Improving Students Listening Comprehension with Mobile App

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ImprovingStudentsListeningComprehensionwithMobile

App“EnglishListeningTest”

AlitEkaHandayani1),LidiyatulIzzah2)

1)EnglishTeacher,SMKGeloraBekasi.VocationalschoolinBekasi,WestJava,Indonesia2)EnglishEducationStudyProgram.FacultyofEducation.UniversitasMuhammadiyah

Jakarta,SouthTangerang,Banten,Indonesia*[email protected]

ABSTRACT

TheuseofAndroidsmartphoneswillimprovetheskillsofEnglishLanguageLearnerstothesegmentsoftheleveltheywanttoachieve.Languagestudentsareabletoselectthe various android apps as necessary, such as speaking, listening, reading,writing,componentsoflanguages,vocabularymastery,andevensentencestructureinEnglish.ThiscanbeusedasanEnglishaidbyalllevelsoflearningorcanbeusedasamediaresource.ThepurposeofthestudywastofindouttheuseoftheMobile-basedEnglishListening Test App enhances students' listening comprehension. The methodologytowards this research was quantitative. This research used a pre-experimentalsamplingframeusingpre-testandpost-test.Incollectingthedata,theresearchersusedthe listening test as an instrument. The subjects of the research were SMK GeloraBekasi's10thgradestudents.Theresultrevealsthatthetotalstudentpost-testscoreintheexperimentalclasswashigher(15,871)thaninthecontrolclass(2,028).Basedonthet-test,above15,871averageresultwasobtainedattheleveloffreedom(df)of36(36-1=35),while2,028ofofaverageresultwasobtainedatthelevelofsignificanceof5percent.Sincet0ishigherthanthettscoreobtainedfromtheresultsofthecalculation,apositivehypothesis(H1)canbeacknowledged.Thehypothesisfindingimpliesthattheuseof theMobileEnglishListeningTestAppenhances students' comprehensivelisteningskills.Keywords:mobilelisteningapp,listeningcomprehensionCitation APA Style: Handayani, A. E., & Izzah, L. (2020). Improving Students

ListeningComprehensionwithMobileApp“EnglishListeningTest.”EnglishLanguageinFocus(ELIF),3(1),69–78.https://doi.org/10.24853/elif.3.1.69-78

INTRODUCTIONLearning the English language is

very complex since it involves variousskills and strategies to achieve it. Four

skills often related to these languagelearning, namely writing, reading,listening,andspeaking.Amongthesefourskills, listening is part of English as a

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English Language in Focus (ELIF), 3(1), 69–78. https://doi.org/10.24853/elif.3.1.69-78

foreignlanguagethatisaveryimportantskillbecauseitiswidelyusedindailylife.People need to hear various types ofEnglish repeatedly and continuously ifthey want to communicate properly,meaningful and naturally. It means thatwithout hearing people cannot acquirelanguage because listening provideslanguage input (Asemota, 2015).Flowerdew &Miller (2001) argued thatlisteningisaveryimportantskillbecauseit makes people gaining insight,understandingknowledgeorinformation,andachieving success in communicatingwithothers.Bacon(1992)expressedhisopinion about listening in severalstatements. Listening is regarded as avery individual activity. To be a goodspeaker,someonemustfirstbeabletobea good listener. Thus if a speaker doesembed a message in the minds oflisteners, the listener must remake themessage and try to measure what thespeaker's intentions are and take awayfromanyagedisorderthatseemsrelevantto the goals of the audience itself.Therefore, listening skills can bemastered if the students optimallyunderstand the information that wasexpressedbytheEnglishspeaker.

From the explanation above wecan conclude that listening is one of theabilitiesthatstudentsshouldbemasteredsothattheinformationcanbeacceptable.In other words, learning to listen toEnglishbecomesanimportantwaysothatlisteners can easily understand theessence of what the other person issaying. Realize that listening skills canonlybedoneononeoccasionorwithoutrepetition,theskilliscertainlynoteasytolearn.Listening is still consideredas the

most difficult skill to master. This ismainly due to the various limitations ofstudents’ listening skills so that theirperformance tends to be low whenlearningthelanguage.

Difficulties in learning listeningskills are certainly influenced by manyfactors.Basedonthefactsfound,somesomany people have not been able tounderstand the English-languageinformationexpressedbythespeakerasawhole. Most of them are still confusedabout the speed utterances. Besides,listeningisnotasimpleprocess.Apersonwho listens must distinguish betweensounds, capturing, and understandinggrammatical structures, interpretingpressure and intentions, rememberingand interpreting them all at the sametime.

