USING PODCAST TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ LISTENING

COMPREHENSION ON DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

Mifta Danu Prasetyo

danuuprasetyo@hotmail.com

Machdalena Vianty
machdalena.vianty@gmail.com
Hariswan Putra jaya
hariswanputrajaya@facebook.com

Abstract: The objective of the study was to find out whether or not the use
of Podcast significantly improved students’ listening comprehension on
descriptive text. The population of the study was the eighth grade students
of SMP Negeri 10 Palembang in the academic year 2013/2014. The sample
was 40 students that were taken by using a population single technique.
This study applied pre-experimental research method, which was, one
group pre-test post-test design. The data were collected by means of a
listening test. The result of the paired sample t-test showed that the mean
difference between students’ pre-test and post-test was 22.57, with
significance value was .000. This result showed that teaching listening
comprehension through Podcast had a significant effect on students’
listening comprehension. In other words, it can be concluded that teaching
listening comprehension through Podcast significantly increased students’
listening comprehension.

Key words: listening comprehension, Podcast, descriptive text

The undeniable role of English as a In Indonesia, English has a vital

global means of communication can be role in many aspects of life, particularly
the reason that English is in science and technology, English has
accommodated as one of the subjects been taught as obligatory subject from
taught at school. The important role of junior high school up to the senior high
English is pointed out by Diem (2011) school level. The importance of
who states, “to fulfill the needs in English, as Ihsan (2011) claims,
globalization era, English will take the includes the ability to communicate
strategic place in the world” (p.160). both orally and in writing, Therefore,
Therefore, having English skill can be Ihsan (2011) argues, “people need to
considered as beneficial. For example, master all skills of English namely
people who want to have better job listening, speaking, reading, and
opportunities as well as better chances writing” (p.12).
in keeping up with what is new in their Listening as one of the English
field of specialty can earn more credit if language skills is the receptive skill
they can speak English. which is the most common

