OGRAM D DEPARTM MENT OF L LANGUAG GE AND A ARTS EDUCATION F FACULTY Y OF TEAC CHERS TR RAINING A AND EDUC CATION SANATA A DHARM MA UNIVER RSITY YOGYAK KARTA 20007

  THE C CONTRIB BUTION OF LIST TENING J JOURNA AL TOWA ARDS   

  LE EARNERS S’ LISTE ENING CO OMPREH HENSION N SKILL LS   

  AND LE EARNING G AUTON NOMY   

  A THE ESIS

  Preseented as Parrtial Fulfillm ment of the Requiremeents to Obtain tthe Sarjana a Pendidikan n Degree in En nglish Langu uage Educattion

  By y Dera Estuarso

  Stud dent Numbeer: 0312141 147

  “. . .pay attention to how you listen. . .”

Luke 8:18

For Jehovah God, Lord Jesus and my beloved Family,

who make me learn Luke 8:18

    

STATEMENT OF WORK ORIGINALITY

  I honestly declare that this thesis which I wrote does not contain the works or part of the works of other people, except those cited in the quotations and references, as a scientific paper should.

  Yogyakarta, June 29, 2007 The Writer

  

Dera Estuarso

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My biggest appreciation goes to my major sponsor, C. Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd.

  for her time and incessant support to the completion of this thesis. I am also indebted to my co-sponsor, Ouda Teda Ena, S.Pd, M.Pd., for sharing with me his critical thoughts, helpful suggestions and encouraging advice.

  I am very much grateful to Ajeng, Ella, and Rayyan who have volunteered themselves participating in this study. My earnest gratitude also belongs to, as always, my family for their persistent effort to sweep the worries and weariness in the bumpy journey towards the completion of the thesis.

  My thankfulness goes also to my PBI mates, who have supported me unwaveringly, Bunga, Candra, Nicko, Vendi, Febri, Tika, Timur, Debby, Titik, Dono, Joe, Non’ and for those whose names are not listed here.

  Lastly, my great thankfulness is for those who have directly or indirectly helped and supported me in writing this thesis.

  Dera Estuarso

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

  COVER PAGE   TITLE PAGE .......................................................................................................... i    PAGE OF APPROVAL .......................................................................................... ii    PAGE OF ACCEPTANCE ..................................................................................... iii    PAGE OF DEDICATION ...................................................................................... iv    STATEMENT OF WORK ORIGINALITY .......................................................... v    ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...................................................................................... vi    TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................... vii    LIST OF TABLE .................................................................................................... x    LIST OF FIGURE .................................................................................................. xi    ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... xii   

  

ABSTRAK .............................................................................................................. xiii   

  CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION    A. Background of the Study ....................................................................................... 1    B. Problem Identification .......................................................................................... 3    C. Limitation of the study .......................................................................................... 3    D. Problem Formulation ............................................................................................. 4    E. Objectives of the Study ......................................................................................... 4    F. Benefits of the Study ............................................................................................. 5    G. Definition of terms ................................................................................................ 5    CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW    A. Theoretical Description ......................................................................................... 8   

  1. The Nature of Listening .................................................................................... 8   

  2. The teaching of listening and Curriculum of English Language in     High schools in Indonesia ............................................................................... 10   

  3. Metacognition and Learning Autonomy ......................................................... 12   

  B. The Theoretical Framework ................................................................................ 14   

  B. Research Participants .......................................................................................... 17   

  C. Setting .................................................................................................................. 18  

  D. Research Instruments .......................................................................................... 18   

  1. Listening journal ............................................................................................. 19   

  2. Field Notes ...................................................................................................... 19   

  3. Interview Guidelines ....................................................................................... 20   

  4. Comprehension Test ....................................................................................... 20   

  E. Data Gathering Technique ................................................................................... 20   

  F. Data Analysis ...................................................................................................... 22   

  1. Data Reduction ............................................................................................... 22   

  2. Data Display ................................................................................................... 24   

  3. Data Summary ................................................................................................ 24   

  G. Research Procedure ............................................................................................. 25   

  CHAPTER IV DATA ANALYSIS   A. Research Findings ............................................................................................... 28   

