ENGLISH TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE TEXT-BASED SYLLABUS USED IN SMA NEGERI I BANTUL AND SMA STELLA DUCE BANTUL A Thesis Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education

  

ENGLISH TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE TEXT-BASED

SYLLABUS USED IN SMA NEGERI I BANTUL AND SMA STELLA

DUCE BANTUL

A Thesis

  

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

  By Gregoria Antris Dewanti

  Student Number: 051214099

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

  LIFE WILL NEVER GO THE WAY YOU WANT TO YOU HAVE TO STRUGGLE TO CATCH EVERY PIECE OF HAPPINESS WITHIN YOUR HEART

  I DEDICATED THIS THESIS TO MY BELOVED FAMILY EVERYONE WHO ALWAYS BESIDES ME AND YOU WHO STAY IN MY HEART

  

ABSTRACT

Dewanti, Gregoria. 2009. Teachers’ Perceptions of Text-Based Syllabus Used in SMA

NEGERI I Bantul dan SMA Stella Duce BANTUL . Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma

University.

  English has been taught in various levels of educations, one of which is on the high school. At SMA NEGERI I Bantul and SMA Stella Duce Bantul, the English teachers taught the students by implementing Text-based Syllabus. This research was attempted to observe the teachers’ perceptions of the implementation of Text-based Syllabus in the teaching-learning process at high school. This research aimed at identifying how the teachers’ perceptions of the implementation of Text-based syllabus were enacted in the teaching-learning process in SMA I Bantul and SMA Stella Duce Bantul. This research took the five English teachers of SMA NEGERI I Bantul and one English teacher of SMA Stella Duce Bantul as the subjects of the research. The researcher collected data by interviewing the English teachers. The observation was also used in this research to complete the existing data by looking at the situation of the learning process, which consisted of the condition of the teaching-learning process, students’ motivation in learning, students’ speaking fluency, and the students’ understanding on the Text-based material. The data gathered showed that the teachers’ perceptions of the five teachers toward the implementation of Text-based syllabus are good. They agreed about the implementation of Text-based syllabus because it gave many benefits. However, in the real condition teachers did not make variation in their teaching so that the results of the teaching- learning process were not optimal. They also stated that the implementation of Text-based syllabus was really helpful in delivering the enjoyable materials. Students were motivated and were able to use their knowledge to communicate in class. However, grammar knowledge should be developed explicitly, as it was not the focus of the Text-based syllabus. This was a positive result that the implementation of Text-based syllabus was good and appropriate for the teaching-learning situation and condition in SMA NEGERI I Bantul and SMA Stella Duce Bantul.

  

ABSTRAK

Dewanti, Gregoria. 2009. Teachers’ Perceptions of Text-Based Syllabus Used in SMA

NEGERI I Bantul dan SMA Stella Duce BANTUL . Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata

Dharma.

  Pengajaran bahasa Inggris diberikan di berbagai jenjang pendidikan, salah satunya adalah di jenjang sekolah menengah. Di SMA NEGERI I Bantul dan SMA Stella Duce Bantul, guru-guru bahasa ingrris menerapkan Teks-based syllabus. Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengetahui persepsi guru tentang penerapan silabus berbasis teks untuk pengajaran bahasa inggris pada sekolah menengah. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengidentifikasi apakah persepsi guru terhadap penerapan silabus berbasis teks ini tampak dalam pengajaran mereka di SMA NEGERI I Bantul dan SMA Stella Duce Bantul. Penelitian ini menempatkan lima Guru bahasa inggris dari SMA NEGERI I Bantul dan satu guru bahasa inggris dari SMA Stella Duce Bantul sebagai subyek penelitian. Pengumpulan data penelitian dilakukan dengan mewawancari enam orang Guru bahasa inggris tersebut. Observasi juga digunakan untuk melengkapi data yang ada dengan cara melihat situasi pembelajaran yang terdiri atas kondisi proses pembelajaran dikelas, motivasi siswa dalam belajar, kelancaran siswa berbahasa Inggris, dan pemahaman siswa terhadap materi berbasis teks. Data yang terkumpul menunjukkan bahwa persepsi lima dari enam guru terhadap penerapan syllabus berbasis teks untuk pengajaran bahasa inggris di SMA NEGERI I Bantul dan SMA Stella Duce Bantul adalah baik. Mereka setuju akan penerapan text-

