CHAPTER II
THE THEORETICAL FOUNDATION
A. Teaching Listening Concept
Listening is one of the language skills beside reading, speaking and writing. Listening is very important part of learning English; it could be seen on the following statement:
Mendengar dan menyimak
1. Mendengar artinya menangkap suara dengan alat pendengaran tanpa ada maksud untuk mendengar bunyi atau suara tersebut.
Misal si A sedang belajar dan samar-samar ia mendengar suara orang mengobrol di jalan. Ia hanya sebentar sekali mendengar suara itu dan ia kemudian melanjutkan belajar.
2. Menyimak artinya melakukan aktifitas pendengaran dengan tujuan tertentu disertai aktifitas fisik, rasa, dan nalar untuk mencapai tujuan tersebut.
Misal si B mendengarkan acara bahasa Inggris di TV dengan tekun. Sebentar-sebentar ia mencatat dan kemudian berlatih dengan memperhatikan kembali kepada acara tersebut. Ia tidak beranjak dari tempat duduknya sampai acara tersebut selesai.
1. Definition of Listening
Henning’s defines listening as follows:
“Listening is activity evidence by movement of the part of the non – now – taking person. It is manifested of the behavior by physical visible motion of the listener body to listen is to more, to be in motion for the world talker”. Menyimak adalah suatu proses kegiatan mendengarkan lambing-lambang lisan dengan penuh perhatian, pemahaman, apresiasi serta interpretasi untuk memperoleh informasi, menangkap isi atau pesan serta memahami makna komunikasi yang telah disampaikan oleh si pembicara melalui ujaran atau bahasa lisan. Little Wood has printed out; “The nature of listening means that the learner should be encourage to engage in an active process of listening for meaning, using not only the linguistic clues but also his non linguistic knowledge. Then he added the active nature of listening means that the learner must be motivated by a communicative purpose. This purpose determines what meaning he must listen for and which part of the spoken text are more important to him. In other words, the students have to be taught listening to meaning.
Listening is the most frequently employed skill in daily language use. Research result very slightly, depending upon group studied, but on the average time spent in communicating divided into approximately 50% listening, 25% speaking, 15% reading and 10% writing. With listening we understand what the person’s own perspective. It is as if we were standing in the other person’s shoes, seeing through he/she eyes and listening through the person’s ear. Our own viewpoint maybe different and we may not necessary agree with the person, but as we listen, we understand.
From the other perspective, to listen effectively we must be actively involved in the communication process, and not just listening passively. We all act and respond on the basis of our understanding and too often three is a misunderstanding that neither of us is aware of with active listening, if a misunderstanding has occurs, it will be known immediately, and the communication can be clarified before any farther misunderstanding occurs.
Listening is an effort of a person to get information which he/she does by his/her ears, and of course it must be done fully concentrated to what he/she listen in order to have accurate words, pronunciation, accents and intonations because it is an active of study to get the accurate meaning and clearly understanding to avoid misunderstanding among the speaker and listener.
Listening is the basic skill for requiring other skill especially speaking. It precedes other language skill. It should be taught acquire their mother tongue. The process should begin with listening skill first, because since a child was born, it spent most of his/her time listening to the people around it. After that the process would continue with speaking when the child is ready to speak.
Base on the description above, the writer can make conclusion that listening is very important for us to communicate and interact with another people to build the communication two way which clearly. Avoiding the listening it is impossible other language skill be achieved maximally, because without listening we cannot understand what the people saying.
2. Element of Listening
There are some elements of listening that cannot be neglected while the teacher teaches listening skill to the students. Those elements underlie the nature of listening. Here are some elements of listening:
1. The first element, all spoken language has redundancy that consists of repetition and restating. The students usually cannot hear everything that said to them clearly even in the communication in their mother tongues.
Redundancy can be an advantage and disadvantage to the students. It is an advantage in sense that it the students do not hear what is said at the first time, and then they may have a second opportunity when it is repeated. It also becomes a disadvantage especially for the inexperienced them. Thus, the students should grasp speakers’ ideas by paying attention to the speaker intonation of each sentence.
