STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING LISTENING IN ENGLISH

A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY AT SMKS MUHAMMADIYAH SINTANG IN THE

ACADEMIC YEAR 2022/2023

RESEARCH DESIGN

By

NAME…………..
NIM. ………………..

English Education Study Program

LANGUAGE AND ART EDUCATION FACULTY

INSTITUTE OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
TEACHER ASSOCIATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA
PONTIANAK
2023
 PREFACE

Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alamin. This research design has been accomplished by

the love and blessing of Allah Subhannahu Wata’ala the beneficent, the merciful,

source of knowledge, source of compassionate for the countless love, and Shalawat to

prophet Muhammad Sallallahu ‘Alaihi Wassallam, so that this research design finally

could be finished by the researcher .

Many people involved in giving help and guidance in conducting the research

design. Therefore, the researcher would like to express her gratitude to:

1. Mr. Aunnurahman, M.Pd as the first supervisor for the support and guidance

given for completing this research design.

2. Mr. Sahrawi, M.Pd as the second supervisor for her guidance, suggestion, time,

encouragement and advice during the writing process

3. Prof. Dr. Samion AR, M.Pd as the Rector of IKIP-PGRI Pontianak for the best

facilities who has given for us during studying in this college.

4. Drs. H. Zuldafrial, M.Si as the Dean of Language Education and Art Faculty of

IKIP-PGRI Pontianak for giving knowledge and information.

5. Citra Kusumaningsih, M. Pd as the head of English Education Study Program.

6. Desi Sri Astuti, M.Pd as the secretary of English Education Study Program of

IKIP-PGRI Pontianak.
7. The English Education Study Program lecturers who have given their knowledge

during the researcher study at English Study Program in IKIP-PGRI Pontianak.

The researcher confesses this research still has many weaknesses. Therefore,

the researcher expects the opinions and suggestions from the reader which are very

useful as a good input for the perfection of this research. The researcher hopes that

this research will give a good contribution to all people, especially for the

improvement of English Study Program and all of the students.

Pontianak, May 2023

The researcher
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE ..................................................................................................................... i
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................... iii
CHAPTER I ................................................................................................................. 1
A. Background....................................................................................................... 1
B. Research Questions .......................................................................................... 3
C. Research Purpose ............................................................................................. 3
D. Benefits of research .......................................................................................... 4
1. The theoretical benefit .................................................................................... 4
2. Practical benefits ............................................................................................ 4
E. The Scope of Research. .................................................................................... 5
1. Research Variable........................................................................................... 5
2. Terminology. .................................................................................................. 5

CHAPTER II ............................................................................................................... 7
A. Listening ............................................................................................................ 7
1. The Definition of Listening ............................................................................ 7
2. Kinds of Listening Activity ............................................................................ 9
3. Stages of the Listening Process .................................................................... 11
4. The Element of Listening ............................................................................. 20
B. Potential Difficulties in Learning Listening ................................................. 21
1. Cultural Differences ..................................................................................... 22
2. Quality of Recorded Material ....................................................................... 22
3. Unfamiliar Vocabulary ................................................................................. 23
4. Length and Speed of the Listening ............................................................... 23
5. Lack of Concentration .................................................................................. 24

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CHAPTER III............................................................................................................ 26
A. Research Design ............................................................................................. 26
B. Population and Sample .................................................................................. 27
1. Population ..................................................................................................... 27
2. Sample .......................................................................................................... 27
C. Technique and tools for collecting data ....................................................... 28
D. Technique of Analyzing Data ........................................................................ 29
1. Data Reduction ............................................................................................. 29
2. Data Display ................................................................................................. 29
3. Conclusions Drawing and Verification ........................................................ 30

BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................... 31

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 1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background

In learning English there are four skills that should be mastered by the

students, they are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Those skills always

become the target of the final learning objectives. To be mastered in those four

language skills, a student has to go through a long process of learning.

Consequently, the student has to apply the knowledge of language that she or he

gets during the process. Listening is one of the four language skill that students

should have. Among the four language skills, namely listening, speaking,

reading, and writing, listening plays a fundamental role in effective

communication. However, listening is important skill for second or foreign

language acquisition (Feyten, 1991).

