INCREASING STUDENTS’ LISTENING ACHIEVEMENT THROUGH RUNNING DICTATION AT THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS OF SMAN 1 AMBARAWA PRINGSEWU

ABSTRACT
INCREASING STUDENTS’ LISTENING ACHIEVEMENT THROUGH
RUNNING DICTATION AT THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS OF
SMAN 1 AMBARAWA PRINGSEWU

By
Resta Putri Yan Asmoro

The objective of the research to know whether there is significant increase of the
students’ listening achievement after being taught by running dictation. Running
dictation are used as the techniques which are considered useful in increasing
students’ listening achievement.
This research was conducted at the second year of SMA Negeri 1 Ambarawa
Pringsewu. The reseacher took XI.Is 4 as try out class and XI.Is.3 as experimental
class. The researcher used experimental research with one group pre test and post
test design. In collecting the data, the researcher administered the pre test,
treatments, and post test. Then, the t-test was employed to reach the significant
value.
The result of the research proved that there is significant increase of students’
achievement in listening after being taught running dictation. It can be seen from
the mean score of the students in pre test and post test. In pre test, the mean score

is 55.65 and it becomes 70.82 in post test. It means that there is an increase of
15.18 points. The result of t-test shows that t-ratio is higher than t-table (10.534 >
2.042) with the level of significant is p < 0.05 and significant two tail is p=0.000.
Based on the data, the researcher concluded that there is a significant increase of
students’ listening achievement after being taught through running dictation. It
can be said that running dictation is appropriate to be used in order to increase
students’ listening achievement.
Keywords : listening, listening achivement, running dictation.

LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Reliability analysis of upper group and lower group try out test...............
Reliability analysis of try-out tetst.............................................................

Reliability analysis of try-out tetst.............................................................
Level of difficulty and discrimination power of the try-out test................
The result of Students’ gain between pre test and post test.......................
Distribution of students’s pre test achivement in elements of micro
Skill...........................................................................................................
7. Distribution of students’s post test achivement
in elements of micro skill...........................................................................
8. Increase of the students’ listening achivement...........................................
9. Normality test of pre test and post test.......................................................
10. Hypothesis testing....................................................................................
11. T-table......................................................................................................
12. Media used in running dictation..............................................................
13. Lesson Plan..............................................................................................
14. Try Out.....................................................................................................
15. Pre Test....................................................................................................
16. Post test....................................................................................................
17. Hasil Try Out, Pre Test dan Post Test Siswa
18. Surat Keterangan

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I. INTRODUCTION

This chapter tells about the basic problems of this research. It consists of the

background of the problem, research problem, objective of the research, uses of
the research, scope of the research and definition of terms.

1.1. Background of the Problem

Language has important role as a tool of social interaction. Without language the
people cannot communicate each other. One of the popular foreign language is
English. Almost all aspects in our life such as technology, education, politic, and
commerce involve English as communication language. As mentioned by
Ramelan (1992: 2-3) English as an international language is used to communicate,
to strengthen, and to make better relationship. That is why English is very
important to be mastered. Reffering to the importance of English, Indonesia
applies English as a foreign language. It is taught from kindergarten up to
university

English is one of the subjects that the students need to pass in the national
examination. In learning English, students are generally expected to master all of
skills in order to communicate in English well. Based on School-Based
Curriculum (KTSP), English has four skills, namely listening, speaking, reading,
and writing. From the four of language skills, listening as a key to master the

2

other skills in language learning because listening is considered the fundamental
language skill. Pinter (2006 : 45) points out that English should start with
emphasis on listening. Listening is very important in language learning because in
listening the people not only get the information but also imitate the words to
learn how to pronounce and know the meaning of those words from what they
heard so that they can produce the same words that can be understood by other
people. It shows that listening as the medium through which people gain large
portion of their education, their information, their understanding of the world and
human affairs, their ideals, sense of values, and their appreciation (Saricoban,
1999)

Based on researcher’s pre observation in SMAN 1 Ambarawa Primgsewu, it was
found out that students still found the difficulty in listening skill, i.e. they got the
difficulty in interpreting what they had listened, they were not able to predict the
sound, intonation, and stress from the speaker. This happened because the
students seemed to be lazy in paying their attention on listening material and they
chatted with the other students, so that they did not get the message that they

heard from the speaker consequently they could not understand the meaning of
words.

