Improving listening comprehension skills of grade XII students in SMK Negeri 2 Depok Sleman through the use of authentic materials - USD Repository
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
IMPROVING LISTENING COMPREHENSION SKILLS OF GRADE XII
STUDENTS IN SMK NEGERI 2 DEPOK SLEMAN
THROUGH THE USE OF AUTHENTIC MATERIALS
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Agatha Dyah Ayu Tyasari
Student Number: 061214087
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2011
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
IMPROVING LISTENING COMPREHENSION SKILLS OF GRADE XII
STUDENTS IN SMK NEGERI 2 DEPOK SLEMAN
THROUGH THE USE OF AUTHENTIC MATERIALS
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Agatha Dyah Ayu Tyasari
Student Number: 061214087
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2011
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“It doesn’t matter how slowly you go, as
long as you do not stop.”
(Confucius)
“You don’t need to win every medal to
be successful.”
(Jason Fried)
This thesis is dedicated to:
My dearest mother
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ABSTRACT
Tyasari, Agatha Dyah Ayu. 2011. Improving Listening Comprehension Skills of
XII Kimia Industri Students in SMKN 2 Depok Sleman through the Use of
Authentic Materials.Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.
Listening comprehension skills play an important role in English teaching
learning process. By achieving sufficient listening comprehension skills, it is not
argued that the students will be able to understand the topic accurately enough and
give immediate relevant responses. However, for most of the students in
Indonesia, who mostly are EFL students, listening comprehension is often
considered as the most difficult skill to achieve. This problem occurs because of
three reasons. Firstly, the students are not accustomed to listening to English
passage especially spoken by native speakers. Secondly, the students have not
enough time to have English listening comprehension practice. The third reason is
the continuous use of textbook materials in the teaching learning process that can
be demotivating the students to learn. These facts were also happened in English
teaching learning process in XII Kimia Industri in SMKN 2 Depok Sleman that
cause the lack of listening comprehension skills. Concerning these situations, the
use of authentic materials was implemented to improve students’ listening
comprehension skills. The researcher thus attempts to answer the research
question, namely: How does the use of authentic materials improve listening
comprehension skills of the students of grade XII Kimia Industri in SMKN 2
Depok Sleman?
This research employed Classroom Action Research (CAR), focusing on
the implementation of authentic materials in XII SMKN 2 Depok Sleman. The
research was conducted on March 28th, 2011 and April 6th, 2011.The instruments
used to gather the data were observation checklist, field notes, questionnaire,
interview guide, and students’ journal. Triangulation technique was employed to
analyze the gathered data.
The researcher used authentic materials through five listening
comprehension phases as proposed by Goh (2002). From the research conducted,
it was found that the class average score increased from 23.87 to 26.20. The
researcher concluded that the use of authentic materials was able to improve the
students’ listening comprehension skills of grade XII Kimia Industri students in
SMKN 2 Depok Sleman. In addition, through the questionnaire and journal, the
students claimed that the use of authentic materials helped them in improving
their listening comprehension skills. It was found that 83. 87% of the students
declared that after using authentic materials, there was improvement in listening
for details aspect. Also, 37.10% of the students considered that the improvement
happened in listening for gist aspect. Furthermore, 50% of the respondents stated
that there was improvement in drawing inferences aspect. In listening selectively
aspect, 46.78% of the students stated that their skill was improved. Then, 54.83%
of the students conveyed that there was improvement in making prediction aspect.
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ABSTRAK
Tyasari, Agatha Dyah Ayu. 2011. Improving Listening Comprehension Skills of
XII Kimia Industri Students in SMKN 2 Depok Sleman through the Use of
Authentic Materials.Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Kemampuan menyimak berperan penting dalam proses belajar mengajar
Bahasa Inggris. Dengan pencapaian kemampuan menyimak yang memadai, tidak
diragukan lagi bahwa para siswa akan mampu memahami topik dengan tepat dan
langsung memberikan respon yang sesuai. Namun demikian, bagi sebagian besar
siswa di Indonesia, dimana Bahasa Inggris dipelajari sebagai bahasa asing,
kemampuan menyimak seringkali dianggap paling sulit untuk dikuasai. Masalah
ini disebabkan oleh tiga hal. Pertama, siswa tidak terbiasa mendengarkan dalam
Bahasa Inggris, khususnya oleh penutur asli. Kedua, siswa tidak punya cukup
waktu latihan menyimak dalam Bahasa Inggris. Ketiga, penggunaan materi dari
buku pelajaran secara terus menerus dalam kegiatan belajar mengajar yang dapat
mengurangi motivasi siswa untuk belajar. Fakta- fakta tersebut juga terjadi pada
proses belajar mengajar Bahasa Inggris di kelas XII Kimia Industri di SMKN 2
Depok Sleman yang berdampak pada lemahnya kemampuan menyimak materi
Bahasa Inggris. Sehubungan dengan keadaan tersebut, penggunaan authentic
materials diterapkan untuk meningkatkan kemampuan menyimak para siswa.
Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk menjawab rumusan masalah, yaitu : Bagaimana
penggunaan authentic materials meningkatkan kemampuan menyimak siswa
kelas XII Kimia Industri di SMKN 2 Depok Sleman?
Penelitian ini merupakan Penelitian Tindakan Kelas (PTK), yang
difokuskan pada penggunaan authentic materials di kelas XII Kimia Industri di
SMKN 2 Depok Sleman. Penelitian dilaksanakan pada tanggal 28 Maret 2011 dan
6 April 2011. Alat penelitian untuk mengumpulkan data berupa daftar observasi,
catatan lapangan, kuesioner, panduan wawancara, dan jurnal siswa. Teknik
triangulasi digunakan untuk menganalisa data terkumpul.
Peneliti menggunakan authentic materials melalui 5 (lima) tahapan
menyimak yang dianjurkan Goh (2002). Dari penelitian yang dilakukan, terlihat
bahwa nilai rata-rata kelas naik dari 23.87 menjadi 26.20. Peneliti menyimpulkan
bahwa penggunaan authentic materials mampu meningkatkan kemampuan
menyimak siswa kelas XII Kimia Industri di SMKN 2 Depok Sleman. Selain itu,
melalui kuesioner dan jurnal, siswa berpendapat bahwa penggunaan authentic
materials dapat membantu mereka meningkatkan kempuan menyimak materi
Bahasa Inggris. Sebanyak 83.87% siswa menyatakan bahwa setelah menggunakan
authentic materials, ada peningkatan pada aspek kemampuan mendengarkan
rincian. 37.10% siswa beranggapan bahwa ada peningkatan dalam aspek
mendengarkan ide pokok. Selanjutnya, 50% responden menyatakan bahwa ada
peningkatan pada aspek menarik kesimpulan pada suatu materi. 46,78% siswa
menyatakan bahwa ada peningkatan pada kemampuan mendengarkan selektif.
Selanjutnya, 54,83% siswa menyampaikan bahwa ada peningkatan pada aspek
membuat prediksi.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It is a blessing so that I can finish my thesis and my deepest gratitude is
for Jesus Christ for giving me everything I need in every moment in the right
time, sometimes even more than I expect.
I would never be able to finish this thesis without guidance from my major
sponsor Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd. I thank her for her being patient to
guide me in long time. I would also like to thank my proof reader Laurentia
Sumarni, S.Pd., who helped me to read my thesis and give me useful feedback.
Then I would never be able to obtain the data for this thesis without
permission from SMKN 2 Depok Sleman, and a very big thank goes to Bapak
Drs. Aragani Mizan Zakaria, the headmaster of SMKN 2 Depok Sleman, for the
hospitality. I would also like to address my thanks to Ibu Dra. Yohana Umiyati,
the advisory teacher for grade XII Kimia Industri students for allowing me to
conduct the research in her class and for giving me suggestion during the
implementation. Also, I would like to thank all students of XII Kimia Industri of
SMKN 2 Depok Sleman for their willingness to be the respondents of this
research, and be cooperative during the research and create conducive yet friendly
atmosphere.
I am really grateful for having the best mother ever, B.M. Prih Hermiyati,
and I thank her for her never ending love through everything she has given. I also
thank my best friend ever Anggela Ratna Sari for always encouraging me during
the hard times and reminding me that I am not alone. To Maria Susana W. and
Valentina Puput A.M, I thank them for relieving my stress with jokes and
laughter and for the support whenever I am down. I would also like to thank my
‘FIREFLIES’ friends: Nonok, Adven, Esti, Aldi, Satrio, and Nita, for learning
moments through discussions about education.
I really thank Tiwi, Anneis, Sari, and Rita, for giving me ‘shelter’, kindly
sharing their rooms during the collecting data period and for their support. Finally,
I would like to address my gratitude to everybody who helped me to finish this
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thesis, whose name cannot be mentioned one by one. I wish the best come to us
all.
Agatha Dyah Ayu Tyasari
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TITLE PAGE………………………………………………………
i
APPROVAL PAGES………………………………………………
ii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY…………………….
iv
DEDICATION PAGE……………………………………………..
v
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI…………………….
vi
ABSTRACT………………………………………………………..
vii
ABSTRAK………………………………………………………….
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………….
ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………….
xi
LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………
xv
LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………..
xvi
LIST OF APPENDICES…………………………………………...
xvii
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION…………………………………..
1
A. Research Background…………………………...
1
B. Problem Formulation……………………………
3
C. Problem Limitation……………………………...
3
D. Research Objective……………………………...
4
E. Research Benefits……………………………….
4
F. Definition of Terms……………………………..
5
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CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE…………
8
A. Theoretical Description…………………………
8
1. Listening……………………………………….
8
a. Definitions of Listening…………………….
