The influences of reading texts as a pre-listening material to students` understanding.

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xiv

ABSTRACT

Padmi, Dianing. 2008. The Influences of Reading Texts as a Pre-Listening Material to Students’ Understanding. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.

Prior knowledge, among others, is one important part in the learning process. In this regard, students need to have prior knowledge to learn any subject. However, teachers should take part in preparing the students to construct prior knowledge in order to make the learning processes successful.

The present study investigated the implementation of reading text in extracurricular class of the third grade students of SMA Stella Duce Bantul as a strategy to help them to acquire listening skill. There were two questions formulated in the study. The first question discussed students’ perception toward the implementation of reading text as pre-listening material, whereas the second question explored the influences of the text to the students while listening to the recording.

To answer the research questions, the researcher employed a qualitative method. Moreover, three instruments were used to obtain important data, namely observation sheet, questionnaire, and interview. There were two results obtained from the study. First, the students generally perceived the implementation of the reading text, both positively and negatively. Positively, the students thought that the text was helpful and needed for them. On the contrary, the students also negatively stated that the text was boring and gave no significant influences on comprehending the listening passage. Second, the result of the research showed that the students experienced the influences of the text toward their listening skill in class. Provided with the reading text before listening to the recording, the students felt more well-prepared and confident to follow the listening section. Besides, by reading the text, their ability to follow the plot of the story they listened to, to grab the detail of the story, and to answer the comprehensive questions were increased. In addition, the ability to spell the new words correctly was also better. Therefore, it was concluded that the text influenced the students in acquiring listening skill in three important aspects, namely (1) readiness, (2) comprehension, and (3) language.

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xv ABSTRAK

Padmi, Dianing. 2008. The Influences of Reading Texts as a Pre-Listening Material to Students’ Understanding. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Prior knowledge merupakan bagian penting dalam proses belajar para murid. Apapun yang akan dipelajari, murid sebaiknya memiliki prior knowledge yang cukup untuk memahami materi baru yang akan dipelajarinya. Dalam upaya untuk memberikan prior knowledge yang cukup kepada para murid, guru bidang studi hendaknya turut ambil bagian.

Studi ini mengkaji proses belajar Listening murid-murid kelas tiga SMA Stella Duce Bantul yang menggunakan teks bacaan sebagai media untuk membangun prior knowledge para murid. Ada dua permasalahan yang penulis kemukakan dalam penelitian ini. Permasalahan pertama membahas persepsi para murid dengan diterapkannya teks bacaan tersebut, sedangkan permasalahan kedua memaparkan pendapat para murid mengenai pengaruh teks bacaan tersebut terhadap kemampuan mendengarkan mereka.

Peneliti menggunakan metode penelitian kualitatif. Ada tiga alat yang digunakan untuk memperoleh data-data penting, yaitu lembar observasi, kuesioner, dan wawancara. Ada dua hasil yang diperoleh. Pertama, secara umum, para murid menanggapi penerapan teks bacaan, baik secara positif maupun negatif. Secara positif, para murid menanggapi bahwa teks bacaan tersebut sangatlah membantu dan diperlukan. Sedangkan dari sisi negatifnya, murid mengatakan bahwa teks bacaan tersebut membosankan dan tidak membawa pengaruh yang signifikan. Kedua, para murid mengalami sendiri pengaruh teks bacaan tersebut terhadap kemampuan mendengarkan mereka di kelas. Dengan adanya teks bacaan, para murid menjadi lebih siap dan percaya diri untuk mengikuti pelajaran mendengarkan di kelas. Di samping itu, dengan membaca teks bacaan terlebih dahulu, kemampuan mereka untuk mengikuti alur cerita, memahami detil cerita, dan menjawab pertanyaan meningkat. Di sisi lain, kemampuan menulis para murid pun menjadi lebih baik. Dengan kata lain, teks bacaan teks bacaan mempengaruhi kemampuan mendengarkan murid dalam tiga aspek penting; (1) kesiapan, (2) pengertian, (3) kebahasaan.

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THE INFLUENCES OF READING TEXTS

AS A PRE-LISTENING MATERIAL

TO STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING

A THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By Dianing Padmi

Student Number: 031214047

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

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THE INFLUENCES OF READING TEXTS

AS A PRE-LISTENING MATERIAL

TO STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING

A THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By Dianing Padmi

Student Number: 031214047

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

2008

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I asked for health that I might do greater things;

I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked God for strength that I might achieve;

I was made weak that I might learn to obey.

I asked for riches that I might be happy;

I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power and the praise of men;

I was given weakness to sense my need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life;

I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing I asked for, but everything I hoped for;

In spite of myself, my prayers were answered –

I am among all men most richly blessed.

Anon

“a big gift” for mom, dad, brother, sister, and friends

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vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Finishing this thesis is the evidence of Jesus’ love to me. His kind and blessings accompanied me in the process of accomplishing this thesis in both my ups and downs. My gratefulness is worth giving to Him, my only Lord, Jesus Christ.

This thesis has been greatly improved by the help and comment of people who have been kind enough to be involved during the writing of my thesis. I am greatly indebted to Christina Kristiyani, my great major sponsor, who was willing to sacrifice her precious times, attention, motivation, detailed feedbacks, and guidance, for the sake of improving the content of my thesis. I thank her for being my friendly advisor and for unceasing encouragement. Moreover, I also owe immeasurable debts to Laurentina Sumarni, my co-sponsor, for valuable feedbacks in correcting my writing, support, and guidance. My sincere gratefulness also goes to

all PBI lecturers, who always provided valuable lessons for my future life, and secretariat staff, Mbak Danik and Mbak Tari, for all help and kindness during my five-year study. However, I would also like to acknowledge Ag. Suwardi, the head of SMA Stella Duce Bantul, who allowed me to conduct the research at the school.

I realize that the completion of this thesis would not have happened without the help of great people around me. Therefore, I thank my greatest family, my “fat” father, Teguh Santoso, my mother, Yutiati, my only brother and sister, Djatu Poerwoko and Bacillia Resmi, my brother and sister in law, Nug and Merry for unfailing support, prayer, love, fund, and time we share together. I hardly imagine accomplishing this big final project without these great people.

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viii

My deepest gratitude goes to all my friends of PBI’03, especially Priyatno Ardi, for all brilliant ideas, his kindness to guide me to conduct the research, to write and to correct my thesis, Mesya, for the hardest time and discussion we shared together in the process of accomplishing my thesis, cewe-cewe and cowo-cowo populer: Dame ’Batak’, Dita, ‘mak’ Miertah, Neti, Neng Tika, Bagong, Si Be, Jii, ‘Babah’ Lukas, Punto, Suki, Yessi, for all laughs, tears, love, jobs, discussion, surprises, unending support, money, prizes, foods, fool we shared during the last five years, Ozzi, Retha, Lintang, Melani, Ratna, Happy, ‘pon’ Nina, Tony, Devi, Ari, Meiske, Daniel, Paulina, Layung, Proti, for friendship, jokes, life experiences, and support, Joyce, Erlin, Mbak Ida, Mbak Etik, and all the members of Kasuari 7

who always remind me of finishing my thesis soon. Lastly, in completing this final project, I also owe a debt of gratitude to all of my participants: Tia, Novi, Silas, Berta, Santi, Mia, Puput, Tri, Tya, Pipit, for spending time to give me precious data.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TITLE PAGE... i

APPROVAL PAGE ... ii

PAGE OF BOARD OF EXAMINERS... iii

PAGE OF DEDICATION... iv

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ... v

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ... vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS... vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... ix

LIST OF TABLES... xii

LIST OF APPENDICES ... xiii

ABSTRACT... xiv

ABSTRAK... xv

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study ... 1

B. Problem Formulation ... 6

C. Problem Limitation ... 6

D. Objectives of the Study ... 6

E. Benefits of the Study ... 7

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CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Theoretical Description ... 11

