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Improving Students’ Listening Skill and Vocabulary Mastery through

Contextual Teaching and Learning

Yeni Ghonivita1, John Pahamzah2, Murti Ayu Wijayanti3


1,2,3
Universitas Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa
ghonivitay@gmail.com

Submitted: February 23rd, 2021 Revised: May 20th, 2021 Accepted: May 22nd, 2021

Abstract
The aims of this research is to describe the process of improving the students‟ listening skill and vocabulary
mastery through contextual teaching and learning (CTL) by using online learning at the eleventh grade of
SMAN 1 Sajira. This study also attempts to find out the improvement of the students‟ skill in listening and
vocabulary mastery through contextual teaching and learning (CTL) by using online learning. The method
used in this research was qualitative research method by implementing classroom action research (CAR).
This research was conducted in three cycles actions in cycle I, cycle 2 and cycle 3. The result of the research
is the use of contextual teaching and learning (CTL) by using online learning can improve the students‟
listening skill and vocabulary mastery. The finding of the research are (1) the process of teaching and
learning using CTL through online learning is conducted successfully in terms of the feeling of happiness and
enthusiasm of the students; and (2) there is an improvement of the students‟ listening skill from 57.85 in pre-
test became 81.11 in post-test. This study proves that English teacher can improve students‟ listening and
vocabulary mastery by optimizing the use of materials at school, and be creative in selecting, developing, and
giving materials at class.

Keywords: contextual teaching and learning, listening, vocabulary

Introduction levels of education considering the facts


Senior High School is designed to above; English has become an important skill
prepare the students to continue their interest to master by students of Senior High School.
right after they graduate. The fresh graduate The Senior High School students to be
students of Senior High School are expected observed are especially from the eleventh
to master the materials of their interests. grade. They are in the second grade; the
Besides, English becomes very important students are in their competition of high
since most of the major of the university school program, so their quality of English
faculty put English proficiency, both written language of Senior High School students can
and speaking, as one of requirements. More be obtained. The chosen of the eleventh
overs, the development of global grade students are from students who studied
communication and information era brings a at Senior High School 1 Sajira.
strict competition among the job seekers. The All of the majors are already in
students will get advantages if they master English to get across one of the compulsory
English of their expertise. In terms of subjects which exists in all departments,
education, English is always considered as given the English up to now very important,
one of the subjects to be taught in almost all

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and widely used both for support and learning media. It can be assumed that in
expertise in the world of science. teaching learning activity, there should be
SMA Negeri 1 Sajira is one of the teaching principles such as authentic
Senior High Schools. It provides students communication and student centeredness.
with many kinds of study programs to master It is concluded that Senior High
a specific competence of their interest, the School orientation is to prepare students to be
study programs provided are nature science, able to continue their study to university.
and social science. In this case, the researcher Consequently, English teachers in Senior
only concerns teaching English on those High School are expected to have the ability
study programs. As stated above, English is to analyze the interests of the students so that
one of the important subject to help students they can design an appropriate teaching
to face the global competition. Regarding learning process.
these, the English for specific purposes is English has become an important
required to support their English proficiency subject to be taught and should be learnt
based on their expertise. Therefore, the systematically. There are several macro-skills
teacher should consider English learning that must be understood and comprehend to
materials which are suitable for the students‟ the students of Senior High School. They are
needs. listening, speaking, writing, and reading
English teaching in Indonesia Senior skills.
High School are, indeed, different from that The listening skill is one of those
of other high schools due to different goals. macro skills that are very important and
The students of SMA Negeri 1 Sajira are useful for Senior High School students. The
mostly passive in learning English. Yet, the listening skill can help the students to
curriculum applied in the school is K13 understand some English words that they
(Curriculum 2013) where the students need may find in their activities outside the school.
to be active in learning, this is based on However, learning listening for Senior
Permendikbud No. 63 about the basic High School students is not a simple matter.
framework of the curriculum which is an The students should be able to understand not
emphasis on the modern pedagogic only the meaning of the words, but also how
dimension of learning, which uses a scientific the words spelled.
approach in learning as it includes observing, These requirements of learning
asking, gathering information or trying, listening might be still consider uneasy things
associating or processing information, and for most Senior High School students. As the
communicating for all subject to be evidence, most of the students of SMAN 1
performed by education staff or teacher as a