  1. The Effect of Writing Listening Journal on Participants’ Listening    Comprehension Skills ..................................................................................... 28   

  a. Participants’ Listening Strategies .............................................................. 29   

  b. Listening Strategies reported in Listening Journal .................................... 33     1) Unspecific Strategies ............................................................................. 33    2) Specific Strategies ................................................................................. 34   

  c. The Depth of the Listening Journal ........................................................... 35   

  d. Listening Comprehension Skills and Depth of Listening Journal ............. 36   

  2. The Effect of Writing Listening Journal on Participants’ Learning     Autonomy ....................................................................................................... 39   

  a. Self-Awareness .......................................................................................... 40   

  b. Self-Direction ............................................................................................. 40   

  c. Self-Regulation’s Self Monitor .................................................................. 42   

  B. Other Findings ..................................................................................................... 46   

  1. Listening Journal Limitation .......................................................................... 46   

  a. The difficulty level of text and task ........................................................... 46   

  b. Participants’ Learning Style ....................................................................... 47   

  REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 50    APPENDICES

  A. Data Summary ..................................................................................................... 53   

  a. Summary of Listening Journals ...................................................................... 53   

  b. Summary of Listening Comprehension Test Score ........................................ 59   

  B. Listening Comprehension Test ............................................................................ 61   

  C. Listening Comprehension Test’s Text Transcript ............................................... 76   

  D. Listening Journals ................................................................................................ 87   

  a. Participant No1 ............................................................................................... 87   

  b. Participant No2 ............................................................................................... 94   

  c. Participant No3 ............................................................................................. 102   

  E. Field Notes ........................................................................................................ 110   

  F. Interview Transcript .......................................................................................... 124   

    

  

LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 4.1 Evidence of Clarification ....................................................................... 32  Table 4.2 Evidence of Evaluation .......................................................................... 33  Table 4.3 Summary of Comprehension Test Score ............................................... 37   Table 4.4 Summary of Summary of Effect of Listening Journal ........................... 48  Table 4.5 Evidence of Self Direction ..................................................................... 41  Table 4.6 Evidence of Self Direction .................................................................... 42   Table 4.7 Evidence of Self Regulation .................................................................. 43   

    

  

LIST OF FIGURES

Page

Figure 2.1 Learning Autonomy Continuum ........................................................... 13   Figure 3.1 Flow Chart of Research Procedure ....................................................... 26  Figure 4.1 Summary of the Effect of Listening Journal ......................................... 45  

    

  

ABSTRACT

    Estuarso, Dera. 2007. The Contribution of Listening Journal towards Learners’

  

Listening Comprehension Skills and Learning Autonomy. Yogyakarta: English

Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.

  The rationale that language learning does not only involve reading and writing could be seen from the fact that most of the instructions of language teaching are done orally, thus opening the responsibility for the ability to perceive what one utters. Listening comprehension skills become important. However, it is understood that lack of understanding of listening processes has been thought as impediment to one’s listening capacity. It calls for an approach for students to understand the process necessary. Metacognition is one alternative. Means to raise metacognition is needed and have brought teachers and researchers to examine the use of written reflection. Therefore, an attempt to verify previous researches and investigate the issue of written reflection is worthwhile.

  This current study investigated the use of listening journal for young English Learners in local context. This study involves three participants in ten listening comprehension tests accompanied by regular listening journals. Document Analysis and Observational Study are the method best utilized to treat the data. Supported mainly by qualitative data, this study attempts to figure out the effect of Writing Listening Journal on Learners Listening Comprehension Skills and on Learner’s Learning Autonomy.

  From the study, it was understood (1) that Listening Journal does not necessarily contribute improving effects to Participants’ Listening Comprehension Skill, which may be due to limitation of the listening journal, and (2) that Listening Journal contributes beneficial effects to Participants’ Learning Autonomy, fostering it up to an initial phase of Self-Regulation. As other findings are factors which affect the depth of a Listening Journal. They were (1) participants’ learning style and (2) difficulty level of task and text.

