THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TASK-BASED INSTRUCTION …/The... · THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TASK-BASED...

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THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TASK-BASEDINSTRUCTION METHOD IN TEACHING LISTENING

VIEWED FROM THE STUDENTS’ ANXIETY

(An Experimental Study in the Second Semester Students of STKIP-PGRIPontianak in the Academic Year of 2011/2012)

A Thesis

By

Diah Astriyanti

NIM. S891008016

Written as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for GettingThe Master Degree of English Education Department

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENTGRADUATE SCHOOL

SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITYSURAKARTA

2012


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TABLE OF CONTENT

TITLE..................................................................................................................... iAPPROVAL........................................................................................................... iiLEGALIZATION OF THE BOARD OF EXAMINERS .................................. iiiPRONOUNCEMENT ........................................................................................... ivABSTRACT ........................................................................................................... vMOTTO.................................................................................................................. viDEDICATION ....................................................................................................... viiACKNOWLEDGEMENT ................................................................................... viiiTABLE OF CONTENT ........................................................................................ ixLIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................ xiiLIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................. xiiiLIST OF APPENDICES ...................................................................................... xiv

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background ............................................................................ 1B. Problem Identification ............................................................. 9C. Problem Limitation.................................................................. 10D. Research Problem.................................................................... 10E. Research Objectives ................................................................ 11F. Benefit of the Study ................................................................. 11

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Listening................................................................................... 131. The Definition of Listening .............................................. 13

a. Listening purposes ......................................................... 16b. Listening Process ... ....................................................... 22c. Micro- and Macroskills of Listening ............................. 24

2. Teaching listening ............................................................. 273. Designing Assessment Tasks in Listening........................ 30

a. Intensive Listening......................................................... 30b. Responsive Listening..................................................... 32c. Selective listening .......................................................... 33

B. Task-Based Instruction ............................................................ 361. The Nature of Task ........................................................... 36

a. Task................................................................................ 36b. Types of Task................................................................. 40c. Task-Based Instruction for Listening Comprehension .. 43

2. The Teaching Steps of Task-Based Instruction ............... 483. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Task-Based

Instruction.......................................................................... 55


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C. Teaching Listening Using Task-Based InstructionCompared to Direct Instruction Method ................................. 56a. General Categories ............................................................. 56b. Context in the Classroom ................................................... 57

D. Direct Instruction Method ....................................................... 601. Definition of Direct Instruction ......................................... 602. Direct Instruction of Teaching Steps .................................. 613. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Direct

Instruction ......................................................................... 62E. Anxiety ..................................................................................... 65

1. Definition of Anxiety ........................................................ 652. Anxiety and Listening Comprehension .............................. 67

F. Review of Related Research .................................................... 74G. Rationale.................................................................................. 72H. Hypothesis ............................................................................... 77

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Place and Time of the Research .............................................. 84B. Research Design ...................................................................... 85C. Population, Sample, and Sampling.......................................... 86

1. Population.......................................................................... 862. Sample............................................................................... 863. Sampling............................................................................ 86

D. Technique of Collecting Data.................................................. 88E. Data Analysis ........................................................................... 90F. Hypothesis Testing................................................................... 92G. Statistical Hypothesis ............................................................... 96

CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

A. Research Findings .................................................................... 971. Data Description.................................................................... 972. Prerequisite Analysis............................................................. 1063. Hypothesis Testing ............................................................... 108

B. The Discussion of Findings. .................................................... 114C. The Weaknesses of the Research.............................................. 122

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion............................................................................... 123B. Implication............................................................................... 124C. Suggestion ............................................................................... 125


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BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................. 126

APPENDICES ....................................................................................................... 130


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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 General Categories of Teaching Methods ........................................ 87Table 2.2 The Example of Teaching Techniques in Classroom Context .......... 87Table 3.1 Research Design ................................................................................ 87Table 3.2 Design for ANOVA ........................................................................... 88Table 4.1 The scores of the students who are taught using Task-Based

Instruction (A1)............................................................................. 93Table 4.2 The scores of the students who are taught using Direct Instruction

(A2). .................................................................................................... 94Table 4.3 The scores of the students having high learning anxiety (B1) ........... 95Table 4.4 The scores of the students having low learning anxiety (B2) ............ 96Table 4.5 The scores of the students having high learning anxiety who are

taught using Task-Based Instruction (A1B1) ...................................... 97Table 4.6 The scores of the students having low learning anxiety who are

taught using Task-Based Instruction (A1B2) ...................................... 98Table 4.7 The scores of the students having high learning anxiety who are

taught using Direct Instruction (A2 B1) .............................................. 99Table 4.8 The scores of the students having low learning anxiety who are

taught using Direct Instruction (A2 B2) .............................................. 100Table 4.9 The summary of the normality of the sample distribution................. 101Table 4.10 Data Homogeneity ............................................................................. 102Table 4.11 The summary of ANOVA.................................................................. 103


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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1. Histogram and Polygon of A1............................................................. 98Figure 4.2. Histogram and Polygon of A2............................................................. 99Figure 4.3. Histogram and Polygon of B1............................................................. 100Figure 4.4. Histogram and Polygon of B2............................................................. 101Figure 4.5. Histogram and Polygon of A1B1......................................................... 102Figure 4.6. Histogram and Polygon of A1B2......................................................... 103Figure 4.7. Histogram and Polygon of A2B1......................................................... 104Figure 4.8. Histogram and Polygon of A2B2......................................................... 105


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LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix 1. Lesson Plan Experimental Group.................................................... 130

Appendix 2. Lesson Plan Control Group............................................................. 196

Appendix 3. Blueprint of Questionnaire of Students’ Learning Anxiety and

Questionnaire for Try Out .............................................................. 242

Appendix 4. Blueprint of Listening and Listening Test for Try Out .................. 245

Appendix 5. The Try Out Result of Students’ Listening Test ............................. 258

Appendix 6. The Try Out Result of Learning Anxiety........................................ 270

Appendix 7. Listening Test Items........................................................................ 283

Appendix 8. Questionnaire Post Test................................................................... 288

Appendix 9. The Scores of Students’ Learning anxiety ...................................... 291

Appendix 10. The Scores of Students’ Listening Test ........................................ 293

Appendix 11. Descriptive Statistic ...................................................................... 295

Appendix 12. Normality Test .............................................................................. 311

Appendix 13. Homogeneity Test ......................................................................... 323

Appendix 14. Hypothesis Testing ........................................................................ 325


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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

B. Background

Listening is the most common communicative activity in daily life:

"we can expect to listen twice as much as we speak, four times more than we

read, and five times more than we write." (Morley, 1991: 82). Listening is

important for obtaining comprehensible input which is necessary for the

language development.

Since 1980s, listening skill has been somewhat neglected in the field

of second language acquisition in many contexts, there has been a growing

concern for developing this ability. Brown’s research in the field of L1

(2000), for instance, showed that oracy should be developed to the same

extent as literacy in schools. Research in both L1 acquisition and second

language acquisition has attached significant importance of listening in

acquiring a given language. Research into L1 acquisition has proved that L1

speakers are listeners before they are speakers. Conversational skills like turn-

taking, paying attention to the listener and focusing the listener’s attention on

the on-going interaction are developed before L1 users can actually talk

(Kaplan, 1969). Indeed, listening underlies the process of acquiring L1.

Under normal circumstances, in their early stages of life, human beings

exposed to their L1 learn to listen as the first step in their unconscious process

of language acquisition.


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Moreover, listening also plays a vital role in the life of human being.

Rivers and Temperley (1978), Oxford (1993), and Celce-Murcia (1995),

among other researchers state that listening takes the greatest part of

communication compared to the other three skills. In fact, 45% corresponds

to listening, 30% to speaking, 16% to reading and 9% to writing (in Hedge,

2005).

Approaches that gave more importance to listening were based on

different ideas. Nord (1980:17) expresses this view clearly:

Some people now believe that learning a language is not just learningto talk, but rather that learning a language is building a map ofmeaning in the mind. These people believe talking may indicate thatthe language was learned, but they do not believe that practice intalking is the best way to build up this “cognitive” map in the mind.To do this, they feel, the best method is to practice meaningfullistening.

Krashen’s (1981) claims that the importance of comprehensible input

that can be translated into a set of learning conditions; that is, conditions that

need to be met for language development through listening. These conditions

are meaningful, interesting, understanding and stress free.

Listening comprehension traditionally has drawn the least attention of

the four skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) in terms of both the

amount of research conducted on the topic and its place in language teaching

methodology (Morley, 1990; Rivers, 1981). This neglect may have stemmed

from the fact that listening is considered a passive skill, and from the belief

that merely exposing the student to the spoken language is sufficient for

listening comprehension. During the time when audiolingualism was the


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prevailing approach in foreign language teaching, it was assumed that

students' listening skill would be enhanced automatically as a result of their

repetition of dialogues and pattern drills. Accordingly, developing the

listening skill per se was allocated very little attention in foreign language

classrooms, and most structured listening practice took place in the language

laboratory (Herron & Seay, 1991).

Obviously, the most pervasive changes to language teaching practice

over the last twenty years are those that can be described as communicative

language teaching (CLT). Chastain (1988: 163) believed that by the

emergence of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in the history of

language teaching and learning, the goal of language teaching and learning

shifted to achieving communicative competence. As far as CLT is concerned,

one can claim that it paid attention to all the four skills of language-reading,

listening, speaking, and writing. Listening was no longer believed to be a

passive skill. CLT and its subsequent branches considered listening as an

active skill. One of CLT’s subsequent divisions has been Task-Based

Language Teaching (TBLT), which is based on using tasks as the core of

language teaching and learning.

As a general rule, exercises for listening comprehension are more

effective if they are constructed around a task. The students should be

"required to do something in response to what they hear that will demonstrate

their understanding" (Dunkel, 1986: 104; Ur, 1984: 25). Examples of tasks

are answering questions appropriate to the learners' comprehension ability,


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taking notes, taking dictation, and expressing agreement or disagreement.

However, Dunkel (1986) and Wing (1986) suggested that listening activities

should require the students to demonstrate listening skills. Consequently,

listening exercises should be dependent upon students' skills in listening,

rather than skills in reading, writing, or speaking.

There are different types of tasks that the students can perform

without speaking, reading, or writing. One is a transferring exercise that

involves "receiving information in one form and transfering the information

or parts of it into another form" (Richards, 1983: 235), such as drawing a

picture or a diagram corresponding to the information given (Dirven &

Oakeshott-Taylor, 1985; Dunkel, 1986; Lund, 1990; Paulston & Bruder,

1976; Richards, 1983; Ur, 1984). Another kind of listening task is a matching

exercise that involves selecting a response from alternatives, such as pictures

and objects, that correspond with what was heard (Lund, 1990; Richards,

1983). Samples of this type of exercise are choosing a picture to match a

situation and placing pictures in a sequence, which matches a story or set of

events (Richards, 1983). The other type of listening task involves physical

movement (Dunkel, 1986; Lund, 1990; Ur, 1984); that is, the students have to

respond physically to oral directions.

Task-based learning provides real life activity and concern on the

meaning. Halliday (1978: 169) explains, communication is more than merely

an exchange of words between parties; it is a “…sociological encounter”

(Halliday, 1978: 139) and through exchange of meanings in the


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communication process, social reality is “created, maintained and modified”

(Halliday, 1978: 169). Such a capacity of language is also evident in Austin’s

(1962) earlier work on speech act theory where, as cited by Clyne (1994: 2),

language and thus communication is an “…instrument of action”.

Brown (1987: 14) informs that the main idea behind a task-based

approach to developing listening is the students become active learners. With

this approach, students are asked to listen to what are described as “authentic”

situations and to “do something” with the information. This may be

completing a diagram or chart, filing in a table, or drawing a picture, for

example. The information is usually transferred from spoken text to a graphic

form. Because the texts are authentic (usually semi-scripted), students cope

with language being spoken at normal speed and with features such as

accents, hesitations, fillers and ellipses.

The result of a task-based activity can be open-ended. For example,

while listening to a short lecture, students may be required to make notes and

draw a simple diagram. Different students will have their own way of

recording the information. The way they do this is not as important as being

able to report the information they have understood. Kumaravadivelu (1991:

100) states that in the context of task-based pedagogy, the learning outcome

is the result of a fairly unpredictable interaction between the task and the task

situation. Therefore, the process students employ in finding a successful

outcome to the task is more important than being able to understand all the


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spoken text presented to them. According to the task-based approach,

students need to use holistic inferential strategies.

Most of the teacher usually spends some time lecturing; then the

teacher guides the students through a complex problem, with the problem

broken down into simple steps; then the students are given, one by one, the

simple steps to carry out on their own; finally, the students are given one or

many sample problems to accomplish on their own or we can call it as Direct

Instruction method. Direct instruction is used to describe a lesson where the

teacher has control.

Direct teaching, sometimes called systematic teaching or active

teaching, is a teacher-centered, skill-building instructional model with the

teacher being a major information provider. The teacher’s role is to pass facts,

rules, or action sequences on to students in the most direct way possible. This

usually takes a presentation with explanations format (modified lecture),

examples, and opportunities for practice and feedback. The direct teaching

format calls for teacher-student interactions involving questions and answers,

review and practice, and the correction of student errors.

In a direct instruction lesson, the teacher usually spends some time

lecturing; then the teacher guides the students through a complex problem.

Direct instruction as an instructional method works for only a small

percentage of students. The students who have other than verbal

“intelligence”, or who come from different cultural world views will fail.


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Unfortunately, listening is the weakest points of most English learners of all

the four skills in my classes. Poor listening ability results from many factors,

such as insufficient emphasis on listening by the whole society, immature

teaching methodologies, ineffective listening strategies, and students’ lack of

vocabulary, but the increasingly important one is anxiety, an affective factor

in listening comprehension, which plays a very important role because the

anticipation of foreign language use in receiving information can provoke

anxiety. Listening comprehension is “highly anxiety-provoking if the

discourse is incomprehensible” (Young, 1992: 562). Therefore, anxiety has

gradually been a focus of research in the area of listening comprehension and

it is a “variable that must be respected in teaching and accounted for in

research” (Young, 1999: 562).

Anxiety is defined and asserted as the emotion that one feels generally

in certain related types of situations (trait anxiety) or in a specific situation

(state anxiety) (Spielberger, 1996). Being stable over time and present in a

variety of situations, trait anxiety is considered as part of a person’s

personality, which represents the likelihood of being anxious in specific types

of situations. Most people experience anxiety that is present only during a

particular situation or incident, which can be considered passing, and ideally

will diminish over time.

Anxiety refers to the subjective feelings of tension, apprehension,

nervousness, and worriness associated with an arousal of the autonomic

nervous system (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986: 174). According to


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Eysenck (1992), anxiety inhibits performance because working memory is

occupied with worriness rather than with task-focused thoughts. MacIntyre

and Gardner (1989) said that anxiety affects learners at every stage of

learning, whether during input, processing, or performance. They also

proposed that anxiety leads to deficits in learning and performance.

Furthermore, they corroborated that anxiety-arousal interferes with a learner’s

cognitive ability to absorb, process, and produce a foreign language

(MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991a, 1991b; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1994a, 1994b).

Maclntyre and Gardner (1989, 1991a) found that general anxiety is

not necessarily a predictor of language anxiety. A beginning foreign or

second language student encounters many tasks and experiences that may be

difficult including listening comprehension, oral performance, grammar,

writing, etc. if these experiences result in the student becoming concerned

about making mistakes or an understanding that he or she is not doing well,

then state anxiety can occur. However, at this point, he or she may not

connect the anxiety specifically with language learning. Over time, the

students may begin to associate the anxiety with language learning and expect

to feel anxious in the language class and experiences in which the new

language is used. At this point, it is believed that the students are

experiencing language anxiety. Unfortunately, those students who experience

anxiety specifically in language classes, but not in other learning situations,

are not always relieved of this anxiety over time. If students experience

anxiety in the same or similar contexts related to language, the anxiety


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becomes a trait (Gardner & MacIntyre, 1993). Anxiety as a trait can become

much more of a problem in the long term for the language learner.

In general, listening anxiety has been shown to result in negative

academic effects for the learner. Anxious students have also shown to feel

that they are left behind by fast pace of learning activity in classroom lessons

(MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991). Over studying as a compensatory effort for

listening anxiety (Horwitz et al., 1991; Price, 1991) can lead to lower

performance results than could be expected given the time invested. The

opposite can also occur, where the over-anxious students avoid studying, and

even attending the foreign language class, to alleviate their apprehension

(Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope 1991).

From the explanation above, it can be concluded that teaching

listening comprehension must be in active and communicative way which has

to be related with the real life. In this case, this study wants to determine the

effect of Task Based Instruction method and Direct Instruction method in

teaching listening comprehension viewed from the students’ anxiety of the

second semester of English Department students in STKIP-PGRI Pontianak

in the academic year of 2011/2012.

