The Relationship between Movie-watching Activity and Listening Skill

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(A Correlational Study of the Fifth-semester Students at the

Department of English Education of State Islamic University of

Jakarta)

By:

Imam Achmad Dhamarullah

1111014000019

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHERS TRAINING

SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY

JAKARTA

2015


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Movie-watching Activity and Listening Skill (A Correlational Study of the Fifth-semester Students at the Department of English Education of State Islamic University of Jakarta). Skripsi of English Education at the Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers’ Training of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta, 2015.

Advisor I : Drs. Nasifuddin Djalil, M.Ag. Advisor II : Dadan Nugraha, M.Pd.

This study aimed to find and describe the relationship between movie-watching activity (variable x) and listening skill (variable y). This study was conducted at the Department of English Education of State Islamic University of Jakarta. The population in this study was all of the fifth-semester students in the study year 2015/2016, and the sample was 30 students.

The method used in this study was the quantitative method with the correlational design. The instruments that were used to gather the data were questionnaire and document of students’ scores. The scores from both instruments were calculated and analyzed by using statistical procedure of Product Moment Correlation to see if there was any relationship between the two variables.

The result showed that there was a very low relationship, with the index value of correlation coefficient ( ) of 0.177. Furthermore, the hypotheses testing showed that was much lower that the correlation coefficient of the Product Moment table ( ), which means that the null hypothesis (H0) was accepted. In conclusion, there is no relationship between the two variables.

However, further examination showed that this result may have been affected by several internal threats. First, the respondents’ watching frequency is still relatively low. Second, the respondents use subtitles when they watch movies, which may prevent them to optimally acquire the language, especially listening skill.


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Movie-watching Activity and Listening Skill (A Correlational Study of the Fifth-semester Students at the Department of English Education of State Islamic University of Jakarta). Skripsi Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Fakultas Ilmu Tarbiyah dan Keguruan, Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, 2015.

Dosen Pembimbing I : Drs. Nasifuddin Djalil, M.Ag. Dosen Pembimbing II : Dadan Nugraha, M.Pd.

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menemukan hubungan antara kegiatan menonton film (variabel x) dengan kemampuan mendengar (variabel y). Penelitian ini dilaksanakan di Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Islam Negeri Jakarta. Populasi yang diteliti adalah seluruh mahasiswa Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris semester 5 pada tahun ajaran 2015/2016, dengan sampel sebanyak 30 orang mahasiswa.

Metode yang digunakan di dalam penelitian ini adalah metode kuantitatif dengan desain korelasional. Instrumen penelitian yang digunakan untuk mengumpulkan data berbentuk angket dan dokumen nilai siswa. Skor dari kedua instrumen kemudian dihitung dan dianalisa menggunakan prosedur statisik Product Moment Correlation untuk menemukan adanya hubungan antara kedua variabel.

Hasil perhitungan menunjukkan adanya hubungan yang sangat rendah, dengan nilai koefisien korelasi (r ) sebesar 0.177. Uji hipotesis juga menunjukkan bahwa nilair jauh lebih rendah dari nilai koefisien korelasi tabel Product Moment (r ) yang menyebabkan hipotesis nol (H0) diterima. Kesimpulannya, tidak ada hubungan antara kedua variabel.

Namun, pemeriksaan lebih lanjut menunjukkan bahwa hasil tersebut dipengaruhi oleh beberapa faktor internal. Pertama, frekuensi menonton responden masih tergolong rendah. Kedua, responden menggunakan subtitle ketika mereka menonton film, yang mencegah mereka untuk memperoleh kemampuan berbahasa, terutama kemampuan mendengar, secara optimal.

Kata kunci: Penelitian Korelasional, Kegiatan Menonton Film, Kemampuan Mendengar


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All praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, who has blessed the writer with strength, health, and resolve in finishing this skripsi as the final assignment in his study. Peace and salutation may always be upon the Prophet Muhammad, the savior of the humankind, who has brought the light onto this world and turned it into a better place.

This skripsi is a scientific paper that is presented as one of the requirements for the degree “S.Pd.” in English Education. There are many people who have been very helpful and supportive during the writing of this skripsi. At this opportunity, the writer would like to convey his utmost gratitude to them. The first ones are his small family: his dearest mother Dewi Dian Melfa Linda for her incomparable love and kindness; his father Adiamarta for his affection and continuous support; his grandmother Suwarni for her care and endless prayers; and his brother Amar Maulana Amirullah for all the laughter and fun he shared.

Next, the writer would like to thank his advisors, Drs. Nasifuddin Djalil, M.Ag., and Dadan Nugraha, M.Pd., for patiently guiding him and giving him the most valuable lesson and advice in writing thisskripsi.

The writer would also like to express his gratitude and appreciation to:

1. All of the lecturers in the Department of English Education, for all the precious knowledge and tremendous inspiration they have shared.

2. Dr. Alek, M.Pd., as his academic advisor and the Head of the Department of English Education, and Zaharil Anasy, M.Hum., as the Secretary of the Department of English Education.

3. Prof. Dr. Ahmad Thib Raya, M.A., as the Dean of Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers’ Training.

4. Neneng Sunengsih, M.Pd., one of the Listening lecturers at the Department of English Education, for sharing her insight and advice for thisskripsi.


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knowledge, support, and time they have provided unconditionally.

8. English Education students from class 5A, 5B, and 5C, who have participated in the study.

9. Everyone who has helped the writer, not only in the making of thisskripsi, but through the ups and downs of his university life. He cannot mention them one by one; all he can say is he could not be more grateful for their contribution. May Allah bless them all.

Lastly, the writer realizes that this skripsi is still far from being perfect. Despite the help from the aforementioned people, there are weaknesses and shortages in this skripsi that remain as the writer’s responsibility. He, therefore, welcomes all kinds of corrections and suggestions for a better writing.

Jakarta, 18 November 2015


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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………..… iii

CONTENTS……… v

LIST OF TABLES……….. vii

LIST OF FIGURES……….... viii

LIST OF APPENDICES……… ix

CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Study………..…….

B. The Identification of the Problems………

C. The Limitation of the Problems……….

D. The Formulation of the Problems……….. E. The Objective of the Study…….………... F. The Significance of the Study………

1 6 6 6 6 6

CHAPTER II : THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A.Listening Skill………...………... 1. The Nature of Listening………..………….

2. The Views on Listening………...………

3. The Kinds of Listening………...……….

4. The Teaching of Listening…………...………

5. The Teaching of Listening at the Department of English Education…………..………..

6. The Difficulties in Listening………

7. The Definition of Listening Skill……….

B. Second Language Acquisition Theories and Hypotheses.. 1. The Acquisition-Learning Distinction……….

2. The Natural Order Hypothesis……….

3. The Monitor Hypothesis………..

4. The Input Hypothesis………..

5. The Affective Filter Hypothesis………..

8 8 10 12 13 17 18 20 21 21 22 22 23 24


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3. The Definition of Movie-watching Activity………...

D. Previous Related Studies………... E. Thinking Framework………. F. The Research Hypotheses……….

31 31 33 33

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Place and Time of the Study……….

B. Method and Design of the Study………... C. Population and Sampleof the Study………..

D.Instruments of the Study………

E. Data Collection Technique………

F. Data Analysis Technique………...

G. Statistical Hypotheses……….... 34 34 34 35 38 38 40

CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

A. The Description of the Data……….……..

1. The Respondents’ Background………...

2. Questionnaire Scores………...

3. Listening Scores……….…. B. TheAnalysis of the Data……….………..

1. Normality and LinearityTest……….………….

2. Correlation Coefficient……….…………...

3. HypothesesTesting………. C. The Discussion of the Findings……….

42 42 46 48 50 50 51 52 54

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion……….

