THE EFFECTIVENESS OF AUDIO AS AN ALTERNATIVE MEDIA IN

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION

ACHIEVEMENT
Dedek Suprihadin1, Nike Angraini2, Jaya Nur Iman3
Department of English Education, Indo Global Mandiri University
Palembang, Indonesia
Email: [email protected]

Abstract : In order to develop the listening skill, there are many kinds of media that can be used,
including CD, tape record, audio, video, etc. However, the researcher chose audio as a media
in teaching and learning. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to find out if there was a
significant improvement on students’ listening comprehension achievement after being taught
by using audio. The other one was that if there was a significant mean difference between the
students who were taught by using audio and those who were not. The research method was a
quantitative. Furthermore, the researcher employed an experimental study. As a design, the
researcher employed a quasi-experimental study. The population of this research were all of
the second year of SMP Negeri 38 Palembang students. Therefore, the researcher took VIII.3
class (experimental) and VIII.7 class (control) for being the sample. The researcher employed
a fill in the blank test, true false, multiple choices, matching the answer, order, and matching
the phrases as the primary instrument to collect data. The researcher used the Paired and
Independent Sample T-Test formula to calculate the data. With regard to the effect of using
audio as an alternative method in improving students’ listening comprehension achievement,
the result of Paired Sample T-test reveals that using audio as an alternative method has a
positive effect. According to the outcomes of the independent sample t-test, there was a
significant difference between the post-test scores of control and experimental class. It can be
concluded that audio gave positive effect on the students’ listening comprehension
achievement of SMP Negeri 38 Palembang.

Keyword : Listening, Audio, Listening Comprehension Achievement

INTRODUCTION these skills while structuring their courses.

In studying English language, listening is Most teachers take it for granted, believing that
one of the most crucial abilities. But students it will develop spontaneously as part of the
have a lot of challenges when they listen to language acquisition process. Teachers in
English. It is because schools place a greater classrooms appear to assess listening skills
emphasis on writing, reading, and vocabulary, rather than teach them. Students seem like only
meanwhile students struggle greatly with listening, not comprehending. They could not
listening comprehension. According to understand what the speaker said, did not give
Hamouda (2013), due to schools' emphasis on attention to the course material, and did not
grammar, reading, and vocabulary, EFL participate fully in the activities. As a result, it
learners struggle tremendously with listening continues to be the area of language teaching
comprehension. In Indonesia, in the same case, that is both the most ignored and the least
there are still a lot of students that have understood.
difficulties in listening comprehension. One of Based on the observation conducted by
the cases is as the result found by Saraswaty researcher in classes VIII.3 and VIII.7 SMP
(2018) in her study. Many course books and Negeri 38 Palembang, many students have
curricula do not emphasize listening abilities, difficulty in listening in the class. The students
and teachers do not appear to pay attention to show an insufficient capability in listening