1. Theory of Prior Knowledge ... 11

2. Theory of Listening ... 13

a. Listening as a Skill ... 14

b. Difficulties in Listening ... 15

c. Bottom Up and Top Down Process ... 17

3. Theory of Reading ... 19

a. Text Selection ... 21

b. Types of Texts ... 23

4. Reading Text to Construct Knowledge ... 24

5. Students’ Perception on the Implementation of Reading Text ... 25

B. Theoretical Framework ... 26

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY A. Research Method ... 29

B. Research Participants ... 30

C. Research Instruments ... 31

D. Data Gathering Techniques ... 35

E. Data Analysis Techniques ... 36

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CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

A. Students’ Perception toward Pre-Listening Material ... 41

B. The Influences of Reading Text to the Students while Listening to the Recording ... 48

1. Readiness ... 49

2. Comprehension ... 50

a. Following the Plot of the Story ... 50

b. Grabbing Detailed Information ... 53

c. Answering Comprehensive Questions ... 57

3. Language ... 60

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. Conclusions ... 63

B. Suggestions ... 65

REFERENCES APPENDICES

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xii

LIST OF TABLES

Page

3.1 Level of Students’ Answers Rubrics ... 38

4.1 Students’ Perception toward Pre-Listening Material ... 48

4.2 Indicators Achievement ... 54

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xiii

LIST OF APPENDICES

Page

Appendix 1 : Permission Letter ... 72

Appendix 2 : Statement of Research Completion ... 73

Appendix 3 : Reading Texts Materials ... 74

Appendix 4 : Comprehensive Questions after Listening Section ... 78

Appendix 5 : Students’ Answers to the Comprehensive Questions ... 80

Appendix 6 : Guiding Questions for Interviewing the Participants ... 86

Appendix 7 : Transcripts of Interview ... 87

Appendix 8 : Questionnaire ... 109

Appendix 9 : Participants’ Answers to the Questionnaire ... 110

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xiv

ABSTRACT

Padmi, Dianing. 2008. The Influences of Reading Texts as a Pre-Listening Material to Students’ Understanding. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.

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xv ABSTRAK

Padmi, Dianing. 2008. The Influences of Reading Texts as a Pre-Listening Material to Students’ Understanding. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter discusses six sub-sections. The first one is background of the study which states the reason for choosing the topic of the study. The second sub-section concerns with problem limitation. This section limits the scope of the discussion of the study. The third is problem formulation, conveying the formulated problems of the study. The next sub-section deals with the objectives of the study that elaborate the aims of the study. The benefits of the study are discussed in the fifth sub-section, while the last sub-section deals with the definition of terms which covers the definitions of essential terms used in the study.

A. Background of the Study

The need to learn English language is rising nowadays since English is widely used in all over the world. English language becomes a medium of communication which is internationally used by many people of different countries. Considering the importance of its use in the international communication, English becomes a compulsory subject taught in Indonesia schools. However, it is still taught as a foreign language in Indonesia.

As a foreign language, English is not a simple subject to be learned, even though it has been introduced to the very beginning students, i.e. elementary school students, even to kindergarten students. Many advanced students still face difficulties

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in learning the language, even though the teacher usually teaches using several approaches in order to make the students master English.

“Traditional learning approach” (Hanley, 1994: 1) believes that the students come to class as “blank slates”. It means that they come to class without keeping any information in their mind. In this regard, the students are considered as “empty vessels” (Benson, 2001: 19). Therefore, by learning in the classroom they are “to be filled with knowledge by the teacher” (Benson, 2001: 19). In this sense, the teacher becomes the only source of information or knowledge. This passive view of learning, which becomes the basic point of learning in traditional learning approach, results in ineffective learning.

Different from the traditional learning approach, constructivist believes that “knowledge cannot be taught, but must be constructed by the learner” (Benson, 2001: 68). Consequently, students do not merely depend on the teacher’s explanation in building a new understanding, but also on their existing knowledge. Students construct their own understanding in learning new materials using their existing or prior knowledge. Constructivism, thus, emphasizes the importance of the learners’ being actively involved in the learning process. It is unlike the previous educational viewpoint which considers that the teachers are to transfer new knowledge while the learners play a passive, receptive role. Therefore, in constructive view, it is necessary for the teacher to help the students construct the related knowledge that will be learned in the class.

According to Hein (1996: 2), people need to have their own knowledge to learn and understand new materials. For that reason, the students cannot come to

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class and begin new materials without any knowledge. The students should have prior knowledge about what to be learned. The Prior knowledge makes the mind ready to accept and retain new information.

There are several ways to activate students’ prior knowledge in the classroom. The teacher may review the previous learning to activate the students’ prior knowledge. Besides, a teacher can also use analogy if the present lesson has some similarities to something the learner already knows. The most common strategy is by asking questions to the students. Realizing the importance of prior knowledge, most teachers nowadays try to consider students’ prior knowledge before introducing a new material.

Students’ prior knowledge should be constructed first before the teacher explains or teaches a new material. Constructing students’ knowledge before the lesson begins is needed to be done in every lesson, including in English learning. Learning English means to learn its four skills, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In learning those four skills, teachers usually activate students’ prior knowledge first by asking questions or by correcting homework. In the activities to acquire listening skill, teachers usually apply the common way in activating students’ prior knowledge, i.e. by asking questions related to what to be listened. However, the process is too short to maximize the students’ prior knowledge. Hence, the time constraint becomes one obstacle to maximize the ways used to activate prior knowledge.

One of English skills is listening. Listening is a comprehension skill. This skill is very important in communication. Brownell (1996: 6) says that listening is the

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starting point to make effective in communication. It implies that listening plays a major role in communication. Considering the reason for the importance of listening skill, the teacher should make the listening learning more effective in the class. However, in learning this skill, the students often find difficulties. The difficulties arise since the students are not familiar with the language and the material they listen to. Besides, sometimes the teacher does not inform the material that is going to be listened in the next meeting. Therefore, in learning listening skill, students’ prior knowledge has to be maximized in order to obtain better understanding of the new materials they learn.

Due to the fact that the time to learn in the classroom is very limited, the teacher employed reading texts as pre-listening material to construct students’ knowledge before acquiring listening skill in the classroom. This study investigates the implementation of reading texts which serve as a help for the third science grade students of SMA Stella Duce Bantul in listening. As English is widely used in the entire world as a medium of communication in this era of globalization, the students at this level learn English both in the formal class as a compulsory subject and in extracurricular class. Extracurricular lesson is aimed to support the English learning in the class since the time for learning it in the formal class is not enough. However, extracurricular class is important for the students in helping the students to prepare themselves facing the final examination. Therefore, joining the English extracurricular class is a must for the students. In the extracurricular class, the students also learn the four skills as in the formal or regular class.

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One of the four skills that is learned by the students is listening skill. Activating students’ prior knowledge in listening section should not merely introduce the students to the new learning material, but also give them basic knowledge of what is going to be learned. Therefore, the way to activate the prior knowledge must be more than giving questions to the students before learning new materials. In this regard, pre-listening material in the form of reading text becomes a special way of constructing students’ prior knowledge. In fact, pre-listening material is necessary to prepare the students (http://teflboot_camp.com/1%20Communicative%20teaching.do c, accessed on 16 February 2008).

