CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Research Listening is one of the receptive skills as it involves students in capturing and understanding the input of English. Reading, the other receptive skill, involves students in understanding and interpreting the written word. Listening is probably more difficult than reading because students often recognize the written word more easily than they recognize the spoken word. Because of these issues, many students find listening difficult. Listening tasks can be very disheartening and demotivating, especially if students have had a previous negative experience. It is therefore important to give students plenty of opportunities to practice the skill of listening in a supportive environment that helps them to learn (Pollard, 2008:39). Furthermore, listening subject is also one of the most difficult skill to be learnt that make most of the 1
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Research
Listening is one of the receptive skills as it involves students in capturing and
understanding the input of English. Reading, the other receptive skill, involves
students in understanding and interpreting the written word. Listening is probably
more difficult than reading because students often recognize the written word more
easily than they recognize the spoken word. Because of these issues, many students
find listening difficult. Listening tasks can be very disheartening and demotivating,
especially if students have had a previous negative experience. It is therefore
important to give students plenty of opportunities to practice the skill of listening in a
supportive environment that helps them to learn (Pollard, 2008:39).
Furthermore, listening subject is also one of the most difficult skill to be
learnt that make most of the students especially in Junior High School have low
achievement in listening skill especially in listening minimal pairs as it happened to
the second year students of SMP Negeri 2 Peusangan. The second year students of
SMP Negeri 2 Peusangan have low achievement in listening skill because of the
following reasons:
- The students were bored in the process of learning listening because the teacher
still used conventional method in teaching listening.
- The time of learning English in Junior High School was very limited
- The students assumed that English is a foreign language for them, so they did not
have to be so serious to learn English.
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In short, it is important for English teacher to use the best techniques and
approach such as games which can provide students many opportunities to practice
English language because most of student in every school levels especially in Junior
High School, listening is difficult for them to learn.
Actually, listening is about hearing the encompassing message from
particular sound of speech. Student with the inefficiency of vocabulary range, weak
pronunciation ability and also rarely engaged in speaking activity are estimated to be
difficult in listening English especially in listening minimal pairs which sound
similar but has different meaning for example the word “sheep” and ‘ship’.
In learning listening, one of the difficulties that English foreign language
students face is minimal pairs. The term “minimal pairs” refers to two words within a
language which have different meanings but vary in one sound segment only.
Examples of this in English are the words “live” (verb) and “leave” (verb) (Fromkin,
Blair & Collins, 2000:194).
Based on the problems above, the researcher as one of English teachers at
SMP Negeri 2 Peusangan and also a student of English Department who has been
studying English for four years at Almuslim University would like to do a research
as the final task to complete her study on the title “The Implementation of Minimal
Pair Card Game to Improve Students’ Listening Comprehension (A Classroom
Action Research at The Second Year Students of SMP Negeri 2 Peusangan)”.
1.2 Problem of the Research
The problems of the research are made as follows:
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1. Can Minimal Pair Card Game improve the students’ ability in listening minimal
pairs?
2. What are the advantages of implementing Minimal Pair Card Game in teaching
listening to the second year students of SMP Negeri 2 Peusangan?
1.3 Purpose of the Research
Based on the problems above, the researcher draws the purposes of the
research as described below:
1. To find out whether Minimal Pair Card Game can improve the students’ ability
in listening minimal pairs.
2. To find out the advantages of implementing Minimal Pair Card Game in
teaching listening to the second year students of SMP Negeri 2 Peusangan.
1.4 Significance of the Research
This research is generally expected to be useful in many ways as described in
the following:
1. Theoretically, the finding of the research can be used as the additional theoretical
teaching resources at SMP Negeri 2 Peusangan in teaching listening.
2. Practically, the result of this research can improve the students’ listening ability
in listening minimal pairs.
1.5 Scope of the Research
In order to get more specific data in this research, it seems important for the
researcher to limit the discussion of the research. Because the teaching listening is
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very wide, the researcher limits this research on improving students’ ability in
listening minimal pairs.