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Sajira sometimes get bad marks as the result education process which has a purpose of
of these difficulties in learning listening. helping students seeing students, seeing the
In this case, teachers have meaning inside the academic material that
responsibility to help students to achieve they learn by connecting the academic
listening skill. One thing that teachers can do subjects with the contexts of their daily lives.
to solve the problems is to teach the students Therefore, the meaning of Contextual
using an appropriate approach for teaching Teaching and Learning forms the opinion of
listening classes based on students‟ level and the above experts, we can conclude that CTL
students‟ ability. is a study concept which helps teachers to
Based on the observation, the connect between the situation of the students‟
researchers find that the students‟ problems real lives and motivate students to make a
related to listening and vocabulary mastery. relationship/ connections between the
Their vocabularies are still less so it is knowledge that they have with the
difficult for them to understand various types implementation in the daily lives.
of texts for example song lyrics. Many In Indonesian context, numerous study
students of get instantly bored and cannot on the use of Contextual Teaching and
understand what the lyrics mean when given Learning to teach English skills have been
certain English songs. Their boredom and not conducted (Kadir, 2012; Kusumayati, 2010;
knowing easily leads them either into lost and Nawas, 2018). Those studies reported
motivation or low awareness. that Contextual Teaching and Learning was
Furthermore, the researcher is as the successful in improving four English skills.
teacher, she found that she had a problem in However, rarely studies focus on listening
teaching Listening. The teacher doesn‟t give and vocabulary at the same time. Therefore,
the listening subject based on the students‟ it is important for the researcher to apply
interest, rarely used various techniques and Contextual Teaching and Learning to
media in the teaching process, so that the improve students‟ listening skill and
students feel bored, when they have to listen vocabulary mastery at the eleventh grade of
to song, that the song uninteresting lyrics. In SMA Negeri 1 Sajira in the Academic Year.
the class, some students sometimes lean over
their heads on the table and talked to each Theorectical Review
other. Therefore, appropriate approach [n The Notion of Listening
teaching listening of song to solve problem is Listening is very important activity in
necessary. human life. This is due to the facts that
According to Johnson (2004), mostly get information through listening and
Contextual Teaching and Learning is an to help students gain access to many different

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kinds of knowledge, information, and ideas. (1976) who says that listening is receiving,
Also, listening has many benefits for students receiving requires thinking and thinking
because it can improve students‟ social skills requires memory. There are no ways to
and open up new words for them. The separate listening, thinking, and memory.
students must see listening as an enjoyable The Notion of Vocabulary
activity in order to truly benefit from it. Not Richards (2002: 255) states that
only related to school. The students will use vocabulary is the core component of
listening to learn about all subjects. There are language proficiency and provides much of
many experts who give the definition of the basis for how well learners speak, listen,
listening. There are so many definitions of read, and write. Jackson and Amvela
listening stated by experts from different (2000:11) say that the terms of vocabulary,
point of views. According to Nunan (2001) lexis, and lexicon are synonymous.
listening is a six-staged process, consisting of Vocabulary is one of the language
hearing, attending, understanding, components that can affect macro skills.
remembering, evaluating and responding. Some terms of vocabulary is proposed by
Listening is the first skill that the some experts. Nunan (1999: 101) states that
students have to master before learning a vocabulary is a list of target language words.
foreign language. Listening is the the skill Furthermore, Jackson and Amvela
that acquire first, especially if they have not (2000: 11) say that the terms vocabulary,
yet learnt to read. This is added by Scott and lexis, and lexicon are synonymous. In
Ytreberg (2000:75) who say when the pupils addition, Richards and Schmidt (2002: 580)
start to learn a foreign language, it is going in state that vocabulary is a set of lexeme,
mainly through their ears and what the pupils including single words, compound words,
hear is their main source of the language. So and idioms.
in language skills, listening is the main point Vocabulary is the total number of
of studying language before other skills. words in a language; all the words known to
Listening is an active and creative a person or used in a particular book, subject,
process which requires mastery of skills, etc; a list of words with their meaning,
listening is the dominant means of sensory especially one that accompanies a textbook
comprehension, because in listening, the (Hornby, 1995: 1331). Those definitions
listener plays a very active part in connecting show that vocabulary is the first element that
the overall messages which are eventually the English learners should learn in order to
exchanged between listener and speaker. It is master English well besides the other English
obvious that listening needs thinking and components and skills.
memory. This statement comes from Morley

