57 one of them shared that she could remember the story with the help of reading text. In
the interview she shared that: Dari reading text dan listening, tapi banyak dari reading text
karena kalau dari mendengarkan saja belum tahu vocabnya. Merapi, Interview
From both, reading text and listening section, but mostly from the reading text because from the listening section only I did not
understand the vocabulary.
Therefore, by first constructing students’ prior knowledge using reading text before listening to the recording, students’ ability to follow or understand and remember the
detail of the story was better.
c. Answering Comprehensive Questions
Furthermore, the text offered another significant influence related to their better comprehension. The text also helped the students to answer the comprehension
questions related to the recording. After the students were able to follow the story well and to grab the detailed information, they were also directly able to answer the
questions well. From the questionnaire, it was obviously observed that students’ answers to the questions in listening section were not pure from what they had
listened only, but also from what they had read before listening. Table 4.3 presents the result of students’ answers from the questionnaire.
58
Table 4.3 How Students Answered Comprehension Questions
No. Questions
Reading Texts Percentage
a. Snow White
b. Rapunzel
1. The answer to the questions are
based on the reading text c.
Sleeping Beauty a.
Snow White b.
Rapunzel 25
2. The answer to the questions are
based on the listening section in the class
c. Sleeping Beauty
75 a.
Snow White 100
b. Rapunzel
75 3.
The answer to the questions are based on both reading text and
listening section
c. Sleeping Beauty
25
Based on the table 4.3, students mostly answered the questions from both reading the texts and listening to the recording. When the students had to listen to the
story of Snow White, 100 or all participants confessed that they took full advantage of information from both the text and listening section to answer the questions. None
of the students did the task based on what they listened to or what they read only. In this case, two students wrote in the questionnaire their opinion on the influence of the
text as follows: Both reading text and listening complete each other, so I can
answers the questions. Bukit Siguntang, Questionnaire Both reading the text and listening to the recording completed
each other, so they helped me in answering the questions. Lebih gampang cari jawaban. Kelud, Questionnaire
It was easier for me to find the answers. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
59 The above opinions, in fact, are going to say that reading text which had been read by
the students before listening section in class had successfully provided them with the information they needed. By reading the text before listening section, the students
were supplied with background knowledge on what was going to be listened to. They were able to know everything related to the story. Therefore, they enriched their mind
first before entering the listening section. They did not come to class as ‘blank slates’ who were shocked with what they would listen to.
Different from the previous experience, when the students were given the text of Sleeping Beauty, it was surprisingly found that most of the students answered the
questions related to the story based on what they listened in the class only. In the questionnaire, 75 students chose the second option provided, i.e. the answers to the
questions were based on the listening section in class. Interestingly, from students’ experiences, one student, namely Merbabu, shared his opinion that he found difficulty
in answering the questions without reading the text first. He stated his experience while listening to the recording as follows:
I keep try to listen the stories, but it’s still difficult to answer the question without remembering memory from the text. Merbabu,
Questionnaire I keep trying to listen to the story, but it was difficult for me to
answer the questions without remembering the information from the text.
Merbabu’s statement that in answering the questions related to the story he still needed the additional information from the text that he had read before listening
section matched to the theory proposed by Brownell 2000: 10 that in order to understand new knowledge, people need prior knowledge. Therefore, prior
60 knowledge that was given by reading the text before listening section had several
positive influences to the students while they were listening to the recording in class. The fact that reading texts helped the students to provide prior knowledge
could also be seen when they were to listen to the story of Rapunzel. The students still needed reading text to help them answer the questions. However, the percentage
was decreased. There were only 75 of the students who answered the questions based on the reading texts and what they listened to. In further discussion of the
implementation of reading texts from the interview, the students confessed that they did not read all of the texts provided by the teacher before listening section.
Therefore, they could not take full advantage of the text. They could only depend on what they listened to. Moreover, from table 4.2, it is interestingly noticed that there
were many students who were not observed, relating to the story of Sleeping Beauty. It means that they did not answer the comprehension questions. This might happen
since they were lack of prior knowledge as it can be seen that only 25 of students who had read the text and answered the questions using information obtained from
reading text and listening section.
3. Language
From other statements written by the students in their questionnaire, another important influence of reading text to the students while listening to the recording
was discovered. The third or the last influence of the text to the students was related to their language skill. The students, in the questionnaire wrote that the text helped
61 them to introduce some new words which were never heard before. One student
clearly stated: Setelah membaca teks tahu kata-kata yang tidak tahu dari
listening. Bukit Siguntang, Questionnaire After reading the text, [before listening section] I know some new
words which I did not catch from listening section.
The students explained that through the text they knew the written form or the spelling of a word, while in listening section they learned how to pronounce the word.
In other words, the text provided could be a medium to enhance students’ vocabulary mastery in written form. Therefore, the text not only developed students’ vocabulary,
but also helped them to be able to write the words mentioned in the recording correctly. One student, Merapi, who thought that reading text helped her to acquire
new words in both written and spoken form, stated that: Text sangat mempengaruhi saya dalam menjawab pertanyaan
karena dg mendengarkan kalimatnya saya sering gak tahu cara nulisnya jd dengan membaca text saya dapat menulis kata-
katanya. Merapi, Questionnaire Text influenced me in answering the questions because by listening
to the sentence, I often did not know how to write, so by reading the text, I could write the word.
She further explained the example in the interview as follows: Ya kalo dari teks kita tahu tulisannya langsung, misalnya future,
itu kan beda banget tulisan dengan bacanya. Merapi, Interview From text we are able to know how to write a word, for example
the word ‘future’ which is exactly different in the written form and the pronunciation.
By enriching their vocabulary, the students were able to listen to the recording better since they could follow the story completely, including to grab the detailed