93
communication activity in daily life. It The teaching of English in Indonesia
is an active activity that involves has objectives. For example, the
receiving, understanding, and teaching of English for junior high
perceiving a message from a school level which is based on the 2006
conversation. Morley (1991) points out Curriculum aims to enable students to
that listening as one of the language respond the meaning of simple short
skills is a crucial element that needs to monologue accurately, fluently and
be mastered by adult foreign language appropriately to interact with
learners because, people can expect to surrounding environment in form of
listen twice as much as they speak, four descriptive and recount text (Indonesian
times more than they read, and five Ministry of Education, 2006).For
times more than they write. In other example, to respond to the monologue
words, listening has important roles in accurately, students have to be able to
human life as people listen more than listen to the monologue and
they speak, read, and write. comprehend it. Therefore, it means that
The importance of listening in students are expected to not only listen
English language learning is also to the monologue but also be able to
highlighted by Richards (1990, 2008) understand the meaning behind the
who states that language learning monologue.
depends on listening, which provides In Indonesia, Listening skill is
the aural input that serves as the basis rarely taught in the classroom. As
for language acquisition and enables Suparmin (1999, as cited in Ma’arif,
learners to interact in spoken 2011) argues, “listening has not been
communication. Listening can also given proper attention by the teachers in
provide much of the input and data that teaching and learning English as a
learners receive in language learning, foreign language in secondary school in
because when people start to learn a Indonesia”(p.4). Therefore, it is worth
foreign language, their earliest learning saying that although listening skill is
comes mainly through their ears (Scott important, it seems to be neglected by
& Yterberg, 1990) the teacher of English. In addition,
However, listening does not seem according to Novalia (2011),“There are
to receive as much attention as the other only few schools that give some
language skills. According to Tompkins practices in Listening skill. Moreover,
and Hoskisson (1995, p. 81),“Among there are so many schools that do not
four language skills –listening, have language laboratory and some of
speaking, reading, and writing- listening the schools that have had a language
has been called the neglected skill for laboratory still let it unused”(p.2).
some decades”. In addition, Persulessy In addition to what Suparmin
(1988, as cited in Wicaksana, 2009) (1999) and Novalia (2011) state, the
states, “one of the reasons for the writer’s experience during his teaching
opinion that listening tends to be practice at SMP Negeri 10 Palembang,
neglected is the feeling among language also showed that listening skill was
teachers that this skill is automatically almost never be taught to the students,
acquired by the learners as they learn to although there is a multimedia
speak language”. In other words, Most classroom which provide facilities (tape
English teachers take it for granted and recorder, speaker, and headset) for
believe that listening skill will develop teaching listening skill. An informal
naturally within the process of English interview between the writer and the
language learning. two English teachers at SMP Negeri 10
In Indonesia, English is a required Palembang (personal communication,
subject for secondary level students. August 15, 2013), made the writer came
to a conclusion that listening skill grade students, descriptive text become
seemed being ignored by the teacher in one of their focused materials. Another
teaching and learning English. Some reason is because the students are rarely
factors that may contribute to this are, taught the listening skill so the writer
the time allocation for teaching choose the first material in the
listening skill is not adequate, and lack curriculum which is descriptive text.
of teaching materials. There are previous studies that
The fact that listening skill does not applied Podcast. A study done by
receive as much attention as the other McKinney, Dyck and Luber (2008) for
skills cannot be neglected. Some efforts example, investigated whether or not
should be done to solve this problem. podcast could replace a lecture. The
Using podcast is one of the ways to finding showed that the students who
solve the problem. Podcast is almost were exposed to podcast did
similar as regular audio/ video; the significantly better in their studying
difference is that a subscription from than students who attended the in-class
certain websites that offer podcast is lecture (McKinney et al, 2008). This
necessary so that the new available result was unexpected and somewhat
podcasts can be downloaded. novel in the body of literature on the
According to Constantine (2007), use of technology to aid learning.
podcast is the name of digital recording Moreover, a study done by
of a radio broadcast or similar program. Kavaliauskienė (2008) found that
Podcasts are published on the internet podcasting could be used as a tool for
as mp3 files. The advent of podcast on improving listening skill.
the internet has given the language Kavaliauskienė (2008) claims that there
teacher a goldmine of materials for is an opportunity for raising language
teaching listening skills. Podcasts can awareness by employing podcasting
be short as two to three minutes and as which allows learners to carry out
long as an hour. English teachers can homework, and assignments, at their
subscribe to a podcast through RSS own pace and under non-threatening
subscription (Really Simple condition. Another study done by
Subscription). By subscribing through Puspitasari (2011) revealed that
RSS, when there is a new episode implementing STAD with podcast
available, it is downloaded to the materials could also improve the
computer automatically. In addition, it students’ listening ability. In addition,
comes at no cost to the subscriber. the results of Puspitasari’s study (2011)
Because podcast content is free, also showed that the students were
teachers now have a way to build up a enthusiastic and active in the teaching
big listening library for their students on and learning process which used
contemporary and relevant topics. podcast materials presented through
English teachers can also encourage STAD.
students to download podcast on their This study also applied Podcast in
own so that they have more listening order to improve students’ listening
input. comprehension.
In this study the writer used
Podcast in the form of descriptive RESEARCH METHOD
text.Descriptive text is a text which A pre-experimental research
presents information about something method that focused on one group
specifically. Descriptive text describes a pretest-posttest design was applied in
particular person or thing or place. The this study. Creswell (2005, p. 160)
reason the writer choose descriptive text states, “This design includes a pre-test
is based on the curriculum of the eight measure followed by a treatment and a
