The particular dialect or language that a person chooses to use on any occasion is called a code 94 Copyright © 2021 The Author IDEAS is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 License Issued by English study program of IAIN Palopo IDEAS Journal of Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) Volume 9, Number 2, December 2021 pp. 94 - 102 Students' Perceptions of Listening Learning Using the Bottom-up Strategy Sukma Irawan*1, Yousef Bani Ahmad2 *sukmairawan223@gmail.com *yousef.baniahmad@fkip.unsika.ac.id 1 FKIP, Singaperbangsa Karawang University, Karawang, Indonesia 2 FKIP, Singaperbangsa Karawang University, Karawang, Indonesia Received: 23 July 2021 Accepted: 15 December 2021 DOI: 10.24256/ideas.v9i2.1993 Abstract Listening learning using a bottom-up strategy provides a positive perception for students. The lack of research on students' perceptions of the bottom-up strategy in listening learning is the purpose of this research. The perceptions explored focused on student interest, student motivation, learning effects, problems faced, and solutions to problems students faced. The benefit of this research is to become a reference for the implementation of listening learning using a bottom-up strategy. This study uses a descriptive qualitative method with in-depth interviews with 4 students who have been learning listening using a bottom-up strategy for 2 years. The results of the interviews were analyzed using the Colaizzi method. The themes that emerged from this research were students felt this strategy was interesting, students felt this strategy was motivating in learning listening, students felt this strategy could improve their English skills apart from listening, but students felt that this strategy still had problems such as unclear sound. Students said that the problem could be fixed by making the class conducive and improving the quality of the audio that would be used. Keywords: students’ perception; listening; bottom–up strategy Introduction Listening is learning that is needed for students. In listening learning many strategies can be used. One strategy that is often used in listening learning is the bottom-up strategy. The bottom-up strategy in listening learning is a strategy that http://u.lipi.go.id/1457703302 mailto:*sukmairawan223@gmail.com IDEAS, Vol. 9, No. 2, December 2021 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 95 focuses students on the words they hear one by one. Bottom-up skills, also known as decoding skills, are the abilities that students need to decode the smallest units of information in their hearing input, such as detecting, identifying, and distinguishing the sound, syllable, word, chunk, syntax, and intonation levels from which the meaning of the listening input is comprehended (Field, 2008; Nhat & Hanoi, 2021). According to (Abdalhamid et al., 2012; Ismail & Abdul Aziz, 2020) Listeners were trained to combine word-for-word translation, rate modification, oral text repetition, and stronger attention to prosodic aspects of the text using bottom-up processing. The use of a bottom-up strategy in listening learning becomes beneficial for students. Because this strategy can help students improve their listening skills. One way to find out the positive impact of learning is to look at one's perception. (Jacobs et al, 2004; Bagus et al., 2020) refer that One of the most important aspects in effective teaching and learning is perception. Students' perceptions are needed to determine the impact of the bottom-up strategy on students' English skills. There are many positive impacts of learning listening using the bottom-up strategy. Usually, one will feel that their listening ability is increasing slowly. In addition, someone will also feel that their vocabulary knowledge is increasing. However, this all depends on the students and the implementation method that the teacher gives to the students. Each student will probably get its impact so it cannot be said that all will get the same impact. Research conducted by (Namaziandost et al., 2019) with the title The relationship between listening comprehension problems and the use of strategies among advanced EFL students shows that each strategy used in listening learning has its impacts and problems. To find out the problems of each strategy used, the researcher will understand from students' perceptions of the accepted strategy. Learning listening can be said to be effective if the teacher has the right learning strategy or method. There is a lot of research on listening learning strategies and the impact of each strategy used. The lack of literature on student perceptions related to listening learning using a bottom-up strategy makes researchers want to explore and find out what students' perceptions about this strategy are. The research question of this research is what are student perception learn listening using a bottom-up strategy. In this study, perception is needed to find out the description and impact that students feel during learn listening using a bottom-up strategy. This study will focus on students' statements while learning listening using a bottom-up strategy and will be analyzed qualitatively. Sukma Irawan, Yousef Bani Ahmad Students' perceptions of listening learning using the bottom-up strategy 96 Method This research uses the descriptive qualitative method. The goal of descriptive research is to characterize "what exists" in a situation in terms of variables or circumstances. In addition, descriptive research is utilized to investigate phenomena using interviews, focus groups, and participant observation, making this study more adaptable Mack et.al (2005: 3). This