1
STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION
ON THE USE OF POWERPOINT IN PUBLIC
SPEAKING CLASSESS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Adisti Pramestiya
112006046
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
2
STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION
ON THE USE OF POWERPOINT IN PUBLIC
SPEAKING CLASSESS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Adisti Pramestiya
112006046
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
6
This study aimed to find out the students points of view on the use of PowerPoint in
teaching and learning process, especially in Public speaking class. This study was
done because based on the writer observation the use of PowerPoint has increased
recently. This quantitative research is defined as social research that employs
empirical methods and empirical statements. The data were obtained through
questionnaire to the students in public speaking class. The participants were 55
students of public speaking class from group A until E. The findings revealed that the
participants in the public speaking classes like PowerPoint better than other
Audio-Visual Aids to be used by teachers in teaching learning process. These findings have
shown that PowerPoint could make the teaching process in class interesting, increase
the students’ motivation and make the teacher more efficient in using time to deliver
the material.
Key words: powerpoint, student perception, public speaking
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
We know that nowadays Audio Visual Aids or what we call as AVAs are becoming
popular media in teaching and learning process, especially in classroom activities. Many teachers
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and increasing the student’s enthuasism in the learning process. Another reason why teacher
often use AVAs is to help students to understand the material better. Using AVAs also helps
students to get an access to real example to material.
As one of the effects of globalization, nowadays the technology in teaching learning
process has become more sophisticated. Automatically the use of AVAs are significantly
increased, especially powerpoint. Powerpoint becomes popular because this AVA is one of the
latest technology in teaching. Compare to picture, card and whiteboard, powerpoint is more
sophisticated. Another reason why powerpoint is popular is that it can minimize the amount of
money spent to print the picture and card. Many teachers like powerpoint because they can
organize their material while doing presentation in class. Teachers can also include video,
background or sound in the series of slides in powerpoint. They can be more creative to make the
student enjoy the lesson.
I see that as I observed in a one last year PowerPoint is becoming a favorite aid for
teacher in teaching and learning, especially in Salatiga. Therefore, I was interested to do a study
on “Students’ Perception on the use of PowerPoint in Public Speaking Class”. I hope that my
study will be useful as an input for teachers who uses powerpoint in classroom activities.
Another reason for conducting this research is that there is no research that revealed the use of
powerpoint in public speaking class yet.
A previous study had been done by Hossein Nouri and Abdus Shahid (2008) from the
college of New Jersey Ewing, New Jersey USA. Hossein and Abdus analyzed “The Effect of
PowerPoint Presentation on Student Learning and Attitudes”. They said the use of powerpoint
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understand the material when the teacher use powerpoint presentation than when the teacher use
traditional classroom presentation.
Another study had been done by Jennifer M Apperson, Eric L. Laws and James A
Scepansky (2008) from Department of Psychology;Longwood University. Their study entitle
“An Assessment of Student Preferences foe PowerPoint Presentation Structure in Undergraduate
Courses”. Jennifer, Eric and James concluded that PowerPoint can make the atmosphere in the
class different. When using powerpoint presentation student respond favorably in classs, student
believed that the class condition is more organized, clear and interesting. Apperson, Laws and
Scepansky concluded that the use of powerpoint presentation also have more impression when
teacher using it and student like the course better.
Both of the studies that I focused on the effect of PowerPoint from different country, i.e.
the United States. The study was done to structure classes, while my study focused on
powerpoint in learning situation that important to enhance the students’ enthusiasm to understand
the material that deliver through their teacher, especially in public speaking classess.
To guide my study I use the research question:
“What are the students’ Perceptions toward the use of PowerPoint in Public Speaking Classess?”
The aims of my study are to identify out the students’ perceptions on the use of
PowerPoint in public speaking classess, to find out the importance of PowerPoint for the students
and to see whether the use of PowerPoint helpful for student in public speaking class.
Theoretical Framework
Students’ Perception
In learning English, students’ perceptions are important to support the learning process,
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and thinking toward thing and by a process. To addition the definition of perception can be found
in Searle as cited in Blake and Sekuler (2006) “Perception is what person (students) feel about
particular thing both conscious and unconscious, whether visual or auditory and thought that are
caused by process going on the brain”. In other words, perception is people’ opinion about
something that they thought is true. It means that perception referrs to someone sense or view
toward a certain object.Perception is people’s opinion about something that they thought is true.
