A. Perception
1. The Nature of Perception
When people are watching or reading news, it can be said that they are showing effort into a process of how perception happens. People can watch video, movie, beautiful places and judge or comment on news by using their eyes as the human sense. By watching news programs as the object of your sight, there will be inputs or stimulus sent to our brain as the awareness center so that we can judge the news we watch. The process of interpreting described above is called as perception.
Therefore, it can be noted that perception is a process which starts from the vision to form a response that occurs in person which is come from external and internal factors through its senses.
2. Factors Affecting Perception
The process of being aware of everything in our environment itself is obviously influenced by two factors the objects outside there (external factor) and our sense mechanism (internal factor) as describe too in the above description. It is like smelling flower there is a pleasure as smelling object which then be a stimuli received by smelling sense as the receptor the ears and continued to the brain so that people can enjoy the smell of flowers. Similarly, Goldstein (2010:5) states that perceiving everything is not determined only by everything from the out there but also the attributes of human senses. To make it clearer, here are the descriptions of the external factor and the internal factor affecting someone‟s perception as cited in (Walgito, 2010: 108 –130). The descriptions are as follows: a. External factors
b. Internal factors
Internal factors or those coming from the inside of individual include these insuring things:
1) Habit constructed by knowledge, experience and memory, someone may always think that learning grammar will be difficult as hearing from a friend telling that learning grammar is very difficult,
2) Attention, it has been explained before that attention determines the selection of stimuli to be perceived,
3) Interest, when an individual has an interest in learning speaking for instance, there will be a spontaneously emerging attention towards learning speaking coming from the individual itself,
4) Diversity of individual characteristic, there is someone loves giving attention even to something little and unimportant. Whereas, there is someone who does not really care about what is happening around. This diversity is one of another reason causing different perception among individual. Another factors causing diversity in perception are prior knowledge and experience about what is being perceived. Equally, Goldstein (2010:9-10) tells that the experience and knowledge gained in the past influence someone‟s ability in identifying an object of perception. People certainly cannot say that Mr. Abraham‟s teaching style is
about what is said as ultraconservative teaching style and the modern one. Similarly, May (2007:2) notes that someone‟s perception may unlike the others since the process of perception also depends on the existing knowledge and experience. Eventually, it can be concluded from the above descriptions that the overall process of perception covers several factors objects from the outside (or external factor) which then turn into stimulus transmitted to human sensory organ and carried on to the brain where it is deeper processed with the involvement of knowledge and experience to identify and recognize the object of perception before it ends in a reaction towards what we are aware of. Furthermore, the reaction made from the process of perception can be negative or positive. For instance, the continuously occurred absence of a student might be the reaction from the uninteresting learning environment that the student perceives.
B. Speaking
1. The Nature of Speaking
Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving information. The form and the meaning are dependent. There should be a lot of time and effort needs to be done in speaking in order to give more opportunities for the learners in speaking not only inside the classroom but also outside the classroom. The more time given to the learners in interacting with the language the better will be. They will get more confidence and motivations in learning and practicing the language.
According to Nunan (1991: 40) “Speaking is the same as oral
interactions which are conventional ways of presenting information, expressing our idea, and though have in our mind”. It could be said that
speaking is not always expressing our ideas but also relate to the new information to others. And speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning always involves in producing words and the meaning depends on the context.
Ramelan, ( 1992: 13 ) says that all human being as long as they live, they will always speak language, even though they do not have any writing system to record their language. Related to speaking skill, Nunan (1991: 39) says that “For most people mastering the art of speaking is the
From the statement above, it can be concluded that speaking is the most important skill in mastering foreign language. Someone who learns foreign language will be considered as successful and skillful learners if they can retain speaking skills well. Mastering speaking skill is not only be able to be observed by the performance of the learners itself but also by their competence in using the correct language.
2. The Importance of Speaking
The common purpose learning is formed by four skills; those are listening, reading, writing and speaking. Amongst those four language skills, speaking is considered as a primary form of language. It is supported by Ramelan (1992: 13). That he gives proofs that human being whenever they live, they will always speak language, although they do not have any writing system to record their language. Clark and Clark (1997:3) state that the nature of language is a principle means for communication among human beings. Noticing the purpose of communication, it is assumed for those two main activities which are speaking and listening occur in it. It indicates that language is primarily spoken.