post test for a single group”. From that After getting the normality test, the
statement, there was no control group in writer analyzed the score distribution of
this study. It could be argued that the pre-test and post-test based on the
exposure of the treatment to the Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimal (KKM)
students could be maximized since that is applied for English subject at
there was only one group. In addition, SMP Negeri 10 Palembang. The result
having only one group of participant of the distribution of the pre-test and
was supported by the school because post-test scores for the experimental
according to the English teacher for the group is presented in Table 3.
eighth grade in SMP Negeri 10
Palembang, giving a full attention Table 1
The Score Distribution of
through the exposure of the Podcast to Pre-test and Post-test
one group of students is more effective.
The only group of students who got Pre-test Post-test
involved as the sample of the study was KKM
N % N %
exposed to the Podcasts through 21
meetings, including pre-test and post- ≥75 0 0 23 57.5
test. Each meeting covered a 45-minute ≤75 40 100 17 42.5
Total 40 100 40 100
teaching learning activity.
In this study, the writer used
population-single technique. The writer
As shown in Table 1, based on the
was allowed to have only one class, that
result of the pre-test, all of the students
is, VIII. 4. Therefore, the population in
did not pass the KKM. However, the
this study was also be the sample.
result of the Post-test showed that 23
Based on the suggestion from the
students (57,5%) could reach the KKM.
English teacher, Class VIII.4 was
chosen because most of the students
The Results of Paired-Sample T-test
(N=40)have low English achievement.
The listening test used in this study was Table 2
checked its validity and reliability Result of Paired Sample t-test (N=40)
quantitatively. Based on the statistical Mean Mean Sig.
analysis, the reliability coefficient was Difference (2-
tailed)
0.795 and the test was considered
Pretest 54.14
reliable.Paired Samples t-test was .000
applied to analyze the data. 22.57
Posttest 76.71
FINDINGS
Pre Test and Post Test Results The result of the Paired-Sample t-
Before the writer analyzed the test analysis conducted for the pre-test
result of the pre-test and the post-test and the post-test is shown in Table 2.
scores, the writer checked the normality As shown in Table 2, the mean score of
of both the pre-test and the post-test by the students’ pre-test was 54.14, while
using Kolmogorov-Smirnov method. the mean score of the post-test is 76.71.
Based on Kolmogorov-Smirnov The mean difference was 22.57 with the
method, a test can be considered a p-value was 0.000.
normal test if the p-value score is >0.05.
The writer found out that the p-value of Interpretations
the pre-test was 0.882 and 0.820 for the Based on the analysis of the result
post test. Therefore, it can be concluded of the pre-test, all of the students did
that both of pre-test and post test data not pass the standard score or the KKM
were normal. set by school for English subject. This
suggested that the students’ listening pass the KKM standard although the
ability was poor. Thus fact was also writer gave them listening materials in
suggested by the result of the informal every meeting. It is happened because
interview that the writer did after giving the listening materials were not
the students the pre-test. The interview effective as much as Podcast. The use
revealed that, most of the student found of Podcast enabled the students to listen
the listening test difficult because they to native speakers of English. This was
rarely did listening activities. The likely the reason why the students were
students admitted that, the listening enthusiastic in learning.
activities were conducted orally by the Next, getting involved in
teacher. This kind of activity is not something new also made the students
effective for the students because to became more active in asking questions
improve their listening skill, the about the listening materials that they
students need to get involved in never encountered before. They also
listening activities that can provide focused on their attention to the
them with the opportunities to listen to listening materials presented through
native speaker of English. After the Podcast and listened to them attentively.
writer taught the students by using They asked the writer about many
Podcast, the score of the students’ post- things related to what they heard. Their
test increased although there were still discipline and enthusiasm during the
17 students (42.5%) of the students did teaching and learning activities made it
not pass KKM. The result of paired easier for the writer to manage the class.
sample T-test also showed that there These facts suggest that teaching
was significant difference between the listening comprehension through
result of pre-test and Post-test. This Podcast not only can help increase the
suggests that teaching listening students’ listening comprehension, but
comprehension through Podcast is also their interest in doing listening
effective for increasing students’ tasks. As Rotgans (2012) claims, to
comprehension of the listening achieve good result in learning English,
materials. This is in line with what is students should be interested to the
stated by Constantine (2007) that teaching and learning activities, thus it
Podcast helps students in learning will keep their attention longer and
English especially for listening make them easier to comprehend the
activities. materials.
In addition to the interpretation that Finally, based on the results of the
the writer made based on the result of interpretations, the writer claims that
the pre-test and post-test, the writer also the use of Podcast can help the students
made some interpretations based on comprehend the listening
what the writer encountered during the comprehension better. In addition, the
study. First, the writer found that the use of Podcast can help the students
students were very interested to learn experience more interesting listening
because of the use of Podcasts. As materials and activities.
explained previously, the students were
rarely exposed to listening activities CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
that allowed them to listen to the real The result of the study that the
native speakers of English through writer did at SMPN 10 Palembang
listening to audio, but before the writer shows that Podcast is one of the media
had taught them by using podcast, the which can help the students
writer had experience in teaching them comprehend the listening materials
listening before this research was better. By using Podcast, the students
conducted. The students’ scores did not could improve their ability in
understanding the uncommon English
words and they were able to practice
their pronunciation skill after listening
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About the Authors
Mifta Danu Prasetyo, S.Pd was the graduate of the English Education Study Program,
Sriwijaya University; he completed his undergraduate study in 2014. He currently teaches
English privately.
Machdalena Vianty, M.Ed., M.Pd., Ed.D and Hariswan Putra Jaya, S.Pd., M.Pd are the
lecturers at the English Education Study Program, Sriwijaya University.