CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Listening is considered an important ability that must be mastered. How

well someone listen has a big impact on the quality of their relationship with
others. Listening comprehension skill is an important foreign language learner’s
skill in oral communication. Over 50 percent of the time that students spend
functioning in a foreign language was devoted to listening. In the process of
learning English, the development of listening comprehension competences must
not be ignored because good listening comprehension can help students to improve
their English knowledge and improve their communicative competence in
English[ CITATION Eka16 \l 1033 ]. As compared with other language skill, listening
has been considered the most challenging subject. Therefore, low scores in
listening are inevitable. This has been made worst by teacher’s opinion that
listening comprehension requires no skill and in which the more one listens, the
greater the listening comprehension competence.

Listening activities also required in academic context, where the students

have to deal with listening comprehension in the class. In EFL class, the students
face difficulties in communication. These problems are not only because of their
ability, but also from the teachers. Listening is an active process by which students
receive, construct meaning form, and respond to spoken or non-verbal message. As
such, it forms an integral part of the communication process and should not be
separated from the other language arts[ CITATION Api13 \l 1033 ]. Teaching English
for foreign learners, learners that come from non- English country as their first or
second language, especially for learners under 18th years old, should be creative.
Popular song will attract them to listen while developing their ability in listening
skill[ CITATION Mel15 \l 1033 ] . From the background, the writer is interested in
conducting a research on popular songs as a media to teach listening skill. So that,
the focus of this study is “The Effectiveness of Using Popular Songs to Improve

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Students’ Listening Comprehension Skill in MTsN 6 Nganjuk”. Relating to this
study, there are some previous study that using songs in general or popular songs
for specific on listening skill. First, the researcher conducted by Ayatika Adawiya.
The aim of her study is to know The Effectiveness of Popular Song in Improving
Students’ Listening Skill”, second, the researcher conducted by Shofiyah entitled
“The Use of Songs to Improve students’ Listening Skills”.

B. RESEARCH QUESTION

The writer composes the research question based on the title as “Is English
Popular song effective to improve students’ listening comprehension skill in the
Junior High School?”

C. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

The research objective of this study is considering on the question above.

The writer wants to find out the effectiveness of popular songs, English pop song,
in improving students’ listening skill.

D. HYPOTHESIS

Based on the objective of the study, this research wants to know the
effectiveness of using popular songs to improve students’ listening
comprehension skill in Junior High School. Thus the researcher builds the
hypothesis to make purpose of this study. The hypothesis is popular song is
effectiveness to improve student’s listening comprehension skill in Junior High
School.

E. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESEARCH

By this research study, the writer wants to give contribution for English
teacher to teach listening skill. It may consider using different media while
teaching listening. The use of different media might attract the students to learn
but fun with popular song. Hopefully, the use of popular song that familiar with
the students could increase their listening skill and help the teacher to have
additional option if they want to teach listening in the classroom.

F. SCOPE A LIMITATION

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 Based on the identification of that problem, the researcher limits the object
of the research. In this study the researcher wants to know about the
effectiveness of using popular songs to improve students’ listening
comprehension skill in Junior High School.
G. DEFINITION OF THE KEY TERMS

Related to the title of this research, the researcher wants to present the
definition key terms can be used to make the readers easy to understand what the
write is trying to writing and to clarify the problem to be discussed in this
research. The key term are arranged as follow:

1. Popular Songs

Popular song is one of the genres that used to listen by learner. They could
find the songs wherever they are such as on the shopping center, on the public
transportation, and privately on their own house[CITATION chu09 \l 1033 ]. Popular
song will attract them to listen while developing their ability in listening skill.

2. Listening Skill

Listening is a complex problem solving skill and it is more than just

perception of the sounds. Listening includes comprehension of meaning words,
phrases, clauses, sentences, and connected discourse. Listening is a basic skill in
first language acquisition and is crucial in English as Second/Foreign Language.

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 CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. LISTENING SKILL
1. CONCEPTS OF LISTENING
Listening is the one skill that you use the most in everyday life. Listening
comprehension is the basis for your speaking, writing, and reading skills. To train
your listening skills, it is important to listen actively, which means to actively pay
attention to what you are listening to. Make it a habit to listen to audio books,
podcast, news, song, and to watch videos and films in the foreign language.
Listening is very important in second and foreign language study. It is a
skill that looks like passive activity but actually it is not. It not only listens what the
speaker said but the receiver processes what he/she listens to. In processing the
information that listeners listen at least they do five elements inside the process-
hearing, attending, understanding, responding, and remembering.1If the elements
are incomplete, it’s only hearing not listening.[ CITATION Jer91 \l 1033 ]

2. TYPES OF LISTENING
Listening skill, however, is not easy to master. There are many types of
listening to know before somebody wants to learn the skill. Those are:
a. Intensive; focus on phonology, syntax, and lexis. Learner pays close
attention to what is actually said.
b. Selective; focus on main ideas, pre-set task. Learner attempts to extract key
information and utilize information in a meaningful way.
c. Interactive; focus on becoming active as a learner. Learner interacts verbally
with others to discover information or negotiate solutions.