  It is suggested that teachers who are interested in incorporating listening journal notice that explicit learning strategy practice and maintaining challenge and impressions in the listening activity may be necessary. Future research is directed to validation on relationship between the variables. Quantitative approach to validate the effectiveness of the use of Listening Journal and to investigate the correlation between the extent of learning autonomy of a learner and learner’s comprehension skills improvement is highly recommended.

    

  

ABSTRAK

    Estuarso, Dera. 2007. The Contribution of Listening Journal towards Learners’

  

Listening Comprehension Skills and Learning Autonomy. Yogyakarta: Program Studi

Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

  Rasional pembelajaran bahasa yang tidak hanya melibatkan membaca dan menulis jelas terlihat dari kenyataan bahwa instruksi dalam pengajaran bahasa diberikan secara verbal. Hal ini memberi tanggung jawab akan adanya kemampuan untuk memahami apa yang disampaikan. Kecakapan dalam menyimak menjadi penting. Telah dipahami bersama bahwa kurangnya pemahaman akan proses menyimak mengganggu kemampuan menyimak seseorang. Maka, diperlukan sebuah pendekatan agar pelajar dapat memahami proses yang diperlukan. Sarana untuk meningkatkan metakognisi dibutuhkan dan kenyataan ini telah mendorong para guru dan peneliti untuk menguji penggunaan refleksi tertulis. Oleh karena itu pasti berharga untuk mencoba meneguhkan hasil penelitian sebelumnya dan untuk menyelidiki lebih lanjut masalah yang berkenaan dengan refleksi tertulis ini.

  Studi ini meneliti penggunaan jurnal menyimak untuk pelajar bahasa Inggris dalam konteks local. Studi ini melibatkan tiga peserta yang diminta mengerjakan sepuluh ujian menyimak dan menulis jurnal menyimak secara rutin setelahnya. Dengan dukungan data kualitatif, serta Analisa Dokumen dan Observasi, studi ini mencoba mencari tahu dampak dari kegiatan menulis jurnal menyimak pada kecakapan menyimak dan pada kemandirian belajar sang peserta.

  Dari studi ini didapati bahwa (1) penggunaan jurnal menyimak tidak selalu memberikan dampak yang meningkatkan kecakapan menyimak para peserta, yang sangat mungkin disebabkan oleh keterbatasan jurnal menyimak, dan bahwa (2) jurnal menyimak memberikan manfaat pada peningkatan kemandirian belajar, yakini berupa dorongan hingga tahap regulasi-diri. Temuan lain adalah berupa faktor yang mempengaruhi dalam tidaknya jurnal menyimak. Faktor tersebut adalah (1) gaya belajar para peserta dan (2) kesulitan teks serta tugas menyimak yang diberikan.

  Disarankan untuk para guru yang berminat untuk memasukkan jurnal menyimak dalam kelas mereka agar latihan strategi belajar yang eksplisit diberikan dan kesan serta tantangan dalam kegiatan menyimak dipertahankan. Studi di masa mendatang disarankan untuk validasi hubungan antar variabel yang ada dalam studi ini. Pendekatan kuantitatif untuk validasi keefektifan penggunaan jurnal menyimak dan untuk meneliti hubungan antara taraf kemandirian belajar dan kecakapan menyimak sangat disarankan.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study The trend a few decades ago had been that productive skills in language 

  learning were more preferable to teach than the receptive ones –reading and writing  skills. Many had emphasized that, based on product-oriented framework, one could  be judged capable of communicating in a language if one is able to use it in terms of  productivity. 

  The face of teaching and learning has changed with the emergence of firstly  behaviorism and then later cognitivism. Both have contributed insights of how one  should perceive learning process, in this case language learning process. Of  important contribution is that to be able to communicate in the target language  means to be able to produce and receive information in and from the target language.  Emphasis began to move from productive to receptive skills in 1960’s. Since then,  there have been many ways to achieve both types of skills. Furthermore, the  emergence of the well-known communicative language teaching and learning also  encourages that language learners’ ability to communicate in the target language  should extend to all the four skills. 

