Nommensen Journal of English Studies (NoJES)

Volume1, Number 1, October 2020

p-ISSN:2746-1637

THE USE OF MUSIC TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION

ABILITY IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Titin Tarigan1 ), Shintya Sirait 2)Juni Simanungkalit 3) and Ega Sibarani 4 )
1)
English Department , university of HKBP Nommensen
2)
English Department , university of HKBP Nommensen
3)
English Department , university of HKBP Nommensen
4) English Department , university of HKBP Nommensen

ABSTRACT

Listening is a skill that must be mastered by language students because it is the basis for
communicating. music is one media to improve listening skill and easy to increase their
vocabulary in answer the exercise with fill the blank. The sample of this research was class IX
which consisted of 20 Students. The researcher used random sampling to choose the sample. This
research used one group pre-test and post-test design. it is one of the research designs in
experimental research. The pre-test was given before treatments, while post-test was given after
students taught treatments using songs. The instruments used in this research were tests; they
were pre-test and post-test. The data analysis method is descriptive both for qualitative data and
for quantitative data. The results obtained from this study are that using media music can
improve students’ activity and learning achievement. This is evident from the results obtained in
Cycle I is 6.3 for learning achievement. From Cycle I to Cycle II it increased to 7.9 for
learning achievement. The conclusion from this research is that the Audio-Visual learning model
can improve learning achievement.

Keywords: listening ,Teaching Listening, music, class IX

I. INTRODUCTION
Teaching English language skills in Indonesia,
listening(listening) is one of the skills that are
considered difficult but neglected,when
compared to skillsother languages, such as
speaking,reading and writing. This is due
tobecause in teaching English inteacher schools
tend to prioritize teaching speaking, reading and
reading skillswrite (writing). Besides this
conditionexacerbated by public assessmentwho
think that if someoneable to speak well, then the
thingit is a reflection that peopleis also able to
communicate withgood. Ability to talk togood is
an important component insuccessful
communication, but good listening skills are
alsoimportant component of communication. In
the community there arethe notion that
someone's successin communication is
determined byability to speak. Theyfocused on a
belief thatsomeone who learns languages
especiallyforeign language can be seen or
measured fromability to speak, write
andreading, which can directlyobserved. But
very few people seethat one's language
abilityactually also determined by his ability to
understand spoken language(listening ability).A
person's ability to understand spoken language
is one of the important factors in learning a
language, because in fact in everyday life the
most language activities a person does are
language activities.
Music is something we all have an opinion
about and that we all have a relationship to. We
listen to music in different places through our
everyday lives. We even choose to include
various kind of music in our most important
occasions in life such as funerals, weddings and
celebrations. Nancy and Ron Brown (1997)
mean that if music is constantly present in our
society, why not use it in language teaching?
There are almost endless ways of incorporating
music into the curriculum. Themes can be built
around different songs, learners can use songs to