  

based syllabus karena banyak segi positif yang dapat dicapai dari penerapan syllabus

  ini. Namun dalam kenyataannya guru kurang memberikan variasi dalam mengajar sehingga hasil proses pembelajaran menjadi kurang optimal. Mereka juga mengatakan bahwa penerapan syllabus berbasis teks di sekolah menengah sangat membantu untuk menyampaikan materi secara lebih menyenangkan. Siswa dapat lebih termotivasi dan mampu belajar menerapkan materi yang telah mereka serap dalam berkomunikasi di dalam kelas. Namun demikian pembelajaran tentang grammar harus dikembangkan secara eksplisit karena hal ini bukan merupakan fokus dari penerapan

  

Text-based syllabus . Hal ini merupakan fakta positif bahwa syllabus berbasis teks

  tersebut baik dan sesuai dengan situasi kelas di SMA NEGERI I Bantul dan SMA Stella Duce Bantul.

  

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN

PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

  Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma : Nama : Gregoria Antris Dewanti Nomor Mahasiswa : 051214099

  Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul : English Teachers’ Perceptions of Text-Based Syllabus Used in SMA NEGERI I Bantul and SMA STELLA DUCE Bantul 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 mem- berikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

  Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal : 24 Agustus 2009 Yang menyatakan (Gregoria Antris Dewanti)

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I am very grateful to have Jesus in my life that always guides me and gives me chance to do my best. I thank God because of his blessing I could finally finish writing my thesis after striving till the last of my sweat to do the biggest project in my study.

  I would like to begin my thanks to Bpk. Drs. Concilianus Laos Mbato, M.A. for his guidance, patience and worthy suggestions during the time when I was finishing my thesis. Furthermore, I would like to thank Ibu Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd. for the chance given to me. I really appreciate the kindness and assistance of the lecturers and administrative staff of English Language Education Study Program. It would be impossible without their help.

  I also would like to thank the headmaster of SMA NEGERI I Bantul and SMA STELLA DUCE Bantul for the chance so that I could conduct my research. My thanks is also dedicated to English teachers of SMA NEGERI I Bantul and SMA STELLA DUCE Bantul for their cooperation during the time I was conducting my research.

  I am grateful to have the best parents in my life. My greatest and my deepest gratitude delivers to my parents, Ig. Setyanto and An. Sri Maryani, who always guide me with love and patience during my study. I give a lot of thanks to my beloved little brother, G. Ronas Renanda, who always cheers me up with his kindness and naughtiness. I would have never finished my thesis without their support.

  I feel grateful to have Berlina, Arum and Rindang who always next to me in my ups and down. I thank for their support, kindness, and fabulous experience we have. and give me suggestions during my research. I feel thankful for their support during the time when I was working my thesis so that I could finish it.

  I would like to heartily give my deepest gratefulness to Y. Katrio Danu Umbara who has coloured my days. I thank him for his guidance, patience, kindness and his support on my thesis. I would not be this tough in finishing my thesis without his support.

  I feel thankful to be the part of HOE (House of English) company. I thank Franz wuri, Bunga, Wuri, Imel, Indro, Angga, and Arum for the cooperation during our working time. I thank them for the chances given to me to finish my thesis. I would also like to thank all of my friends in the English Education Study Program for being my best friends during my study. All of you have cheered up my days.

  I would thank people that I could not mention here. I thank them for their encouragement and prayer.

  All people who I have mentioned really mean so much to me. Without their support I could not reach this achievement.

  Gregoria Antris Dewanti

  TABLE OF CONTENTS Page

  TITLE PAGE………………………………………………………………….. i APPROVAL PAGES………………………………………………………… ii DEDICATION PAGE………………………………………………………… iv STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY……………………………… v ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………… vi

  

ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………….. vii

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………… viii TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………… x LIST OF TABLE…………………………………………………………….... xii LIST OF FIGURE…………………………………………………………….. xiii LIST OF APPENDICES………………………………………………………. xiv

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

  1 B. Problem Formulation ………………………………….

  5 C. Problem Limitation …………………………………….

  5 D. Research Objective …………………………………….

  6 E. Research Benefits ………………………………….......

  6 F. Definition of Terms…………………………………….

  7 CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. Theoretical Description ……………………………......

  10 1. The Nature of Perception …………………………...

  10

  a. Selection Attention ………………………………

  11 b. Organizing ……………………………………....

  13 c. Interpreting Data ………………………………...