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The vocabulary of language always refers to the noise of snake and to someone‟s
changes and grows. As life become more threat to others. In collocation, a word goes
complex, people devise or borrow new words with each other, such as, headache, earache,
to describe man‟s activities. No one knows and so on. In addition, style and register is
exact numbers of words in the English applied by differentiating the language to be
vocabulary today. From the interpretation used by someone either in a formal or
above, we can conclude that vocabulary is informal context, for example hello! (Formal)
the core component of language proficiency and hi! (Informal). Moreover, word
that consists of a set of lexeme, including formation may also create word meaning by
single words, compound words, idioms; seeing them on their grammatical contexts. It
provides much of the basis for how well means that we look at how the suffixes and
learners speak, read, listen, and write; and the prefixes work (im-, or in-) such as in
has similarities with the term „lexis‟ and imperfect and perfect, inappropriate and
„lexicon.‟ appropriate.
In language learning, vocabulary takes Vocabulary as one of English
place in building the language proficiency. Component and it is very important to learn.
The objective of the vocabulary mastery is to Before the student master the four skills they
make the students have a good language have to know some vocabularies to support
proficiency in the language skills. It depends them in learning English. English vocabulary
on the quality and quantity of the vocabulary as one of the language skill element has an
that they have mastered. The richer the important role for senior high student in
vocabulary that can be mastered by the learning foreign languages.
students, they will get the better skill that can Vocabulary learning is an important
be reached in using language. Talking about and indispensable part of any language
vocabulary, Lehr, Osborn, and Hiebert (in learning process. Fisher and Frey (2014)
Kamil and Hiebert, 2005: 2-3) define stated that vocabulary is at the core of all
vocabulary as knowledge of words and words literacy. Without it, students would not be to
meaning in both oral and print language and comprehend anything they listen.
in productive and receptive forms. More Vocabulary is all the words which
specifically, they use it to refer to “the kind exist in a particular language. Vocabulary
of word that students must know to read functions as a cornerstone without which any
increasingly demanding text with language could not exist. The word
comprehension. “vocabulary” generally represent a summary
Word meaning is also governed by of words or their combinations in a particular
metaphors and idioms, e.g., the word hiss language.