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course. They have problem with some with Lossy Compression, and Audio Formats
unfamiliar words, rate of speech, and unusual with Lossless Compression.
accent. If students do not listen properly, the 1. The most precise and authentic depiction of
latter phases of the complicated pattern of the original sound waves is provided by
language learning within a productive uncompressed audio formats: Pulse-Code
framework in the communicative classroom Modulation (PCM), Waveform Audio File
will be challenging. Addressing listening in the Format (WAV), Audio Interchange File
language classroom presents some difficulties Format (AIFF).
for teachers as well. If teachers are expected to 2. Audio Formats with Lossy Compression is a
help students improve their skill, they must first type of compression that loses data as it is
understand their students' difficulties and then being compressed: MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3
teach them effective strategies to fix their
(MP3), Advanced Audio Coding (AAC),
problems. OGG (Vorbis), Windows Media Audio
There are many kinds of media that can be (WMA).
used in order to develop listening skill, 3. Audio Formats with Lossless Compression,
including CD, tape record, audio, video, etc. It keeps the audio quality without any data loss
will undoubtedly be able to give some authentic while reducing the file size of an audio file:
listening materials to encourage students to Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC), Apple
enroll in a listening course. As Heinich (2013) Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC), Windows
states that teaching media can stimulate the Media Audio (WMA) – Lossless.
students’ interest and encourage students’
participation, using media in classroom is more Based on the various audio formats stated
effective. Among all of the media which are above, the researcher decided to employ the
commonly used, the researcher chose audio as a MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (MP3) in her research.
media in teaching and learning. MP3, which has become the standard audio and
music format, makes it easy to obtain nowadays.
Audio In addition to being less in size, the quality is
In general, audio is sound, especially when comparable to other audio formats of its type.
recorded, transmitted, or reproduced. The term In order to run the research using audio (MP3
"audio" in this sense refers to the area of format), the researcher used some audios that
technology involved with using electrical to are short in duration, which are in between 1 to
record, process, store, and deliver audible 3 minutes. The researcher took those audios
sound. According to Sheldon (2022), audio is from British Council, a website that was
any sound that falls inside the audible already very well known and trusted in
frequency range for humans. The field of educational circles, especially in the field of
technology known as audio is involved with English.
using electrical to capture, process, store, and Abid (2017) mentions about the advantages
deliver audible sound. Today, for instance, the and disadvantages of using audio as a media in
majority of computers allow for voice input via teaching and learning activities. There are
a microphone audio file, are capable of storing several advantages, some of which are students
and running audio files in various formats, and can practice more easily with audio because it
can playback audio through speakers or can be done at any time and from any location.
headphones. The audio capabilities of a Audio media can also help students improve
computer are represented by these features. In their abstract imagination and can encourage
short, audio is made of electrical active participation of students, and so on. Then,
energy (analog or digital signals) that represent
the several disadvantages are because
sound electrically. communication is one-way, it is difficult for
Based on Wate (2022), there are three students to discuss topics that are difficult to
different categories audio formats: grasp. Moreover, only students with a high
Uncompressed Audio Formats, Audio Formats level of word and language competence may be