2. The second element concern with the environmental interference. As a result, there will be some of the message that cannot be received by the students. An example of such environmental interference is an announcement of the airport. The students who don’t getting message from the announcers. The voice quality and the loudness of the announcers influence the perception of the message.
3. The third element in listening deal with untidiness. The speakers who speak naturally and spontaneously may not avoid untidiness in their utterances. Unlike written language that consists of accurate grammar, the spoken language mostly, may not be grammatical for the competence students, such untidiness may be ignored or they may ever tolerate it on the contrary, the inexperienced listeners may be confused of the presence of this untidiness.
Base on the description above, the writer can make conclusion that elements of listening is very influence for someone to increase his/her listening ability so the student must be taught above it to make them active in listening class. Listening is very important for us to communicate and interact with another people because without listening we cannot understand what the people saying.
3. Listening in Practice
Although there is a growing interest in and concern for natural language, listening research and training due to the central role listening plays in language development, human relations (as well as international relations), and academic and business success, there seems to be very little genuine agreement about what listening entails, and how it operates. It is remarkable that there is so little understanding of a process that is so vitally important for an individual’s survival and prosperity in interpersonal relationships, and in the academic and corporate environments.
B. Audio Lingual Method
Audio means hearing of sound through sound wave. Lingual means language acquisition produce by motion of tongue. Method means the way of doing something. Then Audio lingual Method means the way to involving a system of language acquisition. According to Hubband states that: “Audio Lingual method consist of presenting an oral model to the students, on tape or in the teacher voice and carrying out a series of pattern drills based on the model”. The audio-lingual method (ALM) arose as a direct result of the need for foreign language proficiency in listening and speaking skills during and after World War II. It is closely tied to behaviorism, and thus made drilling, repetition, and habit-formation central elements of instruction. Proponents of audio-lingual method felt that this emphasis on repetition needed a corollary emphasis on accuracy, claiming that continual repetition of errors would lead to the fixed acquisition of incorrect structures and non-standard pronunciation. In the classroom, lessons were often organized by grammatical structure and presented through short dialogues. Often, students listened repeatedly to recordings of conversations (for example, in the language lab) and focused on accurately mimicking the pronunciation and grammatical structures in these dialogs. Critics of Audio Lingual Method asserted that this over-emphasis on repetition and accuracy ultimately did not help students achieve communicative competence in the target language. Noam Chomsky argued "Language is not a habit structure. Ordinary linguistic behaviour characteristically involves innovation, formation of new sentences and patterns in accordance with rules of great abstractness and intricacy". They looked for new ways to present and organize language instruction, and advocated the notional functional syllabus, and eventually Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) as the most effective way to teach second and foreign languages. However, audio-lingual methodology is still prevalent in many text books and teaching materials. Moreover, advocates of audio-lingual methods point to their success in improving aspects of language that are habit driven, most notably pronunciation. Audio Lingual Method is a style of teaching used in teaching foreign languages. It is based on behaviorist theory, which professes that certain traits of living things, and in this case humans, could be trained through a system of reinforcement—correct use of a trait would receive positive feedback while incorrect use of that trait would receive negative feedback. This approach to language learning was similar to another, earlier method called the direct method. Like the direct method, the audio-lingual method advised that students be taught a language directly, without using the students' native language to explain new words or grammar in the target language. However, unlike the direct method, the audio-lingual method didn’t focus on teaching vocabulary. Rather, the teacher drilled students in the use of grammar. Audio Lingual Method is a style of teaching used in teaching foreign languages. It is based on behaviorist theory, which professes that certain traits of living things, and in this case humans, could be trained through a system of reinforcement—correct use of a trait would receive positive feedback while incorrect use of that trait would receive negative feedback. This approach to language learning was similar to another, earlier method called the direct method. Like the direct method, the audio-lingual method advised that students be taught a language directly, without using the students' native language to explain new words or grammar in the target language. However, unlike the direct method, the audio-lingual method didn’t focus on teaching vocabulary. Rather, the teacher drilled students in the use of grammar. According to Smith say that: “The word ‘audio’ means something that deals with hearing or listening. It needs ear to listen utterances. Lingual means language that needs reading and practice to get it”. Applied to language