A. Background of the Study
For the time being, the need for speaking mastery in English has been increasing due to the strengthening position of English as a language for international communication. Its use as the working language in 85% of international organizations (Crystal 1997) and its function as the main gate to get a better job, especially in multinational companies have motivated a great number of people around the world to learn English as a second language (henceforward ESL) and also as a foreign language (henceforward EFL) in order to be able to speak in it.
Graves (2008:156) stated that the purposes of learning a language are varied, but the objective is to learn language to communicate. In relation to that statement, Richards and Renandya's (2002:201) assert "A large percentage of the world's language learners study English in order to develop proficiency in speaking". The tendency to prioritize the mastery of speaking is also reflected in the tendency of society to make speaking skills as a measure of one's mastery of English. In fact, many students consider language fluency to communicate verbally with others is often considered more important than the ability to read or write. They argue that speaking is the most important language skills that need to be controlled, and they assess learning achievement based on mastery of speaking skills (Burnkart, 1998).
Teaching speaking at Muhammadiyah University of Purworketo is taught as prominent subject. It is also accentuated by Louma (2004:9) saying that the importance of spoken performance of a language is becoming more prominent over the written performance capability. It is because the ability to speak a language reflects a person‟s personality, self-image, knowledge of the
world, ability to reason, skill to express thoughts in real-time.
Based on writer‟s experience in joining all series of speaking class, the
writer finds out the common problem that often come up during speaking class such as the students‟ perception toward learning speaking. Some students tended to be silent instead of making mistake when they expressed their ideas. Some students said that speaking was difficult while some others said the other way. These kinds of idea still prevail even in the last series of speaking class. Hence, there must be some factors in teaching and learning speaking activity involving students‟ perception. As the subject in a learning process, it
is definitely clear that students are those who have best awareness to what happens there since they feel everything in their learning process such as their interest to learn, their learning motivation, their learning activities, lecturer‟s
quality, instructional method, learning support, media and stuffs. Thus, the perception of the students must be able to describe several things related to teaching and learning process in speaking class such as instructor‟s quality,
students‟ learning involvement and interest, the role of speaking teaching in
Based on those statements above the writer is interested to conduct a research entitled “Students’ Perceptions on Their Speaking Problems” (A Descriptive Study on Fourth Semester Students of English Education Department of Muhammadiyah University of Purwokerto in Academic Year 2014/2015)”. This research is expected to give information to lecturers about students‟ perception toward learning process in speaking class. Therefore, the
lecturer can take further action in order to evaluate their teaching and learning process.
B. Reason For Choosing Topic
The main consideration in choosing the topic of this study is that mostly students assume that learning English is still difficult especially in speaking. This reason is supported by Hinkel (2005:485) telling that speaking is the most complex and difficult skill to master. English department students have been prepared to be English teacher. Therefore, it is important to master English spoken language as asserted by Louma (2004:9) saying that the importance of spoken performance of a language is becoming more prominent over
the written performance capability.
C. Research Problems
The problems of this research are:
1. What is the students‟ perception on their speaking problem?
D. The Objective of the Research
This study attempts to know the perception of the students joining speaking class at the fourth semester in the academic year of 2015/2016. More specifically, this study is aimed at knowing the students‟ perceptions on their
speaking problem and the most influencing factor toward their perception.
E. Clarification Terms
In order to make the research easier to be understood, the key terms of study are clarified as follows:
1. Perception is related to certain nature of human being, which his or her psychological features. Perception is a process which starts from the sense of organ. That is a process related to acceptance of information by human brain that is said that during the process a person continually interacts with his or her environment (Slameto, 2010: 102).
2. Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning always involves in producing words and the meaning depends on the context. This statement is also supported by Nunan (1991: 40) saying that “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.
F. The Scope of this Research
Considering many factors may affect students‟ perception on their
speaking problems, the researcher would like to limit his discussion in the following points:
1. Student factor.
2. Opportunities and classroom climate factor. 3. Speaking difficulties factor.
The decision of choosing these three factors as the scope of discussion in this research is based on Thonrbury (2005:2) states that difficulties in speaking in the target language can be caused by the lack knowledge of language elements, eg: grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation, less opportunities to practice speaking, the low motivation and confidant to speak that may be caused by uninteresting and unfamiliar topics.
G. Contribution of the Research
Hopefully, this research can give significant contributions. The following are some specific contributions:
1. For English Lecturer
The result of this research will give more information for teacher about the problems faced by the learners and optimize their teaching process after knowing their students‟ perception in their difficulties of
speaking.
2. For Curriculum Developer
