TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS TO YOUNG LEARNERS THROUGH

LISTEN AND DO SONGS

Songs can be one of the most enjoy- able ways to practice and
develop lis- tening skills. Then songs sourch for teaching ESL/EFL is easy
to get by online media. The most prominent features of songs that reinforce
language acquisition include their rhythmic and repetitive nature and the joy
that the association between melody and content brings to the learning
activity. Likewise, John- stone (2002) claims that teachers of YLs may make
an important contribution to childrens early language education by
introducing their classes to recorded songs. Demirel (2004) makes the
strongest claim when he argues that the most effective way to teach listening
comprehension, pronunciation, and dictation to YLs is through teaching
songs.
Songs provide excellent opportunities for repetition, practice and an
occasion for real language use in a fun and enjoyable situation. Repetition of
language is pleasur- ablesuch as repeating choruses, or singing
cumulative songs where each verse borrows words from a previous
verse.Otherwise singing is a vital part of the life of a young child, inside and
outside the school, and incorporating the foreign language into this
fundamental activ- ity is another way of normalizing it. Young children
readily imitate sounds and often pleasurably associate singing and playing
with rhythms and rhymes from an early age.

Students which love listening to music in the language class- room

and they often hold strong views about music. This affinity with music
makes songs vital tools to create a safe and natural class- room ethos and to
overcome feelings of shy- ness and hesitation on the part of the learners.
The students getting effect at education, including language education, is a
process in which they should be encouraged to contrib- ute physically,
emotionally, and intellectu- ally.
We have to known that song was really influence for improving
students listening skill. Then the question is How to teach songs?.
As language teachers, we should always bear in mind that our main
responsibility is to teach the target language. No matter how fun and
enjoyable song activities may be for YLs, we should not get carried away by
the music and rhythm of songs. Before you start teaching any song, ascertain that the classroom CD player is ready for use and that every student can
hear equally well. If you are going to use handouts, distrib- ute them to the
students but tell them not to read the lyrics until after the first listening. If
you are using a textbook, tell the students the page number. If you do not
have a textbook or access to a photocopier, you may write the lyrics on the
board or on a poster before you start. To get the students interested, you can
show a picture or other realia related to the song and ask the students what
they think the song is about. Then read the title of the song aloud, and
explain it through actions and visuals. Ask the students if they already know
any words in English related to the title of the song. Finally,

explain

the unknown vocabu- lary from the song through actions and visuals.

All in all, Developing listening skills is a fundamen- tal component

of any ESL/EFL curriculum for YLs, and songs are regarded as one of the
most effective techniques to this end. Songs have a definite place in the YL
classroom; they provide meaningful and enjoyable language practice,
especially in fostering listening skills. The hope is that the more songs YLs
experi- ence, the better language learners they will become. The
effectiveness and importance of songs increase when they are used in
combi- nation with TPR, which involves game-like movements.

EFFECT OF USING VIDEO MATERIALS IN THE TEACHING OF

LISTENING SKILLS FOR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
According from the Journal Effect of Using Video Materials in the
Teaching of Listening Skills for University Students by Kretsai
Woottipong , Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Thaksin
University, Muang District, Songkhla Province, Thailand. The writter got
fact that the majority of Thai students are not competent in using English
language skills, especially listening skills. This is because listening requires
effort and concentration, and it is difficult to determine whether someone is
actually listening to a speaker. In school, students are taught speaking,
reading, and writing skills, but, in general ,there are a few courses devoted
to the subject of listening, Moreover, most people are so engrossed in
talking or thinking about what they are about to say next.
Listening is a natural process in acquiring a new language. By the
hsbitual to listen in foreign language, student can improving their listening
skill. There are some factor to support the importance of listening in foreign
language learning. First, a new language learner should learn listening at the
initial stage of language learning in the same manner as a child learns a
mother language. Second, listening can enhance speaking skill. Finally,
listening exercises help to draw a learner's attention to new forms in the
language.