B. Suggestion………..

57 57

REFERENCES………... 59


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Table 1.1 Listening Scores of English Education Students of Class

2011... 4

Table 2.1 The Characteristics in Selecting Video…………...……… 15

Table 3.1 TheDevelopment of the Indicators………...…………. 37

Table 3.2 Interpretationsof Correlation……….. 40

Table 4.1 The Descriptions of Respondents………...…… 42

Table 4.2 The Summary ofRespondents’ Background………. 43

Table 4.3 The QuestionnaireScores………... 46

Table 4.4 The Listening Scores………... 48

Table 4.5 The Normality TestResults of the Data………. 50

Table 4.6 The Linearity Test Results of the Data………... 50

Table 4.7 Product MomentCalculation Table……… 51

Table 4.8 The Respondents’ Answers for Item Number 4………. 55


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Figure 2.1 Acquisition and Learning in Second Language Production….... 21

Figure 2.2 How Comprehensible Input Works in Language Acquisition... 23

Figure 2.3 How Affective Filter Influences Input and Acquisition……….. 23

Figure 4.1 The Comparisonof Respondents’ Gender………... 41

Figure 4.2 TheRespondents’ Media Preference in Watching Movies…... 41

Figure 4.3 The Respondents’ Genre and Subgenre Preference………. 42

Figure 4.4 The Grouped Distribution of Questionnaire Scores…………... 44

Figure 4.5 The Subtitle Languages Used by theRespondents……….. 45

Figure 4.6 The Grouped Distribution of Listening Scores……… 46

Figure 4.7 The Scatterplotof the Correlation……… 51


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Appendix 1 Satuan Acara Perkuliahanof Listening 4……….. 62

Appendix 2 Original Questionnaire (Before Pilot-test)………. 67

Appendix 3 Raw Datafrom Pilot Test………... 71

Appendix 4 Final Questionnaire……… 76

Appendix 5 DetailedQuestionnaire Scores………... 79

Appendix 6 RawListening 4 Scores………. 81

Appendix 7 The Grouping of Data……… 82

Appendix 8 Product Moment Table………... 84

Appendix 9 Letter of Permission...……… 85


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A. The Background of the Study

Language is a primary means of communication which enables people to express what they have in their minds. To be fluent in a language, people must acquire the following language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The first step in this process is listening. It is often assumed that listening is a passive process and it occurs without much effort. That is not true. Actually, listening is a complex process that involves the process of hearing, identifying, understanding, and interpreting spoken language, as described by Lewis.1 Meanwhile, Heinich used the terms encoding and decoding in illustrating this process. A listener does not only hear what has been said by a speaker, but he/she also has to decode the meaning in the utterance.2 Most of the time he/she has to pay attention to the context and use his/her background knowledge to make sense of what is said. Thus, it can be concluded that listening is an active process, and it is not as easy as it seems.

Richards acknowledged the works of linguists such as C. Marcel, T. Prendergast, and F. Gouin in illustrating the importance of listening by using a situation concerning a little child with no language competence.3 These language experts believed that naturally a child first acquires a language—his or her mother tongue—through listening to the people in his or her language environment. That means listening process may become the basis for the child’s language development in this early stage. In the later stage, listening skill adheres to its significant role. People get new information by listening to the news in television

1

Thomas R. Lewis, Listening,Review of Educational ResearchVol. 28 No.2, 1958, p.89. 2

Robert Heinich, et al.,Instructional Media and Technologies for Learning, (New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2002), 7thedition, p. 173.

3

Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers, Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching,(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 2ndedition, pp. 7–9.


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and radio. People also listen to each other when they converse. In fact, people spent 50% of their time to listen.4

Considering its importance, especially in communication, many language specialists and researchers have given more attention to listening in the past decades. It can be seen in the numerous publications dealing with listening skill and how to teach it, especially to ESL (English as a Second Language) and EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners. This skill is mostly taught in the classroom by practice. Usually, the lesson consists of three parts: pre-listening, listening, and post-listening.5In the pre-listening activity, the teacher and students usually discuss the new vocabulary or the topic of the passage. In (while-)listening activity, the students are provided with an audio of conversation or monologue, from which they are asked to find the main idea or some details. Students also check their answers once they finish. Then, in post-listening activity, teacher can repeat the audio and ask the students to examine the language or diction the speaker used. Students also may be involved in a new discussion from the audio.

However, in reality, it has always been debatable whether language skills are learnt or acquired. Stephen Krashen, one of the renowned specialists on language acquisition theories, believed that language acquisition is different from language learning—with the former being more important than the latter.6 Language acquisition, according to him, involves a subconscious process in which a person is not aware of the fact that he or she is acquiring a language, and it results into a subconscious competence as in first language. It means that acquirers are not generally aware of the exact rules of the language, like its grammar, for instance. However, they have a feel of ‘correctness’. On the contrary, language learning involves a conscious process in which someone knows the knowledge and rules of

4

Joan Rubin, “An Overview”, in David J. Mendelsohn and Joan Rubin (eds),A Guide for the Teaching of Second Language Listening, (San Diego: Dominie Press, Inc., 1995), p. 7.

5 John Field, “The Changing Face of Listening”, in Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya (eds), Methodology in Language Teaching, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 242.

6

Stephen Krashen,Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition, (New York: Pergamon, 1982), Internet Edition, p. 32.


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a language and is able to differ and explain the correct and incorrect sentence by referring to the grammatical structure.7

Krashen’s Input Hypothesis is presumably the principal theory that supports this research. Krashen believed that to acquire a language, there must be a comprehensible input, or language in a form that is both understandable and meaningful to the person. However, this input should be slightly beyond his or her current competence (i). By understanding this input, the person will move from his or her current competence to a slightly more advanced level, namelyi+1.8The way people understand this input is influenced by several factors, including their attitudes toward the input and the exposure they get. For example, a male student with high confidence and low anxiety will likely to understand the input better. The high amount of exposure he gets, may it be in the form of teacher’stalk, radio shows, movies, or TV shows, also make it possible for him to get more input. In conclusion, acquisition of language occurs when there is a comprehensible input. By receiving comprehensible input with good attitudes, people can acquire a language. Another point that should be emphasized is that the more people are exposed to English language, the more likely they are to get the input that they need in order to build language competence and skills.

In the Department of English Education, State Islamic University of Jakarta, all four English skills are taught in 4 distinct courses. Listening skill itself is taught in 4 levels; from Listening 1 to Listening 4. An informal interview with several students revealed that Listening is viewed as difficult subject. Quite a lot of the students often have trouble in understanding what the speaker says in the tape—which leads to their achieving low or average scores in the test. Furthermore, the students’ lack of listening skill also makes it hard for them to follow the discussion in a seminar or lecture which may lead into misunderstanding. These students’ problems reflect theones that were recognized by Ur. He addressed several problems that English language learners have to face, such as inaccurate sound perception, inability to understand every word, inability

7

Ibid., p. 10. 8


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to understand fast and native-like speech, the need to listen more than once (which can be troublesome in real-life situations), overwhelming reception of information, and exhausting long passages.9

To provide a clearer view, the final listening scores from 3 classes of the Department of English Education were reviewed and are represented on Table 1.1. The scores range from around 60 to 80, and the average score had never exceeded 76. It should be noted that these scores may not entirely cover the students’ listening skill, because they were a combination of test scores and affective aspects, such as attendance and class participation.

Table 1.1 Listening Scores of English Education Students of Class 2011 Course Average score Highest score Lowest score

Listening 1 74.29 84.30 61.45

Listening 2 75.12 85.80 62.20

Listening 3 68.75 83.20 61.90

Listening 4 70.75 87.2 58.00

After some preliminary observation, it was presumed that English Education students who had low listening skill were rarely exposed to the English language outside the classsroom. On the other hand, the students who had better listening scores used learning strategies outside the classroom which allow them to be more exposed to the language. These strategies can take forms of listening to music, watching English television programs, or watching English movies. The writer himself mainly got exposure through English movies, even though he watched the movies for pleasure rather than an attempt to exclusively learn the language. Intrigued, he then tried to explore the benefits of movies for language learners. Jane Sherman, in her book, included feature films as one of authentic materials that can be used in language class to develop language skills.10 She stated that English movies may provide a useful training for improving English listening

9

Penny Ur, A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 111–112.