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Vocabulary can be defined as the vocabulary are active and passive
collection of word that an individual know vocabulary.
(Linse, 2005). Vocabulary can also be According to Richard (2001; 40)
defined, roughly, as the words we teach in vocabulary is one of the obvious components
the foreign language (Thorburry, 2002). of language. He adds that vocabulary is the
However, a new item of vocabulary may be core component in language proficient and
more than just a single word: for example, provides much of the basis for how learners
post office, and mother-in-law, which are speak, listen, read, and write. It is the basic
made up two or three words but express a skill to know about the other skill of
single idea. language. Brown, (2001: 91).
Hedge (2000) stated that in learning a The Definition of Contextual Teaching and
foreign language, vocabulary plays an Learning (CTL)
important role. It is one of the most important Contextual Teaching and Learning
aspects of the foreign language learning. (CTL) is a concept that motivate teachers to
Rich vocabulary helps people to understand connect between the material which has been
and learn new words. Vocabulary can simply taught and the situation that the students‟ real
be defined as the total number of word, life. Johnson (2004) argued that CTL is an
which makes up language. The vocabulary education process which has a purpose of
constructs sentences we use from smaller part helping students seeing students, seeing the
of the words. Every word uttered in the meaning inside the academic material that
acquiring processes of an individual. they learn by connecting the academic
Thornbury (2002) stated that subjects with the contexts of their daily lives.
vocabulary is very useful for anyone who Therefore, it can be concluded that
studying a foreign language. In this case that CTL is a study concept which helps teachers
vocabulary is one important are that should to connect between the situations of the
not be neglected in language and learning students‟ real lives and motivate students to
and it is very communication with other make a relationship/ connections between the
people in spoken or written form. knowledge that they have with the
There are two types of vocabulary; implementation in the daily lives.
they are active and passive vocabulary (Read, Some educators approve that science
2000). While learning new word, people need point of view, about the universe is not alive,
a lot of practice and context connections to not silent, and the universe is supported by
learn them well, store the vocabulary in the the three principles of depending one to
memory and recall it when speaking or another, differentiation, and self-organized
writing. Thus two main groups of person‟s

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that absorb the view with the new way of Method
thought about learning and teaching. The research was conducted at SMA
Morover, Johnson (2004) explained Negeri 1 Sajira Kabupaten Lebak. This
the three parts of CTL‟ s system as follows: school consists of three grades; tenth,
a. CTL reflects the principle of depending eleventh, and twelfth grade, each grade
one to another; depending on the another consists of five classes. For tenth grade
implements ourselves such as, when the consists of 34 until 35 students. For eleventh
students joint to solve the problems and grade consists of 36 students. The research
when the teacher hold a meeting with was conducted through teaching learning
their partners, it is obvious when the process in the Google Classroom at the
different subjects are connected and eleventh grade students in the academic years
when the partnership combines the of 2019-2020. This research was held by
school with the business world and improving students‟ listening skill and
community. vocabulary mastery by using online learning
b. CTL reflects the Principle of through contextual teaching and learning.
differentiation; when CTL against the The researchers observed the
students to respect one to another the participants‟ English ability from
unique of themselves, to honor the conversation. The research was conducted in
difference, to be creative, and to March 2020 for several weeks to apply the
collaborate, to produce ideas, and new pre-tests of listening ability test, vocabulary
different result, and also to realize the mastery tests, applying contextual teaching
diversity is the sign of greatness and the and learning observation, interview,
strength. questionnaire, and post-test of listening
c. CTL reflects the principles of self- ability tests and vocabulary mastery tests.
organized; the self-organization is The researchers involved eleventh
visible for students to search and find grade students of SMA Negeri 1 Sajira. The
the ability and their own different subject of the researcher was the students of
interests, getting advantage from the X1 IPA 1 consist of 34 students, 14 males
given feedback by the authentic value, and 20 females. Mostly they had limited
reviewing their effort in guidance of comprehension listening skill and vocabulary
obvious purpose and high standard and mastery.
participate in activities that are centered The researchers observed students‟
at students which make their hearts progress in their listening skill and
singing. vocabulary mastery; they found the eleventh