Vacca (1981: 6) believes that “reading is the vehicle of learning”. It means that reading can be used to support the learning process in each skill, including listening. The use of reading passages in activating students’ prior knowledge hopefully can help the students to have a description on the topic or material to be learned. Students will build their prior knowledge through reading passages at home. However, different students may have different perception toward the implementation of reading text as pre-listening material. The difference perception may due to different expectation, needs, and past experiences (Bootzin et al, 1983: 119). By implementing the use of reading texts to construct students’ prior knowledge in listening section for the third grade science students of a senior high school, the researcher is interested in finding out students’ perception toward pre-listening material and the influence of the reading text on the students while acquiring listening skill in the classroom.

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B. Problem Formulation

The problems are formulated in two questions, as follows: 1. How do the students perceive pre-listening materials?

2. What are the influences of reading text to the students’ understanding while listening to the stories in the classroom?

C. Problem Limitation

The research is limited to investigate students’ perception and the influence of reading texts on the students’ comprehension while listening to the stories. It is implemented in the third grade of Science students of SMA Stella Duce Bantul. The reading texts are intended to help students construct related knowledge for listening section in the class. Due to the time constraint, the reading texts were to be read at home a week before the listening section in class. Therefore, by the time the students come to classroom, they have already had knowledge on what to be learned.

D. Objectives of the Study

The research seeks to investigate the use of reading texts to construct students’ prior knowledge. Therefore, this study has several objectives to achieve. The objectives are as follows:

1. To identify the students’ perceptions on the use of reading texts as a pre-listening material.

2. To find out the influences of the reading texts to the students’ understanding while listening to the stories in the classroom.

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E. Benefits of the Study

The research is expected to give valuable contributions both for the teachers and the students and the next researchers in English language teaching.

1. Teachers

This study will help teachers to realize the importance of prior knowledge in building a new understanding in learning listening skill. Besides, this way of constructing prior knowledge will become a consideration for the English teachers in teaching listening skill.

2. Students

The students will experience a new learning strategy in learning English listening skill. It is hoped that by constructing students’ knowledge through reading the materials at home, the students’ ability in acquiring listening skill is improved. Besides, the students will also have the habit of reading which is very useful for them.

3. Researchers

The result of the research hopefully can be used as background knowledge or reference for the next researchers. They may use the result of this study for their own research on related issues, i.e. on the use of reading passages to activate students’ knowledge in learning listening skill in classroom.

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F. Definition of Terms

It is essential to clarify some terms used in this study in order to avoid confusion, misinterpretation and misunderstanding. Therefore, the writer provides the definition of terms as follows:

1. Pre-Listening Material

Pre-activity is an initial phase of teaching process. This phase “is organized to arouse interests in the students, to activate students’ prior knowledge, and to prepare them for the language that can be necessary to perform the main task using related material” (http://teflboot_camp.com/1%20Communicative%20teaching.doc, accessed on 16 February 2008). In this study, pre-listening material is used as material before the main learning process, i.e. listening section to construct students’ prior knowledge. The material is in the form of reading text and is to be read at home.

2. Reading Texts

Brown and Yule (1983: 6), as cited in Wallace (2003: 8), describe the meaning of a text as “the verbal record of a communicative act.” Therefore, in this study, reading text refers to the narrative form which is given by the teacher in order to prepare the students a week before listening section in the classroom.

3. Listening

“Listening means receiving the transfer of images, impressions, thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and emotions from speaker” (Rost, 2002: 2). In this study, listening is one of English language skills that is learned by the students of the third grade of

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SMU Stella Duce Bantul. In listening section, the students are to listen to narrative stories.

4. Perception

According to Altman and Hodgetts (1985: 85), perception is defined as “an individual’s view of reality”. In this study, the perception is gained from the students in order to find out their opinion toward the implementation of reading text as pre-listening material; whether the reading text is positively or negatively perceived. Positive means that the use of reading text was likely to help the students in many aspects, while negative means that the reading text caused problems to the students.

5. Influence

Influence is “power to produce an effect without using force or authority” (Barnhart and Thorndike, 1973: 570). In this study, influence means the effects of accessing the new knowledge in order to give clear description on the story they are going to listen in the classroom.

6. Extracurricular Class

Extracurricular class means “an activity performed by students that fall outside the realm of the normal curriculum of school”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E xtracurricular_activity, accessed on 9 February 2007). In this study, the extracurricular activity is carried out after the formal class to facilitate the students to

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learn English much more considering the time constraint in the regular class. Besides, the extracurricular class is used to prepare the students to face the final examination.

7. SMA Stella Duce Bantul

SMA Stella Duce Bantul is a private senior high school under the Tarakanita Institution. It is located in Ganjuran, Bantul, Yogyakarta. The total number of students of the third grade is 53 students. Those students are divided into three classes, namely Science class and two classes of Social class. There are 14 students of Science class and the rest 39 students belong to Social class.

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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter consists of two parts, namely theoretical description and theoretical framework. The theoretical description provides theoretical review used in the research whereas the summary of all relevant theories that are used to solve the research problems is explained in theoretical framework section.

A. Theoretical Description

There are four main theories used in this study, namely theory of prior knowledge, theory of listening, theory of reading text, and reading text to construct knowledge.

1. Theory of Prior Knowledge

Commonly, people learn in order to gain new knowledge. Learning is intended by someone to broaden his or her knowledge. For instance, learners learn English in order to give them more knowledge about the language so that they are able to use it in communication.

Learning a language will need efforts to understand. It cannot be learned easily. Brown (2000: 1) states that “language learning is not a set of easy steps that can be programmed in a quick do-it-yourself kit.” Thus, it will take time to comprehend a language well. Moreover, Stern (1983: 20) defines language learning as “conscious language development particularly in formal school-like

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setting.” However, in the process of learning a language, the learners are aware of what they are doing.

It is undeniable that in the learning process the learners will obtain information and build a new understanding, but learners cannot construct new knowledge without having existing knowledge on what to learn. Ausabel’s meaningful learning theory believes that in the process of learning, the human organism needs to relate the new information to the existing information in the mind (Brown, 1994: 79). Therefore, the learners will understand the new material well if they can relate it to the knowledge the learners already possess.

Similar to the theory of meaningful learning, Brownell (1996: 10) also states that learning means to construct new knowledge and understanding based on what the students possess. It implies that the students need to be actively involved in the process of learning and do not merely receive the information from the teacher. Here, Brownell implicitly suggests that the existing knowledge contributes the successful learning. Furthermore, he explains that the existing knowledge will provide different effects in learners’ abilities to retain information, solve problems, and acquire new knowledge. Therefore, constructing students’ knowledge is needed before the lesson.

In learning English, in which the students are to master its four skills, constructing knowledge is also significant. From the four English skills, listening is often neglected and merely learned without activating background knowledge. The students often listen to the recording and answer a number of questions related to the recording, no matter they are familiar to the recording or not. However, according to Nunan (1999: 4), in learning listening, the task to construct students’ background

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should precede the listening process itself. Thus, the background knowledge has also to be well constructed before the process of learning listening skill.

2. Theory of Listening

Learning English is intended to make the students able to use the language in communication. By learning four skills the learners are hopefully able to accomplish the primary function of English language learning. Therefore, by learning the skills, the learners will be able to communicate effectively.

According to Brownell (1996: 6), “effective communication begins with listening, not speaking”. It implies that listening skill becomes the basic skill to be learned in order to master a language. Similar to Brownell, Feyten (1991) states that “listening is the foundation of language acquisition”. It means that listening is the starting point to learn other skills. Whenever we want to speak, we must listen to others’ pronunciation, intonation, and utterances, so as to help us to produce utterances. Moreover, in practicing reading skill, listening is also essential. We must have a basic knowledge of pronunciation derived from listening to a dialogue in order to produce good sentences to be read. Besides, good listening skill is very useful to support writing skill. Unless we listen carefully, we cannot take note effectively. Of all above, listening skill contributes an important role in mastering English language.