10

Jane Sherman, Using Authentic Video in the Language Classroom, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 18–26.


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skills because they contain utterances and conversations through which students can get accustomed to language. Johnson noted how movies can be one of the best tools in language learning. Movies can enrich students’ vocabulary, improve their pronunciation, increase their ability to understand spoke language, and make structure acquisition possible.11

Based on those explanations and Krashen’s Input Hypothesis, it is theoretically possible that movies can provide comprehensible input and facilitate the acquisition and development of listening skill. There should be a positive relationship between movie-watching activity and listening skill, i.e. people who watch a lot of English movies should also have a good listening skill. However, there have not been many researches and publications that actually seek to prove this. Yusvita tried to find the correlation between the students’ habit of watching movie and its impact on their listening skill.12She used questionnaire to gather the data on students’ watching habit then correlate it to their listening skill by using statistical analysis. Her research did show that there is a correlation, but upon further examination, a glitch was found. The questionnaire in her research turned out to askmore about students’ perception, while it should have concerned on the activity of watching movies itself, may it be the watching frequency, kinds of movies, characteristics of the movie, etc.

The issues presented above were found to be interesting and worth to be researched under the title THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MOVIE-WATCHING ACTIVITY AND LISTENING SKILL (A Correlational Study of the Fifth-semester Students at the Department of English Education of State Islamic University of Jakarta).

11

Laura B. Johnson, Films in Foreign Language Teaching,The French Review, Vol. 29, No. 5, 1956, pp. 414–417.

12

Riri Yusvita, “The Relationship between Students’ Habit of Watching Movie and Their Listening Skill”, An Undergraduate Thesis at State Islamic University of Jakarta, Jakarta, 2010,


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B. The Identification of the Problems

From the background, several problems can be identified as the following: 1. The students of Department of English Education still lack listening skill.

They often have difficulties in understanding native speakers.

2. The students seem to have not yet received a sufficient amount of language exposure to provide them with comprehensible input.

3. There have not been many researches to prove that movies can provide input and help people acquire language and build their listening skill.

4. The previous related study was flawed, so an improvement was needed.

C. The Limitation of the Problems

After the problems had been identified, they were limited. The scope of this study was limited to English Education students of State Islamic University of Jakarta. The students’ activity of watching English movies was variable x and it would signify the amount and kind of exposure that the students get. Their listening scores was variableyand it would signify their listening skill.

D. The Formulation of the Problems

After the problems had been identified and limited, they were formulated into a research question: Is there any positive relationship between students’ movie-watching activity and their listening skill?

E. The Objective of the Study

This study aimed to find and describe the relationship between students’ movie-watching activity and their listening skill.

F. The Significance of the Study

This study is expected to contribute in the improvement of English Language Teaching, especially in the Department of English Education of State Islamic University of Jakarta, both theoretically and practically:


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1. For the lecturers and other language practitioners: should there be a significant and positive correlation between the two variables, the lecturers at the Department of English Education may encourage the students to watch English movies to improve their language skills. Furthermore, they can use movies in their classes if possible.

2. For the students: if they want to improve their language skills and competence, especially listening, they can try to watch English movies in order to expose themselves to the language and develop their listening skill. 3. For the institution: the Department of English Education may conduct movie

screenings regularly to expose the students to English language.

4. For other researchers: they may inspect this topic more thoroughly to see the extent of movies as a medium for language learning and language acquisition.


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8

A.

Listening Skill

1. The Nature of Listening

In general, listening can be defined as a process of receiving and understanding information in spoken language. However, this process may not be as simple as it appears to be. Listening differs from hearing in term of the process that occurs. Hearing is a physiological process, wherein a sound wave enters someone‘s ears and this wave travels through the nerves into the brain in the form of electrical impulse. Meanwhile, listening process is more psychological. It involves not only the process of hearing itself, but also the complex process of human brain to identify, understand, and interpret the sound or utterance.1 Rubin described listening as ―an active process in which listeners select and interpret information which comes from auditory and visual clues in order to define what is going on and what the speakers are trying to express‖.2

Brown went so far as describing eight rapid linear—if not simultaneous— processes that are involved in listening. They are: (1) The listener receives a sound which is called raw speech; (2) The listener determines the type of the speech, e.g. a conversation, or a news broadcast; (3) The listener determines the purpose of the speaker, e.g. to inform, to request, or to persuade; (4) The listener recalls his/her background knowledge and chooses one that is relevant; (5) The listener tries to interpret what the speaker means literally by using his/her background knowledge. For example, when the listener hears a question “Where are my glasses?” the speaker may be talking about spectacles or about cups; (6) The listener tries to interpret what the speaker means contextually by considering the situation. For the where are my glasses question, the listener may use his/her background knowledge as well as situation like visual clues so he/she can make

1

Robert Heinich, et al., Instructional Media and Technologies for Learning, (New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2002), 7th edition, pp. 172 – 173.

2Joan Rubin, ―An Overview‖, in David J. Mendelsohn and Joan Rubin (ed),

A Guide for the Teaching of Second Language Listening, (San Diego: Dominie Press, Inc., 1995), p. 7.


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sense of the question; (7) The listener determines whether to store the information in short-term or long-term memory; and (8) The listener deletes the form in which the message was received and keeps important information or concept, if there is any.3

The arguments above prove that, contrary to popular belief, listening is not a passive process of receiving whatever kinds of sound into the ears. Rather, listening is a process where a listener actively processes the information behind the sounds in order to understand what the speaker means.

Among the four language skills, listening and reading are categorized as receptive skills, while speaking and writing are productive skills. Even though listening and reading are both receptive skills, the two certainly have differences. The main difference is the medium. Listening skill is concerned with spoken language, while reading skill is concerned with written language. Buck stated that the medium is noteworthy because with spoken language, once the speaker completed his or her utterance, it will be gone without a trace. Unlike when they read something, people cannot go back to see what they just listened. Therefore, they need to rely on their own memory of what was said.4 In addition, there are many other characteristics of spoken language that are different from written language and are often problematic for English language learners. These characteristics will be discussed more thoroughly in the upcoming subchapter.

Listening is not the only skill that is concerned with spoken language. The other related skill is speaking. Between listening and speaking, the former usually gets less attention than the latter even though listening is equally important as speaking. Brown exemplified how underrated listening is through a very common case, namely the way people say the question ―Do you speak English?‖ In this case, of course the asker means ―Do you listen/understand English?‖ as well, but people tend to think of only speaking when they talk about foreign language.5 He

3

H. Douglas Brown, Teaching by Principles, (New York: Pearson ESL, 2000), 2nd edition, pp. 249 – 250.

4Gary Buck, ―How to Become a Good Listening Teacher‖, in David J. Mendelsohn and Joan Rubin (ed), A Guide for the Teaching of Second Language Listening, (San Diego: Dominie Press, Inc., 1995), p.113.

5


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also mentioned that students listen more often than speaking in the classroom and listening is what builds their comprehension of the language. Unfortunately, teachers used to be very engrossed by speaking. Very often students were asked to speak something in foreign language without even knowing the meaning. Brown then stated that listening is the skill that should be given more emphasis, especially in classroom.6 Rivers advocated the importance of listening skill by illustrating a situation that involves a traveler. A person who is traveling in a foreign country with little to no speaking skill could still use gestures or dictionary to communicate with a foreigner. However, if that person does not have listening skill, he or she would not be able to understand what is happening around him or her, which may lead to confusion, frustration, and/or embarrassment.7

It may be true that listening skill used to be neglected. However, considering its importance, especially in communication, many language specialists and researchers have given more attention to listening in the past decades. It can be seen in the numerous publications dealing with listening skill and how to teach it. Some of the emerging English language teaching approaches and methods, like the Natural Approach and Total Physical Response, also have stressed the importance of listening comprehension in learning English. All the researches have been valuable because listening is indeed an interesting field that needs to be explored and developed more.

