Students’ Preferred Out-of-class Activities in Learning English (A Study at the Second Year Students of International classes of SMAN 2 Kota Bengkulu in Academic Year of 2008/2009)

This study used a descriptive method, which is aimed to investigate out-of-
class activities in learning English preferred by the second year students of SMA N 2
Kota Bengkulu in International classes in academic year of 2008/2009. The
population of this research was all second year students of SMA N 2 Kota Bengkulu
in International classes in academic year of 2008/2009. Total sampling technique was
used in deciding the sample. The number of sample was 37 students. The data were
collected by using a set of questionnaire, which consisted of 27 items. To analyze the
data, the researcher used the formula of P = F/N x 100%. The result of this research
show that out-of-class English learning activities that conducted by the second year
students of SMA N 2 Kota Bengkulu in International classes in academic year of
2008/2009 were varied. In each skill of English, there was the most preferred activity,
namely: (1) in listening activity, the most preferred one was watching English
movies/films (78.4% students gave positive response), (2) in speaking activity, the
most preferred one was singing English songs (91.8% students gave positive
response), (3) in reading skill, the most preferred one was reading English articles
found in the internet (78.4% students gave positive response), and in writing activity,
the most preferred one was sending SMS in English to friends (86.5% students gave
positive response). The students tended to prefer entertaining activities to academic
related ones, and individual activities to group ones.