8
b. Listening as Skills…………………………..
10
c. Listening Processes…………………………
10
2. Listening Comprehension……………………...
11
a. Definitions of Listening Comprehension…...
11
b. Listening Comprehension Skills…………….
14
c. The Importance of Listening Comprehension
for EFL Students……………………………
15
3. Authentic Materials…………………………….
18
a. Definitions of Authentic Materials………….
18
b. Types of Authentic Materials……………….
18
c. Advantages and Disadvantages of Authentic
Materials…………………………………….
23
d. Materials Selection Criteria for Teaching…..
25
B. Theoretical Framework………………………….
27
CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY……………………………
30
A. Research Method………………………………..
30
B. Research Participants……………………………
32
C. Research Instruments……………………………
32
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1. Observation Checklist…………………………
32
2. Field Notes…………………………………….
33
3. Questionnaire…………………………………
34
4. Interview Guide………………………………
35
5. Student Journal………………………………..
36
D. Data Gathering Technique………………………
37
E. Data Analysis Technique………………………..
39
1. Time Triangulation……………………………
40
2. Methodological Triangulation………………...
40
F. Research Procedure……………………………..
42
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS…..
47
A. The Description of the Implementation of
Authentic
Materials
to Improve
Listening
Comprehension Skills…………………………..
47
1. The First Cycle of CAR………………………
49
a. Planning for the First Cycle…………………
49
b. Acting and Observing the First Cycle………
52
c. Reflection of the First Cycle………………..
58
2. The Second Cycle of CAR……………………
62
a. Planning for the Second Cycle……………..
62
b. Acting and Observing the Second Cycle……
65
c. Reflection of the Second Cycle…………….
69
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B. Authentic
Materials
Improved
Listening
Comprehension Skills of Grade XII Kimia
Industri Students in SMKN 2 Depok Sleman…..
73
1. Listening for Details…………………………..
73
2. Listening for Gist……………………………..
75
3. Drawing Inferences……………………………
78
4. Listening Selectively………………………….
80
5. Making Prediction…………………………….
81
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS…………
85
A. Conclusions…………………………………
85
B. Suggestions………………………………….
88
REFERENCES…………………………………………………….
90
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LIST OF TABLES
Table
Page
Table 4.1 Teaching Schedule………………………………………….
48
Table 4.2 The Summary of Learning Activities in the First Cycle……
61
Table 4.3 The Summary of Learning Activities in the Second Cycle..
72
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure
Page
Figure 2.1 Learner’s Problems at Different Phases of Listening………
17
Figure 3.1 Kemmis and McTaggart’s Cycle Model……………………
31
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LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix
Page
A. Covering Letter for BAPPEDA……………………………
93
B. Permission Letter from BAPPEDA……………………….
95
C. Syllabus of English Lesson for Grade XII Kimia Industri
of SMKN 2 Depok Sleman………………………………...
97
D. The Blueprint of Observation Checklist…………………...
100
E. The Blueprint of Questionnaire……………………………
102
F. The Blueprint of Interview Guide…………………………
104
G. The Observation Checklist Form………………………….
107
H. The Field Notes Form……………………………………...
110
I. The Questionnaire…………………………………………
112
J. The Interview Guide………………………………………
114
K. The Students’ Journal………………………………………
117
L. Raw Data of Observations…………………………………
119
L.1 Raw Data of the First Cycle Observation…………….
120
L.2 Raw Data of the Second Cycle Observation…………
122
M. Raw Data of Field Notes………………………………….
124
M.1 Raw Data of the First Cycle Field Notes….…...……..
125
M.2 Raw Data of the Second Cycle Field Notes...………..
129
N. Raw Data of Questionnaire………………………………...
132
O. Students’ Journal Recaps…………………………………..
134
O.1 Students’ Journal Recap of the First Cycle…….……..
135
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O.2 Students’ Journal Recap of the Second Cycle……….
138
P. The Interview Transcript…………………………………..
141
Q. The Result of Worksheet 1…………………………………
174
R. The Result of Worksheet 2…………………………………
177
S. The Result of Listening Comprehension Assessment in the
Preliminary Research……………………………………..
180
T. The Result of Listening Quiz from the Research…………
183
U. Lesson Plans………………………………………………
186
U.1 Lesson Plan of the First Cycle………………………..
187
U.2 Lesson Plan of the Second Cycle……………………..
191
V. Worksheet 1………………………………………………
194
W. Worksheet 2 ………………………………………………
197
X. Test Penjajagan SMK Tahun Pelajaran 2008/2009 (Test
Sheet of Listening Section)……………………………………..
200
Y. Listening Quiz…………………………………………..
204
Z.
207
Audio Materials Transcript
Z.1 The Audio Transcript Transcript of Audio Material for
Listening Assessment in Preliminary Research (Test
Penjajagan UN Kabupaten Sleman 2008/2009)…………...
208
Z.2 Transcript of Audio Material for the First Cycle……..
211
Z.3 Transcript of Audio Material for the Second Cycle…..
215
Z.4 Transcript of Audio Material for Listening Quiz……..
217
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter describes briefly the research conducted by the researcher.
This chapter is divided into six major parts, namely (1) research background, (2)
problem formulation, (3) problem limitation, (4) research objectives, (5) research
benefits, and (6) definition of terms.
A.
Research Background
Language is used by community as a means to express facts, ideas, belief,
and so on. English is one of the widely-spoken languages in the world used to
express facts, ideas, belief, and so on to one another. For most of the students in
Indonesia, English is learned as a foreign language. As foreign language learners,
students are expected to master four English skills, namely listening, speaking,
reading, and writing. Among these four English skills, as Nunan cited from Rost
(1994: 141-142), listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides
input for the learners. Without understanding input at the right level, any learning
simply cannot begin. Listening is thus fundamental to speaking.
Listening to English passages or conversations is more difficult for
students who are not in English major, especially in terms of understanding what
is heard and then responding to it. Hatch’s (1978) explanation, as concluded by
Anderson (1988: 40), revealed that one of the principal skills which listeners must
develop if they are to participate successfully in a conversation is the ability to
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identify the topic of conversation, so that they can give relevant responses. In the
early stages of language learning, it is a difficult task for learners to identify the
topic accurately enough and to give immediate relevant responses. The difficulties
may hinder communication. Sometimes students find that listening is easy or
difficult. Factors involved in this assumption fell into three principal categories
(Anderson, 1988: 46) namely, (1) the type of language we are listening to, (2) our
task or purpose in listening, and (3) the context in which listening occurs.
During the practice teaching period, the researcher was interested in the
teaching learning problem that was encountered in one of the classes in SMKN 2
Depok Sleman, especially in the class the researcher handled. Based on the
preliminary observation, the researcher found that most of the students of grade
XII Kimia Industri SMKN 2 Depok Sleman considered listening as the most
difficult area to be mastered in learning English. The problem encountered in
listening activities was listening comprehension.
It was found that most of the students failed to listen successfully due to
their unfamiliarity with vocabulary items and speaker’s pronunciation. When they
were asked to listen to audio recordings, they claimed that the pronunciation of
the speaker was not clear and the vocabularies were difficult to understand. As the
researcher examined in the preliminary observation, these difficulties emerged
because they were not accustomed to listening to native speakers and/ or having
no particular time for listening section. The teaching learning process was often
focused on other skills, such as reading and writing. Furthermore, it was rather
difficult to have listening session in a regular class, because there was too much
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nuisance from outside the class. It was difficult for the students to concentrate and
listen to the recording carefully. Actually, the school provided a language
laboratory for the students to help them practice their listening skill. Booking
schedule was also arranged for the room usage, but in fact, the schedule was not
obeyed. The use of textbook and old-version materials also demotivated the
students to engage in listening activities. The problems that occurred were the
reasons why the researcher attempted to apply the use of authentic materials and
clearer listening procedures to help them improve their listening comprehension
skill.
B.
Problem Formulation
After the problems were identified, the researcher formulated the problem
into the following question:
How does the use of authentic materials improve listening comprehension skill of
the students of grade XII Kimia Industri in SMKN 2 Depok Sleman?
C.
Problem Limitation
To make this study more specific, some limitations were made. First, since
this was a Classroom Action Research, the scope of this study was limited to one
class only, namely grade XII Kimia Industri SMKN 2 Depok Sleman.
Secondly, this study was focused on students’ progress of listening
comprehension skill during the use of authentic materials in teaching learning
process in the classroom. Listening comprehension skill was taken into
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consideration because it played an important role in L2 learning. Krashen (1981)
claimed, as cited in Anderson’s book entitled Listening (1988), comprehension
played a central- and possibly predominant part- in the whole process language
learning. What was meant by listening comprehension skill here was the skill to
listen to native speakers especially in one way tasks and understand what was
heard, and this research was concerned with the progress of it.
D.
Research Objective
This research was intended to examine the process of how the use of
authentic materials improved listening comprehension skill of the students of
grade XII of Kimia Industri SMKN 2 Depok Sleman.
E.
Research Benefits
This study was supposed to be beneficial to English teachers in general,
English teachers in SMKN 2 Depok Sleman, and other researchers. First, this study
was expected to give benefits to English teachers in general, to help them in
viewing the problems which encountered in English learning in classroom and
developing strategies to improve English learning. Second, this study was
expected to be used as input for English teachers in SMKN 2 Depok Sleman, to
develop strategies in helping the students to improve their listening
comprehension so that the students can obtain better learning in English.