C. Problem Identification

Through the background of the study, there are some problems that can be

identified. The identified problems are (1) Does using Task-based instruction

work best in teaching listening so the students are able to improve their


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listening comprehension?; (2) Does using Direct Instruction method work

best in teaching listening to improve the students listening comprehension?;

(3) Do the students who have high anxiety to learn English better especially

learning listening comprehension?; (4) Is listening a complicated according to

the second semester students of STKIP-PGRI Pontianak?; and (5) Is there any

interaction between the methods used in teaching listening and the students’

anxiety?

D. Problem Limitation

Realizing that there are numbers of the problems that have to be answered,

the writer is concerned only with some of those problems to be investigated.

This limitation, however, is taken because there is not enough ability for the

writer to investigate all of the problems thoroughly. It includes time allotment

and financial allocation. The writer limits the problems of the research which

are supposed to influence the students’ listening skill, namely: the methods

used by the teacher which are using Task-based instruction and Direct

instruction and the students’ anxiety.

E. Research Problem

From the background of the study, problem identification, and problem

limitation above, the writer formulates the problems of the study as follows:

1. Is using Task-based instruction more effective than using Direct

Instruction to teach listening comprehension to the second semester

students of English department in STKIP-PGRI Pontianak in the

academic year of 2011/2012?


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2. Do the students who have low anxiety have better listening ability than

those who have high anxiety?

3. Is there any interaction between teaching methods and students’ anxiety in

teaching listening comprehension?

F. Research Objectives

The objective of the research is to find out whether:

1. Using Task-based instruction is more effective than using Direct

instruction to teach listening comprehension to the first semester students

of English department in STKIP-PGRI Pontianak in the academic year of

2011/2012.

2. The students who have low anxiety have better listening ability than those

who have high anxiety.

3. There is an interaction between teaching methods and students’ anxiety in

teaching listening comprehension.

G. The Benefit of the Study

The result of this study can contribute some benefits to students, teachers, and

the other researcher. Here are the benefits:

1. For Students

a. By conducting this research, the writer hopes that this research may

decrease the students’ anxiety in learning listening comprehension

since they will find out that listening comprehension is not

complicated. As a result, it will enrich their skill in listening

comprehension.


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b. It gives students enjoyment in learning listening.

2. For Teachers

For the other teachers, they will get large knowledge about teaching

listening using Task-Based instruction and the result of the research can

be a useful input in English teaching learning process especially for

improving listening comprehension.

3. For the Researcher

a. The result of this study can improve the quality of teaching listening

b. The researcher also gives opportunity for the teachers to conduct an

innovative teaching and learning activity

c. The researcher can overcome the problems especially the students’

listening difficulties

4. For other Researcher

For the other researcher who would like to conduct further research at the

same subject, the result of this research will be beneficial for them as the

stepping stone.


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CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

This particular chapter sets out to review the underlying theories of the

present study. It is intended to provide the overview of the related studies as well.

This chapter is finalized with the formulation of the hypotheses.

A. Listening

1. The Definition of Listening

Listening is the first language model that children acquire. It

provides a foundation for all aspects of language and cognitive

development, and it plays a life-long role in the processes of learning and

communication essential to productive participation in life. A study by

Wilt (1950), which found that people listen 45 percent of the time they

spend communicating, is still widely cited (e.g., Martin, 1987; Strother,

1987). Wilt found that 30 percent of communication time was spent

speaking, 16 percent reading, and 9 percent writing. That finding

confirmed what Rankin had found in 1928, that people spent 70 percent

of their waking time communicating and that three-fourths of this time

was spent for listening and speaking.

Rost (2002 cited in http://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/gpg/67) defines

listening, in its broadest sense, as a process of receiving what the speaker

actually says (receptive orientation); constructing and representing

meaning (constructive orientation); negotiating meaning with the speaker

http://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/gpg/67


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and responding (collaborative orientation); and, creating meaning through

involvement, imagination, and empathy (transformative orientation).

Listening is a complex, active process of interpretation in which listeners

match what they hear with what they already know.

Listening is the language modality that is used most frequently. It has

been estimated that adults spend almost half their communication time

listening, and students may receive as much as 90% of their in

school information through listening to instructors and to one another.

Often, however, language learners do not recognize the level of effort that

goes into developing listening ability.

There are some definitions about listening, such as what is said by

Nunan (2003: 24). He defines that listening is an active, purposeful

process of making sense of what we hear. It means that when people listen

information, they will receive and understand the incoming information.

Nunan also defines that listening is very active. As people listen, they

process not only what they hear but also connect it to other information

they already know.

Underwood (1993: 1) states that listening is the activity of paying

attention to and trying to get meaning from something we hear. It is a

creative skill, not the passive one. The listeners take the raw material of

the words, the arrangements of those words, and the rise and fall of the

voice to create significance in order to comprehend the sounds they are

listening to. Other opinion is also stated by Nation and Newton (2009: 37)


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who state that 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.

Far from passively receiving and recording aural input, listeners

actively involve themselves in the interpretation of what they hear,

bringing their own background knowledge and linguistic knowledge to

bear on the information contained in the aural text. Not all listening is the

same; casual greetings, for example, require a different sort of listening

capability than do academic lectures. Language learning requires

intentional listening that employs strategies for identifying sounds and

making meaning from them.

Listening involves a sender (a person, radio, television), a

message, and a receiver (the listener). Listeners often must process

messages as they come, even if they are still processing what they have

just heard, without backtracking or looking ahead. In addition, listeners

must cope with the sender's choice of vocabulary, structure, and rate of

delivery. The complexity of the listening process is magnified in second

language contexts, where the receiver also has incomplete control of the

language.

What ‘listening’ really means is ‘listening and understanding

what we hear at the same time’. So, two concurrent actions are demanded

to take place in this process. Besides, according to Rost (1991) in an

article cited in http://www.articlesbase.com/languages-articles/teaching-


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listening-as-an-english-language-skill-367095.html; listening comprises

some component skills which are: (1) discriminating between sounds; (2)

Recognizing words; (3) Identifying grammatical groupings of words; (4)

Identifying expressions and sets of utterances that act to create meaning;

(5) Connecting linguistic cues to non-linguistic and paralinguistic cues;

and (6) Using background knowledge to predict and later to confirm

meaning and recalling important words and ideas.

No doubt, listening is the most common communicative activity

in daily life. According to Morley (1991: 82), “We can expect to listen

twice as much as we speak, four times more than we read, and five times

more than we write.” So, listening, as a skill, is assuming more and more

weight in SL or FL classrooms than ever before. Rost (1994: 141-142),

points out that listening is vital in the language classroom because it

provides input for the learner. Without understanding input at the right

level, any learning simply cannot begin. Listening is thus fundamental to

speaking.

a. Listening Purposes

Listeners do not pay attention to everything; they listen

selectively, according to the purpose of the task. This, in turn,

determines the type of listening required and the way in which

listeners will approach a task. Richards (1990 ) in an article cited in

http://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/gpg/67; differentiates between an

interactional and a transactional purpose for communication.

http://www.articlesbase.com/languages-articles/teaching-

http://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/gpg/67


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Interactional use of language is socially oriented, existing largely to

satisfy the social needs of the participants; e.g., small talk and casual

conversations. Therefore, interactional listening is highly

contextualized and two-way, involving interaction with a speaker. A

transactional use of language, on the other hand, is more message-

oriented and is used primarily to communicate information ; e.g.,

news broadcasts and lectures. In contrast with interactional listening,

transactional listening requires accurate comprehension of a message

with no opportunity for clarification with a speaker (one-way

listening). Knowing the communicative purpose of a text or utterance

will help the listener determine what to listen for and, therefore, which

processes to activate. As with the advantages of knowing the context,

knowing the purpose for listening also greatly reduces the burden of

comprehension since listeners know that they need to listen for

something very specific, instead of trying to understand every word.

One should also take into account the fact that every individual

has their own listening strategies and that they may have different

purposes while listening. Lhote (1995 : 70-72) lists them as follows:

1) Listening for hearing2) Listening for detecting3) Listening for selecting4) Listening for identifying5) Listening for recognizing6) Listening for disambiguating7) Listening for reformulating8) Listening for synthesizing9) Listening for doing10) Listening for judging


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She also recognizes other listening purposes such as listening

for reconstructing, guessing, anticipating, transposing, deducting,

revising a judgment, classifying, etc. Billière (1997) suggests that in

an oral exchange, listening is usually for the purpose of understanding

a message. He formulates the process of listening by considering

factors which affect the quality of listening: “SOMEONE listens to

SOMEONE on a GIVEN SUBJECT in a SPECIFIED

FRAMEWORK” where SOMEONE represents the individual with his

cultural, social, psychological and linguistic properties. GIVEN

SUBJECT represents the theme of the exchange. Finally, SPECIFIED

FRAMEWORK is the place and the moment of interaction and

influences the attitude of the interaction.

Listening activities here become varied according to their

purposes and objectives. Four major distinctions include attentive

listening, extensive listening, intensive listening, selective listening,

and interactive listening.

1) Attentive listening:

Both of the ideas are true that attentiveness is a prior

condition for understanding and listener often lapse attention for

various reasons. Losing interest, inability to keep up with, losing

track of goals, less confident are some of them. Teacher can help

the listeners to hold their attention by personalizing the martial,


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using the target language while talking to them to keep flow, and

lessening their stress and motivating by asking oral responses

repeatedly. Activities in this stage would be interesting and easy

including face to face interaction, using visual and tangible topics,

clear description of the listening procedure, minimum use of

written language, and immediate and ongoing responses etc so

that learners can easily keep pace with the text and activity.

Listening to short chunks, music image, personal stories, teacher-

talk, small question- answer, and interview, etc. may be applied in

this stage.

2) Extensive listening:

This type of listening has also a greater ease than other

types as it is concerned to promote overall comprehension of a

text and never requires learners to follow every word and

understand them. Learners need to comprehend the text as a

whole which is called global understanding. Activities in this

section must be chosen in terms with the proficiency level of the

listeners.

At the lower level they may have problems to organize the

information, so some non-verbal forms in responding might be

given such as putting pictures in a right sequence, following

directions on a map, checking of items in a photograph,

completing a grid, chart or timetable, etc.


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At the developed stage, some language-based tasks

requiring constructing meaning, inferring decisions, interpreting

text and understanding gist are usually recommended. Completing

cloze exercises or giving one or two word answers, multiple

choices, predicting the next utterances, forming connected sets of

notes, inferring opinions, or interpreting parts of the text are some

samples.

3) Intensive listening:

‘Hearing clearly’ is also a prime aspect of listening as it

includes accurate perception without which the second phase of

processing meaning becomes very difficult. Listening intensively

is quite important to understand the language form of the text as

we have to understand both the lexical and grammatical units that

lead to form meaning. So, intensive listening requires attention to

specific items of language, sound or factual detail such as words,

phrase, grammatical units, pragmatic units, sound changes (vowel

reduction and consonant assimilation), stress, intonation, and

pauses etc. Feedback on accuracy and repetition on the teacher’s

part promote success here.

Paraphrasing, remembering specific words and sequences,

filling gaps with missing words, identifying numbers and letters,

picking out particular facts, discriminating the pronunciation of


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same phoneme in different positions, replacing words, and finding

stress and boundaries are some good intensive listening practice.

4)Selective listening:

It involves listening to selected part of a text, as it’s name

suggests, to predict information and select ‘cues’ surrounding

information. Thus, the listeners may have an assessment of their

development in listening to authentic language. Here the focus is

on the main parts of the discourse and by noticing these parts

listener construct their understanding of the meaning of whole of

the text through inferring. As the expectation on understanding is

focused and has a purpose, in these activities, listeners have the

chance of second listening to check understanding, and have

feedback repeatedly. Listening to sound sequences, documentary,

story maps, incomplete monologues, conversation cues, and topic

listening are examples of selective listening.

5) Interactive listening:

This is a very advanced stage of listening practice as it

implies social interaction in small groups which is a ‘true test’ of

listening. In interactive listening, learners, either in pairs or in

groups, receive new information, identify them continuously.

Besides, they have to work out the problems of understanding

each other and formulate responses immediately as we are

required to do in real life. So, in spite of calling ‘practice’, this


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goes beyond of it. As this phase involves both comprehension and

production, it directly promotes speaking skill. Teachers have a

central role in this stage. They have to set up specific goals so that

learners can asses their own performance, observe learners’

language in order to provide immediate feedback on their

interaction strategies.

Group survey, self introductions, short speeches, chatting

and discussing, exchanging news and views, interviewing, and

being interviewed etc. might be appropriate here.

b. Listening Process

McDonough and Shaw (1993) and Rost (1991) in an article

cited in http://www.articlesbase.com/languages-articles/teaching-

listening-as-an-english-language-skill-367095.html; explain that a

listener as a processor of language has to go through three processes

using three types of skills:

(a) Processing sound/ Perception skills: As the complete perception

doesn’t emerge from only the source of sound, listeners segment

the stream of sound and detect word boundaries, contracted

forms, vocabulary, sentence and clause boundaries, stress on

longer words and effect on the rest of the words, the significance

of intonation and other language-related features, changes in

pitch, tone and speed of delivery, word order pattern, grammatical

http://www.articlesbase.com/languages-articles/teaching-


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word classes, key words, basic syntactic patterns, cohesive

devices etc.

(b) Processing meaning/ Analysis skills: It’s a very important stage in

the sense, as researches show, that syntax is lost to memory

within a very short time whereas meaning is retained for much

longer. Richards (1985:191) says that, ‘memory works with

propositions, not with sentences’. While listening, listeners

categorize the received speech into meaningful sections, identify

redundant material, keep hold of chunks of the sentences, think

ahead and use language data to anticipate what a speaker may be

going to say, accumulate information in the memory by

organizing them and avoid too much immediate detail.

(c) Processing knowledge and context/ Synthesis skills: Here,

‘context’ refers to physical setting, the number of listener and

speakers, their roles and their relationship to each other while

‘linguistic knowledge’ refers to their knowledge of the target

language brought to the listening experience. Every context has

its individual frame of reference, social attitude and topics. So,

members of a particular culture have particular rules of spoken

behavior and particular topic which instigate particular

understanding. Listening is thought as ‘interplay’ between

language and brain which requires the “activation of contextual


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information and previous knowledge” where listeners guess,

organize and confirm meaning from the context.

c. Micro- and Macroskills of Listening

A useful way of synthesizing the above two lists is to consider

a finite number of micro- and macroskills implied in the performance

of listening comprehension. Richards (1983: 121) proposes list of

microskills has proven useful in the domain of specifying objectives

for learning and may be even more useful in forcing test makers to

carefully identify specific assessment objectives. In the following box,

the skills are subdivided into what he prefers to think of as microskills

(attending to the smaller bits and chunks of language, in more of a

bottom-up process) and macroskills (focusing on the larger elements

involved in a top-down approach to a listening task). The micro- and

macroskills provide 17 different objectives to assess in listening.

Micro- and macroskills of listening (adapted from Richards, 1983:

121-122)

Microskills

1. Discriminate among the distinctive sounds of English2. Retain chunks of language of different lengths in short-term memory.3. Recognize English stress patterns, words in stressed and unstressed

positions, rhythmic structure, intonation contours, and their role insignaling information.

4. Recognize reduced forms of words.5. Distinguish word boundaries, recognize a core of words, and interpret

word order patterns and their significance.


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Implied in the taxonomy above is a notion of what makes

many aspects of listening difficult, or why listening is not simply a

linear process of recording strings of language as they are transmitted

into our brains. Developing a sense of which aspects of listening

performance are predictably difficult will help to challenge the

students appropriately and to assign weights to items. Consider the

following list of what makes listening difficult (adapted from

Richards, 1983; Ur, 1984; Dunkel, 1991: 122):

1) Clustering: attending to appropriate “chunks” of language-phrases,clauses, constituents.

6. Process speech at different rates of delivery7. Process speech containing pauses, errors, corrections, and other

performance variables.8. Recognize grammatical word classes (nouns, verbs, etc.), system (e.g.,

tense, agreement pluralization), patterns, rules, and elliptical forms.9. Detect sentence constituents and distinguish between major and minor

constituents.10. Recognize that a particular meaning may be expressed in different

grammatical forms.11. Recognize cohesive devices in spoken discourse.

Macroskills

1. Recognize the communicative functions of utterances, according tosituations, participants, goals.

2. Infer situations, participants, goals using real-world knowledge.3. From events, ideas, and so on, described, predict outcomes, infer links

and connections between events, deduce causes and effects, and detectsuch relations as main idea, supporting idea, new information, giveninformation, generalization, and exemplification.

4. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.5. Use facial, kinesis, body language, and other nonverbal clues to decipher

meanings.6. Develop and use a battery of listening strategies, such as detecting key

words, guessing the meaning of words from context, appealing for help,and signaling comprehension or lack theory.


