Developing Multimedia Based Listening Material for 1st Grade Students of Smk

ABSTRAK Listening comprehension is generally recognized as a key role in language learning/ acquisition. It gives the learners information from which to build up the knowledge necessary for using the language. When this knowledge is built up, the learner can begin to speak. The listening-only period is a time of observation and learning which provides the basis for the other language (Nation and Newton, 2009). It is believed that a multimedia-based listening material such as listening courseware is a good media to help students learn listening. As educational institution responsible in educating human resources with both academic and special professional competence, vocational high school is supposed to educate the students to have the competence in English related to their future career competence including listening skills. The purpose of this study was therefore to provide multimedia based listening materials for 1st grade students of SMK Hotel Accommodation Program which is useful for self-study activities. This research and development (R&D) adopts the framework of developmental model by Koper (1995). The procedure of the development was initiated by preliminary investigation that was concerned with the general design of the course. The next phase was definition phase. In this phase, the project plan per medium application was created in which the planning is made in more detail then in the previous phase. The third phase was scripting. The key of script phase is finding the various scripts needed to make desired design come to fruition. The concluding phase is technical realization. To make the final product, this phase was completed, which comprises editing audio-visual components, technical design, validation, and try out of the product. Then the process continued into product evaluation which consisted of expert of material validation, expert of media validation, teacher validation, and product try out. Based on the productevaluation, the media was then revised to get the best result. The final product of this study was a package of interactive CD-ROM for learning listening. It contains five units in which seven listening materials are distributed. Each of the units involves pre-listening session containing the setting of the context of the listening material and glossary, whilst-listening session comprises the main-listening materials in form of video or audio and exercises to check the learner comprehension, while the last session is post-listening covering the review of the material. The overall design of the media was made to resemble game simulation to stimulate students’ interest. In the product try out, the students looked enthusiastic in learning listening using the multimedia based materials. They considered that the materials and text used in the media were clear enough. They also affirmed that presentation of the media was attractive. The use of multimedia based listening material is expected to meet the needs of listening materials for first grade students of hotel accommodation program. The media hopefully could increase students’ interest and motivation in learning English and improve their listening skill