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 d. Extensive; focus on listening continuously, managing large amounts of
listening input. Learner listens to longer extracts and performs meaning
content tasks.
e. Responsive, focus on learner response to input. Learner seeks opportunities
to respond and convey her/his own opinions and ideas.
f. Autonomous listening; focus on learner management of progress, navigation
of “help” options. Learners selects own extracts and tasks, monitors own
progress; decides on own patterns of interaction with others. [ CITATION
Mic11 \l 1033 ]

3. THE PROCESS OF LISTENING

Listening is a process that will ask the listener to interact with what they
listen to. The real listener should comprehend on what they listen to. Listening is
not a one-way street. It is not merely the process of a unidirectional receiving of
audible symbols. One facet- the first step-of listening comprehension is the
psychomotor process of receiving sounds. Waves through the ear and transmitting
nerve impulses to the brain. But that is just the beginning of what is clearly an
interactive process as the brain acts on the impulses, bringing to bear a number of
different cognitive and affective mechanism. The comprehension on listening
process minimally has eight processes based on Brown that he adapted from Clark
& Clark (1977) and Richards (1983), those are:
a. The hearer process what we will call “raw speech” and holds on as an
“image” in their short-term memory.
b. The hearer determines the types of speech event being processed and then
appropriately “colors” the interpretation of the perceived message.
c. The hearer infers the objective of the speaker through consideration of the
type speech event, the context, and the content.
d. The hearer recalls schemata (background information relevant to the
particular context and subject matter).
e. The hearer assigns literal meaning to the utterance.
f. The hearer assigns intended meaning to the utterance.

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 g. The hearer determines whether information should be retained in short-
term or long-term memory.
h. The hearer deletes the form in which the message was originally received.
[ CITATION HDo00 \l 1033 ]

4. FACTORS AFFECTING LISTENING

There are at least three factors that affecting in listening comprehension skill:
a. Characteristics of listeners. Including the working memory of listener,
metacognitive strategies, listener’s experience, and listener’s anxiety.
b. Characteristic of passage or material to be listened. Relating to the length,
complexity, organization, and auditory features of passage or material.
c. Characteristics of the testing conditions. Including at this point are time limits
when doing the test, multiple hearings, and note-taking.

5. PROBLEMS IN TEACHING A LEARNING LISTENING

At this point, interpretations of neglecting the listening skill can be put clearly. It
is always the most difficult and challenging task for second language learners. The
characteristic of listening that makes it difficult is that “Listening is an invisible
mental process making it difficult to describe”, so the listener’s task, here, is more
challenging.in addition, the listener is engaged in many processes such as
discriminating between sounds, understanding vocabulary and grammatical structures
interpreting stress and intonation, remembering and interpreting this within the
immediate, as well as the large socio-cultural context of the utterance.
Listening comprehension is an intricate process in which different process and
factors are involved. To understand better the difficulties in teaching listening, we
should begin by identifying the difficulties the student faces when undergoing
listening. One obvious obstacle is the fact that “the pronunciation of words may also
differ greatly from the way they appear in print”. In daily classroom, the teacher
instructed the listening with conventional media and technique. But, in fact the
students admitted that they have many difficulties in listening section. They couldn’t
comprehend well the speaker’s talks in audio record although it was clear. Their low

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comprehension made the students were confused in filling the answers in listening
question[ CITATION Shi17 \l 1033 ].

B. SONG
1. DEFINITION OF SONG
At its most basic, a song is a short piece of music, usually with words. It
combines melody and vocals. Songs are a natural way to get children to pay attention
to rhymes and a fun way to learn. The teacher tends to apply song to solve the
students’ listening comprehension. It is regarded as the exact media to stimulate the
students’ listening skill. A music has the power to engrave itself into our brains,
stating that “song work on our short and long term memory” and are therefore
adequate tools for using in the language classroom.
2. POPULAR SONG
Popular from the word pop (Popular), means that music is more popular in the
community in a certain period of time which loved by society. The process of creation
is also rarely used in the form of composition (written), the form of songs, lyrics,
chord progressions, arrangements are usually also simple, easy to remember and
entertaining. Usually popular songs are very popular with young people, they can
memorize popular song that they like quickly.