Consequently,Gilakjani&Ahmadi,(2011)suggestthattheneedoflisteningstrategy used to improve the quality oflistening that is carried out thedynamicallyandcontinuouslyprocess. Itis related the goal of achievingsubstantive national education, which ismanifestedincompletecompetenceintheparticipants,givenacademiccompetenceor social capital competency or socialcapital.Healsosaidthatlearningsystemas an integral part of the system ofeducational activities, is a phenomenonthatmustbecorrectedanddevelopedbythe parties concerned and interestedparties. This concerns the curriculum,methods, teaching media, teachingmaterials, instructor quality, learningevaluation, and so on to create a goodteachingsystemandorientedtowardsthefuture.

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Handayani, A. E., & Izzah, L. (2020). Improving Students Listening Comprehension ....

Inthiscase,theteachinglisteningin the class is concerning about how togivethelistenerortheteachingmaterialthatwasprepared first. There aremanyways in which listening can bepersonalized. For example, studentscreate additional assignments bypracticingthemintheirdailylivesbothathome and outside the home. Thenstudents can ask questions aboutsentencesorutterances thataredifficultfor them to listen to, in other words,students tend to have difficultyunderstanding vocabulary which theyfind difficult to practice. Therefore,teachersmust prepare everything aboutteachingmaterials that they understandtobeunderstood in learning to listen toEnglish.

Basedontheaboveproblems,theresearchers think thatmedia can be therightsolutiontosolvestudents'listeningskills problem. There are variousconsiderations to the reasons whyresearcherschoosetheapplicationmedia.Listening skills are learning that arenoteasily understood with only one mediabecause listening skills are learning thatmustbepracticedthroughvariousmedia.Ifstudentsdon'tpracticeit,itwillbeverydifficult to learn. Besides, studentsmustactivelyasktheteacherwhentheydonotunderstandwhat the teacher said in theclass.

Accordingly, the teacher has tocreate situations or learningenvironments that are sufficient forstudents to find real and directexperiences with tools and media. Toimprove students' listening skills, theteacher must use appropriate andinterestingmedia (Demouy& Kukulska-

Hulme,2010;Flowerdew&Miller,2001;Gangaiamaran & Pasupathi, 2017;Gilakjani & Ahmadi, 2011). Thus, theresearchers try to imply amedia that isfelt to be appropriate, namely "EnglishListeningTestApp".TheEnglishlisteningtest app is an online application thatallows users to learn Englishindependently. It consists of severalfeatures that make listening fun andinteractive.so that English languagelearning in the classroom is moremeaningfulandenjoyableforstudents.

English listening test app is anapplication that includesa formof shortconversation or monologue in thelistening skill section (Churinov, 2016).This test is given in the form of severalmonologues thatmustbeheardbyuser.Thismonologueformcaninclude1shorttalk and it is usually followed by 2 or 3questions.Tostartpracticing,theuserisrequired to listen on the audio carefullythen read the questions and choose thebestanswerfromoneofthealternativesgiven.1. Listentothetestwithaudiofromthe

preparedmedia,2. Listen to the exam in questions and

responses,3. Listen to the test in a short

conversation,4. Listen to the test in a short chat

(monologue),Some features can be used by

listenerswhenusingthisapp.a. IconApp.Itisafeaturethatincludes

an image or symbol application thatwillbeusedbyresearchersstoconveythe material. This feature ofapplication also makes it easy for

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someone to search/download theapplication.

\\

Figure1. IconofEnglish listening testApp

b. TOEICTestingP1-P4.Thisisoneofthe feature choices in the EnglishListening Test application. Severallessons are included in each TOEICTest. Then, there are 4 TOEIC Teststhat from each section providesdifferent lessons including audio andtextdialogues.

Figure2.TOEICfeatureoption

c. Lesson. It is one of the EnglishListening Test menus that eachmenusare containing the Listen,AnswerandReviewmenu.Iaddition.Therearesomenumberof lessonsintheTOEICTestingofP1-P4menuandeach lesson has different audio andtextdialogs.