Last but not least, this study was expected to give benefits to other
researchers, as a reference for them in conducting research related to Classroom
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Action Research and English learning in classroom, especially about listening
comprehension skill.
F.
Definition of Terms
In order to avoid misinterpretation, there were some terms in this research
that need to be clarified. The terms were:
1.
Listening Comprehension Skill
Listening comprehension was the result of an interaction between a
number of information sources, which included the acoustic input, different types
of linguistic knowledge, details of the context, and general world knowledge, and
so forth, and listeners use whatever information they already had in their mind, or
whatever relevant information to help them interpret what the speaker was saying
(Buck, 2001: 3). Rost (2002) referred complete comprehension to the listeners
having a clear concept in memory for every referent used by the speaker.
Goh (2002) pointed out the key of listening comprehension skills are
listening for details, listening for gist, drawing inferences, listening selectively
and making predictions. Listening for details involved listening for specific
information. While listening for gist meant to listen for main ideas or global
listening. Drawing inferences was the ability to fill in gaps in the input. In
listening selectively, listeners are to listen only to the specific parts of the input.
Making predictions was the ability to anticipate before and during listening what
one is going to hear.
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In this research, what was meant by listening comprehension skills were the
skills to listen to the native speaker especially in one way tasks and understand
what was heard, in accordance with the aspects of comprehensive listening. The
researcher examined the progress of listening comprehension skills using those
five detailed aspects, after implementing a learning process using authentic
materials in listening session.
2.
Authentic Materials
Authentic materials were materials that have not been specifically
produced for the purpose of language teaching (Nunan, 1989: 54). Nunan (1989)
added that most everyday objects in the target language qualify as authentic
materials. The authentic materials could be in form of audio materials, visual
materials, printed materials, or multimedia materials.
In this research, the authentic materials used were materials that have not
been specifically produced for the purpose of language teaching, and were
everyday objects that can easily be found in daily life. The authentic materials
used were authentic audio materials, such as songs and interview. The use of
authentic audio materials was aimed at helping students to be more focused on the
sound, and not on other things.
3.
XII Kimia Industri students in SMK Negeri 2 Depok Sleman
Vocational schools are schools that focus on the development of students’
skills to do specific work (Government Regulation Chapter 1, Article 1).
Therefore, education in vocational schools is aimed at preparing the students to be
ready to enter the field of work professionally.
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SMK Negeri 2 Depok Sleman was one of the state vocational schools in
Sleman which provides several majors for the students to study. Kimia Industri
was one of the major studies in SMK Negeri 2 Depok Sleman which prepare the
students to work on operating and controlling chemical process in industry. Based
on the preliminary research data, the students of grade XII Kimia Industri in SMK
Negeri 2 Depok Sleman had difficulties in listening comprehension, especially in
terms of question and response. From the observations, it was found that the
students were not accustomed to listening to native speakers and/or had no
particular time for listening session. Besides, the XII Kimia Industri students in
SMK Negeri 2 Depok were also unfamiliar with vocabulary items used and the
speaker’s pronunciation. As a result, the listening sessions took longer time and
the students failed to give relevant responses. When the students failed to give
relevant responses, the communication between the teacher and students did not
go smoothly.
In accordance with that condition, the researcher tried to use authentic audio
materials in particular time for listening session. The use of authentic audio
materials in particular time for listening session was intended to give the students
opportunity to practice listening comprehension skills in clearer procedure, so that
they were able to focus and hence could acquire better listening comprehension
skills.
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In this chapter, the researcher reveals some theories which are related to
and support the research. This chapter is divided into two major sections, namely
theoretical description and theoretical framework. Theoretical description reveals
the theories and principles which are related to the implementation of using
authentic materials and listening comprehension. Theoretical framework covers
the synthesis of relevant theories that can help the research to answer the research
question.
A.
Theoretical Description
This theoretical description consists of related theories and principles in
this research.
1.
Listening
The researcher divides this section into three sub-sections, namely
definition of listening, listening as skills, and listening as processes.
a.
Definitions of Listening
Traditionally, listening has often been regarded as a passive language skill.
However, listening involves a number of different ways in which the listeners can
or fail to process incoming speech. There are four major reasons why the listeners
can or fail to process the incoming speech according to Anderson (1988), namely:
first, the listener may not hear adequately what has been said due to the
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unfamiliarity with the speaker‟s accent or competing background noise. As a
result, the speech may have been „heard‟ in a strictly limited sense. The listeners
are unable to capture the idea contained in the speech they have heard.
Second, the speech may contain words or phrases that the listeners can
hear adequately but is unable to understand, because of serious problems with the
syntax or semantics of the foreign language. The third reason, there are times
when the listeners are perfectly able to hear and understand the speaker, but may
have „switched off‟ consciously or unconsciously. The last reason, there are those
messages which the listener attends to fully and from which he tried to construct
coherent interpretation.
According to Rost (2002: 7), listening is a process involving a continuum
of active processes, which are under the control of listener, and passive processes,
which are not. Howat and Dakin (1974) as cited by Guo (2005), stated that
listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying. What
involved in this process is, understanding a speaker‟s accent or pronunciation, the
speaker‟s grammar and vocabulary, and comprehension of meaning. As stated by
Guo (2005), if the students‟ knowledge of pronunciation, grammar and
vocabulary is insufficient, it is probable that their English listening
comprehension will be negatively affected by the lack of language knowledge.
Emmert (1994), as cited by Pekin (2010) stated that listening is more than
merely hearing words. It is an active process by which students receive, construct
meaning from and respond to spoken and or nonverbal messages. Meanwhile
Hyslop (1988), in a study, cited Thomlison‟s (1984) definition of listening,
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including “active listening”, which goes beyond comprehending literally to
empathetic understanding of the speaker.
b.
Listening as Skills
According to Anderson (1988), listening, under many circumstances is a
reciprocal skill. Also, listening skills are as important as speaking skills. It means
that people could not communicate face-to-face unless the two types of skill are
developed in tandem. Moreover, people cannot practise listening in the same way
as they can rehearse speaking, or at least the part of speaking that had to do with
pronunciation, because people cannot usually predict what they will have to listen
to.
In addition, Anderson (1988) stated that all types of listening skills are
valuable and necessary if a learner‟s aim is to acquire an all-round ability to listen
effectively in a range of situations, to various types of input, and for a variety of
listening purposes. In this research, listening skills are related to the type of
purposeful listening, namely comprehensive listening. This type of purposeful
listening is to understand the message, and formed the foundation for listening
therapeutically, critically, and appreciatively (Wolvin & Coakely, 1996). Briefly,
Wolvin & Coakely (1996) defined comprehensive listening as informational
listening, in which students listen for the content of the message.
c.
Listening Processes
There are two distinct views of listening process, namely bottom-up
processing and top-down processing. Buck (2001: 2) explained that the bottom-up
processing refers to a process of passing through a number of consecutive stages,
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or levels, and the output of each stage becomes the input for the next higher stage.
Bottom-up processing tends to rely on the text, in which the listeners rely on the
combination of sounds, words, and grammar that created meaning. Another view
of listening process is top-down processing. Top-down processing emphasizes
more the background knowledge of the listeners. Prior knowledge of a topic
enables listeners to interpret what they have heard and predict what will come
next. Listening comprehension is mainly a top-down process in the sense that the
various types of knowledge involved in understanding language were applied in
any order, or even simultaneously, and they are all capable of interacting and
influencing each other (Buck, 2001: 3).
Buck (2001) added, there are many reasons why the listening process may
go wrong. This could be due to the background noise, or distracted attention, or be
thinking of something else. Moreover, for second-language listeners, they could
have other difficulties, such as unknown vocabulary, complex syntax, or the text
could be just too fast.
2.
Listening Comprehension
The researcher divides this section into three sub-sections, namely
definitions of listening comprehension, listening comprehension skills, and the
importance of listening comprehension skills for EFL students.
a.
Definitions of Listening Comprehension
Buck (2001: 3) simply pointed out that listening comprehension is the
result of an interaction between a number of information sources, which include
the acoustic input, different types of linguistic knowledge, details of the context,
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and general world knowledge, and so forth, and listeners use whatever
information they already have in their mind, or whatever relevant information to
help them interpret what the speaker is saying.
Caroll (1972), as cited by Buck (2001: 52), described listening
comprehension as a two-stage process, namely the apprehension of the linguistic
information contained in the message, and the application of that linguistic
information to the wider communicative context.
According to Anderson (1988), there are four relevant features of listening
input which make comprehending materials difficult or easy for listeners. These
are information organization, familiarity of topic, explicitness of information, and
type of input. First is the information organization. The information organization
deals with the information structure given to the listeners. This feature might be
an ease or difficulty for the listeners so that the teacher should consider the way
information is ordered in factual text when producing or selecting material for the
students.
Secondly is the familiarity of topic. This feature deals with the power of
prior knowledge to interpret what the listeners heard and the failure of awareness
of the extent to which they were drawing on such knowledge. Anderson (1988:
49) cited what Hare and Devine (1983) found, that the amount of prior knowledge
of the topic of a story was a significant predictor of how much content the listener
would recall. As Buck (2001) cited from Spilich et al.(1979) and Pearson and
Johnson (1978), if the topic of the text accords well with the listeners‟ world
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knowledge, then it will be much easier to understand than a text with a topic that
the listener knows about.
