Students` perceptions on the use of role play technique in speaking class in the english education study program of Sanata Dharma university - USD Repository

  

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS ON THE USE OF ROLE PLAY TECHNIQUE

  

IN SPEAKING CLASS IN THE ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

OF SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

A Thesis

  Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education

  

By

  Silvestra Maria Indrat Yessy Adipranata Student Number: 031214119

  

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2009

   

   

  The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace (Psalm 29:11)

  There can be miracles, when you believe Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill Who knows what miracles you can achieve When you believe, somehow you will You will when you believe (OST. Prince of Egypt) Welcome to your revolution What you dream is what you see There are no rules or regulations Let the music set you free

  I dedicated this thesis to my lovely parents and brother

  

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN

PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

  Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma: Nama : Silvestra Maria Indrat Yessy Adipranata Nomor Mahasiswa : 031214119

  Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul : STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS ON THE USE OF ROLE PLAY TECHNIQUE IN SPEAKING CLASS IN THE ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM OF SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan 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 royalty kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

  Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal : 19 Maret 2009 Yang menyatakan (Silvestra Maria Indrat Yessy Adipranata)

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  First of all, I would like to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ because He always loves me and helps me whenever I need. I realized that without Him, I could not complete this thesis.

  I would like to thank my major sponsor, Fx. Ouda Teda Ena, S.Pd., M.Pd, and Caecilia Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd, my co-sponsor, who spent their precious time in guiding and supporting me to finish my thesis.

  My thankfulness also goes to Laurentia Sumarni, S.Pd., who has permitted me to conduct my research in her class, and also to the students of Interactional

  

Speech Class A and E for their willingness to be my respondents. Then, my special

  gratitude goes to my family: my beloved parents, R.M.G. Quintara Adipranata

  

and Justine Sulistyaningsih, and also my lovely brother, Bertus Adipranata whose

meaningful love and support always make me comfortable in living my precious life.

  I also thank Drs. Z. Bambang Darmadi for lending me many books, and giving me suggestions.

  I would like also to thank my best friends: Sindu Lestari, Winny Aditya,

  

Deni, Palupi, Icha Bochie, Kak Ruri, Runnebelle, Fajar Ana, Mastur, Hannafi

and Wisnu A for sharing our happiness and sadness. My next gratitude goes to

Fredz, for repairing my computer, allowing me to keep my thesis in his computer

  and using his internet. I also thank Damianus Aseptriaji Saputra, for his best love and great support to understand me whenever I feel so depressed.

  My thankfulness also goes to Mas Danang, Andreas Haris, Dono, and

  

Lintang for their helps, information, and suggestions that motivated me to finish my

thesis.

  I would also like to express my appreciation to Secretariat staff of the

  

English Education Study Program, the Library staff of Sanata Dharma

University; I thank them for their helps and services during my study.

  Finally, I also want to express my thankfulness to all people and friends that I cannot mention here one by one. I am so thankful for our worthy meeting.

  Silvestra Maria Indrat Y.A

   

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Page TITLE PAGE ……………………………………………………………………… i APPROVAL PAGES ……………………………………………………………… ii DEDICATION PAGE …………………………………………………………….. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………………………. v STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ………………………………..….. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………. viii LIST OF APPENDICES ………………………………………………………… x LIST OF FIGURES ……………………………………………………………… xi LIST OF TABLES ……………………………………………………………….. xii ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………………… xiii

  

ABSTRAK ……………………………………………………………………….... xiv

  CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION A. Research Background ………………………………………….............

  1 B. Problem Limitation …………………………………………………….

  4 C. Problem Formulation …………………………………………….........

  5 D. Research Objectives ………………………………..………………… 6 E. Research Benefits ………………………………………………..........

  6 F. Definitions of Terms ………………………………………………….

  7 CHAPTER II. THEORETICAL REVIEW

  A. Theoretical Description ……………………………………………. …

  9 1. Perception …………………………………………………………......

  9

  2. Factors that affect persons in perceiving the stimuli to make perception …………………………………………………… 12 a. Stereotype …………………………………………………………..