2. The Views on Listening

As complex as it seems, there have been efforts to understand listening process better. There are two general views on how listening process works: bottom-up and top-down views. The bottom-up model views listening as a linear process. A listener reaches understanding by decoding parts to whole, i.e. from smallest meaningful units (phonemes) to complete texts or utterances.8 Listeners

6

Ibid.

7

Wilga M. Rivers, Listening Comprehension, The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 5, No. 4, 1966, p. 196.

8

David Nunan, Listening in Language Learning, in Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya (eds), Methodology in Language Learning, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 238 – 239.


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begin with understanding the phonetic level and gradually move to higher level: syllabic, lexical, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and interpretative level.9 Consequently, meaning is obtained once the listener reaches the last step in the process.

The top-down model has a closer meaning to the description of listening in the beginning of this skripsi. It views listening as a process wherein the listener actively reconstructs the original meaning of the speaker by using incoming sounds as clues. The listener uses background knowledge as well as the context and situation to make sense of what he or she hears.10 In other words, the listener uses what he/she already know to predict what the message will contain, and uses parts of the message to confirm, correct or add to this ‗prediction‘. In this scenario, understanding is obtained gradually by the listener.

Understanding these two processing models is necessary when teachers need to develop courses, materials, or lessons. For example, teachers should not only teach bottom-up processing skills, like the skill to differentiate minimal pair, but also encourage students to use their background knowledge and see the context. For example, a teacher who is teaching the minimal pair /І/ and /i:/ may not only give the explanation of how the phonetic symbols sound. The teacher can give a sentence like “The sheep is in the field” and ask the students to examine the clues in the sentence in order to decide which phonetic sound is present. For classroom activities, the students may use a processing model for a particular purpose and the other for a different purpose. For example in listening to details, bottom-up model is used, while in listening for gist, the top-down model is used.

Ideally, the real listening process is the integration of the botom-up and top-down models. Sometimes listeners need to pick up the details in order to understand the whole utterance, while other times they need to rely on their background knowledge.11

9

Ian S. P. Nation and Jonathan Newton, Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking,

(New York: Routledge, 2009), p. 40. 10

David Nunan, loc. cit.

11

Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, (Malaysia: Pearson Education Limited, 2001), 3rd Edition, p. 201.


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3. The Kinds of Listening

Brown stated that there are two forms which spoken language takes. It can be in the form of monologue or dialogue. The examples of monologue are speeches, lectures, readings, or news broadcast, while the example of dialogue is a conversation between two people.12 In real life, people generally have a purpose in listening, no matter to which form. They may listen to a news broadcast to find out about the winner of the election, for instance. They listen to a stranger when asking for direction, they listen to a lecturer when they are in the class, etc. Primarily, there are five kinds of listening sub-skills in accordance to listeners‘ purpose, as described by Harmer.13 Teachers can use this knowledge to develop students‘ skill in the classroom. The sub-skills are:

a. Confirming expectation or making prediction

Listeners usually have expectation of what they are going to hear. For example, when someone turns on the television and sees a montage of volcano eruption, he will expect (and probably predict) that the news will be about a disaster. He will listen to see if the information confirms his expectation. As he listens, his prediction may or may not be confirmed until finally he forms an understanding of the news.

b. Getting the general picture

Frequently, people listen to something to get the gist, or the general information. In this case, details are not very important or relevant. Getting the main point of an utterance is essential, especially in spoken language where redundancy is expected. The example is when a person is conversing with his friend about a movie. His friend tells him the details of the movie from the beginning to the end and the details of every character. In this case, the listener could focus on the main idea of the movie and ignore the details, as they are irrelevant and arduous to keep up with.

12

H. Douglas Brown, op. cit., p. 251. 13

Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching New Edition, (New York: Longman, 1991), pp. 183 – 184.


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c. Extracting specific information

Listeners very often listen to something only to get some pieces of information. They can listen to a radio show but only to get the information about their favourite musician, for instance. It does not mean the listeners do not understand the rest of the information; they are still aware of it, only not very focused. In the classroom, the example of activity is listening to a weekly weather forecast.14 Teacher may ask the students to find out if the weather is sunny on Tuesday. Hence they will focus on the keyword sunny and Tuesday when they are listening to the forecast.

d. Extracting detailed information.

This is the opposite of listening to get the general picture. A listener‘s purpose can be to get as much information as possible while he/she listens intensively. The listener should be able to extract the details from the utterance. The examples are when someone is listening to an important lecture, to the announcement in the airport, or to the ingredients of a recipe. In these kinds of listening, details are significant.

e. Recognizing function and discourse pattern.

When native English speakers hear someone say ―for example‖ they know that what will follow is an example. When they hear ―in addition‖, they will expect another piece of information. When they hear ―on the contrary‖, they know that what comes after is a contrasting idea. Recognizing these patterns is necessary because when people listen, these patterns give clues of what to come and more importantly, give some time for listeners to think.

4. The Teaching of Listening

Listening can be taught intensively or extensively. This will lead to the terms intensive and extensive listening. Intensive listening is the common technique. It usually occurs in the classroom, where students practice listening to one or multiple material thoroughly under the guidance of the teacher. Broughton describes this as ―the close study and exploitation of a text for its meaning and the

14


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language used‖.15

The listening exercises normally involve three steps: pre-listening, listening/while-pre-listening, and post-listening. These three steps are explained by Field as the following:

a. Pre-listening

In pre-listening activity, teacher and students prepare to listen. This usually involves brainstorming vocabulary, reviewing grammatical points, and discussing the topic of the passage. Teacher is supposed to set the purpose of the activity and get the learner to be motivated.

b. While-listening

This is the main activity where students listen to tapes or audio. Before the students listen, the teachers have to set the questions or instruction. This way, students will know what to do/expect and not become clueless when they are listening. The tasks may have purposes as stated before, like finding the main topic or finding specific information. They can also involve labelling (e.g., marking a map), selecting (e.g., choosing one out of five picture based on description), form-filling (e.g., registration form), etc. This step may end with correcting the answer together.

c. Post-listening

In this last step teachers usually recall words, phrases, idioms, expressions, etc that appear on the audio. Teachers may ask the students what the words mean, what is the synonym of the word, etc. Teachers may also start a new discussion from the topic.16

The popular format for the exercise is by using audio tapes. Aside from being cheap and easy to use, tapes allow students to hear a large variety of voices, which is good for improving their skill. As the technology advanced, some alternatives to tapes emerged. Heinich listed compact discs or CDs and digital files or MP3s as

15

Geoffrey Broughton, et al., Teaching English as a Foreign Language, (New York: Routledge, 1980), p. 66.

16 John Field, ―The Changing Face of Listening‖, in Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya (eds), Methodology in Language Teaching, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 242 – 245.


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substitutions for audio tapes.17 Recently, CDs and MP3s are even more obtainable.

Video can also be an excellent option. Harmer noted the specialties of video, like the availability of visual clues and cultural references, and simply being interesting enough to boost students‘ motivation.18

According to Rubin, there are three characteristics that should be considered when selecting video.19 They are shown on Table 2.1.

Table 2.1 The Characteristics in Selecting Video

Aspects Characteristics

Video

1) There must be sufficient visual support in the forms of physical setting/prop, action, and interaction. The visual support is crucial to help learners form their understanding, especially if there is a plot line involved in the passage. 2) The video must have good production value so there will be

no distracting aural or visual noise.

3) The video should not be subtitled or dubbed. Rubin argued that subtitles only help if the goal is to improve vocabulary mastery, not listening skill. It is because subtitles prevent the students from listening to the sound and using visual clues, while dubbing obviously means no English at all. Rubin‘s argument is also supported by Ur who stated that subtitle will be distracting for EFL learners, even if it is in English.20

4) Length of segment should be considered based on the level

17

Robert Heinich, et al., Instructional Media and Technologies for Learning, (New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2002), 7th edition, pp. 175 – 179.

