Listening Skills

1. 1
AUDIOVISUALS AS MEDIA IN IMPROVING LISTENING ABILITY OF THE
STUDENTS
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
Listening in language teaching has undergone several important influences, as
the result of development in anthropology, education, linguistics, sociology, and even
global politics.1
In line with this, listening skills are essential for learning since they
enable students to acquire insights and information, and to achieve success in
communicating with others.2
Furthermore, in classrooms, students always do more listening than speaking.
In accordance with this, Brown wrote that listening competence is universally “larger”
than speaking competence.3
Thus, listening is a skill which cannot be underestimated
in language learning especially in L2 learning. Mastering a good ability in listening is
absolutely required.
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1
Ronald Carter and David Nunan, The Cambridge Guide To Teaching English To Speakers Of
Other Languages, (United Kingdom: Cambridge Press), p. 7.
2
Trudy Wallace, et.al., Teaching Speaking, Listening and Writing, (Brussel: International
Bureau Of Education, 2004), p. 13.
3
H. Douglas Brown, Teaching by Principle an Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy,
(New York: San Francisco State University, 2001), p.247

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Nevertheless, in teaching and learning language process, especially at school,
students find many problems particularly in improving listening ability. Ina Rezkina
wrote that everyday evidence students considered listening sometimes difficult and
sometimes easy. On the other hand, some people argue that it is not realistic to label
that listening is ‘easy’ or difficult. It may usually be easy for someone, but difficult for
others, depending on the present level of language development of each person and
his/her background knowledge of the topic being presented.4
Moreover, the methods and media used by the teachers also influence students
in their listening learning. Actually, the better media had been used will cause the
better of listening development. In this case, many studies proposed the using of audio-
visual media in improving students’ listening ability. Some of the studies proved that
the using of audio-visual in improving student’s listening is effective.5
Based on the background explained above, the writer would like analyze and
implement the using of audiovisuals as media in improving listening ability of the
students, in this case, the writer conducts his research at Al-Falah Islamic Senior high
School in Aceh Besar.
B. Research Questions
___________
4
Ina Rezkina, Obstacle in Teaching Listening Skills at Senior High Schools. Unpublished
Thesis, (Banda Aceh: Graduate program of English Education of Syiah Kuala Universit, 2008). p.i
5
Sapto Haryoko, Efektifitas Pemanfaatan Media Audio-Visual Sebagai Alternatif Optimalisasi
Model Pembelajaran, retrieved from: http://journal.uny.ac.id/index.php/jee/article/viewFile/347/249,
accessed on October 10, 2011

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This research was aimed to find out the answer of question about “Do audio-
visual media improve students’ listening ability?”
C. Terminology
In order to avoid misinterpretation of the terms used in this paper, the
researcher needs to put forward the definition of the following words:
1. Listening
Taylor defines listening as the process of becoming aware of sound sequences.
In listening to speech, the person first identifies the component sounds and then
recognizes sound sequences as known words through the avenue of auditory analysis,
mental reorganization, an/or association of meaning.6
Listening is the active process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and
responding to spoken and/or nonverbal messages. It involves the ability to retain
information, as well as to react empathically and/or appreciatively to spoken and/or
nonverbal messages.7
Thus, the writer sums up that listening is the process of becoming aware of
receiving, identifying, constructing and responding to spoken and/or non verbal
messages.
___________
6
Stanford E. Taylor, Listening. What Research Says to the Teacher (Washington D.C.: National
Education Association). p.6.
7
http://highered.mcgraw-ill.com/sites/dl/free/0073385018/537865/pearson3_sample_ch05.pdf.
p. 111, accessed on June 6, 2012

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2. Media
Media is a general term for television, radio and newspapers considered as a
whole and as ways of entertaining or spreading news or information to a large number
of people. In language teaching, teaching materials which involve the use of different
kinds of media such as visual and printed media are sometimes known as multi media
or mixed media.8
3. Audio-visual
Here defined as audio-visual aid which means an audio or visual device used
by a teacher to aid learning. For example, pictures, charts, and flashcards are visual
aids; radio, records, and tape-recorders are auditory aids. Film, television, and video
are audio-visual aids.9
So, audio-visuals are the tools those utilized by teachers to help
learning process in shape of visual and audio. These devices could be used to produce
images and sound at once.
D. The Aims of Study
The aim of study is as follows:
1. To know whether audio-visual media improve students listening ability or not.
___________
8
Jack C. Richards and Richard Schmidt, Longman Dictionary Of Language Teaching And
Applied Linguistics (New York: Pearson Education). p.325.
9
Jack C. Richards and Richard Schmidt, Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching …”
p.40.

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E. Postulate and Hypothesis
a. Postulate
According to Encyclopedic dictionary of English usage, a postulate means
“prerequisite or assumption in an argument”.10
Based on this definition, the postulate
that stated is the using audio-visual as media are really helpful toward improving
students’ ability in listening skill.
b. Hypothesis
The hypothesis of this research is the using audio-visual as media in teaching
listening should improve students’ ability in listening skill.
F. Population and Sample
1. Population
In this research the writer chose students from SMA Islam Al-Falah
Lamjampok. The students who were still in second year became the population. There
are two classes of the second year students; class XI1 which consist of 33 students and
class XI2 which consist of 22 students. So, the amount of population is 55 students.
2. Sample
The technique used here was one of non random sampling techniques that
called as purposive sampling. In this technique, a group is selected based on previous
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10
N.H Marger and S.K Mager, Encyclopedic Dictionary of English Usage, (USA: Prentice
Hill.Inc, 1974), p.232

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knowledge of natures or characters that have a close criterion with what have been
known exist in the population11
. The researcher had chosen only class XI1 as the
sample which consist of 33 students, males and females.
G. Research Method
The researcher performed an experimental research in form of field research.
Experimental research is defined as a systematic method operated to develop the
relation of causal-effect relationship.12
In order to gain the needed data for this research, the writer used some
techniques.
1. Pre-test and post-test
The pre-test was given to the students in the first meeting before the
experimental teaching was held in order the writer knew the previous listening ability
of the students. While the post-test would be given to student in the last meeting in
order to gain any different result after conducting experimental teaching.
2. Questionnaire
The writer gave the questionnaire to the samples in order to get the real data
including students’ opinion and their perceptions.
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11
Sutrisno Hadi, Metodologi Research Jilid I, (Yogyakarta: ANDI, 2004), p. 91
12
Sukardi, Metodologi Penelitian Pendidikan, (Jakarta: Bumi Aksara, 2003), p. 179.