study aims to determine students' perceptions regarding listening learning using a bottom-up strategy that they have been doing for more than 2 year. Student perceptions related to listening learning using a bottom-up strategy will be described in detail. This research will conduct at SMKN 3 Karawang. The participants in this study are 4 students of grade 12 office management automation 2. The reason for choosing them is because previously they had learned listening using strategy bottom–up. In the sample selection, 4 students will be randomly selected by the researcher. There are several procedures used in conducting this research. First, the researcher asks the school for permission to conduct the research. Second, after obtaining permission, the researcher prepares research instruments in the form of interview sheets and documentation regarding listening learning. Third, the researcher conducted interviews with 4 respondents who had been prepared and took documentation related to the listening learning they had done. Finally, the researcher will analyze the results of the interview and adjust it with the documentation that has been taken previously. Data derived from information during interviews were recorded using a tape-recorder and transcribed verbatim. After that, the data were analyzed using the Colaizzi method. Results From the results of the interviews that have been conducted, there are 5 main categories that describe students' perceptions of listening learning using a bottom- up strategy. Students feel listening learning using a bottom-up strategy is interesting Students feel that the use of bottom-up strategy in listening learning can increase the amount of English vocabulary. In addition, students also feel that this strategy can train their memory of the words they hear and finally students feel that this strategy can improve their english speaking skills. students also feel that this is a unique learning because the answers can only be obtained from listening, not seeking from books or knowledge. "I am so Interesting, how I can tell you? It can improve our listening skills. In the same time add my vocabulary too” (R2) "It’s Interesting, like what, I can get answers from listening it, it is impossible to find the answer in books or on the internet" (R3) IDEAS, Vol. 9, No. 2, December 2021 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 97 "It's interesting, because I can practice how to speak right and also train my memory about something that I hear before" (R1) The bottom-up strategy on listening motivates students Students motivated to learn listening using a bottom-up strategy, they want to learn more about listening learning using this strategy, the reasons are various because students want to improve their listening skills so they want to also improve their speaking skills. Apart from that, maybe listening learning using a bottom-up strategy they just got when they entered a vocational high school. So, this can be a reason why students want to learn more deeply. "How I explain this, hhm it because when I was doing listening test like that, it was like being challenged, so I wanted to learn and study more about listening" (R2) "Yes, it's motivated me. How I explain to you? for example, if I listen to English music, I don't have to look the meaning of the song, so by listening to the song, I will immediately know the meaning and liryc of the song that I heard" (R3) "It motivated me to want to learn more English, so I can speak English more fluently" (R4) The effect of learning listening using a bottom-up strategy in daily life There are so many effects of listening learning using a bottom-up strategy in daily life. First, students become more understanding and accustomed to hearing English conversations, but only conversations that are classified as slower or basic. Second, the bottom-up strategy in listening learning makes students better understand the lyrics or meaning of the English songs they hear. Third, students feel they can help other people who have difficulty in listening learning. This is because at school students are used to getting listening learning so that if in the real world there is a friend or friend who needs help, students are ready to help. “In daily life? The impact is makes english conversation easier to understand by me and it makes me easy to remember words, for example, if someone said something, I immediately catched what it means, I am not very fluent before in listening something, but now it's okay" (R2) "It's easier to understand or digest if someone else says that. understand a little bit” (R3) "Eeee, I understand when I listen. Yes, when I listen the music, it's going to be smooth, so there's no need to look for the meaning. For now, for example, I always watch videos or vlogs from abroad, sometimes I don’t see the subtitles in English, just heard the video" (R4) "I can understand better if someone speaks English and when I listen music, I know what it means little by little, and if my sister asks me for English listening task, I can help my sister" Sukma Irawan, Yousef Bani Ahmad Students' perceptions of listening learning using the bottom-up strategy 98 (R1) Problems faced by students when learning listening using a bottom-up strategy The use of bottom-up strategy in learning listening is not perfect. The students still have problems listening to the audio given by the teacher, the article often admits that students cannot hear the pronunciation of audio listening recorded by the teacher. This can happen because the teacher is not loud enough to pronounce the words that the teacher reads or it could be because the record