The Form of Literature ………... 18

c. The Importance of Literature in ELT ... 20

3. Motivation ………... 21

B. Theoretical Framework ……… 23

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ……… 26

A. Research Method ……… 26

B. Research Participants ……… 27

C. Research Instruments ……… 28

D. Data Gathering Techniques ……… 30

E. Data Analysis Techniques ……… 31

F. Research Procedures ……… 32

CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDING AND DISCUSSION……. 33

A. Data Presentations and Analysis ……… 33

1. The Students’ Perception on the Study of Literature ..………... 33

a. Response of the statement based on the importance of literature courses... 34

b. Response of the statement based on the students’point……… 43

c. The analysis of the students’responses on the classification of perceptions based on the questionnaire ……… 54

2. The students’ opinion on the contribution of literature courses in English Language Teaching... 55

B. Discussion ………. 57

1. PBI students’ perceptions on the study of literature in English Language Teaching………. 57

2. The Contribution of Literature in ELT………... 61

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xiii

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS …… 65

A. Conclusions ………. 65

1. PBI Students’perception on the study of literature in ELT ………. 65

2. The contribution of literature study in ELT ………. 66

B. Suggestions ………. 67

1. Suggestions ………... 67

2. The implication of the study ………... 68

REFERENCES ………. 69

APPENDICES ………. 72

APPENDIX A: Questionnaire... 73

APPENDIX B : Students’ responses on the questionnaire…... 75

APPENDIX C: Interview I ... 82

APPENDIX D: Interview II ... 83

APPENDIX E: Permission letter for the Library of the Graduate Program USD ……….. 84

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xiv

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. The perceptual process (Altman et al, 1985)……… 10

Figure 2. Finding of respondents’ responses on the statement no 1 ……. 32

Figure 3.Finding of respondents’ responses on the statement no 2 ……… 33

Figure 4.Finding of respondents’ responses on the statement no 3 ……… 34

Figure 5. Finding of respondents’ responses on the statement no 4 ……. 35

Figure 6. Finding of respondents’ responses on the statement no 5 ……. 36

Figure 7. Finding of respondents’ responses on the statement no 6 ……. 37

Figure 8. Finding of respondents’ responses on the statement no 7 ……. 38

Figure 9. Finding of respondents’ responses on the statement no 8 ……. 39

Figure 10. Finding of respondents’ responses on the statement no 9 ……. 41

Figure 11. Finding of respondents’ responses on the statement no 10... 42

Figure 12. Finding of respondents’ responses on the statement no 11 ... 43

Figure 13. Finding of respondents’ responses on the statement no 12 ... 44

Figure 14. Finding of respondents’ responses on the statement no 13 ... 45

Figure 15. Finding of respondents’ responses on the statement no 14 ... 46

Figure 16. Finding of respondents’ responses on the statement no 15 ... 47

Figure 17. Finding of respondents’ responses on the statement no 16 ... 48

Figure 18. Finding of respondents’ responses on the statement no 17 ... 49

Figure 19. Finding of respondents’ responses on the statement no 18 ... 50

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LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix A Questionnaire ………... 73

Appendix B Students’ Responses on the Questionnaire …... 75

Appendix C Interview I ……….……… 82

Appendix D Interview II ………... 83

Appendix E

Permission letter for the Library of the Graduate

Program USD………... 84

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1 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

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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).

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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.

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B. Problem Formulation

Based on the background explained above, the problems of the research are formulated as follows:

1. What is the PBI students’ perception on the study of literature in English Language Teaching?

2. What is the contribution on the study of literature in English Language Teaching?

C. Research Objectives

This research attempts to find out the following:

1. The PBI students’ perception on the study of literature in English Language Teaching at Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta.

2. The contribution of the literature courses in English Language Teaching. Furthermore, it is also to explore the negative and positive implications of the literary forms and its role on students’ learning success.

D. Research Limitation

This research is limited to the discussion of PBI students’ perception on the study of literature in English Language Teaching and its contribution for the students in learning success. This research is done through questionnaire and verifying interview in Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, August 2009.

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E. Research Benefits

Considering all of the explanations above, the research contributions are thus:

1. For English lecturers

The lecturers will know the students’ perceptions on their literature class so that they can reflect the result to their teaching. Therefore, the lecturers will know the best suited method for teaching literature courses in English Language Teaching. They can improve their teaching to be more effective after knowing the students’ perceptions on the English class and several factors related to it. Besides, they will also know in – depth the contribution of literature courses in English Language Teaching.

2. For the students

The students can share their perceptions on the contribution of literature in ELT. Furthermore, the students would know what implications they might gain by studying literature in ELT classes, either consciously or unconsciously. Hopefully, by knowing its perception the students will enjoy literature class.

3. Other researchers who are interested in this field

Other researchers who are interested to conduct similar research can use this research as a reference.

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F. Definition of Terms

In this section, the researcher tries to clarify some terms in order to make the readers better understand the content of the study and to avoid any misconception due to it. Some of those terms are:

1. Perception

Perception is defined as an individual’s process of organizing and interpreting impressions of the environment so that the impressions will be meaningful (Robbins, 1997). Gibson (1997) defines perception as a mental activity of organizing information from environment so that it makes sense. Moreover, Altman and Hodgetts (1985) define perception as a person’s way of selecting and grouping stimuli, so that the stimuli can be interpreted meaningfully. Perception is also defined as a conscious mental and cognitive process that enables people to interpret and understand their surrounding (Kreitner and Kinicki, 1992). In this study, perception refers to the students’ process of organizing and interpreting impressions of information on the study of literature so that they students perceive the study of literature objectively.

2. Literature

Literature is a performance in words which offers truth and gives beneficial effects on the reader (M.I. Indriani, 1990: 1). According to Hall (1961), like any form of art, literature involves communication of some type of meaning through a particular medium. Medium here might refer to novel, short stories,

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plays, poetry, etc. Wellek and Warren in their Theory of Literature stated that literature has an essential relationship with life and derives some of its basic characteristics from language. In this study, it refers to the group of courses in PBI which deal with literary works, such as poetry, drama, prose, play performance.