18

Jeremy Harmer, 2001, op. cit., p. 282 19

Joan Rubin, The Contribution of Video to the Development of Competence in Listening, in David J. Mendelsohn and Joan Rubin (ed), A Guide for the Teaching of Second Language Listening, (San Diego: Dominie Press, Inc., 1995), pp. 154 – 157.

20

Penny Ur, Teaching Listening Comprehension, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), p. 66.


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Aspects Characteristics

of the listeners because elementary and intermediate listeners have very limited memory capacity and relatively low background knowledge. The students may have troubles in catching up with long videos.

Language

1) The language used in the video should be appropriate for the listeners‘ level.

2) If the language is dense, it will be more difficult to follow. A speech is dense when it has complex syntax. The order of density from the most dense to the least dense is: newscast, interview, drama.

3) The presence of recognizable words and phrases may help ease listeners‘ understanding. For example, it will be easier for Indonesian learners to watch a video about Borobudur Temple than one about Pyramid because their background knowledge will come to their aid.

Learner

1) The learners‘ sex, age, and interest should be considered. Learners tend to be more attracted to materials that represent their age or sex. They will also pay more attention if the topic is interesting for them. For example, a class with majority of male students will pay attention to a video about sport.

2) As previously stated, learners‘ proficiency must be carefully put into consideration when selecting the video.

The other way for listening exercise is by ‗live‘ listening. In ‗live‘ listening, the students listen to a speaker who is present in the classroom. The speaker can be the teacher or even a guest native speaker. The activities can be expanded creatively, like listening to a story telling by one of the students, and listening to live interview or conversation. This method has obvious advantages because the


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speaker is there to provide visual clues if it is possible, and the students can clarify unclear information.21

The other technique is extensive listening. Here students are required—or rather, encouraged—to listen to a lot of materials, but they are free to choose whichever materials that they like and whichever ones that they think can improve their listening skill. Students mostly listen to the materials outside the classroom at their leisure. There is little pressure and the learning goes in an unconscious— and fun—way. Extensive listening is also satisfying in a sense that it demonstrates that what the students have learnt in the classroom is useful in their real life.22 The materials used in extensive listening are basically similar to those in classroom/intensive listening. Teachers may provide various tapes, CDs, or digital audio and video files that the students can borrow. It would be even better if the materials are authentic or from real life, like news broadcast, movie, podcast, etc. To make the activity become more focused, teachers may provide the students with report forms. Teachers can assign a response journal, response poster, card comments, or even comments on social media posts. The key is to make students enjoy the process of listening practice and find many reasons to listen.

5. The Teaching of Listening at the Department of English Education

In the Department of English Education, listening and three other language skills are obligatory courses for the students. Listening skill itself is taught in four levels, from Listening 1 to Listening 4. The students need to pass a course before they take the next level.

The teaching of listening follows the standard mentioned previously, with lessons consisting of pre-listening, while-listening, and post-listening. The materials vary from beginner lessons in Listening 1 to more advanced lessons in the later Listening courses.

One of the primary data in this study is listening scores, and the scores were taken from Listening 4 course. Listening 4 is the most advanced listening course

21

Jeremy Harmer, 2001, op. cit., p. 230. 22


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in the Department of English Education, and the scores from this course were expected to represent the students‘ most recent skill and competence. This course uses materials in the forms of academic and situational passages. The exercises include finding main ideas, specific information, supporting ideas, speaker‘s opinions, etc. (see Appendix 1). This course also emphasizes on the development of the students‘ competence for IELTS (International English Language Testing System) preparation.

6. The Difficulties in Listening

The difficulties in listening may come from the listeners themeselves (internal) or from the characteristics of spoken language (external). Penny Ur identified several common problems that the learners have. These problems are as follows:

a. Learners often have trouble in catching the actual sounds of foreign language because they perceive the sounds inaccurately;

b. Learners assumed that they have to understand every word, whereas not every word necessarily adds meaning to the sentence;

c. Learners can not comprehend natural speech because they can not keep up with the speed;

d. Learners often need to hear a speech more than once in order to fully understand it;

e. Learners are often overwhelmed by the incoming information;

f. Learners get tired and lose their concentration when they have to listen to long speeches or passages.23

To overcome these problems, learners need to practice a lot and develop their own strategies. For example, if they cannot understand the sounds, they may practice listening to various sounds and recognizing their pronunciation. If they have trouble in understanding fast speech, they should get more exposure to fast,

23

Penny Ur, A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 111 – 112.


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but highly understandable speech, for example informal talks. They key is to practice and get as much exposure as possible.24

Aside from learners‘ internal problems, there are also the external problems that come from the speech itself. Spoken English language has special characteristics which differentiate it from written language. These characteristics can be problematic for ESL and EFL learners if they are not familiar. It is important for learners to acknowledge the characteristics and be accustomed to them. Brown pointed out 8 characteristics as the following:

a) Clustering

In written language, a sentence is the basic unit of organization. Meanwhile in spoken language, people speak in ―chunks‖ rather than full sentence. People break down speech into smaller groups or words, like clauses or phrases.

b) Redundancy

Spoken language is highly redundant. People often say more than what it needs to convey the message. Redundancy includes repetitions, rephrasing, elaborations, and insertions like ―I mean‖, ―well‖, and ―you know‖. Redundancy may help listener to process the meaning by offering time or clues to what will be said next. However, listeners should know that the redundant utterance itself is usually not to be used in forming the message.

c) Reduced forms

Spoken language can be—and is often—reduced. The reduction can be phonological (“Djeetyet?” for ―Did you eat yet?‖), morphological (contraction like I‘ll), syntactic (Missing elements like ―When will you be back?‖ ―I will be back Tomorrow, maybe‖), or pragmatic (when a phone rings a girl calls out to her mother ―Mom! Phone!‖)

d) Performance variables

Unless the speech is planned, speakers usually have hesitations, pauses, or correction when they speak. Brown expressed that a transcribed speech may look ridiculous in written form, but people have little trouble in understanding it when

24


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it is spoken. For example: “But, uh—I also—with this course if you’re playing well—if you’re playing well then you go uptight about, uh, your game.”

e) Colloquial language

Colloquial language is language forms that are more often used in speaking than writing. It often includes idiom, slang, and informal language. For example in writing people use the word ―man‖, while in speaking people say ―guy‖.

f) Rate of delivery

People, especially native speakers, often seem to talk too fast which is challenging for listeners. Furthermore, in reading people can reread the parts that they do not understand while in listening people cannot rewind the utterance. g) Stress and intonation

English is stress-timed language, which means there are stresses in the words and in between syllables. It can be confusing to learners whose native language does not have stress system. The intonation also takes significant role in giving meaning to the utterance. For example, the intonation in a statement and in a question is different. Intonation may also indicate more subtle message, like emphasis, sarcasm, endearment, etc.

h) Interaction

In spoken language, usually people do not just listen. There is an interaction between the two parties, like negotiation, clarification, maintenance of the conversation, etc.25

7. The Definition of Listening Skill

After the literature on Listening has been reviewed, it is necessary to define ―listening skill‖ as the variable y of this study. Listening skill is the skill in understanding the meaning behind spoken language. When people listen, they identify the units in the sound or utterance, and use their background knowledge to make sense of what they hear, and finally form their understanding. People mainly listen to confirm their expectation and to get the general information, detailed information, or specific information.

25


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However, in forming their understanding, they may have difficulties, whether internal or external. To overcome the difficulties, they need to practice listening more frequently, get as much exposure as possible, and familiarize themselves to the spoken English language.

B.

Second Language Acquisition Theories and Hypotheses

Humans use language to communicate with each other. Ever since little children are aware of and exposed to a rich language environment, they will begin to naturally ―absorb‖ the utterances from the people around them. They will begin to form a language competence and this occurrence is called first language acquisition. When people ―absorb‖ one more language, it is called second language acquisition (SLA).