  12 b. Selectivity …………………………………………………………..

  12 c. Self-concept ………………………………………………………..

  13

  d. Situation ……………………………………………………………

  13 e. Need ……………………………………………………………….

  14

  f. Emotion ……………………………………………………………

  14 3. Perception on Learning ………………………………………...........

  15 4. Speaking ……………………………………………………………..

  16 a. The Teaching of Speaking ……………………………………….

  16 b. Role Plays ………………………………………………………..

  17 B. Theoretical Framework ……………………………………………….

  20 CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY

  A. Method …………………………………………………………………

  22 B. Research Participants …………………………………………..............

  23 C. Setting ………………………………………………………………….

  23 D. Research Instrument ……………………………………………………

  24 E. Data Gathering Technique ……………………………………………..

  27 F. Data Analysis Technique ………………………………………………

  27 G. Research Procedure ………………………………………..................

  30 CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION A. Research Findings ……………………………………………………..

  31 1. The Implementation of Role Play ……………………………............

  31 2. Students’ Perceptions on Role Play …………………………………..

  32 B. Discussion ……………………………………………………………..

  35 1. The Implementation of Role Play …………………………………….

  35 2. Perceptions on Role Play ……………………………………………..

  36 CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

  A. Conclusions ……………………………………………………………

  42 B. Suggestions ……………………………………………………...........

  44 REFERENCES ….……………………………………………………………

  46 APPENDICES ………………………………………………………………..

  49

  

LIST OF APPENDICES

Page

  APPENDIX A. OBSERVATION SHEET ……………………………………… 49 APPENDIX B. QUESTIONNAIRE ……………………………………………. 50 APPENDIX C. INTERVIEW …………………………………………………… 52 APPENDIX D. DATA FROM QUESTIONNAIRE ……………………………. 53 APPENDIX E. DATA TABULATION ………………………………………… 55 APPENDIX F. CENTRAL TENDENCY DISTRIBUTION …………………… 60 APPENDIX G. CHARTS OF QUESTIONNAIRE …………………………….. 61

  

LIST OF FIGURES

  Page

Figure 4.1. Students’ perceptions on the use of role play in learning speaking…. 37Figure 4.2. The students’ perceptions on a good role play ……………………… 38 Figure 4.3. The perceptions on the role play contributions ……………………..

  39 Figure 4.4. Students’ experiences in using role play ……………………………

  40

  

LIST OF TABLES

  Page Table 2.1. The features of a good role play ………………………………....

  18 Table 2.2. Table of Tips to succeed with role plays ………………………. ..

  19 Table 3.1. Sample of the Observation Sheet ……………………………… ..

  24 Table 3.2. Sample of the Questionnaire Form ………………………………

  26 Table 3.3. Questionnaire Blueprint ………………………………………….

  26 Table 3.4. Sample of Frequency and Central Tendency’ Table ……………..

  29

  

ABSTRACT

Adipranata, Silvestra Maria Indrat Yessy (2009). Students’ Perceptions on the

Use of Role Play Technique in Speaking Class in the English Education Study

Program of Sanata Dharma University . Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.

  This study is aimed at investigating and identifying the students’ perceptions on the use of role play in speaking class in English Education study program of Sanata Dharma University. There are two research problems discussed in this study. They are: 1) How does the implementation of role play technique in speaking class in English Education study program reflect the feature of a good role play? And 2) What are the students’ perceptions on the use of role play technique in speaking class in English Education study program?

  To solve both research problems, the researcher employed survey study. The instruments used in this study were observation and questionnaire. The researcher also interviewed seven respondents in order to obtain more information, The respondents of this study were 51 first semester students in English Education study program of Sanata Dharma University in the academic year of 2007/2008 who belonged to the speaking A and E classes. The interview guidelines consisted of 5 questions related to the use of role play technique.