To evaluate the fast incoming material, the listener needs to draw from a

greater range of knowledge sources, both linguistic and nonlinguistic (Buck,

2001). According to Field (2008) listening is primarily used to introduce new

grammar through model dialogues throughout the early years of English

language teaching. Overall, these experts emphasize the multifaceted nature of

listening skills and their significance in language learning. Teachers should

recognize the importance of incorporating a wide range of knowledge sources

and utilizing listening exercises to effectively develop learners' listening

proficiency and introduce new grammatical elements. By fostering strong

listening abilities, students can enhance their overall language competence and

effectively engage in meaningful communication.

The purpose of this study is to explore and describe the difficulties

encountered by students at SMKS Muhammadiyah Sintang in learning listening

in English during the academic year 2022/2023. By delving into the specific

challenge’s students has, this research aims to shed light on the factors that

impede their progress and provide valuable insights for language instructors and

educational institutions in designing effective listening strategies.

Understanding students' difficulties in learning to listen is crucial for

developing appropriate pedagogical approaches and interventions to address

these challenges. By identifying the specific obstacles encountered by students,

teachers can tailor their instructional methods, materials, and assessments to

enhance listening comprehension and foster a more supportive learning

environment.

This descriptive study will employ qualitative research methods to gather

data from a sample of students at SMKS Muhammadiyah Sintang. The data

collected will be analyzed thematically to identify common patterns and themes

related to students' difficulties in learning listening in English.

The findings of this study will contribute to the existing knowledge of

language learning and provide insights into the specific needs and concerns of

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 students at SMKS Muhammadiyah Sintang. Hopefully, the results will serve as a

foundation for developing effective strategies to improve listening skills and

facilitate more successful language acquisition outcomes.

Overall, this research aims to bridge the gap in understanding students'

difficulties in learning listening in English and provide practical

recommendations for teachers and institutions to enhance language instruction

and support students in their language learning journey. By addressing these

challenges proactively, we can empower students to become more confident and

proficient listeners, enabling them to communicate effectively in the globalized

world.

B. Research Questions

Based on the background and the problem of study above, the research

question in this thesis is: What are the difficulties faced by students in learning

listening at SMKS Muhammadiyah Sintang?

C. Research Purpose

From the research question above, the research purpose in this study is to

investigate the difficulties that mostly faced by students in learning listening at

SMKS Muhammadiyah Sintang.

3
D. Benefits of research

These researches are expected can give theoretical benefit and practical

benefit as follows:

1. The theoretical benefit

a. The results of this research are expected to be beneficial for everyone,

especially for people who are involved in education. The results of this

research can be used as a language of evaluation and reflection of the

things that have been and will be made especially in the field of learning

listening.

2. Practical benefits

a. For teachers, conducting this research allows teachers to gain a

comprehensive understanding of the specific challenges faced by students

in learning listening skills. By identifying these difficulties, teachers can

better address students' needs and tailor their instructional methods to

provide targeted support. This research sheds light on the specific areas

where students require additional assistance, ensuring that instructional

strategies align with their learning requirements.

b. For students, this research helps them to improve their listening ability and

a chance to express themselves better in conversation. Because they will

try to solve the difficulties that students have in learning process of

listening subject.

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 c. For readers, this research can be a new perspective about listening

learning. To enrich the readers knowledge about research in the filed of

listening subject.

E. The Scope of Research.

1. Research Variable.

A variable is a characteristic or attribute of an individual or an

organization that (a) researchers can measure or observe and (b) varies among

individuals or organizations studied (Cresswell, 2012: 112). The variable of

this research is students’ difficulties in learning listening.