Teaching technique is needed by the teacher in teaching learning process in order
to make the students interested on the material given. By using an appropriate
technique, the teacher is able to perform well so that the result of the teaching
learning are satisfactory. Rahayu (2005) states that students’ achievement in
listening is low since the studetnts’ motivation in listening class is low, which is

3

caused by the media and technique used. The students’ learning depends upon the
effectiveness of teacher technique.

One of the offered techniques is running dictation. Running dictation is expected
to be useful to facilitate the students in developing their listening achievement. In
this activity, the students not only just listen the passage by the speaker but also
get fun in listening class. Running dictation is a type of dictation. According to
Hess (2001), running dictation is the technique where the students works in group
to dictate the sentence, there is the runner and the writer in each group. The

students as a runner must run to some place where the sentence have been
prepared by teacher and back to his/her group to dictate the sentence, then the
writer must write down what they heard as accurately as possible.

By considering the statements above, the researcher intends to increase students’
listening achievement through running dictation. The main reason the researcher
chooses running dictation as a technique in teaching listening, it may be an
interesting technique for English students to increase their listening achievement.
In this activity the students not only pay attention and understand the sound of the
words as dictated but also give the communicative activity between the students.
That is why the researcher intends to increase the students’ listening achievement
through running dictation.

1.2.Research Problem

Based on the background of the problem. The researcher formulates the problem
as follows:

4

Is there any significant increase of the students’ listening achievement after being
taught running dictation?

1.3.Objective of the Research

The objective of this research can be stated to know whether there is significant
increase of the students’ listening achievement after being taught running
dictation.

1.4. Uses of the Research

Hopefully, this research could have the following uses:
Theoretically, it may support theories that running dictation can be applied to
increase the students’ listening achievement.
Practically, it may inform English teachers on how to teach listening by using
running dictation.

1.5. Scope of the Research

In this research, the researcher was focused on finding out whether running

dictation can be used to increase the students’ listening achievement. The subject
of this research was second year students of SMAN 1 Ambarawa Pringsewu. The
researcher took two classes, one class as experimental class and one class as
control class. The experimental class was given some treatments by giving the
students some sentences that suitable with the curriculum and dictating the
sentences. This research was focused in the students’ listening in micro skill by
using running dictation. There were four aspects focused in this research, they

5

were: discriminate of sounds,

intonation pattern, cohesive devices, detect

sentence constituents. The technique of collecting the data was achieved by using
pre-test and post-test with treatments conducted in three times. The type of tests
were writing simple sentence and multiple–choice test.

1.6. Definition of Terms

There are some terms used by the writer to make them clear and to avoid
misunderstanding, they are clarified as follows:

Listening
Listening is one of fundamental language skill which include the process of
receiving what the speakers say, constructing meaning, and responding from
something listeners hear.

Achievement
Achievement is something important that you succeed in doing by your own
effort.

Running dictation
Running dictation is the technique where the students work in group to dictate the

sentence, there are the runner and the writer in each group. The students as a
ruuner must run to some place where the sentence have been prepared by teacher,
and back to his/her group to dictate the sentence and the writer must write down
what they heard as accurately as possible.

II. FRAME OF THEORIES

This chapter contains some crucial elements of listening related to the topics
under discussion. It deals with concept of listening, types of listening, importance
of listening, difficulties of listening, concept of teaching listening, concept of
running dictation, advantages of running dictation, procedures of teaching
listening through running dictation, theoretical assumption, and hypothesis.

2.1. The Concept of Listening

Listening is the activity of paying attention and trying to get meaning from
something we hear. Sometime the people think that listening and hearing have the
same meaning. Listening is different from hearing, that hearing is just perceiving
the sounds while listening really means is listening and understanding what we
hear at the same time attached a meaning to what he/she has heard. As mentioned
by Ahuja (2008), “the difference listening and hearing can be stated: Hearing is
conscious of having received the sound waves produced by the speaker and
listening is attachment the meaning of the sound. ” It means that listening is more
complex than hearing. For example, someone hears a baby crying out loud, he is
using his sense of hearing, but when he hears a baby crying because his baby is
hungry, it is a form of listening because he has attached a meaning to what he has
heard.

7

Listening is also called as an active process but sometime listening is also called
passive process because in listening process the people just listen to what
someone says and the listener does less activity. Listening is an active process that
requires participation on the part of listener. Furthermore Ellis (2003) points out
that listening is an active skill rather passive skills, it involves interpretation rather
than comprehension because the listener are involved in hypothesis-testing and
inferencing, not just decoding what is said. Similarly, Clark (2011) states that
listening is an active process, involving not just hearing but interpreting,
conctructing meaning and responding.