  14 2. Factors of Perception ……………………………...

  15

  3. The Nature of Text-Based Syllabus ………………

  16 a. School-based Curriculum development………...

  16 b. Text-based Syllabus…………………………….

  18 1. Syllabus type ………………………………..

  18 2. The view of Language ………………….......

  19 3. Syllabus elements …………………………..

  20 4. Content ……………………………………...

  21 5. Methodology ………………………………..

  22 B. Theoretical Framework …………………………………

  23 CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY A. Research Method …………………………………….

  25 B. Research Participants ………………………………..

  26 C. Instruments …………………………………………..

  28

  E. Data Analysis Technique …………………………...

  57

  55

  a. Teacher Who Agreed with the Use of Text-based Syllabus Design ……………….…

  55

  b. Teacher Who Did not Agree with the Use of Text-based Syllabus Design ………………….

  56

  2. How Teaches’ Perception Are Enacted In Their Teaching …………………………………..

  a. The Way Teacher Delivers Englis Teaching Materials …………………………...

  55

  57 1). The Way Teachers Delivered English Teaching Material at SMA NEGERI I Bantul ……...

  57 2). The Way Teacher Delivered English Teaching Material at SMA STELLA DUCE Bantul ….... 58

  b. Students’ Involvement in the Learning Process … 59

  c. The Students Understanding about the Materials… 60

  CHAPTER V. Conclusions and suggestions…………………………………

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

  62 B. Suggestions ………………………………………………..

  1. Teachers’ Perception on the Implementation of Text-based Syllabus ………………………….

  c. The Students Understanding about the Materials .. 51 B. Discussion …………………………………..……….......

  31 F. Procedur …………………………………………….

  35

  32 CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

  A. Research Findings ……………………………………

  34

  1. Teachers’ Perception on the Implementation of Text-based Syllabus ………………………….

  34

  a. Teacher Who Agreed with the Use of Text-based Syllabus Design ……………….…

  b. Teacher Who Did not Agree with the Use of Text-based Syllabus Design ………………….

  b. Students’ Involvement in the Learning Process … 49

  40

  2. How Teaches’ Perception Are Enacted In Their Teaching …………………………………..

  42

  a. The Way Teacher Delivers English Teaching Materials …………………………...

  43 1). The Way Teachers Delivered English Teaching Material at SMA NEGERI I Bantul ……...

  43 2). The Way Teacher Delivered English Teaching

  Material at SMA STELLA DUCE Bantul ….... 47

  65

  LIST OF TABLES

  Table 1. Blueprint Interview Guideline ………………………………………

  29 Table 2. Check List of Observation …………………………………………..

  30

  LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. What is it? ………………………………………………………….

  12 Figure 2. Organize Splotches into a Real Pattern ……………………………

  14

LIST OF APPENDICES

  81 APPENDIX 11 Raw Data of Observation …………………………………….

  87

  86 APPENDIX 16 Raw Data of Observation …………………………………….

  85 APPENDIX 15 Raw Data of Observation …………………………………….

  84 APPENDIX 14 Raw Data of Observation …………………………………….

  83 APPENDIX 13 Raw Data of Observation …………………………………….

  82 APPENDIX 12 Raw Data of Observation …………………………………….

  APPENDIX 1 Letters of Permission of the Research …………………………

  69 APPENDIX 2 Legalization Page of the Research Proposal ……………….....

  78 APPENDIX 9 Raw Data of Interview …………………………………………

  77 APPENDIX 8 Raw Data of Interview …………………………………………

  76 APPENDIX 6 Raw Data of Interview …………………………………………

  75 APPENDIX 5 Raw Data of Interview …………………………………………

  73 APPENDIX 4 Raw Data of Interview ……………………………………………. 74 APPENDIX 5 Raw Data of Interview …………………………………………

  72 APPENDIX 3 Guideline Interview …………………………………………….

  80 APPENDIX 10 Raw Data of Interview ………………………………………..

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This chapter presents the introduction of this study. This chapter is

  divided into six sections; they are research background, problem formulation, problem limitation, research objective, research benefit, and definition of term.