3. English Language Teaching

In order to understand the term English Language Teaching, it seems better to firstly break down the phrase and get the meaning of each word. The term teaching is used to refer to the activities carried out by materials developers or teachers to facilitate the learning of the language (Tomlinson, 1998). Hornby as stated in Oxford Sixth Advanced Learners’ Dictionary of Current English defines language as the system of communication in speech and writing that is used by people of a particular country. The term English Language Teaching refers to the system which has the correlation of education world in learning.

4. PBI (English Education Study Program)

PBI is one of the programs in English Faculty of Teacher Training and Education in Sanata Dharma University. It is located in Mrican, Tromol Pos 29 Yogyakarta 55002.

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8 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the researcher will explain some theories which are related to this study. This chapter is divided into two parts, namely the theoretical description and theoretical framework. The first one is the theoretical review, which is used to support the analysis, including theory of perceptions, literature and motivation. Those theories’ functions are thus covered in the theoretical framework.

A. Theoretical Description

The theoretical description includes discussion of three parts: (1) Perceptions, (2) Literature, and (3) Motivation.

1. Perception

This part presents theory of perception, including definition of perception, perceptual process, component of perception, and the factors that affect someone’s perception.

a. Definition of Perception

According to Altman et al. (1985), perception is defined as the way how people select and group the stimuli so that they can interpret the stimuli meaningfully. Following to Borger and Seaborne (1996), perception is an

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awareness of the environment, through which a person processes incoming sensory data in certain way to arrive at useful impression of this surrounding. Moreover, Kreitner and Kinicki (1992) add that perception is a mental and cognitive process that enables people to interpret and understand the surroundings. Perception is also defined as a process of interpreting messages of our senses to provide order and meaning to the environment (Johns, 1996).

Another definition, as proposed by Hornby (1995), perception is a way of seeing, understanding, or interpreting something. According to Warga (1983), perception is a meaningful translation from physical energy that we feel or sense. Based on their definitions, it can be concluded that perception is the way how people seeing, interpreting, and understanding something. The same object / event could be perceived differently by different person, which leads to different responses. Related to this study, perception is the way how the students feel, think about something, in this case is the study of literature in English education.

Perception is considered as the process in which the existence of objects and phenomena is reflected in a person’s awareness and consciousness, as stated by Leontiev (1981). It means that person perceives objects, events, surroundings consciously by the help of sensory organs, such as eyes, tongue, ears, nose and skin.

In order to form a perception, there are three steps needed in the process of perception, those are: 1) awareness, or attention to the incoming stimulus, 2) recognition and interpretation of incoming stimuli into some messages, and 3) translating or deciding on the appropriate action or behavior in response to the

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message. This process will influence how people interact with and adjust their environment.

b. Perceptual Process

The diagram below shows how the perceptual process happens:

Figure 1 Altman et al. (1985)

From the perceptual process shown in Figure 1, it is seen that perception comes from the stimuli. Stimuli are forms of physical energy, such as light, heat, sound, and movement which strikes sensory receptors. Sensory receptor is the sensory organs such as eyes, ears, tongue, nose and skin which convey the message to the brain. The stimuli then are selected in the brain. The selected stimuli will result in the form of information. The information will be organized and interpreted by the brain. After interpreting the information, the brain then translates the information into meaning. The result of the meaningful information of the translation is then called perception. Then, behavioral responses toward exist. In other words, behavior comes from a process, and perception is one factor that affects the process. If someone has a good perception of something, he will create behavior toward that thing.

Stimuli observation of _{the stimuli}

organizing the stimuli

interpreting

the stimuli a response _{behavior and} attitude formed.

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c. Component of Perception

Biggs as cited by Astuningsih (2006) states that perception on learning deals with belief about knowledge which influences students’ approaches to learning. It means that perception on learning deals with concept, as stimulus which comes from environment; therefore, there is a system that relates the concept with the environment, which is called interactive system (Biggs as cited by Astuningsih, 2006). This system has three components, namely presage, process, and product (learning outcome).

Presage is a factor that includes students’ belief about knowledge and learning conception. Presage also includes learning context, such as teachers and school attributes. The examples of presage, according to Biggs (1989) and Dart & Clarke (1991), are educational practices, students’ preparations, approaches to learning, and changes to assessment product.

Process is a factor that includes students’ perceptions of a given learning situation and specific learning strategies that they, consequently, adopt for learning tasks. Learning strategies are factors that influence the process of learning. An example of process is how students learn the materials during English teaching-learning activities.

Product or learning outcome is influenced by the learning strategies used. Students’ perceptions on English learning are influenced by the implementation of English teaching-learning activities (Perry, 1981).

More specifically, these three components are spelled out in five elements of language teaching-learning activities implementation that build students’

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perceptions by Champbell (2001). Those are (1) how the teacher teaches the students, (2) what the teacher wants the 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.

d. Factors that Affect Someone’s Perception

According to Gibson et al. (1985), in organizations theory there are six factors influencing someone’s perception. They are stereotyping, selectivity, self-concept, situation, needs, and emotions.

1) Stereotype

The first factor is stereotyping. Stereotype is a set of beliefs about the characteristics of people in a particular group that is generalized to all members of the group (Gibson et al., 1985). It indicates that the judgment for someone or something is related to his/her ethnic group membership. For example, women stereotype as meek, gentle whereas men stereotype as strong, powerful. Most of the stereotypes are the wrong perceptions because it is formed not because of the fact that happens in our environment. It is supported by Gibson (1985), who says that stereotyping can result in implementing improper programs.

