A CORRELATIONAL STUDY BETWEEN HABIT IN SINGING AND LISTENING TO ENGLISH SONGS, VOCABULARY MASTERY, AND SPEAKING SKILL
A. Background of the Study
We communicate with each other, directly or indirectly in the society. In a direct communication, speaking skills become very important. Speaking is a productive skill in the oral mode. Speaking is more complicated than it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing words. The purpose of real communication is to accomplish a purpose, such as conveying a message, obtaining information, or expressing an opinion. In real communication, participants must manage uncertainty about what the other person will say. Authentic communication involves an information gap; each participant has information that the other does not have. In addition, to achieve their purpose, participants may have to clarify their meaning or ask for confirmation of their own understanding.
Some communication situations are associated with a predictable set of spoken exchanges - a script. Greetings, apologies, compliments, invitations, and other functions that are influenced by social and cultural norms often follow patterns or scripts. So do the transactional exchanges involved in activities such as obtaining information and making a purchase. In these scripts, the relationship between a speaker's turn and the one that follows it can often be anticipated. If we don't have good speaking skill, it may causes miss understanding one other.
Good communication skills require a high level self-awareness. By understanding our personal style of communicating, we will go a long way towards creating good and lasting impressions with others.
Many language learners regard speaking ability as the measure of knowing a language. These learners define fluency as the ability to converse with others, much more than the ability to read, write, or comprehend oral language. They regard speaking as the most important skill they can acquire, and they assess their progress in terms of their accomplishments in spoken communication.
A teacher has to master language skills, covering speaking, writing, listening, or reading. Therefore he can help the students to improve their language skills too. Every student has different ability in mastering language skill. Some students are good at speaking but not good at reading or writing conversely. Students have different intellectual abilities. They think and learn differently. Some learning patterns will have been developed as a result of the schooling experience where materials were largely presented in a way that benefited students with linguistic or numeric abilities. As a result innate learning styles may not have been developed and students may need to be encouraged to identify their own learning pattern.
There are various ways of classifying differences in learning styles. Many theories and models have been proposed. Some learning styles classifications include :
1. Left and right brain thinkers
2. Auditory, visual and aesthetics learners
3. Activists, reflectors, theorists and pragmatists
Each learner will have a preferred way in which to process information. In many instances, tutors will not have the time required to determine their students learning styles. Neither may the tutor have the expertise to analyze individual learning styles or conduct the tests that are available.
The key consideration for tutors is not to rely on one teaching strategy. It is important to remember that some students don't learn very well by just listening and taking notes. Some may have a more limited attention span than others and like activity in class. Understanding the many ways in which people learn is crucial when planning and delivering a course.
Students often think that the ability to speak a language is the product of language learning, but speaking is also a crucial part of the language learning process. Effective instructors teach students speaking strategies using minimal responses, recognizing scripts, and using language to talk about language that they can use to help themselves expand their knowledge of the language and their confidence in using it. These instructors help students learn to speak so that the students can use speaking to learn.
Sometimes some habit may also influence student ability, for example a student who likes reading a book, improve his reading skill, a student who likes listening to songs, improve his listening or speaking skill automatically, a singer who sings English song, usually has good pronunciation. In this research the writer tries to investigate the correlation of habit in singing and listening to English songs and speaking skill.
The writer considers that so many language skills can be learnt from a song. There are so many advantages we can take from a song. By singing a song we can learn to speak English fluently. We can learn how to pronounce a word, understand the meaning of a word and also how to arrange words into a good sentence. We can also get more vocabulary from the song lyrics and learn another language skill such as listening, and also reading from a song.
In this study the writer wants to find out whether there is a correlation between the students' habit in singing and listening to English songs and their language skills, that is speaking skill.
In the speaking skill cannot be separated from other language skills such as vocabulary mastery. An expert says that vocabulary is the basics skill for communication. If someone does not recognize the meaning of the key words used by those who addressed them, they will be unable to participate in the conversation. It means that the vocabulary mastery is also important factor in speaking skill. Therefore, in this study the writer also wants to find out whether there is a correlation between the students' vocabulary mastery and speaking skill.
The writer chooses the students of vocational school as the subject of the research because they can be categorized as teenage learners, and teenage learner usually like songs, game and something fun. An expert argues that teenage students are good language learners. Psychologically, they have been able to control their emotions. Teenagers, if they are engaged, have a great capacity to learn, a great potential for creativity, and a passionate commitment to thing which interest them. Furthermore students of vocational school are prepared to the real work world, they have to have good speaking skill for their communication with everyone.
In this thesis, the writer tries to find out if there is significant correlation between habit in singing and listening to English songs, vocabulary mastery and speaking skill. The writer wants to learn if there is significant correlation between habit in singing and listening to English songs, the vocabulary mastery and the speaking skill. The writer just wants to investigate the contribution of students' habit in singing and listening to English songs, vocabulary mastery for their speaking skill. Therefore the results of this study can be used as approach to teach speaking, especially for vocational school students.
Based on the above description, the writer wants to carry out research to know whether there is a positive correlation between the students' habit in singing and listening to English songs, vocabulary mastery and their speaking skill, especially for the eleventh grade student of SMK X.
B. Problem Identification
Based on the background, the writer finds some problems, as follows :
1. Is there any correlation between habit in singing and listening to English songs and vocabulary mastery?
2. Is there any correlation between habit in singing and listening to English songs and speaking skill?
3. Is there any correlation between habit in singing and listening to English songs and reading skill?
4. Is there any correlation between habit in singing and listening to English songs and writing skill?
5. Is there any correlation between habit in singing and listening to English songs and listening skill?
6. Is there any correlation between vocabulary mastery and speaking skill?
7. Is there any correlation between vocabulary mastery and listening skill?
8. Is there any correlation between vocabulary mastery and reading skill?
9. Is there any correlation between vocabulary mastery and writing skill?
10. Is there any correlation between habit in singing and listening to English songs, vocabulary mastery and speaking skill?
C. Problem Limitation
The writer limits the problem of this thesis on the three variables, that is student's habit in singing and listening to English songs, vocabulary mastery, and speaking skill. The research subject is the eleventh grade students of SMK X. The correlation method is used to examine the coefficient of correlation between the variables.
D. Problem Formulation
Based on the background of the study and problem limitation, the formula of the problem as follows :
1. Is there a positive significant correlation between habit in singing and listening to English songs and speaking skill.
2. Is there a positive significant correlation between vocabulary mastery and speaking skill.
3. Is there a positive significant correlation between habit in singing and listening to English songs, vocabulary mastery simultaneously and speaking skill?
E. The Benefits of the Study
The result of the research give information about students' habit in singing and listening to English songs, their vocabulary mastery, and their speaking skill. This information can be used to decide whether these factors must be improved or not.
The result of the research gives information about the degree of correlation between students' habit in singing and listening to English songs, vocabulary mastery, and speaking skill. It can be used for the teacher to decide whether the speaking skill can be improved by the two factors or not.
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