A. Research Background

  Several kinds of curricula are used in Indonesia but they do not yet give a good solution for the quality development of Indonesian’s educational system. It is proved with the low standard of the graduates, the lack of teaching learning facilities and media, and other problems of our educational system. Therefore, improvements are conducted especially in the educational field in order to increase the national educational standard. It started from the use of curriculum 1947, which emphasized the students’ character building. It is called as “leer plan”, which was adopted from Holland, which means lesson plan. Second is curriculum 1952. It is called as describing lesson plan curriculum because it gives the detail description of its every subject. The third is curriculum 1968, which is focused on the Indonesians’ character building that based on the five principles. The fourth is curriculum 1975, which emphasized the efficiency and the effectiveness of the educational system. The fifth is curriculum 1984, which is a completion of curriculum 1975. It is focused on the students’ active learning or SAL. The use of this curriculum may give a good benefit for students although in

  2 cannot control their students and the class atmosphere becomes chaos. Therefore, curriculum 1994 is introduced to revise it. It combines curriculum 1975 and 1984 with process approach. There were so many critics for this curriculum implementation such as it provides so much material for students to learn, the teaching materials were considered too difficult, and not relevant with the students’ level of understanding. Hence, changes are needed for the sake of improvement. Then, curriculum of 2004 or we call it as competency-based curriculum is launched. In this curriculum design, every lesson is described based on certain competency that should be achieved by the students. It was applied but the result was not good. Besides, many teachers do not really understand about how to implement this curriculum design. For that reason, Indonesia changed it’s curriculum into KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan) or in Australia we knew it as School-based Curriculum Development (SBCD) (Kangjumari, 2007).

  “A curriculum is all the planned learning activities involve what should be learnt and how it could be taught successfully (Ansyar, 1989: 12). It implies that it determines all the learning process and determines how the learning process can be taught. Therefore, the frequent changes on the use of curriculum have a big consequence in developing students’ capability in mastering materials given in class.

  In this present day, Indonesia uses School-based curriculum development (SBCD) or what so-called as KTSP in Indonesia. By using this curriculum design, every institution can develop their own syllabus based on their need and

  3 Besides, this curriculum design emphasizes the active learning. “Learning is to gain knowledge or skill by studying from experience, from being taught” (Hornby, 2002: 762). Consequently by using this curriculum students are suggested to be more active especially in doing outside-class activities such as doing any experiments, group works, researches, or doing other activities, which can develop their understanding of knowledge. It shows that KTSP trains students to be able to accomplish their need of knowledge independently, so they will have a wider knowledge from any outside-class activity they have. Based on that reason nowadays teachers usually give extra assignments to their students so that they will have the ability of applying their knowledge better.

  In English teaching, Text-Based Syllabus is now used in order to achieve the standard of KTSP. It is used as a response to change our views of language or language learning. “It incorporates an increasing understanding of how language is structured and how language is used in social context” (Feez and Joyce, 2002a: 3). Syllabus is the teacher’s guideline in teaching the class. “Syllabus is constructed by selecting and sequencing content and based on explicit objective” (Feez and Joyce, 2002b: 3). Hence, teachers need a method in order to implement the syllabus design that is about how the course outline of teaching learning is studied and learned by the students. According Fees and Joyce, in order to answer the teachers’ need, genre approach is used as the most appropriate methodology to implement the Text-based Syllabus. It means that Text-based syllabus is applied in teaching-learning process in the form of genre.

  4 Text-based syllabus is the same with what so-called Genre-based syllabus or Literary-based syllabus, but in this case we will use the term Text- based syllabus. Text-based syllabus is a new term for the teaching-learning process in Indonesia. Therefore, it arises some questions that hesitates teachers about the use of this syllabus design. With the purpose of answering the teachers’ hesitation, the researcher wants to analyze the teachers’ perception on the implementation of the Text-based syllabus so that the reader later will know and have a picture of the use of Text-based syllabus for teaching and learning process in high school. Besides, the researcher wants to know the real condition of classes that use Text-based syllabus as a guideline of its teaching and learning process in order to analyze whether the teachers’ perceptions are enacted in their teaching or not.

  Teachers’ perception is important to be analyzed as teachers play a big role in teaching and learning process. They are also the main tools in activating the class and leading the students in order to have a higher knowledge. How students improve their ability and knowledge cannot be apart from the teachers’ role. Consequently, the future generations’ success depends on their professionalism. Therefore, teachers’ perception on the syllabus that is used to help them teach the students is important, as it can be a referential for the government to make an improvement.

  For this reason, it is important to find out the teachers’ perception of the use of Text-based syllabus, as through analyzing their perception we can

  5 will have a better picture on this syllabus design implementation and we can apply it optimally.

