The use of authentic materials for Listening

I. Introduction

Listening is one of the Most important English component that teachers need
to teach students. Teachers is the one who is responsible to make students
master in listening. Therefore , Teachers need to give students a meaning
input by preparing A good Listening materials for instance ; in form authentic
material. Authentic materials is a kind of materials that is designed for native
speaker for instance; news report on BBC , VOA, newyork time newspaper
etc. They can be used by teachers to present a real context of English in daily
communication.

I. Statement of problem

There are many teachers have been using authentic materials in teaching
Listening . However, many of them still can not to use them effectively. For
example ; in my school, the teachers played a short vidio from BBc news
about wether report, after playing video, the teachers asking me about
specific information of the news, however I can not anwer the quistion. In
facts, the teacher just played recording / video without giving students any
clues or any meaning of certain difficult word, so that the students can not
understand what They have heard . From the story above I conclude that the
main problem in this case is the teachers do not give students the 2 aspects
of learning procces ; top down and bottom up.

II. Discussion

From the story above the teachers do not give students both top down and
bottom up , so that students can not to catch the meaning or can not to answer certain
quistion related to Listening materials. Therefore, in teaching authentic materials for
Listening , the teachers should use both bottom up and top down procces to make students
are easier in answering quistion or knowing difficult vocabulary, grammar etc related to the
materials
A. Defenition Top down and bottom up

1. Top down
Top down contains the background knowledge of topic and
knowledge of how the discourse is organized by looking of
different genres, topic,and puposes. In addition, it also
contains the contextual knowledge that involves the
understanding of particular Listening situation on its context.
For example ; listeners estimate about who participants
are,what setting is and what topic and purposes are.

2. Bottom up
Bottom up contains the knowlegde about the language
system, such as the knowlegde about grammar , vocabulary
and phonological system.

B. Implementation of top down and bottom up in teaching authentic

materials

1. Top down

When teachers give authentic materials for students such as

recording of public announcement in airport, A short video
of BBC news or wether report , the teachers shoud give
some quistions to activate their background knowlegde for
example, “ a teacher is going to play a short vidio from BBc
news about tsunami at Lampung , But before playing the
video, the teacher ask students “ what do you know about
tsunami at Lampung and Banten in the recent news of BBc ?
So , automatically , it Will activate the background
knowlegde of students and make them easier in
understanding the materials.

2. Bottom up

Before giving the materials, the teacher should identify

about the certain difficult vocabularies or grammatical
items,or pronunciation of certain words , then giving them
to students. for example, the teachers give students several
words with its pronunciation about A short vidio of BBc news
for students don’t know how to pronounce the certain
 words or give explanations about simple past tense that
contains in the materials.

I. Conclusion remarks

Use of Authentic materials is an effective way to improve students ability in

Listening . However , many teachers do not know the strategy in teaching it
to students . Therefore , to fix this problem , teachers should use both top
down and bottom up in teaching authentic materials in order to make
students are easier to master the materials.