E-ISSN X. Students Perception Toward English Club Activities. *Corresponding author: Abstract

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1 E-ISSN X Students Perception Toward English Club Activities Zulvy Melviza* 1, Syamsul Bahri Ys 1, Nira Erdiana 1 1 Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh, Indonesia *Corresponding author: melviza.zulvy@gmail.com Abstract This study is intended to find out the perception of students toward English club activities in speaking. This study was conducted at SMAN 3 Banda Aceh. The researcher used two instruments to find the data needed, namely; questionnaire and interview. Both questionnaire which adapted from Kasmalinda (2011) and interview were used by the researcher to figure out the perception of students toward English club activities in practicing speaking. The researcher combined both of the instruments to support the data of the research. the sample of this study was the students of SMAN 3 Banda Aceh who have participated English club. The researcher took 40 students as the sample (all English club members). Based on the data obtained from both instruments used, the findings showed that students perceived English club plays an important role in supporting students to practice speaking. The students also think that English club has a great way to encourage students motivation to practice speaking with friends. The students also viewed that they feel glad while joinning English club. In other words, English club gets them more experiences and more knowledge. In addition, the class atmosphere tends to be fun and comfortable and it makes them more interested in practicing speaking. Keyword: Students perception, English club, Speaking 1. INTRODUCTION In English language teaching, there are four skills that should be mastered by the students, those are listening, speaking, reading and writing. One of the ways to communicate with others is through speaking. According to Fisher & Frey (2007, p. 16) state that speaking is the uniquely human act or process of sharing and exchanging information, ideas and emotions using oral language. It means that speaking is an important skill in daily interaction because people use speaking more than written form. In habitual action, speaking is used to share and exchange information to other people. On the contrary, most of students feel difficult to practice English. According to Ur (1996, p. 121) the problems include student inhibition, nothing to say, the 101

2 Students Perception toward English Club Activities in Speaking by Zulvy Melviza, Syamsul Bahri Ys and Nira Erdiana low of participation, the theme to be spoken and the use of mother tongue. Furthermore, there are many students were still struggle, shyness, anxiety and lack of motivation considered as the biggest obstacle from them which affect their ability to speak. SMAN 3 Banda Aceh has some extracurricular activities and one of them is English club. According to Wetherby (2011), English club is a media bridging one person with the others in which the purpose not only to improve their speaking ability but also to improve students motivation and build up their confidence to speak as much as possible. English club is one of alternative ways to develop speaking ability for the students. Furthermore, English club becomes a facilitator for students to improve their ability in mastering English skill especially speaking skill. Based on the researcher s observation on August 16 th, 2016 there were some activities in English club such as debate contest, speech and storytelling. Those activities were run in the evening. By joining English club, the students also often win some English competitions conducted by the English Department students (ESA) and others. Furthermore, English teachers of SMAN 3 Banda Aceh have been building up English club as a medium to accommodate their students in practicing speaking. So, that is why it is interesting for the researcher to join with the English teachers at that school in order to know how far English club plays an important role in practicing speaking. Several studies related on students perception toward English Club activity have been conducted previously. Amita et al. (2016) did a research about the effect of English club program. The purpose of the students who join English club program is to improve speaking ability, to improve their knowledge of English and to increase their English grade. Furthermore, students said that English club program helped them to be more confident. It was suggested to English teachers to improve students speaking ability, by giving more practice and drill the speaking skill whether inside or outside the classrooms. Furthermore, Khairuman (2016) did a research about a descriptive study of English club Program. The result showed that there are several ways to improve English club such as making conductive situation in English club program, making someone variety fun activities, making good relation to English club program in other schools and keeping the sustainability of English club. Therefore, based on the explanation above, the research question can be formulated as what is the students perception toward English club activities in speaking? 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definition of Perception Walgito (2004), perception is a process preceded by a process of sensing which the process of receipt of the stimulus by the individual through the sense. Furthermore, Sarwono (2010, p. 86) argues that perception can make conclusion about what we see, hear and try to make a best guess. It is also supported by Rakhmat (1996, p. 51) as cited in Zahrotul (2012, p. 12), perception is experience of objects, events, or relationships obtained by concluding information and interpret the message. In other word, perception is a process whereby people select, organize, and interpret sensory stimulations into meaningful information. It means that perception is a process of 102