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2) Redundancy: recognizing the kinds of repetitions, rephrasing,elaborations, and interactions that unrehearsed spoke languageoften contains, and benefiting from the recognition

3) Reduced forms: understanding the reduced forms that may not havebeen a part of an English learner past learning experiences inclasses where only format “textbook” language has beenpresented.

4) Performance variables: being able to “weed out” hesitations, falsestarts, pauses, and corrections in natural speech.

5) Colloquial language: comprehending idioms, slang, reducedforms, shared cultural knowledge.

6) Rate of delivery: keeping up with the speed of delivery, processingautomatically as the speaker continues

7) Stress, rhythm, and intonation: correctly understanding prosodicelements of spoken language, which is almost always much moredifficult than understanding the smaller phonological bits andpieces.

8) Interaction: managing the interactive flow of language fromlistening to speaking to listening, etc.

It can be concluded that listening is an interactive, interpretive

process in which listeners use prior knowledge and linguistic

knowledge in understanding messages. The skills are subdivided into

micro and macro skills. Listeners should listen selectively for specific

kinds of information, such as listening for the main idea or the

purpose of the information, predicting, drawing inference, and

listening for specific details like implicit and explicit information.

Listening comprehension covers both micro and macro skills. The

students’ micro skills will be about to retain chunks of language of

different lengths in short-term memory to fill in gaps task, chart,

tables, etc. the other micro skills will be to recognize grammatical

word classes, English stress patterns, and a particular meaning that

may be expressed in different grammatical form. The students’ macro


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skills will be from events, ideas, and so on, describing, predicting

outcomes, infering links and connections between events, deducing

causes and effects, and detect such relation as main idea, supporting

idea, new information, given information, generalization, and

exemplifications. Besides that, to infer situations, participants, goals

using real-world knowledge and distinguish between literal and

implied meaning will be measured to know the students’ listening

comprehension.

From the descriptions above it can be concluded that listening

comprehension is a complex process in which the learners use both

micro and macro skill to comprehend. Listeners must discriminate

between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical structures.

Listening is a process of receiving what the speaker actually says

through meaningful interpretation involving word meaning, and

finding of main ideas, explicit information, and implicit information.

2. Teaching Listening

Teaching listening should be conducted as effectively as possible.

In the leraning process the learners must be activelly engaging for the

material. It is important for the teacher to make a well preparation before

the teaching and learning process. Good listening lessons go beyond the

main listening task itself with related activities before and after the

listening. The format may be like the following:


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a. Pre-listening Stage

Some activities before listening may serve as preparation or

warm-up for listening in several ways. These function as ‘reference’

and ‘framework’ by giving prior knowledge of listening activities.

Some recommended per-listening activities include:

1) Introducing the topic and assessing their background knowledge

of the topic or content of the material through commenting on a

picture or photograph, activating their existing knowledge

through discussion. Reading through comprehension questions

in advance, working out own opinion on a topic, predicting

content from the title etc. can be done. Clarifying any necessary

contextual information and vocabulary to comprehend the text.

In this regard showing pictures maps or graphs and may be

helpful.

2) Informing them of the type of text, their role, purposes of the

listening, etc. A short reading passage on a similar topic may

help them.

b. While-Listening Stage:

Activities in this stage must follow the learners’ specific needs,

instructional goal, listening purposes and learners’ proficiency level.

listening activities directly relate to the text and listeners are asked to

do these during or immediately after listening. Some specific cares are

required in designing while-listening activities. These are:


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1) If the students are asked to give written information after

listening, they should have chance to listen the text more than

once which make it easier for them to keep concentration while

listening with specific purposes.

2) Writing activities should be to a minimum. As comprehension is

the prime target, writing would make the listening more

demanding.

3) Global activities like getting the main idea, topic, setting,

summary that focus on the content and forms of the text should be

given more so that listeners are guided through the text. Listening

for the gist is such an activity.

4) More questions should be set up in order to focus student’s

attention on the crucial elements that might help to comprehend

the text. Following the rout on a map or searching for specific

clues to meaning, or identify description of the given pictures

might be appropriate here.

5) Attaching predicting activities before listening so that students

can monitor their comprehension as they listen. Listening with

visuals may serve here.

6) Giving immediate feedback to make the students examine their

responses and how it was. Checking off items in a list,

distinguishing between formal and informal registers conducted

by teacher are examples here.


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c. After-listening Stage:

Post listening activities can be used to check comprehension,

valuate listening skill, use of listening strategies and use the

knowledge gained to other contexts. So, these are called listening

exercises at all and defined as ‘follow-up works.’ The features of these

activities are:

(a) Related to pre-listening activities, such as predicting.

(b) It may create a real life situation where students might be asked to

use knowledge gained through listening.

(c) It may extend the topic and help the students remember new

vocabulary.

3. Designing Assessment Tasks in Listening

After we determined objectives, the next step is to design the tasks,

including making decisions about how it will elicit the performance and

how it will expect the test-taker to respond.

a. Intensive Listening

The focus in this section is on the microskills of intensive

listening. A typical form of intensive listening at this level is the

assessment of recognition of phonological and morphological

elements of language. A classic test task gives a spoken stimulus and

asks test-takers to identify the stimulus from two or more choices, as

in the following two examples:


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Phonemic pair, consonants

Phonemic pair, vowels

In both cases above, minimal phonemic distinctions are the

target. If the testing is recognition of morphology, the same format is

used:

Morphological pair, -ed ending

Hearing the past tense morpheme in this sentence challenges

even advanced learners, especially if no context is provided. Stressed

and unstressed words may also be tested with the same rubric. In the

following example, the reduced form (contraction) of cannot is tested:

Stress pattern in can’t

Because they are decontextualized, these kinds of tasks leave

something to be desired in their authenticity but they are a step better

than items that simply provide a one-word stimulus:

One-word stimulus

Test-takers hear: He’s from CaliforniaTest-takers read: (a) He’s from California

(b) She’s from California

Test-takers hear: Is he living?Test-takers read: (a) Is he leaving?

(b) Is he living?

Test-takers hear: I missed you very much.Test-takers read: (a) I missed you very much

(b) I miss u very much

Test-takers hear: My girlfriend can’t go to the partyTest-takers read: (a) My girlfriend can’t go to the party

(b) My girlfriend can go to the party


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b. Responsive Listening

A question-and-answer format can provide some interactivity

in these lower-end-listening tasks. The test-takers response is the

appropriate answer to a question.

Appropriative response to a question

The objective of this item is recognition of the wh-question

how much and its appropriate response. Distracters are chosen to

represent common learner errors: (a) responding to how much vs. how

much longer; (c) confusing how much in reference to time vs. the

more frequent reference to money; (d) confusing a wh-question with

a yes/no question.

None of the tasks so far discussed have to be framed in a

multiple-choice format. They can be offered in a more open-ended

framework in which test-takers writes or speak the response. The

above item would then look like this:

Test-takers hear: VineTest-takers read: (a) Vine

(b) Wine

Test-takers hear: How much time did you take to do your homework?Test-takers read: (a) In about an hour

(b) About an hour(c) About $10(d) Yes, I did


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Open-ended response to a question

If open-ended response formats gain a small amount of

authenticity and creativity, they of course suffer some in their

practically, as teachers must then read students’ responses and judge

their appropriateness, which takes time.

c. Selective Listening

The next type of listening performance is selective listening,

in which the test-taker listens to a limited quantity of aural input and

must discern within it some specific information. A number of

techniques have been used that require selective listening.

1) Listening cloze

Listening cloze tasks (sometimes called cloze dictations

or partial dictations) require the test-taker to listen to a story,

monologue, or conversation and simultaneously read the written

text in which selected words or phrases have been deleted. Cloze

procedure is most commonly associated with reading only. In its

generic form, the test consists of a passage in which every nth

word (typically every seventh word) is deleted and the test-taker is

asked to supply an appropriate word. In listening cloze task, test-

Test-takers hear: How much time did you take to do yourhomework?

Test-takers read: _____________________.


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takers see a transcript of the passage that they are listening to and

fill in the blanks with the words or phrases that they hear.

2) Information Transfer

Information transfer tasks may reflect greater

authenticity by using charts, maps, grids, timetables, and other

artifacts of daily life. Chart-filling tasks increase in difficulty as

the linguistic stimulus material becomes more complex. In one

task described by Ur (1984: 108-112), test takers listen to a very

long description of animals in various cages in a zoo. While they

listen, they can look at a map of the layout of the zoo with

unlabeled cages. Their task is to fill in the correct animal in each

cage, but the complexity of the language used to describe the

positions of cages and their inhabitants is very challenging.

Similarly, Hughes (1989: 138) described a map-marking task in

which test-takers must process around 250 words of colloquial

language in order to complete the tasks of identifying names,

positions, and directions in a car accident scenario on a city street.

3) Sentence Repetition

The task of simply repeating a sentence or a partial

sentence, or sentence repetition, is also used as an assessment of

listening comprehension. As in a dictation, the test-taker must

retain a stretch of language long enough to reproduce it, and then

must respond with an oral repetition of that stimulus. Incorrect


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listening comprehension, whether at the phonemic or discourse

level, may be manifested in the correctness of the repetition. A

miscue in repetition is scored as a miscue in listening. In the case

of somewhat longer sentences, one could argue that the ability to

recognize and retain chunks of language as well as threads of

meaning might be assessed through repetition.

Sentence repetition is far from a flawless listening

assessment task. Buck (2001: 79) noted that such task “are not just

tests of listening, but tests of general oral skills”. Further, this task

may test only recognition of sounds, and it can easily be

contaminated by lack of short-term memory ability, thus

invalidating it as an assessment of comprehension alone. And the

teacher may never be able to distinguish a listening

comprehension error from an oral production error. Therefore,

sentence repetition tasks should be used with caution.

d. Extensive listening

Drawing a clear distinction between any two of the categories

of listening referred to here is problematic, but perhaps the fuzziest

division is between selective and extensive listening. As we gradually

move along the continuum from smaller to larger stretches of

language, and from micro- to macroskills of listening, the probability

of using more extensive listening tasks increases.


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B. Task Based Instruction

1. The Nature of Task

a. Task

The core concept of task-based learning technique is the task.

The definition of a task has evolved over the last 20 years through

empirical research in classroom implementation. There are different

definitions based on everything from the real world to pedagogical

perspective of task. For a balanced view on tasks, here are some

various perspective of task stated by the experts: Long (1985) defines

task as what people do in everyday life, at work, at play, and in

between. Breen (1987) state that task is a range of work plans for

exercise and activities in language instruction. Littlejohn (1998) also

proposed their idea about task, which is any proposal within the

materials for action undertaken by the learners to bring up the foreign

language learning. Willis (1996) adds that task is a classroom

undertaking for a communicative purpose to achieve an outcome. Ellis

(2003) also states that task is a work plan that requires learners to

process language pragmatically to achieve an outcome. Moreover,

Nunan (2005) states that tasks are a piece of classroom work to

convey meaning rather than to manipulate form.

Long (1985: 89) introduces the concepts of tasks, defining

(target) task as a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others,

freely or for some reward. Thus, examples of tasks include painting a


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fence, dressing a child, filling out a form, buying a pair of shoes,

making an airline reservation, borrowing a library book, taking a

driving test, typing a letter, weighing a patient, sorting letters, making

a hotel reservation, writing a check, finding a street destination and

helping someone cross the road . Long’s tasks (target tasks) here are

very closely related to the real world. Tasks in this definition can be

related to tasks that both use and do not use language. Without

language use, some tasks, such as painting a fence can be achieved.

Nunan (2005) argues that Long’s definition of task does not

necessarily involve language use.

The pedagogical and real worlds are not mutually exclusive.

Indeed, as researchers in the TBLT approach claim, there should be

some connection between the two. However, tasks which are used in

language classrooms need to contribute to developing communicative

abilities. Recently, researchers (breen, 1987; Littlejohn, 1998; Skehan,

1998; Willis & Willis, 2001; Ellis, 2003; Nunan, 2005) have become

interested in the pedagogical tasks which can work in the language

classroom.

From pedagogical perspectives, real world target tasks are

likely to be too difficult for learners to achieve because of potential

semantic, pragmatic, lexical and syntactic difficulties. Thus,

pedagogical tasks should represent a bridge to real world tasks. Breen

(1987: 23) tries to define task from the pedagogical perspective as


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…any structured language learning endeavor which has a particular

objective, appropriate content, a specified working procedures, and a

range of outcomes for those who undertake the task. “Task” is

therefore assumed to refer to a range of work plans which have the

overall purposes of facilitating language learning-from the simple and

brief exercise type, to more complex and lengthy activities such as

group problem-solving or simulations and decision making.

Breen’s definition of task does not clarify how task is

different from practices or exercises. It is a broad view. According to

Breen, all kinds of activities related to language learning can be tasks.

However, tasks are not synonymous with practices or activities

(Nunan,, 2005). Thus, this definition does not seem to help teachers to

understand what tasks are.

Drawing on Breen’s (1987) definition, Littlejohn (1998: 198)

proposed a broader definition that task refers to any proposal

contained within the materials for action to be undertaken by the

learners which has the direct aim of bringing about the learning of the

foreign language. With this definition, each task can be shown

reflecting the three aspects of process, participation and content.

Process means what teachers and learners go through; classroom

participation concerns whom learners work with in the process.

Content is something that learners focus on (Littlejohn, 1998: 198)


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Skehan (1998: 3) also synthesizes the characteristics of a

task: (1) Meaning is primary; (2) Learners are not given other people’s

meaning to repeat; (3) A task has some connection to the real-world;

(4) Task completion has some priority; and (5) the assessment of the

task is in terms of outcome.

Stressing both meaning and form, Ellis (2003: 16) also

defines task in a pedagogical way. He recently defined task as a work

plan that requires learners to process language pragmatically in order

to achieve an outcome that can be evaluated in terms of whether the

correct or appropriate propositional content has been conveyed. To

this end, it requires them to give primary attention to meaning and to

make use of their own linguistic resources, although the design of the

task may predispose them to choose particular forms. A task is

intended to result in language use that bears a resemblance direct or

indirect to the way language is used in the real world. Like other

language activities, a task can engage productive or receptive, and oral

or written skills and also various cognitive processes. Ellis’

definition is very pedagogical because it includes attention to meaning

and engagement with grammar in addition to other major points in

language teaching, such as inclusion of pragmatic properties, use of

authentic language and cognitive process.

Lastly, Nunan (2005: 50) defines task as a piece of classroom

work that involves learners in comprehending, manipulating,


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producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is

focused on mobilizing their grammatical knowledge in order to

express meaning, and in which the intention is to convey meaning

rather than to manipulate form. The task should also have a sense of

completeness, being able to stand alone as a communicative act in its

own right with a beginning; Nunan’s definition emphasizes the

pedagogical tasks’ involvement in communicative language use.

Nunan views tasks as being different from grammatical exercises

because a task involves achieve outcome.

In conclusion, considering the principles of TBLT (i.e.,

authentic, learner-centered, using language, intentional and

interactive), the task is defined as classroom undertakings that are

intended to result in pragmatic language use. Tasks are a central

component of TBLT in language classrooms because they provide a

context that activates learning processes which are related to the real

life situation.

b. Types of Task

(a) Listing

Listing may seem unimaginative, but in practice, listing task

tends to generate a lot of talk as learners explain their ideas. The

processes involved are:

Brainstorming, in which learners draw on their own

knowledge and experience either as a class or in pairs/groups


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Fact-finding, in which learners find things out by asking each

other or other people and referring to books, etc.

The outcome would be the completed list, or possibly a

draft mind map.

(b) Ordering and Sorting

These tasks involve four main processes:

Sequencing items, actions or events in a logical or

chronological order.

Ranking items according to personal values or specified

criteria.

Categorizing items in given groups or grouping them under

given headings

Classifying items in different ways where the categories

themselves are not given

(c) Comparing

Broadly, these tasks involve comparing information of a

similar nature but from different sources or versions in order to

identify common points and/ or differences. The processes

involved are:

Matching to identify specific points and relate them to each

other


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Finding similarities and things in common

Finding differences.

(d) Problem solving

Problem-solving tasks make demand upon people’s

intellectual and reasoning powers, and, though challenging, they

are engaging and often satisfying to solve. The processes and time

scale will vary enormously depending on the type and complexity

of the problem.

Real-life problems may involve expressing hypotheses,

describing experiences, comparing alternatives and evaluating and

agreeing a solution. Completion tasks are often based on short

extracts from texts, where the learners predict the ending or piece

together clues to guess it. The classification ends with case studies,

which are more complex, entail an in-depth consideration of many

criteria, and often involve additional fact-finding and investigating.

(e) Sharing personal experiences

These tasks encourage learners to talk more freely about

themselves and share their experiences with others. The resulting

interaction is closer to casual social conversation in that it is not so

directly goal-oriented as in other tasks. For that vary reasons,

however, these open tasks may be more difficult to get going in the

classroom.


