Improving Students’ Listening Ability by Using English Song through VCD Player

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter describes background, problem statement, objective significance and scope of the research.

A.    Background

Nowadays, language has a prominent role in almost face aspect of our life. As we know well that language is a tool to convey ideas, thoughts, and feelings. English plays an important role in absorbing and developing science, technology, culture, economy, and tourism. Even in establishing relationship to other nations (English Curriculum 2004). It is considered as one of the International Language that most widely used all over the world.

In the 2004 Curriculum Competency-Based is a set of plans and arrangements of competencies and ;earning outcomes that students have to reach, assessment, learning, process, and empowerment of educational sources in developing school curriculum, besides that in the curriculum also describes the students’ gradual and continuous learning progress in their efforts to be competent.

Listening is one of the languages in the world that has an important role for communication. It has been used as an International Language. So it is important for us to learn it.

English is a compulsory subject in public school that functions as a mean of advancing students in science and technology. In Indonesia, in particular English is taught from Junior High School up to University, even now it also taught to some Elementary School as an optimal subject.

Listening as one of the four language skill is as oral and receptive skill. This is a very essential in communication because well can not catch someone’s idea that is transmitted to us if well don’t have a good listening ability. According to Rivers       (1997) well have to spend much of time through listening activities. He estimated that the time an adult spent in communication activities is 45 % for listening, 30 % for speaking, 16 % for reading, and 9 % for writing skill. We always want to know what well hear. Or course, it needs listening ability. Listening is not only giving positive attention to what is said but than that well have to be more active to get the meaning of the spoken language (William in Hamrat, 1989).

Considering the importance of listening skill in daily communication, English learners should work hard to improve their listening ability. They have to practice listening to spoken language in through Radio, TV and Video. Improving listening is not an easy work for either learners or teachers of English.

Docherty (1983: 18) states that listening ability of the students through song is interesting, effective, and challenging. Song is interesting because it has a sense that songs can improve the students’ listening ability. Listening ability, while challenging is due to high appeal in spite of its difficulty. Furthermore, song is said to be able to arose the students’ listening ability in learning foreign language, because it is not boring and it can not boring and it can help students’ learn the language in a more relax way. Songs can also enrich the students’ vocabulary, word comprehension, and good understanding of the foreign culture.

The common audio visual aid in listening is tape recorder, but well sometimes experience difficulties in listening, when well can most see the speaker. Using Video Compact Disc Player can solve this problem. If they miss something on the tape, they can at least pick up some information or guess at the missing part with help of the visual performance on the VCD Player.

In teaching listening the teachers usually use songs. Ostojic (1987:15) states that the music, special song is one of the basic expressions of human spirit and it recently become an important part of foreign language teaching. Song is there fire not only as a mean of sending messages but also to the entertainer. The messages delivered may include artistic, economic, cultural, religious, and human aspect, which worlds wide.

Based on the explanation above the writer is interest in conducting research under title of ” Improving Students’ Listening Ability of  The Second Year Students of SMK Tridharma Maros by Using English Song  through VCD Player ”.

B.     Problem Statement

Based on the background above, the researcher formulates the problem as follow:

Does the use English Song through VCD Player improve the students’ listening ability of SMK Tridharma Maros?

C.    The Objective of the Research

This research aims to find out whether or not the use of English Song through VCD Player improves students’ listening ability of the Second Year Students of SMK Tridharma Maros.

D.    The Significance of the Research

By discipline, this research is under applied linguistics. By content, this study is limited to the use of  English Song through VCD Player improve students’ listening ability of the Second Year Students of SMK Tridharma Maros, and by activity this research was administer pre-test to find out the prior knowledge of the students and post-test that would be done after a number of treatments to discover the listening  ability of subjects. In applying this case, the researcher was used of English Song through VCD Player improve students’ listening ability of the Second Year Students of SMK Tridharma Maros.