dc.description.abstract | Dictation is an ancient technique in teaching language. It is one of interesting
ways to improve the students’ listening comprehension achievement. Based on the
observation done in SMPN I Ledokombo, it was found that the students were
interested in studying English, but they found difficulties in listening. The eighth
grade students’ listening score was low, the students made mistakes in answering the
questions from the teacher, like inappropriate vocabulary, wrong spelling, could not
catch the content of the text, and they also could not distinguish the pronunciation
well. Further, the dictation technique was once applied by the teacher but not
optimally. In this school, there are four classes and each class has about 40 students.
However, there was only one class that was chosen purposively, that was class VIIIB,
which consists of 40 students. The researcher selected this class based on the
observation during the listening activity that was conducted by the researcher as the
English teacher at this school. It was found that less than 75% students did not
achieve the minimal score that is 64 based on SKM (Standard of minimum passing grade or requirement). Considering the problem above, this research was undertaken
to solve the students’ problem by using dictation techniques as a technique in
teaching listening.
The procedures of teaching listening using dictation according to Davis and
Rinvolucri (1988: 8-10), are: choosing the Text, and applying dictation. In this
classroom action research, the technique was divided into note taking and partial
dictation/cloze dictation. Those two techniques were used in each cycle. There were two cycles in this research, each cycle was conducted in two meeting. The primary
data about students listening achievement were gained from the listening test done in
each cycle and also observation to measure the improvement of students’ activity in
listening by using dictation. Meanwhile, the supporting data were gathered from
interview and documentation. The action were considered successful if 75% of the
students did each indicator of observation stated in checklist and if 75% of the
students achieved at least the minimal score that is 64 based on SKM (Standard of
minimum passing-grade or requirement) of the listening test.
The results of listening test after the actions were given in two cycles, could
be concluded that the use of dictation techniques could improve the second year
students’ listening comprehension achievement at SMPN I Ledokombo in the 2009-
2010 academic year. The improvement could be seen from the students’ mean score
of the test (M=69.9) in the second cycle that was better than their mean score in the
first cycle that was 48.5, or achieved the standard mean score requirement (64). This
means that the target of the students’ listening comprehension achievement was
classified fair. This improvement happened because the teaching techniques of
listening were revised by choosing the text with familiar story for the students,
Reading the text more clearly, turning up the volume, and using more gestures.
The results of observation on students’ activity showed that the use of text
dictation techniques could improve the eighth grade students’ activity in listening. In
the first cycle, the teaching listening activity was not so good as what was expected.
On the average, the percentage of the students’ involvement in the process of
teaching listening was only 45% in the first meeting and 50% in the second meeting.
It could be said that the students were passively involved in the process of teaching
listening in the first cycle. But, in the second cycle the percentage of students’
involvement in the process of teaching listening increased from 77% in the first
meeting to 80% in the second meeting. This improvement happened because of some
revision, they were; choosing the text with familiar story for the students, Reading the
text more clearly, turning up the volume, and using more gestures in teaching listening technique. Therefore, the students could understand the content of the text
that was dictated by the teacher so that they became active during the teaching
listening process.
Based on the results above, it could be concluded that the use of dictation
techniques could improve the students’ listening comprehension achievement and the
students’ activity in the teaching learning process of listening. Then it is suggested to
the other English teachers to use dictation techniques if she has problem in improving
students’ listening comprehension achievement and students’ activity. | en_US |