The third feature is explicitness of information. There are three types of
explicitness found influencing the ease of comprehension according to Anderson
(1988), namely: redundancy, sufficiency of information, and referring expressions.
Redundancy refers to the cues that the listeners have to select, which can be
contrastive –or only single feature mentioned, or redundant, in which there are
two distinguished features mentioned. Sufficiency of information means the texts
contains all the relevant information and no more. Referring information is about
the way a speaker chooses to refer to the people or objects he mentions, and the
effect of these choices on the listener‟s ease of comprehension.
The last feature is the type of input. The type of input affects the degree of
comprehension difficulty. From an experimental research on teenagers, Brown
and Yule (1983a) have categorized spoken texts into three broad types; these are
static, dynamic, and abstract. The terms refer to the differences in the potential
complexity of relationships between the things, people, events, and ideas referred
to by a speaker. In a static text, the focus is on describing an object or giving
someone instructions on how to assemble a model, in which the relationship
between items is likely to be fixed. Dynamic use of language is needed in telling a
story or recounting an incident. It is called dynamic because it will probably
involve shifts of scene and time, and even the characters and the relationship.
Abstract texts focus on someone‟s ideas and beliefs rather than concrete objects,
for example someone‟s reason of choosing a particular school or university.
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b.
Listening Comprehension Skills
There are five keys of listening comprehension skills which the students to
acquire, which was summarized by Goh (2002), namely: listening for details,
listening for gist, drawing inferences, listening selectively, and making prediction.
1)
Listening for Details
Listening for details involved listening for specific information, such as
key words and numbers. Sometimes students have to listen to many details, which
may cause fatigue yet can also become a very intensive activity.
2)
Listening for Gist
Listening for gist is meant to listen to the main ideas or the „big picture‟ of
a passage. Students focused on the general ideas and not on supporting details.
Experts assumed that this is the skill that effective listeners employ most
frequently.
3)
Drawing Inferences
Drawing inferences or filling the gaps in the input is the ability that
required listeners to „listen between the lines‟. Speakers sometimes leave
information out because they assume the listeners already know it or they are
being deliberately ambiguous. Listeners may also miss some parts of speech
because of fatigue, noisy surroundings, distractions and the speaker‟s poor
explanation. Buck (2001) stated that inferences vary depending on how much
background knowledge is needed to make the inferences. Inferences are also not
only made about situations described in the text, but can also about the motives of
the speaker, or the point the text is intended to illustrate. Clark and Haviland
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(1974) claimed, as cited by Buck (2001) that the inferences necessary to
understanding the meaning of a text.
4)
Listening Selectively
Listening selectively refers to listening only to specific parts of the input.
Listeners are to listen to specific parts of the input, depending on the purpose for
listening. It helps listeners to listen in a more relaxed manner, as they do not need
to concentrate on the whole passage. Nevertheless, it may lead the listeners to
ineffective understanding because they may have their own prejudices or bias.
5)
Making Prediction
Making prediction is the ability to anticipate before and during listening
what is going to be heard. Contexts, co-texts and visual input are the clues
included in making predictions. Listeners tend to listen more purposefully and
attentively when they make predictions because they want to find out if they have
predicted correctly.
c.
The Importance of Listening Comprehension for EFL Students
Krashen (1981) claimed, as stated in Anderson and Lynch‟s book
Listening (1988), that comprehension plays a central-and possibly predominant
part in the whole process of learning. There are three main skills which are
important for foreign listeners, emerged from the discourse analysis studies:
(1)
The ability to recognize the topic of conversation from the native
speaker‟s initial remarks.
(2)
The ability to make predictions about likely developments of the topic
to which he will have to respond
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(3)
The ability to recognize and signal when he has not understood enough
of the input to make a prediction or a response. These explicit signals
are crucial, as they usually elicit a repetition or reformulation by the
native speaker, and so give the listener another chance to make a
relevant response.
In developing learners‟ listening comprehension skill, teachers are
supposed to also concern about the factors that influence learner listening. Goh
(2002), previously in a study cited Rubin‟s (1994) explanation, that factors which
enhanced or depressed listening comprehension can be summarized into five
categories: text type, task, interlocutor, process, and listener.
1)
Text
There are three types of text feature can affect listening. First are the
acoustic features, including phonological modification and speech rate. Second,
the discourse features, such as macro- and micro – markers, linear and non-linear
organization of information, difficult vocabulary, colloquialism, sentence length
and complexity, visual support, and explicitness of information. The last, is the
clear influence of text types. For example the influence of news broadcasts,
lectures and conversation, abstract versus non-abstract topics, and static versus
dynamic relationship.
2)
Task
Types of question, the amount of time available for processing information,
and whether or not the listener can capture the information repeated, are the
features that influence the complexities of listening tasks.
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3)
Interlocutor (speaker)
The degree and quality of comparison might be affected by the speaker‟s
characteristics, including the accent, fluency, standard or non-standard usage, and
gender.
4)
Listener
Listeners also have the characteristics that can influence comprehension,
including language proficiency, gender, memory, interest, purpose, prior
knowledge, attention concentration, accuracy of pronunciation, physical and
psychological states, knowledge of context, topic familiarity, and established
learning habits.
5)
Process
The process here refers to the types of processing that listeners engaged in
directly which affect listening comprehension.
Goh (2002) added the factors above with the specific problems in each
phase of comprehension faced by the learners as adopted by the researcher as
follows.
PERCEPTION
Do not recognize words
they know
Neglect the next part when
thinking about meaning
Cannot chunk streams of
speech
Miss the beginning of texts
Concentrate too hard or
unable to concentrate
PARSING
Quickly forget what is
heard
Unable to form a mental
representation from words
heard
Do
not
understand
subsequent parts of input
because of earlier problem
UTILISATION
Understand words but not
the intended message
Confused about key ideas
in the message
Figure 2.1 Learner’s Problems at Different Phases of Listening (Goh 2002: 9)
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3.
Authentic Materials
This section is divided into four sub-sections, namely definitions of
authentic materials, types of authentic materials, advantages and disadvantages of
authentic materials, and material selection criteria for teaching.
a.
Definitions of Authentic Materials
Authentic materials are defined by Morrow (1977: 13) as a stretch of real
language, produced by a real speaker or writer for a real audience and designed to
convey a real message of some sort. Rueckert (2006) in a previous study revealed
authentic materials as materials that teachers can use in classroom that have not
been changed in any way for ESL students. Nunan (1989:54) added authentic
materials as any materials which have not been specifically produced for the
purposes of language teaching. In accordance with these, the authentic materials
are also not changed for the students.
Peacock (1997) in Martinez‟s study (2002) defined authentic materials as
materials that have been produced to fulfill some social purpose in the language
community. By this definition, the use of authentic materials in this research is
expected to help students to communicating in the language community, using
interesting topics yet still in accordance with school target materials.
b.
Types of Authentic Material
There are five types of authentic material highlighted in Goh‟s journal
(2002), namely videos, radio broadcasts, songs, literary texts, interactive CD
ROMS, and the World Wide Web.
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1)
Videos
Goh (2002) revealed that videos are now becoming an integral part of
language teaching. Students can take the advantages of using videos with visual
clues that are an important source of information in real-life communication.
Videos support students to practice top-down strategies by contextualising what is
heard and making inferences about things that they did not hear clearly. Videos
also enabled students to combine both auditory and visual clues in parallel
processing, something which they frequently do in their first language.
However, there are some considerations in selecting videos for teaching,
such as sources of the materials, students‟ background knowledge, appropriate
segments, length of sequences and viewing time between listening activities. The
types of video that are appropriate included TV drama or sitcom, feature film,
news programme, documentary, game show, advertisement, film trailer, music
video, cartoon, weather forecast, interview and talk show. Feature film is also
good to use in classroom. However, there are four criteria in selecting the feature
film. Firstly, the film is supposed to be an enjoy watching film. Secondly, the film
is supposed to have an uncomplicated plot which provided and easy context for
understanding the language. Thirdly, the film should give an honest view of the
world and society. Fourthly, the dialogues in the film are supposed to be simple
and realistic, and are able to provide a good model for the students.
2)
Radio Broadcasts
According to Goh (2002), radio broadcasts provided an endless source of
current and updated materials of many themes. Teachers can use recording for the
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radio to keep things new and relevant for the students. Some examples of the
activities related to radio broadcasts are listening to topical issues programmes,
popular culture, and contemporary celebrities, which can be very motivating for
students as they put the classroom in touch with the world outside. Radio
broadcasts also bring the students to a wide variety of text types to choose from.
Transactional and interactional talks to suit different learning objectives can also
be found in this type of materials.
There are six suggestions for using radio broadcasts as proposed by Goh
(2002). Firstly, students are supposed to get familiarised with the programmes on
local and overseas radio stations. Secondly, programmes should suit the interest
and level of students. Thirdly, themes and topics in the syllabus are supposed to
give supplement by radio programmes. Fourthly, it is better for teachers to make a
checklist of the types of text that are appropriate for the lessons. Fifthly,
transcribing in post-listening activities should be done in relevant segments after
the teachers have made the recording. Sixthly, recording should be labelled clearly
with the name of the programme, the date of broadcasts, the radio station and the
target group of students.