Based on the statements stated above that listening is an active process since the
listener tries to active in paying attention and understands the meaning of the
words by the speaker says.

2.1.1. Types of Listening

According to Kline (1996), there are five types of effective listening. The types of
effective listening are listed below :
1. Informative listening.
This type requires listener to understand and concern the message from the
speaker’s intent. Successful listener is the one who could attain the
meaning as close as possible to what the speaker purposed. In this type
there are three variables which can help the listener to improve listening
skills, such as vocabulary, concentration and memory.
2. Relationship listening.
This type emphasizes on understanding another person. The purpose of

8

relationship listening is either to help an individuals or to improve the
realtionship among people.
3. Appreciative listening.
This type is defined as the response of the listener not the source message.
for example, listening to various genre of music or listening to speakers in
television or radio.
4. Critical listening.
This type concerns on the ability to listen critically. It is important in a
democracy for example, politicians, the media, salesmen, advocates of
policies and procedures, and financial, emotional, intellectual, physian,
and spiritual needs. This type is used on the job, in the family, in the
school, etc. This type is pratically crucial in all places.
5. Discriminative listening.
This type may be the most important type than the other four. The listener
is required to be sensitive to change in the speaker’s rate, volume, force,
pitch, and emphasis. This type allows critical listeners to more accurately
judge speaker’s message as well as the speaker’s intention. Moreover, the
informative listener can detect and identify the meaning differences.

In addition, Hughes (1991: 134) mentions that there are two skills involved in
listening as follows:
1. Macro skill
In macro skill in order to understand what someone says, a listener has to

9

involve with listening for specific information, obtaining gist from what is
being heard or the listener should get the general idea of the information,
and following instructions or direction.
2. Micro skill
In micro skill in order to undestand what someone says, a listener has to
interpret intonation pattern, cohesive devices (e.g. such as and which),
detect sentence constituents (e.g. Subject, object, verb, preposition).
Moreover, Brown (2007) states that discriminate among distinctive sounds
in the new language belongs to micro skill.

Based on the explanation above, the reseacher focused on micro skills in which
the students interpret intonation pattern, cohesive devices, detect sentence
constituents and discriminate of sounds.

2.1.2. The Importance of Listening

Listening is the first language mode that are children acquire. Philips (2008) states
that listening skill is an important skill for the students in the beginning level as
illustrated from the way of babies acquiring language: they listen first and talk
later. Dash (2007) also adds that listening can be considered as the first step in
language learning. It means that language learning depends on listening because
people get information from what they hear in order to know how to speak, write
and read.

Listening is the most skill that is used by the students in the classroom. The
students need to do more listening because listening is an important medium of

10

information. As stated by Brown(2004;p. 247), that students always do more
listening than speaking in the clasroom. This statement is supported by Schwartz
(1998) that adults spend almost half their communication time listening, and
students may receive as much as 90 of information in their school through
listening to instructors and to one another. Moreover Rost (1994) emphasizes the
importance of listening in the classroom for several reasons below:
1. Listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides input for
the learner. Without understandable input at the right level, any learning
simply cannot begin.
2. Spoken language provides a means of interaction for the learner. Since the
learners must interact to achieve understanding, access to speakers of the
language is essential. Moreover, learners’ failure to understand the
language they hear is impetus, not an obstacle, to interaction and learning.
3. Authentic spoken language presents a challenge for the learner to attempt
to understand language as it is actually used by native speakers.
4. Listening exercises provide teachers with a means for drawing learners’
attention to new forms (vocabulary, grammar, interaction patterns) in the
language.

In daily life, people do also more listening than other language skills because
listening is needed in buliding up a good communication and a relationship
between people. Without listening the communication between people can not be
run well.

As stated by Lawson (2007) that people spend 70% waking hour

communication, at least 45% of that time is spent listening. A study conducted by
Steil cited in Simonds and Cooper (2011) also find that people listen 45% of the

11

time they spend communicating an average 70% of their time engaged in some
sort of this an average of 45% is spent listening compared to 30% speaking, 16%
reading and 9% writing. From the result above, it shows that listening has higher
percentage than the other skills. It can be inferred that listening can be considered
as essential element in a human’s life because communication is happens if the
listener understands and responses what the speaker says.

Dealing with the ideas above, listening ability plays a significant role in the
development of other language skills and can bulid up a good communication
between people. Thus, listening is better introduced as early as possible.