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grade students‟ difficulties in listening skill The goal of action research is to
and vocabulary mastery. understand some elements of classroom by
The time allocation for English subject collecting data. Before starting the research, a
is 1 x 45 minutes, once a week. In conducting plan was in place that described what the data
the actions, the researcher will follow the to collect and when, how, and how often the
school time-table, which the English Subject teacher collected the data by identifying an
was taught once a week. The duration was 90 area focus, collecting data, analyzing and
minutes in every session. The researcher interpreting data, and developing an action
arranges in three cycles. One cycle consisted plan (Mills, 2000).
of two meetings, so the whole section was six
meetings. Result
In this research, the researchers used There was an improvement of using
the classroom Action Research. Wallace Contextual Teaching and Learning toward
(2006) stated that classroom Action research the students‟ listening skill and vocabulary
is a type of classroom research carried out by mastery from cycle I to cycle III. The
the teacher in order to solve problems or to researchers found some progress. In cycle I,
find answers toward context-specific issues. the researchers held post- test I with multiple
It means that before implementing the choice kind of questions. It had ten numbers
research, the researcher needed to identify of questions and the test was conducted on
any problem real found in the classroom. March 31st, 2020.
This classroom Action research was The mean score that had been gained
conducted for this research. This is in were still low. The mean score was 57,85.
accordance with what Mills (2000: 21) has The researcher used Contextual Teaching and
defined, “Action research is systemic inquiry Learning (CTL) to teach English on online
done by teachers (or other individual in the learning concerning listening and vocabulary
teaching /learning environment) to gather. mastery.
Information about and subsequently The mean score was still very low due
improves the ways their particular schools to it was related to the students‟ listening
operate, how they teach, and how well their skills during the teaching leaning process
students learn.” Lodico, et. al., (2006: 288) .Some factors which contributed to the lack
define that action research has the potential of the students‟ listening skills were the
to produce change quickly because the teacher used whether the text from page to
research is carried out by educators in their page or through Google classroom
work settings. continuously, the teaching aids and media
that maximally used, the teacher who seldom

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used English in teaching – learning process, multiple choice. The test was conducted on
the students who lost their attention easily, May 14th, 2020.
the students who were bored and passive In the second cycle, the students still
during the online teaching and learning had difficulty with lists of new vocabulary
process, due to the teacher seldom gave and sentence structure at the same time, the
listening activities during the English students have to decode wards and activate
teaching-learning process, the students who what they had or faced in the real lives as
were still unfamiliar with the use of English what CTL or Contextual Teaching and
as the medium of instruction and the students Learning process was hoped for. In addition,
did not listen and respond to the teacher‟s they should maintain their concentration and
questions and instruction well. motivation during listening. Hence, students
Using contextual teaching and learning required a listening approach in their
(CTL) as the main activities to improve the listening activities. Effective listeners are
students listening skills and vocabulary listening with an approach to overcome their
mastery and to make them involved in the listening difficulties.
teaching learning process since children liked In this cycle, the English teacher as
to sing and connected it with their real lives senior high school had to teach some types of
and got bored easily, it was important to song texts through online learning and
create different activities during the teaching through YouTube infected many students in
learning process. SMA 1 Sajira. In cycle II still had problems
These activities must attract the in comprehending a song tex,t it was still
students‟ intention toward the lesson, so they because of lack of vocabulary and sentence
would involve actively and this would lead to structure. Based on the teachers‟ observation,
the students‟ listening and vocabulary the students lacked participation in their
improvement. They used the videos on listening activities. English teachers usually
YouTube to introduce the students to some taught the listening, integrating it with
simple lyrics and familiarize them to English. reading or speaking and applied dictation
when the students thought that English was a techniques in class – but in this Covid
difficult subject, it was necessary to pandemic, those kinds of processes could not
familiarize English over their ears. be taken due to the difficulties of how to
Using Contextual Teaching and teach directly.
learning (CTL) in the second cycle made the Instead, the teacher did not use various
score increasing. It was known from the kinds of approaches. She only used natural
score that was gained in post - test II, the approach like giving the material through
type of the test was still the same, it was online learning, so the students were still

