CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Listening

1. Definition of Listening

Listening is one of the four language skills that should be mastered by

those who wanted to learn English. It is the way used by the people to gather the

meaning of what the speaker said. To know more about listening, the researcher

presented some definitions of listening as been stated by the experts. Some of

them are as mentioned below;

According to Carter and Nunan, the term listening is used in language

teaching to refer to complex process that allow us to understand spoken

language.1 This statement explained that listening is not only recognizing the

sound but also getting the meaning of word. Furthermore, Underwood mentioned

that listening is the activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from

something people hear.2 To understand the message from spoken language, it is

not enough to just understand the words themselves; instead the incoming sound

needs to be processed. In addition, Saricoban stated that listening is the ability to

understand what other people are saying.3 It could be said that through listening,

1
Ronald Carter and David Nunan, The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers
of Other Language, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 7
2
Mary Underwood, Teaching Listening: Longman Handbooks for Language Teachers,
(England: Longman, 1989), p. 1
3
Arif Saricoban, The Teaching of Listening. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. 5, No. 12

8
 9

the students must discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and

grammatical structures.

Based on the definitions given by several experts above, it could be

concluded that listening the activity of identify, understand, and respond what

other people are saying. In listening activities, the students tend to pay conscious

attention, comprehension, and interpretation to what is being said in order to

understand it.

2. Type of Listening

There are many classification made by the experts in language area about

the type of listening. Some of them divided the listening into bottom-up listening

and top-down listening while the other divided it into reciprocal listening and non-

reciprocal listening.

According to Buck, listening was divided into two types, they are bottom-

up listening and top-down listening. Bottom-up listening is achieved by dividing

and decoding the sounds bit by bit. The ability to separate the stream of speech

into individual words becomes more important here, if the people recognize, for

example, the name of a street or instructions on how to take a particular bus.

While top-down listening requires the use of background knowledge in

understanding the meaning of the message. Background knowledge consists of

context.4

Meanwhile Nation and Newton divided listening based on the situation

where the understanding takes place, they are reciprocal listening and non-

4
Gary Buck, Assessing Listening, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 2
 10

reciprocal listening. In reciprocal listening, the listener is required to take part in

the interaction and alternately listens and speaks. When the people talking each

other, they not only listen to what the people said but also have a chance to

respond what other people said. They can ask for clarification, repetition, or

slower speech from conversation partner. While in non-reciprocal listening, the

listener is engaged in listening passively to a monologue or speech or even

conversation. Here, the listener cannot respond what they listened. They not have

the opportunity to ask for clarification, slower speech or repetition.5

Based on some types of listening explained above, it could be concluded

that listening is divided variously by the experts. Some of them divided the

listening based on the situation where the understanding takes place and other

experts divided listening based on the purposes. Based on the purposes, listening

was divided into bottom-up and top-down listening. Meanwhile based on the

situation takes place, listening was divided into reciprocal and non-reciprocal

listening.

3. Importance of Listening for Students

English listening skill is very important to be mastered because it has an

important role for human life especially for the students. There is no

communication process is complete without listening. Successful communication

depends on not only receiving messages but also decoding them correctly.

Unconsciously, there are many activities related to the listening which many

5
Nation and Jonathan Newton, Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking, (New York:
Routledge, 2009), p. 60
 11

students always do. Therefore, effective listening is extremely important for the

students because they spend most of their time to listen to their teacher. Besides,

some benefits will be gotten while the students master the listening skill.

Students with good listening skills are generally more successful than their

peers who are passive listeners.6 Students with good listening skills will follow

the directions given by the teacher correctly. It can make them not wasting much

time to understand what the teacher said because they do not need to ask the same

question many time.

Furthermore, students who are good in listening use new information more

productively.7 It enables them to decide how to use this information. Students who

use active listening strategies also exhibit better concentration and memory.

Active listeners filter information, connect to what is important, use it and store it

in a meaningful way. As a result, they often seem to have a better grasp on

academic content than their peers who listen more passively.

Another benefit of mastering listening skill is tends to have more

successful interpersonal relationships.8 Their active attention supports the speaker

and helps build his confidence and because speakers know they are really being

listened to, they feel valued. This promotes feelings of trust and respect which in

turn, makes the speaker more likely to cooperate.

6
Steven Brown, Teaching Listening, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 8
7
Mili Saha and Ali Rezwan Talukdar, Teaching listening as an English Language Skill,
(Bangladesh: Noakhali Science & Technology University, 2006), p. 29
8
Heidi Byrnes, The Role of Listening Comprehension: A Theoretical Base. Foreign
Language Annals Journal, Vol. 17, Issue 4, 1984, p. 317-329
 12

In addition, students who use active listening skills are better able to

determine when miscommunications have occurred.9 They are also more

successful at gleaning additional information from the speaker. Therefore, good

listeners are able to initiate a resolution to the misunderstanding more readily.