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able to understand audio media that uses more second is vocabulary preparation. When it
voice and spoken language. comes to predicting and guessing, the teacher
Listening Comprehension can tells students the title of the audio, the
names of the characters involved, and then
Listening is hearing what others are saying,
offer a question to get them thinking about
and trying to understand what it means.
the idea or something in it. In vocabulary
Understanding a stream of words and phrases
preparation, hopefully, students will recall
well enough to comprehend the message is the
English words that they have already learned.
goal of listening. According to Ospina (2021),
All of this will aid in the review of
listening comprehension is when someone can
previously learned vocabulary as well as the
generate skills for retention, relationship and
introduction of new vocabulary. It is not
understanding a message. Nadig (2013) also
necessary to teach all of the new vocabulary
mentions that listening comprehension is the
to the students at the first time. Just pick a
various processes of understanding and making
few essentials and teach them before playing
sense of spoken language. These involve
the audio.
knowing speech sounds, comprehending the
meaning of individual words, and 2. During listening activities, while students are
understanding the syntax of sentences. listening to the audio, it might be difficult to
According to Hamouda (2013), listening detect if they are really paying attention or
comprehension is a collaborative process in not. As a result, it is a good idea to assigning
which listeners contribute to the creation of some tasks to them while playing the audio.
meaning. Listeners can better understand oral Let them to listen for specific words and look
input by using sound discrimination, past for specific items, sequence and order, and
knowledge, grammatical structures, stress and specific events.. Therefore, the students must
intonation, and other linguistic or nonlinguistic pay close attention to the teacher's words and
cues. Based on the definitions above, it can be expressions.
concluded that listening comprehension is the 3. After listening activities, a crucial moment
ability to understand, interpret, and respond to occurs immediately after listening to the
spoken language. audio for the first time. At this point, the
Listening Comprehension Strategies teacher will calms the students who are
feeling lost or overwhelmed, assist them in
Gilakjani and Sabouri (2016) mention that
making sense of what they have just heard,
in listening comprehension, there are three sorts
assist them in holding on to what they have
of strategies. They are cognitive (it deals with
just learned, and link back to pre-listening
understanding and retaining knowledge in
vocab and sequences, and finally, replay the
either short- or long-term memory for later
audio, as some students may have missed it.
application), metacognitive (students utilize it
as a management approaches to govern their RESEARCH METHOD
learning by planning, checking, assessing, and Research method that was used in this
altering), and socio-affective (students utilize research was a quantitative method. A
socio-affective in order to cooperate with others, quantitative method, according to Creswell
assess their comprehension, and lessen their (2014), constructs an idea's analysis by defining
anxiety). certain assumptions and employing data
Types of Listening Activities in The Class collection to support or disprove the
assumptions. Furthermore, the researcher was
Ruthwickham (2022) mentions that there
employed an experimental study in this
are various activities that can be used before,
research, which assisted the researcher in
during, and after listening, and then later in the
determining the cause and effect relationship
class or on another day.
between independent and dependent variables.
1. Pre-listening activities, there are two kinds of According to Creswell (2012), the standard
activities that can be given to students. The method for conducting quantitative research is
first one is predicting and guessing, and the
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an experimental design. Experimental method 8. VIII.8 32
is a quantitative method by which researcher Total 269 students
try to determine the impact of an intervention Source; SMP Negeri 38 Palembang
on an outcome for a group in a study. Sample
Experimental method means planning a set of
The control and experimental groups in a
procedures to investigate a relationship
quasi-experimental study must be as similar as
between variables, (Bevans 2019). An
feasible in terms of gender, achievement, or
experimental design is required to do
ability. Therefore, the researcher took VIII.3
quantitative research. It involves testing or
and VIII.7 class for being the sample in this
attempting to prove a hypothesis by way of
research. The researcher selected those classes
experimentation.
because they were similar, not only in grade,
As a design, the researcher employed a but also similar in number of students, and in
quasi-experimental study. It is one of many English daily assigment scores. The
different kinds of experimental design research. experimental group were the VIII.3 class of 34
In the realm of educational research, quasi- students, while the control group were the
experimental design is fairly common. Because VIII.7 class of 34 students.
experimental study researchers commonly use
intact groups in the educational field, quasi- Procedures
experimental studies are common in 1. Pre-test administering: The listening
educational research. comprehension pre-test was given to the
participants after the sample selection in
order to gauge their listening comprehension
before to the start of the course. The
researcher introduced herself and provided
clear directions for filling out the question
before they start the test. The test; true false
Population
and order was administered, in which the
A population in research does not researcher played an audio file while
always refers to people. It can refers to any set instructed the students to pay close attention
of items that you want to investigate, such as while doing the test. After 30 minutes, they
things, organizations, countries, organisms, and returned their paper test to the researcher.
so on. A population, according to Bhandari The researcher asked for input before left the
(2020), is the total group about which you want classroom after the pre-test is finished.
to draw conclusions. Shukla (2020) defines
2. Treatment: Ten listening sessions were
population as "all the units that have variable
required for the treatment. Ten audios total,
characteristics under study and for which
one for each session, were used. In contrast
research findings can be generalised." The
to the control group, which got usual
population of this research were all of the
listening instruction, the experimental group
second year of SMP Negeri 38 Palembang
had had treatment that involved teaching
students.
listening comprehension through the use of
Table 3.1 Population audio. They were requested to complete the
No. Class Number of students tasks of the audio they listened during the
1. VIII.1 34 learning session. The goal of this stage was to
2. VIII.2 34 improve students' listening skills by asked
3. VIII.3 34 them to concentrate on the audio. The
4. VIII.4 33 researcher instructed them to listen to the
5. VIII.5 34 audio three times while completing the tasks.
6. VIII.6 34 Then, asked them to response to a few
7. VIII.7 34 questions from the audio, followed by an
explanation of their responses. The teaching