2) Selectivity

The second factor is selectivity. It is impossible that we can receive all the data or information. Only information which makes someone comfortable they

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will perceive. It is caused by our interest of those stimuli. We make a perception based on something that we want to choose. It is supported by Gibson (1985) that people tend to ignore information that might make them feel uncomfortable. People will take the stimuli that they want, but most of the stimuli that they take are positive for them. In English teaching-learning activity, people will regard it important and give good perception on it if those people select the stimuli (teaching-learning activities in literature study) because they have any interest on it. Everyone selects certain stimuli and the stimuli can be different from everyone. There are six factors which influence people select the stimuli (Warga, 1983): a. Size

The first factor is size. According to Warga (1983), size is a factor influencing stimuli and it will grab someone‘s attention. For example, if we get an opportunity to read some literary works, we will choose to read the written work printed in big size first then the small letters.

b. Change

Changes always grab our attention. For example, if there is something new in the way we usually pass, we tend to give our attention on it.

c. Repetition

By repeating the same stimulus, someone will be forced to pay attention. For example, a person calls his friend who is sleeping. Because of tight sleep, he ignores his friend’s voice. After such repeated call for many times, he will awake.

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d. Intensity

Saying something with loud voice will make people pay more attention on it because it is more clearly. It is also stated by Warga (1983) that the intensity of the stimulus – your voice – makes it stand out above other stimuli, so that the listeners are forced to pay attention to you.

e. Movement

Moving things are more interesting than unmoving things. For example, people will notice or pay attention to a bird which is moving when other birds do not move. This is clear that movement will suddenly attract our attention.

f. Set

It is defined as an emotional disposition that influences perception. The set causes someone to interpret sensation into meaning which is based on what he / she expects to perceive.

3) Self-Concept

The third factor is self-concept. The way we see ourselves in the form of self-concept will affect our perception about something in our environment. We only perceive those things which are consistent with our motives and goals, and interpret our experiences to make them compatible with our present self-concept. For example, someone who always sees something optimistically will also see everything around her optimistically.

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4) Situation

The press of time will literally force the manager to overlook some details, to rush certain activities and to ignore certain stimuli such as request from other managers or from superiors (Gibson et al., 1985). People tend to work quickly when they do not have much time. Because of the limitation of time, people pay less attention to the factor(s), which might affect the work outcomes. People become careless in doing their activities. They make certain decision about certain thing without further understanding or their perceptions toward the problem. In teaching-learning activities of the study of literature, the students will make perception on it with further understanding about the meaning of this activity because they observe and do this activity deeply in a certain situation.

5) Needs

Perceptions are significantly influenced by needs and desires (Gibson et al., 1985). People will eat what they want to eat, they will see what they want to see, and they will do everything they want to do. Students also have certain needs in learning literature. Needs here refers to the students’ wants, desires, demands, expectation, motivation, and requirements.

6) Emotion

Emotion can influence someone in forming perception. Gibson (1985) supports this through his statement that strong emotions often distort perceptions.

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Perception formed through experiencing a particular thing can influence the perception, which will be formed in the future.

2. Attitude

An attitude is considered a determining factor to know whether or not people like something. By knowing one’s attitude, we can perceive whether people have positive / negative perceptions towards thing (As Jum C: 1964). Attitudes are involved in the relationship between a person and the external object / event. Mann in Azwar (1988) stated that attitude has 3 components. There are: cognitive component, affective component, and action component. Cognitive component deals with one’s belief toward something. For instance, English is believed to be difficult to learn. This belief becomes the students’ stereotype and it may be patterned instudents’ thought. Affective component represents how the individual feel about an idea/ object. For instance: a student dislike learning English because it is difficult and he/ she is afraid of being failed in learning it. According to Anwar (1988) affective component is mostly determined by one’s beliefs which, then, influence the individual’s acceptance and rejection of attitude. The last component, action component, represents how the individual acts toward the attitude. It is about the tendency of the individual to response with respect to the attitude.

Since attitude are sets of process assumed to be operative within an individual, they influence the individual’s behaviour in specific ways. Frederick J Mc Donald (1959:214) stated that attitude is orientation processes, the

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processes which enable a person to interact selectively with his environment. Robert Craig and William classified the types of attitude into two. The first one is positive/ favorable attitude. The second one is negative/ unfavorable attitude. Positive attitudes are associated with approach tendencies/ feelings of pleasure. It is also must be combined with a strong action orientation. Negative attitude is associated with avoidance tendencies in what persons say/ behave/ do.

3. Literature

This part will discuss the main point of literature. They are the nature of literature, the scope of literature, and the importance of literature in language learning.

a. The Nature of Literature

It is quite difficult to define the meaning of literature. Literature is defined as anything written (Sylvan et al., 2004). According to Rees (1973), there are two definitions of literature. The first definition is anything which is written. For example, time-tables, catalogues, text – book, travel brochures and so on. The second definition is writing which express and communicate thoughts, feelings and attitudes toward life. Basically, the term “literature” has different meanings depending on who is using it and in what context. In education matter, for instance, literature can be defined as text which is composed of letters. It might be the same as the other texts or passages in common.

In literary definition, literature means acquaintance with letters, from the Latin littera meaning an individual written character. It is

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a piece of writing that is valued as works of art, especially novels, plays, and poems. It is contrast to technical books and newspapers, magazines, etc. (Oxford English Dictionary the Sixth Edition, Wehmeir, 2000)

There are many experts who contribute the definition of literature. In one point of view, literature is perceived as human expressions of life which uses language as its medium. Those expressions of life might consist of experience, thought, and even feeling (Hudson, 1910). Literature is a criticism of life. It is an interpretation of life as life shapes itself in the mind of the interpreter.

Literature is a performance in words which offers truth and gives beneficial effects on the reader. This definition is also supported by Sylvan et al., (2004) which stated that literature is a" performance in words". It has an element of entertaining, display.

There are three characteristics of literature: "imitative", "expressive", and "affective"(Sylvan et al., 2004). The imitative theory holds that art is an imitation of something. The imitative theory often includes the notion that art gives us not only pleasure but knowledge, insight into the nature of reality (Sylvan et al., 2004). Literature is expressive because it expresses the artist feeling, emotion. It is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings (Sylvan et al., 2004).