Listening is more complex than hearing. The key that differs hearing from listening is the attention by the listeners. Rost (2002: 8) says that listening needs more intention than hearing. Listening does not merely mean to receive or

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recognize the sounds, but it involves the ability to understand or to construct the meaning on what is heard. Listening takes more attention and concentration to obtain the meaning of the spoken language. However, good listening skill can be learned.

In acquiring listening skill, students also need to have knowledge on what to be learned. According to Hein (1996: 2), “one needs knowledge to learn”. It means that even in learning a new material the learners need to have knowledge about the material in order to construct new understanding. Therefore, prior knowledge is needed in learning. In acquiring English listening skill at schools, prior knowledge is also significant. Listening, as a receptive skill, also needs prior knowledge. Rost (2002: 62) states that “listening also needs knowledge activation”. For that reason, teachers need to construct students’ prior knowledge to be used in acquiring listening skill.

a. Listening as a Skill

Listening skill, as well as reading, is categorized as receptive. As the result, listening which is very important in language learning is often believed as a passive skill. However, listening skill is not a passive skill. This belief is in line with Davies and Pearse (2000: 74), who state that receptive skills which are often considered as passive skills also need attention equally to other productive skill. It is to say that listening is as much active as other productive skills.

In addition, Nunan (2003: 24) believes “listening is very active.” His statement is based on the reason that there is a complex process in the brain

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while listening. In listening process, the listeners will take intention, concentration, and also practice. He explains that listeners will not only listen to what is said by speaker, but also need to connect with their existing knowledge. Therefore, in acquiring listening skill, the learners also need to have existing knowledge.

b. Difficulties in Listening

Listening is often considered as a difficult skill to be acquired. Many students face difficulties in listening as it needs high attention and also concentration in order to be able to listen effectively. Students often have difficulties in doing the tasks of listening. However, the difficulties are as the result of many aspects.

Brown and Yule (1938b), as cited in Nunan (1991: 24), propose four factors affecting the difficulty of oral language tasks. As listening process involves at least two people, i.e. a speaker and a listener, the first common factor is indeed the speaker. The speaker factor here refers to the speed of speaking, the quantity of the speaker, and also the accent of the speakers. Listening becomes more difficult when the listeners have to listen to a very fast speaker. Besides, the number of speaker who speaks at a time will also affect the quality of listening. The more speakers speak at a time, the harder listeners comprehend the message of what is being told. Moreover, unfamiliar accent of the speakers may cause misinterpretation of a word or even the message. Yet, the speakers give influence to many difficulties.

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The second problem is the listeners. It is related to the role of listeners, the level of response required, and the interest of the topic being listened. The role that listeners play affects the degree of listeners’ attention. When the listeners do not have big role in listening to the topic, the attention will be condensed so that it may cause lack of understanding. On the other hand, the level of response required from the listeners can also affect the degree of attention. The listeners will not listen to the whole information in order to obtain the whole idea or message of what is being listened. Otherwise, they will only listen to some parts they think to be important in giving responses. However, the most important thing is listeners’ interest. The listener will not pay much attention to the topic if they are not interested at all.

The content of what is being listened becomes the third difficulty. The content involves grammar, vocabulary, information structure, and background knowledge. The complex grammar and unfamiliar words cause low understanding. Moreover, the information structure that is how information is being told is also important. The structure of the information should be clear and orderly. Another difficulty is background knowledge. The background knowledge contributes the familiarity of the topic that is going to be listened to. As stated before, familiarity is important so as to make the listeners keep their attention. When the listeners are familiar to the topic, they will listen to it very carefully.

The last factor proposed by Brown and Yule is support. The support refers to the use of supporting items to the listening task. It includes pictures,

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diagrams, or other visual aids. The use of those items is very useful to increase listeners’ motivation in doing the task.

In addition, citing Anderson and Lynch (1988), Nunan (1991: 24) provides five difficulties of listening task. Basically, the idea of the difficulties is the same, but is presented in different words. The difficulties are “the organization of information,” “the familiarity of the topic,” “the explicitness and sufficiency of the information,” “the type of referring information,” and “whether the text described static or dynamic relationship.”

As a final point, there are a lot of difficulties in completing listening task well. Therefore, teachers should be able to overcome the difficulty. One solution to reduce the problem is by helping the students construct knowledge about what to be listened to. By doing so, the students will be more familiar to the topic. Besides, they will also have clear and sufficient information about the topic, and also will understand the content better.

c. Bottom Up and Top Down Processes

In the process of acquiring listening skill, there are two activities that are commonly applied by the English language teachers. According to Nunan (2003: 26), the distinction of the process of learning is based on the way the students attempt to understand what they listen to. The two activities to acquire listening skill are bottom-up and top-down.

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1) Bottom Up Processing

Bottom up processing happens when “the students start with the component parts: words, grammar, and the like” (Nunan, 2003: 26). In other words, bottom-up is text based. It means that the listener relies on the language in the message, that is, the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates meaning. The listeners process the information from the very basic or small part of language, i.e. sounds into the bigger one, such as words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. Anderson and Lynch (2003: 9) prefer to use the term “tape recorder” to describe the listeners in bottom up processing. Thus, it implies that the listeners will simply memorize and recall words that speakers said. However, bottom up processing does not merely receive and store audio input, but the listeners also need to interpret linguistics input through mental process (Goh, 2002: 5).

2) Top Down Processing

In opposite to the bottom-up processing, top-down processing begins from the students’ background knowledge (Nunan, 2003: 26). According to

Morley (2001), in the top-down processing, the listeners trigger their existing knowledge to infer and predict the new information to create the meaning in mind. However, in this process, the learners need to have background knowledge in order to be able to convey the message. Top-down strategies are listener based; the listener taps into background knowledge of the topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language. This background knowledge activates a set of expectation that helps the listener to interpret what is listened to and predict what will come next. Therefore, Anderson and Lynch (2003: 9) consider the listeners as “active model builders”. The

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listeners do not come to class without any information. In fact, the listeners will actively build their own understanding on what they listen to by relating it with their existing knowledge.

In top down processing, the teacher, as the facilitator of learning in the classroom, may help the students to prepare or to construct their prior knowledge on what is going to be learned. In preparing the students, reading activity can be a way to help students construct prior knowledge which is important for listening comprehension in the classroom.

3. Theory of Reading

Reading is very significant in life. Through reading, someone can be rich of important information. A piece of reading text can make someone know more. In other words, by reading, people will gain more knowledge. Reading is one of the ways to broaden knowledge. Besides, according to Raygor and Raygor (1985: 3), reading is also a great source of entertainment for many people. Therefore, it implies that reading is very useful to give the readers new information and also to entertain them.

As a comprehension skill, reading is divided into two main types. The first type is extensive reading and the second one is intensive reading. The division of these two types is based on the quality and also quantity of information that students gain. Extensive reading emphasizes the amount of information that is gained from as many sources or texts as possible.

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Additionally, intensive reading tends to put attention on the high quality of comprehension from small number of sources or texts.

1. Extensive Reading

Extensive reading covers a large area. Extensive reading involves the students to read long texts or large quantities for general understanding, with the intention of enjoying the texts (Stanley, 2005:1). In addition, this type of reading can encourage the students to acquaint various types of texts.

The use of more than one text or sources will enrich the students’ knowledge. However, Paulston and Bruder (1976: 199) note down problems found in extensive reading. The problems concern with the selection of reading materials or texts and how to make students read the texts.

2. Intensive Reading

Different from extensive reading, which uses as many sources as possible to gain knowledge, the intensive reading, on the other hand, emphasizes more on the depth of information from a single or few texts. Intensive reading focuses on the detailed information from a single or a few texts. Intensive reading will train the students to read carefully in order to understand the text well. The use of single text may cause the depth of understanding that leads to the better understanding of the text.