3 recognizing an object with the help of the senses, where one receives stimuli from the outside with full awareness and trying to understand and interpret the stimulus becomes a meaning that can be understood. 2.2 English Club Wetherby (2011) says that English club is a media bridging one person with the others in which the purpose not only to improve their speaking ability but also to improve students motivation and build up their confidences to speak as much as possible. By having English club, the students could share their own knowledge among their friends. It also might be a better place to share students difficulties in practicing speaking and to look forward how to solve their problems. Debate is a discussion or structured contest about an issue or a resolution. A formal debate involves two sides those are supporting a resolution and opposing it. Freeley & Steinberg (2005) debate refers to the process of considering multiple viewpoints and arriving at a judgment, and its application ranges from an individual using debate to make a decision in his or her own mind to an individual or group using debate to convince others. Remenyi (2005) reports that storytelling is a fundamental method for sharing knowledge among people as it allows participants to be transported to another time and place. As a learning tool, storytelling can encourage students to explore their expressiveness and can heighten a student's ability to communicate thoughts and feelings in an articulate and manner. Furthermore, storytelling also helps students express their ideas without feeling afraid and the students can learns many characters and setting a story (Yustiana, et al. 2016). It means that through storytelling, the students can add new characters, events, descriptions and soon. Speech is a spoken expression of ideas, opinions, and others that is made by someone who is speaking in front of a group of people. Speech is speaking activities that we can declare our opinion in public area or give an idea about a case. A good speech will give positive respond for other people. 2.3 Speaking Summer (2003, p. 1587) says that speaking is to say something that expresses your ideas or opinions, and when expressing an idea that you think is exactly true. Speaking plays an important role, because people run whole activities of live with communication. As a teacher, he/she should help the students express the ideals in their mind while speaking. It also supported by Harmer (2003, p. 87) who argues that through speaking, the students will understand the idea, opinions and information from other people. It seems that speaking is one of ways to introduce each other and something such as knowledge, technology, how to make relationship or good communication in a society. 3. METHODS This study was qualitative research. In this study, the researcher tried to collect, analyze, interpret, and describe the data about the students perception toward English club activities in speaking by looking at the students response. The subjects of this study are the students of SMAN 3 Banda Aceh who join in English club. The sample of this study was 40 students who join the English club 103

4 Students Perception toward English Club Activities in Speaking by Zulvy Melviza, Syamsul Bahri Ys and Nira Erdiana which consisted of the 1 st, 2 nd, 3 rd grades. The researcher took all the 40 students who join in English club as the sample of this study. The object of this research is the 40 students perception toward the English club activities at SMAN 3 Banda Aceh. The 4-point Likert scales questionnaire which includes the items: strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree and the interview guide were used as the instrument of this study. There were 10 questionnaire items adapted (Kasmalinda, 2011) and 10 interview questions related to students perception toward English club activities in speaking. To collect the data, the 10 questions of the questionnaire were asked to be answered by the 40 students. And after the questionnaire was given to the students, the researcher interviewed 10 students consisting of 5 students from 2 nd and 5 students from 3 rd grades. The data from the questionnaire were analyzed by using the formula as suggested by Sudijono (2010, p. 43). And for the interview, the result data of interview was transcribed in narration. 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Findings The researcher took all the 40 students who join in English club as the sample of this study. The researcher distributed a set of questionnaire to all of students who join English club. All of students completed the questionnaire. In the following part, it is presented the result of questionnaire given to the students. There are 10 students answered the interview asking about their perceptions toward English club activities in speaking. Furthermore, the needed data would be presented in the following tables: 1. I prefer practicing speaking in English club than regular class Table 1. Percentages of Overall Students Perceptions in English Club Strongly agree % Agree 24 60% 1 Disagree 1 2.5% As shown in table above, the students gave more various perceptions. Here based on the table above, there was 1 student or 2.5% of the student disagreed with the statement. It means that not all of the students prefer practicing speaking in English club than regular class. However, the table shows us that more than half of the students agree with the statement. There are 24 students or 60% of students who agreed with the statement and felt positive response while practicing speaking in English club than regular class. 104