Figure3.LessonFeatureoptiond. Listen.Oneoftheadvantagesthatcan

be used in this feature is the ease ofdownloadingmediaoraudio.Throughthis feature, teachers can downloadaudio before sending material tostudentsinclass.Besidesthat,Englishaudio in this feature also providesnativespeakers

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Figure4.Listenfeatureoptione. Answer,itisaproblemmenuthatthe

teachercanusetoassignthestudents.Several questions that will beansweredbystudents.Thequestionswillbe related to theaudioheardbystudentsingeneral.Then,thenumberofquestionsisonlyafewthatmakeiteasierforstudentstodoso.

Figure5.Answerfeatureoption

6) Review, it is a text conversation ordialoguecontained in theaudio.Thisfeature can facilitate students inunderstandingwhat is said from theconversation.

Figure6.ReviewFeatureapp

The following procedures willexplainhowtousetheEnglishListeningTestAppApplication;a. The teacher is demanded to

downloadtheapplicationfirst.b. After downloading the application,

the teacher starts to prepare thematerialbydownloadingaudiofromoneconversation (thatwillbegivenasinstructionalmaterial).

c. After downloading the audio, theteacher can choose an interestingthemeor topic that studentswillbelistenedtosoitmakesstudentseasilyunderstand the conversation andtheyarenoteasilyboredinlisteningtolearning.

d. Whenthetopichasbeenselected,theteachermustpreparea loudspeaker(SpeakerSound)toclarifytheaudio’svoice.

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e. After that, the teachermustpreparethe text thatwillbegivenrelatedtothetopicofconversationthatwillbeheardbystudents.

f. Then, after 1-4 steps have beenprepared so that the teacher canprovidelearningmaterialthatwillbelistenedtobystudentsintheclass.

g. After that, the teacher can givestudentsapieceofexampapertofillin some questions that have beenpreparedinadvance.

h. The teacher canalsomake2peoplefor groups that aim to dialogue infrontoftheclasssothatstudentsarenot easily bored with listeningmaterial.Inaddition,thisapplicationcanbe

accomplished by adjusting student-centeredstrategiesatthelevelofactivityintheclassroomandequippingstudentswithbroadereffectivelearningstrategies(Hwangetal.,2016;Pellerin,2015;Sunget al., 2015). Through this, studentswillnotonlybecomebetterlisteners,buttheywillalsobecomemoreeffectivelanguagestudents because they will be given theopportunity to focus and reflect onlearning. This is important because ifstudents are aware of what they aredoing, if they are aware of the learningprocess that they are involved in, thenlearningwillbemoreeffective.

Therefore,thisstrategyshouldnotbeseparatedfromteachingmaterialsbutincluded in learning so students can seethe application of effective learningdevelopmentstrategies.Throughvariousconsiderationsthathavebeenexplained,the researchers is interested inconducting the study with the title"Improving Students' Listening Skill by

UsingEnglishListeningTestApp",atthetenth-grade students of SMK AK GeloraBekasi.RESEARCHMETHODOLOGY

This research was conducted inclass10SMKGeloraBekasi,locatedonJl.Ujung Harapan, Bahagia District, Kec.Babelan, Bekasi. This research wasconductedonNovember8, theacademicyear2017/2018andwhichrefers to theacademiccalendarofSMKGelora.

Themethodusedinthisresearchisexperimental research. Experimentalresearch is a research method used tolookfortheeffectofcertaintreatmentsonothers under controlled conditions. Thedesign chosen was a pre-experimentaldesign. Design is a pre-experimentalwhere the problems mentioned aboveoccur, such as having to implement aprogram in natural school settings.Sugiyono, (2010: 107) The form of pre-experimental designs chosenwas a one-group pretest-posttest design model, inthis model there was an experimentalgroupandthengivenapretesttofindouttheinitialstateoftheexperimentalgroup,thengiventreatmentandgivenaposttest.

Basedontheexplanationabove,theresearch has decided to use pre-experimental because this experiment isquite easy to implement. In addition, inthis study, researchers will use theEnglish Listening Test Application as atool or medium in improving students'listening skills. Thus, it is expected thatthiskindofdesignwillhelptheteacherinfinding out whether there is anysignificant influence of the use EnglishListening Test App to improve studentslisteningskills.

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The population of this researchconsists of 10th-grade students of SMKGeloraBekasiintheacademicyear2017/2018. Then, the researchers choose oneclassfortheinvestigationthatwasclassX1asanexperimentclass thatconsistsof35students.Theresearchappliedapre-Experimentaldesign(onegrouppre-test–post-test).