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(f) Creative task

These are often called projects and involve pairs of groups

of learners in some kind of freer creative work. They also tend to

have more stages than other tasks, and can involve combinations of

task types: listing, ordering and sorting, comparing and problem

solving. Out-of-class research is sometimes needed. Organizational

skills and team-work are important in getting the task done. The

outcome can often be appreciated by a wider audience than the

students who produce it.

In real life rehearsals pairs or groups of students predict,

plan and rehearse what they could say in typical real-life situations

(e.g. buying stamps). They then perform their dialogue in front of

the class, and/or record it. Next, they either hear a recording of a

real-life parallel dialogue, or, if they are in an English-speaking

area, they go to the place (e.g. the post office) and take notes of

what people actually say. If possible, they also take part in a similar

situation themselves (e.g. buy the stamps) with another student

taking notes. Finally, students compare the real-life versions with

their own prepared scripts.

c. Task-based Instruction for listening Comprehension

Listening comprehension skill is an important skill to develop

students’ listening ability. An effective listener develops a useful way

of thinking about meaning as they listen. The use of task which


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focuses on meaning in listening develops listener’s listening

comprehension skill. Anderson and Lynch (1997:4) state that

understanding is not something that happens because of what speaker

says that the listener has a crucial part to play in the process, by

activating various types of knowledge, and by applying what he

knows to what he hears and trying to understand what speaker means.

O’ Malley and Chimot (1996:132) state that listening

comprehension entails active and conscious process in which the

listener constructs meaning by using cues from contextual information

and from existing knowledge, while relying upon multiple strategies

resources to fulfill the task requirement. Therefore, learners should

construct their linguistics and non-linguistics competence to guess

meaning of aural language and the listening task to examine their

understanding.

Brown (1987) informs that the main idea behind a task-based

approach to developing listening is the students become active

learners. With this approach, students are asked to listen to what are

described as “authentic” situations and to “do something” with the

information. The information is usually transferred from spoken text

to a graphic form. Because the texts are authentic (usually semi-

scripted), students cope with language being spoken at normal speed

and with features such as accents, hesitations, fillers and ellipses.


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The result of a task-based activity can be open-ended. For

example, while listening to a short lecture, students may be required to

make notes and draw a simple diagram. Different students will have

their own way of recording the information. The way they do this is

not as important as being able to report the information they have

understood. Kumaravadivelu (1991: 100) states that in the context of

task-based pedagogy the learning outcome is the result of a fairly

unpredictable interaction between the task and the task situation.

Therefore, the process students employ in finding a successful

outcome to the task is more important than being able to understand

all the spoken text presented to them. According to the task-based

approach, students need to use holistic inferential strategies.

As a general rule, exercises for listening comprehension are

more effective if they are constructed around a task. The students

should be “required to do something in response to what they hear that

will demonstrate their understanding” (Dunkel, 1986: 104; Ur, 1984:

25). Examples of tasks are answering questions appropriate to the

learners’ comprehension ability, taking notes, taking dictation, and

expressing agreement or disagreement. However, Dunkel (1986: 104)

and Wing (1986) suggested that listening activities should require the

students to demonstrate listening skills. Consequently, listening

exercises should be dependent upon students’ skills in listening, rather

than skills in reading, writing, or speaking.


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There are different types of tasks that the students can

perform without speaking, reading, or writing. One is a transferring

exercise that involves “receiving information in one form and

transferring the information or parts of it into another form”

(Richards, 1983: 235), such as drawing a picture or a diagram

corresponding to the information given (Dirven & Oakeshott-Taylor,

1985; Dunkel, 1986; Lund, 1990; Paulston & Bruder, 1976; Richards,

1983; Ur, 1984). Another kind of listening task is a matching exercise

that involves selecting a response from alternatives, such as pictures

and objects that correspond with what was heard (Lund, 1990;

Richards, 1983). Sample of this type of exercise are choosing a picture

to match a situation and placing pictures in a sequence, which matches

a story or set of events (Richards, 1983). The other type of listening

task involves physical movement (Dunkel, 1986; Lund, 1990; Ur,

1984); that is, the students have to respond physically to oral

directions.

Task-based language teaching has a number of purposes.

Willis (1996: 35–6) identifies eight purposes:

1. To give learners’ confidence in trying out whatever language theyknow;

2. To give learners experience of spontaneous interaction;3. To give learners the chance to benefit from noticing how others

express similar meanings;4. To give learners chances for negotiating turns to speak;5. To engage learners in using language purposefully and

cooperatively;6. To make learners participate in a complete interaction, not just one-

off sentences;


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7. To give learners chances to try out communication strategies; and8. To develop learners’ confidence that they can achieve

communicative goals.

From the quotation above Task based activity assumes can

make the students find the experience to be rewarding, intrinsically

interesting, and educationally beneficial. When they get involved in

the task it is hopefully that they can enjoy and have much confident to

do the tasks, because the tasks will give the feeling of real life

situation.

The aim of communication tasks is to stimulate real

communication in the target language. The task-based framework

takes into account about what we know how people learn languages.

For example, the practice of language forms does not necessarily

make perfect. People cannot learn a language without plenty of

opportunities for real language use. It also important that the language

that they exposed to and that they use reflects the kind of language

they want to learn. It includes spontaneous spoken language which is

very different from planned written language, and that is what they

need to hear to study.

Task-based instruction provides activity for the students to

be active engaging the teaching and learning process. The activities

also have varieties of exercise for the students which are based on the

authentic real life situations. The result of a task-based activity can be

open-ended. The students have freedom to record the information they


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have and it also the same thing while they report the information they

get. The teacher and the students can have enjoyable discussion. In

Task-based instruction the students should be required to do

something in response to what they hear that will demonstrate their

understanding. Here, the students may speak up to express their ideas

or they can draw a picture or a diagram corresponding to the

information given.

The most important thing is Task-based instruction can give

the learners confident to tryout whatever language they know, give

spontaneous interaction, give the learners chance to benefit from

noticing how others express similar meanings, give chances for

negotiating turns to speak, engage the learners in using language

purposefully and cooperatively, make learners participate in a

complete interaction, not just one-off sentences, give learners chances

to try out communication strategies, and to develop learners’

confidence that they can achieve communicative goals.

2. The teaching steps of Task-Based Instruction

Willis (1998: 39-56) describes the use task-based teaching in the

classroom model, that is, before the event, tasks ring, and after the event.

1. Before the event (pre-task)

The introduction of the first tasks of teachers. Preparation

before the event is to ensure a smooth conditions. At this stage, the

main task of teachers is to help students understand the subject and to


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achieve mission objectives, such as through pictures or talking about

personal experiences such as the introduction of the theme; or through

different means to resolve the task of the obstacles that may arise,

such as the provision of certain word or phrase, give the students time

to think, listening to recordings or read text and so on. These activities

can help students to recall studied words, give them time to organize

the content to be expressed is conducive to the completion of the

second phase of the task.

Pre-task activities to explore topic language should actively

involve all learners, give them relevant exposure, and, above all,

create interest in doing a task on the topic. The sample instruction that

the teacher might give to the students are: classifying words and

phrases, matching phrases to pictures, memory challenge,

brainstorming and mind-maps, thinking of questions to ask, or teacher

recounting a similar experience.

Allowing a few minutes for learners to prepare themselves

individually for certain tasks has been shown to result in language use

that is richer in terms of complexity and variety of syntax, breadth of

vocabulary, and in fluency and naturalness.

2. Task ring (task-cycle)

Task cycle is divided into three phases which are task stage,

planning stage and report stage. The task stage is therefore a vital

opportunity for all learners to use whatever language they can master,


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working simultaneously, in pairs or small groups, to achieve the goals

of the task. At this time, they have the opportunity to express ideas

with existing knowledge, content can be related to the main text

around or recording. At the task stage, timing is important. Tasks can

take from one minute to ten or more, depending on the type of task

and its complexity. Set a time limit that is too short rather than too

long – it is easier to extend it than to stop students before the limit is

up. It is better to stop before anyone gets bored, even if some pairs

have not finished. Give a one-minute warning before the end of the

task. Immediately after the task, it is a good idea to take up briefly one

or two points of interest that the teacher heard while monitoring, and

to comment positively on the way students do the task.

In the planning stage, the students can preview the third phase

of drafting or to say or to offer written content. Planning focused on

making the third phase of the report are clear, appropriate, and

orderly. Teachers can look back and forth activities, to provide the

necessary assistance; students can take advantage of this opportunity

to teachers to ask questions. The third phase of Teachers 1-2 pairs /

group of students to report on results, other students can add the

missing content, and then reported by teachers on the content of

comments.

The report stage is the natural conclusion of the task cycle. In

itself it probably presents slightly less of a learning opportunity than


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the planning stage. But without the incentive of the report, the

learning process of planning, drafting and rehearsing would not

happen.

Their reports will not resemble native-speaker language; there

are bound to be strange wordings and grammatical errors. What is of

vital importance is to acknowledge that students are offering them as

the best they can achieve at that moment, given the linguistic

resources and time are available.

3. Task-Based Instruction in teaching Listening

The teacher devised specific strategies for the four tasks

specified to fulfill the indicator of listening comprehension. The

strategies for each task type are listed below:

a. Ordering and sorting

In this task type, the students have to order and sorting the

information or data according to specified criteria. They try to

predict what parts or sections or places might be called in the

recording. The students also have to anticipate how locations or

features might be described. The important thing is they have to

listen carefully to instructions.

From this task type the students are expected to understand

vocabulary and grammatical structures, find the explicit, and

implicit information.


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b. Form-filling

In this activity, the students read the form carefully and think of

how the words will sound when they hear them. The students must

try to predict the information from the recording to fill the form.

The students hopefully can understand vocabulary; discriminate

between sounds, and constructing and representing meaning.

c. Matching

Here, the students have to look carefully at the graphics or pictures

in the time given. They have to think about what they know about

the object in the diagram. Besides that, the students have to

anticipate the vocabulary and ideas they might hear, and identify

the differences between the pictures. In this type the students are

expected to understand vocabulary and grammatical structure, word

meaning, explicit, and implicit information.

d. Sharing personal experiences

The last type is sharing personal experiences. In this type the

students have to describing, explaining and exploring attitudes,

giving opinions, and reactions on the topic given. They have to

anticipate the vocabulary and ideas they might hear, predict what to

listen for to decide the answer, and they are recommended to share

their opinions, reactions that they identify with their friends. This

task type demands the students to find general ideas, explicit


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information, implicit information and understand vocabulary and

grammatical structure.

The teaching steps of those four task type are explained as

follow:

a. While listening to task recordings, it is important for learners to

feel they are managing to understand quite a lot for themselves. If

the pre-task phase has familiarized the class with the task topic

and objectives, learners will have some expectations of the

recording. Before they listen, the teacher should do the following

steps:

a) Introduce the speakers on the cassette

b) Make sure the students realize the speakers are doing a similar

task to the one they will do or have done

c) Make sure the students know why the teacher doesn’t expect

them to understand everything. Tell them it might sound

difficult to start with, but you’ll play it several times

d) Make sure the students know why they’re listening each time

you play the recording, whether it is before or after the task.

e) If the recording and listening purpose is introduced clearly in

the students’ book, encourage students to read this for

themselves. After they have worked out the instruction, ask

them to explain to you what hey are going to hear and listen

for.


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f) The first time students hear the recording, make sure they

have a fairly basic listening purpose.

The basic objective at this stage is to encourage learners to

listen selectively. Setting a different purpose each time they listen,

each slightly more challenging than the last, is a way of grading the

activity. In this way, different parts of the exposure become clearer,

until most of the interaction becomes comprehensible input.

b. During the task phase, in this stage, the students complete a task,

depending on the type of activity. For example, the students get

into groups, pretend order or role-play with each other, and use

their language resources. The teacher is the observer or counselor

in monitoring the tasks. So the methodology is more student-

centered. Then, the students prepare either a written or oral report

to present to the class. They practice the report in their groups. The

instructor takes equations and monitors the students. Finally, the

students present their reports to the class and the teacher or the

other students provide written or oral feedback. Since each students

have a computer and a pair of headset while studying listening it is

necessary for them to have freedom to play the recording by

themselves while they do the task.

c. In the language focus stage, the teacher reviews what happened in

the task, with regards to language and highlights relevant parts for

the students to analyze. It may be language forms used by the


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students, problems that the students had, or forms that need to be

covered more and were not used sufficiently. Then, the teacher

selects language areas to practice, based upon the needs of the

students. Students do practice activities to increase their confidence

and make a note of useful language. In this model the students are

free of language control and they use their language resources to

develop a natural context from their experiences with the language.

They have more exposure to language, lexical phrases,

collocations, patterns and language forms and can spend a lot of

time communicating. They can adjust their language for the report

stage.

3. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Task-Based Instruction

There are advantages and disadvantages of task-based instruction.

The advantages are numerous. First of all, TBI is suitable for all ages and

backgrounds, especially young learners. All children have learned their

L1 in a contextualized setting, learning grammar and structure

inductively. Their focus is on meaning, not form. A special

consideration for these learners is that their language skills are still

developing and teachers must be careful to create appropriate tasks for

their level (Bourke, 2006: 74). Some other advantages of TBI are that it

can be used to teach content as well as language, can be combined with

more traditional teaching methods, can provide motivation due to tasks

being relevant and immediate, and can be a useful method for students


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who don’t do well in more traditional types of classroom learning or

where teachers have little autonomy over their lesson planning (Krahnke,

1987: 74).

As for the disadvantages, a major one is that TBI requires a high

level of creativity and initiative on the part of the teacher. In an EFL

situation, there is a bigger challenge since comprehensible target language

input is limited. However, the use of authentic materials and contact with

native speakers can help. Another difficulty is that teachers will probably

find evaluating students’ performance in TBI challenging unless a

specific rubric for assessment is created (Krahnke, 1987: 74)

C. Teaching Listening Using Task-Based Instruction Compared to Direct

Instruction Method

In comparing the two teaching methods, Task-Based Instruction and

Direct Instruction, there are some general categories and contexts in the

classroom implementation.

a. General Categories

The general categories of both teaching methods are illustrated inTable 2.1. below.

Category Task-Based Instruction Direct Instruction

1) Exposure is to a rich butcomprehensible input ofreal spoken and writtenlanguage in use

is to a directed learning towardteaching academic contentwhich built up in a carefullygraded progression


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2) Student’sdependency

encourages the studentsto be more independent

have low independent

3) Teacher’srole

teacher plays less role teacher dominates the entireactivities

4) Usage focus on meaning focus on form

5) ListeningStrategy

encourages students tobe more active, creativeand initiative

the teachers become moreactive, creative and initiativethan the students

b. Contexts in Classroom

One of the examples of the implementation of both teachingmethods is described in Table 2.2. below.

Table 2.3. The Example of Teaching Techniques in Classroom Context

Institution : STKIP-PGRI Pontianak

Subject : Listening 2

Semester : II

Language skill : Listening

Task type : Matching

Meeting : 1

Time allocation : 2 x 45 minutes (1 meeting)

I. Competency StandardStudents are able to understand the spoken language in daily lifecontext to access the information and complete the task in formof ordering and sorting, form-filling, matching and sharingpersonal experiences.


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II. Basic CompetencyStudents are able to respond the spoken language to getinformation and sharing ideas in daily life context to access theinformation of the task in form of of ordering and sorting, form-filling, matching and sharing personal experiences.

III. Indicator1. Finding the main idea;2. Understand the meaning of words based on the context;3. Understand the explicit information;4. Find the implicit information.

Task-Based Instruction Direct Instruction

1. Introduction of the task.

2. Helping the studentsunderstand the subject andachieve the task objectives

3. Asking the students to callout all the words theyknow connected with thetopic.

4. Giving the students a copyof The Vishna Family andthe Blake family

5. Giving the studentsinstruction to study thepicture and asking them totry to guess the possibilityabout what they will haveto do this time

6. Distributing a set of namecards and a picture to thestudents

7. Giving the students therecording on theircomputers and asking

1. Introducing the topic

2. Giving the students somequestions related to the topic

3. Showing the students apicture by using LCD aboutthe Family and asking thestudents to guess what theyare going to do with thepicture

4. Explaining to the studentsthat they will hear arecording once and they justneed to listen to it carefully.Besides that the teacher alsogives the students someclues about the recordingand the guidance to thestudents about the story inthe recording.

5. At the second play theteacher asks the students tofill in the blank on theirwork sheet from theconversation. The teacherguides the students to fill inthe form and then discuss it


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them to listen bythemselves for about 5minutes

8. Asking the students tomatch the name cards tothe picture according tothe recording

9. Asking the students aboutthe main idea of theconversation.

10. Asking the students toanswer some explicit andimplicit information aboutthe topic.

11. Asking the students to findthe meaning of unfamiliarwords that they’ve heardfrom the recording.

12. Asking the students todiscuss the task giventogether and the studentsare allowed to have somequestions

13. Asking the students tomake a report related tothe task that they have justdone individually.

together with the otherstudents.