2.1.3. Difficulties of Listening

Listening is considered as a hard skill to master. The students usually face the
difficulties in many aspect of listening. Ur (2000) identifies the learner’s problems
1. Limited vocabulary
The biggest difficulty in listening is the students limited vocabulary. If the
students have lack of vocabulary, they are difficult to comperhend the
listening passage. To overcome this problem, the teachers should have to
spend too much time presenting new words and their pronunciation before
asking their students to listen to the recording or the speakers.
2. Get bored
Sometimes students feel difficult to concentrate when they feel tired to
listen the long passage . That is one of the reasons for the teacher for not
making listening comprehension passage to long.

12

3. The Hearing
The students usually do not understand certain English sounds. The
different speed and accents from the native speakers sometimes makes
students hard to understand the native speakers say. To overcome this
problem the teacher needs to repeat the passage more than once and gives
the students the opportunity to request clarification on repetition during the
listening. (Ur : 1984)

From the explanation above, it shows that the students still have problems in
listening, they are: limited vocabulary, get bored and the hearing. To overcome
those problems, the students need more practice in listening to make better of their
listening ability. It is also hoped that students are easier in understanding the
massage from what the speaker says.

2.2. The Concept of Teaching Listening

Listening is the major component in language teaching and learning because
before people acquiring the other skills (speaking, writing and reading).They
have to acquire listening ability first. Furthermore, Beare (2007) states that
another reason why listening is important to teach in language classroom is that
successful listening are acquired over time and with lots of practice and yet
specific excercise of listening are difficult to quantify compared to speaking and
wrting which have many very specific excercise to be improved.

In teaching listening, techniques and strategies are needed to provide the students
comprehension. By using techniques and strategies the teacher is able to perform

13

well in teaching listening. As mentioned by Yudha (2008), the role of listening in
building up language competence should be focused on techniques and strategies
to provide language learning and comprehension. It means that techniques and
strategies have big contribution to the learners’ success in order to get a better
achievement.

Brown (2007) defines strategies in listening into two, those are strategy for
teaching listening comprehension for beginning-level listeners begin from topdown and bottom-up. Here they are:
a. Top-down strategy
Top-down strategy is listener based strategy using the listener prior
knowledge and experiences. The listener gets into the background
knowledge of the topic, the type of text, the content, and the language.
This knowledge activates a set of expectation that help the listener to
interpret what is heard and anticipate what come next. Top down strategies
include: (1) Listening for main idea; the teacher sets short of task that
related to listening process taken by the students, (2) predicting involves
the students’ ability to predict the information contained in the text, (3)
drawing inferences; the students use their ability to derive logical
conclusions assumed to be true and (4) summarizing; the process to
summarize the whole activities conveyed by the teacher.
b.

Bottom-up strategy
Bottom-up strategy is a process of decoding the massage, that is, the
combination of sounds of words, and grammar that creates meaning. In
other words, listeners use information in the speech itself to try

14

comprehending the meaning. Bottom-up strategies include : (1) listening
for specific details; the students need only to detail of the conversation in
the listening process, (2) recognizing cognates; the students are required
to recognize words that are similiar to the words present in the listening
process, (3) recognizing word order patterns; the students are required to
understand word order patterns in which commonly consist of subject,
verb, and object.

Based on the explanation above, the researcher focused on bottom up strategy to
teach the students’ listening through running dictation because bottom-up
strategies include listening for specific details, recognizing cognates, and
recognizing word order patterns.

2.3. Concept of Running Dictation

Oller (1977) cited in Newton (2009) states that the variation of dictation such as
dictogloss and running dictation are very popular with learners and teachers.
According to House et.al T (2011), running dictation is a physically exerting
activity in which the students dictate a text to one another, and brings a
communicative, dynamic and energetic element to a lesson.

Moreover, House et.al T stated that running dictation is an activity for pupils who
enjoy moving around and working in teams. Furthermore, Hess (2001) that
running dictation is the technique where the students works in group to dictate
the sentence, there were the runner and the writer in each group. The students as a
runner must run to some place where the sentence have been prepared by teacher,

15

and back to his/her group to dictate the sentence and the writer must write down
what they heard as accurately as possible. In running dictation, the students are
expected to comprehend the content of the passage and recognize all the words
and sentence being read.

Running dictation is an activity where the students get fun on listening class but
also understand the meaning of what is said. The focus of this activity is on the
tempo of each group to finish all sentence dictate and the accuracy of the students
writing based on the runner said. In this activity, the students are hoped to
perceive the contents of the passage and recognize all the words and sentence
being read so that they can put these aural codes into writen symbols. It also help
students to diagnose correct grammatical mistake, it assures attentive listening and
trains students to distinguish sounds and helps learning punctuation. They are
forced to give more pay attention to what the speaker said so that they can
perceive the content of passage in every single word.