2. Terminology.

There are some terms that are necessary to give further explanations in

order that make the readers do not confuse about concept definition in this

study, those the terms are as follows:

a. Listening is the process of receiving, interpreting, and comprehending

spoken or auditory information. It involves actively focusing on and

processing sounds, words, and messages to understand the meaning being

conveyed by the speaker. Listening encompasses not only hearing the

words but also understanding the speaker's intentions, emotions, and the

overall context of the communication. Effective listening involves

attentiveness, concentration, and the ability to interpret verbal and

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nonverbal cues to gain a complete understanding of the message being

conveyed. It is an essential skill in effective communication and plays a

fundamental role in language acquisition, learning, and interpersonal

interactions.

b. Students' difficulties in learning listening refer to the challenges or

obstacles that students encounter when trying to develop and improve

their listening skills in a particular language, such as English. These

difficulties can arise from various factors and can hinder students'

ability to comprehend spoken language accurately and effectively.

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 7

CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Listening

1. The Definition of Listening

Listening is a fundamental aspect of effective communication and

plays a crucial role in our daily interactions. It is the process of

understanding and interpreting spoken language or auditory information in

order to derive meaning and respond appropriately. It is an active process

that requires the integration of multiple cognitive skills (Vandergrift &

Tafaghodtari 2010). Listening is an active process that involves the

integration of multiple cognitive skills. Skilled listeners actively engage in

these processes to construct meaning from the auditory input.

Listening begins with the perception of sounds and verbal stimuli. It

involves receiving and processing auditory signals through our ears, which

are then transmitted to the brain for interpretation. Perception is influenced

by factors such as volume, tone, pitch, pronunciation, and background noise.

Skilled listeners are adept at filtering out irrelevant sounds and focusing on

the relevant information. Hamouda (2013) states listening is an individual

understanding of what he has heard and it is the listener’s ability to repeat

the text despite the fact that the listener may repeat the sound without real

comprehension.

Students significantly are influenced by listening comprehension

abilities (Goh, 2000). The differences among the students play a significant

role in listening abilities as working memory capacity, metacognitive

strategies, and linguistic proficiency impact students’ listening performance.

Some students may struggle with specific aspects of listening, while others

may excel due to their cognitive and strategic strengths. Listening

comprehension involves an interactive process between the listener and the

speaker (Vandergrift, 2004).

To listen successfully to spoken language, the listener needs to be

able to work out what speakers mean when they use particular words in

particular ways on particular occasion. Thus, Listening Comprehension is

needed very much in communication and understanding what the speaker or

native speaker said. Listening is the natural precursor to speaking; the early

stages of language development in a person’s first language (and in

naturalistic acquisition of other languages) are dependent on listening.

Approaches that gave more importance to listening were based on different

ideas. Nord in cited Nation and Newton (2009) state that:

Some people now believe that learning a language is not just learning
to talk, but rather that learning a language is building a map of meaning in
the mind. These people believe that talking may indicate that the language
was learned, but they do not believe that practice in talking is the best

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 way to build up this “cognitive” map in the mind. To do this, they feel,
the best method is to practice meaningful listening.

From the discussion above, it can be concluded that listening is an

active, multidimensional, and interactive skill with the differences of

students influencing performance. In addition, listening comprehension

involves an interactive process between the listeners and the speakers.

2. Kinds of Listening Activity

To have a valuable language input, student have to improve their

listening skill through combination of extensive and intensive listening. The

both kinds of listening provide the opportunity for the students to exposure

other voices except their teachers. It will make their ears more familiar with

English so it also can improve their speaking ability from the spoken English

which they listen to and it will help to improve their own pronunciation

a. Extensive Listening

Since students will have a terrific experience listening to material

based on their own interests, extensive listening will have an impact on

the students' language learning. Because it places emphasis on student

interest and allows students to choose what they want to listen to,

extensive listening typically happens outside of class. If the listener does it

for fun, this will inspire them to keep going. Harmer (2007) says that the

audio material they consume in this way-often on CDs in their cars, on

MP3 Player, DVDs, Video or on the internet- should consist of text that

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 they can enjoy listening to because they more or less understand them

without the intervention of teacher or course material.

