ST UDENTS’ PERCEPTION TOWARD ENGLISH SPEAKING ABILITY
(A descriptive Study of Ninth grade Students at SMPN 18 Banda Aceh)
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirement for the Degree of
“Sarjana Pendidikan” (S1)
By
ARIA SEPTI MULIA NIM. 1411060003
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION COLLEGE (STKIP) BINA BANGSA GETSEMPENA
BANDA ACEH 2020
LIST OF CONTENTS
Pages
Approval ... i
Acknowledgement...ii
Abstract...iii
List of Contents... iv
List of Tables ...v
List of Aappendixes...vi
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1Background of Study ... 1
1.2The Problems of Study ... 5
1.3The Objective of Study ... 5
1.4The Significance of Study ... 5
1.5The Limitation of Study ... 6
1.6Definition of Key Terms ... 6
1.7Previous Study ... 7
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1The Definition of Speaking ... 12
2.2The Function of Speaking ... 13
2.3Component of Speaking ... 15
2.4The Study of Perception ... 20
2.5 The Explanation of Students’ Perception ... 21
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1Research Design ... 24
3.2Location of Research ... 25
3.3Research Participant ... 25
3.4Research Instrument ... 25
3.5Data Collection ... 28
3.6Data Analysis ... 28
3.7Triangulation of Data ... 31
CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.1A Brief Description of Research Location... 33
4.2Research Findings ... 33
4.2.1 Findings of Observation ... 33
4.2.2 Findings of Interview ... 36
4.2.3 Information from Field Note ... 44
4.3Discussion ... 45
4.3.1 Observation ... 45
4.3.2 Interview ... 46
4.3.3 Field Note ... 49
CHAPTER V CONCLUSSION AND SUGGESTION 5.1Conclussion ... 50
5.2Suggestion ... 50
REFERENCES ... 52
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter served as the introduction of the thesis. It consists of the background of the study as the basic deliberation for the problems of study and the objectives of the study. It also includes the significance of the study followed by the scope of study and the definition of key terms.
1.1 The Background of the Study
Speaking ability is a skill learned by students to master a second language.
The students need to learn because it requires development alongside with other language skills so that students can use speaking in studying and communicating.
Students should be assessed in speaking using a performance instrument that provides students a chance to demonstrate their ability to participate in a conversation. It means that if the students can speak English fluently that can help them to easily communicate and also explore their ideas.
According to Gert and Hans (2008:207), speaking is speech or utterances to have the intention to be recognized by the speaker and recipient to process statements to recognize their intentions. That way, this will allow students to continue to speak a second language and communicate with their classmates.
Besides, it can also help them communicate with people around them in their daily lives even though they do not always use vocabulary or the structure of the language correctly when speaking.
The ability to speak is emphasized so that students know the components of speaking such as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, fluency, and comprehension (Holmes, 2004:129). Students can master the conversation if they understand all of the components. But for the beginner students in second language learning, vocabulary is one of the most important that they have to master in speaking because it will guide them to speak English easily (Takae, 2008:72). Therefore, the teacher always asks students to speak in front of the class even almost every day, so students do not forget the vocabulary they get in learning English because they can get new vocabulary every day during their study, and it can help students to improve their speaking ability in English.
In junior high school, students are usually always asked by the teacher to tell the funny and interesting events or daily activities they have ever experienced.
It is the way that can help the students more easily improve their speaking ability, because basically by continuing to do the exercises will help the students improve in remembering the words in speaking when they telling stories. According to Holmes (2004:134) give the students a little more time to practice speaking, with everybody in the room reading aloud to get a feel for the role they will be playing and get used to the words sounds, phrases, and the rhythm of the language.
Besides, besides the practice of speaking every day can increase in remembering many words for students, speaking every day can also help students to improve other components of speaking. The students can improve their pronunciation, fluency, and also their comprehension in speaking because practice speaking every day will get them accustomed and will eventually develop in each
component of speech. According to Curriculum 2013, the teachers become a facilitator to the students in improving their speaking ability. The teacher will explain some material and then ask the students to do the tasks in the package book according to the curriculum run. For speaking subjects, the teacher usually gives some topics for the students and they will be asked by the teacher to speak in English. Surely, many students will refuse because they feel unable to speak in English, but usually, students will be given as much motivation as possible so they want to try to speak English as much as they can. It will greatly help students improve their speaking skills.