Literature is affective because it holds that a work of art ought to arouse a particular emotion, or affect (to use the psychologist's term), in the perceiver. b. The Form of Literature

The word "literature" refers to imaginative theory which consists of plays, prose (fictions) and poems. (Wellek, Warner 1956). Apart from the definition

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of literature, Hudson also proposed three elements which are contributed in the form of literary art as follows:

First, there is the intellectual element, the thought which the writer brings to bear upon his subject, and which he expresses in his work. Secondly, there is the emotional element, the feeling (of whatever kind) which his subject arouses in him, and which in turn he desires to stimulate in us. Thirdly, there is the element of imagination, which is really the faculty of strong and intense vision, and by the exercise of which he quickens a similar power of vision in ourselves (1910:14)

Since literature is considered as a part of human experience, it can be inferred that literature and life have vital relations. Some people even perceive literature as an art since it is interesting to learn. George Elliot said that it is a mode of amplifying experience and extending our contact with our fellow-men beyond the bounds of our personal lot (Hudson, 1910).

Exemplifying the forms of literature, the writer classifies it into three: prose, poetry, and drama. Those forms of literature are now commonly used as one of students’ learning activities in ELT classes in ways that can implement their language skills. The first form of literature, prose, is also known as short story (other than novel). It can be fiction or non-fiction, and it is mostly in the form of narrative writing. Prose consists of writing that does not adhere to any particular formal structures (Lowry, 2007). It means that prose does not use complex grammar on its writing because it is aimed not only to make the readers know but also to comprehend the story as well. Implemented in language skill, prose can improve students’ reading ability and enrich their vocabulary as well (Preston, 2003).

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The second form of literature is poetry. Poetry is a group of poems, compositions written in verse (Hudson, 1910). A little bit different from prose, poetry does not only consist of text or story. It more emphasizes on the beauty of a language which expresses deeper meaning. By analyzing poetry, the students try to seek the meaning and communicate the ideas of the poet (Hudson, 1910). Therefore, poetry has to be spoken. The students are to read it aloud, in front of the class for example, with good manner expression so as to convey the real meaning of the poetry to the audience. Through this way, the students’ speaking ability can be gradually enhanced.

Then, the last form of literature is drama. Drama, or which is also known as play, is usually written to be performed. Drama is an imitation of man’s action (Hudson, 1910).

Drama is concerned directly with life, with men and women, and their relationships, with the thoughts and feelings, the passions and motives by which they are governed and impelled, with their joys and sorrows, their struggles, successes, failures (Hudson, 1910). Using drama, the students can improve their speaking ability and pronunciation in ways that they are expected to perform and speak the script loudly, clearly, and fluently. Drama can also enhance reading skill through reading, memorizing, and analyzing the script.

c. The Importance of Literature in Language Learning

Literature in English Education field has many advantages for the students. The students will change their thought and behavior based on the reflection of text

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or book they read. Ronald Carter (1996) stated that people also change their mind as a result of later reading or further reflection.

The study of literature and the use of literature are as a resource for language learning (Carter, 1996). Rees (1973) stated that learning literature helps the students to understand the strange relationship, such as quarrel and friendship. Through reading short story or novel, the learners can understand others’ experiences. It also means that reading books is a means of getting much more knowledge than we could ever hope to get through our own personal experience. Through literature, the learners can use the experience of other people as well. The use of literature is the same as the use of history or philosophy: it helps us toward a better understanding of ourselves and our fellow human beings (Rees, 1973).

By studying the literature of other countries, we begin to understand the problems which are shared by all mankind (Rees, 1973). It also helps us to understand the country and its people. Studying literature also helps us in some sense making ourselves better people: literature is in fact something from which we get moral education. People can reflect other’experiences to solve and overcome their problems. They will learn through others’ failure and success. This is surely an important step toward international understanding and world peace.

English literature can also be helpful for foreign student who wishes to learn something about particular region, and to understand how human character and emotion are influenced by natural surroundings (Rees, 1973). It is related to

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the books which tell about history and the characteristic of social and cultural of the region.

Rees (1973) stated that learning literature also helps the students to the desire to appear ‘cultured’ or well read. It trains students to pay close attention to the printed word, and encourages them to think deeply about the meaning of what is written. It will help the students to have careful attention in detail. In literature, the students encourage to analyze the character, setting, and think deeply about the problems. Therefore, they will have habit to read deeply and help them to enjoy reading.

4. Motivation

People conduct an action with motive. This motive leads them to behave in their manner to get some achievement. Motivation is the intentions, desires, goals, and needs that determine human and animal behavior. An inquiry is made into a person’s motives in order to explain that person’s actions. It would be impossible to discover motivation unless behavior was organized (Bootzin et al, 1983). It is believed that some purposes guide a person’s behavior to get an end state, which may be a goal or the satisfaction of some needs.

Motivation cannot rouse without any stimulus. Some stimuli are needed to evoke goal-directed behavior, as Bootzin et al (1983) explain in their book (368). Thus, the concept of motivation is based on two components: internal drive and external incentives. The internal drive activates and adjusts the being toward some goals, whether the external incentive is the goal itself.

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According to Gardner and Lambert (1972), they identified two forms of motivation: instrumnetal and integrative. Instrumental motivation is the reflection of an external need. The learners are not learning a language because they want to (although this does not imply that they do not want to), but rather because they need to. For example, they need to read texts in language in order to work. The factor of this motivation is an external one. Integrative motivation, on the other hand, derives from a desire on the part of the learners to be members of the speech comunity that uses a particular language. It means that the desire to perform an act for its own sake. For example, someone reads literary books for his or her own interest and pleasure, not for his or her needs to get a reward. As stated previously, there are some drives or reasons or motives which cause people to conduct an action.

