15
Bulletin in Saricoban 1952 states listening is one of the fundamental skills. It is a medium through which children, young people and adults gain a large portion of
their education-their information, their understanding of the world and of human affairs, their ideals, sense of values, and their appreciation. In this day of mass
communication much of it oral, it is of vital importance that our pupils be taught to listen effectively and critically, he says.
Walberg 2004:13 also states that “listening skills are essential for learning since they enable students to acquire insights and information, and to achieve
success in communicating with others”. By having the theory above, listening is the fundamental skill to understand and identify what others are saying. Without a
good listening ability, someone will find it difficult to understand to messages and to communicate with other people effectively.
According to Harmer 2001, there are two types of listening, namely extensive and intensive listening. Extensive listening is doing listening activity by
choosing what topic that the students want to listen for pleasure and general language improvement. Extensive listening usually takes place outside the
classroom and the material for extensive listening can be taken from many sources. Many students get much listening practice because they have their own
choices for the listening material. Intensive listening is doing listening activity by having some tasks through taped materials and material on disk given by the
teacher. The listening practice in intensive listening usually takes place in the classroom with their teacher. The students are not free to choose the topic for the
listening material because the material is already chosen by the teacher.
16
b. Teaching Listening in the Elementary School
Listening skills are necessary for your learners. Demirel 2012 says that listening skills are the most important outcomes of early language teaching.
Besides, listening is a basic step before establishing others skills which includes speaking, reading, and writing skills. Children cannot develop their ability to
speak, read, and write before starting to listen. That is why listening is very important in the language learning.
Brewster et al. 2002 describe five specific guidelines to develop pupils’ listening skills. First, the teacher gives the children’s confidence. There are some
ways to make the children get their confidence. The teacher can use her gestures to help the students. Besides, tone of voice and visual aids also will help children
feel confidents about what is important to concentrate on. Second, the teacher explains why the children have to listen. In teaching
listening to the children, the teacher needs to make sure that the learners clearly know why they are listening and what the purpose of the activity is. It guides them
to which part of message they need to focus on and what they are going to do. Learners’ confidence can be built up and anxiety can be reduced by doing so.
Third, the teacher helps children develop specific strategies for listening. There is an important strategy that should be taught by a teacher. That strategy is
intelligent guess work. Children are used to drawing on their background knowledge to work out something they are not sure of. What a teacher should do
is being aware of this so that she can ensure that she provides support and raise children’s awareness about the benefits of doing this.
17
Fourth, the teacher sets a specific listening task. There are three parts in listening. Those are pre-, while-, and post-listening parts. Each part has different
activity. In order to make the teaching and learning process of listening active, the teacher needs to develop a repertoire of different pre-, while-, and post-activity
types which fit in different types of language. Fifth, the teacher organizes listening. Most listening is based on teachers’
talk. However, if the teacher has a cassette of listening materials, this is useful to provide a good model of spoken English to the learners.
The teacher also provides the listening materials for the children sequentially. The material is arranged based on several themes
. The kinds of
listening theme are explained below. 1
Parts of the body The students need to understand a very simple instructions and
vocabularies about parts of the body. This material is given in three meetings. Each meeting is 70 minutes.
2 Clothes
The students need to understand the kinds of clothes. This material is given in three meetings. Each meeting is 70 minutes.
3 Food and Beverages
The students need to understand a very simple expressions and vocabularies about food and beverages. This material is given in three
meetings. Each meeting is 70 minutes.