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 period and materials were the same for both this research to see if students' listening skills
groups. were affected by listening to audio or not. The
3. Post-test administering: After ten sessions of T-test calculated the genuine difference
treatment, both the experimental and control between two groups' means by dividing the
groups received a listening post-test in order difference in means by the pooled standard
to collect data. The test format was similar to error of both groups.
the treatments; true false and matching The grade point system in Indonesia was
answer, but the content was different. They modified to a 0-100 scale after the Ministry of
were also given 30 minutes for the post-test, Education authorized the implementation of
following which the researcher compared the Kurikulum Berbasis Kompetensi (Competency-
pre-test and post-test scores. Based Curriculum). However this grade point
Technique of Data Collection system was used by the researcher in assessing
students’ listening comprehension achievement:
The researcher employed fill in the blank
test, true false, multiple choices, matching the 100 Highest point (rarely given)
answer, order, and matching the phrases as the 75–99 Passing score in all subjects (above
primary instrument to collect data. Pre-test and average)
post-test were the two sorts of tests. The pre-test 55–74 Pass or fail grades differ between
was administered to both the experimental and subjects (average).
control classes to see how well the students 0–54 Student is considered failed and
could listen prior to treatment. After the must take a remedial exam.
treatment, they were given a post-test to
determine their listening comprehension. FINDINDS AND DISCUSSION
Technique of Data Analysis The results of this research deals with the
normality and homogeneity test, the descriptive
The researcher used the paired sample t-test analysis of pre-test and post-test in
formula to calculate the information. According experimental class, the descriptive analysis of
to Bevans (2022), T-test is a statistical test used pre-test and post-test in control class, the results
to compare two groups' means. It was of paired sample t-test experimental and control
frequently used in hypotheses testing to assess class, and the results of independent sample t-
whether a treatment has an effect on the test in experimental and control class.
population or not. The T-test was designed in

Table 4.1 Normality and Homogeneity test

Normality Shapiro-Wilk
Experimental Group Control Group Homogeneity
Statistic .Sig Statistic .Sig Levene Statistic .Sig
Pre- Test .959 .226 .946 .091 .614 .436
Post- Test .961 .268 .945 .089 .273 .603

Based on the normality calculation, the researcher determined that all of the pre-test and post-test
data for both experimental and control groups were normally distributed. On the other hand, based
on the homogeneity calculation, the all the pre-test and post-test data for both experimental and
control groups were homogeneous.

Table 4.2 The descriptive statistics of experimental class

Descriptive Statistics

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 N Range Minimum Maximum Sum Mean Std. Deviation Variance
Pre-test Experimental class 34 34 33 67 1904 56,00 11,750 138,061
Post-test Experimental class 34 50 50 100 2715 79,85 13,953 194,675
Valid N (listwise) 34

The results showed that there was a significant improvement between the pre-test and post-test
scores for the experimental class. The pre- and post-test results differed on 56,00 to 79,85 points. The
standard deviation (std. deviation) of the score in post-test was 13,953. In accordance with the test
results, the p-value (Sig. 2-tailed) was 0.000, which is less than the typical significance level of 0.05.

Table 4.3 The descriptive statistics of control class

Descriptive Statistics
N Range Minimum Maximum Sum Mean Std. Deviation Variance
Pre-test control class 34 34 33 67 1954 57,47 10,387 107,893
Post-test Control class 34 33 50 83 2120 62,35 11,796 139,144
Valid N (listwise) 34

According to the table, the pre-test scores in the control class ranged from 33 to 67 with 67 being
the highest score. Additionally, the lowest post-test scores in the control class was 50 and the highest
was 83. On the other hand, the pre-test mean was 57,47, while the post-test mean was 62,35. The
mean difference between the pre- and post tests was 8,97.