B. Theoretical Framework

To conduct this study, some theories are applied. The first theory employed in this study is the theory of perception. It will help the researcher to determine the factors which influence the students’ perception on the study of literature. This theories help the researcher to answer the first problem.

Perception is defined as an individual’s process of organizing and interpreting impressions of the environment so that the impressions will be meaningful (Robbins, 1997). There are also other theories about perception, but the main point is not really different that is dealing with the individual’s organizing and interpreting impressions of the environment. Perception on

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teaching-learning activities is defined as individual’s process of organizing and interpreting impressions of the activities of anything done by the teachers to facilitate learners to precede English acquisition. In organizations theory, Gibson et al. (1985) provides a perceptual process in the form of diagram, and there are six factors influencing someone’s perception. The researcher tries to analysis the first problem by using theory of factors that affect someone’s perception. Based on Gibson, there are six factor influencing someone’s perception, which are stereotyping, selectivity, self-concept, situation, needs, and emotion. In this study not all factors influencing someone’s perception. Factors which influence someone’s perception are selectivity, self – concept, situation, needs and emotion. Besides the factors above, the researcher uses the theory of attitude to know whether or not the students have positive perceptions towards the study. According to Man Azwar (1988), there are 3 components of attitude which are cognitive, affective and action (components). The students have positive perceptions if they have positive attitude towards the literary works. On the other hand, the students have negative perceptions if they have negative attitude.

The second theory is about literature. The researcher discusses this theory because literature is the object which has been investigated. There are three discussions in this section: the nature of literature, the form of literature, and the function of literature in English Education.

The last theory is about motivation because it helps the researcher to gain insight the students’ motivation in learning literature. Actually, it is an additional theory because there are other findings in this study. Those theories give lots of

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contribution because it gives knowledge and information needed to conduct this study. The information can be used to elaborate and strengthen the study. Therefore, it gives better understanding toward the theory and the study itself.

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26 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents detailed information about the research methodology used to answer the research question stated in chapter I. The discussion involves the research method, research participants and setting, research instruments, data gathering techniques, data analysis techniques, and research procedures.

A. Research Method

This study applied the qualitative survey to carry out the analysis. A qualitative approach is described as an approach which is used to gather data systematically, but the data is purely descriptive, and therefore not numerical (Sprinthall et al., 1991). Qualitative measures the described events, people in-depth. Qualitative data consist of detailed descriptions of situation, events, people, interactions, and observed behaviors; direct quotations from people about their experience, event, beliefs (Patton, 1980). This study belongs to qualitative approach since it gathered purely descriptive data about the students’ perception on the study of literature courses in English Language Teaching.

According to Wiersma (1995), surveys are used to measure attitudes, opinions, or achievement, and any number of variables in natural settings. Survey is used to gain the data needed for this research. In survey research, the relationship of sociological and psychological variables are determined and interpreted.

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According to Singleton and Straits (1999), there are three features of survey research. The first feature is that probability sampling is employed in order to represent the large number of respondents from the whole population. The second is that questionnaires or interviews are used to ask some questions about the current issues to the respondents, and than record the answers. The last is that for quantitative study, the answers are summarized in numerical codes then analyzed by employing statistical software. While for qualitative study, the numerical data is used as an evidence of the conclusion of certain issues.

To answer the research question stated in Chapter I, the researcher employs interview and questionnaire. In the discussion, the writer would narrate the subjects’ quotations toward the interview and the rich detailed descriptions about their activities, behaviors and learning activities in which the observations were made.

B. Research Participants

The participants of this research were 67 of the 2005 and 2006 PBI students in August 2009. It was held in PBI area during the break time. The selection of the participants were done purposely. According to Ary et al. (2002), purposive sampling is also referred to judment sampling. It means that the sample is judged to be typical, or representative chosen from the population. The participants were the 2005 and 2006 students as they have learned all of the subjects of literature courses. This research was conducted at English Study Program of Sanata Dharma University, both the interview and observation.

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C. Research Instruments

In this study, two instruments were used to collect data, the first one was questionnaires and the other was interview.

1. Questionnaires

The first instrument used in this study was questionnaires. Ary et al. (2002) stated that questionnaires are administered in writing individuals (as in mailed questionnaire) or members of a group (as in a questionnaire passed out and completed in class). The two basic types of question used in questionnaires are open-response items and closed –response items. The open – response permit the participants to answer freely based on their understanding, while in the close – response the participants answer based on the options, such as likert scales, multiple choice, yes –no, and ranking. The form of questionnaires are generally predominatly in close – response.

PBI students’ perceptions on the study of literature in English Language Teaching has correlation to the students’ attitude. The students have positive perceptions if they have positive attitudes toward the study of literature in English Language Teaching. As Jum C. Nunnaly (1964). Therefore, the questionnaires were made on three components of attitude: cognitive, affective and action / behavioral component because one’s attitudes toward something can be seen through the components of his attitudes.

Statement number 1 – 8 was viewed from the cognitive aspect of attitude, which refer to “what an individual thinks of attitude. The aim of these statement

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was to know the importance of the study of literature in English Language Teaching. Statements number 14-19 were meant to get information related to the behavioral aspect of the attitudes, which refer how individual behaves toward the attitude. The last statement number 14 – 19 were viewed as affective aspect of attitudes, which refer to what an individual feels about the attitudes. It is aimed to know whether the students’ reasons in learning literature course.

To answer the first and second research questions, the researcher employed both close – response, which is likert scale, and open – response. The participants were free to give their answers in open - response whereas in likert scale, the participants answer the questions based on the options provided. The questionnaire was used to gain the insight of students’ perceptions on the study of literature in English Language Teaching, the importance of literature cources, the reasons of students in learning literature course. The researcher divided three parts of questionnaire, which were the importance of literature courses, the reasons of students in learning literature course, and students’ perceptions of literature course.