6. The teacher will call out thestudents’ name one by oneand then ask them to givetheir answer. If the studentscan’t give their answer thenthe teacher will help themby giving them some cluesto answer.

7. Asking the students to findthe main ideas of therecording, find the meaningof words based on therecording, and then answerthe questions from therecording explicitly, andimplicitly. The teacher willlead the students to do theexercise according to thecontext in the recording.

IV. Evaluation

Ask the students to answer these questions based on theirunderstanding about the recording!

1. What is the topic of the conversations above?2. Where do you think the conversation take place?3. How many speakers do you hear from the recording?4. What do you think about Jame’s family?


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5. Find the meaning of these words based on the recording:a. Familyb. Motherc. Fatherd. Sistere. Grandmother

D. Direct Instruction Method

1. Definition of Direct Instruction

An approach incorporating elements of both expository instruction

and mastery learning is Direct Instruction, which uses a variety of

techniques to keep students continually and actively engaged in learning

and applying classroom subject matter (e.g., Englemann & Carnine, 1982;

R. M Gagné, 1985; Tarver, 1992; Weinert & Helmke, 1995).

Peterson (1999: 231) defines direct method as the similar to

traditional teaching. Generally speaking traditional teaching is directed

toward teaching academic content. It is also characterized by teacher-

centered and teacher-dominated classroom. We can say that it is teacher-

centered method in which the lesson is taught by using English directly.

To some extent, direct instruction is based on behaviorist ideas; it

requires learner to make frequent responses and provides immediate

reinforcement of correct response through teacher feedback. But direct

instruction also considers principles from cognitive psychology, including

the importance of attention and long-term memory storage process in

learning, the limited capacity of working memory, and the value of

learning basic skills to automaticity (Rosenshine & Stevens, 1986).


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2. Direct Instruction of Teaching Steps

Different theorists describe and implement direct instruction

somewhat differently. But in general, this approach involves small and

carefully sequenced steps, fast pacing, and a great deal of teacher-student

interaction. Each lesson typically involves most or all of the following

components (Rosenshine & Stevens, 1986):

1. Review of previously learned material. The teacher reviews relevant

content from previous lessons, checks homework assignments

involving that content, and re-teaches any information or skills that

students have not yet understand.

2. Statement of the objectives of the lesson. The teacher describes one or

more concepts or skills that students should master in the new lesson.

3. Presentation of new material in small, logical sequenced steps. The

teacher presents a small amount of information or a specific skill,

perhaps through a verbal explanation, modeling, and one or more

examples. The teacher may also provide an advance organizer, ask

questions, or in the other ways scaffold students’ efforts to process

and remember the material.

4. Guided student practice and assessment after each step. Students have

numerous opportunities to practice what they are learning, perhaps by

answering questions, solving problems, or performing modeled

procedures. The teacher gives hints during students’ early responses,

provides immediate feedback about their performance, makes


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suggestions about how to improve, and provides remedial instruction

as needed.

5. Independent Practice. Once students have acquired some mastery

(e.g., by correctly answering 80% of questions), they engage in further

practice either independently or in small cooperative learning groups.

By doing so, they work toward achieving automaticity for the material

in questions.

6. Frequent follow-up reviews. Over the course of the school tear, the

teacher provides opportunities for students to review previously

learned material, perhaps through homework assignments, writing

tasks, or paper-and-pencil quizzes.

The teacher moves back and forth among these steps as necessary

to ensure that all students are truly mastering the subject matter. In a direct

instruction lesson the teacher usually spends some time lecturing then the

teacher guides the students through a complex problem, with the problem

broken down into some steps; then the students are given, one by one, the

simple steps to carry out on their own; finally, the students are given one

or many sample problems to accomplish on their own.

3. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Direct Instruction Method

McVittie in his article about Teaching Science in Elementary

School (Adapted on 15 december 2011) states that Direct instruction is an

instructional method from the Transmission paradigm, and is based on the

learning theories of behaviourism and developmentalism. In a direct


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instruction lesson: the teacher usually spends some time lecturing; then

the teacher guides the students through a complex problem, with the

problem broken down into simple steps; then the students are given, one

by one, the simple steps to carry out on their own; finally, the students are

given one or many sample problems to accomplish on their own.

In his article, McVittie also gives some advantages and

disadvantages of Direct Instruction method, as follows:

The advantages of direct instruction teaching are that:

The teacher has control of the timing of the lesson.

Students are physically easy to monitor.

The teacher has control over what will be learned, and who will

learn. If you want to reward the middle class students, this is the kind

of teaching method to use.

The curriculum can be covered, so the teacher can say that s/he

taught the material.

Some material should be taught this way! Any information for which

there is one right answer, and for which that answer is relatively

simple, can be taught efficiently and honestly by using direct

instruction.


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The disadvantages of direct instruction teaching are that:

It is based on old learning theories: that we must learn simple tasks

before complex ones, and that only measurable learning is

worthwhile.

Students do not have a sense of the overall purpose of the simple

steps.

Teachers cannot assess what the students’ prior knowledge is, so

will be unaware of why particular students cannot learn.

Retention of how to solve the problems is low, because the students

have not struggled with the problem themselves.

Direct instruction as an instructional method works for only a small

percentage of students, not for a great variety. The students who

have other than verbal “intelligence”, or who come from different

cultural world views will fail.

Based on the explanation above it can be concluded that Direct

instruction method is one of methods in teaching listening. Unfortunately, this

method is teacher-centered where the teachers do lecturing activity for the

most hours of teaching and learning activity. Direct instruction method also

makes the students feel worried or inconvenient in learning activity since the

students must master the new lesson only by describing the skill in one or

more concept. The teacher also treats the students in such a way by moving

back and forth just to ensure the students are truly mastering the subject


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matter. This kind of teaching and learning activity makes the students feel

restricted to be active and share their ideas in the subject matter. Then, it will

arouse the student’s anxiety about their ability to the material and depressed

during the teaching and learning process.

E. Anxiety

1. Definition of Anxiety

Language-learning anxiety can be defined as the feeling of tension

and apprehension specifically associated with second-language contexts

(MacIntyre & Gardner, 1994b: 284). As reviewed by MacIntyre (1999;

2002), Horwitz (2001), and Dörnyei (2002; 2005), anxiety has established

itself as one of the important variables responsible for individual

differences in the success or failure of second-language learning.

According to the Wikipedia definition (Adapted on December 15th,

2011) anxiety is a complex combination of negative emotions that includes

fear, apprehension, and worrieness, and is often accompanied by physical

sensations such as palpitations, nausea, chest pain and/or shortness of

breath. Another definition provided by Abel and Arkin (1990: 171) that

common symptoms of performance anxiety as excessive physiological

arousal, negative cognition including apprehension and fear of making

mistakes, and decrease of learners performance when practicing second

language learning.


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Anxiety, in general, can be associated with threats to self-efficacy

and appraisals of situations as threatening (Papamihiel, 2002:331) or an

uneasy feeling due to something threatening (Koba, et al., 2000).

Meanwhile, language anxiety refers to the feeling of tension and

apprehension experienced by learners in the foreign language classrooms

(MacIntyre and Gardner, 1994). More specifically, Horwitz, et al. (1986:

128) argue that language anxiety is a distinctive complex of self-

perception, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to classroom language

learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process.

Pappamihiel (2002: 120) divides the anxiety into two types: state

anxiety and trait anxiety. State anxiety is a type of anxiety which occurs

because learners are exposed to particular conditions or situations. For

example, there are learners who may feel anxious if they are requested to

speak in front of the class or if they do not understand many of the

teacher’s words during the class. Meanwhile, trait anxiety is a person’s

tendency to feel anxious regardless of the situations to which they are

exposed. In regard to this, Worde (1998) argues that trait anxiety is a part

of somebody’s character and is a permanent disorder.

It is widely accepted that anxiety plays a crucial role while learning

a foreign language. Although anxiety is often associated with fear,

frustration, and negative arousal, second language learning anxiety is

thought to be a unique type of anxiety peculiar to learning a second

language. It has been reported that in language classes students who suffer


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from second language learning anxiety become defensive and offensive,

are frightened by the tests, tend to sit passively in the classroom, are

reluctant to do activities that could improve their language skills and are

unable to use effective learning strategies

From the theories above, it can be summarized that anxiety in

language learning is a complex combination of negative emotions that

include fear, apprehension, and worrieness. Anxiety arises from the

uniqueness of the second language learning process which comprises

worrieness and feelings of fear in making mistakes and tends to make the

students become passively engaging to the teaching and learning process.

2. Anxiety and Listening Comprehension

Anxiety has been rigorously defined and asserted as ‘the emotion

that one feels generally in certain related types of situations (trait anxiety)

or in a specific situation (state anxiety)’ (Spielberger, 1966: 65). Being

stable over time and present in a variety of situations, trait anxiety is

considered as part of a person’s personality, which represents the

likelihood of being anxious in specific types of situations. Most people

experience anxiety that is present only during a particular situation or

incident, which can be considered passing, and ideally will diminish over

time.

According to Chastain (1979: 81-88) listening is a complex skill

students have the fear of understanding the message and interpret it


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correctly. Why many students complain about the difficulties of listening

in FL may also depend on feelings of inadequacies or lack of confidence

(Dunkel, 1991). In this respect, FL listening anxiety may intervene in

successful foreign language learning experience and may cause tension of

fear while listening in FL. Christenberry (2003) underlines the

problematic nature of listening and asserts that it is an incredibly difficult

area to teach properly; thus, is likely to cause anxiety. Furthermore,

Vogely (1999) clearly emphasizes that one of the most ignored but

potentially one of the most debilitating type of anxiety is the anxiety

accompanying listening comprehension.

It has been highlighted that learners may feel anxious while

listening in the target language due to many factors such as the

authenticity of the listening text, incomprehensibility of the listening

material and some external environmental factors like noise and

inaudibility (Samuels, 1984; Bacon, 1992). Whatever the reason is,

uncertainties listening skill imposes track learners back from a successful

listening experience. Although studies on skill specific anxieties such as

listening anxiety are still rare, importance of FL anxiety has been realized

by some researchers in recent years.

Less-focused attention, less effective information processing, and

poorer retrieval of prior knowledge are noticeable features of poor

performance in L2 listening (Arnold, 2000; Vogley, 1998). L2 listeners

cannot manage or control the input and are at the mercy of the delivery of


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speech unless they are skillful enough to request that the input be slowed

down, repeated, or clarified. In other words, they may be overloaded with

unprocessed aural information. Listeners in L2 worry about

misunderstanding or non-understanding, and they fear embarrassing

outcomes (Maclntyre, 1995).

Listening anxiety is a specific anxiety reaction, meaning that an

individual's reactions and feelings are due directly to the scenario of

learning a language. Unlike chronic anxiety sufferers whose anxiety is

caused by a number of variable factors, people with listening

comprehension anxiety may only feel the effects of the anxiety when the

situation is directly related to learning the language. Students who suffer

from listening anxiety may not be able to progress in learning a new

language skill, whether in written, verbal or listening categories. Students

may find it difficult to retain knowledge of vocabulary, grammar and

sentence structure. Furthermore, a student with listening anxiety may be

unable to process information and perform according to given instructions

due to his inability to comprehend the language.

Feelings of anxiety, apprehension, and nervousness are commonly

expressed by second/foreign language learners in learning to listen a

second/foreign language especially English. Less-focused attention, less-

effective information processing, and poorer retrieval of prior knowledge

are noticeable features of poor performance in listening English (Arnold,

2000; Vogely, 1998: 175). The students cannot manage or control the


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input and are at the mercy of the delivery of speech unless they are skillful

enough to request that the input be slowed down, repeated, or clarified. In

other words, they may be overloaded with unprocessed aural information.

The students worry about misunderstanding or non-understanding, and

they fear embarrassing outcomes (MacIntyre, 1995: 175). Anxiety is an

affective factor in listening comprehension, plays a very important role

because the anticipation of foreign language use in receiving information

can provoke anxiety. Listening comprehension is “highly anxiety-

provoking if the discourse is incomprehensible” (Young, 1992: 562).

Horwitz (1986: 127) states that there are three related performance

anxieties: (1) communicative apprehension; (2) test anxiety, and (3) fear or

negative evaluation. As the name suggests, the first aspect refers to

”shyness” experienced when an individual is required to communicate

with others, whether in listening (“receiver anxiety”) or speaking (“oral

communication anxiety”). In the foreign language classroom, a student

may be apprehensive about not being able to control what is happening in

communicative activities and may feel that others are always evaluating

his/her interventions.

The second aspect, test anxiety, arises from a “fear of failure”.

Students who suffer from this kind of anxiety frequently “put unrealistic

demands on themselves and feel that anything less than a perfect test

performance is a failure”.


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The third aspect, fear of negative evaluation, is considered by

Horwitz, et al. (1986: 128) to be “apprehension about others’ evaluations,

avoidance of evaluative situations, and the expectations that others would

evaluate oneself negatively”. While fear of negative evaluation is like test

anxiety to some extent, it is more far-reaching in that it applies to any

social evaluative context in which the individual worries about the

possibly unfavorable impression she/he is making on others, such as in the

foreign language classroom, where both teacher and peers may appear to

be never endingly assessing her/his performance.

Krashen (1976; 1980) in Horwitz, et al. (1986: 127) states that

listening or the extracting meaning from messages in second language was

the “primary process in the development of a second language”, and

postulate that anxiety formed an “affective filter” that interfered with an

individual’s capacity to receive and process oral messages successful.

MacIntyre & Gardner (1994a: 284) inform that language anxiety can be

defined as the feeling of tension and apprehension specifically associated

with second language contexts, including speaking, listening, and learning.

Horwitz, et al (1986: 126) report that many students were anxious

when listening to second language, and had “difficulties in discriminating

the sounds and structures of a target language message”. Vogely (1998:

67) also reports classroom practices which aroused foreign language

listening comprehension anxiety in students, and to offer solutions that

might alleviate students’ listening anxiety. On a questionnaire, students


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wrote whether or not they experienced anxiety when listening in language

class, what things made them feel anxious during listening exercises, and

what they thought help reduce listening anxiety.

The speed of delivery was the most frequently reported cause of

listening comprehension anxiety, followed by bad diction, variety of

accents, and teachers who spoke too quietly. As to level of difficulty,

exercises that were too complex, unknown vocabulary, difficult syntax and

unfamiliar topics were other sources of language listening comprehension

anxiety. Students were anxious if they did not know what was required

from them in the listening activity or why. Some of them needed the help

of some visual aid to help with listening task. Feeling anxious also

happens if they could only listen to texts twice before having to respond.

According to Scarcella and Oxford (1992: 1710), listening anxiety

occurs when students feel they are faced with a task that is too difficult or

unfamiliar to them. This anxiety is exacerbated if the listeners are under

the false impression that they must understand every word they hear. In

addition Horwitz (1987: 1710) says that many learners believe that in

order to be “good at a language they need perfect pronunciation, massive

amounts of vocabulary, extensive grammar knowledge, overseas

experience, and a natural aptitude for language before they even opens

their mouths. As a result, the anxiety that arises during the listening

activity comes from a negative “listening self-concept,” that is, a low level

of self-confidence in the area of listening (Joiner 1986).


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Vogely (1998: 67-70) reports the sources of anxiety in foreign

language listening comprehension anxiety in four principal categories: “(a)

listening comprehension anxiety associated with characteristics of foreign

language input; (b) listening comprehension anxiety associated with

processing-related aspects of foreign language; (c) listening

comprehension anxiety associated with instructional factors; and (d)

listening comprehension anxiety associated with attributes of the teacher

or learner”.

Kim (2000: 141-143) reported that there was a statistically

significant and negative correlation between proficiency in English

language listening and listening anxiety. Principal components analysis

produced two factors: 1) tension and worry over English listening, and 2)

lack of confidence in listening activity was the most significant predictor

of listening proficiency level”. Kim also revealed that learners were

nervous about the following: (a) the listening text (“speed, pronunciation,

intonation, acoustic conditions, length of a listening text, level of

vocabulary; (b) the interlocutors (gender or number of speakers, previous

knowledge, learning style of the listener); and (c) the process of listening

(the effectiveness or choice of listening strategies)”. Kim also found that

learners were sensitive to both the type of listening passages and kinds of

tasks.

From the theories above it can be concluded that language anxiety

can be defined as the feeling of tension and apprehension experienced by


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learners in the foreign language classrooms specifically associated with the

second language contexts, including speaking, listening and learning.

Anxiety in listening skill is a feeling of tension and worries over English

listening, apprehension about other’s evaluations, worry about

misunderstanding or non-understanding, had difficulties in discriminating

the sounds and structures of a target language, and lack of confidence in

listening activities.