  Based on the results, there were two conclusions. First, the role play was well implemented. The implementation of the role play technique was in accordance with the theory of a good role play which stated that role play should be based on a familiar situation, allows the students to speak naturally, and develops the students’ creativity. The type of role play which used in this class was a Simple Role Play. The role play implemented by asking the students to make a group to perform the play based on certain topics in which they had already prepared the script and property. Second, all of the students had positive perceptions on the use of role play technique in speaking class. Role play was considered to bring about positive contribution to help them improve their language skills, especially Speaking. Finally, there are some suggestions for the lecturer of Interactional Speech class, the students of Interactional Speech Class and next researchers. The lecturer of Interactional Speech class is expected to select the member of the group, minimize the number of the group’s member, improve the theme of the play and facilitate an outdoor activity. Furthermore, the students of Interactional Speech class are hoped to pay more attention to the pronunciation in their role play performances so that the audience can understand the conversation clearly. Moreover, the next researchers are also hoped to have more preparation and respondents, add more aspects of the role play and be more detailed.

  

ABSTRAK

Adipranata, Silvestra Maria Indrat Yessy (2009). Students’ Perceptions on the

Use of Role Play Technique in Speaking Class in the English Education Study

Program of Sanata Dharma University . Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University

  Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk meneliti dan mengetahui persepsi siswa terhadap kegunaan teknik role play dalam kelas Speaking di program studi pendidikan bahasa Inggris Universitas Sanata Dharma. Ada dua pertanyaan yang di bahas yaitu: 1). Bagaimana penerapan teknik role play dalam kelas Speaking di program studi pendidikan bahasa Inggris mencerminkan syarat role play yang baik? dan 2). Apa persepsi siswa terhadap kegunaan teknik role play dalam kelas Speaking di program studi pendidikan bahasa Inggris? Untuk menjawab semua pertanyaan, peneliti menggunakan studi survai. Adapun instrumen yang digunakan adalah observasi dan kuesioner. Peneliti juga melakukan wawancara terhadap tujuh responden untuk mendapatkan informasi lebih banyak lagi. Responden dari penelitian ini adalah 51 siswa dari semester pertama program studi pendidikan bahasa Inggris Universitas Sanata Dharma dalam tahun akademik 2007/2008 yang mengikuti kelas Speaking A dan E. Wawancara terdiri dari 5 pertanyaan yang berkaitan dengan kegunaan role play.

  Dari hasil, diperoleh dua kesimpulan. Pertama, role play diterapkan dengan baik. Penerapan teknik role play sudah sesuai dengan teori tentang role play yang baik yang menyatakan bahwa role play harus didasarkan pada situasi umum, memperbolehkan siswa untuk berbicara secara alami, dan mengembangkan kreatifitas siswa. Tipe role play yang digunakan adalah Simple Role Play. Role play diterapkan dengan cara meminta siswa untuk membentuk kelompok untuk menampilkan drama dengan topik tertentu yang naskah dan perlengkapannya telah mereka persiapkan sebelumnya. Kedua, semua siswa memiliki persepsi positif terhadap penggunaan teknik role play dalam kelas Speaking. Role play dianggap membawa kontribusi yang positif untuk membantu siswa dalam mengembangkan kemampuan berbahasa mereka, khususnya ketrampilan berbicara. Akhirnya, ada beberapa saran yang ditujukan bagi dosen dari kelas Interactional Speech, siswa dari kelas Interactional Speech dan peneliti berikutnya. Dosen dari kelas Interactional

  

Speech diharapkan memilih langsung anggota grup, meminimalkan jumlah anggota

kelompok, mengembangkan tema role play dan memfasilitasi kegiatan luar kelas.

  Disamping itu, siswa-siswa dari kelas Interactional Speech juga diharapkan lebih memperhatikan pelafalan kata dalam penampilan mereka sehingga dapat dipahami jelas oleh penonton. Dan bagi para peneliti berikutnya yang akan melakukan penelitian sejenis, diharapkan punya persiapan lebih lagi dan memperbanyak responden, menambah aspek dari role play dan lebih rinci dalam meneliti.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This research investigates the students’ perceptions on the use of role play in

  speaking class. In order to provide detailed information, this chapter consists of six parts: Research Background, Problem Limitation, Problem Formulation, Research Objectives, Research Benefits, and Definition of Terms.