  The rationale that language does not only involve reading and writing could 

  2  also matters; if not the most important. For this reason, this study attempts to look  for more in-depth insights concerning with listening skill. 

  Even with the light shed from such modern view, listening skill is often  treated under the product-oriented framework. Efforts have been made to emphasize  the  process of listening. It is no longer about whether students could perceive the  texts but how students could perceive them. The attempts to understand the process  have been supported by findings in many Second Language Acquisition (SLA)  researches. With the understanding from the field of SLA, many new views of  listening as a process have been implemented into practice with the emphasis on  how to make students understand the process and therefore able to improve their  process of perceiving the listening texts. Such, most teachers and teaching  practitioners believe, is the way to make students listen in the target language better. 

  To sum up, the fact is that, because the view of language competence as  products, most of students do not listen well. The cause, presumably, is students’  lack of understanding on listening processes. In effect, there is a need for a way so  that students could understand the process. 

  Some teachers have tried to implement the use of written reflection; some  reported its success, some otherwise. As Myers (2001) put it when he investigated  the  stream of thought through journal writing, “Students were able to trace their  strengths and weaknesses and describe their own learning patterns and needs in 

  3  not for writing skill as in Myers’ case, hence, Listening Journal.  Therefore, this  research attempts to figure out the nature of this implementation. 

B. Problem Identification

  How to make students understand the process and be able to improve their  process of perceiving the listening texts demands further investigation. First, inquiry  should be taken into account concerning the nature of listening process. Once the  processes are identified, the skill could be analyzed and treated by its micro skills  derived from the processes later agreed as the complex which constitutes the listener  comprehension of a listening text.  

  How to make language learners understand the process have been more  intriguing and of interest for some teachers. The researcher is among them who feel  the urge to inquire the issue. Reflection sheets have been used to seek explanation of  what actually happens in learners’ mind while they are listening, or more precisely  what the learners’ think of as actually happening in their learning. The nature of the  use of such reflection sheets, a listening journal in this case, is the main problem the  researcher would want to investigate. To see how it works and what further valuable  information found from the research which would add to our knowledge, about  whether or not, to what extent and why listening journals affects learners’ listening  comprehension skills, are the main concerns of this research.  

  4  findings by SLA researches such as the nature of listening process is highly related.  In order to provide reinforcement to such theory, be it negative or positive, problems  which would be investigated being discussed in this study would be that which is  related to the use of listening journal for English Learners.  

  It would be about whether and how listening journal raises learners’ self- awareness of the listening process involved, as well as their learning autonomy and  listening comprehension skills. It would not, however, seek to cover understanding  on how the three notions are related to each other. 

  D. Problem Formulation

  Considering the background, this study attempts to answer these major  questions: 

  1.   How does listening journal affect learners’ listening comprehension skill? 

2.   How far in the autonomy-continuum does listening journal affect learner’s 

  learning autonomy? 

  E. Objectives of the Study

  This study attempts to look for insight of the nature of reflection in language  learning, particularly in listening comprehension skill. Consequently, it would  inform whether or not “listening journal” affects participants’ listening skills. 

  5 

  F. Benefits of the Study

  Teachers are hoped to be benefited by the study as they may practice  employing listening journal in their classes. Teachers could be encouraged to  improve the form and the manner of the reflection. It is also the hope of the  researcher that this study be a guideline to do typical research or activities in class. 

  G. Definition of terms

  Below are some terms used in and closely related to this study. Common  understanding of which is important for the direction of the study. More clarification  would be found in the Literature Review. 

  1. Listening Comprehension

  Listening is aural, real-time, receptive skill. Listening comprehension means  the ability to receive real-time, oral message accurately (Helgesen, 2003). In this  study, listening comprehension is perceived from how accurate a participant answers  the comprehension questions in each test which they did. 