2. Verifying interview

The second instrument used in this study was interview. Interview was designed to obtain data which cannot be obtained through questionnaires. The purpose of interviewing is to find out what is in and on someone else’s mind (Patton, 1993). Hopefully, by using interview as the instrument, the researcher is able to gain insight of the students’ perception on the study of literature courses

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and its role in English Language Teaching. The two basic types of question used in interview based on the nature of response desired from the respondents are open – ended and close questions (Ary et al., 2002). Open – ended question permit the participants to answer freely based on their understanding rather than restricted to answer based on the options. In close questions, the interviewee answer the questions based on the options provided.

This study employed open – ended question to collect the data from the learners. Those participants were free to give their answer. When dealt to the learners, the researcher used simple and creative language questions in order to make the students understand then easily answer the questions. This verifying interview was used to check the students who gave unclear answers.

D. Data Gathering Techniques

As stated before, this study employed two instruments to gather the data. The first instrument was questionnaires. The distribution of questionnaires was done in August 2010 to the 2005 and 2006 students in structure V class and during the break time. The second instrument was the verying interview. It was used to check the participants’ answer. There were three students who gave unclear answers. Each student was interviewed separately in different occasion. They were interviewed during the break time or outside their learning activity. The students were required to answer the questions related to the study of literature in ELT which they have obtained during the previous semester. The answers would be in the forms of opinion, attitude, or feeling towards the topic.

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The interview with the students took fifteen minutes each. That interview intended to obtain the data of the students’ perceptions on the study of literature courses in English Language Teaching.

E. Data Analysis Techniques

There were several steps conducted by the researcher in order to answer the formulated problem. The first step was analyzing the data gathered by questionnaires. All of the data include the importance of literature courses, the reasons of students in learning literature courses, students’s perception of literature courses and the contribution of literature courses in ELT. The researcher interpreted the questionnaires thoroughly and carefully in order to conclude the result of the data especially in interpreting the result of the questionnaires, because it was the main instrument to obtain the data in answering the problems. Next, the researcher conducted the verifying interview to the students who gave unclear answer. The result of the interview was noted down on the paper. This verifying interview was used to support and check the students’ answer based on the questionnaires’ questions.

F. Research Procedures

The procedures in conducting this research are described as follows.

1. Getting permission to conduct the research at English Study Program Department.

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3. Conducting the verifying interview to the students who gave unclear answers.

4. Transcribing the result of the questionnaires and verifying interview. 5. Coding the data.

6. Analyzing the data of the questionnaires and the verifying interview. 7. Discussing the analysis of the data.

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33 CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH FINDING AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents the empirical evidence of this research in the form of data presentation and analysis on the problems as mentioned in Chapter 1. The data presentation is the data taken from the distributed questionnaires and also verifying interview. The data will show whether or not the students have good or bad perception on the study of literature in English Language Teaching.

A. Data Presentation and Analysis

There were two kinds of data gathered in this research: first, the data from questionnaires and second, the data from verifying interview. The data were collected from the questionnaires to the 2005 and 2006 students in August 2009 in PBI area during the break time. There were 67 students. The students’ responses on the questionnaires represented the students’ perception on the study of literature in PBI. The verifying interview was also conducted on August to 2 students who gave unclear responses.

1. The Students’ Perception on the Study of Literature in English Language Teaching

This study aimed to answer the two research questions. The first question is related to PBI students’ perception on the study of literature in English Language Teaching. The second question deals with the contribution of literature in English Language Teaching. To answer those problems, the researcher

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collected the data from the respondents. There are two tables as the data. They are the students’ responses on the questionnaires and the table of the students’opinions. Those two tables are presented in the appendix.

a. Response of the statement based on the importance of literature course

Figure 2: The respondents’ responses on the statement “Literature courses are important to extend the mastery of vocabulary and idioms when they read many books”

The result was presented on this chart.

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Respondents

1=strongly disagree

2=disagree 3: neutral 4: agree

5 : strongly agree

Based on that chart above we can see that none of the students chose strongly disagree and disagree which valued 1. There were 2 students who chose neutral. There were 31 students who answered agree and there were 34 students who answered strongly agree. From the result, the researcher inferred that most respondents agreed that literature courses are important to extend the mastery of vocabulary and idioms when they read many books. This finding was also similar

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to the theory stated by Carter (1996) that the study of literature and the use of literature are as a resource for language learning. The researcher concluded that the respondents had positive perception on the importance of literature to extend the mastery of vocabulary and idioms when they read many books.

Statement number two deals with the respondents’ opinion whether or not literature is important in ELT since it helps the students to understand human’s character and emotion. The following figure illustrates their responses on this statement.

Figure 3: The respondents’ responses on the statement “Literature courses are important in ELT since it helps you to understand human’s character and emotion”

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Respondents

1:strongly disagree

2: disagree 3: neutral 4:agree

5: strongly agree

Based on the chart above we can see that none of the students who chose strongly disagree which valued 1. There were 2 students who answered disagree which valued 2, 11 students who answered neutral which valued 3, 34 students who answered agree, and 19 students who answered strongly agree which valued 5. It means that the students had positive perception on the importance of

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literature in ELT to understand human’s character and emotion. This result was also similar to the theory stated by Rees (1973) that learning literature helps us to understand the strange relationship, such as quarrel and friendship. He also stated that through reading short story or novel, the learners can understand others’ experiences.

Statement number three concerns with literature courses whether or not are beneficial as it encourages the students to think deeply about the textual meaning of the passage. The following figure illustrates the responses on this statement.

Figure 4: The respondents’ responses on the statement “Literature courses are beneficial because it encourages you to think deeply about the textual meaning of the passage”

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Respondents

1: strongly disagree 2: disagree 3: neutral 4: agree 5: strongly agree

None of the students answered strongly disagree. There were 2 students who chose disagree which valued 2, 7 students who answered neutral or doubtful about the statement. There were 40 students who chose agree which valued 4 and 18 students who answered strongly agree which valued 5. It implied that most students agreed that literature courses are beneficial to encourage them to think

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deeply about the textual meaning of a passage. There are only two students who chose disagree and 7 students were doubtful about the statement.