3)
Songs
Goh (2002) found that songs provided a wide range of comprehension
tasks because they are normally short and in general use simple language and
contains repetitions. Longer songs often contain stories that will capture students‟
attention. It is also good for teachers to use songs to explain about recount and
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narrative text
IMPROVING LISTENING COMPREHENSION SKILLS OF GRADE XII
STUDENTS IN SMK NEGERI 2 DEPOK SLEMAN
THROUGH THE USE OF AUTHENTIC MATERIALS
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Agatha Dyah Ayu Tyasari
Student Number: 061214087
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2011
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
IMPROVING LISTENING COMPREHENSION SKILLS OF GRADE XII
STUDENTS IN SMK NEGERI 2 DEPOK SLEMAN
THROUGH THE USE OF AUTHENTIC MATERIALS
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Agatha Dyah Ayu Tyasari
Student Number: 061214087
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2011
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“It doesn’t matter how slowly you go, as
long as you do not stop.”
(Confucius)
“You don’t need to win every medal to
be successful.”
(Jason Fried)
This thesis is dedicated to:
My dearest mother
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ABSTRACT
Tyasari, Agatha Dyah Ayu. 2011. Improving Listening Comprehension Skills of
XII Kimia Industri Students in SMKN 2 Depok Sleman through the Use of
Authentic Materials.Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.
Listening comprehension skills play an important role in English teaching
learning process. By achieving sufficient listening comprehension skills, it is not
argued that the students will be able to understand the topic accurately enough and
give immediate relevant responses. However, for most of the students in
Indonesia, who mostly are EFL students, listening comprehension is often
considered as the most difficult skill to achieve. This problem occurs because of
three reasons. Firstly, the students are not accustomed to listening to English
passage especially spoken by native speakers. Secondly, the students have not
enough time to have English listening comprehension practice. The third reason is
the continuous use of textbook materials in the teaching learning process that can
be demotivating the students to learn. These facts were also happened in English
teaching learning process in XII Kimia Industri in SMKN 2 Depok Sleman that
cause the lack of listening comprehension skills. Concerning these situations, the
use of authentic materials was implemented to improve students’ listening
comprehension skills. The researcher thus attempts to answer the research
question, namely: How does the use of authentic materials improve listening
comprehension skills of the students of grade XII Kimia Industri in SMKN 2
Depok Sleman?
This research employed Classroom Action Research (CAR), focusing on
the implementation of authentic materials in XII SMKN 2 Depok Sleman. The
research was conducted on March 28th, 2011 and April 6th, 2011.The instruments
used to gather the data were observation checklist, field notes, questionnaire,
interview guide, and students’ journal. Triangulation technique was employed to
analyze the gathered data.
The researcher used authentic materials through five listening
comprehension phases as proposed by Goh (2002). From the research conducted,
it was found that the class average score increased from 23.87 to 26.20. The
researcher concluded that the use of authentic materials was able to improve the
students’ listening comprehension skills of grade XII Kimia Industri students in
SMKN 2 Depok Sleman. In addition, through the questionnaire and journal, the
students claimed that the use of authentic materials helped them in improving
their listening comprehension skills. It was found that 83. 87% of the students
declared that after using authentic materials, there was improvement in listening
for details aspect. Also, 37.10% of the students considered that the improvement
happened in listening for gist aspect. Furthermore, 50% of the respondents stated
that there was improvement in drawing inferences aspect. In listening selectively
aspect, 46.78% of the students stated that their skill was improved. Then, 54.83%
of the students conveyed that there was improvement in making prediction aspect.
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ABSTRAK
Tyasari, Agatha Dyah Ayu. 2011. Improving Listening Comprehension Skills of
XII Kimia Industri Students in SMKN 2 Depok Sleman through the Use of
Authentic Materials.Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Kemampuan menyimak berperan penting dalam proses belajar mengajar
Bahasa Inggris. Dengan pencapaian kemampuan menyimak yang memadai, tidak
diragukan lagi bahwa para siswa akan mampu memahami topik dengan tepat dan
langsung memberikan respon yang sesuai. Namun demikian, bagi sebagian besar
siswa di Indonesia, dimana Bahasa Inggris dipelajari sebagai bahasa asing,
kemampuan menyimak seringkali dianggap paling sulit untuk dikuasai. Masalah
ini disebabkan oleh tiga hal. Pertama, siswa tidak terbiasa mendengarkan dalam
Bahasa Inggris, khususnya oleh penutur asli. Kedua, siswa tidak punya cukup
waktu latihan menyimak dalam Bahasa Inggris. Ketiga, penggunaan materi dari
buku pelajaran secara terus menerus dalam kegiatan belajar mengajar yang dapat
mengurangi motivasi siswa untuk belajar. Fakta- fakta tersebut juga terjadi pada
proses belajar mengajar Bahasa Inggris di kelas XII Kimia Industri di SMKN 2
Depok Sleman yang berdampak pada lemahnya kemampuan menyimak materi
Bahasa Inggris. Sehubungan dengan keadaan tersebut, penggunaan authentic
materials diterapkan untuk meningkatkan kemampuan menyimak para siswa.
Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk menjawab rumusan masalah, yaitu : Bagaimana
penggunaan authentic materials meningkatkan kemampuan menyimak siswa
kelas XII Kimia Industri di SMKN 2 Depok Sleman?
Penelitian ini merupakan Penelitian Tindakan Kelas (PTK), yang
difokuskan pada penggunaan authentic materials di kelas XII Kimia Industri di
SMKN 2 Depok Sleman. Penelitian dilaksanakan pada tanggal 28 Maret 2011 dan
6 April 2011. Alat penelitian untuk mengumpulkan data berupa daftar observasi,
catatan lapangan, kuesioner, panduan wawancara, dan jurnal siswa. Teknik
triangulasi digunakan untuk menganalisa data terkumpul.
Peneliti menggunakan authentic materials melalui 5 (lima) tahapan
menyimak yang dianjurkan Goh (2002). Dari penelitian yang dilakukan, terlihat
bahwa nilai rata-rata kelas naik dari 23.87 menjadi 26.20. Peneliti menyimpulkan
bahwa penggunaan authentic materials mampu meningkatkan kemampuan
menyimak siswa kelas XII Kimia Industri di SMKN 2 Depok Sleman. Selain itu,
melalui kuesioner dan jurnal, siswa berpendapat bahwa penggunaan authentic
materials dapat membantu mereka meningkatkan kempuan menyimak materi
Bahasa Inggris. Sebanyak 83.87% siswa menyatakan bahwa setelah menggunakan
authentic materials, ada peningkatan pada aspek kemampuan mendengarkan
rincian. 37.10% siswa beranggapan bahwa ada peningkatan dalam aspek
mendengarkan ide pokok. Selanjutnya, 50% responden menyatakan bahwa ada
peningkatan pada aspek menarik kesimpulan pada suatu materi. 46,78% siswa
menyatakan bahwa ada peningkatan pada kemampuan mendengarkan selektif.
Selanjutnya, 54,83% siswa menyampaikan bahwa ada peningkatan pada aspek
membuat prediksi.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It is a blessing so that I can finish my thesis and my deepest gratitude is
for Jesus Christ for giving me everything I need in every moment in the right
time, sometimes even more than I expect.
I would never be able to finish this thesis without guidance from my major
sponsor Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd. I thank her for her being patient to
guide me in long time. I would also like to thank my proof reader Laurentia
Sumarni, S.Pd., who helped me to read my thesis and give me useful feedback.
Then I would never be able to obtain the data for this thesis without
permission from SMKN 2 Depok Sleman, and a very big thank goes to Bapak
Drs. Aragani Mizan Zakaria, the headmaster of SMKN 2 Depok Sleman, for the
hospitality. I would also like to address my thanks to Ibu Dra. Yohana Umiyati,
the advisory teacher for grade XII Kimia Industri students for allowing me to
conduct the research in her class and for giving me suggestion during the
implementation. Also, I would like to thank all students of XII Kimia Industri of
SMKN 2 Depok Sleman for their willingness to be the respondents of this
research, and be cooperative during the research and create conducive yet friendly
atmosphere.
I am really grateful for having the best mother ever, B.M. Prih Hermiyati,
and I thank her for her never ending love through everything she has given. I also
thank my best friend ever Anggela Ratna Sari for always encouraging me during
the hard times and reminding me that I am not alone. To Maria Susana W. and
Valentina Puput A.M, I thank them for relieving my stress with jokes and
laughter and for the support whenever I am down. I would also like to thank my
‘FIREFLIES’ friends: Nonok, Adven, Esti, Aldi, Satrio, and Nita, for learning
moments through discussions about education.
I really thank Tiwi, Anneis, Sari, and Rita, for giving me ‘shelter’, kindly
sharing their rooms during the collecting data period and for their support. Finally,
I would like to address my gratitude to everybody who helped me to finish this
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thesis, whose name cannot be mentioned one by one. I wish the best come to us
all.
Agatha Dyah Ayu Tyasari
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TITLE PAGE………………………………………………………
i
APPROVAL PAGES………………………………………………
ii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY…………………….
iv
DEDICATION PAGE……………………………………………..
v
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI…………………….
vi
ABSTRACT………………………………………………………..
vii
ABSTRAK………………………………………………………….
viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………….
ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………….
xi
LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………
xv
LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………..
xvi
LIST OF APPENDICES…………………………………………...
xvii
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION…………………………………..
1
A. Research Background…………………………...
1
B. Problem Formulation……………………………
3
C. Problem Limitation……………………………...
3
D. Research Objective……………………………...
4
E. Research Benefits……………………………….
4
F. Definition of Terms……………………………..
5
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CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE…………
8
A. Theoretical Description…………………………
8
1. Listening……………………………………….
8
a. Definitions of Listening…………………….
