Modifying listening material in serving students with authentic material
1. 1
ABSTRACT
As one of the four language skills, listening is considered difficult lesson for most
of the students. They lack of the ability to understand the spoken language. To cope
with the problem, teacher will have to use the authentic listening materials so the
students will be exposed to the model of the language spoken by people in daily
conversation. To serve the students with authentic listening materials, teacher needs to
modify the materials. Sony sound forge is a useful technology which can be used to
modify authentic listening materials so they will be suitable for the students‟ level of
English.
This study provides the theory which concern with the teaching of Listening skills
in the classroom and the use technology in English lessons.
By conducting this study the students are expected to understand the spoken
language well and eventually they will be able to produce their own words in any
situation appropriately.
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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
I. Background of Study
There are four language skills of English taught in Indonesian schools. They are
listening, speaking, reading and writing. Those four language skills should be taught
integratedly, but unfortunately most teachers tend not to teach listening coherently. For
them teaching listening is quite difficult task as they are lack or sources on listening or
when they find the materials, they think that the materials are far beyond the level of the
students.
Teachers need more authentic materials for the listening, but they find it difficult to
find them. When dealing with the authentic materials they get from the web, teachers
get difficulty in using them as they don‟t fit with the students‟ level of English.
For the students, listening is one of the most difficult lessons as they do not
understand the vocabulary well. They get confused in understanding the spoken
language of English. When dealing with authentic materials, they get difficulty in
understanding the oral text as for them the spoken language is faster and the
vocabulary used is above their level of English. Furthermore, they must learn listening
as it is included in the national examination.
There are many technology can be used in the classroom for listening materials.
Teachers may use radio, television, Vcd players and cassette, internet and many more.
One of the technologies is Sony sound forge. Sony Sound Forge is a tool which can be
used to modify listening materials. Teachers can collect many materials from cd,
downloading materials from the internet or even record the voice of native or non-native
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speakers, then to modify those materials teachers use Sony sound forge to fit them with
students‟ mastery of English. By using Sony sound forge teachers can modify their
authentic-listening materials to fit the students‟ level of English.
II. Problem of Statement
1. How can Sony sound forge be used to modify Authentic listening material?
2. Does listening material modified using Sony sound forge help student understand
English spoken language?
III. Limitation of The Problem
This paper is limited on how Sony sound forge can be used to modify Authentic -
listening materials and whether listening materials modified by using` Sony sound forge
can help students understand English spoken language in listening materials.
IV. Objectives of The Study
The objectives of the study are to find out how Sony sound forge can be used to
modify authentic-listening materials and whether or not the materials modified by Sony
sound forge can help students understand spoken language in listening lesson.
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V. Significance of The Study
It is expected that the result of this study will provide input to English teacher in
general, and the English teachers teaching listening lessons in SMA Negeri 83 Jakarta
in particular, concerning the use of Sony sound forge in modifying authentic-listening
materials.
VI. The Method of The Study
Library study approach was employed to conduct this study. The data were collected
by finding the theory from the books, articles and essays.
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CHAPTER II THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK
In this chapter, a discussion about listening, listening activity, authentic-listening
materials, and the use of Sony sound forge to modify listening materials is presented to
provide basic concept for undertaking a study related towards students‟ response to
understand English listening.
2.1. Understanding Listening and Listening activity
We learn to listen and we listen to learn. But humans also listen to Beethoven and
The Beatles, bed time stories and bad jokes. Why? Because, unlike animal, humans
have another reason to listen: sounds can stimulate the imagination and enrich our
lives.1
From the statement above, it is assumed that the activity of listening can be consider
as the basic activity for human as human needs to listen in order to enrich his/ her
lives.Human has purposes to listen. He/ she listens to gather information and
pleasure.Human learn to listen as by learning to listen, he/ or she will learn to speak.
Human also listen to learn. Knowledge can be achieved by listening to information and
other things that he/ she needs to know. The other purpose of listening is for having
pleasure. Human listens to music n songs for fun. He/ she needs to listen to them as it
enlightens their life. By listening to music or songs he/ she can relieve from the pressure
of life and enjoy the fun of life.