instruction, and often within the context of the language lab, this means that the instructor would present the correct model of a sentence and the students would have to repeat it. The teacher would then continue by presenting new words for the students to sample in the same structure. In audio-lingualism, there is no explicit grammar instruction—everything is simply memorized in form. The idea is for the students to practice the particular construct until they can use it spontaneously. In this manner, the lessons are built on static drills in which the students have little or no control on their own output; the teacher is expecting a particular response and not providing that will result in a student receiving negative feedback. This type of activity, for the foundation of language learning, is in direct opposition with communicative language teaching. Charles Fries, the director of the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States, believed that learning structure or grammar was the starting point for the student. In other words, it was the students’ job to orally recite the basic sentence patterns and grammatical structures. The students were only given “enough vocabulary to make such drills possible.”[7] 1. Types of Learning and Teaching Audio Lingual Method
Dialog and drill from the basics of audio lingual method classroom practice. Dialog provides the means of contextualizing key structure and illustrates situations in which structure, might be use as well as some culture aspect of the target language. The use of drill and pattern practice is a distinctive feature of the audio lingual method. Several of drills are used:
a. Repetition, where the student repeats an utterance as soon as he hears it.
b. Inflection, where one word in a sentence appears in another form when repeated.
c. Replacement, where one word is replaced by another.
d. Restatement, where the students phrase an utterance and address in to someone else according to instruction.
e. Completion, the students hear and utterance they complete except for one word they repeat the utterance in complete form.
f. Transposition, a change in world order is necessary when the word is added.
g. Expansion, when a word in added it takes a certain place in the sequence.
h. Contraction, when a single word stands for a phrase or clause.
i. Transformation, when a sentence is transformed by being made negative or interrogative or through changes in tense, mood, voice, aspect or modality.
j. Integration, when two separate utterances are integrate into one.
k. Re-joiner, when the students make an appropriate re-joiner to a give utterance.
l. Restoration, when the students are given a sequence of words that have been called from a sentence but still bear in the basic meaning.
Base on the description above, the writer can make conclusion that audio lingual method is the method that a teacher use in teaching listening to build the students ability in listening. Using this method make the students active and enjoy in learning English especially listening as well and correctly.
2. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Audio Lingual Method
The using of Audio Lingual Method in teaching listening can make the process of teaching skill more enjoyable. The students are able to make and respond to listen without feeling fear and shy. The use of Audio Lingual Method in teaching listening skill has its own advantages or strengths and disadvantages or weakness. Some of the advantages and disadvantages of using ALM are:
The Advantages of Audio Lingual Method:
a. Acknowledgement of standard grammatical within sounds, order and form.
b. To train tongue and ear
c. Accustom of conversational proficiency
d. Correction of mistake to pronunciation fluency, directly and immediately
e. Students can acquire behavioral responds
Disadvantages of Audio Lingual Method:
a. Students are unable transfer skill through audio lingual method to real communication outside the classroom.
b. Spend occurrences were under the rigorous control of the teacher.
c. It makes the students to be look like a parrot (Audio Lingual).
The using of Audio Lingual Method in teaching listening can make the process of teaching and learning listening skill more enjoyable. The students are able to make and responds to listen without fear and shy. They also do not need to feel scared whether or not they make mistakes in learning English. Learning process of the students’ learning language process cannot be done without the target in teaching listening. The teacher must be introduces and teach how to learn in listening to students, because listening is one of the importance on learning part of English skill.
C. Teaching Listening
Brown in his book stated that: “In listening classes, students are usually given practice in listening, but they are not actually listening”. In listening, practice is not enough. Research and case studies have told us many things about how listening should be taught. In addition to giving students plenty of listening practices. We should also break the skill of listening in to micro-skill components and make sure that the students are aware of that today need to know to understand how to listen to English. When we teaching listening skill we need to teach both:
1. The language system
2. The using of the language system
Teaching listening, hardly mentioned at all in journals in the 1970s has today come into its own. Although it continues to be ignore in second language acquisition theory and research, at least in teaching it now plays more prominent role. University entrance exams, school leaving and other examinations have begun to include a listening component , acknowledging that listening proficiency is an important aspect of second language proficiency , and if it isn’t tested, teachers won’t pay attention to it. An early view of listening saw it as the mastery of discrete skills or micro skills.