A. Research Background

  Nowadays, most schools in Indonesia equip their students’ knowledge with English. In English learning, there are four skills. They are reading, writing, listening and speaking. Teachers in Indonesia gain some challenging teaching experiences because English is not used in daily conversations.

  There are a lot of factors that can influence learning activities. Two of them are teaching technique and perception of that technique. There are many techniques in teaching speaking such as debate, game, discussion, and role play. A teacher can implement more than one technique to make his teaching interesting. The implementation of some teaching techniques could influence the students’ enthusiasm in following the class. Furthermore, in School-based curriculum, the students are asked to be more active in the teaching learning activity. It means that the students have a significant role to support the classroom activities and the teacher acts as a facilitator. As the facilitator, teacher should facilitate students to ease and attain an effective teaching-learning activity. Meanwhile, the teacher is expected to pay more attention to the situation of the learning activity. In this condition, the teacher will be able to determine the teaching styles and classroom techniques. Learning activities do not always depend on the teacher but also involve the cooperation between the students and the teacher. In fact, many students find it frustrating when they have to speak in front of the other students, and commonly their reason is that they are afraid of making mistakes. They are nervous, panic, and tend to think that they cannot do that. So, the teacher needs to find the most appropriate techniques to create an enjoyable classroom. Therefore, by implementing the appropriate technique is hoped to enable the students to reduce their nervousness, too.

  To fulfill this expectation, certain teaching techniques can be used. However, sometimes it is not easy for the teachers to create proper techniques in teaching because every student has his own way to learn which is appropriate to his ability. For example, some techniques are more suitable for older learners; others are for young learners, or that some techniques might be more appropriate for those at the beginning level of language study, but not at intermediate or advanced level. Some people state that speaking English as a foreign language is rather difficult because the speakers have to think about the vocabulary, the pattern and how to pronounce the words at the same time while they are producing the previous sentence. Moreover, Indonesia does not use English as the second language. Thus, we need to apply the nervousness in learning speaking are role play and game. Role play is an excellent activity for speaking in the relatively safe environment of the classroom. Beside that, role play also provides learners practice speaking the target language before they must do in a real environment (Nunan, 2003:57). Therefore, in other words, role play can help the learners to practice an actual dialogue. Role play technique was also experienced by the researcher. When experiencing role play for the first time, the researcher was less confident because through this technique the researcher had to speak in front of public. However, after experiencing the role play for several times, the researcher started to enjoy and follow this technique. Moreover, the researcher found it as a fun activity to practise her English in a natural way.

  The other factor that can influence the learning activities is perception. Perception plays an important part in learning process since it influences someone’s behavior or attitudes and motivation to learn (Szilagyi and Wallace, 1980:70).

  Positive perceptions on the learning activities bring positive behavior and attitude to have high motivation in learning activities. In other words, what the students think about the learning activities will affect their attitude during the learning process. Related to the explanation above, the researcher intended to understand the implementation of role play in speaking class and to find out the students’ perceptions on the use of role play in speaking class. The researcher is interested to know whether the students have the same perceptions as the researcher or not. It is expected that after knowing the students’ perceptions on the use of role play in speaking class then the students could have good motivation to make their progress better.

B. Problem Limitation

  Learning English as a foreign language, especially learning to speak, is not easy because the speakers have just very few opportunities to speak the target language in daily conversation. Nunan (2003:48) stated that many people feel that speaking in a new language is harder than other skills. To anticipate this problem, teacher can use some techniques to teach the students in learning speaking.