The correlation is how students’s motivation on their perception of ability in learning English.
Robbins (1997) points out that perception is processes by which individuals organize and also
interpret their sensory experience so that it will bring meanings to them. Thus, it can be said that
perception refers to someone’s sense or view toward a certain object. In other words, student’s
perception is can be the essential factors to support the teaching learning process itself. In
addition, perception is a process of receiving stimulus until the stimulus are realized and
recognized (irwanto, et all 1991 as cited in utami, N, 2005).
Audio-Visual Aids
My study is about AVA, AVA is Audio-Visual aids are methods communicating with
people (The Scout Association: 1999) there are a variety of audio-visual aids which can be used,
it is important to select aids which are appropriate to the method. The word "aids" are vital to a
correct understanding of their use. Once they take the nature of "gimmicks" they have ceased to
be "aids". They are not ends in themselves. Audio aids communicate ideas through the ears to the
mind. They may take the form of music or tape recordings, television, records, sound films, etc.
Therefore, Haryanto (1995) believed that AVA is a tool of view heard in the form of objects or
anything that can be seen by the eye and be heard by the ear, which we use to help explain the
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tool are becoming of motivation and helpful for the students in their way of completing the
process of learning also for teacher the use of audio visual aids as an input for their succes in
teaching. Moreover, Porter and Margaret (1992) assert that using visual materials not only make
what you have to say more comprehensive to your students, they can make it more interesting as
well. It means that the students need more the visual aids to raise their motivation learn in class.
PowerPoint Slides
Then I discuss about PowerPoint. According to Kevin Lerner (2012) PowerPoint is a
presentation graphics software tool. It provides users the easy ability to create
professional-looking presentations. PowerPoint provides editing, outlining, drawing, graphing, and
presentation management functions, in one convenient software package. Therefore, PowerPoint
is a software tool that has become a presentation staple in lecture halls, conference rooms, and
through the application of computer-based training (Alley & Neeley, 2005). Initially, PowerPoint
was developed to improve learning by providing the means to develop presentations that are
more structured and interesting the audiences (Amare, 2006). It means that PowerPoint is a
software tool from Microsoft that really sophisticated than word and excel, PowerPoint can input
sound, picture, diagram and so on. The use of powerpoint is really helpful for student to
understand more about the material also for teacher the use of powerpoint is help teacher in
teaching learning process. I thought that powerpoint is more modern and efficient in term of time
and cost than using picture and cards. In addition Harrison (1999) argues that PowerPoint
enhances instruction and motivates students to learn it means that from the use of PowerPoint
can improve the students’ motivation in learning the material when in the classroom because
student need something different to learn the material in class that make them enjoy when their
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1997, 2003, 2007, 2010 and the newest is PowerPoint 2013. Teacher usually used PowerPoint
2007 because this PowerPoint is easy to understand than 2003, because in PowerPoint 2003 there
are different using of slide PowerPoint such as the features in PowerPoint 2003 less modern than
in the feature in PowerPoint 2007, the tools in PowerPoint 2007 is familiar than 2003. In other
words teacher easier to use PowerPoint 2007 than 2003 and also now there is a new version of
PowerPoint 2013. The teacher is still more comfortable with 2007 than the new one because the
new one has more new features than the old one. When use the PowerPoint it can reduce the
passive class, the boredom and make the class atmosphere more interesting. But PowerPoint also
have a bad effect such as it can waste the time when the teacher did not operate the slide of
PowerPoint well and when the teacher make all the material in the slide of PowerPoint and
suddenly the electricity is down teacher can get a bad effect from it.
Public Speaking Class
Speaking can be defined as a circular process by which one person tries to influences the
knowledge, attitudes and conduct to other people (Minnick, 1979). Furthermore, speaking for
Chaney (1998) is a process where learners will share and build their non verbal and verbal ability
in different frameworks. Public speaking class is one of the required courses in English
Department of Satya Wacana Christian University. Public speaking class focuses on transmitting
information in various speaking situations, especially in a formal situation. Public speaking has
one of three functions elaborated by Richards (2008). It has a function as performance. In public
speaking class, learners are required to do speech, impromptu speech, debate, and others. Bailey
(2005) reveal that since people use language in recognizable ways to get things done and it is
important that student learn to appropriate ways to accomplish their goals when they are
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is defined as social research that employs empirical methods and empirical statements. He states
that an empirical statement is defined as a descriptive statement about what “is” the case in the
“real world” rather than what “ought” to be the case. Moreover, Creswell (1994) has given a very
concise definition of quantitative research as a type of research that is `explaining phenomena by
collecting numerical data that are analyzed using mathematically based methods (in particular
statistics). It means that quantitative method help the students to find out the data from this study
and it is also obtain for students who took Public Speaking class. In addition, Quantitative
research is the numerical representation and manipulation of observations for the purpose of
describing and explaining the phenomena that those observations reflect. It is used in a wide
variety of natural and social sciences, including physics, biology, psychology, sociology and
geology (Wikipedia Encyclopedia, 2005).
