CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study Research shows that learning English earlier is advantageous for young learners. One reason why early language learning becomes so popular is based on a term so called Critical Period Hypothesis. It means that children who start younger than 11-12 years of age, given advantageous learning circumstances, such as plenty of inputs and interaction in an English environment, are more likely to acquire English to native levels without accent. Children also have a greater capability for understanding and imitating what they hear so that it helps them to learn the language. Therefore, many parents want to introduce English to their children as early as possible. Some of their children study in some best formal or informal institutions providing good instructions, facilities, and teachers. Most of good institutions required qualified and experienced teachers to teach young learners effectively. It is because children require and deserve professionals who interact with them in appropriate ways based on the childs social/emotional, physical, cognitive, and moral development. In fulfilling the needs for childrens developmentally appropriate instruction, what the teachers of young learners should do is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling, and setting the condition for learning (Brown, 2001: 87). In other words, good teachers should have the ability to create, design, and provide rich learning experiences and activities which are interesting for students and relevant to their experiences,

backgrounds, and abilities. The teachers also need to develop good relationship or interaction with the students. Besides, comfortable classrooms and various media to support the teaching-learning processes are also important. English has officially been introduced to primary school children in Indonesia since 1994. Teaching English in primary schools has been accepted in Indonesia in line with the governments plan on the nine-year basic education. As the first foreign language, English is regarded as one of the local content subjects for primary students. English is taught in primary schools to make the students ready and have self-confidence to learn English in higher levels. To achieve successful language learning, the students are required to master four English language skills comprising receptive skills, i.e. reading and listening skills, and productive skills, i.e. writing and speaking skills. The receptive skills intertwine with the productive skills. For example, the success of learning listening as a receptive skill can influence the success of learning speaking as a productive skill. It is clear that listening is the skill that the children acquire first because children often cannot read and write all yet, or not with much confidence (Scott and Ytreberg, 2004: 21). So, when the children start to learn a foreign language, it is mainly going through their ears and what the children hear is their main source of the language. The researcher considers that just as in the mother tongue, learning English should start with an emphasis on listening. Pinter (2006: 45) states that young beginners who start with plenty of listening practice and opportunities to listen to rich input will naturally lead to other language skills. In other words, starting foreign language learning from listening is very important as

it can be the foundation for other skills. Therefore, it is very important to seek what technique is good for teaching listening to the children. Since children are very active, energetic, and dynamic, the teacher should choose an appropriate technique which corresponds with their characteristics. Actually, children love playing and learn things when they play. So, games as one of classroom activities for primary schools have a significant role. It is supported by Paul (2003: 49) who proposes that when children are having fun, they are more likely to take risks, make mistakes without having feelings of failure, and try to overcome their initial feelings of confusion when they encounter new words and patterns. Therefore, if learning itself feels like a game and children feel they are discovering a fascinating new world of English through games, they would enjoy it outside the classroom. It is more likely that the children will take what they learn and use it in real communication in their daily lives. Since real communication is interaction between people and linguistic interaction is a collaborative activity, classrooom teaching and learning activities must be interactive in nature (Rivers, 1987: 14). If skilfully handled, interactive classroom techniques can promote learners initiative and autonomy, which in turn ensure successful language learning. Therefore language games, which should be interactive, are proposed to become an alternative technique to teach English for children. It is because interactive language games not only can involve and enchant children with the aspects of fun and freedom but also can give them opportunities for language practice. Unfortunately, some teachers think that language games are a waste of

time and prefer not to use them in teaching English for children since games sometimes are considered only for their one element, that is fun. For example, in SDN Tulis 03, the activities were monotonous although the students have good motivation in learning English. The teacher did not provide interesting and appropriate activities, such as games, stories and songs, to improve their skills, particularly the listening skills. Since an appropriate teaching technique has not been used to improve listening skills for the fifth grade students of SDN Tulis 03, the present study is designed to help to solve the ineffectiveness of the teaching of listening skills. This study is action research involving the fifth grade students and the teachers of the class. It is aimed at improving the listening skills in the English teaching and learning process using interesting and interactive language games.

B. Identification of the Problem An ideal learning can be obtained if all learning components exist and maximally cooperated. The components include the students, teacher, teaching materials, techniques, teaching media, and setting. They interact with one another and form inseparable units to achieve a learning objective. To identify the existing problems in the field, the researcher observed the teaching-learning process in the fifth grade of SDN Tulis 03, and did some interviews on September 28, 2010. Based on the observation and interviews, the researcher obtained some problems in the teaching-learning process in the class. They are described as follows.

