Developing Descriptive Text Podcasts to Teach Listening for Tenth Graders

ABSTRAK Ramadani, Lailatul Putri. 2017. Developing Descriptive Text Podcasts to Teach Listening for Tenth Graders. Thesis, Department of English, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang. Advisors: (I) Francisca Maria Ivone, M.A., Ph.D. (II) Nur Hayati, S.Pd, M.Ed. Keywords: Listening skills, podcast, descriptive text The study aimed to develop descriptive text podcasts to teach listening to tenth graders of senior high school. Particularly, the product was developed in order to help tenth graders practice listening outside the class and English teachers who want to use descriptive text podcasts as the medium for teaching listening in the classroom. The study adapted the Research and Development (R&D) design by Borg and Gall (1989) by conducting five stages: (1) needs analysis, (2) product development, (3) experts’ validation and first revision, (4) product try-out and second revision, and (5) final product. The instruments used for the needs analysis stage were students’ questionnaire and teacher’s interview. The instrument used for expert validation stage was expert validation sheet, whereas the instrument used for the product try-out stage was student’s questionnaire sheet. In the study, there were two types of data namely qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data were obtained from data taken from needs analysis, lecturer and teacher validation and product try-out. The qualitative data in the form of comments and suggestions from validators were analyzed and described by content analysis. There were some steps in analyzing the comment and suggestion by using content analysis based on Miles and Huberman (1994:10-12). Meanwhile, the quantitative data were obtained from the checklist items in expert validation sheets in the expert validation stage and students’ questionnaire in the needs analysis and product try-out were analyzed by using descriptive percentage analysis adapted from Sugiyono (2014:137). Based on the two validators, the product was considered appropriate for tenth graders to practice listening. It was shown from the analysis of the expert validation sheets. The students were also interested in the descriptive text podcasts. According to the result of the product try-out, 67.74% of the students agreed that the podcasts could help them to practice listening skills. The final product is in the form of podcasts on the topic of best friends, family, and idols put on MP3 format. The first podcast is talking about Hannah’s twin brother and family. The duration of the first podcast is 10:07 minutes. Meanwhile, the second podcast is talking about idols. The duration of the second podcast is 06:42 minutes. The podcasts were accompanied with student’s workbook and teacher’s book. The student’s workbook contains transcripts and answer keys so that the tenth graders can check their work and monitor the progress. The teacher’s book includes lesson plan in addition to transcripts and answer keys. It is suggested that the English teachers of tenth graders use the product of this study for teaching listening since it can engage the students better so that they will become more active in learning and practicing listening skills. It is also suggested that further researchers develop podcasts of different text types and topics which are suitable with the students’ level