ENHANCING THE SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS’ LISTENING ACHIEVEMENT THROUGH TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE (TPR) METHOD AT SMP NURUL ISLAM JEMBER

Abstract

Listening is a fundamental skill in language learning acquisition because students need to develop their listening skill first before they can produce any language. One method that can help students to develop their listening skill is Total Physical Response (TPR) method. TPR method can help students to understand and to recognize the language better as it requires students to listen to numourous instructions from the teacher and to respond to the instructions with physical actions. Based on the preliminary study done by the researcher, it was known that the seventh grade students of SMP Nurul Islam Jember had poor listening achievement, especially in VIIC class. Therefore, the objectives of the research were to improve the seventh grade students’ listening achievement at SMP Nurul Islam Jember through Total Physical Response (TPR) method and to know how Total Physical Response (TPR) method helps the students understand the listening task in teaching learning process. The research result was expected to be useful for the English teacher, students, and future researcher. The research method used in this research was Classroom Action Research (CAR) . The research was conducted in two cycles in which each cycle consisted of two meetings for the implementation of the action and one meeting for the listening test. The research used field notes as the tool of gathering data of the observation during the implementation of the action. Meanwhile listening test was used to evaluate the students after they had been taught listening skill by using TPR method and to determine whether or not the research was successful. The result of the first cycle was not successful because the result of the listening test in the first cycle showed that there were 66.67% of the students who followed the test got score ≥ 70. The percentage was below the criterion success of the research (75% students passed the test). Thus the researcher reflected upon the factors that influenced the failure based on the data of field notes then revised them for the second cycle. Meanwhile in the second cycle, the result of the research was successful. The result of the listening test in the second cycle showed that there were 95.23% of the students who passed the test. It exceeded the criterion success of the research. Therefore, the cycle was stopped. Meanwhile, the result of field notes data showed that Total Physical Response (TPR) method could help students understand the listening task because it could bring out positive outcomes due to the three key features of TPR method that influenced the listening success. Those key features were; (1) the listening skill was developed using imperative drills which involved physical activities, (2) TPR used real objects and demonstration to stimulate the students in understanding the meaning of the instructions, and (3) TPR made the students enthusiastic in participating the teaching learning process.