Context of the study
The setting of the study was English Department Faculty of English and literature at
Satya Wacana Christian University which is located on Diponegoro street number 67-69,
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java, Indonesia. It is department that prepares its students to be well-qualified English teacher.
There are a lot of course offered in this department, and one of the courses is Public Speaking
class that needs PowerPoint more in teaching and learning process. The teachers have to use this
application in delivering the knowledge to the students. Therefore, students can give their
perception toward the using and function of PowerPoint that the teachers used.
Participants
The participants of this study were 54 students of English Department. The participants
were the students who took Public Speaking course. When this research was carried out, the
participants have joined the English Department for at least two years. The reason of using
English Department students as the subject is because their teacher usually used PowerPoint to
deliver the material. This way the use of PowerPoint is not a new thing for students.
Instruments of Data Collection
The data use of this research was collected through questionnaire. It is because the writer
wants to see the students’ perception from 10 questions. The questionnaire is about the use of
PowerPoint in public speaking class and about on the use of PowerPoint that the teacher use to
deliver the material in Public Speaking Classess. The writer thinks that one student to another
students’ opinion about the use of PowerPoint are different. Therefore, from the ten questions in
the questionnaire the writer know what the students expect when their teacher delivers the
material use PowerPoint.
Data Collection Procedure
The reason why the writer use questionnaire are about the writer has limited of time and
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instrument because some people might be scared when answering questions. The data were
obtained from the participants after collect the data I count and make a percentage to gathered
the data.
Data Analysis Procedure
After the data has been collected from the questionnaire, I classified the questionnaire
based on the question. After I classified the data, I count the number of all the answers that I get
from students and classified them into the form of a table. Then I made a description about the
student’s response the use of PowerPoint in the public speaking class. Whether to see how the
student’s respond, I provide the ten questions in the questionnaire that related with the use of
PowerPoint from their teacher use in the classroom.
Findings and Discussion
The findings of the study are presented in ten parts. The first one is teacher often uses
PowerPoint, second is students feel more excited to follow the lesson, third is the class
atmosphere become interesting, fourth is the material is easy to understand, five is about the uses
of PowerPoint helpful for group discussion, sixth is about students feel interested following the
lesson, seventh is students feel more spirited, eighth is students feel that PowerPoint is important
in teaching learning process, ninth is the form of slide show makes the students interested and
the last is the PowerPoint from your teacher inspired the students. From these ten questions in
the questionnaire the writer hope that the reader can understand about the use of PowerPoint that
the teacher uses in the public speaking class.
Teacher Often Uses PowerPoint
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It was cleared enough that 40% students fell more excited to follow the lesson when their
teacher delivered the material to them. 30% students did not really felt excited to follow the
lesson using PowerPoint. About 20% students did not fell excited to follow the lesson using
PowerPoint because they thought that using PowerPoint waste the time. 10% students fell enjoy
when their teacher presented the material using PowerPoint because the use of PowerPoint make
the atmosphere in class different. None of the students excited about the lesson.
The Class Atmosphere Become Interesting
As we know in the table that the class atmosphere become interesting in public speaking
class. In the table 2 we can be seen.
Table3. Using PowerPoint make the class atmosphere more interesting
The Study Organization categories Percentage
Using PowerPoint make the class Strongly Agree 35%
atmosphere more interesting Agree 40%
Rarely 10%
Strongly Disagree 0%
Disagree 15%
The next statement in the questionnaire 40% some of the students from public speaking
class agree that the class atmosphere was quite interesting when their teacher using PowerPoint.