The source for extensive listening material can be found in many

sources, such as the audio web, blogging, Audio Podcast, radio recorded,

or the television recorded program. To follow up the student extensive

activity, teacher can promote the extensive listening by explain to the

student what are the benefits of that activity. Moreover, teacher needs to

explain or managing some task or guide list to make sure the students get

the appropriate level of listening materials. Teacher can recommend

certain sources for access or downloading the listening material (Harmer

in Nasriah, 2011).

b. Intensive Listening

Intensive listening is different from extensive listening in that

students listen specifically in order to work on listening skill and in order

to study the way in which English is spoken (Harmer, 2007). In case of

Intensive listening, the explanation will focus on the teacher-based activity

in which the media use is the audio tape or taped media. In common way,

it will have two sides effects, the advantages and disadvantages.

The advantages of that taped material give the students chances to

hear a variety of different voice not only just their own teachers‟. It

proposed as many as possible characters that usually involves in real-life

talk. In other hand, using taped material is more reasonable in case of cost

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 and flexibility. It does not need an expensive rate of cost and it also

portable and readily available.

The disadvantages come when there is no any language laboratory

or the acoustics audibility is very poor. This can make students difficult to

concern and comprehend to the listening material. In addition, the sound

speed is proposed for all students, in facts, the students have different

level of proficiency in understanding listening material.

3. Stages of the Listening Process

Maintaining personal connections, completing tasks at learning

process, paying attention in class, choosing the best bus to take to the

school, and many other areas of our lives depend on our ability to listen.

Regardless of how students listen, it is critical to realize that listening

entails more than simply hearing the words that are said to them. By

actively listening, they can interpret, evaluate, and react to what we hear.

Receiving, interpreting, evaluating, remembering, and responding

are the five stages of the listening process. In the sections that follow,

these stages will be covered in more detail. An effective listener must be

able to hear and recognize speech sounds that are being aimed at them,

comprehend the message of those sounds, and critically assess. According

to Bennetch, Owen and Keesey (2023) claim that there are all five stages

of the listening process lets us best gather the information.

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a. The Receiving Stage

The first stage of the listening process is the receiving stage,

which involves hearing and attending. Hearing is the physiological

process of registering sound waves as they hit the eardrum. As obvious

as it may seem, in order to effectively gather information through

listening, we must first be able to physically hear what we’re listening

to. The clearer the sound, the easier the listening process becomes.

Paired with hearing, attending is the other half of the receiving

stage in the listening process. Attending is the process of accurately

identifying and interpreting particular sounds we hear as words. The

sounds we hear have no meaning until we give them their meaning in

context. Listening is an active process that constructs meaning from

both verbal and nonverbal messages.

Listeners are often bombarded with a variety of auditory

stimuli all at once, so they must differentiate which of those stimuli

are speech sounds and which are not. Effective listening involves

being able to focus on speech sounds while disregarding other noise.

For instance, a train passenger that hears the captain’s voice over the

loudspeaker understands that the captain is speaking, then deciphers

what the captain is saying despite other voices in the cabin. Another

example is trying to listen to a friend tell a story while walking down a

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 busy street. In order to best listen to what she’s saying, the listener

needs to ignore the ambient street sounds.

Attending also involves being able to discern human speech,

also known as “speech segmentation. “1 Identifying auditory stimuli

as speech but not being able to break those speech sounds down into

sentences and words would be a failure of the listening process.

Discerning speech segmentation can be a more difficult activity when

the listener is faced with an unfamiliar language.

b. The Understanding Stage

The second stage in the listening process is the understanding

stage. Understanding or comprehension occurs when both the speaker

and audience share an experience of meaning, and constitutes the first

step in the listening process. This is the stage during which the

audience determines the context and meanings of the words they hear.

Determining the context and meaning of individual words, as well as

assigning meaning in language, is essential to understanding

sentences, and, thus, both are essential to understanding a speaker’s

message.

Once the listener understands the speaker’s main point, they

can begin to sort out the rest of the information they are hearing and

decide where it belongs in their mental outline. For example, a

13
 political candidate listens to her opponent’s arguments to understand

what policy decisions that opponent supports.