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a. Text Selection

Reading activity can be very useful in the learning processes in the school. McKim (1958: 15) states that “reading is important aspect of living in school”. It implies that printed sources, which are used in the reading activity, are very familiar to the students as they often learn using text books. Nevertheless, in using reading texts to support the learning in schools, the teacher should pay attention to the text selection, that is how the teacher chooses the text suitable for learning purposes, and the teacher should know the type of the text to be used in order to understand the function of each type of text.

In preparing the reading texts for the students, the teacher needs to be very selective. There are several things to be considered in preparing the reading texts in teaching learning process. Duffy (1985: 147) points out three important aspects to be measured in preparing usable texts for teaching. The aspects are as follows:

1. Audience

Audience means the reader of the text. Duffy (1985: 147) states that audience of a text can be different. He implicitly says that a text may be very useful for a group of audience, but not for others. However, a usable text should be written by considering the readers so that the message can be understood by the readers well. Teachers should consider the readers’ cultural background, linguistics competence, and also interest. Otherwise, the message of a text will not be grasped by its readers.

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2. Purpose

Duffy (1985: 148) reveals that “printed materials used for many purposes to learn, to execute procedures related to work, as reference materials, and so on”. As so many purposes the reading activity gives, it is important for teachers to decide a definite purpose of a text to be read by the students first. By deciding the purpose of the text, it will be easier to choose an appropriate text.

3. Context

Context refers to the situation around the readers. The situation in which the texts are used also contributes a significant role of the reading activity. Carter categorizes context into four aspects, namely size of the text, style or type, clarity of graphics, and type of the paper. By considering the context, the text selected will be more appropriate to the audience.

Goh (2002: 45) agrees that the use of literary texts is suitable for listening. Nevertheless, teachers should be able to prepare the text by considering three important criteria. Goh recommends that the teacher should use texts which are simple. Teacher should be able to adjust the difficulty of the text and the level of students. The text used is supposed to be simple in which it really can help students construct their knowledge. The second one is that the teacher should consider students’ cultural factor. The chosen texts should support the students to have sufficient background knowledge that will be used

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to understand what they listen to. The last criterion deals with theme. In selecting the text for listening, the teacher should be able to choose theme that students can identify. Therefore, in selecting the texts for the students, the teachers need to be very selective.

b. Types of Texts

Reading text can be classified into two types, namely authentic and non-authentic texts. The division of the type of reading texts is influenced by the concept of communicative setting or elements contained in the text.

1. Authentic Text

An authentic text is defined as any original source materials which are made for the real world communication. Although this type of text is written for outside classroom use, it can be also very suitable for learning in the classroom. One reason stated by Murdoch (1999: 3) is that it challenges the learners. However, in the application in the classroom, there will be no modification of the text.

Authentic texts are commonly used in classroom nowadays. Indeed, the authentic texts offer some advantages. Murdoch (1999: 3) points out that “authentic text provides an alternative to outdated textbook”. However, it is implied that the use of an authentic text can increase students’ motivation and interest to learn since this type of text offers different point of view from

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common texts used in the classroom. Besides, it can also train the students to understand the written texts in the real world.

2. Non-Authentic Text

Different from the authentic texts, the non-authentic text is designed for classroom use. In other words, the non-authentic texts are designed intentionally to be used in the classroom learning. Therefore, this type of text considers the level of students who read the texts.

The non-authentic texts can also be made by modifying an original text to adjust the level of difficulty to the students. The teacher, for example, may modify the diction to make the texts appropriate for the students. By doing so, the students will be easier to understand the texts. However, the non-authentic texts also provide advantages. The non-authentic texts are more readable and mistakes in this type of texts are avoided since the non-authentic texts have been already prepared for classroom use.

4. Reading Texts to Construct Knowledge

Reading skill is a helpful skill. It offers many advantages to the readers. In the learning process, reading also contributes important role to students. The students often prepare themselves by reading the materials. However, as stated before, reading texts are very useful to the success of the students.

According to Cohen (1990: 74), reading can support the other skills. It implies that it can also support the success of listening skill. It offers data to

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improve language skills. In this sense, reading becomes the vehicle of learning, supporting the students to construct knowledge about what is going to learn. By doing so, all students will have basic knowledge since the teacher facilitated the reading texts.

In order to link or integrate reading with the other language skills, reading texts play an indispensable role. Reading texts have benefits to help the teacher to teach other skills. Through reading texts, the teachers can integrate reading with speaking, reading with writing, or even reading and listening, which both are receptive skill. Reading texts are usually used to give examples or background knowledge to the students.

In teaching writing skill, reading texts can be used as models to the students to start their own writing. It means that reading texts are used to prepare the students to learn writing skill. Reading texts are indeed frequently used to provide inputs for the students. Moreover, reading texts are also used in teaching speaking to the students. The students will read first and then talk. The last, reading texts also contribute background knowledge to the listening skill. By reading the texts before the lesson is started, the students will have knowledge of related topic to be learned.

5. Students’ Perception on the Implementation of Reading Text as Pre-Listening Material

There are several definitions of perception according to experts. Perception is defined as “the process of organizing and interpreting sensory stimuli into meaningful

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patterns” (Kalish, 1973: 77). Similar to the definition by Kalish, Gibson (1997: 97) states that perception is “a process of organizing the information that an individual gains from his environment to make it logical and sensible”. Another definition is proposed by Altman and Hodgetts (1985: 85). They stated that perception is “an individual’s view of reality”. Therefore based on the definitions, it can be concluded that perception involves organizing and interpreting information from the environment so as to make the information meaningfully interpreted.

People may see the same thing, but they may perceive it in different ways (Gibson, 1982: 53). Altman and Hodgetts (1985: 85) mentioned that people’s perception depend on how they process the available information. However, there are several factors that can influence one’s perception. Robbins (1997: 39) clearly stated that perception is commonly influenced by the perceiver and the characteristics of the target being observed. Further, the characteristic involves attitudes, interests, expectation, past experience, and needs, as well as emotion (Robbins, 1997: 40).

B. Theoretical Framework

Listening skill is in fact very significant to be mastered. In learning English language, listening skill can be said as the basic skill to acquire other language skills; speaking, reading, and writing. The contribution of listening skill to support other language skills makes listening worth to be learned seriously.

In schools, listening skill is often taught using less background knowledge as the time is very limited. Meanwhile, the background knowledge is very important in building new understanding of new materials in every lesson including in learning

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listening skill. Background knowledge will make the students easier to understand the message of what they listen to. It will also raise their motivation to listen. Therefore, lack of background knowledge may cause ineffective listening. Hence, prior knowledge is very significant in helping students construct new knowledge.

Prior knowledge gives contributions to the students in building a new understanding while learning in the classroom. Brownell (1996: 10) believes that prior knowledge contributes successful learning. He says that in order to learn new knowledge, people in fact need prior knowledge. In other words, people need to relate information they already possess to the new materials that is going to be learned in order to construct new knowledge (Brown, 1994: 79). Prior knowledge which is well constructed before learning a new material offers contributions to the students in the learning process (Brownell, 1996: 10). For this reason, prior knowledge also needs to be constructed to the students in learning listening skill. Students’ prior knowledge should have been well constructed when they enter the class to start the new materials.

Constructing students’ prior knowledge becomes hard since the time of learning is very limited. Thus, the present study tries to investigate the effort of constructing prior knowledge to prepare them in listening section. Due to the limited time of listening section in the classroom, the students construct prior knowledge by reading the given texts from the teacher at home. Reading texts, which are commonly used by the students in learning, are in fact significant in helping them to construct background knowledge. Hence, the employed texts are authentic. They can be appropriate for the students as they help the students to be well-prepared in listening

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section. Besides, it is important to note that the topic of the given reading text is similar to that of the listening material. Therefore, the reading texts facilitate the students to comprehend the listening material they listen to in the classroom. However, different students may perceive the implementation of reading text as pre-listening material in different ways. The students may perceive the pre-pre-listening material positively and read the text before the listening section, or they may also perceive it negatively and are not willing to read the text before the listening section. Furthermore, the reading texts also provide the students with linguistic inputs which may be encountered in the listening texts. As a result, through reading text, the students are able to easily comprehend the listening materials.

