https://jurnal.unigal.ac.id/index.php/jall/index ISSN: 2598-8530 February 2018, Vol. 2 No. 1 English Education Program Faculty of Teacher Training and Education Galuh University 8 Received: Accepted: Published: October 2017 December 2017 February 2018 IMPROVING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL THROUGH LANGUAGE LABORATORY MEDIA Feby Akhdiyati febyakhdi@yahoo.com Program Pascasarjana Pendidikan Bahasa Universitas Negeri Jakarta Abstract The objective of research is to improve English listening ability through the use of the language laboratory at SMA Sandikta. This study used action research methods which involved two cycles. This study was conducted at Sandikta Senior High School XI IPA. School year 2014/2015.The research carried out at the beginning of January to May 2015. Based on the data from the pre test, it shows that the students’ competencies in listening English is still low.After given treatment throughout the cycles (planning, acting, observing, and reflecting)and the result of post tests, the students’ ability in listening English had been improved. Qualitative data analysis shows that the students are interested and enjoyed during the process. The studernts listen better after the treatment. The results of the analysis is trengthen by quantitative data analysis which shows an increase in listening skills (listening) English. It can be seen from the data of the students, in cycle 1, average value of 60.375 students while in the cycle 2 of the average value of 81.25 students. Therefore, there is improvement in English listening through language laboratory. Keywords: ability, listening, language laboratory INTRODUCTION There are four language skills which students need to be able to, those are listening, reading, speaking and writing. Those four language skills must be learned and acquired together continuously. 9 One of the langauge skill that should be mastered by the students is the laistening skill. By having the ability in listening, students will have capability in expressing their thoughts and feelings correctly based on the context of the situation needed and catching the information by the speaker’s intention and then responding to the information itself. A child learns language through listening first. The process of listening, understanding meaning, imitating, and practicing sounds of language are done repeatedly until a child speaks fluently. The same thing happens to adults when they learn a foreign language. Through listening, a person can pronounce phoneme, vocabulary, and sentence. Listening skill is truly support other language skills: speaking, reading and writing. Basically, listening is the ability to pay attention to the speaker and understanding for an information by peole orally. In understanding oral language, we use our knowledge about the grammar and intonation. Listening is one of the important language skills in learning foreign language. In achieving language, listening is in the first stage. In fact, listening skill is the most frequently used by people who learn language. It is supported by Morley. He states that “we listen twice as much language as we speak, four times as much as we read and five times as much as we write.” 1 We need a good listening skill in our daily communication. This skill is very important for every language user. Without a proper listening ability, there will be misunderstanding toward the language users that cause some obstacles in doing some assignments and daily activities. Learning about listening skill has an important role in learning a language. However, listening has not been given properly. It’s still given inappropriately, using limited methods. It makes the students bored and they are not feeling motivated to learn listening. According to Nurgiantoro, those things become 1 J. Morley, Listening Comprehension in Second\Foreign language Instruction. In M. Celce Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as A Second or Foreign Language (Boston: Heinle & Heinle,1991), p.81 10 problems because not every language teacher teaches listening and one at a time gives a test of listening. 2 The implementation of learning English at schools, especially listening, is not so much attracted. That is caused by minimum supportive infrastructure in every school. Without a proper listening ability, there will be misunderstanding toward the language users that cause some obstacles in doing some assignments and daily activities. In spite of that, listening skill need to get more attention in the process of learning English language at schools. Teaching listening for eleventh graders at Sandikta senior high school faces the same problem. That is caused by a big number of students, individual ability differences, not so attractive of the material, and not conducive learning environment. Based on the early observation, listening skill of eleventh graders Sandikta senior high school, still needs improvement and hasn’t reach the minimum score of the subject. That is proven by the class average score which less than 70. The writer assumes the media of language laboratory can increase listening skill. Teaching English at the language laboratory gives the real experience of learning the language. Through practicing English in the laboratory, the writer believes teaching will be much more effective. Teaching which involves mind and the five senses, would be more effective to the students’ process of learning. The use of media can enhance students’ motivation in listening. The use of media attracts students’ attention so that the teaching learning process is much more meaningful. In addition, the technology in the language laboratory makes the relationship between teacher and students closer. Listening becomes fun and not boring. The language laboratoty has many strengths than any other media of listening. Ocassionally, teacher and students can not take the benefit of the language laboratory. 