In order to develop listening skills, effective material used in English

as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes is a crucial aspect of the teaching
method. Video materials can be used an alternative instructional tool for
teaching listening since they are a rich source of conversation and dialogue
by English speakers. This can greatly facilitate comprehension of
pronunciation. The use of video material is widely employed as an
instrument to practice listening skill in English language learning.
The mothode which is use in the model of listening process are Topdown and bottom-up processing. top-down processing includes prediction
and inference based on facts, propositions and expectations. That is to say it
is rather possible to comprehend the meaning of a word prior to decoding its
sounds, as individuals have many kinds of knowledge, including world
knowledge. Top-down processing, occurs from an internal source from
background knowledge and world expectations.
Richards (1990) that an understanding of the role of bottom-up and
top-down processes in listening is the heart of listening comprehension.
Comprehending the listening process can be useful in rethinking the
methods of teaching listening.
Listening comprehension is a mix of bottom-up and top-down
processing. The idea is that listening comprehension is the outcome of an
interaction of a numbers of pieces of knowledge. This means that listeners
have to use many types of knowledge,

such as word meanings or grammatical structures, and the influence

of the listeners expectation and background knowledge, the particular
situation and the topic itself all contribute to the listeners ability to
comprehend spoken messages. We know that listeners do not passively
listen to speakers in order to understand the meaning of the messages, but
actively interpret the speakers expected meaning and acquire meaningful
information by assimilating the sounds, words, and phrases.
The othe models of listeneing process are authentic material.
Authentic material as material intended for some other use besides language
learning. Authentic material can come in all forms of communication. It
may be written text, audio recordings of actual communications or video of
conversations or dialogue, all containing content not intended to be used for
language instruction.The benefits of authentic material are they can provide
examples for learners of how to communicate in real life situations, can help
the leaner focus on the language skills they truly need and ignore skills they
may not need for their job or studies and then In addition, authentic
materials can strengthen learning strategies which can then be employed in
different situations.
The other way to teaching listening is Video.We can use Videos for
Language Learning. Video can be a very valuable tool for language
learning. The advantages this tool provides, motivation for language
learning, and promoting language acquisition.By getting interseting in
learning environtment of students we can set students moods and feelings
easly.

video can be more motivating than other forms of authentic material.

Christopher and Ho (1996, pp. 86) provide another reason why this is so; it
can be entertaining. Music and setting elements can make for an enjoyable
experience by learners. Video movies provide topics and ideas for learners
to discuss.
The aspect when we want to choose topics for giving to
students.cTopics must be chosen based on students interest and their level
of English proficiency, as well as cultural aspects. Any way, Instructors can
design cycles of activities in which learners can participate. The instructor
should also be a reflective observer in order not to distract the learners
attention from the video. Therefore, it would be very beneficial for
instructors to select video materials that are conducive to language learning.
Metodology
The data and samples took from Thaksin University with 118 firstyear English major students in the second semester, 41 of these students,
selected by simple random sampling from one of three classes. The study
was conducted during the second semester of academic year 2012. It
involved 20 periods of an hour each. Two periods were used for the pre-test
and post-test and the other 22 periods were used for the experiment.
The result of the study is students responses from the questionnaire
revealed that they were more interested in learning English if the teacher
used English videos as teaching materials. In addition, the keyword preview
before watching videos motivated them to learn English. They explained

that it was easier for them to remember and understand vocabulary in the
video which they had previously taught by the researcher during the prelistening stage. Overall, students agreed that videos were beneficial in
learning English, and that English subtitles in video movies were an
excellent aid to learning English.
Based on the result of this study, it can be implied that video can
contribute positively to language learning and processing. It helps learners
in developing listening skills, in learning new lexical terms and in
encouraging autonomous learning.
Video-based instruction can be used to develop students listening
and speaking skills. Activities associated with video-based instruction such
as gap-filling, group discussion, and oral presentation, can also develop
students listening and speaking skills. Thus, other aspects such as how
videos help to improve speaking production should be the subject of further
research.
A study on using other authentic materials such as movies or news
commentaries should be conducted through comparing between two groups
of students for promoting other language skills.