  2. Listening Process

  Listening process is the approach in human mind to encode the received, oral,  real-time message. It could be syntactical, semantical or, normally, both (Clark & 

  6 

  3. Listening Journal

  Listening journal is a written journal which expresses learner’s feeling or  strategy towards and for listening speeches, everything which the learners might  think as related or necessary to write. It is a compilation of regularly distributed  reflection sheets throughout the study. 

  4. Metacognition

  Metacognition is thinking about the way oneself thinks. It involves  metacognitive knowledge which is brought from unconsciousness to consciousness.  Metacognitive knowledge is the belief a learner holds which controls his or her self- regulation in learning (Vermunt (1993) as cited in Ajisuksmo (1996)). In this study  this term is helpful to a fuller understanding to the other two important terms below. 

  5. Learner’s self-awareness

  Being self-aware is the state in the self of a learner when he or she could bring  his metacognitive knowledge into consciousness (Wenden, (1999); Rivers (2001);  Littlewood (1996)). Self-awareness, in this study, is visible through comparison  between learners’ actual utilized strategies and the strategies learners think they did  or did not utilize. 

  7  his or her metacognitive knowledge to consciousness (Littlewood, 1996).  In this  study, learning autonomy is investigated stage by stage, that means exact points  within the continuum is not searched but, rather, taking approximates near the three  main ordered points: self-awareness, self-direction and self-regulation (See Figure  2.1). 

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter describes the theories adopted in this research to seek common 

  ground in order to prolong the research. Principally essential is the understanding on  listening; its nature and how it is taught in common schools. Not less important is  the term learning autonomy, its components and their shares in improving learning  autonomy. Listening journal and self-awareness would also be elaborated in to seek  way to elicit learners’ learning autonomy, as well as how it works. 

A. Theoretical Description

  This section presents related theories which support this study. Presented in  this section are three interrelated areas of inquiries which solidify the ground for this  research. They are the nature of listening, its teaching practice in schools, and more  important is metacognition and learning autonomy, discussed together to show their  close relationship. 

1. The Nature of Listening

  Categorized distinctively from the other language skills, listening is in short a  real-time, aural receptive skill (Clark and Clark, 1977; Helgesen, 2003). This skill is 

  9  This means that most of the time, listeners are supposed to, verbally or non-verbally,  respond the message they hear. 

  It seems evident that listening is a complicated process. Listening is indeed a  complex mental process. Listening requires more than just capturing the sounds  through ears and matches the strings of sounds with listeners’ mental lexical items  stored in their brain to build the meaning. It also requires adequate world knowledge  on the part of the listeners to both comprehend and utilize meaning out of the sounds  they hear. It is this relation to the brain, reminding us of cognition, that listening is  said as a mental process. (Helgesen, 2003) 

  To most psycholinguist this is called comprehension and utilization. To  comprehend something, without yet utilizing it or simply speaking –responding to it,  a listener should break down the sounds into pieces. Some possible approaches are  proposed. They are syntactic approach and semantic approach. Syntactic approach  would be that which uses to its most the face structure of an utterance and relies  heavily on the use of the function words. While semantic approach is one that relies  on the content words and refers to reality what the relationships between those  content words, which would be thus forming the meaning. Psycholinguists do not  agree about whether one approach dominates another. They agree, however, that  most listeners use both approaches to get the meaning out of sounds. It means that  listeners, in an attempt to understand or get the meaning of an utterance and in turn 

  10  top-down, bottom-up and interactive processing. Top-down process in listening is a  process of getting the meaning out of sounds by making the most of content, that is  general knowledge or life experience, and textual schema, their situational routines.  On the other hand, bottom-up process in listening is a process that makes use of  vocabulary, grammar, and sounds’ features. As it is disputed between  Psycholinguists, these experts also find it more logical to believe that it is easier to  comprehend the meaning if a listener operates within these two processes combined  together; constituting what is then known as “interactive process” (Brown, 2001). 