A skills approach focused on such things as (Rost 1990):
· Discriminating sounds in words, especially phonemic contrasts.
· Deducing the meaning of unfamiliar words.
· Predicting contact.
· Noting contradictions, inadequate information, ambiguities.
· Differentiating between fact and opinion. 1. Objective of Teaching Listening
Teaching Listening materials should be based on wide range of authentic texts, including both monolog and dialogues. The rules of objective of teaching listening at least consist of:
· Schema – building tasks should precede listening
· Strategies for effective listening should be incorporated into the materials.
· Learners should be given opportunities to progressively structure their listening by listen to a text several times and by working through increasingly challenging listening tasks.
· Learners should know what they are listening for and why.
· Tasks should include opportunities for learners to play an active role in their own learning.
Base on the teaching listening materials above, the objective of teaching listening are:
a. Real Life Situation
The aim of teaching listening comprehend is (or should be) to help learners of English cope with listening in real life. But there is a large variety of different types of listening in real life. There are some situation in which listening is important in real life: · Listening to announcement in station, airport, etc.
· Listening to the radio.
· Participating in conversation face to face
· Watching a film, player or TV.
· Participating in meeting, seminar or discussion.
· Taking a part in a lesson
· Listening to talk or lecture.
· Eavesdropping on other people’s conversation
· Participating in a telephone conversation.
There is a differentiate between listening and hearing. Hearing is simply recognition of sound, as when we say, “I am sorry, I did not hear exactly what you said!”. But listening implies some conscious, some attention to the message of what is said, when we say, “Are you listening to me?”. The writer proposes that in order to define listening we can ask two basic questions.
b. Informal Spoken Discourse
“Most of the spoken language we listen to is informal and spontaneous, the speaker is making it up he/she goes along rather than reading aloud or reciting from memory”. 2. The Learning Skill Achievement
The learning achievement is regarded to be good if the students have good score in their certain lesson and bad if the score is bad. Arikuntoro says, “The learning achievement is the level of achievement of the students toward the fixed target applied in every field of study in the criterion period”. “A primary component in effective teaching is the continual process of expanding your knowledge and skill because, although only the pinnacle is visible, your students will perceive the magnitude of the hidden basic that defines your diving/teaching ability”. “Good teaching is much about passion as it is about reason. It is about not only motivating students to learn, but also teaching them how to learn, and doing so in manner that is relevant meaningful and memorable. It is caring for you craft, having a passion for it, and conveying that passion to everyone, most importantly to your students”. The pedagogic analysis of Davidov entailed the planning implementation of a teaching experience:
“The teaching experience involved working closely with teacher and groups of children in order to devise material, activities, and collaborative task that enable children to grasp the most fundamental concept of number”. “Teaching experiments that began with children making simple quantitative judgment of concrete object and finished with them using algebraic notation represent quantitative relation in an abstract and generalize manner. In examining the transcripts of teaching episodes and the general design of the program a number of characteristic, consistent with a socio-cultural approach to teaching stand out. Given the remarkable success of teaching experiment in awakening new intellectual power in children”. . 3. Definition of Teaching
Teaching is also the gift of one person to another. It is a compassionate extension of self in acknowledgement of the needs and aspiration of someone else, usually but not always younger than we are and always, for a time at least, dependent on us for some kind of knowledge. In that that gift of self consists teaching’s greatest satisfaction – the giving not so much of knowledge, which each person must acquire, as of habits of mind and heart and powers of thought .
4. Function of Teaching
Teaching is helping students to discover their talent possibilities and develop their potency by guiding and delivery them material.
Studying should generally also have a threefold purpose:
a. To learn skill and knowledge about the specific subject and how you can do that faster, better, easier.
b. To develop general conceptual skill – how you can learn to apply the same or related concept in other areas.
c. To develop personal skills and attitudes can also easily be used everything you do.