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29 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

This chapter deals with methodology used in the research. The discussion of this chapter consists of six sub sections. The first sub-section is about the research method, in which the researcher explains the method used in the research. The second section of this chapter deals with research participants, which tells about the subject observed under the study. In the third sub section, the researcher explains about instruments used in gathering the data. The fourth section discusses the data gathering technique. This sub-section acquaints how the instruments are used in the study. The fifth section, that is data analysis, explains how the data gathered were analyzed. The last section is research procedure. This last section gives clear explanation about steps in conducting the research.

A. Research Method

The research is a qualitative research. Ary, Jacob, Razavieh (2002: 22) say that “qualitative focuses on understanding social phenomena from the perspective of the human participants in the study.” Moreover, according to Holliday (2002: 5), qualitative research is interpretive. He further explains that the researcher needs to investigate the participants deeply as it is believed that people are mysterious and need to be superficially touched. Thereby, qualitative research investigates human experiences in depth.

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Qualitative research in fact makes the researcher gain insight into the context of the participants. By doing so, the researcher would better understand the behavior of the participants (Ary, Jacob, Razavieh, 2002: 24). In other words, the use of qualitative research makes the researcher come into the unforeseen areas of the participants (Holliday, 2002: 5). It looks deeply into the quality of social life.

Since qualitative research uses human experiences to be observed, the data gained in the research is usually descriptive. It means that the data are in the form of words rather than numbers. The research is focused on face to face interaction to obtain the data. Considering the theories above, the researcher applied qualitative. Qualitative was best applied in the research since it was aimed to find out the influences of reading texts which construct participants’ prior knowledge in acquiring listening skill and also how the students perceived the implementation of the reading materials to prepare them in listening section.

B. Research Participants

The target population of this study was the third grade students of science

class of SMA Stella Duce Bantul of academic year 2006/2007 consisting of 14

students. The third science grade students of SMA Stella Duce Bantul were chosen as

the population of the study since they had learned English for years. Therefore, the students of this level were considered to have already mastered English language better than the lower level students. Furthermore, the researcher chose the population because it was accessible. However, since it would not be possible to survey the entire population of the students, a small group of students was designed to be

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representative of the population selected then. Therefore, eight students were chosen as participants who gave sufficient data about the implementation of the reading text to build prior knowledge in listening section.

The selection of the participants in this study was based on several reasons. In

this study, the researcher only chose eight students of third science grade of SMA

Stella Duce Bantul academic year 2006/2007 as the representatives of the population. The eight students were to be interviewed by the researcher. The researcher decided to choose the eight participants based on their mark (from the highest until the lowest one) to obtain more reliable data. Furthermore, the chosen students were believed to be able to give much information about the implementation.

C. Research Instruments

The study used three instruments to gather data. The instruments were interview, observation, and questionnaire. The instruments were used to make the researcher easier to gather the data in order to answer the problems formulated in problem formulation.

The first instrument was interview. The interview was conducted to the research participants in order to answer the first problem of the research. Besides, the interview also strengthened the data to answer the second problem of the research. According to Kvale (1996: 11), as cited in Cohen, Manion, and Morrison (2000: 267), ”the use of interview in research marks a move away from seeing human subjects as simply manipulable and data as somehow external to individuals, and towards regarding knowledge as generated between humans, often through

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conversations”. The interview was aimed to gather information about the students’ opinion toward the use of reading texts as additional materials to construct their prior knowledge and how the additional materials helped them to acquire listening skill in the class.

The interview used in the research was structured. According to Wallace (1998: 146), there are three types of interview, namely structured interview, unstructured interview, and semi-structured interview. Structured interview, which was used as one of the instrument of the study means that the questions for interviewee were already prepared before the interview was conducted. There were 13 questions prepared and asked by the researcher in order to answer the problems of the research. The detailed questions were enclosed in Appendix 4.

The second instrument, that was observation, was used to answer the first problem of the research. According to Cohen, Manion, and Morrison (2000: 293), “observational data are attractive as they afford the researcher the opportunity to gather “live” data from “live” situation”. In other words, by doing observation, the researcher was able to look at the real condition of the participants being observed. The researcher used observation since it gave data on every detailed action taking place in the classroom. Moreover, Cohen, Manion, and Morrison (2000: 293) also state that observation enables the researcher to gather data on physical setting, human setting, interactional setting, as well as programme setting. By using observation, the researcher was facilitated to gather data in every setting.

In the research, the observation forms were very useful in helping the researcher to gather data on the students’ improvement and how they were improved.

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The observation helped the researcher to observe the students’ behavior and attitudes as well as their ability in listening during the learning process. Besides, through observation, the researcher was able to gain information about the activities in the classroom completely, whether or not the reading texts influenced the activities in the classroom while listening.

There are two types of observation, namely participant observation and nonparticipant observation. In doing the research, the researcher used nonparticipant observation. In nonparticipant observation, the observer was not really involved in the activities of the group (Ary, Jacob, and Razavieh, 2002: 430). The researcher purely observed the students in the classroom. It was done in order to minimize the missing data on the students’ progress and to provide more truthful data. Therefore, a nonparticipant observer was very helpful.

The last instrument was questionnaire. According to Seliger and Shohamy (1989: 172) “questionnaire are printed forms for data collection, which include questions or statements to which the subject of the study is expected to answer”. Thus, it was clear that the data from the questionnaire were in the written form. The questionnaire was chosen as the instrument in the research since it helped the researcher to gather data in order to answer the second problem of the research. In the research, the questionnaire was given to the participants after they finished answering comprehensive questions in listening section in each observation. By using questionnaire, the researcher was able to observe whether the additional materials, i.e. reading texts, influenced the participants or not. The participants were to choose one option from three options provided related to the source of their answer to the

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comprehensive questions; whether they answered the questions based on the information obtained by reading the text only, listening to the recording only, or both of listening and reading. Further, the students also provided the reason for their answer.

In using the questionnaire, the researcher mixed the two types of questions in questionnaires; open-ended and close-ended questions. Cohen, Manion, and Marrison (2000: 248) differentiate the types of questions in the questionnaire into two, based on the way the participants or respondents answer the questions. In open-ended questions, the participants are able to “write a free response in their own terms, to explain and qualify their responses and avoid the limitations of pre-set categories of response” (Cohen, Manion, and Marrison, 2000: 248). Therefore, in this type of questions, the participants of the research were given freedom in answering the questions. On the other hand, the researcher also provided close-ended questions in the questionnaire. In close-ended questions, the participants have limitation only to choose one of the provided answers. The close-ended questions were used to observe participants’ source in answering questions in listening section, whether it was from the reading texts they had read or purely from the listening section in the classroom or from both sources. Open-ended questions were used to clarify the participants’ reason for choosing the answer.

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D. Data Gathering Techniques

It was stated that the researcher used three instruments in order to gather the data to answer the problems of the research. This sub-chapter explained how the instruments worked and also how the data were gathered.

In the first step of gathering data from the participants, the researcher maximized the use of observation form. Observation was used in the implementation of a particular method in teaching listening skill to the participants. In this step, the researcher asked the teacher’s help to distribute the reading passages which were related to the next topic. During the implementation of the method in classroom, the researcher observed the students and wrote important notes about their behavior and attitudes as well as the activities and learning situation in the classroom in the observation forms. Moreover, the researcher also distributed questionnaire, while observing the participants in the classroom. The questionnaire was used to measure whether or not the reading texts they had read at homes influenced their understanding in listening section. Hence, the participants were to answer questions related to their ability in answering some questions from the stories they listened to.