1.6 Definition of Key Terms.
The definitions of key terms that are explained in this thesis are as follows:
1. Listening is a process of receiving, interpreting and reacting to a message
received from the speaker in listening to minimal pairs.
2. Minimal Pair Cards Game is the name of game in which the students are trained
to listen the differences of minimal pairs and the students uses some minimal
pairs’ cards in playing the game.
3. Classroom Action Research is a research which is done to improve the quality of
teaching and learning process.
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Definition of Listening
Listening is an active process. It differs from hearing, which is passive. In
listening, the listener has to pay attention and comprehend the verbal communication
delivered by the speaker (Barker, 1987:14). Hornby (1995; 687) defines listening as
hearing something that one is meant to hear. Valette (1989: 74) describes that
listening has three components. First is called sound discrimination. Here the listener
distinguishes all sounds in the language presented and discriminate between them.
Second is called auditory memory. While pair drills are used to teach sound
discrimination, connected phrases are used for increasing the auditory memory.
Mimicry and memorization, reading aloud, dictation, are some techniques, which are
beneficial in developing auditory memory. The last is achievement. The student’s
degree of achievement will depend on their ability to discriminate phonemes, to
recognize stress and intonation pattern and to retain what they have heard.
In fact, listening consumes more time than other facets of language speaking,
writing, and reading in our daily life. The average person spends 68 % of his working
time on listening. Nevertheless, researches on listening have extraordinarily been
made.
2.2 Listening Achievement
The teaching of listening achievement as a separate skill is a recent
innovation in language teaching (Allen, 1977: 179). It is because listening
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achievement is simply considered as an adjunct of speaking, but listening precedes
the speaking, indeed. Developing the ability in understanding the spoken foreign
language, however, is long and continuous process. It is a skill that must be taught
and doesn’t happen automatically (Swarbrick, 1994: 13).
In learning a second language, students must acquire the skill of listening.
They must be able to discriminate the sound of the target language, to discriminate
among unfamiliar sounds. According to Valette (1989:74) students of foreign
language won’t be able to speak the target language accurately unless they perceive
the ability to distinguish features of the new phonetics system. They must rely on
their ears both to understand what is being said and to verify their own
pronunciation. The phenomenon of listening achievement is very complex. In the
daily conversation, native speakers do not consciously make all the possible
phonemic discrimination typical of their language. They are so familiar with certain
patterns and contexts that they can understand what is being said even they do not
pay precise attention to every word.
2.3 The Nature of Listening Comprehension
Research has shown that listening is not a passive process. Postovsky in
Mahdalena (2009: 9) points out that listening is not a passive skill and it requires full
participation and the undivided attention of the learners. In addition, he states that
when the nature of the skill is understood, the process becomes exciting. In addition
Vandergrift in Mahdalena (2009: 9) states:
Listening comprehension is anything but a passive activity. It is a complex, active process in which the listener must discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical
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structures, interpret stress and intonation, retain what was gathered in all of the above, and interpret it within the immediate as well as the large sociocultural content of the utterance. Coordinating all of this involves a great deal of mental activity on the part of the listener. Listening is hard work, and deserves more analysis and support”.
Teaching listening comprehension, as a separate skill, is a recent innovation
in language teaching (Allen, 1977: 179). It is because listening comprehension is
simply considered as an adjunct of speaking, but listening precedes the speaking,
indeed. Developing the ability in understanding the spoken foreign language,
however, is long and continuous process. It is a skill that must be taught and doesn’t
happen automatically (Swarbrick, 1994: 13).
In learning a second language, students must acquire the skill of listening.