5 2. I think English club is essential to improve my speaking ability Table. 2 Percentages of students perceptions of their English club Strongly agree % Agree % 2 Disagree 2 5% Based on the data shown on the table, it appeared that exactly half of the students or there were 21 students or 52.5% of students strongly agree with the statement given. Then, there are 17 students or 42.5% agree with the statement given. A slight difference between the number of the students who strongly agree and the number of students who agree with the statement was shown on the table. In contrast, there were two students who chose the option disagree to the statement and no one of them who chose the last option strongly disagree to the statement. So, regarding to the result of the students perceptions toward the statement which are shown on the table, the researcher surely understood that english club palys an important role in improving students speaking ability. 3. Most time, the English club activities are always encouraging my motivation to practice speaking with my friends Table.3 Percentages of Students Motivation To Practice Speaking Strongly agree 20 50% Agree % 8 Disagree 1 2.5% The table above clearly gives us the students perspective toward the statement. There were 20 students (50%) who strongly agree with the statement, and the other 19 students (47.5%) agree with the statement. From this percentages, it can be concluded that English club, most times, always encouraging their motivation while practicing speaking with their friends. However, there was only 1 student (2,5%) who did not think that English club can encourage their motivation to practice speaking with friends most of the times. 4. I feel glad toward the English club activities Table 4. Percentages of students perception on feeling glad toward the English club activities Strongly agree % Agree 20 50% 6 Disagree 2 5% 105

6 Students Perception toward English Club Activities in Speaking by Zulvy Melviza, Syamsul Bahri Ys and Nira Erdiana According to the table above, the researcher also wanted to know whether or not the students were glad toward English club activities. In questionnaire item 6 shows us about the result of the students perceptions toward the statement. The above table tells us that more than half of the students or there are 13 students (32.5%) strongly agreed and there were 20 students or 50% of the students who argued with the statement. Meanwhile, there were only 2 students who chose the option disagree to the statement and no one of them who chose the last option strongly disagree to the statement. Therefore, it can be underlined that most students were happy to participate in English club activities. 5. I think the class atmosphere tends to be fun and comfortable through English club Table 5. Percentages of students perception of their class atmosphere in English club Strongly agree 12 30% Agree 28 70% 10 Disagree - - According to table above, it seems that 100% of students or 40 out of 40 students responded positively concerning the item through English club the class atmosphere tends to be fun and comfortable. (30% of students or 12 students chose "strongly agree" and 70% of students or 28 students chose "agree") perceived that their class atmosphere tends to be fun and comfortable through English club. However, none of them gave negative response toward the same issue. 4.2 DISCUSSION The purpose of this study is to find out the perception of the students at SMAN 3 Banda Aceh toward English club activities in speaking. Both questionnaire and interview were used by the researcher to figure out the perception of students toward english club activities in practicing speaking. The researcher combined both of the instruments to support the data of the research. Therefore, according to the two instruments applied by the researcher, the best description is that students of SMAN 3 Banda Aceh are really excited to follow the English club. Based on the questionnaires result, the researcher found that they prefer practicing in English club than regular class. This result showed that most of the students chose agree if English club is a good place to practice English. It was also found from the results of the interview. There are two interviewees (R4 and R6) out of 10 interviewees gave their positive perceptions about the statement. This finding is in line with Kasmalinda (2011, p. 37) the main purpose of holding English club is to improve students motivation to speak English with a high self-confidence even though the students only can produce one word. The researcher thinks that it is believed that English club makes the students to have many experiences and they got a 106