Based on the explanation given by the experts above, it could be

concluded that listening is very importance for students. By mastering listening,

students will have the bigger chance to be success than their peers who are not

mastering listening skill because they get the new information productively.

Besides, by mastering listening skill, the students tend to have more successful

interpersonal relationships because they can understand for what the speaker said.

4. The Difficulties in Mastering Listening Skill

Listening is usually a hard skill to be mastered by the students. There are

some reasons that made listening is difficult to be mastered. The first reason is

that the students do not have the text in front of them to look at if they do not

understand the information. A second reason is the accent and intonation of the

native English speaker. In addition, each country has dialects and regional accents

which can confuse the listener. All of these make listening learning a major

challenge and it is no surprise that the students can find it difficult.

Ur said that there are some students difficulties in learning listening:

trouble with sounds, have to understand every word, cannot understand fast and

natural native speech, need to hear things more than once, find it difficult to keep

9
Ibid., p. 317
 13

up, and get tired.10 The other problem in learning listening is the students have no

control over the speed of what they are hearing and they cannot go back or rewind

to listen again. Although, in class the listening materials are recorded and can be

played again or students to listen again, it is usually under the control. Also,

because the speed at which native speakers usually speak, students feel that the

teacher asks the students to listen to the overall message and forget about what

they could not catch, which probably means what they did not understand, the

teacher has no idea that sometimes what they do not really understand can add up

to 75% of what is heard.11

Moreover, Underwood in Hasyuni mentioned some other kinds of

difficulties that are directly related to the students themselves. One of the

problems which the students have established learning habits in the sense that they

were encouraged to understand everything by listening carefully to teachers who

probably speak slowly and clearly. Hence, when they fail to understand every

word while listening, they stop listening and lose the thread, which seems to be

the reason for state of panic they usually show before and during listening.12

In relation to those problems, it could not deny that students motivation

plays important role in learning listening. As mentioned in Brown, another theme

will be motivation. Because listening is so challenging, teachers need to think

10
Penny Ur, A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory, (Cambridge:
University Press, 1996), p. 111
11
Shelagh Rixon, Developing Listening Skills, (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1986), p. 37
12
Hasyuni, The Students Preferred Activities for English Listening Classes (A Survey
Conducted to the Second and Fourth Semester Students of English Department of FKIP
Universitas Bengkulu Academic Year 2005/2006). Unpublished Thesis of Teacher Training and
Education Faculty of Universitas Bengkulu, 2006
 14

carefully about making the activities successful and the content interesting. We

can create the interest activity in learning listening such as by listening English

songs. By creating of high students motivation, it hoped can reduce the listening

difficulties. Furthermore, the students will be stimulated and not be panic when

they are learning listening.13

Based on the explanation given above, it could be concluded that listening

was not an easy skill. There are some difficulties faced by the students in

mastering listening. One of them was difficult in comprehending the word sound.

Besides, the students also difficult in comprehending the accent and intonation of

the speaker especially native speaker. Another difficult was the students difficult

in understanding the meaning of the words that they hearing. Those difficulties

made the students could not master the listening skill easily.

B. Word Grab with Song Game

1. Definition of Word Grab with Song

Word grab with song game is the combination between the word grab

game and the song media. It is a game to make the teaching learning process

becoming more interesting and fun.14 To know deeper about the word grab with

song game, the researcher presented some definition of word grab with song game

given by the experts. Those definitions are as mentioned below;

Word grab is a game that is introduced in last years conference by Nick

Peranich of Kazuno City. It is like karuta in that students must listen to a story

13
Steven Brown, Teaching Listening, p. 1
14
Nicola Turner, Word Grab with Song, Internet TESOL Journal, look at:
http://iteslj.org/games/9968.html (online), accessed on October 10th, 2015
 15

and grab words in order as they hear them.15 Meanwhile, Turner mentioned that

word grab with song is the word grab game in which the students listen to the

song and then grab the word in that song that has been putted on the whiteboard.16

Based on the explanation given above, it could be concluded that word

grab with song game is a word game in which the player grab the word they are

listened from a song that has been putted on the whiteboard. This game is played

in two teams. The winner of this game is determined by the total number of

correct word can be grabbed.

2. The Benefits of Using Word Grab with Song in Teaching Listening

Word grab with song game is one of the word games strategies which are

combined with the song. This game is good to be used in the English teaching

learning process especially listening class because it can interest the students in

joining the lesson and avoid the boredom in listening class. By using this game,

the students will be more spirit in joining the activities because the word should

be grabbed by the students in this game is come from the song they heard.

For many years, the song has played some important role in the classroom.