According to Pringgawidagda (2002:49) stated that we make a fundamental distinction between competence (the speaker-hearer‟s knowledge of this language) and performance (the actual use of language in concrete situations). Chomsky also proposes and distinguishes between language competence and language competence and language performance. Language competence is knowledge about language usage, principles and configurations of the sentence, but knowledge about the language competence. A speaker who knows to speak and understand the language means he or she has language competence.
3. Aspects of Speaking
Speaking becomes important because speaking is a skill that can make people easily understand to what things explained. High School students‟ speaking ability is expected to be good because they have learn
English since some years before and they will have many performances related to oral skill in universities. But in fact, High School students‟ speaking ability is still low. It is difficult to them to fulfil some aspects of speaking performance. Aspects of Speaking Performance:
a. Fluency
Lado (1961: 240) points out that speaking ability is described as the ability to report acts or situation, in precise words, or the ability to converse or to express a sequence of ideas fluently.
Research into listener‟s perception suggests that pausing is one
People can be said as fluent speakers if they fulfill the following features:
a. Pauses may be long but not frequent. b. Pauses are usually filled.
c. Pauses occur at meaningful transition points.
d. There are long runs of syllables and words between pauses.
Foster and Skehan in Nunan (2004:87) propose a model in assessing speaking in which fluency is measured by considering the total number of seconds of silence and time spent saying „um‟ and „ah‟
by subjects as they complete a task. b. Pronunciation
Pronunciation refers to the student‟s ability to produce comprehensible utterances to fulfil the task requirements (Thornbury, 2005:128-129). Harmer (2001:28-33) provides more issues related to pronunciation. He suggest pitch, intonation, individual sounds, sounds and spelling, and stress. Pronunciation becomes important because it gives meaning to what is being said. Wrong pronunciation may cause misunderstanding or people involved in a conversation are offended. c. Grammar
a. Who the speaker is b. Who the audience is
c. Where the communication takes place d. Vocabulary
Thornbury (2005:22) suggests three usual things used by speakers in what they are being said: When people speaking, they are involving high proportion of words and expressions that express their attitude (stance) to what is being said.
Speakers usually employ words and expressions that express positive and negative appraisal because a lot of speech has an interpersonal function, and by identifying what people like and dislike, they are able to express solidarity. A speech also usually employs deictic language, i.e. words and expressions that point to the place, time, and participants in the intermediate or a more distant context.
4. Factors Which Influence Students’ Speaking
There are two factors which influence students‟ speaking
competence. The first is external and the second is internal factors. The external factors come from outside the students while the internal factors come from inside the students.
a. Internal factor
will be accepted well by the students who have high intelligence and be adapted for a long time. Therefore the students‟ success can be
guaranteed.
The three points of intelligence are ability to use abstract effectively, ability to know about the relation and ability to study quickly, (J. P. Chaplin in Slameto 2003: 55). There are some intelligence factors influencing someone speaking skill as follows: 1) Aptitude factor
Aptitude is a natural skill and ability to do something well, Hornby (1995:50). If somebody has good chance of studying and has a good facility beside they have good passion, their aptitude will be developed. Someone who has minimal aptitude in particular subject, even though they has given enough lesson and good facilities, will not obtain the achievement in studying as well as other that has good aptitude.
2) Feeling factors
3) Attention factors
According to Gazali in Slameto (2003:56) attention is being active of exchanged psyche directed only to certain object (a thing or master) or a group of objects. The students will succeed in the study if he or she has immense attention toward the object being learnt. The students will pay attention of focus on the lesson 4) Motivation factors
Motivation is a key to students‟ learning success (Songsiri,
2007). With regard to the issue of motivation in learning, Nunan (1999) stresses that motivation is important to notice in that it can affect students‟ reluctance to speak in English. In this sense,
motivation is a key consideration in determining the preparedness of learners to communicate. Zua (2008) further adds that motivation is an inner energy. She says that no matter what kinds of motivation the learners possess it will enhance their study interest. It has been proven in many studies that students with a strong motivation to succeed can persist in learning and gain better scores than those who have weaker motivation of success showing that building students‟ motivation to learn is urgent for every
5) Interest factors
According to Hilgrad as quoted by Slameto (2003:57) interest is persisting tendency to pay attention and to enjoy some activities or contents. If someone has interest toward certain object, he will pay attention and enjoy continuously to activities concerned with the object. He enjoys doing this activity without feeling forced.
b. External Factors
Factors which come from external sides areas follow: 1) Family Factors
Family factor is a significant factor that can influence the students‟ study because as we know that they spend much time in
their family than in the school. Therefore, the parents do not fully rely on their study and education.
