The Impact of Using Songs as the Media in Teaching the Students Listening Skills at 8 th

Grade of SMK Anak Bangsa

A. Background of the Study

English as one of the international languages in Indonesia has an important role in
education. Based on government rule number 32 in the year 2013 subsection 70 verse 3 and 5,
English becomes one of some subjects in national examination for junior and senior high school.
Its importance also shows that according to Minister of Education and Culture Decree No.
69/1967, English becomes one of the compulsory subjects taught from junior high school up to
university. Further, Harmer states that probably the greatest number of language learners in the
world are caused by the school curriculum whether they like it or not.
In the process of teaching and learning English, the ability of students to master the four
language skills is an important goal. These include receptive skills. listening (understanding
spoken language) and reading (understanding written language) and productive skills. Speaking
skills (producing spoken words) and writing skills (producing written words).
In fact, understanding spoken language is very important in communication. In order to
master the spoken language, however, in language classrooms, listening tends to be neglected;
many language educators assume that listening is automatically acquired while the learners learn
to speak a language. it seems not easy for the teachers to choose the appropriate methods and
activities because they have to consider what the students like and what methods are interesting
for them without losing the gist of learning.
New technology in education creates opportunities for educators or teachers to take
advantage of technology to support learning processes and activities teaching in the classroom
and outside the classroom (Bullock, 2015; Akyuz & Yavuz, 2015; All, Nunez, & Looy, 2015).
One of these uses can be in the form of using or making learning media based on technology.
The use of instructional media in question aims to facilitate the delivery of material from teacher
to student but also to increase students' interest and willingness in certain subjects (Cheung,
2009; Gabriel, Campbell, Wiebe, MacDonald, & McAuley, 2012; Hidayati & Wuryandari,
2012). ; Kronenberg, 2015; Gan, Menkhoff, & Smith, 2015). For this reason, educators need to
pay attention to learning media so that learning can take place well and student learning
outcomes can increase. One that can affect learning motivation is interest in music. It is
undeniable that music has had a very broad impact on society. Music does not only provide
entertainment for the listeners, but can also be a means to convey moral messages, criticize the
government, express feelings, and encourage or motivate someone to do something both positive
and negative. Therefore, music cannot be considered as something that is ruled out in the process
of forming a person's character (Marchita Y, 2013).
Songs have been known by all people as the media to help students easy to remember the
words in learning English. It can make students like to memorize and say the words. It can also
be fun to do. Basically, the children like sounds that they tend to imitate. This situation can assist
the children to understand stories because sounds provide them with enjoyment. Furthermore, the
children like to move around and interact. The children learn something not only from the
explanation, but also from the interaction and from what they see, hear, and touch.
The teachers have to choose methods or strategies containing the elements of children’s
preferences. Moreover, the teachers can utilize modern media to help the students understand the
subject and to introduce the children to those media. By applying this, the teachers do not only
teach the content or the subject matter but also use the media. One of the most appropriate media
in learning and teaching listening is song. The mastery of listening skill in the English classroom
at 8th-grade of SMK Anak Bangsa is gained from the text and sometimes it is difficult to
memorize because it is not interesting. By using the songs which are made by native speakers,
the students can learn as if they really learn from or speak with the native speakers directly and it
helps them to train themselves how to speak English fluently, Because there is a problem in
Learning English for the eighth grade of SMK Anak Bangsa, Specially the writer look many
students who do not have courage to try to Understand English just because Students is lack of
Vocabulary in learning listening and most of them assume that English is not important and
difficult.
Based on the interview with the students, the students are ashamed of their friends when
they are wrong, because of less motivation among English teachers to teach Listening. The
eighth-grade students of SMK Anak Bangsa consist of 110 students with only 45 students having
scores from the free test of listening bigger than the minimum score standard (Indonesian KKM)
They have a minimum score standard of 75. It means that the achievement of the student is only
40%. And the students with low scores are 65 students or 60% of students. The students do not
have encouragement to understand English because they are never studying English enjoyable
and fun to memorize and Understand English contextually with their friends and they find it
difficult to write the word after listening to the test. In addition, it seems that the teachers still use
monotonous teaching. Based on the statements above, this study takes the title “The Impact of
Using Songs as the Media in Teaching the Students Listening Skills at 8th Grade of SMK Anak
Bangsa’’. The songs chosen are the songs made by native speakers in order to learn how to
improve the student’s listening Skills.
B. Identification of The Problem
1. The use of learning media can have an impact on students' thinking processes
2. Students’ low scores in the listening subject due to less exercise and practice
3. Lack of media in teaching listening due to limited facility
4. Teachers have a few varieties of teaching methodologies to make more interactive listening
activities in their classes. It seems that they are satisfied with the teaching method of using
sound and answering questions related to the sound.
5. Boring with certain teaching listening techniques and having to consider what the students
like and interesting methods for them without losing the gist of learning.
C. Limitation of Problem
 In this study, the problem is on the understanding listening using English songs the eighth-grade
students in Junior High School, this research tries to focus on looking for the impact of using
songs as the media in teaching English language contextually in the eighth grade of SMK Anak
Bangsa.