8
b. Listening as Skills…………………………..
10
c. Listening Processes…………………………
10
2. Listening Comprehension……………………...
11
a. Definitions of Listening Comprehension…...
11
b. Listening Comprehension Skills…………….
14
c. The Importance of Listening Comprehension
for EFL Students……………………………
15
3. Authentic Materials…………………………….
18
a. Definitions of Authentic Materials………….
18
b. Types of Authentic Materials……………….
18
c. Advantages and Disadvantages of Authentic
Materials…………………………………….
23
d. Materials Selection Criteria for Teaching…..
25
B. Theoretical Framework………………………….
27
CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY……………………………
30
A. Research Method………………………………..
30
B. Research Participants……………………………
32
C. Research Instruments……………………………
32
xii
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
1. Observation Checklist…………………………
32
2. Field Notes…………………………………….
33
3. Questionnaire…………………………………
34
4. Interview Guide………………………………
35
5. Student Journal………………………………..
36
D. Data Gathering Technique………………………
37
E. Data Analysis Technique………………………..
39
1. Time Triangulation……………………………
40
2. Methodological Triangulation………………...
40
F. Research Procedure……………………………..
42
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS…..
47
A. The Description of the Implementation of
Authentic
Materials
to Improve
Listening
Comprehension Skills…………………………..
47
1. The First Cycle of CAR………………………
49
a. Planning for the First Cycle…………………
49
b. Acting and Observing the First Cycle………
52
c. Reflection of the First Cycle………………..
58
2. The Second Cycle of CAR……………………
62
a. Planning for the Second Cycle……………..
62
b. Acting and Observing the Second Cycle……
65
c. Reflection of the Second Cycle…………….
69
xiii
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
B. Authentic
Materials
Improved
Listening
Comprehension Skills of Grade XII Kimia
Industri Students in SMKN 2 Depok Sleman…..
73
1. Listening for Details…………………………..
73
2. Listening for Gist……………………………..
75
3. Drawing Inferences……………………………
78
4. Listening Selectively………………………….
80
5. Making Prediction…………………………….
81
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS…………
85
A. Conclusions…………………………………
85
B. Suggestions………………………………….
88
REFERENCES…………………………………………………….
90
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PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
LIST OF TABLES
Table
Page
Table 4.1 Teaching Schedule………………………………………….
48
Table 4.2 The Summary of Learning Activities in the First Cycle……
61
Table 4.3 The Summary of Learning Activities in the Second Cycle..
72
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PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure
Page
Figure 2.1 Learner’s Problems at Different Phases of Listening………
17
Figure 3.1 Kemmis and McTaggart’s Cycle Model……………………
31
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PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix
Page
A. Covering Letter for BAPPEDA……………………………
93
B. Permission Letter from BAPPEDA……………………….
95
C. Syllabus of English Lesson for Grade XII Kimia Industri
of SMKN 2 Depok Sleman………………………………...
97
D. The Blueprint of Observation Checklist…………………...
100
E. The Blueprint of Questionnaire……………………………
102
F. The Blueprint of Interview Guide…………………………
104
G. The Observation Checklist Form………………………….
107
H. The Field Notes Form……………………………………...
110
I. The Questionnaire…………………………………………
112
J. The Interview Guide………………………………………
114
K. The Students’ Journal………………………………………
117
L. Raw Data of Observations…………………………………
119
L.1 Raw Data of the First Cycle Observation…………….
120
L.2 Raw Data of the Second Cycle Observation…………
122
M. Raw Data of Field Notes………………………………….
124
M.1 Raw Data of the First Cycle Field Notes….…...……..
125
M.2 Raw Data of the Second Cycle Field Notes...………..
129
N. Raw Data of Questionnaire………………………………...
132
O. Students’ Journal Recaps…………………………………..
134
O.1 Students’ Journal Recap of the First Cycle…….……..
135
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O.2 Students’ Journal Recap of the Second Cycle……….
138
P. The Interview Transcript…………………………………..
141
Q. The Result of Worksheet 1…………………………………
174
R. The Result of Worksheet 2…………………………………
177
S. The Result of Listening Comprehension Assessment in the
Preliminary Research……………………………………..
180
T. The Result of Listening Quiz from the Research…………
183
U. Lesson Plans………………………………………………
186
U.1 Lesson Plan of the First Cycle………………………..
187
U.2 Lesson Plan of the Second Cycle……………………..
191
V. Worksheet 1………………………………………………
194
W. Worksheet 2 ………………………………………………
197
X. Test Penjajagan SMK Tahun Pelajaran 2008/2009 (Test
Sheet of Listening Section)……………………………………..
200
Y. Listening Quiz…………………………………………..
204
Z.
207
Audio Materials Transcript
Z.1 The Audio Transcript Transcript of Audio Material for
Listening Assessment in Preliminary Research (Test
Penjajagan UN Kabupaten Sleman 2008/2009)…………...
208
Z.2 Transcript of Audio Material for the First Cycle……..
211
Z.3 Transcript of Audio Material for the Second Cycle…..
215
Z.4 Transcript of Audio Material for Listening Quiz……..
217
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter describes briefly the research conducted by the researcher.
This chapter is divided into six major parts, namely (1) research background, (2)
problem formulation, (3) problem limitation, (4) research objectives, (5) research
benefits, and (6) definition of terms.
A.
Research Background
Language is used by community as a means to express facts, ideas, belief,
and so on. English is one of the widely-spoken languages in the world used to
express facts, ideas, belief, and so on to one another. For most of the students in
Indonesia, English is learned as a foreign language. As foreign language learners,
students are expected to master four English skills, namely listening, speaking,
reading, and writing. Among these four English skills, as Nunan cited from Rost
(1994: 141-142), listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides
input for the learners. Without understanding input at the right level, any learning
simply cannot begin. Listening is thus fundamental to speaking.
Listening to English passages or conversations is more difficult for
students who are not in English major, especially in terms of understanding what
is heard and then responding to it. Hatch’s (1978) explanation, as concluded by
Anderson (1988: 40), revealed that one of the principal skills which listeners must
develop if they are to participate successfully in a conversation is the ability to
1
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2
identify the topic of conversation, so that they can give relevant responses. In the
early stages of language learning, it is a difficult task for learners to identify the
topic accurately enough and to give immediate relevant responses. The difficulties
may hinder communication. Sometimes students find that listening is easy or
difficult. Factors involved in this assumption fell into three principal categories
(Anderson, 1988: 46) namely, (1) the type of language we are listening to, (2) our
task or purpose in listening, and (3) the context in which listening occurs.
During the practice teaching period, the researcher was interested in the
teaching learning problem that was encountered in one of the classes in SMKN 2
Depok Sleman, especially in the class the researcher handled. Based on the
preliminary observation, the researcher found that most of the students of grade
XII Kimia Industri SMKN 2 Depok Sleman considered listening as the most
difficult area to be mastered in learning English. The problem encountered in
listening activities was listening comprehension.
It was found that most of the students failed to listen successfully due to
their unfamiliarity with vocabulary items and speaker’s pronunciation. When they
were asked to listen to audio recordings, they claimed that the pronunciation of
the speaker was not clear and the vocabularies were difficult to understand. As the
researcher examined in the preliminary observation, these difficulties emerged
because they were not accustomed to listening to native speakers and/ or having
no particular time for listening section. The teaching learning process was often
focused on other skills, such as reading and writing. Furthermore, it was rather
difficult to have listening session in a regular class, because there was too much
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
3
nuisance from outside the class. It was difficult for the students to concentrate and
listen to the recording carefully. Actually, the school provided a language
laboratory for the students to help them practice their listening skill. Booking
schedule was also arranged for the room usage, but in fact, the schedule was not
obeyed. The use of textbook and old-version materials also demotivated the
students to engage in listening activities. The problems that occurred were the
reasons why the researcher attempted to apply the use of authentic materials and
clearer listening procedures to help them improve their listening comprehension
skill.
B.
Problem Formulation
After the problems were identified, the researcher formulated the problem
into the following question:
How does the use of authentic materials improve listening comprehension skill of
the students of grade XII Kimia Industri in SMKN 2 Depok Sleman?
C.
Problem Limitation
To make this study more specific, some limitations were made. First, since
this was a Classroom Action Research, the scope of this study was limited to one
class only, namely grade XII Kimia Industri SMKN 2 Depok Sleman.
Secondly, this study was focused on students’ progress of listening
comprehension skill during the use of authentic materials in teaching learning
process in the classroom. Listening comprehension skill was taken into
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
4
consideration because it played an important role in L2 learning. Krashen (1981)
claimed, as cited in Anderson’s book entitled Listening (1988), comprehension
played a central- and possibly predominant part- in the whole process language
learning. What was meant by listening comprehension skill here was the skill to
listen to native speakers especially in one way tasks and understand what was
heard, and this research was concerned with the progress of it.
D.
Research Objective
This research was intended to examine the process of how the use of
authentic materials improved listening comprehension skill of the students of
grade XII of Kimia Industri SMKN 2 Depok Sleman.
E.
Research Benefits
This study was supposed to be beneficial to English teachers in general,
English teachers in SMKN 2 Depok Sleman, and other researchers. First, this study
was expected to give benefits to English teachers in general, to help them in
viewing the problems which encountered in English learning in classroom and
developing strategies to improve English learning. Second, this study was
expected to be used as input for English teachers in SMKN 2 Depok Sleman, to
develop strategies in helping the students to improve their listening
comprehension so that the students can obtain better learning in English.