Listening texts are good pronunciation models, in other words, and the more
students listen, the better they get, not only at understanding speech, but also at
1
J J Wilson. 2008. How To Teach Listening. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. P. 9
6. 6
speaking themselves. Indeed, it is worth remembering that successful spoken
communication depends not just on our ability to speak, but also on the effectiveness of
the way they listen. 2
Listening lesson serves the students the spoken English models so that they might
have better pronunciation in English. When they are exposed to many kinds of listening
lesson and practice student will have better understanding in speech. Listening skill
plays important role in the learning of English as they student will be able to speak
English well if they are given the listening lesson in the class. Most of the students‟ goal
of learning English is to be able to speak English well, but they will not be able to speak
English well unless they have enough language to produce. As mentioned before that
listening lesson provides the students with the model of spoken language, so that the
students will be able to produce their own words in the form of speaking.
2.2. Authentic Materials in English Listening Classrooms.
In addition the students will able to produce the language well, they need to be
exposed with the real language models used in daily conversation. By giving the
students the real models of language usage, they will be able to produce better and
understandable words. It means, in listening lessons, teachers have to provide the
students with authentic listening materials which fit with their level of English. The
teachers believe that language authenticity is one of the most essential elements in FL
teaching.
2
Jeremy Harmer. 2007. How to Teach English. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. P. 133
7. 7
They emphasized the idea of making language authentic in the classroom by using
videos, poems, songs, movies, and so on, to help students weaken their tendency to
think that “foreign languages arenot real.” Furthermore, the teachers stressed the fact
that language and culture is one entity thatcannot be separated.3
Authentic material provides the students with models of English spoken language
used in daily conversation. It is assumed that when students are exposed with authentic
language models, the students will be able to produce the language appropriately.
2.3. Advantages and Disadvantages of having Authentic Material in English
Listening Classroom
As stated by Wilson in his book, there some advantages of using authentic
materials. He says that using authentic materials serve students with a wide range of
realand natural language which is used in daily communication. The students have
chance to produce the language appropriately. Using authentic materials in the
classroom means preparing students to cope with the language when it is used in real
communication.
Besides the advantages mentioned above, Wilson also states that using authentic
materials also have some disadvantages. He says that authentic materials are usually
messier, less complete and less ordered compared with scripted materials. Another
disadvantage of using authentic material is that it is not easy to find them which fit with
3
Ruiz-Funes, Marcela T. 2002. On Teaching Foreign Languages : Linking Theory to
Practice Contemporary Language Education. Westport: Bergen & Garvey. P. 15
8. 8
the students‟ level of English. Though there many authentic materials found in internet,
most of them do not come in a pedagogical framework. When a teacher considers in
using authentic materials for listening classroom, he/ she has to spend some times to
prepare those materials so that they can be used in the classroom appropriately.
Moreover, there is no guarantee that the authentic materials used by teacher in listening
classroom are more interesting than scripted materials.
Considering about the natural language usage in authentic materials, how they can
be considered natural when the native speaker has to slow down the speed when they
are speaking. Moreover, teacher has to select what language should be exposed to the
students. 4
2.4. Technology in Serving Students‟ Authentic Materials
Wilson writes in his book that effective listening materials should be interesting for
the students. They should have cultural accessibility, speech act/ discourse structure
and density. Moreover, they have to fit with the level of students‟ English mastery.
When teacher chooses listening materials in the classroom, he/ she needs to
consider about the length of the materials being used for the students.
He/ she also have to pay attention on the quality of the recording and the speed of
the spoken language used for the students because when the bad recordings used in
the classroom, the students will be confused in understanding the language they are
listening. Although the teacher use good recording but the speed of the language
4
J J Wilson. 2008. How To Teach Listening. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. P. 32-33
9. 9
spoken by the speaker from the recording is above the level of the students, it will also
distract the students‟ attention on having listening classroom.
The other things that a teacher has to be considered, when choosing good listening
materials are the number of the speakers and the accent used by the speakers in
recordings.5
Many media can be used to get authentic listening materials. Teachers can get them
from radio and television. When using these media, teacher needs to consider about the
availability of those facility in the classroom, also he/ she needs to pay more attention
on what is being discussed on the radio or television. As most of the time they serve the
programs live, so it is quite difficult for the students to have time to edit or to modify the
materials that can be fit with the students‟ age and level of English. The same thing will
happen when the teacher downloads the materials from the internet.
To cope the problem, there is technology can be used in modifying those listening
materials got from radio, television or even internet. Teacher can use Sony sound forge
to modify the materials. Sony sound forge is a technology which enables teacher to edit
and modify the materials so they will fit for the students‟ usage.