Before getting the big picture of a message, it can be difficult

to focus on what the speaker is saying. Think about walking into a

lecture class halfway through. You may immediately understand the

words and sentences that you are hearing, but not immediately

understand what the lecturer is proving or whether what you’re

hearing at the moment is the main point, side note, or digression.

Understanding what we hear is a huge part of our everyday

lives, particularly in terms of gathering basic information. In the

office, people listen to their superiors for instructions about what they

are to do. At school, students listen to teachers to learn new ideas. We

listen to political candidates give policy speeches in order to determine

who will get our vote. But without understanding what we hear, none

of this everyday listening would relay any practical information to us.

One tactic for better understanding a speaker’s meaning is to

ask questions. Asking questions allows the listener to fill in any holes

he or she may have in the mental reconstruction of the speaker’s

message.

c. The Evaluating Stage

This stage of the listening process is the one during which the

listener assesses the information they received, both qualitatively and

14
quantitatively. Evaluating allows the listener to form an opinion of

what they heard and, if necessary, to begin developing a response.

During the evaluating stage, the listener determines whether or

not the information they heard and understood from the speaker is well

constructed or disorganized, biased or unbiased, true or false,

significant or insignificant. They also ascertain how and why the

speaker has come up with and conveyed the message that they

delivered. This process may involve considerations of a speaker’s

personal or professional motivations and goals. For example, a listener

may determine that a co-worker’s vehement condemnation of another

for jamming the copier is factually correct, but may also understand

that the co-worker’s child is sick and that may be putting them on

edge. A voter who listens to and understands the points made in a

political candidate’s stump speech can decide whether those points

were convincing enough to earn their vote.

The evaluating stage occurs most effectively once the listener

fully understands what the speaker is trying to say. While we can, and

sometimes do, form opinions of information and ideas that we don’t

fully understand or even that we misunderstand doing so is not often

ideal in the long run. Having a clear understanding of a speaker’s

message allows a listener to evaluate that message without getting

15
 bogged down in ambiguities or spending unnecessary time and energy

addressing points that may be tangential or otherwise non-essential.

This stage of critical analysis is important for a listener in

terms of how what they heard will affect their own ideas, decisions,

actions, and/or beliefs.

d. The Remembering Stage

In the listening process, the remembering stage occurs as the

audience categorizes and retains the information they’ve gathered

from the speaker for future access. The result of memory allows the

person to record information about people, objects, and events for later

recall. This process happens both during and after the speaker’s

delivery.

Memory is essential throughout the listening process. We

depend on our memory to fill in the blanks when we’re listening and

to let us place what we’re hearing at the moment in the context of what

we’ve heard before. If, for example, you forgot everything that you

heard immediately after you heard it, you would not be able to follow

along with what a speaker says, and conversations would be

impossible. Moreover, a friend who expresses fear about a dog she

sees on the sidewalk ahead can help you recall that the friend began

the conversation with her childhood memory of being attacked by a

dog.

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 Remembering previous information is critical to moving

forward. Similarly, making associations to past remembered

information can help a listener understand what she is currently

hearing in a wider context. In listening to a lecture about the

symptoms of depression, for example, a listener might make a

connection to the description of a character in a novel that she read

years before.

Using information immediately after receiving it enhances

information retention and lessens the forgetting curve or the rate at

which we no longer retain information in our memory. Conversely,

retention is lessened when we engage in mindless listening, and little

effort is made to understand a speaker’s message. Because everyone

has different memories, the speaker and the listener may attach

different meanings to the same statement. In this sense, establishing

common ground in terms of context is extremely important, both for

listeners and speakers.

e. The Responding Stage

The responding stage is the stage of the listening process

wherein the listener provides verbal and/or nonverbal reactions based

on short- or long-term memory. Following the remembering stage, a

listener can respond to what they hear either verbally or non-verbally.

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 Nonverbal signals can include gestures such as nodding,

making eye contact, tapping a pen, fidgeting, scratching or cocking

their head, smiling, rolling their eyes, grimacing, or any other body

language. These kinds of responses can be displayed purposefully or

involuntarily. Responding verbally might involve asking a question,

requesting additional information, redirecting or changing the focus of

a conversation, cutting off a speaker, or repeating what a speaker has

said back to her in order to verify that the received message matches

the intended message.