35% students in the public speaking class really liked the use of PowerPoint, it means that the
use of PowerPoint was really helpful for students to enjoy in the classroom. However, about 15%
students disagree the class atmosphere became interesting when their teacher used PowerPoint
17 The Material is Easy to Understand
The next table is about how the material can easy to understand to the students when their
teacher using PowerPoint slides.
Table4. The materialis easier to understand the tecaher using PowerPoint
The Study Organization categories Percentage
It is easier to understand the material Strongly Agree 10%
when the teacher using PowerPoint Agree 45%
Rarely 30%
Strongly Disagree 0%
Disagree 15%
As shown in the table that 45% of the students felt that the material was easy to
understand when their teacher used PowerPoint, it means that PowerPoint help the teacher to
deliver the material to students. 30% of the students in public speaking class felt that the use of
PowerPoint did not make them understand about the material. 15% students felt that the use of
PowerPoint to deliver the material did not really worked because the students think that not all
the material to deliver to the students using PowerPoint is easy to understand, it depends on the
teacher make the students understand. 10% students really felt that the material is not easy to
understand although their teacher used PowerPoint to deliver the material. None of the students
felt that the use of PowerPoint was really helping them to understand the material.
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The fifth part in this table was about how the PowerPoint helpful for group discussion in
the public speaking class.
Table5. The use of Powerpoint help the teacher in the classroom activity like group discussion
The Study Organization categories Percentage
The use of Powerpoint helps Strongly Agree 10%
the teacher in the classroom Agree 35%
activity like group discussion Rarely 25%
Strongly Disagree 5%
Disagree 25%
It was about 35% students felt that the use of PowerPoint was really helpful the teacher
in classroom and the students felt enjoy in a group discussion. 30% students felt that the use of
PowerPoint in a group discussion was not really important because the students still did their
discussion without PowerPoint. 25% students felt that the use of PowerPoint help them in a
group discussion. 10% students felt that the use of PowerPoint really helped them in a group
discussion. About 5% students felt that the use of PowerPoint was not really helpful for them.
Students Feel Interested Following the Lesson
In this sixth table was about how the students feeling when their teacher explain using
PowerPoint slides.
Table6. The teacher make the interesting PowerPoint to the students
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The teacher make interesting Strongly Agree 5%
PowerPoint to the students Agree 50%
Rarely 30%
Strongly Disagree 0%
Disagree 15%
50% students in the public speaking class felt that PowerPoint made them interested in class. 30% students felt that the use of PowerPoint that their teacher used made them enjoying the material. 15% did not really like the use of PowerPoint that their teacher made. 5% students really agree that the use of PowerPoint teacher provides is interesting materials. Students Feel More Spirited This table will discuss about how the students feel more interested about the use of PowerPoint in teaching learning process especially in public speaking class. Table7. Students feel more spirited when their teacher use PowerPoint The Study Organization categories Percentage Students feel more spirited Strongly Agree 10%
when their teacher Agree 40%
use PowerPoint Rarely 30%
Strongly Disagree 0%
Disagree 20%
Around 40% felt really spirited when their teacher used PowerPoint to present the
material in the classroom. 30% students felt that the use of PowerPoint did not make them felt
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them to learn the material. 10% students felt really interested about the use of PowerPoint in the
classroom.
Students Feel that PowerPoint is Important in Teaching Learning Process
In this table, I analyzed about how the PowerPoint become important in class activity.
Table8. Students feel thatPowerPoint is important in teaching learning process
The Study Organization categories Percentage
Students feel that PowerPoint Strongly Agree 15%
is important in teaching Agree 5%
learning process Rarely 35%
Strongly Disagree 30%
Disagree 5%
The study shown that 35% students felt PowerPoint was not really important in teaching
learning process because the students thought that they still have book material to learn the
material. 30% students felt that PowerPoint was not too important therefore this factor had a
mean that PowerPoint is not too important in teaching learning process. 15% felt that the use of
PowerPoint is important during the teaching learning process. 5% felt the benefits of PowerPoint
in class and some of them felt that PowerPoint was not used in the classroom.
The Form of Slides Show Makes the Students Interested
In this ninth table, the writer discuss about how the slides PowerPoint from the teacher
can make the students feel more interested.
Table9. The teacher made form of the slide show is interesting
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It shown that 40% students in public speaking class did not felt inspired on the use of
PowerPoint from their teacher because they still have another Audio Visual Aids to support their
inspired in class. 30% students felt that the use of PowerPoint was really inspired the students in
class. 25% students felt that the use of PowerPoint was not caught their attention in class. 10%
students felt that the use of PowerPoint from their teacher was inspired them on learning the
material and 5% some of the students in the public speaking class was not inspired about the use
of PowerPoint.