Based on the explanation above, the researcher assumes that running dictation is
the activity where the students work in group to dictate the sentence and write
down what they hear as accurately as possible.

2.3.1. Advantages of Running Dictation

The advantages of running dictation are as follows:
1. During and after the running dictation, all the students are active. (Pilot,
2013).
2. Running dictation can be prepared for any level (Hess, 2011).

16

3. Running dictation can help develop all four language skills in an
integrative way. (Hughes, 2005),
4. Running Dictation can galviness a sleepy class. (Hart, 2010)

Based on the advantages of running dictation above, running dictation is
appropriate to use in teaching learning especially teaching listening because
running dictation can be prepared for any level and by practicing in careful
listening to running dictation would be useful later in note taking
excercises/activities, for instance, listening to teachers.

2.3.2. The Procedure of Teaching Listening through Running Dictation

There are some procedures in running dictation, they are: First, selecting the
suitable material. The teacher selects the suitable sentences as the material that is
given by the students. The teacher selects the sentence to teach the students
listening because it’s easier to the students to understand the sentence.

Second, after the teacher select the material, the teacher makes some preparation
before the teaching learning. The teacher writes the sentences on strips of paper
and prepares the recording. The students do not allowed to read the sentence
before doing the activity. The teacher puts the sentences together the recording.
Third, the teacher asks the students to go outside of the class since these activities
are conducted in the school yard.

Fourth, explaining the materials to the students. The teacher explains the materials
to the students such as explaining the rule of running dictation, dividing the
students into five groups which consist of seven students each group. There is one

17

runner in each group and the other students to be the writers . In the next
treatment the rule was changed that there were seven runners and seven writers in
each group. All students have chance to be the runner and the writer. The students
are aksed to select the first runner until the last runner. after selecting the runner,
the student that became the first runners run into the places where the sentence
and the recording have been prepared by the teacher while the second runner until
the last runner became the writer. The first runner read the sentence while they
listen the recording (to know how to pronoun and dictate the sentence well), after
the first runner feel enough to listen they return to their group to dictate that
sentence to the writer and the writer must write down the sentence as dictated as
accurately as possible. After the first runner has dictate the sentence, the first
runner changes her/his role became the writer. Then, the second runner continue
to run and dictate the sentence to his/her group. These processes continue until all
the sentences is finished by the students.

The Picture of Running Dictation :

Group I

Group II

Group III

Group VI
I
R&P

II
R&P

III
R&P

IV
R&P

R&P

V

Group V
notes:
R = Recorder

18

P = Piece of paper (containing the sentence)

Fifth, applying technique. The students do the running dictation based on the
teacher’s instructions. The teacher is awarding 20 points to group who finish first,
15 points to second group, 10 points to third group, 5 points to fourth and fifth
group. Sixth, reconstruction, after doing the running dictation, the students are
asked to check their work for its grammar. Students need accurately the same
word as the original sentence. During this activity the teacher does not provide the
language input. The teacher just monitors the activity.

Seventh, correction. The students compare their work with the original sentences
and make any necessary corrections. Seventh, classifying the sentence into sub
skills of micro skills. Eighth, next evaluation. The teacher gives the test. The type
of the test is multiple choices. The questions based on the sentence has been
dictated before . Finally, the teacher asks to do pair correction to check the
answers of the students.

2.4. Theoretical Assumption

A teacher may make the instructional goal of success if he/she choos an
appropriate technique in teaching so that the students can reach the target. By
using running dictation students are helped to perceive the content of passage.
Running dictation recently has been assumed as an effective technique for
learning language especially for listening. Referring to those some theories above,
the researcher assumed that running dictation could increase students’ listening
achievement.

19

2.5. Hypothesis

Based on theoritical assumption above, the reseacher’s hypothesis: “There is a
significant increase of the students’ listening achievement after being taught
through running dictation at the second year students of SMAN 1 Ambarawa
Pringsewu.

III. RESEARCH METHODS

This chapter deals with the design and procedures of the research. This refers to
the research design, population and sample of the research, data collecting
technique, research instrument, research procedures, data analysis, data treatment
and hypothesis testing.