The first problem is related to the students. Most of the students are not actively engage in the lesson. These passive students posed many problems; they did not pay attention to the teacher or the lesson and they seemed bored with the learning activities. They were busy with their own activities. Therefore, they did not understand and did not respond well to the teachers questions or instructions. Another problem is related to the teacher. The teacher did not really pay attention to the students involvement and interaction during the English teachinglearning process. The teacher did not provide appropriate and interesting instructions which encourage children to learn effectively. The following problems were faced by the teacher in teaching English. Firstly, it is related to the use of teaching aids or media. A variety of media will motivate students to learn English. However, the teacher rarely used teaching aids which can improve students interest. She always used a textbook, an LKS, and a whiteboard when she explained the materials. There were no pictures, flashcards, English storybooks, or other interesting media as additional resources. Secondly, it is related to the use of classroom management. With effective classroom management, the students will be motivated and actively involved in the teaching and learning activities. Students involvement is important because interactive language teaching stresses the importance of providing learners with more activities to interact with the target language. However, the teacher was not really concerned about it. She seldom used English in her teaching and learning. Therefore, the students did not understand to the teachers explanation when she spoke in English. As the result, the students were reluctant to engage in the lesson.

The activity held was only focused on individual classroom activities so there was little students interaction and cooperation in teaching and learning activities. The teacher only gave attention to active students so that the others were very busy making trouble in the class, like talking, shouting, playing alone or with other students. Thirdly, it is related to the teaching technique. The teacher seldom used interactive teaching techniques. The classroom activities were monotonous, not communicative, and seemed to be teacher-centered. She often employed reading and writing activities and seldom employed listening and speaking activities so that the students had less opportunity to practice their English. The interesting and interactive activities, such as playing games, telling stories or singing songs, were rarely implemented. Based on some problems in the identification of the problem above, the researcher and the English teacher agreed to focus the study on the efforts to improve the students listening skill through interactive language games for grade five of SDN Tulis 03 in academic year of 2010/2011.

C. Limitation of the Problem It is clear that appropriate techniques are important in English teaching and learning for children. There are various kinds of techniques used in English teaching and learning for children. One of the most popular techniques applied in the classroom activities is games. In relation to the principle of learning by playing, games can invite students interest and desires, increase their motivation

to do learning activities, and bring psychological encouragement. Games will give opportunity for children to explore knowledge and experience with fun. From the arrays of the problems described above, the present study limits the scope of the research. The researcher chooses to limit the study to problems related to interactive language games based on two reasons. First, she considers that the playing games become one of important factors to learn English and to improve the students communication skills, especially the students listening skills. Second, the actions in this study are limited by time and facilities. The researcher does not have enough time to conduct the study because she only has two months to finish it. Besides, she does not have access to obtain feasible facilities that are required to solve all problems. She tries to identify feasible actions to improve the fifth grade students listening skills.

D. Formulation of the Problem The problem of this research can be formulated as follows: a) What are the effective interactive language games that can help to improve the listening skills for the fifth grade students at SDN Tulis 03 in the academic year of 2010/2011? b) How can the effective interactive language games be implemented to improve the listening skills for the fifth grade students at SDN Tulis 03 in the academic year of 2010/2011? E. Objective of the Study The objectives of this research are:

a) To develop some effective interactive language games to improve the listening skills of the fifth grade students at SDN Tulis 03 in the academic year of 2010/2011. b) To describe the effective ways of applying games in class activities at the fifth grade of SDN Tulis 03 in the academic year of 2010/2011.

F. Significance of the Study It is expected that the result of this study can contribute to some parties: 1. For the teachers of English for children, the results of this study are expected to provide information about some effective interactive games and the effective ways of applying them in class activities to improve the students listening skills. 2. For the school principal of primary schools, the findings are expected to become good inputs for implementing the same technique in other relevant subjects. 3. For the students of the English Education Department conducting teaching practice in the primary schools, the findings of this study is expected to become good inputs in conducting their teaching practice. 4. For other researchers, the result of the study can be one of meaningful and useful studies which can be a reference to conduct research studies in relation to the English teaching in

the primary schools.