Papa and Iantorno claimed that singing is certainly one of the activities which

generates the greatest enthusiasm and is a pleasant and stimulating approach to the

culture of foreign people.17 Therefore, songs have a place in the classroom for

15
Anonym, Word Grab, Article, look at: http://akitajet.com/wiki/Word_Grab (online),
accessed on October 10th, 2015
16
Nicola Turner, Word Grab with Song
17
Mario Papa and Giuliano Iantorno, Famous British and American Songs, (London:
Longman Group Limited, 1979), p. 8
 16

helping create that friendly and co-operative atmosphere so important for

language learning.

Rosova also mentioned that songs definitely have the ability to maintain

jolly atmosphere and avoid satiety and repugnance, which is the right poison of

teaching.18 Besides, one of the basic principles when learning a language is a

repetition. Constant repetition is vital for the successful learning of a foreign

language. In this case, songs may strongly activate the repetition mechanism of

the language acquisition.

Besides, the song which is combined with the word grab game will help

the students in recognizing the sound that are heard. The combination between the

game and song will create the opportunity for students to practice their listening

skill. This is off course will improve their ability in comprehending the word

even the sentence they are listened.

Based on the explanation given above, it could be summarized that word

grab with song game gives some benefits for the students in listening class. The

main benefit is it can interest the students in joining the lesson and avoid the

boredom in listening class. The students will be more spirit in joining the

activities because the word should be grabbed by the students in this game is

come from the song. Another benefit is it gives opportunity for the students to

practice their listening ability while playing the game.

18
Veronika Rosov, The Use of Music in Teaching English, Diploma Thesis, Faculty of
Education, Masaryk University, Brno, 2007, p. 17
 17

3. The Procedure of Using Word Grab with Song in Teaching Listening

Every strategy or game used by teacher in teaching learning process has its

procedure should be followed by them who wanted to use those strategies

including this game. The general procedures of using word grab with song game

in teaching listening as been stated by Turner are as mentioned below:

1. Choose a song that the students have or have not heard before.
2. Choose 10-15 pieces of vocabulary from the song and write them on
separate pieces of paper.
3. With lower level groups you may want to pronounce the words with
the students first.
4. Stick each word to the board with putty (blue tack).
5. Put the students into 2 teams each one in a line before the board.
6. Play the song.
7. When the 2 students at the front of their line hear a word in the song
that is on the board they must race each other to grab that word from
the board.
8. They then go to the back of the line and it's up to the next pair. The
team with the most words wins.19

Based on the procedures explain by the turner above, it could be found that

this game is applied in a word game. The activities of this game are begun with

choosing the song and then choose some words contain in that song. After that the

teacher puts the words has been chosen before on the whiteboard. After all the

words putted on the whiteboard, the teacher divides the students into 2 teams each

one in a line before the board. Having finished that, the teacher plays the song.

When the 2 students at the front of the line listen to the word in the song that is on

the board they must race each other to grab that word from the board. After that,

they go back to the line and the give the opportunity to next pair. This activity is

19
Nicola Turner, Word Grab with Song
 18

go on until all of the students in both team grab the word. The team with the most

words will be the winner.

C. Previous Studies

There are some previous studies that related to the effect of using game in

English teaching learning process; some of them are as written below:

The thesis which was written by Rifni Shafiyuddin in 2013 entitled

Improving students mastery of simple past tense using grab the word game (a

classroom action research at class 8A of MTs Fatahillah Ngaliyan Semarang) in

which the result of the research showed that the students ability in writing simple

past tense improved after a series of treatments. It could be seen by comparing the

means of their tests. The mean score for the pre-test was 51.6, the mean score for

test 1 was 68.25, and the mean score for test 2 was 81.75, while the mean score

for the test 3 was 71.175. It is clear that the use of word grab game in improving

students mastery of simple past tense can help the students to solve their problem

to distinguish between present and past tense.

Furthermore, the thesis which was written by Shofiyatul Hanani in 2012

entitled Facilitating Students Understanding of Simple Past Tense through

Detective Game (An Experimental Research at Ten Grade Students of MAN 01

Kudus in which the result of the research showed that the mean score for

experimental class was higher than control class. The mean score for experimental

class was 81.67. Meanwhile, the mean score for control class was 76.67. So, it

could be found that there is significant effect of detective game in teaching simple

past.
 19

D. Hypothesis of the Research

Hypothesis is a temporary answer to the research problem until it is proved

by the data will be collected.20 There were two hypotheses of the research in this

research, namely alternative hypothesis and null hypothesis.

Based on the definition of hypothesis above, the hypothesis of this

research can be drawn as follows:

1. Ha : There is significant differences in achievement between the

students who are taught listening by using word grab with song game from

those who are taught listening by using conventional media.

2. Ho : There is no significant differences in achievement between the

students who are taught listening by using word grab with song game from

those who are taught listening by using conventional media.

20
Suharsimi Arikunto, Prosedur Penelitian: Suatu Pendekatan Praktek, Cet. V, (Jakarta:
Rineka Cipta, 2002), p. 64