In this case, the background of the researcher to conduct this research was to find out how students' perceptions of English speaking ability. Students’
perception is an important thing in the learning process because students’
perceptions can be a positive or negative effect on the students. For example, if the students’ perception is positive of the learning process, they will have good
interest and more concentration in learning English, especially in speaking ability.
So students will try to study harder to be able to improve their speaking ability.
Conversely, if students have negative perceptions about the teaching and learning process, of course, their interest in the teaching and learning process will decrease and they will not make any effort to improve their speaking ability.
There are several studies on perception have been conducted. First by Anggraeni (2018) entitled Students’ Perceptions Toward Teacher’s Talk In English Classroom. The result show that when teacher giving question, students prefer referential question better than display question. In ways of giving
feedback, when students produce the incorrect or no answer, teacher usually used informing strategy to follow them up. However, students prefer to be encouraged by the teacher. When students produce the correct answer, they still prefer to be summarizing, rather than being just simply praised.
Yanti (2016) done research entitled Students’ Perception On The Influence Of Joining English Debate Class Toward Students’ Speaking Skill. The result shows that the majority of the students answer that joining debate improve their fluency such as they can speak with few long pauses and widely range expression, more than half of the students said that debate helps their accuracy in speaking in which enhance their vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar, most of all the students perceive that debate help them to convey their purpose clearly in speaking, and all the students claim that debate help them build their self- confidence and critical thinking. Besides, these students’ perceptions are relevant
to the real condition of their speaking that can be seen during the interview.
Therefore, the perception study is beneficial to conduct. To assist teacher and educator to know the problem faced by the students and it also helps to find an appropriate solution to the problem found. From the description above, this research was conducted because the researcher wanted to find out how students' perceptions were related to their ability to speak English, whether students found it difficult to learn English in speaking, or whether they might have thought learning to speak English was important or not. The researcher also wants to find out whether asking students to practice speaking in class continuously can help them improve their English language skills. This is related to students' perceptions
of English language skills. Regarding whether asking students more in practice can be said to be successful or not, it all depends on students' perceptions.
Although the English subject became one of the required subjects in every schools. It does not mean that all students can master this subject without making any mistakes. Each student has their views and judgments on a subject they are studying. The students also have their own interest in a subject, depending on whether they respond to the subject well or not. Therefore, the researcher decided to conduct a descriptive study about how the students’ perceptions at SMPN 18 Banda Aceh regarding the English speaking ability.
1.2 The Problem of Study
Based on the problems found in the background of study above, then the problem of study is; how are students’ perceptions towards English speaking ability?
1.3 The Objective of Study
The objective of study is the answer of problem of study, then the objective of this study is to identify students’ perception towards English speaking ability.
1.4 The Significance of Study
The findings of this study are expected to be useful to provide information to teachers and future researchers about students 'perceptions of their speaking
abilities because by knowing how students' perceptions, it will be able to help teachers to further improve the methods and strategies used to teach students both in speaking abilities, as well as other abilities in English. It is also hoped that the results of this study can be a reference for students to be able to continue to improve their speaking abilities.
1.5 The limitation of Study
The limitation of this study is the ninth grade students (IX2) at SMPN 18 Banda Aceh to find out about their vocabulary mastery and their speaking ability.
1.6 The Definition of Key Terms 1. Students’ perception
Students' perception is how students express their views on others, or something they have faced in their daily lives. According to Sternberg (2008:105) is a set of processes by which we recognize, regulate and understand the sensual perceptions we receive from environmental stimuli. It means that students’
perception is how the students interpret what they learn and what they experience by the process.
2. Speaking Ability
Speaking ability is one of the important skills that must be mastered by the students in second language learning. It will useful for the students to interact with the other people. Speaking involves interaction with one or more participants (Harmer, 2001:271). It means that it can be said a good communication went the
students doing the conversation with their friends or the other people around them.
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