Nonverbal responses like nodding or eye contact allow the

listener to communicate their level of interest without interrupting the

speaker, thereby preserving the speaker/listener roles. When a listener

responds verbally to what they hear and remember for example, with a

question or a comment the speaker/listener roles are reversed, at least

momentarily.

Responding adds action to the listening process, which would

otherwise be an outwardly passive process. Oftentimes, the speaker

looks for verbal and nonverbal responses from the listener to

determine if and how their message is being understood and/or

considered. Based on the listener’s responses, the speaker can choose

to either adjust or continue with the delivery of her message. For

example, if a listener’s brow is furrowed and their arms are crossed,

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the speaker may determine that she needs to lighten their tone to better

communicate their point. If a listener is smiling and nodding or asking

questions, the speaker may feel that the listener is engaged and her

message is being communicated effectively.

The listening process refers to the sequence of steps that

individuals go through when they engage in active listening. Active

listening is the conscious effort to understand and interpret verbal and

nonverbal messages being communicated by another person.

According to Nation and Newton (2009) the listening process typically

involves the following stages.

1) Bottom-up Processes

These are the processes that the listener uses to assemble

the message piece by piece from the speech stream, going from the

parts to the whole. Bottom-up processing involves perceiving and

parsing the speech stream at increasingly larger levels beginning

with auditory-phonetic, phonemic, syllabic, lexical, syntactic,

semantic, propositional, pragmatic and interpretive.

2) Top-down processes

Top-down processes involve the listener in going from the

whole their prior knowledge and their content and rhetorical

schemata to the parts. In other words, the listeners use what they

know of the context of communication to predict what the

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 message will contain, and use parts of the message to confirm,

correct or add to this. The key process here is inferencing.

4. The Element of Listening

There are two elements of listening: macro and micro-skills cannot

be separated. Macro skills are easier to comprehend since it simply means

comprehending what is being said. However, micro-skills are a little more

complicated to understand. It is not only about understanding as a whole, but

we should consider things like choice of vocabulary, intonation, attitude,

deeper meanings, and a lot more. Moreover, Brown (2004) argues that

micro-skills involve understanding what someone says to us. The listener

should retain chunks of language in short-term memory and distinguish

among the distinctive sounds in the new language.

Furthermore, it recognizes stress and rhythm patterns, tone patterns,

and intonational contours. It recognizes reduced forms of words,

discriminates word boundaries, recognizes typical word-order patterns, and

recognizes vocabulary. Next, it finds keywords, such as those identifying

topics and ideas, guess the meaning from context, and detects sentence

constituents such as subject, verb, object, and prepositions. Meanwhile,

Tyagi cited in Ulum (2015) mentions that the elements of listening are

discriminating between sounds, recognizing words, and understanding their

meaning. He also explained identifying grammatical groupings of words,

expressions, and sets of utterances that act to create meaning, connecting

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 linguistic cues to non-linguistic and paralinguistic cues, using background

knowledge to predict and confirm meaning, and recalling essential words

and ideas.

Listening consists of some critical components. This means that in

order to have good listening skills, students have to (Tyagi, 2013):

a. Discriminate between sounds

b. Recognize words and understand the speakers meaning

c. Identify grammatical groupings of words

d. Identify expressions and sets of utterances that act to create meaning

e. Connect linguistic cues to non-linguistic and paralinguistic cues.

f. Use background knowledge to predict and confirm meaning

g. Recall essential words and ideas.

h. Without having those components, students will not be able to have good

listening skill

By incorporating these critical components into students’ listening

practice, the students can enhance their communication skills and foster

meaningful connections with others.

B. Potential Difficulties in Learning Listening

The researcher is aimed to find out the potential difficulties in listening

and minimize the problems in order to increase listening comprehension rate by

21
creating positive atmosphere. There are several problems which may appear

during or before listening.