3.1. Research Design

This research is a quantitative study which used true experimental design. The
researcher took two classes as the experimental class and control class.
Experimental class, which receives the treatment of running dictation and control
class, which is taught through regular teaching learning activity by the clasroom
teacher. In conducting the research, the reseacher used experimental research with
one group pre test and post test design. In this research, the students were given
pre test before treatment and at the end of the program the students were also
given post test (Setiyadi, 2006). Pre test was given to the students in order to
measure the students’ competence before they are given the treatment and post
test is given to measure how far the students’ achievement after they are given the
treatment.

21

In this research, the researcher interests in investigating whether there is a
significant increae of students’ listening achievement after being taught using
running dictation. The researcher conducted pretest ,treatments and post test.
The design is described as follows:
T1

X

T2

Where:
T1

: pretest

T2

: posttest

X

: treatments (running dictation)
(Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 24)

3.2. The Population and Sample

A population is defined as the whole subjects of the research. Setiyadi (2006:38)
states research population is all individuals which are being target in research
while research sample is individual who give the data. The population of this
research was the second year students of SMAN 1 Ambarawa. There were seven
classes of second grade students. Each class consisted of 35-37 students.

The

researcher selected the sample by using random samply technique through lottery
drawing with assumption that the second year of SMAN 1 Ambarawa have the
same characters and level of English Profeciency. The reseacher took one class as
the try out class; it was XI IPS 4 and one class as the experimental class; it was IX
IPS 3.

22

3.3. Data Collecting Techniques

In collecting the data, a pre test, treatments and pos test were administered. Then,
the researcher analyzed the result of those three activities which could be clarified
as follows:
1. Pre Test
The pre test conducted in order to know the students’ listening achievement
before giving the treatments. The type of the test were writing simple sentence
and multiple –choice test. The items of multiple choice consisted of three
options (a,b,c). In this pre test, the students were given 25 items of listening
and it conducted within 80 minutes.
2. Treatment
The class was given treatments that was running dictation in teaching listening,
specifically in simple oral monolog text. There were three times activities for
the treatment.
3. Post Test
After conducting the treatments, the researcher gave the post test. The aim of
this test was to know the effect of the treatments towards the students’ listening
achievement after being given the treatment. This test consisted of 25 items of
writing simple sentence and multiple –choice test for 80 minutes.

3.4. Research Instrument

In this research, the researcher conducted two tests. They were pre test and post
test. Pre test was given in order to know the students’ listening achievement
before the treatments. Post test was given in order to know the students’ listening

23

achievement after the treatments. The form of the try out test, pre test and post
test: writing simple sentence and multiple-choice test. The total number of the try
out items was 40 items and the total number of the items of the pretest and post
test was 25 items from the items of try out test. The try out test was administered
about 80 minutes and the pretest and post test were also administered about 80
minutes.

3.5. Research Procedure

The procedures of the research are as follow:
1. Determining the population and sample
The population of this research was the second years students of SMAN 1
Ambarawa. There were 7 classes which consisted of 35-38 students per
each class. The researcher took experimental class by using the random
sampling technique.
2. Selecting the materials
The materials that were used in this research were taken from handbook
and based on the teaching and learning syllabus.
3. Administering try –out test
The try out of test carrised out after chosing the subject. The try out was
administered before giving the pre test. The aim of try out test was to
make sure the quality of validity, reliability, level of difficulty and
discrimination power of the test which is used as the instrument of the
research. This test is consisted of two parts; part one was writing simple
sentence and part two was multiple –choice test with three options (A, B

24

and C). The number of the test was 40 items; 15 items for part one and 25
items for part two. This test was allocated within 80 minutes.
4. Administering the pre-test
This activity was done before applying the treatment. The purposes of this
test were to know how far their competence in listening and to know the
ability of the class that involved in this research. The test was administered
in the experimental class, class XI.IPS.3. The total of test items were 25.
5. Conducting treatments.
The treatments were conducted in three meetings which each meeting took
2 x 45 minutes. The materials were about simple oral monolog text. To be
clearer, the treatments were conducted as follows:
a. The first treatment dealt with simple oral monolog text about simple
present tense by giving the students ten questions in multiple choice in
order to check their listening comprehension.
b. The second treatments dealt with short text about similar sounds and the
researcher also gave the students ten questions in multiple choice.
c. The third treatment dealt with simple oral monolog text of simple past
tense and the students were given ten listening questions.
6. Administering post test
The post test was administered after the application of running dictation
technique. The aim of this test was to measure the students’ listening
achievement after giving treatments. In this test, the students were asked to
do multiple choice test consist of 25 items for 80 minutes. The test was
the same as in the pre test, but in different order.

