Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 Background

English language is taught as a second language in all Malaysian schools today. English language has becoming increasingly important as competency in the language is highly demanded in the job market today. As such many innovations and improvements in the language curriculum have been introduced and made second

respectively to arouse the interest and increase the proficiency of the

language learners . Many research have been carried out to find the effectiveness of certain measures which have been introduced in the curriculum. Among the measures introduced are the learning of English through the activity of listening and watching English language programmes. Therefore, our research today is to find out how the activities of watching and listening can be effective in mastering the English

language among second language learners.

1.2 Objectives of Research

The objectives of our research is to find out the effectiveness of watching and listening on mastering the English language. Objectively, the research is aimed at finding the effectiveness of the activities of listening and watching of English Language programmes on the aspect of pronunciation. Other than that , it is also aimed at finding out the effectiveness of these activities on the aspect of English grammar. Lastly, the research is aimed at finding out the effectiveness of watching and listening on the aspect of writing and vocabulary.

1.2 Limitations of Research This research has its limitations. Firstly, the sampling group is too small to represent a large number of English language users. This small group of sample is inevitable due to constraints of time and cost. Secondly, there are certain administrative cum academic constraints whereby students cannot venture far out of school as they are tied down with the different subject learning other than English itself. Lastly, the sampling group is randomly taken from the pre university centre of SMK Bedong . This is to make things easier for us to distribute the survey forms and to work within the short time limit.

1.4 Definition of Concepts

1.4.1

Definition of watching English Language Programme

According to Harvard Online Dictionary, watching means to look or observe attentively or carefully or be closely observant to mass medias such as television .Watching English Language Programme in Internet is a great way to learn English as it is the most easier way and the effectiveness of learning various things are proven . The pictures make us easier to understand because we can see who's talking and certainly we will get a better idea of what people mean by just watching their body language and tones. It is essential to watch English Language programmes that is enjoyable and entertaining because whatever we watch will help us to improve our English.

1.4.2

Definition of Listening to English Language Programme

According to Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary 6th Edition, listen means to pay attention to somebody/something that you can hear. Based on this definition, it can be concluded that listening is a process of transferring information from an oral/spoken language. According to Doyle (2005) as cited in http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/spd 110td/interper/listen/listening.html, there are seven stages in the process of listening namely hearing, selecting, attending, understanding, evaluating, remembering and responding. It is clearly seen in figure one.

Hearing: Receiving raw data

Selecting: Choosing stimuli

Attending: Focusing attention Responding: Feedback Understanding: Assigning meaning

Evaluating: Analyzing and judging

Remembering: Drawing on memory

Figure 1: Seven stages in the process of listening

Source:

http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/spd110td/interper/images/liststages.gif

1.4.2.1 The differences between first and second language listening

Even they looked the same, but there are some differences between first language and second language listening. When we talk about first language listening, we can say that it is easy because we have mastered that. The process of acquiring first language is automatically, because we use it in our daily life and we are accustomed to practice it. 4

But, it will be different if we talk about second language listening. Buck (2001, 49) states that we usually learn things differently in the case of a second language, especially when we learn it as an adult. Knowledge of the language varies considerably: from those who can understand only a few isolated words in their second language, to those who appear to be indistinguishable from native speakers. Rarely do second-language learners develop the same high level of ability as in their first language.

1.4.2.2 The purposes of listening Listening is different with hearing. Listening is following the sound and understanding the meaning of the sound. On the other words, it can be described that listening is hearing with a purpose. When we listen to somebody or listen to conversation on television/radio, we actually try to absorb the meaning or ideas. So it can be concluded that the purpose of listening is trying to catch the meaning or understanding the ideas.

1.4.2.3 The definition of song According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song), a song is a musical composition that contains vocal parts ("lyrics") that are performed ("sung"), commonly accompanied by musical instruments (exceptions would be a cappella songs). The lyrics of songs are typically of a poetic, rhyming nature, although they may be religious verses or free prose. 1.5 Conceptual Framework The research will be based on the conceptual framework below ;

2 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The Effectiveness Of Watching and Listening To English Language Programme on Mastering English Language Among Form 6 students Of SMK Bedong

PRONUNCIA TION

GRAMMAR

VOCABUL ARY

Figure 2 : Conceptual Framework 6