  B. Problem Formulation

  In this research, there are two questions will be discussed. These questions will guide the researcher in finding the expected result of this study.

  They are:

  1. What are the teachers’ perceptions of the implementations of Text-Based Syllabus?

  2. How are the teachers’ perceptions enacted in their teaching?

  C. Problem Limitation

  The research on the teachers’ perception on the use of Text-based syllabus in senior high school is limited to a small sample for about two senior high schools, which are located in Yogyakarta and have different backgrounds. This research will be focused on the teachers’ perception about the Text-based syllabus that is used in their teaching. Therefore, in order to answer this problem, the researcher uses in-depth interview so that researcher can gather the information that is needed optimally. Based on their perception the researcher will analyze whether or not their perceptions are reflected in their teaching. Besides, the researcher will analyze the implementation of this syllabus design. Hence, class observation is used to help the researcher analyzing the class

  6 observing. These two methods are expected to be the most appropriate methods with the aim of answering the research problems.

  D. Research Objective

  The researcher formulates the aims of the study as follows: 1. to find out the teachers’ perception of the implementation of Text-based syllabus in enhancing the students’ comprehension of English 2. to find out the real condition and situation of the class in order to know whether the teachers’ perception(s) is/are enacted in their teaching or not.

  E. Research Benefits

  This research is effective to give a clear answer to the problems stated in the problem formulation. By identifying the teachers’ perceptions and observing their class condition and situation, this research may provide a picture about the strength or the weakness of this syllabus design so that teachers will know how they should work with this syllabus. This awareness may be useful for them, as it can maximize their teaching ability. Besides, since Text-based syllabus design is new for Indonesian educational system, this research might answer the hesitation that arises among the teachers about the effectiveness of this syllabus design in teaching and learning process.

  To the readers, hopefully, this thesis is able to give a clear picture whether or not teachers from very different backgrounds have the similar opinion

  7 To the teachers, expectantly, it gives them reference about the advantages and disadvantages of this syllabus design so that they can improve their performance in teaching English.

  To English teachers’ candidate of Sanata Dharma University, this research may give useful information about Text-based syllabus so that they may have more understanding and knowledge to enrich the way they implement this syllabus design.

  To the next researchers, hopefully it may give information and basic understanding on the use of Text-Based syllabus so that they can gain the deeper information of it.

F. Definition of Term The following part is the explanation of terms that are used in this study.

  The purpose is to avoid misunderstanding in interpreting the important terms. They are:

  1. Perception “Perception is a conscious mental and cognitive process that enables us to interpret and understand our surroundings” (Kreitner and Kinici 1992: 127).

  “… perception refers to the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory data into useful mental representation of the world” (Huffman, 1997: 97).

  In this study perception refers to the English teachers’ point of view toward the use of Text-based syllabus in their teaching, which is seen from the

  8 how the teachers see and think about the Text-based syllabus that is used in KTSP curriculum; whether the Text-based syllabus is appropriate or inappropriate; interesting or not interesting; successful or not successful for English teaching in Indonesia.

  2. Text “In this study, text is every conversation that is found in TV, radio, daily conversation and in written story, which brings communication function to the reader” (Knapp and Watkins, 2005: 23). In this study, text is every conversation that is selected in relation to the learners’ need and social contexts which learners’ whish to access. The aim is to facilitate readers or students in understanding the use of language.

  3. Syllabus “Syllabus is an explicit and coherent plan for a course study” (Feez and

  Joyce, 2002: 2). “Explicit is the way to utter clearly, exactly, and directly” (Hornby, 2000: 462). Besides, Coherent is logical and well organized; easy to understand and clear. In this study, syllabus is a document with an outline and summary of topic to be covered in a course. Therefore, it is a guideline for teacher, which involves explanation or statement about what should be learnt in a course.

  4. Text-based Syllabus “Text-based syllabus is primarily concerned with what learners do with the language, i.e. what they do with whole texts in context. It is concerned with

  9 meaning with genre-based, and or literacy-Based but in this study we will use the term Text-Based syllabus. In this study, Text-based syllabus is statement for teacher that explains what should be learnt in a course, which uses genre approach to implement the content of the syllabus.

  5. Approach “It is a theory about the nature of language and language learning that serves as the source of practices and principles in language teaching” (Richard and Rogers, 1986: 16). In this study, approach is the way language is taught to the learners. It means that approach facilitate teacher teaching the language to the students.