25

7. Analyzing the result
The data of the research were statistically analyzed using SPSS 15.0. The
researcher used pairs samples t-test to analyze the data in order to find out
whether there is a siginificant increase in students’ listening achievement
or not.
8. Reporting the Result
The data arranged systematically based on the pre-test and post test to see
whether running dictation was able to increase the students’ listening
achievement.
3.6. Data Analysis

In order to know the students’ progress in comprehending the text, the students’
score were computed by doing three activities:
1.

Scoring the pre-test and post test
In scoring the students result of the test, this research has used Arikunto’s
formula. The ideal higher score is 100. The score of pretest and posttest
has calculated by using formula as follows:

S=

100

Where:
S

: the score of the test

R

: the total of the right answer

N

: the total items
(Arikunto, 2005: 236)

26

2. Tabulating the result of the test and calculating the mean of pre-test and
post test. To compute the average score or mean of the pre-test and post
test, the researcher used a very simple formula as follows:
M=

∑

Where:
M

: (Mean) Average score

∑x

: Total students’ score

N

: Total number of students

The average is total students’ score divided by total number of students.
(Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 55)

3. Drawing conclusion from the tabulated result of the pre-test and post test
administrated. The data were analyzed by using statistical computerization
Repeated Measures t-test of SPSS 15.0 for Windows i.e. t =

to test

whether the difference between pre-test and post test is significant or not,
in which the significance was determined by p < 0,05 (Hatch and Farhady,
1982: 114). Since, the data were gained from one group and the research
intended to find out whether there is significant increase of the students’
listening achievement or not.

3.7. Data Treatment

After collecting the data, the researcher treated the data by using following
procedures:

27

3.7.1.Testing the try out

Before conducting the pre test and post test, the researcher adminstered a try out.
This test was administered in order to remove the bad items based on their level of
difficulty (LD) and discrimination power (DP) and also to find the reliability and
validity of the test. The number of the try out was 40 items. After analyzing the
data, this research got that 25 items were good and 15 items were bad and should
be dropped.
3.7.1.1 Level of Difficulty
Level of difficulty is used to know whether the test items are easy or. To see the
level of dfficulty, this research used the following formula.
LD=
Note
LD

= Index of difficulty

R

= the number of students who answer correctly

N

= total number of the students

The criteria are :
LD > 0.30

= difficult

LD = 0.30 - 0.70

= Satisfactory

LD > 0.70

= Easy
(Heaton, 1986; 178)

28

Based on the criteria above, there were 9 easy items in the try out test (1, 3, 12,
13, 16, 17, 25, 35, and 36 ). There were 4 difficulties items (4, 7, 24, 30). And,
there were 27 satisfactory items (2, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,
26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 37, 38, 39, 40). (see appendix 4)

3.7.1.2. Disrimination Power

Discrimination power is the ability of the item to differentiate between the
students who has high ability and those who has low ability. To determine the
discrimination power, the following formula was employed:
DP=

½

Notes :
D

= Discrimination index

Correct U

= Number of correct in the upper group

Correct L

= Number of correct in the lower group

N

= Total number of the students

The criteria are:
0.00 – 0.20

: poor.

0.21 – 0.40

: satisfactory.

0.41 – 0.70

: good

0.71 – 1.00

: excellent.
(Arikunto, 1993: 221)

29

Based on the criteria above, there were 15 items in the try-out test which did not
fulfill the standard of discrimination power, since those items had discrimination
index under 0.20 which meant that the items had poor discrimination power. By
looking discrimination power and level of difficulty, the total items that were
administered were 25vitems (1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9,11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 26,
28, 29, 31, 32, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40). Those items had discrimination power more
than 0.21 with the criteria satisfactory to excellent items (see appendix 4).

3.7.1.3.Validity and Reliability

3.7.1.3.1. Validity

Generally, the validity of a test shows how far the test measures what supposed to
be measured (Setiyadi, 2006). To measure whether the test have a good validity or
not, the researcher saw them from the content validity and construct validity.
a. Content validity
Content validity is extended to which a test measures representative
sample of the subject matter contents. The focus of the content validity is
adequacy of the sample and simply on the appearance of the test (Hatch
and Farhady, 1982: 251). In the content validity, the materials given are
appropriate with the curriculum. The researcher arranged the test based on
the material that has had been taught to the student. It is based on KTSP of
English for Senior High School.