The following discussion attempts to elaborate five theories and hypotheses regarding Second Language Acquisition, mainly from the views of Stephen Krashen, one of the pioneers of SLA research.

1. The Acquisition-Learning Distinction

Krashen argued that language acquisition is different from language learning. Language acquisition, according to him, is a subconscious process in which a person is not aware of the fact that he/she is acquiring a language, and it results in a subconscious skill and competence. It means that acquirers are not generally aware of the exact rules of the language, like its grammar, for instance. However, they have a sense of ‗correctness‘; they can tell when a sentence feels correct and when it feels incorrect even though they cannot identify the error. In contrast, language learning involves a conscious process in which someone knows the knowledge and rules of a language and is able to differ and explain the correct and incorrect sentence by referring to the grammatical structure. Language learning usually takes place in a formal institution.26

26

Stephen Krashen, Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. (New York: Pergamon, 1982), Internet Edition, p.10.


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2. The Natural Order Hypothesis

This hypothesis believes that people—whether children or adults—acquire grammatical structure in a predictable order. They usually begin with simple rules and gradually acquire more complex rules.27

3. The Monitor Hypothesis

Once the distinction between language acquisition and language learning has been identified, it is important to know how these two interact. Monitor Hypothesis states that acquisition is responsible for someone‘s fluency while the role of learning is limited as a monitor for language competence that is acquired through acquisition. In producing, learners use the language that they acquired. The language (rules) that they learned, on the other hand, helps them when they need to edit or correct their produced language. Simply put, acquisition has a more significant and direct role in someone‘s linguistic performance than learning does. To illustrate, the relationship between the two is shown on Figure 2.1.28

Figure 2.1 Acquisition and Learning in Second Language Production

It is true that acquisition should be emphasized, but it does not mean learning should be overlooked. By using the monitor, people could use the language that they have not acquired. Krashen divided monitor users into three categories: monitor over-users who use monitor all the time, which interrupts communication;

27

Ibid., pp. 12 – 13. 28

Ibid., pp. 15 – 16. Acquired

language competence

Learned language competence (as monitor)


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monitor under-users, who rarely use the monitor even when it can help; and optimal users, who use the monitor in appropriate times.29

4. The Input Hypothesis

Once it is established that acquisition is the main goal, a question emerges: ―how do people acquire language?‖ This hypothesis seeks to answer that question and it is perhaps the principal theory on which this study is based.

According to Krashen, people acquire language when they receive a comprehensible input. It means a language input with a structure that is slightly beyond their current competence but still meaningful to them. The inputs can be received primarily from directly listening to other people‘s speech. With the advancement of the mass media and technology, people can also get inputs by listening to a news broadcast, listening to an English song, watching a television program, or watching an English movie.

People can understand this input by using their current competence as well as context and their background knowledge. A person‘s current competence can be symbolized as i. In acquiring the language, this person moves from i to the next level which is i+1. To get there, the person needs to understand an utterance, or an input that contains i+1. It is important to emphasize ―understand‖ as there will be no acquisition if the input is not comprehensible. It should also be noted that ―understand‖ here means understanding the meaning and not the form. The process is represented on Figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2 How Comprehensible Input Works in Language Acquisition

29

Ibid., pp. 17 – 19. i

i+1

i+1 i+1

i+1

Comprehensible input

Comprehensible input

Comprehensible input


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One important part of this hypothesis is the emphasis on receptive skill, mainly listening. People use their listening skill to receive and understand input. Their ability to produce or speak emerges much later when the learners feel ready.30

5. The Affective Filter Hypothesis

This main concern of this hypothesis is how acquisition is influenced by people‘s affective factors. There is a language acquisition device (LAD) in the brain whose function is processing input to become competence. However, there is an affective filter between the coming input and LAD. What this filter does is ‗filter‘ the input and prevent the receiver from acquiring the language, as illustrated on Figure 2.3.

Figure 2.3 How Affective Filter Influences Input and Acquisition

What make a person‘s affective filter are three affective factors: motivation, confidence, and anxiety. When a person has low motivation, low self-confidence, and high anxiety, the affective filter is strong. Thus, the person‘s language acquisition device will receive the least input. In order to successfully receive the input and acquire the language, the person needs to have optimal attitudes towards the input. Optimal attitudes consist of high motivation, high self-confidence, and low anxiety. To simplify: optimal attitudes will weaken the affective filter, which will allow more input to be received. This will lead to a successful acquisition.31

30

Ibid., pp. 21 – 22. 31

Ibid., pp. 30 – 32.

Input LAD

Acquired competence Filter


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From what is known about language acquisition in the explanations above, it can be concluded that (1) acquisition is more important than learning, (2) people acquire language by receiving a comprehensible input and with optimal attitudes, and (3) the inputs can be provided primarily by listening to other people‘s speech, either directly or through media like television programs, songs, movies, etc.

This section will briefly discuss how other factors can affect language acquisition. There are four factors, namely language teaching, exposure, age, and acculturation.

a) Language teaching (in the classroom) can help acquisition as long as comprehensible input is provided and the condition allows optimal attitudes. b) Exposure does not necessarily mean acquisition. Trying to expose oneself to a

language does not guarantee the person acquisition if the input is not comprehensible. It should be noted, however, that the higher amount of exposure grants more chance of comprehensible input to be available.

c) The younger is not always the better. Children seem to acquire faster than adults because the inputs that they receive are relatively simpler, hence more comprehensible.

d) Acculturation may allow people to adapt to the language community and get comprehensible input. A good relationship between the learner and the community may also provide low affective filter.32

C.

Movie-watching Activity

1. General Views on Movies

According to Barsam and Monahan, a movie is a story, captured in a set of celluloid strips/films, which are shown on a screen with certain speed to give the impression of moving.33 Lately a lot of moviemakers have been shooting their movies digitally, but the main characteristic of movies remains the same; a movie or a film is a ‗motion picture‘. Movies have been a big part of human life. Barsam

32

Ibid., pp. 32 – 49. 33

Richard Barsam and Dave Monahan, Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film,


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and Monahan even stated that calling movie as ―the most popular art form‖ is an understatement. That is how influential movies are.

As a form of art, movies are on a par with other artistic forms. Boggs and Petrie acknowledge this fact by stating that:

Like painting and photography, film exploits the subtle interplay of light and shadow. Like sculpture, film manipulates three-dimensional space. But, like pantomime, film focuses on moving images, and as in dance, the moving images in film have rhythm. The complex rhythms of film resemble those of music and poetry, and like poetry in particular, film communicates through imagery, metaphor, and symbol. Like the drama, film communicates visually and verbally: visually, through action and gesture; verbally, through dialogue. Finally, like the novel, film expands or compresses time and space, traveling back and forth freely within their wide borders.34

Despite those similarities, movies also have distinctive qualities:

The continuous interplay of sight, sound, and motion allows film to transcend the static limitations of painting and sculpture-in the complexity of its sensual appeal as well as in its ability to communicate simultaneously on several levels. Film even surpasses drama in its unique capacity for revealing various points of view, portraying action, manipulating time, and conveying a boundless sense of space. Unlike the stage play, film can provide a continuous, unbroken flow, which blurs and minimizes transitions without compromising the story's unity. Unlike the novel and the poem, film communicates directly, not through abstract symbols like words on a page but through concrete images and sounds. What's more, film can treat an almost infinite array of subjects.35

An example to illustrate the points above is when people see a play on a stage; they can only see what their seating position allows them to. If a stage performer holds something, say a bracelet, even the audience who sits on the front row can hardly see it. With movies, on the other hand, every viewer can explore the story with the same size. The moviemaker can use special characteristics of movie to show the bracelet, then the character face to build emotional relationship with viewers, and probably a flashback to three years before the scene to show

34

Joseph M. Boggs and Dennis W. Petrie, The Art of Watching Films, (New York: McGraw Hill, 2008), 7th edition, p. 3.