F. Review of Related Research

To support this research, it is considered necessary to review several

studies related to the research. There are some previous researches related to

the Task-Based Instruction.

First, David Nunan (1991) in his research article entitled:

“Communicative Tasks and the Language Curriculum” provided a selective

overview of the development of Task-Based language teaching. He tried to

show that, while it had its genesis in mainstream education, Task-Based

teaching has become a powerful influence in language education. At a

conceptual level, the approach has been supported by changing conceptions

of the nature of language and learning-captured under the rubric of

communication language teaching.

Second, Albert Weideman (2006) in his research article entitled:

“Assessing Academic Literacy in a Task-Based Approach”, has concluded by

suggesting a number of possible alternative task types that may achieve a


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closer alignment with the goals embodied in the construct. Various

developmental, contextual, administrative and logistical constraints appear,

however, to affect the level of resemblance to academic discourse of the test

task types.

Third, McDonough (2007) in his research article entitled: Teachers’

and Learners’ Reactions to a Task-Based EFL Course in Thailand” has

investigated Task-Based courses as opposed to individual tasks. His study has

made a modest contribution to understanding teachers’ and learners’

impressions of a Task-Based EFL course, but considerable research is still

necessary to create a robust empirical base that L2 teachers can draw on when

creating, implementing, and revising Task-Based courses.

Fourth, M. M Rahman (2010) in his research article entitled:

“Teaching Oral Communication Skills: A Task-Based Approach” has

described that the majority of the learners found the experience to be

rewarding, intrinsically interesting, and educationally beneficial. They got

involved in the task, because the tasks were giving the feeling of real life

situation. Their final performance was impressively polished and much

improved.

Fifth, Mahan Attar and S. S. Chopra (2010) in their research article

entitled, “Task-Based Language Teaching in India” has proved that Task-

Based teaching that combines the best insights from communicative language

teaching, offers a change from the traditional method which learners may

have failed to learn to communicate. It creates a real purpose for language use


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and provides a natural context for language study. This kind of teaching helps

teachers to maximize opportunities for learners to put their limited language

to genuine use and creates a more effective learning environment.

Sixth, Siros Izadpanah (2010) in his research article entitled: “A Study

on Task-Based Language Teaching: From Theory to Practice” has concluded

that Since TBLT is a new approach requiring a change in methodological

focus rather than a new method requiring the wholesale learning of new

teaching techniques, a text based on a structural/functional syllabus can

provide some activities out of which Task-Based frameworks can be

constructed. While a variety of design changes and changes in how the

materials are used will typically be required, the biggest challenge for a

designer involves redesigning grammar practice exercises into post-task

language analysis activities and coming up with tasks intensive enough to

allow for comparative analysis.

From those previous studies related to Task-Based Instruction as the

teaching methods, there are some similarities compared to the methods used

for this research:

1. Task-Based Instruction can create more creative learning environment.

2. Task-Based Instruction gives the feeling of real life situations.

3. Task-Based Instruction can be use to improve the students learning

achievement.

4. Task-Based Instruction creates a real purpose for language use and

provides a natural context for language study.


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Besides, those similarities above, several differences are also can be

concluded from those previous related studies. They are as follow:

1. The research conducted by Albert Weideman (2006) was observing

about using Task-Based Approach to assess academic literacy and

examines the construct of the test as well as its task types in light of

various current discussions about authenticity. Meanwhile, in this

research, the researcher used task types to improve the students’

listening skill.

2. The research conducted by McDonough (2007) was focusing about the

understanding of teachers’ and learners’ impression about Task-Based

courses. Meanwhile, in this research, the researcher used task-Based

Instruction in order to reduce the students’ learning anxiety.

G. Rationale

Based on the reviewed theories above, the writer proposes the basic

assumption to develop hypothesis as follows:

1. The differences between Task-Based Instruction Method and Direct

Instruction Method

In direct instructional model the teacher becomes the decision

maker, the teacher will be engaged in many planning decisions, such as

deciding what the teacher would like to teach and the teacher wishes to

teach. The activity is teacher-centered. The students have lack of

opportunities to share their ideas in the classroom. The students just


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follow and depend on the teacher during the teaching and learning

process and usually work individually. Students can be mainly passive

and the attention span of students may be limited.

On the contrary, Task-based instruction requires different way in

teaching learning process especially in listening activity. Task-based

instruction provides activity for the students to be actively engaging in

the teaching and learning process. The activities also have varieties of

exercises for the students which are based on the authentic real life

situations. In the context of task-based instruction the learning outcome is

the result of a fairly unpredictable interaction between the task and the

task situation. Therefore, the students’ activity in finding a successful

outcome is more important than being able to understand all the spoken

text presented to them. In Task-based instruction activity the students

will be actively engaging in teaching learning process.

The process of Task-based instruction will be conducted in

three-phase; pre-task, task cycle, post-task (language focus) process. The

pre-task phase has two basic functions: (1) To introduce and create

interest in doing a task on the chosen topic; (2) To activate topic-related

words, phrases and target sentences that will be useful in carrying out the

task and in the real world; and (3) Optional function is the inclusion of an

enabling task to help students communicate as smoothly as possible

during the task cycle.


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The task cycle consists of the task(s) plus planning and report

phases in which students present spoken or written reports of the work

done in the task(s). During the task phase, students work in pairs or

groups and use whatever linguistic resources they possess to achieve the

goals of the task. Then, to avoid the risk of developing fluency at the

expense of accuracy, they work with the teacher to improve their

language while planning their reports of the task.

The final phase in the framework is the language focus which

provides an opportunity for form-focused work. In this phase, some of

the specific features of the language, which occur naturally during the

task, are identified and analyzed. Among the possible starting points for

analysis activities are functions, syntax, words or parts of words,

categories of meaning or use, and phonological features. Following the

analysis activities, this phase may also contain a practice stage in which

the teacher conducts practice of the new word, phrases or patterns, which

occur in the analysis activities, the task text or the report phase. Thus, it

can be assumed that Task-Based Instruction is more effective to teach

listening for higher level students.

2. The difference between the students who have low anxiety and the

students who have high anxiety in listening.

A small amount of anxiety often improves performance: it is

known as facilitating anxiety. Facilitating anxiety, as the name suggests,

is thought to be a kind of anxiety that improves learning and


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performance. A little anxiety spurs students into action. For instance, it

can make them go to class, read the text book, do assignments, and study

for exams. It also leads students to approach their class work carefully

and to think carefully before making a response.

Students with small amount of foreign language anxiety tend to

be more active during teaching and learning process. They have no

hesitation in dealing with the task and their performance. They also have

confidence that they will not make any mistake while the teacher gives

them task or to do some assignment. Students who have low anxiety

usually have a good background knowledge about second language

learning. It is different from the students who have high foreign language

learning anxiety, the students with facilitating anxiety will help them to

do better during the lesson or examination.

In contrast, a great deal of anxiety usually interferes with

effective performance: it is known as debilitating anxiety. Excessive

anxiety distracts learners and interferes with their attention to the task at

hand. Despite the common nature, foreign language anxiety can pose

potential problems to learners in their foreign language learning (Chen

and Chang, 2004). For example, when feeling anxious, learners may find

their study become less enjoyable or they may experience problems such

as reduced word production and difficulty in understanding the spoken

instructions. Anxious learners may also find it difficult to respond to their

own errors effectively. In short, foreign language anxiety can impact


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negatively on students foreign language learning. Thus, the achievement

of the students who have low anxiety in learning listening comprehension

is better than the students who have high anxiety in learning listening

comprehension.

3. Interaction between teaching methods and learning anxiety in

teaching listening

The teaching method which will be used by the teacher in the

teaching and learning activities hopefully can give big influence for the

success of listening activities. In listening activities, the teacher is

expected to use suitable method that will decrease the students’ anxiety.

Task-based instruction is expected to be effective for the students who

have high learning anxiety. The students will enjoy the teaching and

learning process without hesitation or worried to fail in comprehending

the material given. The students also have freedom to record the

information given and express it by reporting what they already

understand.

Task-based instruction gives the students opportunity to explore

they prior knowledge related to the material given. It is because in Task-

based instruction the material given contain of daily life and another

creative task. It will make the students less anxious since they feel that

the material familiar with them. Besides, Task-based instruction allow

the students to express their ideas freely, this condition will support the

students to learn how to express what is in their mind without any


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hesitation and fear to make mistakes. This method will be very effective

for the students who have low anxiety in learning listening skill.

Anxiety brings a big influence to the students in learning

English especially in listening comprehension. If the students have low

level of anxiety they will have high ability in listening comprehension.

They can do the exercise confidently without any hesitation or fear of

being mistake. They will be active in joining the listening activity

because they have low level anxiety.

In contrast, Direct instruction method seems make the students

to have high tension in teaching and learning activity. The students also

tend to have feeling afraid of making mistake or fail in examination. As

the result, the students feel less confident, worried, and hesitate to do the

task given. That is why direct instruction method is supposed to be more

effective for the students who have high level of anxiety toward the

students’ listening comprehension. The teacher will spend some time

lecturing then the teacher guides the students through a complex

problem. The problem will broken down into simple steps then the

students are given, one by one, the simple steps to carry out on their own.

Finally, the teacher will give the students one or many sample problems

to accomplish on their own. So it can be concluded that Direct instruction

is more effective than Task-based instruction for the learners who have

low anxiety in learning listening skill.


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From the explanation above, it is assumed that there will be an

interaction between teaching methods and students’ anxiety in teaching

listening.

H. Hypothesis

Based on the theoretical description and the rationale above, the

hypothesis can be formulated as follows:

1. Task-based instruction method is more effective than Direct instruction

method to teach listening comprehension at the second semester students

of English Department STKIP-PGRI Pontianak in the academic year of

2011/2012.

2. The students who have low level of anxiety have better listening skill than

the students who have high level of anxiety at the second semester

students of English department STKIP-PGRI Pontianak in the academic

year of 2011/2012.

3. There is an interaction effect between teaching methods and students’

anxiety in teaching listening comprehension at the second semester

students of English department STKIP-PGRI Pontianak in the academic

year of 2011/2012.


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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Place and Time of Research

This experimental research was carried out at STKIP-PGRI

Pontianak, which is located in Jl. Ilham, Pontianak. This Institution is

strategically located for the teaching and learning process since it is near the

main street. It also has large area and surrounded by the green field and trees.

To sustain and aid the learning activities, STKIP-PGRI Pontianak

has complete facilities that support the teaching and learning activities. The

facilitation consists of 12 classrooms completed with LCD and 4 language

laboratories. Each laboratory consists of 40 computers for the students and 1

computer for the teacher. The laboratories are also provided with the listening

devices such as headsets for each student and for the teacher, sound systems,

and tape recorder. Our English laboratories also have Davitech program to

support the teaching and learning process especially for teaching and learning

listening.

There are 12 classes in STKIP-PGRI Pontianak. Each semester

consists of four classes which are A and B class for morning class and

afternoon class. There are about 30 students for each class. Most of the

students are from outside the Pontianak region. Consequently, most of them

still lack of experience in listening task and with English laboratory devices.

Many of them still have difficulties in learning process and feel anxious

whether they can understand the recording or not.


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In this case, this experimental research conducted in thirteen

months from June 2011 up to July 2012. The schedule of this research is as

follows:

d. Preparing research proposal : June 2011

e. Seminar on Research Proposal : December 2011

f. Conducting Research : March-April 2012

g. Writing Research Report : May 2012 - July 2012

B. Research Design

The design of this research is Simple Factorial Design (Sugiyono,

2008: 77-79). It is a kind of Nonequivalent Control Group Design. It is

similar with Posttest Only Control Design. It is aimed at studying the

independent variable, Task-Based Instruction technique and observes the

effect on dependent variable, Listening comprehension. In this research, there

were two groups-experimental group and control group. Every group was

given a questionnaire to classify them into two categories-the students with

low English learning anxiety and the ones with high English learning anxiety.

In the teaching and learning process, the topics of the listening task which

was taught to both groups are the same. In the experimental group, the

students were taught by using Task-Based Instruction method, while in the

control group, the students were taught by using Direct instruction method.

After the treatment, both groups were given a posttest to measure the


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improvement of the learners’ listening skill. The scores of the posttest was the

data to analyze.

C. Population, Sample, and Sampling

1. Population

The population of this research was taken from the students of

the second semester of STKIP-PGRI Pontianak in 2011/2012 academic

year. The students have already studied listening comprehension for one

semester. There are four classes and each class consists of 30 students.

2. Sample

The accessible sample of this study was the students of class A

Morning and B Morning of STKIP-PGRI Pontianak. In this research, the

total number of sample was 60 students. They were grouped into two

classes. One was the experimental class and the other was control class.

The experimental class was class A morning which consists of 30

students while the control class was class B morning which also consists

of 30 students. Every group classified based on the result of

questionnaire into the students with low learning anxiety and the ones

with high learning anxiety.

3. Sampling

This research used a cluster random sampling to choose the

sample of the research. Cluster random sampling should be used only

when it is economically justified–when reduced costs can be used to


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overcome losses in precision. This is most likely to occur in the

following situations:

a. Constructing a complete list of population elements is difficult,

costly, or impossible. For example, it may not be possible to list all

of the students of a class of the institution. However, it would be

possible to randomly select a subject of classes and then interview a

random sample of students who are in the class.

b. The population is concentrated in “natural” clusters (city blocks,

schools, class, hospitals, etc.) for example, to conduct personal

interviews of classes; it might make sense to randomly select a

sample of schools and then interview all of the classes that

institution. Using cluster sampling, the interviewer could conduct

many interviews in a single day at a single institution. Simple

random sampling, in contrast, might require the interviewer to spend

all day traveling to conduct a single interview at a single institution.

After the sample of two classes obtained by using cluster

random sampling, then the two classes were divided into two groups

randomly. The two groups were experimental group and control group.

After that the questionaire distributed to the students and the data

analyzed to know who have high learning anxiety and who have low

learning anxiety.


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D. Technique of Collecting Data

The data needed in this research were the scores of students learning

anxiety and the scores of the students listening, so the instruments used in this

research were questionnaire and a set of listening test items. The

questionnaire was used to get scores (data) related to the students’ anxiety in

studying English. Based on the data obtained, the students from both

experimental and control group were classified into students with low English

learning anxiety and the ones with high English learning anxiety. The second

instrument was a set of listening task. It was used to collect data related to the

students’ achievement after the treatment was given to both groups.

Before the instrument was used in the real test, there was a try-out of

the instrument. The aim of conducting the try-out test was to get information

dealing with the characteristics of the test. A good test must guarantee the

validity and reliability of the result because these aspects influence the

accuracy and dependability of the instrument. Ary (1976: 60) says that

reliability and validity are the most important characteristics of measuring

instruments. Reliability is the degree to which a test consistently measures

whatever it measures.

The score from the try out was analyzed in term of their validity and

reliability. In this research, the kinds of validity and reliability being analyzed

were internal validity and internal reliability. The analysis of validity and

reliability was as follows:


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1. Validity of listening test items

Listening Test Items:

r =

Where

1) =

2) =

3) = -

To know whether the instrument is valid or not ri is compared

with rt. When ri is higher than rt then the item is valid.

2. Validity Analysis of Questionnaire Items:

Where

1) Ʃ = Ʃ

2) Ʃ = Ʃ

3) Ʃ = Ʃ

To know whether the instrument is valid or not ri is compared

with rt. When ri is higher than rt then the item is valid


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3. Reliability of listening test items:

=

where

1) k = The number of valid items

2) =

To know whether the instrument is reliable or not is

compared with . When is higher than rt then the

instrument is reliable.

4. Reliability of questionnaire

rkk =

where

1) k = the number of valid items

2)

3)

To know whether the instrument is reliable or not is compared

with . When is higher than rt then the instrument is reliable.

E. Data Analysis

The data of listening test were arranged and then classified into some

categories to make the frequency distribution table, histogram, and polygons.


