Institutional Repository | Satya Wacana Christian University: The Study of Personal Space and Its Contribution Towards Students' Participation in Classroom Discussion

THE STUDY OF PERSONAL SPACE AND ITS CONTRIBUTION
TOWARDS STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN CLASSROOM
DISCUSSION
Krismaputra Salim
Abstract
During class discussion, some students participate actively in their group discussion but
become passive when the lecturers take control of the discussion. Many studies have been
conducted to find out the factors that cause this phenomenon. However, only few studies focus
on the personal space that the students have and how it may give impacts towards students’
participation in the discussion. So, this study focuses on those issues. All the participants are
taken from two advanced level of class in English Department Satya Wacana Christian
University, namely Cross Cultural Understanding (CCU). Questionnaires were distributed first to
collect some background information from students. Then observation was conducted and at the
end of the observations, semi structured interview was carried out in order to check the
observation results with students’ real thought about the situation during the discussion. Students
who were chosen to be interviewed are students who participated actively in the group discussion
but became passive when classroom discussion was held. They were also chosen when they had
an interesting moment during the discussion. All three methodologies were done in order to
answer a research question: “In what way does personal space either enhance or impede
students’ participation in classroom discussion?”. The study found that students’ personal space
affects their participation in class discussion. And personal space itself is affected by (1)

relationship among people, (2) students’ emotional state, (3) the discussion situation, (4)
lecturers’ standing position.
Keywords: personal space, group discussion, class discussion, students’ participation