Having finished observing the participants and the learning situation in the classroom, the researcher began the next step, i.e. reflecting the implementation of the method in the classroom. It was done by interviewing the participants. The

representatives of third grade of science students of SMA Stella Duce Bantul were

interviewed one by one outside the classroom to create relax situation. By doing so, the researcher was able to gather information from every student. The interview

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conducted in the study was aimed to see participants’ opinion on the use of reading passages in learning listening skill; how it was able to help them in listening.

E. Data Analysis Techniques

After the data were gathered, the researcher then analyzed them in order to obtain the answer to the questions formulated in the problem formulation. In analyzing the data from the instruments, the researcher triangulated all the data gathered from observation, questionnaire, and interview. This step was conducted in order to gain valid and reliable data. According to Bodgan and Biklen (2003: 107), triangulation is used as “verification of facts”. This belief came from the idea that more than one source of information were needed in order to establish a fact. Therefore, many sources of data were better to lead to a fuller understanding of the phenomena under the investigation.

The researcher first listed the students’ answers related to their perceptions obtained from the interview. Based on the students’ answers, the researcher found the patterns for the answers in order to classify them into the more common categories. The categories used in this study then were positive and negative responses. When the students perceive reading text positively, they will consider reading text as a help to construct their prior knowledge which is important in listening section and they will give positive attitudes and response toward the text, i.e. read the given text before the listening section. Furthermore, the students’ positive responses could be seen clearly from their statements in the interview, such as “helpful”, “enjoyable”, “needed”, and “useful”. On the contrary, when they perceive reading text negatively,

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they will not consider reading text important as a help and will not read the text before they come to the listening section. The negative responses describe the participants’ disagree of the implementation of the reading text which could be seen from the statements as “boring” or “burdened”. Therefore, students’ different perception on the implementation of reading text can be clearly seen in their attitudes and responses.

Further, the researcher analyzed the result of observation in the classroom. The observation also helped the researcher to answer the first problem formulation. Moreover, the data from the observation gave description on participants’ activities in the classroom, their attitudes during the learning process, and also their progress. Furthermore, in assessing participants’ progress in listening skill, the researcher provided two indicators. The indicators used by the researcher were based on Nunan (1999: 31-32). The indicators were as follows:

1. The students are able to catch specific information from the recording by

answering the questions related to the texts including the time, name of people and places, and the main ideas of the stories.

2. The students are able to retell the stories systematically.

The students’ answers then were classified into four levels, namely very good, good, fair, and poor. The level of answers from the students was determined based on the following rubrics.

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Table 3.1 Level of Students’ Answers Rubrics

Level of Students’ Answers Criteria

Very Good

• Accurately answer the questions provided • Completely answer the questions provided

Good • Answer the questions correctly

Fair

• Incompletely answer the questions provided • The answers are related to the questions Poor

• Failed to answer the questions provided correctly • The answers are not related to the questions

(Adapted from: http://www.storyarts.org/classroom/usestories/listenrubric.html)

In order to see the percentage of the indicators achievement, the researcher uses the following formula:

x = number of students who answer the questions in particular level

∑n = the total number of students being observed

∑n x 100%

The data obtained then were related to the theories. Next, the researcher transformed the data into descriptive analysis. Having finished analyzing the data as the result of observing the participants, the researcher continued the next step of analysis. The researcher then analyzed the questionnaire. The questionnaire was very essential to give further data whether the reading texts influenced participants’ understanding while listening to the stories in the classroom. In analyzing the questionnaire, the following formula was used:

x = number of students who answer particular questions

∑n = the total number of students being observed

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Next, the researcher analyzed the last instrument, i.e. interview. The interview was used to answer the second question of the research on participants’ opinion on the use of additional material. Hence, the interview was also used to clarify the data from the observation in order to obtain more reliable and valid data.

F. Research Procedure

There were some steps used in the research. Before conducting the research, the researcher firstly chose the problem to be discussed. Then, the researcher decided the subject of the study. Next, the researcher came to the preparation step. In this step, the researcher asked permission letter from the secretariat of the English Language Study Program. Afterwards, the researcher proposed the proposal to the

headmaster of SMA Stella Duce Bantul to conduct the research in the school.

After discussing the method used in the classroom with the teacher of the participants, the researcher, then, observed the class in which the teacher implemented the reading text as pre-listening material. During the implementation, the researcher fully observed the participants and the learning activities in the classroom. At the end of the listening section in each meeting, the researcher distributed questionnaire to the participants in order to obtain the data needed. After the implementation had been conducted, the researcher interviewed the participants in order to gain more information needed to answer the problems of the research.

The next step was analyzing the data gathered from the observation, questionnaire, and the interview. The first problem was answered from the data gathered by triangulating the data gathered from the observation and interview,

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whereas the second problem was answered using questionnaire and the interview. Afterward, the data gathered were interpreted. After the data were interpreted, the researcher made conclusion based on the interpretation. As the last step, the researcher reported the result of the research.

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CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the researcher intends to presentthe findings of the research. This chapter is divided into two major sub-headings, namely students’ perceptions toward pre-listening material and the influences of reading text in listening section. The first sub-heading discusses students’ perception on the use of reading text as a medium to construct knowledge before listening section, whereas the second sub-heading provides the detailed discussion of the reading text influences to the students.

A. Students’ Perceptions toward Pre-Listening Material

Implementing reading text as a medium to construct students’ knowledge before listening section in class, the teacher provided three narrative short stories, namely Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, and Snow White. The reading text of each story was given to the students a week before the listening section. The students experienced the implementation of reading text for three weeks. Indeed, each student faced various experiences. As stated in Chapter III, the researcher employed observation sheet and interview to obtain the data on students’ perception.

In general, from the observation as well as from the interview with participants, it was surprisingly found that all participants actually liked learning listening. Two of them shared:

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(I like learning listening.)

… saya lebih suka belajar listening … (Kelud, Interview) (… I prefer learning listening ….)

However, the students still found difficulties in acquiring listening skill. What makes listening skill difficult to be mastered is, as stated by Rost (2002: 8), the fact that listening involves the ability to understand or to construct the meaning on what is listened to. Therefore, listening does not merely mean to receive or recognize the sound. One student in the interview stated:

… kan kalo dari listening itu mbak, cepet banget ngomongnya. Baru nyoba ngerti kalimat yang satu, eh udah ngomong yang lain lagi. (Krakatau, Interview)

(… in listening to the recording, the speakers speak very fast. I was trying to understand the meaning of a sentence, but the speakers continue speaking another sentence.)

In providing the students with the texts before listening section, the teacher tried to employ a particular activity in learning listening, i.e. top-down processing. Therefore, the students came into class with background knowledge in their mind. As the result of top-down processing, they had to read pre-listening materials, i.e. reading text at home before listening section. However, there were various responses students shared toward the implementation of reading text as pre-listening material.

Students perceived the pre-listening material both positively and negatively. Yet, from the interview with the students about their experiences of the implementation of reading texts to prepare themselves before listening, the researcher found that most students accepted the implementation positively. In other words, the idea from the teacher to provide the students with reading texts which were similar to

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the recording was accepted by most participants. Six of eight participants (75%) thought that the texts were needed and were very useful for them. Experiencing the implementation of the text, six participants, namely Bromo, Bukit Siguntang, Kerinci, Krakatau, Merapi, and Tidar implied that they agreed with the teacher who provided them with the text. In the interview, they mentioned:

Reading text itu perlu, mbak. (Tidar, Interview) (Reading texts were needed.)