  Techniques are chosen because they are the most applicable than approach and method, as it is stated by Anthony in Richards and Rodgers (1986). He says that a technique is implementational- which actually takes place in a classroom. In general classroom, the students are not given enough time to practice speaking in more relaxing situation. As a result, when the students have to speak with native speakers, the students find it difficult to communicate with them since the students do not have enough ability to speak English. However, many experts said that there is no certain explanation that one technique is better than another because each technique has its own characteristics which differ one from the others. Therefore, the teacher should be careful in determining the technique to help the students to do the speaking practice. Group activities seem appropriate because some students may find difficulties in speaking. Some of them may get shy and some other may be so talkative that they will dominate the class. For young learners, group activity techniques (roles plays, debate and games) can facilitate them to create, promote, and reinforce behavior that can be conducive to the goals of the classroom learning, so that it can help them to speak English fluently.

  Considering most of new students of university have to face the new situation in learning, they need a technique which can attract their attention to follow the lessons.

  In this study, role play technique is proposed as a technique in learning speaking. Here, by using role play, students are trained not only to improve their self confidence but also to learn how to cooperate with someone else. In role play, everybody will get chance to speak and they will be forced by the condition to speak.

  Based on the explanation above, the researcher focuses on the students’ perceptions on the use of role play in speaking class. This research takes place in Interactional Speech classes in the academic year of 2007/2008 in English education study program of Sanata Dharma University. The researcher chooses this class because it applies role play in learning speaking.

C. Problem Formulation

  Referring to the explanation above, the researcher formulates the following research questions:

  1. How does the implementation of role play technique in speaking class in the English Education study program reflect the features of a good role play?

  2. What are the students’ perceptions on the use of role play technique in

  D. Research Objectives

  Based on the problem formulation, this research aims to understand the implementation of role play in speaking class technique in the English Education study program. The second objective is to find out the students’ perceptions on the use of role play technique in speaking class in the English Education study program.

  E. Research Benefits

  It is expected that the result of the research will be beneficial for:

  1. Students of English Education

  The researcher hopes that this research gives positive contribution to the students of English Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University. By knowing how to perform a good role play, they can learn more on many factors in the play and thus be well prepared before they do the role play in class. Students who have good understanding and are aware of the contribution of role play to their study in English Education study program of Sanata Dharma University will have high motivation in the learning process. This condition leads the students to get a maximum achievement and to enhance their speaking ability.

  2. Lecturers of Interactional Speech Class

  By knowing the students’ perceptions on the use of role play, the lecturers of speaking class are expected to develop the role play technique for their strategy to improve their students’ achievements. If the students do not have positive perception on the use of role play, then the lecturer can make this technique more interesting for

3. The Researcher

  This research also gives some benefits for the researcher since the researcher also get useful experiences by using role play in speaking class. The researcher as a future teacher will apply this technique and if necessary make a revision so that the technique can be applied better.

F. Definition of Terms

  There are three terms in this study that particularly need explicit definitions to avoid misunderstanding in this research.

1. Perception

  According to Szilagyi and Wallace (1980:70), perception is defined as a process by which individuals attend to incoming stimuli, organize, and then interpret such stimuli into a message that in turn indicates an appropriate action or behavior. Huffman, Vernoy.M and Vernoy. J (1997:79) stated that perception is the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory data into usable mental representations of the world. This means that someone can receive something as a good or bad perception depends on what they feel in facing the object. Robbins (2001:121-122) defined perception as a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.

  In this study, perception refers to how the students of Interactional Speech I think, reflect, and give impressions on the use of role play in learning speaking and its contribution to their learning process.

  2. Role plays

  According to Paulstan and Bruder (1976:70), role plays are exercises where the student is assigned an untrue role from which he has to improvise some kind of behavior toward the other role character in the exercise. In role-playing, students are asked to play the part of someone else. Teachers can give details of the characters and situation that they are supposed to be in, or the students can make their own character based on the requirements that represent the materials. The students interact in small groups or in pairs taking different characters. In playing the roles, they involve their improvisation to make the performance runs in smooth.

  In this study, role play is a communicative activity in which the students are asked to play the some characters. The characters in this role play are usually created by the students. The students can explore the characters and improvise their speech based on their creativity.

  3. Speaking

  According to Nunan (2003:48) speaking is a productive aural/oral skill. It means that through speaking activities, learners can express their ideas, thoughts and feelings orally. In this study, speaking is an activity which involved two or more people act as a speaker and listener to share their thoughts and feelings orally.