5
Ibid P. 33
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III. DISCUSSION
3.1. Variety in Technology
Technology derived from the word „techno‟ which means technique, art or skill, and
logos which means science. Therefore, technology can be defined as a scientific
knowledge of art or skill.6
In modern learning, the use of technology is a must. Students will be more motivate
when their teacher use more technology in classroom. In contrast, the students will feel
less motivated when the teacher only gives lecture in front of the classroom. Hartoyo
states that the use of technology in the classroom is inevitable. He also states that the
use of technology has some advantages. It facilitate the exposure of authentic-
language, access to wider sources of information and the variety of English language
spoken all over the world. Technology also serves the students with the chance to to get
along with people by using English as the communication tool, so the students will have
more practice in producing the language they learn in the classroom. Furthermore, by
using technology, students will have their own autonomy in learning. They can make
their own schedule to learn English, even they can have the real voice of people using
English in daily life.7
Hartoyo has stated in his book that there is some technology used in learning
language. They are:
a. Interactive multimedia
6
Hartoyo, M.A, Ph. D. 2012. ICT Information Communication Technology in Language Learning. Semarang:
PelitaInsani Semarang Printing and Publishing. P.3
7
Ibid. P. 4
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b. Audio devices
c. Internet
d. Television
e. Telephone and VoIP
f. Mobile gadget
g. Social interface
h. Interactive whiteboard8
Teacher can use the technology to make their more interesting. In listening
classroom, teacher needs to use them as they may provide the students with authentic-
English language and wide variety of language spoken by people around the world.
Sony sound forge is a useful tool which can be used by teacher to modify the
technology mention above.
Teacher can use of technology at a time. When the materials which obtain by the
teacher from those media, teacher can use Sony sound forge to modify the content of
the materials so they will be suitable for the students‟ age and level of English.
Moreover, by modifying the materials by Sony sound forge, teacher may have listening
materials which are in line with the curriculum of the school.
8
Ibid P. 28-36
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3.2. Expected Result of Using Modified Authentic Listening Materials
Mastery and utilization of science and technology is not only a potential resource but
also key factor in manifesting success in today‟s globalization „war‟.9
It means that we
need to provide students both the ability to speak English well and the mastery of
operating technology. In order to be able to speak English well, students have to be
familiar with the spoken language. The model of spoken language can be obtained by
regularly listening to authentic-spoken language used by people around the world.
Using Sony sound forge to modified authentic listening materials enables teacher to
provide the students with the model of spoken language which fit with their level.
Moreover, it can also improve the ability of the students to understand the spoken
language.
By using Sony sound forge in authentic listening materials, students are expected to
understand the spoken language well and also they are able to produce the language
appropriately in daily conversation.
9
Ibid. P. 83
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IV. CONCLUSION
This chapter presents conclusion obtained from the discussion on the previous
chapter. Based on the theory, the writer concludes that the use of authentic listening
materials in the classroom is necessary as they serve the students with the model of
language used in daily conversation.
Although the use of authentic listening material is necessary, teacher should provide
the students with the materials that fit with students‟ level of English. Though there are
many technology that teacher can used in obtaining authentic listening materials, he/
she has to modify them so they will fit with the necessity of the students‟ learning needs.
Sony sound forge is a technology tool which can help teacher modify authentic
listening lesson to be used in the classroom. Using this technology, teacher can make
the authentic material more interesting, beneficial and useful for the students. Moreover,
by having more interesting materials, students will be more motivated in attending
listening lesson in the classroom and they will understand spoken language well.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Grugeon, Elizabeth, Lyn Dawes, Carol Smith and Lorraine Hubbard. 2005. Teaching
Speaking and Listening In The Primary School. London: David Fulton Publishers.
Ltd.
Harmer, Jeremy. 2007. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Essex: Pearson
Education Limited.
Harmer, Jeremy. 2007. How to Teach English. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.
Hartoyo, M.A., Ph. D. 2012. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in
Language Learning. Semarang: PelitaInsani Semarang.
Mulyono, Herri. 2010. Designing Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) Using
Moodle in Teaching Reading At Public Secondary High School (SMA) 92
Jakarta. Jakarta.
Marcela T, Ruiz-Funes. 2002. On Teaching Foreign Languages : Linking Theory to
Practice Contemporary Language Education. Westport: Bergen & Garvey.
SekolahPascasarjanaUhamka. 2013. PedomanPenulisanTesisdanDesertasi. Jakarta:
Uhamka Press.
Wilson, J.J. 2008.How to Teach Listening. Essex: Pearson Education Limited