Data Interpretation
The ten questions were distributed to the participants in public speaking class that related
on students perception toward the use of PowerPoint in public speaking class. After I gathered
the data, I analyzed that the students in public speaking class like when their teacher using
PowerPoint slides to explain the material for them. Students prefer when their teacher using
PowerPoint than another Audio-Visual Aids to deliver the material. However, the use of
PowerPoint slides can change the class atmosphere more enthusiastic in learning process.
Conclusion
This study has been conducted to find out the students’ perception on the use of
PowerPoint in public speaking class. Based on the results of the questionnaire, the writer
concludes that almost all the teacher in public speaking classes in the English Department using
PowerPoint slides to deliver the material. The result of this study hopefully is useful for teacher
who did not yet using PowerPoint to deliver the material and gave the inspired to the teacher that
PowerPoint as a media in teaching was important to gain the students’ motivation on learning the
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learning process and students need something different that can make them felt interested learn
the material in class.
According to the result data from the ten questions of the questionnaire, it means that the
students need something different that can make them feel different when learn the material.
Students felt bored easily when they have to learn the material in class therefore, as a teacher
especially in public speaking class PowerPoint is important to make the students interested in
learning process. Almost the students in public speaking class were agreeing that PowerPoint
slides can help them to raise their enthusiasm in class.
Limitation of the Study
Limitation of this study was only involved 55 students and took from different class in
public speaking. The participants were taken in English Department because the students in
English Department already know about the use of PowerPoint, its mean that the students did not
surprised with PowerPoint slides. Therefore, generalization can’t be made since they are familiar
with PowerPoint slides. In different classes might have different perspective.
Pedagogical Implication
Based on the results of the analysis in the previous section, it is found that the study can
be useful for teacher who did not know about the PowerPoint before. The use of PowerPoint in
public speaking class on learning process can improve the students’ spirit to learn the material, in
the PowerPoint teacher can make an attractive design that can catch students’ attention and the
use of PowerPoint less the boredom because the students get easily bored when their teacher
deliver the material use the usual way such as with whiteboard or OHP. In addition, the use of
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when present the material because it can help the students who have difficulties understanding
the material. After the teacher present the material, the PowerPoint slides can be distributed
easily to the students who necessary to learn material.
The Further Researcher
This further research study presented the data about the students’ perception on the use of
PowerPoint will be effect and influences on their learning in class. I hope that the students in the
Public Speaking class can enthusiastic with the use of PowerPoint slides. PowerPoint slides
make the class atmosphere different because PowerPoint can catch the students’ attention from
the pictures, sound or video that in the PowerPoint slides than use whiteboard or OHP.
Therefore, the writer need to know whether in different class will have same or different opinion
or not, maybe in the lower level in speaking class the teacher rarely use PowerPoint slides when
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Acknowledgements
Praise the Lord Jesus Christ for care and His love through for my life, thanks for
guidance and Your master plan. Then, I would also like to convey thanks to my supervisor and
examiner, Maria Christina Eko.S.M.Hum and Petrus Ari.S.M.A for their valuable assistance,
support and guidance. Besides that, I would like to thank to my father Andreas Edi Gustono, my
mother Lulu Setiyawati, my brother Riswanda also my grandma and my boyfriend Sindu
Manggala Putra who always give me support to finish my study. Without their love and pray I
cannot hold out until now. I also thank to from my deepest gratitude to Mas Septian (Encep) for
always guide me how to make a good paper. To all my friends especially Putri who help me to
revise my paper, Dwi, Melisa, Hendrata, Fatra, Onik, Rika, Nana, Debi thanks for your pray and
28 APPENDIX
Questionnaire
The use of PowerPoint in Public Speaking Classess, a Study of Students’ Perception
This questionnaire is intended for this research to find out the students perception from public speaking class in English Department. The purpose of this questionnaire is to find out how the students perception in the class about the use of PowerPoint. Thank you for your participation.
Choose one answer and give a tick (√) based on your perception participating in Public Speaking class.
4. It is easier to understand the material if your teacher teach using PowerPoint.
9. The form of the slide show that your teacher made is interesting.