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Nommensen Journal of English Studies (NoJES)
Volume1, Number 1, October 2020
p-ISSN:2746-1637
memorize information and story writing can be
inspired by songs (Brown & Brown, 1997).
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Teaching Listening
Teaching is directing and facilitating
learning, and language learning depends on
listening. Listening provides the aural input
that serves as the basis for language
acquisition and enables learners to interact in
spoken communication. The effective language
teachers show students how they can adjust
their listening behavior to deal with a variety
of situations, types of input, and listening
purposes. They help students develop a set
of listening strategies and match appropriate
strategies for each listening situation. Nunan
(2003) defines listening as an active,
meaningful process of making sense of what we
hear. Contrary to the common belief that
listening is a passive skill and it is usually
categorized as a receptive skill; listening is
actually a very active skill. When someone
listens to something, he does not only obtain
information but also reacts to the information
by relating or contradicting the new
information with the existed or prior
information.
2.2 The Principles of Teaching Listening
Listening strategies are techniques or activities
that contribute directly to comprehension.
Listening strategies can be classified by how
the listener processes the input. There are
some principles that must be considered when
a teacher wants to teach the listening skill,
Nunan (2003) proposed the principles as
follows:
1. Expose Students with Different
Ways of Information Processing
System
2. Expose Students to Different Type
of Listening
3. Teach a Variety of Tasks
4. Always Consider the Authenticity
and Difficulty of The Materia
2.3 Music in Language Learning
The impact of including music in language teaching
has been investigated in several studies around the
world and many researchers have achieved positive
results. There are, for example, benefits based on
using the rhythm that the music provides to achieve
the inflow of speech. The singing method has long
been used to treat medical conditions such as
stuttering and Parkinson's disease (Wan et. al.,
2010). Batista (2008) means, “Other relevant” The
reason for using songs in the classroom is because
songs are one of the best ways to teach a foreign
language. As a result, they can develop and integrate
the four basic skills: reading, writing, listening and
speaking, in a natural and harmonious way in the
language classroom” (p.158). Teachers can also use
music to set, for example, a calm, creative or
focused atmosphere in the classroom. This can be
done by adding certain background music during
exercise (Batista, 2008).
2.4 Music and Learning
When looking at music and its impact on
learners, it has been noticed inprevious studies
that young children hear music in other ways
than adults. For example,Paquette and Reig
(2008) write about a boy who was “caught”
dancing around with his umbrella. He said he
was listening to the music of the rain. By
studying children with literacy difficulties the
research duo found that no matter what kind of
musical genre children listen to, or if they
compose music of their own, it will help as well
as speaking (Paquette & Reig, 2008). Elissa
Seeman (2008) means that it would be foolish
not to take advantage of the “musical
soundscape” the children are in.
III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The researcher uses listening test as the
instrument of the study for the pre-test and post-
test. The content of the test is multiple – choice,
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Nommensen Journal of English Studies (NoJES)
Volume1, Number 1, October 2020
p-ISSN:2746-1637
the test contained 20 questions and it is applied
to pre-test and post-test with different content.
The students are given 45 minutes to finish the
pre-test and post test. Data collection
techniques, students' listening skills were
measured by giving a listening test. The test
consists of pre-test and post-test. Pre-test and
post-test were given to both classes. Both tests
were used to determine the effectiveness of the
treatment given to students. Pre-test was given
at the first meeting. It aims to see and measure
students' listening skills before using audio-
visual aids. While the post-test aims to see and
measure students' listening skills after the
teaching and learning process. Post-test was
given at the last meeting after treatment. There
after obtaining the students' pre-test and post-
test, the scores were compared
IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Cycle I test results
The results of the multiple-choice test, the
average value in cycle I was 5.7 in the first
session and 6.9 in the second session,
although it was not perfect. These results
indicate an increase in students' ability to
master English subjects,especially listening
skills. The results of learning achievement tests
in cycle I have shown the effect of using the
method influences student achievement, in this
case using the media music give the impact to
the student .This is in accordance with the
results of the meta-analysis of learning
methods conducted by Soedomo which states
that the learning methods applied by a teacher
influence their learning achievement.
4.2 Cycle II test results
The results obtained from the learning
achievement test in cycle II showed that the
students' ability to take lessons was good
enough. This is evident from the student's
average score of 7.5 in session 3 and 8.3 in
session 4. These results indicate that using the
music has succeeded in improving students'
ability to forge knowledge as expected. music
is a suitable model for students if the teacher
wants them to have the ability to create,
argue, express opinions straight forwardly,
exchange ideas, argue, considering the use of
this method is to cultivate students' intellectual
abilities, encourage students to be able to
find themselves, place students on a central
position and strive so that students do not
learn by memorizing. The results of this study
turned out to have the main effect that the model
applied in the learning process had a significant
effect on student achievement. These findings
prove that the teacher has chosen the right
method in carrying out the learning process
because the method selection is something that
cannot be ruled out. The English subject
focuses on its studies on cognitive, affective
and psychomotor aspects as a guide for
students' abilities, both thoughts, behaviour and
visuals occupy an important place because
they can activate students optimally. From the
scores obtained by the students, more than half
of the students got a score of 8.5, 13
students got an intermediate score of 8. From
the comparison of these scores, it can be
believed that student achievement can be
improved by using the media music.
V. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusion
The results of the multiple-choice test, the average
score of students in cycle I was 5.7 in the first
session and 6.9 in the second session, indicating that
the students had mastered the material being taught
even though they were not perfect. These results
indicate an increase in students 'ability to master
English subjects, especially in listening skills when
compared with the students' initial scores.
5.2 Suggestions
As is well known, English subjects focus on
learning on cognitive, affective, and psychomotor
aspects as guidelines for the behaviour of students'
daily lives. To solve existing difficulties, the use
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Nommensen Journal of English Studies (NoJES)
Volume1, Number 1, October 2020
p-ISSN:2746-1637

of this method can help students to be creative,

act actively, exchange ideas, issue opinions, ask
questions, discuss, argue, exchange information
and solve problems that exist together with
members of the discussion group. This is what
makes students think sharper, more creatively
and critically so that they can solve complex
problems and the next effect is that students will be
able to understand and absorb English subjects
further. The remaining obstacle that needs to be
discussed is the learning achievement achieved in
cycle I has not met expectations in accordance
with the demands of English lessons in this
institution, namely 7.5. Therefore, further
improvement efforts still need to be made so that
more careful planning is needed for the cycle next

REFERENCES
Batista, J. S. (2008). Music and song: a
learning tool. Diálogos Pertinentes -
Revista Científica de Letras, 4(4), 155-
178
Brown, N., Brown, R. (1997). Use songs to
teach. Reading &Writing Quarterly, 13(4),
349- 354.
Brown, Steven. (2006). Teaching
Listening. Cambridge University Press

J. Elliot, Action research for educational

change, McGraw-Hill: Education (UK) 1991

Tri. (2017). The Influence of Listening English

Song to Improve Listening Skill in
Listening Class. Academia, Vol. 1
No. 1,
Januari- Juni 2017 ISSN: 2579-9703 (P) |
ISSN: 2579-971.

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