3. TEACHING LISTENING THROUGH POPULAR SONGS

The teacher tends to apply song to solve the students’ listening comprehension. It
is regarded as the exact media to stimulate the students’ listening skill. A music has
the power to engrave itself into our brains, stating that “songs work on our short-and
long-term memory” and are therefore adequate tools for using in the language
classroom. Song can bring variety to the everyday classroom routine. Listening skill
is essential for learning since they enable students to acquire information and
knowledge, and to achieve success in communicating with others. Teacher can show
students why good listening is useful and even crucial in some situations. Listening
skill in many classroom are taught with the traditional classroom setting with rows of
desk and chairs symbolic of the type of learning that is based in passive listening. It is
important to teacher to find another way in teaching listening skill that suitable with

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students’ interest, one of the techniques is by using music or song. [ CITATION
Mus121 \l 1033 ]
The use of music and song in the English language-learning classroom is not new.
It has been proven by many researchers that music and songs become one of the
effective ways in English classroom. Teachers of English as a second language (ESL)
from around the globe enthusiastically report contribution to music education about
their successful use of music and associated song lyrics with students. Listening has
been identified as one teachers should take songs to teaching context. First, music has
to do with social context. Second, it may change students’ mood. Third, it provides
stimulation and entertainment as well as challenge and pleasure. Fourth, music maybe
associated with happiness because it brings people’s remembrances and dreams.
Finally, most teacher agree that music is a powerful tool to teaching listening.

4. ADVANTAGES OF POPULAR SONGS IN TEACHING LISTENING

a. This variety stimulates interest and attention, which can help maintain classroom
motivation, thereby helping learners to reach higher levels of achievement.
b. Song, in particular choral singing, can help to create a related and informal
atmosphere that makes the classroom a nonthreatening environment.
c. The teacher can create interesting and motivating activities when listening such
as using English song.
d. Song or music can stimulus for student engagement precisely. [ CITATION Tri173 \l
1033 ]
e. Can change the atmosphere in a classroom or prepare students for a new activity.
f. It can amuse and entertain and it can make a satisfactory.
g. Will be able to know how the pronunciation of English vocabulary.
h. Can help to improving the ability of listening.

5. DISADVANTAGES OF POPULAR SONGS IN TEACHING LISTENING

When they make a light of selection, they may easily fail, so children will get
bored and they will not enjoy the song at all. The teachers should also possess a sense
of constant observation of mood in the class, so when the children give evident
signals of dissatisfaction, the teachers should not prolong this activity and switch into
another tasks[ CITATION Ces13 \l 1033 ].

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 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. RESEARCH DESIGN

Research design that the writer used was a quantitative method.

Quantitative method is officially about collecting numerical data to explain
particular phenomenon. Besides, the writer also used experimental study for this
research which was helping the researcher to know the cause and effect between
independent variables and dependent variables. The writer used quasi-
experimental study as the design. It is one of many types of experimental design
study. Quasi-experimental design is very common in educational research field. In
this study, the researcher used popular songs as the independent variable and
students’ listening skill as the dependent variable. It is one approaches of research
that uses two groups; those are experimental group and controlled group
[ CITATION Sha02 \l 1033 ].

B. POPULATION AND SAMPLE

Population is number of habits of individual that have similar

characteristic and become the subject matter of the stud. The population of this
study is the students of eight year students at MTSN 6 Nganjuk academic year

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2018/2019. In this research, the researcher only takes two classes. The sample is
used as sub group of the total number in population is only two classes, which will
be taken as experimental group and control group. The class chosen by researcher
is VIII-3 and VIII-4. Class VIII-3 is taken experimental group and VIII-4 as the
control group.

C. RESEARCH INSTRUMENT

Instrument is a tool that used the researcher to collect the data. In this
research, the researcher used test as instrument. The test is given to students in
pre-test and post-test.[ CITATION Gay921 \l 1033 ]

D. TREATMENT
The treatment is the procedures activities that use by the writer to the
students to know the effectiveness of the new method will be applied. There are
two groups observed, namely experimental group and controlled groups. The
experimental group is a class that receives using Popular Song. Another group
who called by control group is just conventional or do not receive using Popular
Song. The activities of the treatment in this research are:

1. Giving pre-test
Before the researcher applies the strategy of the study, pre-test will be given
to the all groups (experimental class and control class). It is to know the ability of
the students before they get the treatment.
2. Giving treatment for the experimental group but not the control group
It is done for knowing the differences result of the experimental given new
method that the researcher would like to apply and control group that is not given
new method.
3. Giving post-test.
It is used for knowing the effectiveness of new method that the researcher has
applied, whether it is effective or not.

E. DATA COLLECTION

To collect the data, the researcher used a listening test as the primary
instrument. There are two types of tests; pre-test and post-test. The pre-test was

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given in experimental and control class to know how well the students’ listening
ability before receiving treatment. This aim is to know the initial student’s ability
in listening. The post-test was given to know their listening ability after the
treatment. This test is aimed to know about progression on both experimental and
control group.

F. DATA ANALYSIS

The data analysis in this research is quantitative. It is suggested that

numerical measure are used. The data form the test will be analyzed using
quantitative data analysis. The researcher applies statistical method to get
generalization or conclusion from the result. The researcher used ANCOVA to
measure the result. [ CITATION Lou051 \l 1033 ]

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