They must be able to discriminate the sound of the target language, to discriminate
among unfamiliar sounds. According to Valette (1989:74) students of foreign
language won’t be able to speak the target language accurately unless they perceive
the ability to distinguish features of the new phonetics system. They must rely on
their ears both to understand what is being said and to verify their own
pronunciation. The phenomenon of listening comprehension is very complex. In the
daily conversation, native speakers do not consciously make all the possible
phonemic discrimination typical of their language. They are so familiar with certain
patterns and contexts that they can understand what is being said even they do not
pay precise attention to every word.
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2.4 Extensive and intensive listening
Students can improve their listening skills and gain valuable language input
through a combination of extensive and intensive listening material and procedures.
Listening of both kinds is especially important since it provides the perfect
opportunity to hear voices other than the teacher’s, enables students to acquire good
speaking habits as a result of the spoken English they absorb, and helps to improve
their own pronunciation.
2.4.1 Extensive listening
The researcher can claim that extensive reading helps students to acquire
vocabulary and grammar and it make students better readers, so extensive listening
(where a teacher encourages students to choose for themselves what they listen to
and to do so for pleasure arid general language improvement) can also have a
dramatic effect on a student’s language learning.
Extensive listening will usually take place outside the classroom, in the
students home, car, or on personal stereos as they travel from one place to another.
The motivational power of such an activity increases dramatically when students
make their own choices about what they are going to listen to.
Material for extensive listening can be found from a number of sources. A lot
of simplified readers are now published with an audio version on tape. These provide
ideal listening material. Many students will enjoy reading and listening at the same
time using both the reader and tape. Students can also have their own copies of
course book tapes, or tapes which accompany other books written especially at their
level. They can also listen to tapes of authentic material provided that it is
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comprehensible.
In order for extensive listening to work effectively with a group of students or
with groups of students, the teacher will need to make a collection of appropriate
tapes clearly marked for level, topic, and genre. These can be kept like simplified
readers in a permanent collection (such as in a self-access centre, or in some other
location), or be kept in a box or some other container which can be taken into
classrooms.
The keenest students will want to listen to English tapes outside the
classroom anyway, and will need little encouragement to do so. Many others,
however, will profit from having the teacher give them reasons to make use of the
resources available. The teacher needs to explain the benefits of listening
extensively, and come to some kind of agreement about how much and what kind of
listening they should do. The teacher can recommend certain tapes, and get other
students to talk about the ones which they have enjoyed the most (Harmer,
2000:228).
2.4.2 Intensive listening
Many teachers use taped materials, and increasingly material on disk, when
they want their students to practice listening skills. This has a number of advantages
and disadvantages.
The Advantages are that taped material allows students to hear a variety of
different voices apart from just their own teacher’s. It gives them an opportunity to
‘meet’ a range of different characters, especially where real people are talking. But
even when tapes contain written dialogues or extracts from plays, they offer a wide
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variety of situations and voices. Taped material is extremely portable and readily
available. Tapes are extremely cheap, and machines to play them are relatively
inexpensive. For all these reasons most course books include tapes, and many
teachers rely on tapes to provide a significant source of language input.
The disadvantages are that in big classrooms with poor acoustics, the
audibility of taped and disk material often gives cause for concern. It is often difficult
to ensure that all students in a room can hear equally well. Mother problem with
classroom tapes is that everyone has to listen at the same speed, a speed dictated by
the tape, not by the listeners. Although this replicates the situation of radio, it is less
satisfactory when students have to take information from the tape. This is because
they cannot, themselves, interact with the taped speakers in any way. Nor can they
see the speaking taking place.
Finally, having a group of people sit around listening to a tape recorder or
disk player is not an entirely natural occupation. Despite the disadvantages, however,
the teacher still wants to use taped material at various stages in a sequence of lessons
for the advantages mentioned above. In order to counteract some of the potential
problems described above, the teacher needs to check tape (Harmer, 2000: 229).