tool used by the teacher is having problems or damaged. Furthermore, students also have difficulties in translating words that students hear into written form, students often still have difficulty in writing English words that match what they have heard before. "Usually, the problem is my knowledge of the vocabulary or the miss pronunciation which is sometimes not clear, the problem is that it's just not clear, miss speaking" (R2) "The problem is that there is a misunderstanding like that, what I mean is that what I wrote is different, the answer is different, the voice is not clear, sometimes it's noise, then sometimes the sound is like a collision with what sound" (R3) "Maybe the problem is like my teacher is not clear when said, other than I have difficulty when write a double word in English" (R4) "The problem is sometime I don't focus in learning listening and I like to hear wrongly " (R1) Students' sugesstion of the problem of learning listening using a bottom-up strategy There are so many suggestions from students after learn listening using a bottom-up strategy. First, students must be careful in listening to the audio they will hear. Because this learning is focused on the words that are heard one by one, if students are not careful, students will find it difficult to fill out the answer sheets that they must fill out. Second, students must increase their vocabulary in learning listening with a bottom-up strategy because what they will write depends on the vocabulary knowledge they have, so if students are lacking in vocabulary knowledge, it is likely that students will also have difficulty writing the right words. Third, for the teacher himself, as the source of the audio that students will hear, they must also adjust the English voice and pronunciation to the state of the recording location, so that students can hear clearly what the teacher said. "Yes, maybe, the first from us as student, yes, we have to increase our vocabulary and learn more vocabulary. Then for my teacher, I have no idea because maybe it's like eee depending on the situation in the classroom" (R2) "Yes, we should to increase our vocabulary, we should know correct pronunciation" (R3) "As a student, we should be careful, we have to study again for vocabulary, so we can understand what the teacher said. For the audio or teacher spoken I hope it can be clearly to IDEAS, Vol. 9, No. 2, December 2021 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 99 hear" (R4) "We have to focus more in learning, we have to understand more about English vocabulary" (R1) Discussion Students who learn listening using a bottom-up strategy provide perceptions according to their experiences. Almost all student perceptions have a positive impact, but there are some negative perceptions. It can be a special note or suggestion for listening learning using a bottom-up strategy in the future. Students’ perception in learning listening using a bottom-up strategy is that students feel interested in learning listening using this strategy. Students said that this strategy is interesting because it can train how to speak and train their memory of what they have heard. The L2 perceptual skills aren't developed enough when a bottom-up strategy is beneficial (S.V. Govorun, 2015; Khuziakhmetov & Porchesku, 2016) At his research he found that when the learners are given the option of which strategy to utilize, learners with lower levels of L2 proficiency choose bottom-up approaches to determining the meaning of aural input. Listening learning uses a bottom-up strategy, students are required to focus on every word they hear. Bottom- up methods, on the other hand, are Listeners need language abilities to understand text-based information. The final message is deciphered by the listener on the language, which is a combination of sounds, words, and grammar (Renukadevi, 2014). During listening learning, students must fill in the blank text and the answer is only obtained by listening to the audio. Another perception said that this learning can increase vocabulary. This is indeed the goal of bottom-up listening strategy learning where students have to focus on some missing words in the text. In addition, students also feel that the bottom-up strategy in listening learning is unique learning because the answers cannot be found in books or on google. This is an interesting experience for students because when listening learning takes place students must only get answers from listening to the audio they hear. Another that, positive impact of this strategy is to motivate students to learn listening more deeply. Students feel that the bottom-up strategy is very challenging to learn, the reason may be because this strategy requires high concentration to catch the words that they hear and then write them in the correct writing. Another perception about this strategy is to motivate students to learn listening more deeply. Students feel that the bottom-up strategy is very challenging to learn, the reason may be because this strategy requires high concentration to catch the words that they hear and then write them in the correct writing. In addition, students also feel that this strategy is very helpful when listening to music from Sukma Irawan, Yousef Bani Ahmad Students' perceptions of listening learning using the bottom-up strategy 100 abroad so that it makes students not need to look for the lyrics of the songs they hear. This is also one of the positive effects of listening outside of school. While outside of school students are motivated to stay focused and understand every audio or English song they hear. In addition, students also feel that the bottom-up