30

Table 1. Specification of Micro Skill in Try-out Test
No
1.
2
3
4

Aspect to be measured
Objective
Number of Items
Intonation Pattern
1,6,8,13,14,17,24,27 35,36,40
Detect sentence constituents 2, 3,4,5,7,9,10,11,12,15
Discriminating Sound
16,18,19,21,22,29, 30,31,32,37
Cohesive devices
20,23,25,26,28,33,34,38,39
Total
40

Percentage
25%
25%
25%
25%
100%

Table 2. Specification of Micro Skill in Pre Test
No
1.
2
3
4

Aspect to be measured
Objective
Number of Items
Intonation Pattern
1, 3,4 ,21, 22,25
Detect sentence constituents
2, 5, 6, 7, 8

Percentage
24%
20 %

Discriminating Sound
Cohesive devices
Total

28%
28%
100%

10, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 23
9, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 24
25

Table 3. Specification of Micro Skill in Post Test
No
1.
2
3
4

Aspect to be measured
Objective
Number of Items
Intonation Pattern
2, 3, 5, 17, 22, 24
Detect sentence constituents
1, 4, 6, 7, 8
Discriminating Sound
10, 12, 14, 15, 18, 23, 25

Percentage
20%
20 %
32%

Cohesive devices
Total

28%
100%

9, 11, 13, 16, 19, 20, 21
25

b. Construct validity
Construct validity examines whether the test actually in line with the
theory. It means to know the language, whether the test is actually a
reflection of what it means to know language (Shohamy, 1985; 74-75). It
is concerned with the theory of testing certain language skill.

31

3.7.1.3.2. Reliability

Reliability is simple a consistency of a test. In other words, how far it can measure
the same subject at separated time, but it shows the same result relatively
(Setiyadi, 2006: 113). Reliability of a test can be defined as the extent to which a
test produces consistent results when administer under similar conditions (Hatch
and Farhady, 1982: 243). In order to estimate the reliability of the test, this
research used split-half technique and to measure the coefficient of the reliability
between odd and even group. This research used “Spearman Brown Formula” as
follows:
=
∑

(

∑

(∑ ) (∑ )

(∑ ) )

(

∑

(∑ ) )

Note
R

: Cofficient of reliability between odd and even numbers

N

: Number of the students

X

: Square x

Y

: Square y

∑X

: Total score of odd number

∑Y

: Total score of even number

The criteria of reliability
0.00 – 0.20

: very low

0.21 – 0.39

: low

0.40 – 0.59

: average

0.60 – 0.79

: high

0.80 – 1.00

: very high out

32

In this research, the result of reliability of the try-out test was 0.78 (see appendix
3). It can be inferred that the test has high level of reliability, in the range 0.60 –
0.79. It indicated that this insturment would produce consistent result when it was
administered under similar condition, to the same participants, and in different
time (Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 286). So, it can be concluded that the test is
reliable.

3.7.3.Normality test

Normality test is used to know whether the data in pretest and post test were
distributed normally or not. The hypothesis of the normality test is as follows:

H0

: The distribution of the data is normal

H1

: The distribution of the data is not normal

In this research, the criteria for the hypothesis are:
H0 is accepted if significant value exceeds level of significance at 0.05 (Sig. > α).
Meanwhile, H0 is rejected if significant value does not exceed level of
significance at 0.05.

3.8. Hypothesis Test

The hypothesis test is used to prove whether the hypothesis that proposes by the
researcher is accepted or not by using this t-test formula.
After getting the means of pretest and posttest, the researcher aanalyzed the data
by comparing the means of pretest and posttest, by using t-test in order to know

33

the significant of the treatments’ effect. The hypothesis was analyzed at
siginificant level of 0.05 in which the hypothesis was approved if Sig. t-table)
Ho is accepted if t-ratio is lower than t-table, or (t-ratio 2.042). It means that Ho is rejected and Ha is accepted. It can be
concluded that there is a significant increase of students’ listening achievement
after being taught running dictation at SMAN 1 Ambarawa Pringsewu.

V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

This chapter presents conclusions that are based on the research’s results and
discussion in the previous chapter. It also presents some suggestions for English
teacher and other researchers who want to apply running dictation in teaching
listening.

5.1.Conclusions

Based on the result of the data analysis, the resercher conclude that there is
significant increase of students’ listening achievement after being taught through
running dictation at SMA Negeri 1 Ambarawa Prinsewu. The statement was
approved by evidence on the gain score and the computation of t-test. The mean
of the post test is higher than pre test. It shows that there is significant of students’
listening with gain 15.18 points and t-ratio is higher than t-table (10.534 >2.042).
Then, the significant value is less than level of significant at 0.05 (0.00