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difficult to listen and comprehend of listening To overcome the problem, the
text especially new vocabularies. It made the researcher had to find the appropriate
listening ability for parts of the students are approach that allowed students to be active in
still not good enough. the classroom, especially in listening class.
Hence, there were some significant The approach must have the purpose of CTL,
improvements in students‟ scores. Those which are meaningful to SMAN 1 Sajira
improvements indicated that there was some experience: motivate them to learn English
important comprehension in students more, and improve their listening
understanding through the songs they had comprehension.
heard on YouTube. It made the process By conducting the approach, there
useful enough. were very tremendous significant
The mean score was still very low due improvement in the students score, the
to it was related to the students listening researcher had done the three cycles of
skills during the teaching leaning process teaching and learning process successfully.
some of the students‟ listening skills were the The approach of CTL or contextual teaching
teacher used whether the text from page to and learning by connecting between the song
page or through Google classroom and their real lives could make their students‟
continuously, the teaching aids and media listening ability and vocabulary mastery was
that maximally used. getting much better in every cycles. The
In cycle II, the researcher held post- researchers had made the research
test II with also multiple kinds of questions. completely finished successfully. The result
It had ten numbers of questions and the test also confirm the previous works as already
th
was conducted on May 14 , 2020. The mean done by Kadir (2012); Kusumayati (2010);
score that had been gained was developing. and Nawas (2018) that Contextual Teaching
The mean score is 73. 97. The researcher still and Learning played important parts in
used Contextual Teaching and Learning to enhancing students English skills and
teach listening and vocabulary mastery abilities, especially for Indonesian context as
through online learning. non-native English speaking.
In the third cycle, using contextual
teaching and learning (CTL) made the scores Conclusion
increasing significantly. It was known from This research tries to describe about
the score that was gained in post-test III. The how is the process of teaching listening, to
type of the test was still also the same, it was show the improvement using CTL in
still multiple choices. The test was conducted teaching listening, to show the improvement
on May 23rd, 2020. using CTL in teaching English listening skill.

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The major conclusions of the study can be Daller, M. D. (2007). Modelling and
Assessing Vocabulary Knowledge.
described below.
USA” Cambridge University Press.
The process of teaching listening and
Hakim, R., & Sampurna, P. (2020). Teaching
vocabulary mastery through Contextual
Students Pronunciation Skills through
Teaching and Learning (CTL) by online Tongue Twister Exercises. Journal of
English Language Teaching and
learning gave so many improvements. In the
Cultural Studies, 3(1), 29-34.
first cycle, the average score that the students
Kadir, A. (2012). Teaching reading using
got in pre-test is 57.85. The result was still
contextual teaching and learning
very low. Therefore, it needs to be held the (CTL)(A pra experiment study at the
second grade of SMP PGRI 12
second test. In the second cycle, the students
Januari).
got improvement in the score. The score was
Kusumayati, L. D. (2010). Improving
73.97 in posttest II.
students‟ vocabulary mastery using
In the last cycle of teaching listening contextual teaching and learning (a
classroom action research at the third
and vocabulary mastery was the significance
grade of SD Negeri Kalimacan in
of gaining score that the students got. The academic year 2009/2010).
score was 81.11 in the post test III. The
Larsen & Freeman. (2000). Techniques and
method of using Contextual Teaching and Principles In Language Teaching.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Learning (CTL) was beneficial to improve
students listening and vocabulary mastery Linse, T. C. (2005). Practical English,
Language Teaching Young Learners.
ability. It means that CTL can be used to
New York-America: McGraw-Hill
improve students listening ability and Companies, Inc.
vocabulary mastery. It is proven by the
Macaro, E. (2001). Learning Strategis in
improvement from the increased meanscore Forein and Second Language
Classroom. New York- Contitiuum.
of pre-test 57,85 became 81,11 in posttest. It
is suggested that Contextual Teaching and McDonough Jo, Shaw C & Masuhara H.
(2013). Materialsand Methods in ELT,
Learning (CTL) in Classroom Action
A Teacher’s Guide. Chichester-West
Research (CAR) can be used to teach the Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
song.
Mills, G. E. (2000). Action research: A guide
for the teacher researcher. Prentice-
Hall, Inc., One Lake Street, Upper
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