Last but not least, this study was expected to give benefits to other
researchers, as a reference for them in conducting research related to Classroom
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
5
Action Research and English learning in classroom, especially about listening
comprehension skill.
F.
Definition of Terms
In order to avoid misinterpretation, there were some terms in this research
that need to be clarified. The terms were:
1.
Listening Comprehension Skill
Listening comprehension was the result of an interaction between a
number of information sources, which included the acoustic input, different types
of linguistic knowledge, details of the context, and general world knowledge, and
so forth, and listeners use whatever information they already had in their mind, or
whatever relevant information to help them interpret what the speaker was saying
(Buck, 2001: 3). Rost (2002) referred complete comprehension to the listeners
having a clear concept in memory for every referent used by the speaker.
Goh (2002) pointed out the key of listening comprehension skills are
listening for details, listening for gist, drawing inferences, listening selectively
and making predictions. Listening for details involved listening for specific
information. While listening for gist meant to listen for main ideas or global
listening. Drawing inferences was the ability to fill in gaps in the input. In
listening selectively, listeners are to listen only to the specific parts of the input.
Making predictions was the ability to anticipate before and during listening what
one is going to hear.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
6
In this research, what was meant by listening comprehension skills were the
skills to listen to the native speaker especially in one way tasks and understand
what was heard, in accordance with the aspects of comprehensive listening. The
researcher examined the progress of listening comprehension skills using those
five detailed aspects, after implementing a learning process using authentic
materials in listening session.
2.
Authentic Materials
Authentic materials were materials that have not been specifically
produced for the purpose of language teaching (Nunan, 1989: 54). Nunan (1989)
added that most everyday objects in the target language qualify as authentic
materials. The authentic materials could be in form of audio materials, visual
materials, printed materials, or multimedia materials.
In this research, the authentic materials used were materials that have not
been specifically produced for the purpose of language teaching, and were
everyday objects that can easily be found in daily life. The authentic materials
used were authentic audio materials, such as songs and interview. The use of
authentic audio materials was aimed at helping students to be more focused on the
sound, and not on other things.
3.
XII Kimia Industri students in SMK Negeri 2 Depok Sleman
Vocational schools are schools that focus on the development of students’
skills to do specific work (Government Regulation Chapter 1, Article 1).
Therefore, education in vocational schools is aimed at preparing the students to be
ready to enter the field of work professionally.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
7
SMK Negeri 2 Depok Sleman was one of the state vocational schools in
Sleman which provides several majors for the students to study. Kimia Industri
was one of the major studies in SMK Negeri 2 Depok Sleman which prepare the
students to work on operating and controlling chemical process in industry. Based
on the preliminary research data, the students of grade XII Kimia Industri in SMK
Negeri 2 Depok Sleman had difficulties in listening comprehension, especially in
terms of question and response. From the observations, it was found that the
students were not accustomed to listening to native speakers and/or had no
particular time for listening session. Besides, the XII Kimia Industri students in
SMK Negeri 2 Depok were also unfamiliar with vocabulary items used and the
speaker’s pronunciation. As a result, the listening sessions took longer time and
the students failed to give relevant responses. When the students failed to give
relevant responses, the communication between the teacher and students did not
go smoothly.
In accordance with that condition, the researcher tried to use authentic audio
materials in particular time for listening session. The use of authentic audio
materials in particular time for listening session was intended to give the students
opportunity to practice listening comprehension skills in clearer procedure, so that
they were able to focus and hence could acquire better listening comprehension
skills.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In this chapter, the researcher reveals some theories which are related to
and support the research. This chapter is divided into two major sections, namely
theoretical description and theoretical framework. Theoretical description reveals
the theories and principles which are related to the implementation of using
authentic materials and listening comprehension. Theoretical framework covers
the synthesis of relevant theories that can help the research to answer the research
question.
A.
Theoretical Description
This theoretical description consists of related theories and principles in
this research.
1.
Listening
The researcher divides this section into three sub-sections, namely
definition of listening, listening as skills, and listening as processes.
a.
Definitions of Listening
Traditionally, listening has often been regarded as a passive language skill.
However, listening involves a number of different ways in which the listeners can
or fail to process incoming speech. There are four major reasons why the listeners
can or fail to process the incoming speech according to Anderson (1988), namely:
first, the listener may not hear adequately what has been said due to the
8
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
9
unfamiliarity with the speaker‟s accent or competing background noise. As a
result, the speech may have been „heard‟ in a strictly limited sense. The listeners
are unable to capture the idea contained in the speech they have heard.
Second, the speech may contain words or phrases that the listeners can
hear adequately but is unable to understand, because of serious problems with the
syntax or semantics of the foreign language. The third reason, there are times
when the listeners are perfectly able to hear and understand the speaker, but may
have „switched off‟ consciously or unconsciously. The last reason, there are those
messages which the listener attends to fully and from which he tried to construct
coherent interpretation.
According to Rost (2002: 7), listening is a process involving a continuum
of active processes, which are under the control of listener, and passive processes,
which are not. Howat and Dakin (1974) as cited by Guo (2005), stated that
listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying. What
involved in this process is, understanding a speaker‟s accent or pronunciation, the
speaker‟s grammar and vocabulary, and comprehension of meaning. As stated by
Guo (2005), if the students‟ knowledge of pronunciation, grammar and
vocabulary is insufficient, it is probable that their English listening
comprehension will be negatively affected by the lack of language knowledge.
Emmert (1994), as cited by Pekin (2010) stated that listening is more than
merely hearing words. It is an active process by which students receive, construct
meaning from and respond to spoken and or nonverbal messages. Meanwhile
Hyslop (1988), in a study, cited Thomlison‟s (1984) definition of listening,
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
10
including “active listening”, which goes beyond comprehending literally to
empathetic understanding of the speaker.
b.
Listening as Skills
According to Anderson (1988), listening, under many circumstances is a
reciprocal skill. Also, listening skills are as important as speaking skills. It means
that people could not communicate face-to-face unless the two types of skill are
developed in tandem. Moreover, people cannot practise listening in the same way
as they can rehearse speaking, or at least the part of speaking that had to do with
pronunciation, because people cannot usually predict what they will have to listen
to.
In addition, Anderson (1988) stated that all types of listening skills are
valuable and necessary if a learner‟s aim is to acquire an all-round ability to listen
effectively in a range of situations, to various types of input, and for a variety of
listening purposes. In this research, listening skills are related to the type of
purposeful listening, namely comprehensive listening. This type of purposeful
listening is to understand the message, and formed the foundation for listening
therapeutically, critically, and appreciatively (Wolvin & Coakely, 1996). Briefly,
Wolvin & Coakely (1996) defined comprehensive listening as informational
listening, in which students listen for the content of the message.
c.
Listening Processes
There are two distinct views of listening process, namely bottom-up
processing and top-down processing. Buck (2001: 2) explained that the bottom-up
processing refers to a process of passing through a number of consecutive stages,
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
11
or levels, and the output of each stage becomes the input for the next higher stage.
Bottom-up processing tends to rely on the text, in which the listeners rely on the
combination of sounds, words, and grammar that created meaning. Another view
of listening process is top-down processing. Top-down processing emphasizes
more the background knowledge of the listeners. Prior knowledge of a topic
enables listeners to interpret what they have heard and predict what will come
next. Listening comprehension is mainly a top-down process in the sense that the
various types of knowledge involved in understanding language were applied in
any order, or even simultaneously, and they are all capable of interacting and
influencing each other (Buck, 2001: 3).
Buck (2001) added, there are many reasons why the listening process may
go wrong. This could be due to the background noise, or distracted attention, or be
thinking of something else. Moreover, for second-language listeners, they could
have other difficulties, such as unknown vocabulary, complex syntax, or the text
could be just too fast.
2.
Listening Comprehension
The researcher divides this section into three sub-sections, namely
definitions of listening comprehension, listening comprehension skills, and the
importance of listening comprehension skills for EFL students.
a.
Definitions of Listening Comprehension
Buck (2001: 3) simply pointed out that listening comprehension is the
result of an interaction between a number of information sources, which include
the acoustic input, different types of linguistic knowledge, details of the context,
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
12
and general world knowledge, and so forth, and listeners use whatever
information they already have in their mind, or whatever relevant information to
help them interpret what the speaker is saying.
Caroll (1972), as cited by Buck (2001: 52), described listening
comprehension as a two-stage process, namely the apprehension of the linguistic
information contained in the message, and the application of that linguistic
information to the wider communicative context.
According to Anderson (1988), there are four relevant features of listening
input which make comprehending materials difficult or easy for listeners. These
are information organization, familiarity of topic, explicitness of information, and
type of input. First is the information organization. The information organization
deals with the information structure given to the listeners. This feature might be
an ease or difficulty for the listeners so that the teacher should consider the way
information is ordered in factual text when producing or selecting material for the
students.
Secondly is the familiarity of topic. This feature deals with the power of
prior knowledge to interpret what the listeners heard and the failure of awareness
of the extent to which they were drawing on such knowledge. Anderson (1988:
49) cited what Hare and Devine (1983) found, that the amount of prior knowledge
of the topic of a story was a significant predictor of how much content the listener
would recall. As Buck (2001) cited from Spilich et al.(1979) and Pearson and
Johnson (1978), if the topic of the text accords well with the listeners‟ world
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
13
knowledge, then it will be much easier to understand than a text with a topic that
the listener knows about.