Table 4.4 Pair Sample T-test

Variable Paired Sample T-Test in Paired Sample T-test in Control class
Experimental class
t df .Sig (2-Tailed) t df .Sig (2-Tailed)
Pre- and Post-test of -14,934 33 .000 -2,359 33 ,024
experimental class

The significant level of students’ listening comprehension achievement improvement in

experimental class was 0.000. It can be seen in the .Sig (2-tailed) column which was lower than 0.05,
and the t-obtain was 14.934 > t-table (df=33) was 2.035. In conclusion, there was a significant
improvement in students’ listening comprehension achievement after being taught by using audio.

Table 4.5 Independent Sample T-Test

Variable Independent Sample T-Test

t df .Sig (2-Tailed)

Post-test of Experimental and Control 5,585 66 .000

Groups

According to the outcomes of the independent sample t-test, there was a significant difference
between the post-test scores of control and experimental class. As shown in the .Sig (2-tailed)
column, the significant level of improvement in listening comprehension achievement between
experimental and control classs’ were 0.000, which was lower than 0.05, and the t-obtain was 5.585 >
t-table (df=66) was 1.997. It means that the implementation of audio resulted in a significant
improvement in students’ listening comprehension achievement.

DISCUSSION With regard to the effect of using audio as

an alternative media in improving students’

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listening comprehension achievement, the result class. It can be concluded that audio gave
reveals that using audio as an alternative media positive effect on the students’ listening
has a positive effect. There are several reasons comprehension achievement of SMP Negeri 38
of the improvement of students’ listening Palembang.
comprehension achievement. The first one is CONCLUSION
listening to audio can help them grasp how According to the results, the researcher
words are pronounced and how intonation and might draw conclusions. There was effect of
accent vary, which can improve our listening audio toward listening comprehension
comprehension skills. According to Muniem achievement of class VIII.3 students of SMP
(2015), by carefully listening to a recorded Negeri 38 Palembang. Based on the outcomes
conversation, you will learn to notice how other of the paired sample t-test, there was a
speakers express themselves through intonation.
significant difference between the experimental
They clearly demonstrate how you have class' pre-test and post-test scores. The test
progressed over time. Furthermore, listening to results show that the p-value (Sig. 2-tailed) is
audio can help them automatically develop their 0.000, which is smaller than the generally used
vocabulary and understand language. According significance level (usually 0.05). It meant that
to Tosunoğlu (1999), the child who learns new the usage of audio was effective in improving
words by listening realizes speaking in this way. the listening comprehension achievement of
The other reason is that students can practice class VIII.3 students of SMP Negeri 38
more easily with audio because it can be done at Palembang.
any time and from any location. Abid (2017)
mentions that students can practice more easily There was significant difference in listening
with audio because it can be done at any time comprehension achievement among the students
and from any location. It was clear that using who were taught by using audio and those who
audio as media in teaching and learning activity were not. The results of the independent sample
was effective in order to improve the students’ t-test indicate that the t-statistic had a value of
listening comprehension achievement. 5,585 and a degree of freedom (df) of 66. The
p-value (Sig. 2-tailed) was 0.000 and is below
There was significant difference in listening the typical significance level of 0.05. As a result,
comprehension achievement among the students there was enough statistical data to conclude
who were taught by using audio and those who that there was a significant difference between
were not. This difference resulted from the the post-test scores of the experimental and
treatments given to the experimental class. A control class. This research found that audio had
positive mean difference of (62,35 to 79,85) a favorable effect on students' listening
demonstrates that the experimental class comprehension achievement. More specifically,
regularly outperforms the control class in post- audio had been shown to improve students'
test results. This illustrates how the treatments listening comprehension. The success of audio,
improved post-test results in the experimental on the other hand, was dependent on the
class compared to the control class. In the teachers' proficiency with such e-tools and the
context of the research, if the treatment is suitable selection of content in a way that
successful, the outcomes of this independent t- guided the students to accomplish the learning
test test demonstrate that there is a statistically objectives. The findings lead to the conclusion
significant difference between the post-test that it was a dependable and useful aid for
scores of the experimental class and the control increasing students' listening comprehension
class. The treatment that the experimental class achievement.
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