Inthisstudy,EnglishListeningTestApp was used by the researchers as ateachingmediumthataimstoknowhowtheapplicationusageinfluencedstudents’listening skills. Meanwhile, in order toobtainthedata,thewriterusedtests,i.e.pre-test and post-test. The researchersgave a pre-test to students in multiplechoicespartialdictationform.Thiskindofresearch instrument was chosen tomeasure the ability of students listeningskillsbefore conducting treatment.Afterthepre-test,theresearchersconductedanexperimentusingtheapplicationEnglishlisteningtestapp.

The researchers have chosenlearning material from the application.The treatment was conducted at 8meetingsexcludingpre-testandpost-test.After implementing the treatment, theresearchers then gave a post-test to allstudents.post-testisusedtounderstandtheextenttowhichstudentsunderstandlistening skills by using the Englishlistening test app. The researcherscomparethelisteningskillsofstudentsbylookingat thetestresults in thepre-testandpost-test to findoutwhetherornother treatment working or succeed inimproving students listening skill. Aftercollecting the data, the writer analyzedthe results of the t-test statisticallythroughaformulaoft-testforonegroup

FINDINGANDDISCUSSIONIn this research, the researchers

wantedtoknowtheeffectivenessofusingEnglish listening test App on students’extensive listening. The effectivenesscould be seen from the significantlydifferent scores of students’ extensivelisteningabilitybeforeandafterusingtheEnglishlisteningtestApp.Thedataoftheresearchwere obtained by doing a pre-experimental study, the students' listenand answer test through the mobileapplicationandwithoutlistenandanswertest. The presentation of the data alsoanswered research problems in thepreviousintroduction.

Sincetheresearchersusedbothpre-testandpost-testincollectingthedata.Inthe pretest, it can be presented that 4studentsscored60,12studentsgot65,6students got 70, 5 students got 75, 3students got 80, 5 students got 85, 1student got 90. The average scoreobtainedbystudentswas71,389.Whileintheposttest,itwasshownthat4studentsscored60,12studentsgot65,6studentsgot70,5studentsgot75,3studentsgot80, 5 students got 85, 1 student got 90.Theaveragescoreobtainedbystudentsis82.778.

Basedontheresultsof thepre-testand post-test students, the researchersthen analyzed the results to determinethe effect of app usage on listeningcomprehension skills. The researchersanalyze with the t-Test formula. Theresults of the data analysis show thatusing the t-test formula, the result of t0was15,871thathigherthanttwas2,028.Thiscalculationwasobtainedattheleveloffreedom(df)of37(37-1=36).ata5%significance level. 2,028 obtained.When

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compared to each score in the level ofsignificance then the result is 15,871>2,028.Sincet0ishigherthanthettscoreobtainedfromthecalculationresults,thepositivehypothesis(H1)canbeacceptedwhile the negative hypothesis (H0) isrejected. Creswell (2014) and Gay et al(2019)statethatifthereislessthana5%chance that the negative hypothesis iscorrect, reject the idea that thenegativehypothesis is correct, and accept thealternative hypothesis. The positivehypothesis, the statement that theresearchers wants tomake, can only beacceptedafter theopposite, thenegativehypothesishasbeenrejected.CONCLUSION

Basedonthefindingsandanalysisofthedatapresentedearlier,theresultoft0is15,871.Comparingeachscoreinthe5% significance level, the calculationshows15,881>2,028.Becauset0ishigherthan the score obtained from thecalculation, the positive hypothesis (H1)is accepted while the negative (H0) isrejected. This means that using the testapplication to listen to English gives agood effect on improving students'listening skills by using the Englishlistening test app. Thus, it can beconcluded that teaching English toimprovestudents'listeningskillsbyusingthe English listening test app is positiveandresultsbetterinlisteningskills.

Based on the research findings,ResearchersproviderecommendationforthenextresearchersinusingtheEnglishListeningTestapp.Asthisappisavailablefound on android phones (cellphones).Studentscangetsomeeasinessespecially

ondownloadingactivityandavoidtakingupmuchmemoryontheircellphone.REFERENCES

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Churinov,A.(2016).DropVoxApplication– Download and Voice-Record withEase.DialogonLanguageInstruction,26(1), 99–101.http://www.dliflc.edu/resources/publications/dialog-on-language-instruction/

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Gangaiamaran,R.,&Pasupathi,M.(2017).Review on Use of Mobile Apps forLanguage Learning. InternationalJournal of Applied EngineeringResearch, 12(21), 11242–11251.

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Improving Students Listening Comprehension with Mobile App