The third feature is explicitness of information. There are three types of
explicitness found influencing the ease of comprehension according to Anderson
(1988), namely: redundancy, sufficiency of information, and referring expressions.
Redundancy refers to the cues that the listeners have to select, which can be
contrastive –or only single feature mentioned, or redundant, in which there are
two distinguished features mentioned. Sufficiency of information means the texts
contains all the relevant information and no more. Referring information is about
the way a speaker chooses to refer to the people or objects he mentions, and the
effect of these choices on the listener‟s ease of comprehension.
The last feature is the type of input. The type of input affects the degree of
comprehension difficulty. From an experimental research on teenagers, Brown
and Yule (1983a) have categorized spoken texts into three broad types; these are
static, dynamic, and abstract. The terms refer to the differences in the potential
complexity of relationships between the things, people, events, and ideas referred
to by a speaker. In a static text, the focus is on describing an object or giving
someone instructions on how to assemble a model, in which the relationship
between items is likely to be fixed. Dynamic use of language is needed in telling a
story or recounting an incident. It is called dynamic because it will probably
involve shifts of scene and time, and even the characters and the relationship.
Abstract texts focus on someone‟s ideas and beliefs rather than concrete objects,
for example someone‟s reason of choosing a particular school or university.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
14
b.
Listening Comprehension Skills
There are five keys of listening comprehension skills which the students to
acquire, which was summarized by Goh (2002), namely: listening for details,
listening for gist, drawing inferences, listening selectively, and making prediction.
1)
Listening for Details
Listening for details involved listening for specific information, such as
key words and numbers. Sometimes students have to listen to many details, which
may cause fatigue yet can also become a very intensive activity.
2)
Listening for Gist
Listening for gist is meant to listen to the main ideas or the „big picture‟ of
a passage. Students focused on the general ideas and not on supporting details.
Experts assumed that this is the skill that effective listeners employ most
frequently.
3)
Drawing Inferences
Drawing inferences or filling the gaps in the input is the ability that
required listeners to „listen between the lines‟. Speakers sometimes leave
information out because they assume the listeners already know it or they are
being deliberately ambiguous. Listeners may also miss some parts of speech
because of fatigue, noisy surroundings, distractions and the speaker‟s poor
explanation. Buck (2001) stated that inferences vary depending on how much
background knowledge is needed to make the inferences. Inferences are also not
only made about situations described in the text, but can also about the motives of
the speaker, or the point the text is intended to illustrate. Clark and Haviland
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
15
(1974) claimed, as cited by Buck (2001) that the inferences necessary to
understanding the meaning of a text.
4)
Listening Selectively
Listening selectively refers to listening only to specific parts of the input.
Listeners are to listen to specific parts of the input, depending on the purpose for
listening. It helps listeners to listen in a more relaxed manner, as they do not need
to concentrate on the whole passage. Nevertheless, it may lead the listeners to
ineffective understanding because they may have their own prejudices or bias.
5)
Making Prediction
Making prediction is the ability to anticipate before and during listening
what is going to be heard. Contexts, co-texts and visual input are the clues
included in making predictions. Listeners tend to listen more purposefully and
attentively when they make predictions because they want to find out if they have
predicted correctly.
c.
The Importance of Listening Comprehension for EFL Students
Krashen (1981) claimed, as stated in Anderson and Lynch‟s book
Listening (1988), that comprehension plays a central-and possibly predominant
part in the whole process of learning. There are three main skills which are
important for foreign listeners, emerged from the discourse analysis studies:
(1)
The ability to recognize the topic of conversation from the native
speaker‟s initial remarks.
(2)
The ability to make predictions about likely developments of the topic
to which he will have to respond
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
16
(3)
The ability to recognize and signal when he has not understood enough
of the input to make a prediction or a response. These explicit signals
are crucial, as they usually elicit a repetition or reformulation by the
native speaker, and so give the listener another chance to make a
relevant response.
In developing learners‟ listening comprehension skill, teachers are
supposed to also concern about the factors that influence learner listening. Goh
(2002), previously in a study cited Rubin‟s (1994) explanation, that factors which
enhanced or depressed listening comprehension can be summarized into five
categories: text type, task, interlocutor, process, and listener.
1)
Text
There are three types of text feature can affect listening. First are the
acoustic features, including phonological modification and speech rate. Second,
the discourse features, such as macro- and micro – markers, linear and non-linear
organization of information, difficult vocabulary, colloquialism, sentence length
and complexity, visual support, and explicitness of information. The last, is the
clear influence of text types. For example the influence of news broadcasts,
lectures and conversation, abstract versus non-abstract topics, and static versus
dynamic relationship.
2)
Task
Types of question, the amount of time available for processing information,
and whether or not the listener can capture the information repeated, are the
features that influence the complexities of listening tasks.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
17
3)
Interlocutor (speaker)
The degree and quality of comparison might be affected by the speaker‟s
characteristics, including the accent, fluency, standard or non-standard usage, and
gender.
4)
Listener
Listeners also have the characteristics that can influence comprehension,
including language proficiency, gender, memory, interest, purpose, prior
knowledge, attention concentration, accuracy of pronunciation, physical and
psychological states, knowledge of context, topic familiarity, and established
learning habits.
5)
Process
The process here refers to the types of processing that listeners engaged in
directly which affect listening comprehension.
Goh (2002) added the factors above with the specific problems in each
phase of comprehension faced by the learners as adopted by the researcher as
follows.
PERCEPTION
Do not recognize words
they know
Neglect the next part when
thinking about meaning
Cannot chunk streams of
speech
Miss the beginning of texts
Concentrate too hard or
unable to concentrate
PARSING
Quickly forget what is
heard
Unable to form a mental
representation from words
heard
Do
not
understand
subsequent parts of input
because of earlier problem
UTILISATION
Understand words but not
the intended message
Confused about key ideas
in the message
Figure 2.1 Learner’s Problems at Different Phases of Listening (Goh 2002: 9)
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
18
3.
Authentic Materials
This section is divided into four sub-sections, namely definitions of
authentic materials, types of authentic materials, advantages and disadvantages of
authentic materials, and material selection criteria for teaching.
a.
Definitions of Authentic Materials
Authentic materials are defined by Morrow (1977: 13) as a stretch of real
language, produced by a real speaker or writer for a real audience and designed to
convey a real message of some sort. Rueckert (2006) in a previous study revealed
authentic materials as materials that teachers can use in classroom that have not
been changed in any way for ESL students. Nunan (1989:54) added authentic
materials as any materials which have not been specifically produced for the
purposes of language teaching. In accordance with these, the authentic materials
are also not changed for the students.
Peacock (1997) in Martinez‟s study (2002) defined authentic materials as
materials that have been produced to fulfill some social purpose in the language
community. By this definition, the use of authentic materials in this research is
expected to help students to communicating in the language community, using
interesting topics yet still in accordance with school target materials.
b.
Types of Authentic Material
There are five types of authentic material highlighted in Goh‟s journal
(2002), namely videos, radio broadcasts, songs, literary texts, interactive CD
ROMS, and the World Wide Web.
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1)
Videos
Goh (2002) revealed that videos are now becoming an integral part of
language teaching. Students can take the advantages of using videos with visual
clues that are an important source of information in real-life communication.
Videos support students to practice top-down strategies by contextualising what is
heard and making inferences about things that they did not hear clearly. Videos
also enabled students to combine both auditory and visual clues in parallel
processing, something which they frequently do in their first language.
However, there are some considerations in selecting videos for teaching,
such as sources of the materials, students‟ background knowledge, appropriate
segments, length of sequences and viewing time between listening activities. The
types of video that are appropriate included TV drama or sitcom, feature film,
news programme, documentary, game show, advertisement, film trailer, music
video, cartoon, weather forecast, interview and talk show. Feature film is also
good to use in classroom. However, there are four criteria in selecting the feature
film. Firstly, the film is supposed to be an enjoy watching film. Secondly, the film
is supposed to have an uncomplicated plot which provided and easy context for
understanding the language. Thirdly, the film should give an honest view of the
world and society. Fourthly, the dialogues in the film are supposed to be simple
and realistic, and are able to provide a good model for the students.
2)
Radio Broadcasts
According to Goh (2002), radio broadcasts provided an endless source of
current and updated materials of many themes. Teachers can use recording for the
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radio to keep things new and relevant for the students. Some examples of the
activities related to radio broadcasts are listening to topical issues programmes,
popular culture, and contemporary celebrities, which can be very motivating for
students as they put the classroom in touch with the world outside. Radio
broadcasts also bring the students to a wide variety of text types to choose from.
Transactional and interactional talks to suit different learning objectives can also
be found in this type of materials.
There are six suggestions for using radio broadcasts as proposed by Goh
(2002). Firstly, students are supposed to get familiarised with the programmes on
local and overseas radio stations. Secondly, programmes should suit the interest
and level of students. Thirdly, themes and topics in the syllabus are supposed to
give supplement by radio programmes. Fourthly, it is better for teachers to make a
checklist of the types of text that are appropriate for the lessons. Fifthly,
transcribing in post-listening activities should be done in relevant segments after
the teachers have made the recording. Sixthly, recording should be labelled clearly
with the name of the programme, the date of broadcasts, the radio station and the
target group of students.
3)
Songs
Goh (2002) found that songs provided a wide range of comprehension
tasks because they are normally short and in general use simple language and
contains repetitions. Longer songs often contain stories that will capture students‟
attention. It is also good for teachers to use songs to explain about recount and
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narrative text