The illustrations of their responses on the opinion of whether literature courses are crucial to increase English Language Skills, is presented on figure 4.

Figure 5: The respondents’ responses on the statement “Literature courses are crucial to increase English Language Skills”

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Respondents

1: strongly disagree

2: disagree 3: neutral 4: agree 5: strongly agree

The figure above describes that no students answered strongly disagree which valued 1. There were 3 students who chose disagree (value 2), 20 students who answered neutral (value 3), 33 students who chose agree (value 4) and 11 students who answered strongly agree (value 5). Although most of the students answered agree and strongly agree, there were 20 students answered neutral (they were doubtful). It means that they had positive perception towards the statement that literature courses are crucial to increase Language skills, although some students were quite doubtful of this statement.

This following figure illustrates the students’ responses whether literature courses provides authentic language materials, which is presented on figure 6.

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Figure 6: The respondents’ responses on the statement “Literature courses provide authentic language materials”

0 10 20 30 40

Respondents

1: strongly disagree

2: disagree 3: neutral 4: agree 5: strongly agree

From the figure above, none of the students chose strongly disagree. There were 2 students who chose disagree (value 2), 22 students who answered neutral (value 3), 35 students who answered agree, and 8 students who answered strongly agree (value 5). It implies that the students were doubtful that literature provides authentic language materials because 22 students answered neutral and 3 students chose disagree.

Statement 6 concerns with students’ opinion whether literature courses are good sources for developing the students’ ability to infer meaning, which is presented on figure 7.

Figure 7: The respondents’ responses on the statement “Literature courses are good sources for developing your ability to infer meaning”

0 10 20 30 40

Respondents

1:strongly disagree

2: disagree 3: neutral 4: agree 5: strongly agree

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Based on bar graphs above, we can see that there were 1 student who answered strongly disagree (value 1), 1 student who answered disagree (value 2), 11 students who chose neutral (value 3), 34 students who chose agree (value 4) and 20 students who chose strongly agree. It means that 54 students agreed about the statement that literature courses are good sources for developing the students’ ability to infer meaning whereas only 2 students disagreed. Based on the data, the students had positive perception towards that statement.

Statement number seven describes whether or not literature courses support you as a teacher candidate to have good moral education. The following figure illustrates their responses on the statement.

Figure 8: The respondents’ responses on the statement “Literature courses support you as a teacher candidate to have good moral education”

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Respondents

1:strongly disagree

2: disagree 3: neutral

4: agree 5: strongly agree

There were 2 students who chose strongly disagree (value 1), 5 students answered disagree (value 2), 22 students answered neutral (value 3), 31 students chose agree (value 4) and 7 students chose strongly disagree (value 5). These opinions imply that the students were uncertain about the statement above because 22 students chose neutral, 5 students chose disagree and 2 students chose strongly disagree. There were only 38 students agreed instead of 67 students. It means that

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the students are doubtful that literature courses support the students to have good moral education.

This statement has a correlation to statement number two. Based on the bar chart number two, we can see that there were 53 students agreed that literature helps the students to understand human’s character and emotion and 11 students were doubtful, whereas in this statement there were only 38 students agreed and 22 students were doubtful . It means that although they agreed that literature helps them to understand human’s character and emotion, they were doubtful that literature courses support the students to have good moral education. It can be inferred that they had medium perception towards this statement.

Statement eight concerns with students’ opinion that literature is aimed to optimize the function of the brain, keeping the balance between the right hemisphere(art, drama, prose, poetry) and the left hemisphere (cognitive). The illustration of their responses to this statement can be seen in figure eight.

Figure 9: The respondents’ responses on the statement “Literature is aimed to optimize the function of the brain, keeping the balance between the right hemisphere (art, drama, prose, and poetry) and the left hemisphere (cognitive)”

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Respondant

1:strongly disagree

2: disagree 3: neutral

4: agree 5: strongly agree

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The figure shows that there were one student who chose strongly disagree (value 1), 3 students who chose disagree (value 2), 16 students who chose neutral (value 3), 26 students who chose agree (value 4), and 21 students who answered strongly agree. From the opinion above, we can imply that the students had positive perception on the statement above although there were four students disagree (1students disagree and 3 students strongly disagree).

Based on the finding of these eight statements, we can imply that the students agreed the importance of literature courses in ELT are to extend the mastery of vocabulary and idioms when they read many books, to understand human’s character and emotion, to encourage students to think deeply about the textual meaning of the passage, to develop students’ ability to infer meaning and to optimize the function of the brain, keeping the balance between the right hemisphere (art, drama, prose, poetry) and the left hemisphere (cognitive). It is supported by the theory stated by Rees (1973) that learning literature also helps to the desire to appear ‘cultured’ or well read. It trains students to pay close attention to the printed word and encourages them to think deeply about the meaning of what is written.

Carter (1996) also stated that the study of literature and the use of literature are as a resource for language learning. The students, as the sample of this research, feel doubtful whether the importance of literature are to increase English Language Skills, to provide authentic language materials, to support teacher candidates to have good moral education. Although they agreed that

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literature courses help them to understand human’s character and emotion, the students were doubtful that literature supports them to have good moral education. The following figures, number 9 to number 13, discuss the students’ reasons in learning literature courses.

b. Response of the statement based on the students’ point of view

Statement number nine concerns with the respondent’s opinion, whether or not they learn literature because it is one of the compulsory subject in PBI. The following figure describes the statement above.

Figure 10: The respondents’ responses on the statement “I learn literature because it is one of the compulsory subjects in PBI”

0 10 20 30 40

Respondents

1:strongly disagree

2: disagree 3: neutral

4: agree 5: strongly agree

Based on the bar chart above, we can see that none of the students chose strongly disagree (value 1). There were 5 students who answered disagree (value 2), 7 students who chose neutral (they were doubtful) (value 3), 29 students who chose agree (value 4) and 26 students who chose strongly agree (value 5). From the data of the students’ opinion above, we can imply that they agreed they learned literature as it is the compulsory subject in PBI.