  6. Genre “Genre is the name given to the type of texts that refers to a social purpose using language to achieve meaning in different situation and has a purpose of this form of written language, e.g. to inform, to persuade, to entertain and to explain…” (Hardy and Klarwein, 1990: 14). In this study genre is used as the approach in implementing Text-based syllabus. Consequently, the teaching- learning process will be developed based on the text that will be discussed.

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE As stated in the chapter one, Text-based syllabus is a coherent plan for a

  course study that is based on text. Therefore, it is important to understand what Text-based syllabus is because it will be the main point of this thesis. Text-based syllabus may help students to understand the nature of using English in their daily life.

  Since it is based on the use of text in English teaching, it cannot be separated from genre, that is, “the various aspects of texts” (Bhatia, 1993: 40) as the approach to apply the Text-based syllabus. Therefore, in this section we will discuss Text-based syllabus and the use of this genre approach.

  This chapter consists of two parts, namely theoretical description and theoretical framework. The theoretical description presents a detail explanation of the theories concerning: (1) the nature of perception and (2) the nature of Text- Based syllabus. Besides, the theoretical framework describes about all major relevant theories, which will help the researcher solve the research problems.

A. Theoretical Description

1. The Nature of Perception

  Huffman (2000: 107) defines perception as a process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory data into useful mental representation of the

  11 awareness to select and organize the object in order to perceive it. How people perceive an identified object is influenced by the background experience that people have. This background experience will help us to select and organize the object or stimulus. Therefore, perception is about the process itself.

  Altman (1985: 85) describes perception as the way stimuly are selected and grouped by a person so that they can be meaningfully interpreted”. How people work with their environment and understand it so that they can have a picture of it. The interpretation of having the picture about a condition refers to the perception itself. It is similar with what is stated by Gibson (1997: 97) “Perception is organizing the information from the environment so that it makes sense”.

  Stein (1982) cited in Ponty, M. (1962: 7) stated that “…. The series stimulus – impression – perception is a sequent event at the end of which perception begins”. It is seen that every perception is a new birth of consciousness. This process of perceiving is related to personal sense of perceptual experience, which will be translated so that every person is able to have different interpretation toward an object or stimulus. Hence, it is important to realize that there are many theories, which are relevant with this topic. That is why people need to have a framework as a guideline of knowing perception.

a. Selecting Attention

  “Selecting is the process when the brain manages to sort out the

  12 people try to give attention to an object, which is considered more important than the others. It means that when people select an object or a sensory data they tend to give their attention to that identified object and ignore the others. For example: when a girl sees so many kinds of flowers in front of her and she chooses a bucket of red rose. The process of selective attention happens here because the girl has chosen the stimuli to which object she will give her attention. Therefore, she finally chooses a bucket of red flower then the others.

  Altman, 1985: 86 stated that “the process of selecting occurs when we focus on only a small number of all the stimuli with which we are surround us”.

  Selecting really influence people in recognizing information, as this is the first step in perceiving object. This activity determines the next impression so that it will decide whether people will give attention to an object or not. It means that if people give attention toward an object they will perceive this identified object.

  For example, look at this following picture:

Figure 2.1 What is it? (Huffman, 2000: 107)

  13 Look at the figure 1. People who see this object might say that it is just an unreal object. There are only splotches of light and dark. It can be difficult to realize or perceive that these splotches of light and dark can be a real pattern. In this condition the process of selection happens to help people to have a picture of mind toward the object so that they can see it from different angle. The ability to focus their attention to an angle to understand the meaning of the whole picture will help them to perceive the identified object.

  “If we look at the figure long enough, our brain will arrange the stimulus into a recognizable object so that you will see a real pattern” (Huffman, 2007: 108). Based on the figure 1, when the selecting process happens people might see a real picture of a cow but people also can see other things according to their own perception. It is based on which spot people give and focus their attention. It means that the result of perceiving the same object can be varies for every one.

b. Organizing

  The second step of perceiving an object is organizing. According to Hornby, A.S (2000: 932) organizing is arranging for something to happen or to be provided. In this case, it is a process of arranging abstract object or random spot into a shape. Related to the figure 2.1, organizing happens after people focusing their sight. This process helps them to arrange the random spot into a line that is continued to one another. It influences the final result of perceiving object. Therefore, if we spend enough time to stare at the figure 2.1. We can see a real

