Saturday 25 December 2010

Listening for English Understanding

Nowadays, many teachers are facing some problems in making an efficient method in learning English for their students. It is a little bit hard, but they are forced to make the method that can enhance their students’ ability to learn English in all aspects. Thus, finding the best way on how students accomplish all aspects of learning English become a classic problem for almost all teachers. In this essay, we have prepared some methods that the teacher should follow relating to listening, speaking, reading, and writing comprehensions based on my research on some Junior High School teachers so that their students can learn English easier in a simple way.
The very beginning thing to be given to the students is listening to something. The first step of this section is preparing them an easy song that contains some simple words. It will be okay whether you as the teacher or the student who chooses the song. But, if the students choose the song by themselves, it will be confusing because every student has his/her own interest. Therefore, the next step is that you still have to put some criteria for the song and give your final decision which song you will use for this section. You can consider the students’ opinion by using a song that has been chosen by most of the students. The next step is playing the song to the class. Let them listen it first, and ask them whether they have caught about what the song is being talked. If they have not caught it yet, after the first listening, you have to repeat the song two or three times to increase their comprehensions. But, you should give them a space before repeating to relax their mind. After all this steps are done, the students are ready to go to the next section.
To make sure their understanding on what they have listened to, speaking is the best way. For doing this activity, there are several steps you have to do. Firstly, you must ask them some questions involving the topic in the song that they have listened. The questions are not directly aimed to the content, but give them a warming up question. For example, if you choose the song titled “Perfect” by Simple Plan, then the topic will be about a regret, you may begin your question by asking, “Have you ever done a mistake? What will you do after making a mistake? Do your parents angry with you when you do a mistake?” etc. After you think that your warming up question is enough, continue to the second way which give them the main questions about the content so that you know how close their answer relating to the right answers, such as “What the singer think after doing mistakes? Did his parents forgive him?” and so on. Next step, when you feel that the students make some mistakes in pronunciation, do not revise them right away. You should wait until the students have done their speaking first. Somehow, it will make them more confidence because they will not feel all what they have done are full of mistakes.
The next thing right after speaking is giving them the text of the song lyric. First, you should ask them to read the text by themselves, and then discuss it with them. By giving them the text, they will know how close their answers in the speaking section in approaching the right answers. The will be able to check the proper spelling of the words they have been listened. In case that there will be some new and unfamiliar words, then pronounce them clearly. Thus, the student will know the spelling of the words and how to pronounce them well. The next one is giving them some written questions involving the content of the lyric, for example, “Who are the characters that involved in the text? Why does the son apologize to his father?” etc. After giving the written questions, give them a couple of minutes to do the task. At last, discuss it again, if their answer mostly right, it means that they have fully understood about the content.
The last section is writing. In this case, writing will be the best way to complete the students’ understanding. After they do some sections such as listening, speaking, and reading, we hope that they have enough background knowledge so that they could make a conclusion about what they have learned. Therefore, ask them to write an interpretation of the lyric will be a perfect activity to do. There are several steps to be done in this section. The first thing that you have to do is giving them some guidance because without them, a Junior High School student will be difficult to arrange their interpretation in an order ways. Usually, the guidance is in the form of questions that discuss the event in the song in order way. Secondly, ask the student to answer those questions you have just given. Then, the third step is asking them to make a paragraph based on the answer of the questions. Suggest them to make it in their own words. The next step is deciding the due time to submit their work. After they submit their work, you will know how deep their understanding is.
In short, learning English for the beginner and the intermediate are not the same. Therefore, as the teacher, you have to prepare the most efficient way relating to all abilities they should be mastered in Learning English. Starting from listening, the students can enlarge their ability on all aspects such as speaking, reading, and writing. You should consider the order of the section you will give to the students for they have to get some information first before producing an excellent work.


References :
written by 
Rahayu Sekarini
Riska Ayu Wibisono

No comments:

Post a Comment