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Statement number ten concerns with the students’ opinion whether or not they learn literature to improve their reading ability. The illustration of their responses to this statement can be seen in figure 11.

Figure 11: The respondents’ responses on the statement “I learn literature to improve my reading ability”

0 10 20 30 40 50

Respondents

1:strongly disagree

2: disagree 3: neutral

4: agree 5: strongly agree

From the figure above, we can see that none of the students chose strongly disagree (value 1) and disagree (value 2). There were 43 students who answered agree (value 3) and 20 students who chose strongly agree (value 5). Only 4 students answered neutral. These opinions imply that they had positive perception that the students learn literature as it can improve their reading ability. It means they agreed that literature can improve their reading ability. Most of the respondents agreed with this statement.

Figure 12: The respondents’ responses on the statement “I learn literature to develop my understanding about human character”

0 10 20 30 40

Respondents

1:strongly disagree

2: disagree 3: neutral

4: agree 5: strongly agree

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appropriately.

44 A study literature in ELT is very important to improve student’s knowledge of learning

English. It can help me to understand psychology things, character, etc. and also to

develop English skills.

45 Fun and interesting. It will be more fun if the lecturer can teach well.

46 Literature is fun, interesting, and challenging.

47 It is good and need to improve to enrich our knowledge.

48 It’s important. So that the students know about the English well.

49 I enjoy the teaching. But maybe better if the lecturer make it more interesting.

50 It is important for us to get other references about English.

51 My perception is that literature in ELT is very important even though it is not our

major.

52 It has so many benefits to support the English skills, learning.

53 It helps teachers and students to learn from the different sides of language, life, and to

train soft skill.

54 Literature is a part of language. Literature

Æ

written language.

55 It

has

many

benefits.

56 It is quite important.

57 It’s interesting and fun if you like reading actually and about the courseis depend on the

lecturer.

58 Literature is good way to improve our ability, especially in reading. Because, we have

to read many books to know literature itself. Literature also stimulates us to read much

than usual.

59 My perception on study literature, studying literature is important. First, it helps us to

know and develop about human character and culture. Second, it helps us to increase

our language skills.

60 My perception on study literature in ELT is it can help us to understand the literary

books that we read.

61 Needs more attractive method.

62 I think it is important, because we llive in social community. And it also fun.

63 I think it’s interesting and fun. I learn many things from literature (especially human

characteristics). Because of i like reading novel and i like art and literature, i enjoy

literature class.

64 It’s fun to know something new about language. It gives me a lot knowledge.

65 It is good in order to improve reading skills.

66 It’s good to learn literature, especially reading and writing skills.

67 It’s important for teaching reading and writing.

68 It is a good thing to study literature in ELT due to a lot of benefits can be got from it.

Improve our skills in English and improve our skill in social life.

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Appendix C

(Interviews results with the students)

Interview 1

Day/Date : Tuesday/August,11th , 2009 Interviewee : student A

Location : in front of K 37 Time : 10.30 a. m R: Researcher

F : Student A

Description Question

and

Answer

Codes

The researcher

introduced her

self.

The researcher

asked unclear

answer.

She tried to

clarify the

answer.

The researcher

end the

interview

Q1: Morning A1: Morning.

Q2: I am Dian.I am a student of English Department 2005. I would like to clarify your questioner’ answer.

A2: Okay.

Q3: You chose agree for the statement 1- 8, but why do you say that literature courses are not important in ELT?

A3: Are you sure?Ehm, actually, I think that literature courses are not related to ELT but when I reconsider it again, there are many contributions of literature courses for teacher’ candidate. Q4: So, what is your answer now? Do you want to clarify it?

A4:Yup...literature courses help me to develop my English skill. I remembered when I learned prose I, it helps me to think deeply aand to analyze humans’ character and emotion. Therefore, I can understand others.

A5: Is there anything else.??!

Q5: Ehm, it also helps me to understand other cultures. That’s all.

A6: Okay, thank you for your time. Q6: You are welcome. Good bye..

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Appendix D

(Interviews results with the students)

Interview 2

Day/Date : Tuesday/August,11th , 2009 Interviewee : Student B

Location : in front of K 10 Time : 11.30 a. m R: Researcher

F : Student B

Description Question

and

Answer

Codes

The researcher

introduced her

self.

The researcher

asked unclear

answer.

She tried to

clarify the

answer.

The researcher

end the

Q1: Morning. A1: Morning.

Q2: I am Dian.I am a student of English Department 2005. I would like to clarify your questioner’ answer.

A2: Ehm,,Okay...

Q3: Why do you not to write your opinion about your perseptions on the study literature courses? A3: O, yeach...Sorry, maybe I forget to write it because I am in a hurry.

Q4: So, what do you think about the study of literature in ELT?

A4: I like literature courses. It is fun and

interesting because I can learn others’ experiences and I can get moral education through it.

A5: Is there anything else.??!

Q5: Yup...literature courses help me to think deeply aand to analyze humans’ character and emotion. Therefore, I can understand others. Ehm, it also helps me to understand other cultures. That’s all.

A6: What do you think about the teaching – learning activities?

Q6: Actually, it is so-so.

A7 : What do you mean by so – so? Q7: Yeach, sometimes, it is interesting but sometimes I am bored.

Q8: Why are you bored?

A8: Because there were many assignments given by the lecturer.

Q9: Anything else?

A9: No, I think it is enough.

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ABSTRACT

Natalia, Dian. 2010. PBI Students’ Perceptions on the Study of Literature in English Language Teaching. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.

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ABSTRAK

Natalia, Dian. 2010. The PBI Students’ Perceptions on the Study of literature in English Language Teaching. Yogyakarta: Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.