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter includes two parts, namely theoretical description and theoretical

  framework. The theoretical description presents some important concepts related to the research. The concepts are: (1) Perception, (2) Factors that affect person in perceiving the stimuli to make perception, (3) Perception on Learning, and (4) Speaking. Moreover, the theoretical framework consists of summary from the theories that will be used to solve the research problems.

A. Theoretical Description

  In this section, the researcher discusses the theory related to this study. There are three related theories to be viewed. The theories are Perception, Perception on Learning, and Speaking.

1. Perception

  The understanding of perception can be derived from some sources. According to Worchel and Shebilske (1998:117), perception is the process of interpreting information. Huffman et al. (1997:79) stated that perception is a process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory data into usable mental representations of the world. Moskowitz and Orgel (1969: 158) argued that perception is a global response to a stimulus or a set of stimuli. According to Szilagyi and Wallace (1980:70), perception is defined as a process by which individuals attend to incoming stimuli, organize, and then interpret such stimuli into a message that in turn indicates an appropriate action or behavior.

  From those definitions, perception can be viewed as a conscious mental and cognitive process of observing, comprehending, and responding about particular thing, in which a person tries to translate the stimuli that he or she receives. Those responses occur in people’s awareness through their sensory receptors. Then, these responses will be interpreted as meaningful information about the stimuli and so called perceptions.

  Not every person can have exactly the same perception about particular things, even though the object is the same. It is because people percept something based on their feeling of subjectivity and their experience in the past. It is supported by Mouly (1973:93) who said that two persons looking at the same phenomenon may see very different things. As stated by Wick and Pick (1978: 171-208), there is a connection between perception and experience. They stated that perception and experience are related to one another. This condition shows that perception occurs as our responses in learning or experiencing our environment. According to Gibson J, John M and James H. Donnely (1985:60), perception is a cognitive process that individuals use to interpret and understand the world around them. Perception can be made through the cognitive process in our mind.

  Sometimes perception may change and the changes depend on the stimulus that someone has experienced. Moskowitz and Orgel (1969:159) said that most perceptions are developed and modified through reinforcement and through feedback from his own behaviour. It means that perception can change based on the new experiences that someone recently get. However, perception is not always formed by someone’s experience. There is another possibility to form perception that is based on others’ opinion. When the stimulus from others’ opinion is so strong, this situation could affect someone’s perception without any experience which comes from him or herself. It means that the perception is created by stimuli received by his or her sensory organs (eyes, nose, ears, tongue, and skin) and the person does not experience the stimuli directly. From the above explanation, it can be concluded that perception can also be formed by sensations. When someone experiences a stimulus, he may have sensation and perception processes. Those processes are different but it is quite difficult to separate one another. That argument is supported by Bootzin.R, Elizabeth.L and Robert Z (1983:103). They claimed that it is impossible to separate perception from sensation. Sensations themselves are the entering of raw data from the senses into the brain (Huffman et al, 1997:79). This thought is also supported by James (1983:724) who stated that sensational and reproductive brain-processes combined, then, are what give us the content of our perceptions.

  Now it is understood that both experience and sensation can form perception, but the result is different. Perception that is formed by experience is stronger than perception formed by sensation (Santoso, 2000:32). It means that the perception which is formed by experience is hard to be changed because someone feels more impressed when he/she experiences it.

  In this study, perception refers to the response of role play to form some meaningful information to the learning process. The students’ perception on the use of role play technique in learning speaking would be stronger if they experience it by themselves. The students are really involved in the activity whether as actors or audiences. Whereas, it would be weaker if they have the perception by listening to someone’s opinion on the use of role plays in learning speaking. If the students have positive experience they would form positive perception on the use of role play in learning speaking and vice versa. Then, it would be more difficult to change the perception if the students form their perception based on their experiences and visions of the technique.