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how the character got the bracelet.36 Thus, movies allow both moviemakers and the audience to explore the story in the finest fashion.

Not only a form of art and expression, movies also provide a promising career path. Movie industry is one of the biggest industries in the world. This industry has produced a large number of successful and popular moviemakers and movie stars. In terms of commercial success, a movie can gross millions of dollars. For example the recent Jurrasic World (released 2015, director Colin Trevorrow) has earned over 1.5 billion of dollars worldwide.37 Even a classic movie like Titanic (released 1997, director James Cameron) still earns money to date, making it the second highest-grossing movie of all time with over 2 billion dollars.38 Movies that create a cultural phenomenon, like Star Wars franchise, do not only earn money from ticket sales, but also the sales of merchandise like action figures and costumes. The movie industry does not only concern the moviemaking process, but also the external aspect such as critics, which are inevitable for a form of art. Many people these days consider being a movie critic as a fine profession, which can be seen from websites such as Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com),

Rotten Tomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com), and Letterboxd

(www.letterboxd.com).

Movies have become a big part of humans‘ life and culture to the point that it is undeniable that people, even the most reclusive ones, must have watched a movie at least once in their life. Movies have become very accessible for everyone. People can go to nearby theatres to watch new movies, or they can go to their local DVDs stores. Even if people cannot go anywhere, they can still watch movies at home on television and stream or download the movies from the internet. Most movies are also released with subtitles or dubbing for worldwide release, so people who do not understand English, for instance, can still watch a movie using their first language.

Not only do people watch movies for entertainment, but they also do it for pedagogic purposes. In (native) English classes, movies are often used to a vast

36

Richard Barsam and Dave Monahan, op. cit., p. 5. 37

www.boxofficemojo.com, accessed on 25 October 2015. 38


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extent. Movies are typically used in English classes, but it can also be used in other fields, including Biology, Chemist, and History, even Law and Adolescent Development.39 In ESL and EFL classes, the use of movies also receives nods from teachers. An experiment conducted by Ismaili shows that movies can develop students‘ listening and communication skills.40 Johnson noted that watching movies in foreign languages give benefits for students, such as (1) their ability in understanding spoken language increases, (2) their pronunciation improves (3) they acquire new vocabulary, (4) they can develop students‘ self -expression ability, and (5) they unconsciously adapt to the language‘s grammatical forms and sentence patterns in context.41 Movies are a medium through which ESL/EFL students can get exposed to the target language and receive a comprehensible input. Movies also provide students with authentic English language with its unique characteristics. Furthermore, movies have the good characteristics of video for students (see Table 2.1), such as visual supports and cultural reference.

2. The Structure and Genres of Movies

Barsam states that the way the story in a movie is told is called its narrative. The narrative structure of a movie has several elements, they are:

a. Story and plot. Story refers to the whole universe where the events of the movie occur, while plot is the parts of that universe that is presented on the screen.

b. Order is the way the events in the movie are sequenced. c. Events are what happen in the movie.

d. Duration can refer to story duration, which is the implicit amount/length of time the whole events happen; plot duration, which is the amount of time the plot happens; and screen duration, which is the length of the movie itself.

39

Cheryl Bluestone, Feature Films as a Teaching Tool, College Teaching, Vol. 48, No. 4, 2000, pp. 141 – 146.

40

Merita Ismaili, The Effectiveness of Using Movies in EFL Classroom, Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Vol. 2, No. 4, 2013, pp.121 – 129.

41

Laura B. Johnson, Films in Foreign Language Teaching, The French Review, Vol. 29, No. 5, 1956, pp. 414 – 417.


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e. Suspense and surprise. Suspense is what audience expect to happen but does not happen, while surprise is what audience do not expect to happen, but happens.

f. Repetition is the number of times an element recurs in the plot. g. Characters are the individuals who are involved in the story. h. Setting is the time and place in which the story occurs.

i. Scope is the range of time and place from which to which the plot occurs. j. Narration and Narrator. Narration is the story telling of the movie. It can be

visually (by camera work) or orally (by narrator).42

Movies can be categorized based on the recurring elements or pattern in them. This categorization results in the term genre. Some movies focus on one genre, while some others mix the genres by adding elements from other genres to make the movie more interesting. From mixing elements from other genres, many new genres emerge. Filmsite identifies 11 main genres, namely action, adventure, comedy, crime/gangster, drama, epics, horror, musical, science-fiction, war, and westerns; and 13 subgenres, including fantasy, romance, biography, and thriller/suspense.43 The definition and examples of several genres and subgenres are as follows:

a) Action, usually include energetic actions, with elements like chases, rescues, escapes, battles, and fights in a spectacular pacing. These actions usually involve the traditional good versus bad characters. The examples of such genre are James Bond franchise, and Kill Bill volume 1 & 2 (2003 & 2004). b) Adventure, is similar to action genre which aims to entertain the audience

with energetic actions. However, adventure movies usually focus more on travels, explorations, quests, treasure hunts, etc. Some notable examples are Indiana Jones and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises.

c) Animations, or animated films are made from drawing or illustrations which are photographed and projected in rapid succession. Animations are often mistaken as a genre while in fact, animation is a filmmaking technique.

42

Richard Barsam and Dave Monahan, op. cit., pp. 119 – 142. 43


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Animated movies are usually intended to attract younger audience even though quite animated movies use more complex and mature themes. Well-known examples of animations are produced by Walt Disney studio, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Aladdin (1992).

d) Comedy, usually have simple and amusing plots with dialogues, situation, and characters that invoke laughter from the audience. Some examples are Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) and Airplane! (1980).

e) Drama, serves mostly serious and realistic stories which show characters and their relationship with themselves, other people, or life and nature. This genre is perhaps the largest and broadest genre because it can expand to other subgenres, like historical drama, melodrama, family drama, etc. Some examples of dramatic movies are Taxi Driver (1976), The Help (2011), and Paris, Texas (1984).

f) Fantasy, entertains audience by serving imaginative stories with elements like magic, mythology, and fairy tales. Notable examples of this subgenre are Harry Potter trilogy and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

g) Horror, aims to frighten the audience. Usually there is a presence of supernatural elements, like ghosts, possession, cults, monsters, etc. The frightener can also be in the form of a homicidal maniac. Some examples are Psycho (1960), The Shining (1980), and Insidious (2010).

h) Musicals, usually have characters that express themselves by singing and/or dancing. Notable examples include The Sound of Music (1965), and Les Miserables (2012).

i) Romance, are dramas that focus on romantic relationships between characters. Some popular examples are Annie Hall (1977) and Titanic (1997). j) Science fiction or sci-fi, mainly focuses on humanity‘s relationship with

advancement of science and technology, like robots, time-machine, or outer-space. However, very often most science fictions are about speculative fantasy life beyond humanity, like aliens, viral plague, or disasters. Notable examples of this genre are Star Wars franchise, Solaris (1972), and Interstellar (2014).


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k) Thriller, aims to thrill the audience or keep them ‗on the edge of their seats‘ by creating suspense and anxiety. It usually involves mystery and characters that are in possible danger like homicide or terrorism. Notable examples of this genre are the movies by Alfred Hitchcock like Read Window (1954) and Vertigo (1958).

l) War, takes place in the middle of a war conflict. The characters can be soldiers, or people affected by the war. Some examples are Saving Private Ryan (1992) and Pearl Harbor (2001).

3. The Definition of Movie-watching Activity

After the general characteristics of movies have been reviewed, it is necessary to define ―movie-watching activity‖ as the variable x of this research. According to Oxford Advanced Learner‘s Dictionary, watch is a verb that means ―to look at somebody/something for a time, paying attention to what happens‖.44

Meanwhile, activity is a noun that can mean ―a thing that you do for interest or pleasure‖.45

In this study, movie-watching activity is the activity of looking and paying attention to a movie. The watching activity here can be done by using any possible media, and with or without the aid of subtitle. The movie here refers to all genres of motion pictures that use English language in their narrative. However, the movies that have been dubbed to languages other than English are not included in the scope of this study.