2 Burhan Nurgiyantoro, Penilaian Pembelajaran Bahasa Berbasis Kompetensi (Yogyakarta: BPFE- Yogyakarta, 2010), h. 353 11 From the aformetioned background, the writer tries to focus on the research of the language laboratory which entitled “Enhancing English Listening Skill By Means Of Language Laboratory: Action Research To Eleventh Graders Of Sandika Senior High School Bekasi” METHOD This study used an action research in which blend the qualitative and quantitative approach. The steps of doing this study were adopted from Kemmis and Mc Taggart: planning, action, observing, and reflecting. 3 This study was done in two cycles. The subject of this study were the students of eleventh grade of senior high school Sandikta Bekasi from science department. This study involved 40 students and single study. This study started on April until June 2014. There were 3 times treatments in three meetings and once for test. The quantitative data was gained through the statistical calculation to see the difference of initial ability between the 1 st and the 2 nd cycles. That results were based on the data from the test. Besides, the qualitative data were gotten the process description and the result of learning which is systematically arranged. It is started from the situation, the situation before the treatment, observation condition on the process treatment to the subject of the study, the location of the study, the purpose of the study, the steps of learning, and the result of the study. The data analyses were done both qualitatively and quantitatively. Qualitatively, the data analyses were from the observation sheet, teacher’s and student’s journal, transcribe of interview, and documentation. Observations were done in the classroom and language laboratory in a way to make sure that the process ran well. Observation is started from the pre experiment and along the teaching and learning process. The study used the documentation from what happened along the experiment to introduce and enhance listening skill. The supporting data analyses were taken from the pictures along the teaching learning 3 Kemmis S dan R. Mc. Taggart, The Action Research Planner ( Victoria: Deakin University, 1990), h. 11. 12 process. Meanwhile, quantitatively, the data analyses were done by comparing the score achieved through the average or gain scores’ students in every test of cycles. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION After the data collection and analyses, the finding of qualitative data is displayed below. 1) Cycle 1 The result of listening in the language laboratory in first cycle rised. The gaining scores of 40 students was 2145 with 60,375 average score. Figure 4.1 The Result of Listening Score in the Language Laboratory 2) Cycle 2 From the first cycle, it can be seen that there were increasing listening scores of the students learning at the language laboratory. There were 3250 from 40 students with the average score of 81,25. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 Cycle 1 siklus 1 13 Figure of Cycle 2 One of the indicator of successful learning is the active involvement of students in the classroom. Students are enthusiastic and interested in the learning, so that there are the increasing scores of the tests. The different achievement of the students can be seen from the score and the average score written or oral practice. In the process of learning, students seemed to be happy and active although there’re some students neglect the process. Figure of the Average from Cycle 1 and 2 0 20 40 60 80 100 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 Cycle 2 siklus 2 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 1 2 Average rata-rata 14 Based on the action research on the enhancement of listening skill of eleventh grade of senior high school Sandikta, found that there were 2 cycles. Those finding were drawn from the quantitative and qualitative data. There were increasing points of listening skill by the eleventh grade students of senior high school Sandikta. The increasing points can be seen from the progress, creativity, productivity of students in learning the listening skill. In spite of that, the increasing point is also depicted from the last tests from both cycles. Those increasing points were gained by the use of language laboratory which build the atmosphere of learning by doing. By that, students were free to express their ability and find their potential. The use of the laboratory media in enhancing students’ listening scores creates a good athmospere for stduents. They feel more motivated. It was signed by the active involvement of students in the learning process. The spirit of creativity, productivity, and competency give positive energy to the result of each test across cycles. The increasing test’s score of vocabulary were found from the pretest, final test of cycle 1 until final test of cycle 2. The langauge laboratory gives positive influece toward the enhanceent of listening skill. The enhancement of students’ creativity and productivity in the small langauge laboratory creates the possibility of enhancement in other language skills. It makes the teaching learning process more meaningful to the students. CONCLUSIONS The media of language laboratory can be used in vocabulary learning. The questions of this study focus on puzzle of words. Language laboratory used in every session of the teaching learning process. The use of media of laboratory increase the English vocabulary mastery in listening skill of eleventh grade students of senior high Sandikta Bekasi. The marking was taken from score of pretest (45), final test in cycle 1 (60,375), and final test in cycle 2 (81,25). 15 REFERENCES Celce, Marienne and Murcia. (2001). Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publisher H.G Tarigan. (2008). Menyimak sebagai suatu Keterampilan Berbahasa. Bandung: Angkasa J. Morley. (1991). Listening Comprehension in Second\Foreign language Instruction. In M. Celce Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as A Second or Foreign Language. Boston: Heinle & Heinle Nurgiyantoro, Burhan. (2010). Penilaian Pembelajaran Bahasa Berbasis Kompetensi Yogyakarta: BPFE-Yogyakarta Pedoman Penulisan Artikel Jurnal Imiah. (2011). Jakarta: Program Pascasarjana Universitas Negeri Jakarta Morse C, Willian and G.Max Wingo. (1969). 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