1. Factors that Affect Persons in Perceiving the Stimuli to Make perception

  In organizations theory, Gibson et al (1985:61) provides a perceptual process in the form of diagram, and there are six factors influencing someone’s perception. They are stereotyping, selectivity, self-concept, situation, needs, and emotions.

  a. Stereotype The first factor is stereotype. Stereotype is a set of thinking in a particular group that is generalized to all members of the group (Gibson et al, 1985:64). It indicates that people have set some knowledge in their mind, although they do not know whether it is true or not. In perception on the use of role play in learning speaking, stereotype might occur. For example, stereotype with age as the basis. The 2007 students of the English Education Study Program at Sanata Dharma University will be assumed to have a same perception about it. If they consider role play as a good technique, they will set this in their mind so they will perceive role play positively.

  Most of stereotypes are wrong perceptions because it is formed not because of the fact that happens in our environment. It is supported by Gibson et al (1985:65) who says that stereotyping can result in implementing improper programs.

b. Selectivity

  The second factor is selectivity. It is impossible for us to catch all the stimuli that exist in our environment. Only certain stimuli are taken and then processed in our brain. It is caused by our interest of those stimuli. The perception is based on something that we want to choose. It is supported by Gibson et al (1985:66) who says that people tend to ignore information or cues that might make them feel discomfort. People will take stimuli that they want but most of the stimuli that they take are positive for them. People have various interests, so they may select what is important or relevant to fulfilling their needs. This is why people perceive things differently.

  c. Self-concept

  The third factor is self-concept. The way people see themselves in the form of self-concept will affect their perception about something in their environment. The way we see and perceive ourselves is an attempt to avoid conflict with incompatible ideas. It is supported by Mouly (1973:92) who says that we perceive only those things that are consistent with our motives and goals, and interpret our experiences to make them compatible with our present self-concept. Gibson et al (1985:67), in his research, suggests that (1) knowing oneself makes it easier to see others accurately, (2) one’s own characteristics affect the characteristics identified in others, and (3) persons who accept themselves are more likely to see favourable aspects of other people. It indicates that when one person is successful in knowing his/her self- concept, the perception about something can be seen accurately. The students’ self- concepts are often performed in their attitudes based on the stimuli which may result as the feeling of likes and dislikes about certain thing.

  d. Situation

  The press of time will exactly force the manager to overlook some details, to rush certain activities and to ignore certain stimuli such as request from other managers or from superior (Gibson et al, 1985:67). People tend to work quickly when they do not have much time. Due to time limitation, people pay less attention to the factor(s), which might affect the outcomes. People become careless in doing their activities. They make decision about certain thing without further understanding or their perceptions towards the problem.

  e. Need

  Perceptions are significantly influenced by needs and desires (Gibson et al, 1985:67). 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. For example, in choosing the teaching technique, the teacher’s purpose of choosing the technique is to get the most comfortable one based on the learners’ needs and expectation. Both needs and expectation influence people in forming perception. It also happens in students’ perception on the use of role play. People will perceive role play as a good technique if those people need this technique to achieve a certain goal.

  f. Emotion

  Emotion can influence someone in forming perception. Gibson et al (1985:68) supports this through his statement that strong emotions often warp perceptions.

  Perception formed through experiencing a particular thing can influence the perception which will be formed in the future. A student who joins a class may have perception on it. His perception on the learning is good because the lecturer can make him understand the material. Moreover, the lecturer is kind so most of the students get an A for the final mark. Because of what the lecturer has done, the student will not be doubtful to recommend the lecturer to his friends and juniors.

  Someone’s expectation also influences the forming of perception. When someone feels that he gets benefit from something, he will create a good perception on his mind so he feels motivated in learning. On the other hand, a person will form a bad perception when he finds that something is not good for him. Something that has no contribution to fulfil someone’s expectations and need will influence the forming of bad perception.

  The forming of perception can influence someone’s motivation in doing something. Wahjosumidjo (1987:174), who says that motivation is a psychological process, reflects the interaction among attitudes, needs, perception, and decision made by someone. For instance, a student who has good perception on the use of role play will feel motivated in learning. It means that good perceptions do not only make the students more creative in conveying something but also train someone’s confidence.