D.

Previous Related Studies

The first related study was conducted by Yusvita. She sought to find the relationship between the listening skill and the watching habits of 40 second grade students of MTs Hidayatut Thalibin, South Jakarta. She used questionnaire to collect the data on students‘ watching habit and she used students‘ score provided by teacher as the data of the students‘ listening skill. She correlated the scores

44Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary.

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 8th edition, p. 1738.

45


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from questionnaire with their listening scores by using Pearson Product Moment statistical procedure. The findings of her research showed a moderate correlation between the watching habit of students at MTs Hidayatut Thalibin and their listening skill with index correlation value 0,46. However, her research also showed weakness, mainly in the questionnaire. Rather than asking how the students watched the movies, most of the questions asked how the students perceivedthe use of movies as a learning material. Furthermore, the response only involved three scales/options.46

The next related study which was conducted by Rahman focused on how the amount of time that students spent in watching English movies relates to their vocabulary mastery. The sample in this research was 64 second graders at MAN 1 Semarang. Rahman used a questionnaire to measure the students watching frequency and a test to measure their vocabulary mastery. He found a correlation with index value of 0.584. It was a positive correlation which means the more students watch movies, the more they improve their vocabulary mastery.47

The last related study which was conducted by Mutmainah sought to find the relationship between students‘ habit of listening to English songs with their listening skills. The sample in this research was 80 second graders at SMPN 2 Kota Tangerang Selatan. She used questionnaire to measure the students‘ listening habit and a test to measure their listening score. After calculating the data with Pearson Product Moment statistical procedure, she found a relationship between two variables with correlation index of 0,541, which means a moderate correlation.48

46Riri Yusvita, ―The Relationship between Students‘ Habit of Watching Movie and Their

Listening Skill‖, An Undergraduate Thesis at State Islamic University of Jakarta, Jakarta, 2010,

unpublished.

47 Arif Rahman, ―Correlation between Frequency of Watching Eng

lish Movies and Vocabulary Mastery of Second Grade Students of MAN 1 Semarang in the Academic Year of

2011/2012‖, An Undergraduate Thesis at IAIN Walisongo, Semarang, 2012, Unpublished.

48Muthia Mutmainah, ―The Relationship between Students‘ Habit in Liste

ning English

Songs and Their Listening Ability‖, An Undergraduate Thesis at State Islamic University of


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E.

Thinking Framework

After reading the materials, the writer understood that in acquiring language competence and skills—including listening skill—a person needs to receive a comprehensible input. The more amount of exposure also provides more possibility for receiving input. One of the ways to receive this input is by watching English movies. Not only can a movie provide input, but it can also familiarize the listener with authentic spoken language with its unique characteristics. Movies also provide visual clues and optimal attitudes for understanding input. Therefore, the writer assumed that there is a positive relationship between students‘ movie-watching activity and their listening skill. It means that the students who watch a lot of English movies will have a better listening skill. If a significant relationship was found, then language learners and teachers can try to use movies as a means to improve listening skill.

F.

The Research Hypotheses

Two research hypotheses were established as a possible answer to research question. The first one is H1 or alternative hypothesis, and the second one is H0 or null hypothesis:

H1 = There is a positive relationship between students‘ movie -watching activity and their listening skill

H0 = There is no relationship between students‘ movie-watching activity and their listening skill


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34

A.

Place and Time of the Study

The research was conducted at the Department of English Education, Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers’ Training, State Islamic University of Jakarta. The University is located on Jalan Ir. H. Juanda No. 95, South Tangerang, Banten province, Indonesia. The data collection process started from 5 to 28 October 2015.

B.

Method and Design of the Study

The method used in this research was quantitative method. This method emphasized objectivity by using numbers, statistics, structure, and control. The research used a correlational design, which is usually used in assessing relationships between two or more variables.1 In this research, the variables are students’ movie-watching activity (x) and their listening skill (y).

C.

Population and Sample of the Study

The population of the research was all of the fifth semester students at the Department of English Education in the study year of 2015/2016. There are three classes (A, B, and C) with the total of 67 students. In deciding the sample, mixed methods in two phases were used. The first method was convenience sampling, which is a sampling method by choosing available individuals. The second method was simple random sampling, in which the participants were randomly selected.2 In the first phase, the students were asked if they were available to participate in this study, to which 53 students responded affirmatively. These 53

1

James H. McMillan and Sally Schumacher, Research in Education, (Boston: Pearson Education, Inc., 2006), 6th edition, pp. 23 – 25.

2

Jack R. Fraenkel and Norman E. Wallen, How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education, (New York: McGraw Hill, 2009), 7th edition, pp. 93 – 99.


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students then were given the questionnaire to fill. Not all of the filled questionnaires were used, because there were several incomplete questionnaires.

In the next or final phase, only 30 questionnaires from the respondents were used. These 30 students were chosen randomly to be the main respondents. According to Fraenkel and Wallen, 30 is the minimum sample size of a correlational study.3 From the 30 respondents, 12 were from class A, 12 from class B, and 6 from class C. Furthermore, 20 of the respondents were female and 10 were male.

D.

Instruments of the Study

There were two main instruments used in this study. The first one was the document of respondents’ achievement test. Achievement test is a test that is used to measure what students have learnt in a specific subject.4 In this study, the subject was Listening 4 and the scores were taken from the final test scores. Listening 4 was chosen based on the suggestion from the Listening lecturer. These scores are the most recent listening scores of the respondents, and hence are expected to represent their listening skill more accurately. Furthermore, the data collection would not be time-consuming because the scores were already available in the archive of Department of English Education.

The second instrument was questionnaire with scaled options. It was used to collect the data of respondents’ movie-watching activity. This instrument was advantageous because it was economical, easy to administer, and accurate.5 The questionnaire consisted of two sections. The first section aimed to gather the respondents’ background: gender, age, length of exposure, preferred genres, and preferred media in watching. The second section was the main questionnaire that aimed to measure the respondents’ movie-watching activity. The scale used in the questionnaire was Likert scale, which is widely used and easy to modify based on the nature of the questions/statements.6 The scale goes as follows: Hampir Selalu

3

Ibid., p. 335. 4

James H. McMillan and Sally Schumacher, op. cit., pp. 191 – 192.

5

Ibid., pp. 194 – 199.

6


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(Almost Always), Sering (Frequently), Kadang-kadang (Sometimes), Jarang (Rarely), and Hampir Tidak Pernah (Almost never). The questionnaire was administered in Indonesian to avoid confusion from respondents.

The steps in creating the main questionnaire were: 1) Developing Conceptual Design

From the literature that had been reviewed, several concepts regarding listening skill were identified. After that, theories on language acquisition were used in bridging the concept of listening skill and movie-watching activity. The conceptual design involves eight aspects: (1) language acquisition; (2) comprehensible input; (3) exposure; (4) attitudes; (5) subtitle use; (6) familiarity with unique characteristics of spoken language; (7) familiarity with situation and/or culture; and (8) visual clues.

2) Developing Operational Design

After the conceptual design had been established, the operational design was composed as the following:

a. Language acquisition is more important than language learning. Acquisition occurs unconsciously, while learning occurs consciously. (Stephen Krashen)

b. People acquire a language by receiving comprehensible input. (Stephen Krashen)

c. A large amount of exposure can provide the likelihood of comprehensible input. (Stephen Krashen)

d. An input can best be received with positive attitudes. (Stephen Krashen) e. The kinds of movies that best provide input are the ones with no subtitles.

(Joan Rubin, Penny Ur)

f. In improving their listening skill, people should familiarize themselves with spoken English language and its unique characteristics. (H. Douglas Brown)

g. Visual clues can help listener understand a speech/utterance. (Jeremy Harmer, Joan Rubin)


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89 Appendix 10


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90 Appendix 10


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91 Appendix 10


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92 Appendix 10


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93 Appendix 10


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94 Appendix 10