  14 Figure 2.2 Organize splotches into a real pattern (Huffman. 2000: 108) Related to this study, after experiencing the real use of Text-based syllabus to teach English, hopefully, teachers can organize their impression toward the use of Text-based syllabus then give their opinion in accordance with the real condition of teaching-learning process. In other words, English teachers are suggested to give their perception toward the use of Text-based syllabus objectively so that their opinion can be used as a reflection.

c. Interpreting data

  After selecting data through the incoming stimulus and organizing it into a pattern, the brain uses this information to explain and make judgment about the real pattern (Huffman, 2000: 107). The action of making judgment about a condition is what-so called as interpreting. Therefore, perceiving does not suddenly occur in a condition and situation but it needs a process. Besides,

  15 personal experiences, cultural factors, and personal motivation and frame of reference.

2. Factors of Perception According to Robbins (1997a), perception is influenced by three factors.

  They are perceiver, target that being observed, and context of situation in which the perception is made.

  1. Perceiver The interpretation of a perceiver is influenced by personal charateristic.

  The personal characteristic includes attitudes, personality, motives, interest, past experience, expectation, emotions and needs (Robbins, 1997b).

  Past experience is the most influencing factor of perception. It is because past experienc leads perceiver to have an expectation, which will influence their perception. Besides, the emotion and interest also play as a crucial factor in the teaching and learning process. It is because with emotion and high interest the teaching and learning process will be succeed.

  2. Target The characteristic of the target that are being observed can influence what is perceived by the perceiver. The relationship betweeen the target with its backgrounds also influences the forming of perception. For example teachers’ perception on the use of teaching media can be very different for teacher who teach in an isolated village and they who teach in a city. It might be influenced by

  16

  3. Situation Situational context in factor influencing perceptions can be defined as the context in which the perceiver sees object or event. Time, place, dark, light, and any other situational factors can influence the way people perceive an object. The perception of a teacher who teach in one school as long as his work time toward students’ motivation in finishing their study might be different from a teacher who teach not only in one school. It is influnced by the situation of the school in which they spent their time for teaching.

  The theory helps the researcher to find out some causes that make the respondent have such perception toward the use of Text-based syllabus in English teaching-learning process.

3. The nature of Text-Based syllabus

  As Text-based syllabus is part of the implementation of the School-based Curriculum Development, the teachers need to understand what is meant by SBCD. Therefore, in this research, the SBCD and Text-based syllabus will be discussed.

a. School-based Curriculum Development

  “Curriculum refers to an area of enquiry in higher education that focuses

  on what is learned and what should be learned in an educative institution or in a lesser extends to what is and should be learned institutionalized” (Schubert, W.

  17 should be learned by the students. School-based curriculum in Indonesia or it is called, as KTSP is “an operational curriculum, which is arranged and conducted by each of educational institution or school” (Muslich, 2007: 17). It means that every school has right to develop their syllabus based on the condition and the need of the school. The reason is because every school is considered as the educational institution that directly gets in touch with the students. “Teachers are given responsibility for developing the curricula and even allowed to develop their own school curriculum within centrally determines guideline” (Brady, 1992: 5). There is a decentralization system so that the curriculum can cover all the students’ needs optimally in accordance with the environment.

  Mulyasa (2008: 178) stated that the implementation of KTSP is a process of implementing opinion, concept, and the curriculum policy in teaching learning activity so that students conquer a bundle of a certain competency as a result of the interaction with their environment. Based on this theory, it can be seen that trough implementing KTSP curriculum students are expected to have more skills. It means that the students will have more chance to experience the application of the learning materials. They will be trained to be more active in learning the subject study. Therefore, the implementation of KTSP will be more useful when it is developed in every educational institution. It is because teachers who are trusted as the persons who really understand their students’ level of proficiency can arrange the development of this curriculum. As the result, the teaching-learning process will be more effective. Based on the curriculum, syllabus will be designed to implement it,

  18 which is a more detail description of the curriculum for the teaching-learning process

b. Text-Based syllabus

  “Text-Based syllabus is a response to changing views of language and language learning” (Feez and Joyce, 2002: 3). It integrates how language is structured and used in social context. As the ability to use language relate to the practice of using the language itself, therefore, syllabus that is based on the text is provided. The text itself can be in the form of written text, recording, cassette, video or other sources, which can present the implementation of the target language. It is used to provide students with the use of language in the social context so that they will be able to learn how to use the language in the real context.