IMPROVING CLASS X-1 STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT BY USING NEWS VIDEO AT MAN 2 SITUBONDO IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2011/2012

Abstract

English is the most popular language in the world. There are a lot of people using and learning English in their daily life. Many authors publish their writing in English. There are a lot of literatures and books written in English. The recent technology like computer and gadgets also use English in their manuals. It means that English has been used globally. The government also supports English by putting it in school curriculum. Listening is one of the ways to get information. Even a baby starts to learn language by listening sounds of the words around them first. Then they try to imitate words that have been heard. Bruce (2005) states that any experienced teacher will agree that listening is a key to the acquisition of language for students at all levels. Based on a research, adults spend 40-50% of communication time listening (Gilman & Moody, 1984 as quoted in Vandergrift, 2002). In learning English as a foreign language, learners still face many problems in mastering listening skill both in finding specific and general information. This condition also happens to Indonesian learners, particularly at Senior High School level. Students get difficulties when the teacher gives them gap filling exercise. In listening, they face problem in catching specific words. The other problem, some of students do not understand about the meaning of listening comprehension that was played by teacher. That makes them could not catch ideas from the spoken language on the listening comprehension. The same problem is also faced by the first year students of MAN 2 Situbondo. The students often find difficulties in listening to specific words and catching the ideas from the spoken language. From the result of the preliminary study in the form of interview with the English teacher of MAN 2 Situbondo, it was revealed that the first year students of MAN 2 Situbondo, especially the class X-1, still faced some problems in listening comprehension. It was shown by the students’ listening score that was 18 of 31 students (58%) could reach the standard score requirement of the school (75). It means that the students’ listening achievement was still low. The teacher informed that the common listening activities were done by using textbooks and cassettes as the source of the materials. That was why the students were passive during the teaching learning process of listening. This classroom action research was intended to improve the students’ listening comprehension achievement. There were two cycles in this classroom action research. The researcher use news video as teaching media in both first and second cycle. The research subjects were class X-1 students of MAN 2 Situbondo in the 2010/2011 academic year. The primary data were collected from the result of observation and the students’ listening test. Meanwhile the supporting data were collected from documentation. The results from observation were analyzed by using the percentage formula to find the percentage of students who were active in the listening activities, while the students’ listening test were also analyzed by using percentage formula to find the percentage of students who achieved the standard score. In the first cycle, the results of the action showed that the use of news video in teaching listening could not improve the students listening achievement because some problems occurred. Some of the students looked at their dictionary to find the meaning of words that they did not understand. That condition makes the students did not pay much attention to the news video on the listening comprehension lesson. In the second cycle, the results of the action showed that the use of news video in teaching listening could improve the students’ listening achievement because there were 24 of 31 students (77%) achieved the standard score required of the school, that is 75. Meanwhile, both in the first and first cycles, the use of news video in teaching listening could improve students’ active participations. There were three indicators of active participations: asking questions, answering the teacher’s questions, and actively involved in the individual or group activities. The students considered as active when they fulfilled at least two of three indicators provided. From the results of the observations, 17 out of 31 students (55%) in meeting 1 and 20 out of 31 students (64%) in meeting 2 were active in the teaching and learning process of listening, and 24 out of 31 students (77%) in meeting 3 and 25 out of 31 students (81%) in meeting 4 were active in the teaching and learning process of listening. In conclusion, using news video is one of the effective media that has a sigmificant effect on listening comprehension achievement. Based on the result of the research, the English teacher is recommended to use news video as a media in teaching English especially listening comprehension.