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After knowing the histogram and polygon, the data were analyzed the mean,

median and, the standard deviation then it was continued to analyze the

normality and homogeneity of the data as follows:

1. Normality of the sample distribution:

a. s =

b.z1=

c. F(z1)=0.5-(TableE)

d.s(z1) =

e. Lo = F(z1)-s(z1)

2. Data Homogeneity

a. s12=

b.s22=

c. s32=

d.s42=

e. s2={Ʃ(ni-1)si2/Ʃ (ni-1)}

f. logs2 = …

g.B =( logs2)Ʃ(ni-1)


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h.x2 = (In10){B – Ʃ (ni-1)logsi2}

F. Hypothesis Testing

This research was used Factorial ANOVA. The used type of the

factorial ANOVA is the 2x2 design. The tables are shown as follows:

Table 3.1 Research Design

Method

Anxiety

Task-based Instruction

(A1)

Direct Instruction

(A2)

High Anxiety (B1) First group of students

(A1B1)

Second group of the

students (A2B1)

Low Anxiety (B2) Third group of the

students (A1B2)

Fourth group of the

Students (A2B2)

(A1) (A2)


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Table 3.2 Design for ANOVA

1st effect

2nd effect

Task-based

Instruction

(A1)

Direct

Instruction

(A2)

Total

High Anxiety

group 1 group 2

Low Anxiety

group 3 Group 4

r2

Total

Then the steps used to calculate 2 x 2 ANOVA are as follows:

The formulas of ANOVA test are as follows:

1. The total sum of the square

2. The sum of squares between groups

= + + + -


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3. The sum of squares within groups

4. The between-columns sum of squares

= + -

5. The between-rows sum of squares

= –

6. The sum of squares interaction

= -

7. The number of degrees of freedom associated with each source of

variation

df for between-columns sum of squares = C-1

df for between-rows sum of squares = R-1

df for interaction = (C-1)(R-1)

df for between-groups sum of squares = G-1

df for within-groups sum of squares =

df for total sum of squares = N-1

where

C = the number of columns

R = the number of rows

G = the number of groups

n = the number of subjects in one group

N = the number of subjects in all groups


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Tukey Test

1. Task-Based Instruction method compared with Direct Instruction

Method

2. Students with Low learning anxiety compared with students with High

learning anxiety


Method for the students having high anxiety


Method for the students having low anxiety

or

q =

the analysis of the result of the computation is (1) is compared with

, if ˃ , the difference is significant; and (2) to know which one is

better, the means are compared.


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G. Statistical Hypothesis

In this study the writer proposed three hypothesis. These hypothesis

were based on the formulation of the problems presented in the previous

chapter and was illustrated through null hypothesis.

1. The difference between Task-Based Instruction ( ) and Direct Instruction

( ) in teaching listening to the second semester students of STKIP-PGRI

Pontianak in the academic year of 2011/2012.

a. Ho : µ A1 = µ A2

b. Ha : µ A1 > µ A2

2. The difference between the students who have high learning anxiety (

and those who have low learning anxiety .

a. Ho : µ B1 = µ B2

b. Ha : µ B1 > µ B2

3. Interaction between teaching methods used (Task-Based Instruction and

Direct Instruction) (A) and learning anxiety (B) in teaching listening to the

second semester students of STKIP-PGRI Pontianak in the academic year

of 2011/2012.

a. Ho : A X B = 0

b. Ha : A X B > 0


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CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

A. Research Findings

1. Data Description

The students’ scores are divided into eight categories: (1) The scores of

the students who are taught by using Task-Based Instruction (A1); (2) the

scores of the students who are taught by using Direct Instruction (A2); (3) the

scores of the students who have high listening anxiety (B1); (4) the scores of

the students who have low listening anxiety (B2); (5) the scores of the students

having high listening anxiety who are taught by using Task-Based Instruction

(A1B1); (6) the scores of the students having low listening anxiety who are

taught by using Task-Based Instruction (A1B2); (7) the scores of the students

having high listening anxiety who are taught by using Direct Instruction

(A2B1); and (8) the scores of the students having low listening anxiety who

are taught by using Direct Instruction (A2B2).

The scores of students’ listening test can be described as follows:

a. The scores of the students who are taught by using Task-Based Instruction

(A1).

Based on the computation of the students’ score who are taught by using

Task-Based Instruction, the highest score achieved by the students is 84


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and the lowest one is 28. It can be seen that the range of the scores is 28 up

to 84. The mean is 47.5, the mode is 73.055, the median is 60, and the

standard deviation is 16.7332. (see appendix 11)

Table 4.1. The scores of the students who are taught by using Task-Based

Instruction (A1).

class limitclass

boundariesmid point frequency Percentage

28-3738-4748-5758-6768-7778-87

27.5-37.537.5-47.547.5-57.557.5-67.567.5-77.577.5-87.5

32.542.552.562.572.582.5

456384

13,3316,6720,0010,0026,6713,33

30 100

Figure 4.1. Histogram and Polygon of Scores of A1

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

27.5 37.5 47.5 57.5 67.5 77.5 87.5

98





Instruction (A1).

class limitclass


28-3738-4748-5758-6768-7778-87

27.5-37.537.5-47.547.5-57.557.5-67.567.5-77.577.5-87.5

32.542.552.562.572.582.5

456384

13,3316,6720,0010,0026,6713,33

30 100


27.5 37.5 47.5 57.5 67.5 77.5 87.5

98





Instruction (A1).

class limitclass


28-3738-4748-5758-6768-7778-87

27.5-37.537.5-47.547.5-57.557.5-67.567.5-77.577.5-87.5

32.542.552.562.572.582.5

456384

13,3316,6720,0010,0026,6713,33

30 100


27.5 37.5 47.5 57.5 67.5 77.5 87.5


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b. The scores of the students who are taught by using Direct Instruction (A2).


Direct Instruction, the highest score achieved by the students is 72 and the

lowest one is 28. It can be seen that the range of the scores is 28 up to 72.

The mean is 49.1, the mode is 41, the median is 47.5, and the standard

deviation is 11.95855 (see appendix 11)

Table 4.2. The scores of the students who are taught by using Direct Instruction

(A2).

class limit class boundaries mid point frequency percentage

28-3536-4344-5152-5960-6768-75

27.5-35.535.5-43.543.5-51.551.5-59.559.5-67.567.5-75.5

31.539.547.555.563.571.5

396633

103020201010

30 100

Figure 4.2. Histogram and Polygon of Scores A2

0

2

4

6

8

10

27.5 35.5 43.5 51.5 59.5 67.5 75.5

99








(A2).


28-3536-4344-5152-5960-6768-75

27.5-35.535.5-43.543.5-51.551.5-59.559.5-67.567.5-75.5

31.539.547.555.563.571.5

396633

103020201010

30 100


27.5 35.5 43.5 51.5 59.5 67.5 75.5

99








(A2).


28-3536-4344-5152-5960-6768-75

27.5-35.535.5-43.543.5-51.551.5-59.559.5-67.567.5-75.5

31.539.547.555.563.571.5

396633

103020201010

30 100


27.5 35.5 43.5 51.5 59.5 67.5 75.5


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c. The scores of the students having high listening anxiety (B1)

Based on the computation of the students’ score having high listening

anxiety, the highest score achieved by the students is 56 and the lowest one

is 28. It can be seen that the range of the scores is 28 up to 56. The mean is

46.6333 the mode is 38.26, the median is 45, and the standard deviation is

10.6689. (see appendix 11)

Table 4.3. The scores of the students having high listening anxiety (B1).

class limit class boundaries mid point frequency Percentage28-3435-4142-4849-55

56-6263-69

27.5-34.534.5-41.541.5-48.548.5-55.5

55.5-62.562.5-69.5

31384552

5966

3104562

1033.3333313.3333316.66667

206.666667

330 100

Figure 4.3. Histogram and Polygon of Scores B1

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

27.5 34.5 41.5 48.5 55.5 62.5 69.5

100









56-6263-69

27.5-34.534.5-41.541.5-48.548.5-55.5

55.5-62.562.5-69.5

31384552

5966

3104562

1033.3333313.3333316.66667

206.666667

330 100


27.5 34.5 41.5 48.5 55.5 62.5 69.5

100









56-6263-69

27.5-34.534.5-41.541.5-48.548.5-55.5

55.5-62.562.5-69.5

31384552

5966

3104562

1033.3333313.3333316.66667

206.666667

330 100


27.5 34.5 41.5 48.5 55.5 62.5 69.5


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d. The scores of the students having low listening anxiety (B2)

Based on the computation of the students’ score having low listening



81, the mode is 72, the median is 63, and the standard deviation is 16.6680.

(see appendix 11)

Table 4.4. The scores of the students having low listening anxiety (B2).

class limit class boundaries mid point Frequency percentage

32-4041-4950-5859-6768-7677-85

30.5-40.540.5-49.5

49.5-58.558.5-67.567.5-76.576.5-85.5

3645

54637281

742494

23.3333313.33333

6.66666713.33333

3013.33333

30 100

Figure 4.4. Histogram and Polygon of Scores (B2).

0123456789

10

30.5 40.5 49.5 58.5 67.5 76.5 85.5

101






(see appendix 11)



32-4041-4950-5859-6768-7677-85

30.5-40.540.5-49.5

49.5-58.558.5-67.567.5-76.576.5-85.5

3645

54637281

742494

23.3333313.33333

6.66666713.33333

3013.33333

30 100


30.5 40.5 49.5 58.5 67.5 76.5 85.5

101






(see appendix 11)



32-4041-4950-5859-6768-7677-85

30.5-40.540.5-49.5

49.5-58.558.5-67.567.5-76.576.5-85.5

3645

54637281

742494

23.3333313.33333

6.66666713.33333

3013.33333

30 100


30.5 40.5 49.5 58.5 67.5 76.5 85.5


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e. The scores of the students having high listening anxiety who are taught by

using Task-Based Instruction (A1B1).


anxiety who are taught by using Task-Based Instruction, the highest score

achieved by the students is 60 and the lowest one is 28. It can be seen that

the range of the scores is 28 up to 60. The mean is 44.0667, the mode is

38.3, the median is 41, and the standard deviation is 8.72. (see appendix

11)

Table 4.5. The scores of the students having high listening anxiety who weretaught by using Task-Based Instruction (A1B1).

class limitclass

boundariesmid point Frequency percentage

28-3435-4142-4849-5556-62

27.5-34.534.5-41.541.5-48.548.5-55.555.5-62.5

3138455259

17232

6.66666746.6666713.33333

2013.33333

30 100

Figure 4.5. Histogram and Polygon of Scores A1B1

0

2

4

6

8

27.5 34.5 41.5 48.5 55.5 62.5

102








11)


class limitclass


28-3435-4142-4849-5556-62

27.5-34.534.5-41.541.5-48.548.5-55.555.5-62.5

3138455259

17232

6.66666746.6666713.33333

2013.33333

30 100


27.5 34.5 41.5 48.5 55.5 62.5

102








11)


class limitclass


28-3435-4142-4849-5556-62

27.5-34.534.5-41.541.5-48.548.5-55.555.5-62.5

3138455259

17232

6.66666746.6666713.33333

2013.33333

30 100


27.5 34.5 41.5 48.5 55.5 62.5


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f. The scores of the students having low listening anxiety who are taught by

using Direct Instruction method (A1B2).


anxiety who are taught by using Direct Instruction, the highest score


the range of the scores is 52 up to 84. The mean is 71.8, the mode is 69, the

median is 70.75, and the standard deviation is 8.69483. (see appendix 11)

Table 4.6. The scores of the students having low listening anxiety who were

taught by using Task-Based Instruction (A1B2).

class limit class boundaries Midpoint frequency percentage52-5859-6566-7273-7980-86

51.5-58.558.5-65.565.5-72.572.5-79.579.5-86.5

5562697683

12624

6.66666713.33333

4013.3333326.66667

15 100

Figure 4.6. Histogram and Polygon of Scores A1 B2

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

51.5 58.5 65.5 72.5 79.5 86.5

103











51.5-58.558.5-65.565.5-72.572.5-79.579.5-86.5

5562697683

12624

6.66666713.33333

4013.3333326.66667

15 100


51.5 58.5 65.5 72.5 79.5 86.5

103











51.5-58.558.5-65.565.5-72.572.5-79.579.5-86.5

5562697683

12624

6.66666713.33333

4013.3333326.66667

15 100


51.5 58.5 65.5 72.5 79.5 86.5


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g. The scores of the students having high listening anxiety who are taught by

using Direct Instruction (A2B1).





60.3, the median is 56.3, and the standard deviation is 11.0961. (see

appendix 11)

Table 4.7. The scores of the students having high listening anxiety who were

taught by using Direct Instruction (A2B1).

class limitClass

boundariesmidpoint frequency percentage

28-3536-4344-5152-5960-68

27.5-35.535.5-43.543.5-51.551.5-59.559.5-68.5

31.539.547.555.563.5

23253

13,3333320

13,3333333,33333

20

15 100


0

1

2

3

4

5

6

27.5 35.5 43.5 51.5 59.5 68.5

104








appendix 11)



class limitClass


28-3536-4344-5152-5960-68

27.5-35.535.5-43.543.5-51.551.5-59.559.5-68.5

31.539.547.555.563.5

23253

13,3333320

13,3333333,33333

20

15 100


27.5 35.5 43.5 51.5 59.5 68.5

104








appendix 11)



class limitClass


28-3536-4344-5152-5960-68

27.5-35.535.5-43.543.5-51.551.5-59.559.5-68.5

31.539.547.555.563.5

23253

13,3333320

13,3333333,33333

20

15 100


27.5 35.5 43.5 51.5 59.5 68.5


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h. The scores of the students having low listening anxiety who are taught by





the range of the scores is 32 up to 72. The mean is 48.8, the mode is 37.9,

the median is 52.5, and the standard deviation is 11.2. (see appendix 11)

Table 4.8. The scores of the students having low listening anxiety taught by


class limitClass

boundaries midpoint frequency percentage

32-3940-4748-5556-6364-72

31.5-39.539.5-47.547.5-55.555.5-63.563.5-72.5

35.543.551.559.567.5

43422

26.666720

26.666713.333313.3333

15 100


0

1

2

3

4

5

31.5 39.5 47.5 55.5 63.5 72.5

105










class limitClass


32-3940-4748-5556-6364-72

31.5-39.539.5-47.547.5-55.555.5-63.563.5-72.5

35.543.551.559.567.5

43422

26.666720

26.666713.333313.3333

15 100


31.5 39.5 47.5 55.5 63.5 72.5

105










class limitClass


32-3940-4748-5556-6364-72

31.5-39.539.5-47.547.5-55.555.5-63.563.5-72.5

35.543.551.559.567.5

43422

26.666720

26.666713.333313.3333

15 100


31.5 39.5 47.5 55.5 63.5 72.5


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2. Prerequisite Analysis

1. Normality

Before analyzing the data for testing the hypotheses, the researcher

analyzed the normality and homogeneity of the data. The following is the

summary of normality. (see appendix 12)

Table 4.9. The summary of normality of the sample distribution.

DataNumber of

Sample Lo Lt α Distributionof Sample

A1 30 0.126 0.161 0.05 Normal

A2 30 0.158 0.161 0.05 Normal

B1 30 0.135 0.161 0.05 Normal

B2 30 0.124 0.161 0.05 Normal

A1B1 15 0.203 0.220 0.05 Normal

A1B2 15 0.092 0.220 0.05 Normal

A2B1 15 0.121 0.220 0.05 Normal

A2B2 15 0.197 0.220 0.05 Normal

2. Homogeneity

After analyzing the normality of the sample distribution, the researcher

analyzed the homogeneity of the data. Homogeneity test was conducted to

know whether the data were homogeneous. The following is the analysis of

the data homogeneity. (see appendix 13)


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Table 4.10. Data Homogeneity.

NO X1 X12 X2 X2

2 X3 X32 X4 X4

2

1 28 784 52 2704 28 784 32 10242 36 1296 64 4096 32 1024 36 12963 36 1296 64 4096 40 1600 36 12964 36 1296 68 4624 40 1600 36 12965 40 1600 68 4624 40 1600 40 16006 40 1600 68 4624 48 2304 40 16007 40 1600 72 5184 48 2304 40 16008 40 1600 72 5184 52 2704 48 23049 44 1936 72 5184 52 2704 48 230410 48 2304 76 5776 56 3136 48 230411 52 2704 76 5776 56 3136 48 230412 52 2704 80 6400 56 3136 56 313613 52 2704 80 6400 60 3600 60 360014 56 3136 80 6400 68 4624 64 409615 60 3600 84 7056 68 4624 72 5184Σ 660 30160 1076 78128 744 38880 704 34944

435600 1157776 553536 495616

= ( 10) − ( − 1)= (2.3026)(113.4477– 112.2065) = 2.858012

Based on the data above, it can be seen that = 2.858012. Because

(2.858012) is lower than ( )( ) (7.81), it can be concluded that the data

are homogeneous.


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3. Hypothesis Testing

a. ANNOVA Test (Multifactor Analysis of Variance)

The computation of hypotheses test which is conducted by ANNOVA

Test can be seen in the following table.

Table 4.11. The Summary of ANOVA

Sourceof

Variance

SS df MS F F (. ) F (. )Betweencolumns(methods)

Between rows(Anxiety)

Columns byrows(interaction)

1382.4

2356,267

3465.6

1

1

1

1382.4

2356,267

3465.6

13.02512

22.20101

32.7

4.08 7.31

Between groups

Within groups

7204.267

5943.467

3

56

2401.422

106.1333

From the summary of a 2 x 2 Multifactor Analysis of Variance, it can be

concluded that:

1) F0 between columns (13.02512) is higher than Ft(0.5) (4.08) and Ft(0.1)

(7.31), so the difference between columns is significant. Therefore, Ho

which states that there is no difference between Task-Based Instruction


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and Direct Instruction to teach listening is rejected. It means that teaching

listening using Task-Based Instruction to the second semester students of

STKIP-PGRI Pontianak is significantly different from the one using

Direct Instruction. Based on the computation result, the mean score of the

students who are taught using Task-Based Instruction (57.86667) is higher

than that of those who were taught using Direct Instruction (48.26667).