2.5 The Importance of Listening Comprehension
Teaching and learning of second or foreign language seems to concentrate on
speaking, reading, writing and pronunciation. It has been seen that listening
comprehension is often left out of many theoretical books while other skills like
reading, speaking and writing are always incorporated. Listening comprehension is
claimed to be taken cat-c of but it actually seems to be neglected and overlooked by
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both teachers and learners in second and foreign language in all educational levels in
many countries including Indonesia. It is the least stressed or focused on skill in the
language classroom and receives the least pedagogical attention. Pearson and
Fielding in Mahdalena (2009: 19) remark on the general neglect in listening
comprehension that teacher do not understand why there is so little attention paid to
listening comprehension as a matter for a school curriculum when students spend so
much time listening. The teacher would like to see more emphasis given to listening
comprehension as an entity in its own right.
Although the preceding comment was made several years ago, the minimal
attention paid to listening comprehension still persists. Most of the teachers of
English can point out the history of extensive instructional focus on the expressive
areas of language use or speaking and the comparative neglect of the receptive areas
like listening, even though it is clear that the receptive skills are used more than
twice as much as the expressive skills.
Listening comprehension often plays only a trivial role in foreign language
teaching and learning environments despite the fact that it often figures prominently
in particular guidelines and statements of objectives. It is always included as one of
the main objectives in the curriculum that students need to acquire but in practice it
usually receives little attention. This statement proves true as many teachers of
English as a foreign language in Indonesia in general and in the province of Central
Kalimantan in particular pay very little attention to the area of teaching listening
comprehension for some reasons.
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In fact, listening skills are very important but relatively few research projects
are carried out in this area. In addition, it is widely believed that listening skills are
enabling skills that can happen on their own. Some teachers also believe that if
students are efficiently taught and trained in reading and speaking skills, they would
acquire these skills and as a consequence their listening skills will be improved too.
Furthermore, listening skills are viewed as developing automatically without any aid
or teaching. The only thing that students require is repeated listening or large doses
of listening and they would acquire the skills on their own without any teacher help.
Brown in Mahdalena (2009: 19) also points out that it is assumed in teaching that
students would easily acquire the ability to understand the spoken language if they
hear their teachers speaking or listen to a tape. He further clarifies:
“For many years it was suggested that students would learn to understand the spoken form of the language simply by being exposed to it. Many courses which purport to teach’ listening comprehension in fact consist of exercises which expose the students to a chunk of spoken material on a tape and then ask comprehension questions’ to try to find out whether or not the student has understood the language of the text. . . .The students are not receiving any help in learning”.
Furthermore, Scarcella (1998: 133) indicates that the reason that listening is
often neglected in language instruction is that: “The concept, shared by other
authorities, seems to be that listening comprehension simply takes care of itself
without any aid or teaching. and that osmosis is all that needed.” Hedge in
Mahdalena (2009: 20) also states a misconception of listening comprehension in the
English language teaching curriculum, “Certainly some ELT methods have assumed
that listening ability will develop automatically through exposure to the language and
through practice of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.”
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In fact, listening comprehension needs more attention from both teachers and
students. It is actually an important skill and the most frequently used; it plays an
important role in everyday life. Morley in Mahdalena (2009: 20) also mentions the
proportion of the listening in daily life “Listening is the most frequently employed
skill in daily language use. Research results vary slightly, depending upon the groups
studied, but on the average, time spent in communicating divides into approximately
Valette, M. Rebecca. 1989. Modern Language Testing. New York: Harcout Brace Javanovich, Inc.
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the implementation of minimal pair card game to improve students’ listening comprehension (a classroom action research at the second year students of Smp Negeri 2 Peusangan)
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF MINIMAL PAIR CARD GAME TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION
(A Classroom Action Research at the Second Year Students of SMP Negeri 2 Peusangan)
Thesis
Submitted to the English Department of FKIP AlmuslimUniversity in the Fulfillment of Requirement
for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
By
NASRIAHNIM: 080202331
52
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATIONUNIVERSITY OF ALMUSLIM
MATANGGLUMPANGDUA, BIREUEN 2011
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