1. Cultural Differences

Being unfamiliar of cultural knowledge of language plays a great role

understanding the context. The marriage between language and culture is

indivisible (Brown cited in Maulida, 2018). The topic may contain completely

different cultural matter than the students have. In this case students may have

difficulties to imagine what has been told. Here the instructors should give

prior knowledge about the topic beforehand. For instance, if the listening part

is about Easter Day and it is not common in the area that language is being

taught students cannot catch some points.

Munro and Derwing (1999) claimed that too many genres of accented

speech would result in a significant reduction in comprehension. Usually

ESL/EFL listeners are used to “their teacher’s accent or to the standard variety

of British or American English”. In this case teachers have to familiarize the

students both British and American accent. It is an endless debate that what is

the Standard English? Some says the British English is the standard. But

English is spoken all over the world by Indian, Australian, Chinese, Turkish,

and so on. In my opinion the best one is the one you can communicate.

2. Quality of Recorded Material

Even we are living 21st century which is that age of technology still

there are some classrooms do not have computer, smart board, multimedia

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 systems and so on. The quality of sound system also affects understanding of

listening. Low quality of recorded material could be caused by noises, or

unclear pronunciations.

Based on the study conducted by Hamouda (2013) stated that the

majority of the students think the difficulties they encountered in listening

comprehension were due to the bad recording quality / poor- quality tapes or

disks. For example, the cassette might be recorded while there were noises

around or the cassette is used for such a long time so the quality was worn

out. Unclear sounds resulting from poor-quality equipment could also

interfere with the listener’s comprehension.

3. Unfamiliar Vocabulary

The major problem hindering listening comprehension was that the

students’ vocabulary was too limited to understand the message (Butt, 2010).

Listening passages with known words are easier for learners to understand,

even if the theme is unknown to them. Knowing the meaning of the words

might arouse students learning interest and lead to a positive effect in listening

ability. Another problem is here that many words have more than one

meaning and if they are used their less common usage students get confused.

4. Length and Speed of the Listening

The level of students plays a great role when listening long parts and

keeping all the information in the mind. It is not easy for the lower level

student to listen more than three minutes long listening then completing the

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 desired activities. Short listening texts facilitate listening comprehension and

diminish boredom, keep learners’ concentration (Atkins et al 1995). If the text

contains a lot of information, it is not easy to store everything in mind,

exceptional listening ability and strategy required to understand (Carroll,

1977). Another reason makes listening text difficult is the speed. If the

speakers speak faster than normal listener may have difficulties to catch target

words. Underwood states that on the contrary of reading comprehension the

listener cannot control speed of the speaker and this cause the greatest

difficulty with listening comprehension (Underwood, 1989).

Most language learners and teachers agree that a slower speech rate

would improve beginning learners' capacity for listening comprehension. Blau

(1990) concluded that lessen the input speed is one of the effective technics

that helps comprehension for second language learners.

5. Lack of Concentration

One of the key elements that affects listening comprehension is

students' motivation. In a school setting when they are studying a foreign

language, children may find it challenging to focus. Even the smallest

attentional lapse can significantly impair listening comprehension.

Understanding is made simpler when students find the subject matter of the

listening text to be engaging. In spite of their enthusiasm in the subject,

students find listening to be quite tedious because it takes a lot of

concentration to avoid missing the meaning. According to Yagang (1993), the

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listening comprehension process is also a relatively complex psychological

process. In psychology, it is stated that when a person feels nervous or

anxious, he or she may not be concentrated. When one felt uncomfortable, his

or her ability to listen is greatly reduced.

Other obstacles to understanding what students are hearing include

boredom and dissatisfaction. The degree to which attention is directed to

hearing can be affected by boredom and dissatisfaction. This happens as a

result of inadequate stimulation brought on by boredom with the subject, a

lack of enthusiasm, a teacher's inability to give engaging content, or a

monotone delivery of the lecture that induces drowsiness.

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 26

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Research Design

Research design is concerned with how the design is implemented and

how the research is carried out. There are many types of research design could be

implemented in conducting a study. The research design used in this research is

descriptive qualitative research. The goal of descriptive research is to describe a

phenomenon and its characteristics. This study is more interested in what

occurred than in how or why it occurred. As a result, methods like observation

and surveys are frequently employed to collect data (Gall, Gall, & Borg, 2007).

