1

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Language is a human being’s product that has a function as a tool to
express their feelings, thoughts, ideas, and desires which has particular
characteristics in every people or nation. It means people who use a language have
different way to express their feelings and thoughts depending on their
nationalities. Today, people in the world communicate each other through
internet, telephone, or direct communication. Therefore, we need one specific
language that covers how the world communicates and how the people in the
world can be a global community to share with others. As we know, of course the
language that covers all of those needs is English language.
In Indonesia, English is considered as the first foreign language and taught
formally from elementary school up to the university level. English has become
the first foreign language that is considered very important and must be learnt in
schools. English language has four main basic skills, those are listening, reading,
speaking, and writing. They are taught at schools, courses, or other education
places which are formal and informal. Listening and reading are known as
receptive skills while speaking and writing are known as productive skills.
From the four basic language skills, listening is one of the skills that
should be mastered by a student at any levels, because the aim of English learning
is to enable students to communicate without hesitation and the purpose of
communication will be achieved easily. As the 2004 curriculum states that the aim
of learning English on the Eighth Grade of Junior High School is “Berkomunikasi
secara lisan dan tertulis dengan menggunakan ragam bahasa yang sesuai dengan
lancar dan akurat dalam wacana interaksional dan/atau monolog terutama dalam
wacana yang berbentuk naratif, recount, deskriptif, dan anekdot” (To
communicate in oral and written by using appropriate language variety fluently
and accurately in interactional and/or monolog discourse especially discourses
 2

with the form of narrative, recount, descriptive, and anecdote).1 Of course, the
component of communication is the speaker and listener. So, listening
comprehension is important in good communication of oral language.
Previously, listening was considered as the secondary skill. As a result,
some teachers perceived that it was not necessary to make students better in
listening. They emphasized only on grammar and vocabulary that were used for
reading English materials or improving speaking abilities. As Richards and
Renandya state, “For many years, listening skills did not receive priority in
language teaching. Teaching methods emphasized productive skills, and the
relationship between receptive and productive skills was poorly understood”.2
Almost all English courses place the productive skills as the first rank to promote
their English course. Even some schools in Indonesia consider that productive
skills as a measurement to evaluate students’ skills in English.
Meanwhile, English skills do not only consist of productive skills but also
receptive skills that give the significant role in the development of student’s
English. For example in listening, one research finds that people especially adults
spend 40%-50% of communication time for listening.3 Therefore, in recent years,
listening has received important attention in achieving the aim of teaching
English. So, many language teachers give systematic attention to listening and
now listening activities are central to many language teaching course books.
There are two key reasons for this development, one the theoretical and the
other practical. From the theoretical perspective, listening is seen as a vital means
of linguistic input for language learners. From the practical point of view, more
people are learning English to communicate orally with speakers of English
outside their own countries.4

1
Depdiknas RI, Kurikulum Bahasa Inggris, 2004: Sekolah Menengah Pertama (SMP),
(Jakarta: Depdiknas, 2003), p. 40.
2
Jack C. Richards & Willy A. Renandya, Methodology in Language Teaching – An
Anthology of Current Practice, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 235
3
Larry Vandergrift, Listening: Theory and Practice in Modern Foreign Language
Competence, 2012, p.1, (http://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/gpg/67)
4
Christine C.M.Goh, Teaching Listening in the Language Classroom, (Singapore:
SEAMEO Regional Language Center, 2002), p. 1
 3

From two reasons above, we have to realize that listening is a complex

process and crucial in second language competences. Students listen to a language
because they have a desire and a purpose to achieve. The concepts of desire,
purpose and expectations will have important methodological implications for
language learning. Most of the students of junior high school especially in the
eighth grade often find some problems in listening because they are not trained to
familiarize with English material. Most learners seem to lack ability to get the
meaning or misunderstand when listening to foreign language.
Moreover, to solve the problems above, there are many kinds of activities
that can be implemented in listening activities. Usually students enjoy listening to
short dialogues, stories and songs from their classmates or teachers. Therefore,
story is a medium to acquire language that is appropriate with students hopes and
interests.
Furthermore, storytelling is the classic art of conveying an event in word,
images, and sound. Stories have probably been shared in every culture and every
land as a means of entertainment, education, preservation of culture and to instill
knowledge and values or morals. As regard to that, Allen & Valette say “From
time to time, the teacher should give the students practice hearing stories in the
foreign language. Although the students will not understand much of what they
hear, they will catch a few words here and there, and they will be getting a feel for
the foreign language.”5
By listening to a story, students have feelings through some expressions in
English Language. They listen to every word and every sentence which can
stimulate them to comprehend the utterance. Storytelling creates a relaxed and
happy relationship between teacher as the storyteller and student as the listener,
these put them together and build mutual confidence between them.
Based on the background above, the writer would like to conduct a
research entitled “THE EFFORT OF IMPROVING STUDENTS’ LISTENING
COMPREHENSION SKILLS THROUGH STORYTELLING TECHNIQUE”

5
Edward David Allen & Rebecca M. Valette, Classroom Techniques: Foreign Language
and English as a Second Language, (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. 1975), p. 195
 4

(Classroom Action Research in the Second Grade of MTsN 28 Jakarta). MTsN 28

Jakarta is located in Pulo Gebang, East Jakarta.

B. Statement of the Problem

According to the background of the study above, listening comprehension
skills can be achieved by students with exposure to English Language which is
interesting for them. The writer wants to know whether the storytelling influences
listening ability or not. He limits the research on storytelling as a technique in
teaching listening in the classroom.
The general question of this research is “Can the implementation of
storytelling technique be used to improve the students' listening skill in terms of
comprehending the story?

C. Objective of the Study

The objective of the study is to find out the influence of implementation of
storytelling treatment on the listening comprehension ability in the Eight Grade
student of Junior High School 28 Pulo Gebang Jakarta. The storytelling technique
is hoped to improve students’ listening comprehension skills.

D. Significance of the Study

The result of this research is expected to be useful for the English teachers
of MTsN 28 Pulo Gebang Jakarta especially in teaching listening. The teacher can
implement storytelling technique in engaging way by some activities which are
done in the classroom. And for students themselves, it can motivate them to learn
English autonomously as often as possible, so that they can improve their ability
in English mainly in listening skill.