  If these processes, despite the researcher’s attempt to simplify, are found to be  intricate, it is the nature of listening. It is a very complex mental process. This  mental process is there to always serve a purpose; to enable listener to respond both  in verbal or non-verbal replies. It could, however, be broken down into top-down,  bottom-up and interactive process of listening. They respectively related to semantic  approach, syntactic approach and combination of the two. It is now clear to state that  listening is a real-time, aural receptive skill (Helgesen, 2003).

  2.   The teaching of listening and Curriculum of English Language in High schools in Indonesia

  For being its receptive nature, listening has to do with information processing.  Nowadays, information in general could be acquired via various sources. Basically, 

  11  viewpoint for instance. In its basic purpose, then, listening plays a great role to  process oral information. 

  It has also become the concern of curriculum designers. The Latest Indonesian  School Curriculum known as School-based Curriculum has put listening alongside  the other receptive skill, as a means to prepare students for greater opportunities to  find more information for their higher study in the future. Television, Internet, CDs  and any other advancement of our civilization have brought more ease to obtain  information, and not least of them are in the form of recording or even video, and  are in English. If students have the ability to process this information using their  listening skills, they would find it easier to find materials to support their study. The  Curriculum is trying to prepare students to be able to process such materials  especially to help them survive in higher education. 

  In order for students to acquire the skills and be able to meet the challenge of  their future study, School-based Curriculum has equipped teachers to help students  do so. It could be seen from the fact, and some are real results from The Latest  Indonesian School Curriculum pilot project, that the Curriculum has been focusing  students to be able to locate and identify certain information from oral monolog  ( Kurikulum dan Kegiatan Hasil Belajar – Rumpun Pelajaran Bahasa Inggris.,

  

2002 ). With some activities to listen to conversation or explanation, students are 

  expected to be able to turn their vocabulary into use to listen to some short listening 

  12  of English Language in Indonesia could achieve the targeted role it is endeavoring to  accomplish. 

3. Metacognition and Learning Autonomy

  In general, it could be said that metacognition is the protocol to think about  one’s own thinking process. Metacognition has as its components, distinctive from  each other, “metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive strategy” (Wenden, 1999).  Metacognitive knowledge deals with the information of the thinking process while  metacognitive strategy deals with the skills which are involved to manage, direct,  regulate or guide the learning process. 

  Metacognitive knowledge is not yet unique to one learner. It is not value  related (Wenden, 1999). What is distinctive from one learner to another is what  experts call learner’s belief.  Learner’s belief may take into account learning  orientation, models of learning, regulation strategy and processing strategy  (Vermunt (1993) as cited in (Ajisuksmo, 1996)). It is such beliefs which control  each learner’s self-regulation in learning. Self-regulation in learning requires a  learner to be first self-directed. A self-directed learner is one who possesses qualities  such as ones that Skager (1984) has elaborated. They are self-acceptance,  planfulness, intrinsic motivation, internalized evaluation, openness to experience,  flexibility and autonomy. 

  13  which are self-assessment and self-management, is required before one could  analyze the task of learning. Wenden (1999) implies that the cycle is continued by  self-monitor only to be followed up by another self-management. It would continue  to go this way so that students could reach various levels of autonomy, as  Littlewood (1996) have listed. 

  Related to the main concern of the research, the concept of autonomy should  be clarified. The researcher followed Littlewood (1996) in describing what  autonomy involves. It requires on the part of the students knowledge, skills,  motivation and confidence. The first two constitute ability and the others constitute  willingness. These concept, ability and willingness, is what Littlewood (1996) refers  to as the ones that would help students to become more autonomous in their  communications, learning and personality. In the list Littlewood (1996) puts self- direction in learning somewhere in the middle of the hierarchical levels of autonomy.  Self-direction is, therefore, a stage where a learner starts to choose and shape his or  her own learning contexts. 

  To summarize, self-direction as one of the start to foster autonomous learning  and self-regulation, which keeps up the autonomy, could not be brought up to reality  before the knowledge to do so, the metacognitive knowledge is acquired. Therefore, 

  AUTONOMY 

  14  to bring metacognitive knowledge into awareness, that is self-awareness, would help  learners to self-regulate his or her learning. Figure 2.1 describes the continuum of  learning autonomy.