However, qualitative research is more comprehensive and frequently entails

gathering data from several sources to understand better specific participants,

including their thoughts, perspectives, and attitudes. The data collection and

analysis methods used in qualitative research are mainly qualitative. Jannah

(2008) states that descriptive research is conducted to give detail image about

phenomenon.

This research is to know the phenomenon and facts of the students’

difficulties in learning listening skills by descriptively collecting the primary

data. It means to make a description of the students’ difficulties of learning

 listening skills at SMKS Muhammadiyah Sintang or this research is emphasized

trying to find out the students’ difficulties in learning listening.

B. Population and Sample

1. Population

The research population is generally a large collection of individuals

or objects that was the main focus of a scientific query and Creswell (2012)

states the population is a group of individuals possesses one characteristic

that distinguishes them from other groups. This research will take the

eleventh-grade students of SMKS Muhammadiyah Sintang as a population

which was showed in this table:

Table 3.1
The Population of the eleventh-grade students of SMKS Muhammadiyah Sintang

No Class The student numbers

1 X TO1 28 students
2 X TJKT1 23 students
3 X MPLB 31 students
Total 82 students

2. Sample

In statistics, a sample is a subset of a population that was used to

represent the entire group as a whole. Lodico et al (2011:25) define a sample

is a smaller version of the population. To take the sample, the researcher will

use purposive sampling. Purposive sampling is a non-probability sampling

technique in which researchers select participants based on specific criteria or

27
 characteristics that are relevant to the research objective (Etikan, Musa, &

Alkassim, 2016). Unlike probability sampling methods that aim to provide a

representative sample from a larger population, purposive sampling focuses

on targeting individuals or groups who possess the desired knowledge,

expertise, or experiences related to the research topic.

In purposive sampling, the researcher uses their judgment and

expertise to identify and select participants who can provide valuable insights

or information for the research. The selection criteria are predetermined and

based on the research objectives, ensuring that the chosen participants

possess the necessary attributes to contribute to the research's goals.

Therefore, the researcher will interview the students from the population with

having the highest, middle and lowest score.

C. Technique and tools for collecting data

In this research, the researcher interview. It is a systematic way of

talking and listening to people and another way to collect data from

individuals through conversations. Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2000)

define the interviews as the ways for participants to get involved and talk

about their views. In addition, the interviewees are able to discuss their

perception and interpretation in regards to a given situation. It is their

expression from their point of view.

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 There are many types of interviews, which include: structured

interviews, semi-structured interviews, and unstructured interviews

(Kajornboon, 2005). The researcher tends to use semi-structure interview in

collecting data. Semi structured interviews are non-standardized and are

frequently used in qualitative analysis. The researcher will make a list of key

questions to be covered.

D. Technique of Analyzing Data

Qualitative data was the data from the interview. In analysing the data got

from interview, the researcher will use data analysis given by Miles and

Huberman. Miles and huberman (1994: 10-11) explain the steps as follows:

1. Data Reduction

Data reduction refers to the process of selecting, focusing,

simplifying, abstracting and transforming the data that appeared in written-

up field notes. Data reduction means making summaries, choosing, focusing

on important thing, and deleting unused date. In this case, the researcher

reduces the data found to make easier for the researcher to draw conclusion.

2. Data Display

After reducing the data, the second major flow of analysis activity is

data display. A display is an organized, compressed assembly of information

that permitted conclusion drawing and action. In this step, the researcher

shows data simply in the form of words, sentence, narrative, table, and

29
 graphic in order to make easier for making conclusion or to make

understandable. In this research, after collecting and reducing the data, the

researcher displays those transcribed data in the form of descriptive and

table. This displayed data is suitable to the research questions of this

research.

3. Conclusions Drawing and Verification

The third steam of analysis activity is conclusion, drawing and

verification. In this step, the researcher concludes and describes the research

after reducing and displaying the data based on the data had been found.

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 31

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