Reading text membantu banget untuk persiapan listening. (Bromo, Interview)

(Reading text was very helpful for preparing me before listening.) Reading text itu bermanfaat banget. …. Walaupun kadang reading textnya nggak dong tapi itu tuh membantu mbak. (Krakatau, Interview)

(Reading text was really useful … Even though sometimes I could not understand the text fully, but still it helped me.)

From students’ answers above, it is obvious that the students could take the advantage from the texts they had read before listening section. The texts provided by the teacher were perceived as a helpful medium for preparing them before listening section in class. Moreover, there were also some students who did not read the text. It was clearly seen from the way they answered the questions and from the way they listened to the recording. Some students who did not read the text before the class seemed nervous. They worried that they could not answer the questions related to the story. Besides, from the questionnaire, it was clear that only two students had read the text of Sleeping Beauty and the others confessed they had not read the text. As a matter of fact, they did not answer several questions and left them blank.

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Furthermore, some students stated that they were not burdened by the pre-listening material since they liked reading and as far as the text helped them to prepare themselves before listening section. Two participants stated:

Aku suka membaca sih. (Krakatau, Interview) (I like reading.)

Aku sih nggak masalah sama panjang pendek teks, sejauh itu membantu aku. (Merapi, Interview)

(It does not a matter for me whether I have a long or short text, as long as the text can help me.)

On the other hand, other two students had their own argument in accepting the reading text. Both of them shared that they were not burdened by the text even though one student, Kerinci, did not like reading. However, another student implied that reading the text at home spent her time much. In the interview, the students said:

…nggak menyulitkan kalau ada waktu luang. (Bromo, Interview) (…it was not burdened me if I had spare time.)

Aku nggak suka membaca, tetapi aku nggak terbebani juga. (Kerinci, Interview)

(I do not like reading, but I was not burdened.)

Therefore, for most students reading text was a suitable medium for preparing them before listening section.

However, during the observation on the implementation of reading text in listening section, the researcher found that the students had high motivation to learn. All the students came on time. Besides, the researcher found that the students had read the text at home. Therefore, before the lesson began, they had time to share their experiences in reading the text. While the lesson began, they listened to the recording

(1)

Week : IV

Date : 23 Oktober 2007 Time : 15.30 – 17.00 Name of Participant : MERAPI

The result of measurement Criteria to be Measured Observed Not

Observed Poor Fair Good Very good The student is able to

answer questions related to

name of people in the story √ √

The student is able to catch specific information related to name of places from the story

√ √

The students is able to catch specific information related

to time happens in the story √ √

The student is able to catch specific information of reason of some actions happened in the story

√ √

The student is able to

understand the main idea of

the story √ √

The student is able to retell the story they have listened

(2)

Time : 15.30 – 17.00 Name of Participant : KRAKATAU

The result of measurement Criteria to be Measured Observed Not

Observed Poor Fair Good Very good The student is able to

answer questions related to

name of people in the story √ √

The student is able to catch specific information related to name of places from the story

√ √

The students is able to catch specific information related

to time happens in the story √ √

The student is able to catch specific information of reason of some actions happened in the story

√ The student is able to

understand the main idea of

the story √ √

The student is able to retell the story they have listened

(3)

Week : IV

Date : 23 Oktober 2007 Time : 15.30 – 17.00 Name of Participant : MERBABU

The result of measurement Criteria to be Measured Observed Not

Observed Poor Fair Good Very good The student is able to

answer questions related to

name of people in the story √ √

The student is able to catch specific information related to name of places from the story

√ √

The students is able to catch specific information related

to time happens in the story √ √

The student is able to catch specific information of reason of some actions happened in the story

√ √

The student is able to

understand the main idea of

the story √ √

The student is able to retell the story they have listened

(4)

Time : 15.30 – 17.00 Name of Participant : KELUD

The result of measurement Criteria to be Measured Observed Not

Observed Poor Fair Good Very good The student is able to

answer questions related to

name of people in the story √ √

The student is able to catch specific information related to name of places from the story

√ The students is able to catch

specific information related

to time happens in the story √ √

The student is able to catch specific information of reason of some actions happened in the story

√ The student is able to

understand the main idea of

the story √ √

The student is able to retell the story they have listened

(5)

Week : IV

Date : 23 Oktober 2007 Time : 15.30 – 17.00 Name of Participant : BROMO

The result of measurement Criteria to be Measured Observed Not

Observed Poor Fair Good Very good The student is able to

answer questions related to

name of people in the story √ √

The student is able to catch specific information related to name of places from the story

√ The students is able to catch

specific information related

to time happens in the story √ √

The student is able to catch specific information of reason of some actions happened in the story

√ The student is able to

understand the main idea of

the story √ √

The student is able to retell the story they have listened

(6)

Time : 15.30 – 17.00

Name of Participant : BUKIT SIGUNTANG

The result of measurement Criteria to be Measured Observed Not

Observed Poor Fair Good Very good The student is able to

answer questions related to name of people in the story

√ √

The student is able to catch specific information related to name of places from the story

√ √

The students is able to catch specific information related to time happens in the story

√ √

The student is able to catch specific information of reason of some actions happened in the story

√ √

The student is able to

understand the main idea of the story

√

The student is able to retell the story they have listened in right sequence

The influences of reading texts as a pre-listening material to students` understanding.

THE INFLUENCES OF READING TEXTS

AS A PRE-LISTENING MATERIAL

TO STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING

THE INFLUENCES OF READING TEXTS

AS A PRE-LISTENING MATERIAL

TO STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING

I asked for health that I might do greater things;

I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked God for strength that I might achieve;

I was made weak that I might learn to obey.

I asked for riches that I might be happy;

I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power and the praise of men;

I was given weakness to sense my need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life;

I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing I asked for, but everything I hoped for;

In spite of myself, my prayers were answered –

I am among all men most richly blessed.

Anon

“a big gift” for mom, dad, brother, sister, and friends

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The influences of reading texts as a pre-listening material to students` understanding - USD Repository

Dukungan

Links

The influences of reading texts as a pre-listening material to students` understanding.

THE INFLUENCES OF READING TEXTS

AS A PRE-LISTENING MATERIAL

TO STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING

THE INFLUENCES OF READING TEXTS

AS A PRE-LISTENING MATERIAL

TO STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING

I asked for health that I might do greater things;

I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked God for strength that I might achieve;

I was made weak that I might learn to obey.

I asked for riches that I might be happy;

I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power and the praise of men;

I was given weakness to sense my need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life;

I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing I asked for, but everything I hoped for;

In spite of myself, my prayers were answered –

I am among all men most richly blessed.

Anon

“a big gift” for mom, dad, brother, sister, and friends

Parts

Dokumen yang terkait

The effectiveness of pre-reading activities to improve students reading comprehension

The influences of 'morning program on vocabulary' on students' reading ability (a pre-experimental study at the second grade of Senior High School, Ceger, Tangerang)

Implementing humor as a teaching technique to support SMA N 6 Yogyakarta tenth grade students understanding of the English learning material.

Designing supplementary pre-reading material for the elementary school students.

The effectiveness of using reading texts to teach grammar to the third grade students of SMKN 2 Depok.

A study of students` understanding of -ing and -ed adjectival participles found in english reading texts and a design of remedial teaching material to improve their understanding.

The Effectiveness of picture texts as instructional materials for teaching reading to beginner students in the fifth grade of alementary school.

THE USE OF KANGGURU MAGAZINE AS A READING MATERIAL TO IMPROVE THE MASTERY OF READING COMPREHENSION SKILL TO THE EIGHT YEAR STUDENTS OF SMP N 3 UNGARAN IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2009/2010.

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The influences of reading texts as a pre-listening material to students` understanding - USD Repository

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