7 lot of vocabulary. Through English club, all of students can express their opinion without feeling afraid. Whereas, in regular class, the students cannot practice speaking well and they are not motivated to speak English. They just keep silent while speaking in regular class. Furthermore, another finding was found that English club plays an important role in supporting the students to practice speaking. This result showed that more than half of the students who chose strongly agree to each statement. It found that English club bridges the students to be active and confident while their practicing speaking and it can improve the quality of English. It was also found from the results of the interview. Three interviewees (R2, R7 and R10) out of ten interviewees also gave their positive perceptions about the same issue. This finding is in line with Amita et al. (2016, p. 9) stated that the English club only influenced the students personality and it helps the student to be more confident. The researcher thinks that it is believed that English club can boost students enthusiasm in learning English. Beside it is a rare chance, the students can get the advantage while practicing English through English Club. Then, it was found that the students perceived that English club activities are always encouraging their motivation to practice speaking with friends. The result showed that most of students chose strongly agree with the statement. This finding was in line with the result of study done by Khairuman (2016, p. 47). His result study showed that students perceived English club can motivate them and they could make a relationship situation more conducive in building the friendship among all members to practice speaking. It was also supported by the result of interview. It showed that there are 2 interviewees (R2 and R5) out of 10 interviewees. The researcher thinks that the students cannot practice English alone because most of the student feels difficult to practice speaking. So to make the students easier to speak, they can collaborate with their friends and I think it will make a good progress for the students. Furthermore, another finding was found that most of students gave positive response toward English club. The students perceived if they feel glad toward English club activities. Based on questionnaire result, it showed that more than half of students chose agree. It is also supported by 3 interviewees (R1, R8 and R9) out of 10 interviewees. Furthermore, this finding was in line with the result of study done by Oemar (2007, p. 212) as quoted by Amita et al. (2016, p. 9) argue that an enjoyable activity will develop their experience and it will make the students to improve their confident through participation actively in English club. The researcher thinks that English club can be the first step for the student to practice speaking. However, most of student feel glad toward English club automatically it would make the student to improve their speaking and they can share their experience without difficulty. Furthermore, the researcher also found that the class atmosphere tends to be fun and comfortable through English club. The result showed that all of students which were 40 out of 40 students perceived their class atmosphere in English club tends to be fun and comfortable. The club gives them ways for choosing right way in practicing speaking. Furthermore, it was also found from the result of interview. Two interviewees (R8 and R9) out of 10 interviewees gave their positive opinions about the same issue. It is also supported by Ningsih and Fata (2015) stated that English club aims to helps its members to improve their conversational and interpersonal skills in a relaxed and comfortable 107

8 Students Perception toward English Club Activities in Speaking by Zulvy Melviza, Syamsul Bahri Ys and Nira Erdiana atmosphere. It can be understood that the class atmosphere is really influenced to all of students that joining English club. 5. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION The findings of the research study revealed important points related to the students perception toward English club activities in speaking. Based on data gathered and analyzed from questionnaire and interview, it can be concluded that most of students gave positive responses toward English club activities in speaking. Most of the students perceived that they prefer practicing in English club than regular class. It is because the students can practice English without feeling afraid, motivate them, exchange their opinion throung English club. So English club gives the students a place to fully practicing in English. Furthemore, English club also has a great power to encourage students motivation to practice speaking with friends. The students could come together to share their own knowledge and experience in English without afraid of making mistakes. Furthermore, English club plays an important role in supporting students to practice speaking. They were being more interested in practicing English in the English club. The students also perceived that most of student feel glad toward English club activities. In other words, they will get more experiences and get more knowledge while following English club. In addition, all of students said that the class atmosphere tends to be fun and comfortable through English club. It makes the students more spirit and interest to join in English club. Based on the conclusion, the researcher would like to present some suggestions. It is recommended that other researchers conduct further analysis considering this topic with a larger scope of respondents, to look students perception toward English club activities in speaking in the whole schools in Aceh. And it is also hoped that this study can be used as additional reference by other researchers or the other schools that do not have English club yet. Besides, related to the speaking skill, the teacher should pay more attention on teaching and leading students. Therefore, the teacher should find the solution to overcome students problem. Furthemore, one thing to be considered, every students have their own capacity and learning style, so the teacher has to understand about their students before going on in teaching learning process. Moreover, the students have to realize that mastering English is not easy. The students highly need to practice speaking more and always keep trying with their friends, teachers or somebody else. In addition, English club can be one of medias that is believed to be an interesting place to practice English. REFERENCES Amita, S., Tavriyanti, L., & Ernati. (2016). The Effect of the English club Program toward The Second Grade Students Speaking Ability at SMPN 18 Padang. Language Teaching Journal, 1(1),1 12. Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2007). Checking for Understanding Formative Assessment Technique for Your Classroom. New York: Assessment for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASD). Freeley, A. J., & Steinberg, D. L. (2005). Argumentation and Debate Critical Thinking for Reasoned Decision Making (Twelfth). London: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. 108

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