Thus, it can be concluded that Task-Based Instruction is more effective

than Direct Instruction to teach listening.

2) F0 between rows (22.2010) is higher than Ft(0.5) (4.08) and Ft(0.1) (7.31), so

the difference between columns is significant. Therefore, Ho which states

that there is no difference between students having low learning anxiety

and students having high learning anxiety is rejected. It means that the

students having low listening anxiety are significantly different from those

having high anxiety. Based on the computation result, the mean score of

the students who have high listening anxiety (48.6667) is higher than that

of the students who have low listening anxiety (57.46667). Thus, it can be

concluded that the students having low listening anxiety have better

listening skill than the students having high listening anxiety.

3) F0 interaction (32.7) is higher than Ft(0.5) (4.08) and Ft(0.1) (7.31), there is

interaction between the two variables, and therefore Ho which states that

there is no interaction between teaching methods and learning anxiety in


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teaching listening is rejected. It means that the effect of teaching methods

on the students’ listening comprehension depends on the students’ anxiety.

b. Tukey’s Test

The formula of Tukey’s Test is as follows:

1. Comparing two means from two groups (A1 and A2)

Task-Based Instruction is compared to Direct Instruction (between

columns)

q = /=

. – .. /=

. .= 7.22

Because q0 between columns (7.22) is higher than q ( ) (2.83), the

difference between columns is significant. It means that teaching listening

using Task-Based Instruction to the second semester students of STKIP-

PGRI Pontianak is significantly different from the one using Direct

Instruction. Based on the computation result, the mean score of the students

who are taught using Task-Based Instruction (57.86667) is higher than that

of those who are taught using Direct Instruction (48.2667). Thus, it can be


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concluded that Task-Based Instruction is more effective than Direct

Instruction to teach listening.

2. Comparing two means from two groups (B1 and B2)

Students having low anxiety are compared to students having high anxiety

(between rows)

q = /=

. .. /=

..= 6.62

Because q0 between rows (6.62) is higher than q ( ) (2.83), the difference

of listening comprehension between the students having low listening

anxiety and those having high listening anxiety is significant. Based on the

computation result, the mean score of the students who have low listening

anxiety (57.46667) is higher than that of the students who have high

listening anxiety (48.66667). Thus, it can be concluded that the students

having low listening anxiety have better listening skill than the students

having high listening anxiety.


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3. Comparing two means between A2B1 and A2B1

Direct Instruction is compared to Task-Based Instruction to teach listening

to the students having high listening anxiety

q = /=

. . /=

..= 2.98

Because q0 between columns (2.98) is higher than q ( ) (2.89), it can be

concluded that there is a significant difference on the students’ listening

comprehension between those who have high listening anxiety who are

taught using Direct Instruction and those who are taught using Task-Based

Instruction. Based on the computation result, the mean score of students

having high listening anxiety who are taught using Task-Based Instruction

(44) is higher than the mean score of students having high listening anxiety

who are taught using Direct Instruction (49.6). Thus, it can be concluded

that Direct Instruction is more effective than Task-Based Instruction to

teach listening to the students who have high listening anxiety.


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4. Comparing two means between A1B2 and A2B2

Task-Based Instruction is compared with Direct Instruction to teach

listening to the students having low listening anxiety

q = /=

. .. /=

..= 13.2

Because q0 between columns (13.2) is higher than q ( ) (2.89), it can be

concluded that there is a significant difference on the students’ listening

comprehension between those who have low listening anxiety who are

taught using Task-Based Instruction and those who have low listening

anxiety who are taught using Direct Instruction. Based on the computation

result, the mean score of students having low listening anxiety who are

taught using Task-Based Instruction (71.7333) is higher than the mean

score of students having low listening anxiety who are taught using Direct

Instruction (46.93333). Thus, it can be concluded that Task-Based

Instruction is more effective than Direct Instruction to teach students who

have low listening anxiety.


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Based on the result of number 3 and 4, Task-Based Instruction is more

effective than Direct Instruction to teach listening to the students who have low

listening anxiety and Direct Instruction is more effective than Task-Based

Instruction to teach listening to the students who have high listening anxiety, so it

can be concluded that there is an interaction between teaching methods and

students’ listening anxiety to teach listening.

B. The Discussion of Findings

Based on the computation result of research finding, it can be discussed as

follows:

1. Task-Based Instruction is more effective than Direct Instruction method in

teaching listening.

Task-Based Instruction is a method of learning which provides a

context that activates learning processes which are related to the real life

situation. Task-Based Instruction provides activities for the students to be

more active engaging in the teaching and learning process. In Task-Based

Instruction activities the students also become more confident to give

spontaneous interaction so they can achieve the communicative goal. Ellis

(2003: 16) states a task is intended to result in language use that bears a

resemblance direct or indirect to the way language is used in the real world.

Like other language activities, a task can engage productive or receptive, and


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oral or written skills and also various cognitive processes. Moreover, the use of

Task Based Instruction can also create variety of learning activities, such as

labeling a diagram, form filling, matching, and selecting. These learning

activities can make the students more active in teaching and learning process.

Otherwise, Direct Instruction is used to describe a lesson where the

teacher has control in teaching and learning activity. In Direct Instruction

lesson, the teacher usually spends some time lecturing, and then the teacher

guides the students through a complex problem. Since the activity is teacher-

centered the teacher cannot assess the students’ prior knowledge. Moreover, at

the end of the lesson the teacher will give the students some sort of assignment

to measure how the students achieved the goal of the lesson that the students

have learned that day. Carmine (2000: 5-6) states that Direct Instruction is

skills-oriented, and the teaching practices implies teacher-directed. It

emphasizes the use of small group discussion, face-to-face instruction by the

teachers and carefully articulated lessons in which cognitive skills are broken

down into small units, sequenced deliberately, and taught explicitly.

Based on the explanation above, the difference between Task-Based

Instruction and Direct Instruction can be seen from the learning activities and

the process of the students’ to be active learners. In Task-Based Instruction the

teacher is a facilitator while in Direct Instruction the teacher has the main role

to give stimulus to the students in order to make the students more active in the


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teaching and learning process. So, it can be concluded that Task-Based

Instruction is more effective than Direct Instruction method to teach listening

skill.

2. Students having low anxiety have better achievement than the students having

high anxiety.

In teaching and learning process, students’ listening anxiety is very

important because students’ listening anxiety influences their achievement in

learning. The students become blank before exam, freezing, and feeling

reticence about entering the classroom. They have difficulty concentrating,

become forgetful, sweat, and have palpitation. Horwitz, et al. (1986: 128)

define language classroom anxiety as a distinct complex of self-perceptions,

beliefs, feelings, and behavior related to classroom language learning arising

from uniqueness of the language learning process. That is, the more anxious

student tends to avoid attempting difficult or personal messages in the target

language. The students having high learning anxiety always have

apprehension, worry, and even dread. They have difficulty concentrating,

become forgetful, sweat, and have palpitation.

On the contrary, students who have low anxiety seem to have better

achievement in listening skill. The differences could be seen from the students’

performance and grades. The students who have low anxiety tend to be more

active in the discussion by giving their ideas or thoughts freely. They have less


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hesitation in answering the teachers’ questions and have high self-confidence

in doing the tasks. Ganschow, et al. (1994: 49) in a study about relationship

between foreign language classroom anxiety and the original aspect of native

oral and written language, state that low-anxiety learners were seen to have

both better native language competence and foreign language aptitude.

Moreover, Nagle and Sanders (1986: 100) state that when listeners have more

successful experiences of comprehensible input, they will become more

confident in themselves, in their listening ability, and hold less negative

feelings toward listening. Regarding a low anxiety environment, Oxford (1993:

100) states that the climate of listening classroom should be non-threatening.

From the explanation above, it can be concluded that the students who

have low anxiety have better listening skill than the students who have high

level of anxiety.

3. There is interaction between teaching methods and listening anxiety to teach

listening.

Task Based Instruction activities, such as labeling a diagram of a

family member, form filling of certain information, matching a picture with the

information, selecting appropriate information related to the topic given, etc,

are teaching activities to take into consideration. Task-Based Instruction

contains a real example of language use in the daily life. When Task Based

Instruction activities are applied in teaching and learning process in the


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classroom, the students will be more interested and active in the learning

process, because they feel what they study in the classroom is common thing

that they usually have in their daily activities. In addition, Task-Based

Instruction can employ tasks that are communication-oriented, create a

balanced proportion of use between communication and form-oriented tasks,

employ various interesting tasks which are relevant to the learners’

characteristics. Task-Based Instruction could keep learning activities

interesting, and thus sustain motivation when the task have the right level of

difficulty, every task can give an experience of success to every learner.

Cameron (2001: 12) states that as the tasks are communicative-oriented, the

learners are not too burdened with language accuracy which often discourages

them.

In conclusion, Task-Based Instruction contains real-life situation and

daily life examples. In Task-Based activities the students become more

interested and active in the discussion, and it is communicative-oriented. That

is why the students become highly motivated and have high self-confidence in

engaging the teaching and learning process. The students having low learning

anxiety who are taught by using Task-Based Instruction will have higher

achievement in their listening skill. Gardner and MacIntyre (1993: 352- 354)

state that there are seven latent variables which have correlation and causal

paths which influence on how well students learn English which measured


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language anxiety, language aptitude, attitudes and motivation, and self-

confidence. Language Attitudes is seen to cause motivation. Motivation causes

both self-confidence and language learning strategies, and motivation,

language aptitude and language learning strategies cause language

achievement. From that explanation there were not only motivation and

achievement appearing to cause self-confidence, but self-confidence in its turn

appears to be associated with low levels of language anxiety.

Task-Based Instruction is an effective method to encourage the

students’ activeness during the discussion in teaching listening. Kohonen

(1992:12) states that Task-Based Instruction encourage the students to have

self-directed rather than teacher-directed learning. Task-Based Instruction also

emphasizes process rather than product, learning how to learn, self-inquiry,

social and communication skills. The learning process initiates and encourages

the students to bring in their personal contributions and experiences. In

conclusion, Task-Based instruction is more effective to teach listening skill for

the students who have low anxiety.

Direct Instruction method is a teacher-centered, the students have to

listen and pay attention to the teacher lecturing. This kind of activity makes the

students feel bored and lost their interest to the material. Then, the next step

the teacher will guide the students through a complex problem, so the students

must follow the steps which after that they have to carry out on their own. In


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this activity the students find out that they must fulfill the teacher’s instruction

and do the task based on the guidance given. Rosenshine and Stevans (1986)

state that Direct Instruction is teaching in small steps with student practice

after each step, guiding students during initial practice, and ensuring that all

students experienced a high level of successful practice. As the result, The

students lost their self-confidence because they were worried that their answers

are not suitable to the teacher’s expectation. They also tend to keep silent

during the discussion since the activity is teacher-centered, and they have no

freedom to share their ideas and thoughts. Based on those explanations their

anxiety becomes high and their achievement in listening skill is decreased.

According to Scarcella and Oxford (1992: 1710), listening anxiety occurs

when students feel they are faced with a task that is too difficult or unfamiliar

to them. This anxiety is exacerbated if the students are under the false

impression that they must understand every word they hear.

Based on the explanation above, Direct Instruction is provoking high

anxiety for the students in listening skill because of the activities which are

teacher-centered. The teacher is lecturing in most of the time and also

demanding successful in completing the task. As the result, the students are

worried whether they can achieve what the teacher asks them to do or not, they

also have small chance to communicate their ideas and thoughts to the teacher

or their friends during the discussion, and they have no freedom in completing


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the task since they have to follow the steps or the guidelines that their teacher

asks them to do.

In direct Instruction activity many students have no motivation to

study because all the teaching and learning processes are already programmed

by the teacher, they have small chance to do the speaking activities and they

have to understand most of the instruction that the teacher asks them to do.

Worde (2003: 3-4) describes that possible causes of language anxiety are non-

comprehension, speaking activities, pedagogical and instructional practices,

error correction and native speakers. Non-comprehension means that the

students feel nervous when they could not understand what the teachers said

through delivery that was too rapid or through English. Concerning speaking

activities, the students were worried about the opinions of peers and the

teacher, and about being asked to speak in class. Concerning pedagogical and

instructional practices, oral and listening tests are often stated as sources of

anxiety.

Direct Instruction is appropriate in teaching listening for the students

who have high learning anxiety. Direct Instruction works only in a small

percentage of students, not for a great variety. Direct Instruction is often

contrasted with tutorials, participatory laboratory classes, discussion,

observation, case study, and active learning (http://en.wikipedia.org/

wiki/Direct_Instruction). Brown, et al. (2001: 11) state that in Direct

http://en.wikipedia.org/


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Instruction, the teacher becomes decision maker. Teacher will engage in many

planning decisions, such as deciding materials that the teacher would like to

teach, how the teacher wants the students do the task, and to decide the result

that the students must achieve in listening tasks. That is why Direct Instruction

is more effective to teach the students who have high learning anxiety in

listening skill. It can be concluded that there is interaction between teaching

methods and students learning anxiety.

C. The Weakness of the Research

It is a certain thing that in every research there is a weakness. There are

some weaknesses in conducting this research; first, the second semester students

of STKIP-PGRI Pontianak have different knowledge background especially in

listening. The second, it is difficult to find appropriate materials which are

suitable to the level of all students’ knowledge. The third, the students are

allowed to play the recording by themselves during the discussion, so it’s

consuming most of the time to explain and to teach them how to use the devices

in the language laboratory rather than to do the discussion. The last, it took more

time to explain to the students about the procedure and to accustom the teaching

method to the students. Based on the problem, to build the communicative

learning is difficult.


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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion

Based on a systematic and thorough discussion in Chapter IV, the

research findings are stated below:

1. Task-Based Instruction is more effective than Direct Instruction to teach

listening skill for the second semester students of STKIP-PGRI Pontianak

in the academic year 2011/2012.

2. Students having low listening anxiety have better listening achievement

than the students who have high listening anxiety in the second semester

students of STKIP-PGRI Pontianak in the academic year 2011/2012.

3. There is interaction between teaching methods and listening anxiety in

teaching listening for the second semester students of STKIP-PGRI

Pontianak in the academic year 2011/2012.

Based on the research findings, the conclusion is that Task-Based

Instruction is an effective teaching method to teach listening to the second

semester students of STKIP-PGRI Pontianak in the academic year 2011/2012.

It implies that in order to achieve the optimal result of teaching listening skill

by using Task-Based Instruction to the second semester students of STKIP-

PGRI Pontianak in the academic year 2011/2012, the teacher should apply this

method in ideal process. The steps should be appropriate with the tasks and the


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students’ ability in listening skills. The tasks must consist of creative activities

to encourage the students’ activeness during the lesson.

B. Implication

The result of the research implies that the use of Task-Based Instruction

can affect the students listening skill of the second semester students of

STKIP-PGRI Pontianak. It is better to apply Task-Based Instruction in

teaching learning process because the use of Task-Based Instruction can

encourage the students to participate actively in teaching and learning process.

If the use of Task-Based Instruction can decrease the students’ listening

anxiety, it will also improve students listening competence.

To achieve the optimum achievement in teaching listening

comprehension by using Task-Based Instruction the teacher should follow the

appropriate teaching steps. The first is the introduction of the tasks, it is

important for the teacher to make the students understand about what they are

going to discuss and to achieve the mission objectives. The teacher can

provide picture or talk about their personal experience about the topic, so it

will arise the students’ basic knowledge about the topic. The second steps is

asking the students to form pairs or groups in doing the task, it is necessary for

the students to have pair or friends to discuss in their first meeting, so they

will be more active to do the interaction amongst them. They also have to

prepare their report about the topic given. The last steps, together with the

teacher they discuss about the vocabulary or expression that they don’t


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understand. This step will make the students have courage to express the

difficulties they have during the discussion.

C. Suggestion

Based on the research findings, the writer proposes some suggestions as

follows:

1. For teachers

In order to improve the students listening competence, teachers can

apply Task-Based Instruction in their class. It is suggested that English

teachers must be creative and selective in choosing relevant tasks from

various sources when they want to apply Task-Based Instruction as a

teaching method in the class.

2. For students

It is suggested to students to keep practicing their listening. By doing

some creative tasks related to their daily activities in their listening

activity, they can improve their ability in listening. Besides, they have to

decrease their fear in making mistakes, because making mistakes is a part

of learning.

3. For future researcher

For future researchers who intend to conduct the same research, the

writer hopes that this research can be used as references and the result of

this research can give some benefits to future researcher or as starting

point in conducting the research with different problems.


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