5 Element of Teaching
Teachers and students are all regarded as co-managers. They set their own target and goal, individually and collectively. And they evaluate themselves regularly against agreed standards of excellences. There are no ‘incompletes’ and ‘F’ grades at Edgecombe. Each task is not complete until it is regarded as meeting standards of excellence way above those ever achieved in any school examination.
The three factors or elements of the teaching above also in accordance with Dennis Girard’s point of view as he states that in everything teaching situation there are three basic factors: the pupils (Students), the teacher and the method, including the material taught.
a. Pupil (Student)
In the modern view, student is not only being the education object and target but also be the subject education. It means the students get involves in teaching learning activities. As a subject of education, the students have right to be active in increasing their creativities. The student is someone who is given education by a teacher in which the parents sent them to the school. One who is enrolled or attends classes at a school, college, or university.
Students who succeed learn to believe in themselves and their teacher. Students loved to organize their own plays, presentations, debates and games. These give them the chance to present their own found information to the rest of the class or group, anyway they prefer.
b. Teacher
Teachers who are good managers generally get their needs met. They know that planning and organization can elevate their effectiveness and increase pupil accomplishment. And there is no greater motivator than success. Student who succeed learn to believe in themselves and their teacher. Teacher who witness students success are confident of themselves and trusting of students. Good teacher know that’s not the best way to learn. So they plan a classroom setting those facilities easy to learning. Good teacher and accelerated learning course use many other techniques, as we’ll explore that. Teacher like everyone else, have a variety of abilities and skills and need to make the best possible use of whatever talents they have. There are aim to help teacher to identify the things teacher is good at and so suggest ways of using your particular abilities. If focuses on language ability, personal talents, and knowledge and teaching skills. Here, focuses on things teacher should know about, not just to avoid problems, but also because they might contribute quite significantly to get success of the teacher. It deals with ‘philosophy’ of the school; the attitude and interest of the other teacher; who is responsible for what; your own responsibilities and rights; and the normal patterns of behavior of staff. As a good teacher, he/she must understand well his/her students, recognize his/her entire students by name, know their backgrounds and interest, know about their previous language learning experiences and their attitudes to English. These will enable the teacher to help them more happily and effectively. Mariam Diamond says “I want to introduce the concept that everyone can learn to be a teacher. One has to be accurate with the facts as teacher, yet imaginative with creative ideas for new direction in his future. As we learn the fact, we can turn around and share with the next person so that the ‘association cortices’ can create the new ideas.” The most important of classroom atmosphere is the teacher himself “as the teacher so is the school” is a statement that must be more and more fully appreciated if schools are to grow in effectiveness. The most severe indictment, however, is that occasionally a teacher who has not courage to get out of the profession will advise a younger person, “By all means, do not entertain seriously the idea of ever becoming a teacher.” c. Method
In teaching language, one of the things that looked for by the scholars is method, because the success or failure in teaching a language depends on method. There by the method plays important role in teaching language. English is taught by method that would be regarded as old-fashioned even by school system who have not attained anywhere near the accelerated learning result. Most good learning methods are common sense. Every infant learn naturally by many of these method. Yet much educational theory is clothed in so much jargon that the parents and students who most need than information, are instead “Switched off”. The care of the scientific method is to test theories in practice against every possible alternative. As we know, theoretical although the courses of the core curriculum necessarily are requires of all students, they are not intended to be uniform from all in content and method should be differentiated to provide for the differences of student individual, abilities, aim, interest and need. The theory of transfer of learning is not a single or an isolated method of teaching. It can be used with all methods-whether we call them traditional or progressive method or just teaching. Traditional methods of teaching have their values. Newer methods can make contributions. The major problem of method for the teacher is to recognize the interest advantages of the particular techniques he/she uses and to capitalize on them for improving the English ability of pupils. Instructional plans can also be described in term of the material and equipment needed to carry out the plans. The materials may include textbook, audiotapes, videotapes, picture sets, language games, flash card has been taught before. Language teaching begins with the spoken language. Material is taught orally before it is presented in written form.