strategy makes students know the correct pronunciation of vocabulary. This makes students challenged not only to learn listening but also how to pronounce English correctly. This is in line with (Cross, 2009b; Goh & Taib, 2006; Vandergrift & Tafaghodtari, 2010; Henderson, 2017) The most efficient listening technique Students of all ages will gain confidence, motivation, and develop as a consequence of their listening abilities, especially the less skilled listeners, who had greater results than professional listeners. Furthermore, another perception of the bottom-up strategy in listening learning is that students felt that strategy is an important role in improving their English skills in daily life. Students feel that this strategy can make students become good listeners when someone speaks English. Bottom-up processing is substantially linked to familiar subjects and easily recognized phrases, which increases the frequency with which listeners employ bottom-up processing (Yang, 2006). Not only that, but students also feel that this strategy is effective in improving the memory of what they hear. Another perception came from respondent 1 who said that this strategy was effective for him to improve his listening skills because his listening skills were honed, he felt that he could help someone if they had difficulties when learning listening. This is a unique fact that usually, students have just focused on getting listening learning in high school or in vocational high school. Below that, students usually rarely get listening learning and it becomes an obstacle for students in obstacles for students under them. Moreover, another discussion is students' perceptions of the obstacles they face when learning listneing using a bottom-up strategy. At the beginning of the discussion, students said that the positive impact of listening learning was using a bottom-up strategy, but this strategy still had problems when used. First, students feel that this strategy requires high knowledge of vocabulary. Students feel that when they hear new vocabularies, they are confused about writing it, this is due to the lack of students' knowledge of English vocabulary. The majority of experienced listeners hear words but not the meaning of the passage, whereas the majority of less-talented listeners are preoccupied with processing the meaning of the listening passage and fail to follow the rest of it (Yang, 2006). Listeners' anxiety over novel sounds and words may act as a roadblock in bottom-up processing; when they hear new words or hear unusual noises, they may halt and concentrate just on that word, neglecting the larger context (Yang, 2006). This might be corrected by the way the teacher previously gave English vocabulary treatment to students before listening learning would be carried out. Furthermore, students also find it difficult when they IDEAS, Vol. 9, No. 2, December 2021 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 101 have to hear audio or words spoken by the teacher because the sound that they heard was sometimes did not clear and maked difficult for students to catched the words that they heard. Obstacles like this can be corrected if the teacher can make the room conducive first before listening learning begins. And another perception about the obstacles that students face is that students sometimes don't focus when they have to listen to audio, this could be due to an unfavorable room and a lack of concentration from children. Therefore, teachers are strongly advised to make the class conducive first so that students can concentrate when studying. Behind the obstacles that students faced, they have suggestions for what they feel. Students said that listening learning is interesting but students themselves had to learn more about vocabulary. This is in line with listening learning itself where students will only focus on a few missing words in the text and must write them correctly. Furthermore, students also said that the audio that was presented might be able to be clarified again so that this did not make it difficult for students to listen. This is feasible, the teacher can improve the quality of the audio and use adequate tools to produce good audio for students to hear. Educators and instructors will be better able to appreciate the need to develop listening techniques if they are aware of the issues (Yang, 2006). And the last input is that students themselves should focus as much as possible when listening learning takes place. When students have lost concentration, it is difficult for them to hear the audio that has been given by their teacher. Conclusion In learning listening using a bottom-up strategy, students at SMK Negeri 3 Karawang have the perception that this strategy has many benefits for students, students feel this strategy is good for improving their listening skills. Not only listening, but students also feel that the bottom-up strategy in listening learning can increase their English vocabulary. In the end, the students also felt that the listening strategy chosen by their teacher in learning listening brought them to a new experience, where students felt motivated, interested, and comfortable in learning listening. It must be admitted that this research still has shortcomings. For further researchers, this research can still be developed more and more. There are so many strategies that can be used in listening learning, therefore the author recommends researching other listening learning strategies from a different point of view. References Bagus, I., Pamungkas, A., Brawijaya, U., Adi, S. S., & Brawijaya, U. 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