2) School Factors
a) Teaching Method
b) Materials
Effective material is crucial in teaching learning process. The content of materials has to contain knowledge and skill because they have been recognized that the knowledge and skill required for the future need to be flexible and across many contents.
c) Media factors
Media is the element in students‟ environment that can
support their study. It can attract the students‟ motivation. From the explanation above, the researcher can conclude that through media, the teachers develop the content of material or lesson that will be given in the classroom and also it can help the students in learning English. Therefore, it is so much helpful for teacher to explain about the lesson and the students can accept the lesson quickly.
d) Class factor
3) Social factor a) Mass Media
Mass media such as radio, television, newspaper, magazine and other electronic or non-electronic media are familiar to the students. They often use mass media to get information and expand knowledge. It becomes a supporting factor to their study because rot them, it is interesting to study through mass media, it make them more enjoy and they will not feel bored.
b) Friends
Friend with whom the students associate can influence the students on the study. Good friends have good influence on the students. Therefore the students can study well, he needs to choose and make friends with one who has good attitude, behavior and habit in their life.
5. Speaking Problems Faced by the Student
them gradually from the procedure of learning because they fail in fulfilling the basic requirements of successful communication during English lesson. Meanwhile, Thonrbury (2005, in Pratiwi, 2008:2) states that difficulties in speaking in the target language can be caused by (1) the lack knowledge of language elements, eg: grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. (2) Less opportunities to practice speaking. (3) The low motivation and confidant to speak that may be caused by uninteresting and unfamiliar topics.
Some researchers have proven the theory concerning with EFL students difficulties in speaking English. It is stated that some difficulties encountered by English learners and most of the result show that the mechanical elements of the language is the major difficulty faced by the learners. Zhang (2009) argued that speaking remains the most difficult skill to master for the majority of English learners, and they are still incompetent in communicating orally in English. According to Ur (1996), there are many factors that cause difficulty in speaking, and they are as follows:
a. Inhibition
b. Nothing to say
Students have no motive to express themselves. Even they are not inhibited, you often hear learners complain that they cannot think of anything to say: they have no motive to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should be speaking.
c. Low or uneven participation
Only one participant can talk at a time because of large classes and the tendency of some learners to dominate, while others speak very little or not at all.
d. Mother-tongue use.
Learners who share the same mother tongue tend to use it because it is easier and because learners feel less exposed if they are speaking their mother tongue.
e. Inadequate Vocabulary
Setyawan (2005:32) on their research revealed that the students usually lack of vocabulary in speaking, hence when they want to speak out, they cannot speak fluently. Sometimes, the students also faced difficulty in recalling the words they had in their bank vocabulary. Therefore the students with those problems will have problems in expressing ideas. This also why usually the students prefer to keep silent or speak in their mother tongue instead of making mistake. f. Grammar as Stumbling Block
Grammar is the system of rules governing the conventional arrangement and relationship of words in every sentence (Brown, 2001:362). In speaking, one not only has to speak up in English yet he or she is required to make oral statements in right construction. This is equal with what Setyawan (2005:33) said that someone has to know when he must use present, past and future tense. Furthermore, Setyawan (2005:33) added that someone has to understand where he should place auxiliaries, adverb and adjective to create a good communication.
g. Improper Pronunciation
The ability of speaking English shows the correctness of pronunciation and intonations that directly affects the appropriate daily communication in conversation. Dealing with that statement, pronunciation is also one of the difficulties faced by EFL learners. Usually EFL learners especially in Indonesian learners find it difficult to pronounce English words well. It because they do not know how to pronounce words correctly as in English each words has to be pronounce specially. Different pronunciation means different meaning. Thus, if a learner pronounces a word improperly, it can change the meaning of topic and caused to misunderstanding of the hearer.
