PROBLEMS IN USING LANGUAGE LABORATORY IN ENGLISH LISTENING INSTRUCTION

This study is aimed at describing problems faced by both teachers and students in learning listening using language laboratory in SMA Sandikta, Bekasi and providing solutions to overcome those problems. The participants of the study are the eleventh-grade students of SMA Sandikta. The results of the analysis showed that there are some problems faced by the teacher and the students. The problems faced by the teacher include (1) the problems related to the teacher’s proficiency like being unable to identify the error of machine, (2) insufficient collection of master tapes which makes problem for the teacher to accommodate the material, (3) too long material make the students bored, the teacher has difficulties to select of material, and (4) the attitude of the teacher and students toward language lab. On the other hand, the problems faced by the students are (1) students’ lack of vocabulary, (2) physical aspects of students like boredom, and (3) the teacher did not give the tapescript, the students just memorize the dialog. For that reason, it was suggested to all parties to improve the knowledge in optimalizing the language laboratory. Keyword: ability; language laboratory; listening; action research. INTRODUCTION Language is important for human being to communicate each other. Today English is the world’s most widely studied foreign language. English has also played a more important role in the globalization era and culture than other international languages. Moreover, there are four language skills that should be mastered by students to accomplish the basic language skill namely: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. All of those skills should be practice and learned by students which cannot be separated to each other Mariana C. Murcia (2000) said Listening well is an important part of learning. To understand spoken English, people need to exercise to practice listening spoken English. In fact, listening is the most frequently used language skill in everyday life. In fact, listening is the most frequently used language skill in everyday life. As Morley (1991) said “we listen to twice as much language as we speak, four times as much as we read and five times as much as we write’. Developing the ability to understand the foreign language takes time and continuous process. The ability to understand the foreign language should be taught and it does not happen automatically. One of the most important tasks is to provide a variety of technological aids. According to the information above, the writer is interested in writing the research that focus on “Some Problems in Using Language Laboratory in English Listening Instruction at Eleventh Grade Students of SMA Sandikta Bekasi” Language laboratory English is one of the important foreign languages to be learned in Indonesia. To minimize the difficulties in teaching and learning process of English language at school, Feby Akhdiyati Problems in using language laboratory in English listening instruction 57 especially listening, it needed a facility such as language laboratory to improve students' listening skill. Lindsay (1973) said that language lab is essentially an aid to practice. 1987) According to Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English language laboratory is classroom where languages are taught using tape recorder. Some theorists maintain that a language laboratory should be a purely phonetic instrument and that there is no need for any live contact between pupils and teacher. Lado (1960) states that the language laboratory is a special room for practice with sound equipment. In other definition, Hayes (1963) language laboratory is a classroom or other area containing electronic and mechanical equipment designed and arranged to make foreign language instruction more effective. According to E.M Stack (1966) the language laboratory is a special room designed and used primarily for foreign language learning with the aid of electronic equipment. The laboratory includes facilities to allow the teacher to listen to each individual student without being detected, to make announcements to all students or to select groups of students, and to carry on, a private conversation with any individual. The language-teaching laboratory usually contains playback and recording equipment for students to practice the language they are studying. Language laboratory normally consist of a room or suite room containing a number of booths in which each of them is provided with a tape recorder and a head-set attached to it. And generally in front of the room there is a control desk which is operated by the teacher or instructor. According to Lado (1964) The components of a language laboratory usually include earphones, microphones, preamplifiers, tape recorders, booths, central console, monitoring system, control switches, tape duplication facilities, recording studio, tape library and supply, and sound conditioning. The laboratory is furnished with booths for the students. Each booth is a specially constructed table with high sides and front, shielding the occupant from the sight and sound of other students. The students sit behinds the booths and put on their head-sets. Then they usually listen to a tape recorder or teacher voice played by the teacher from the master panel desk. The equipment in each booth is then a set of headphones, a microphone, and a tape recorder, preferably a dual-channel one, with one recording head for the student band and two playback heads, one for the program band and the other for the student band. The student can control volume through the tape recorder. Lado (1964) states there are four main models of language laboratory systems: Audio Passive (AP), Audio Active (AA), Audio Active Comparative (AAC), and Audio Active Distributive (AAD). a. Audio Passive (AP) The teacher has at his one or more tape recorders and switchboard, the students each have a 'headphone', but not a microphone. The teacher can broadcast lessons to all students or to groups of students. The students practice in essentially the same way as they do in the classroom, but there is a difference: because of the headphone they cannot hear their classmates, and they can only hear a distorted version of their own speech utterances. Learner activity is restricted to listening in isolation during the presentation phrase, and to non-interactive production or reproduction during the explanation phase. b. Audio Active (AA) In this model of language laboratory students have headphones with microphone, which means that they can hear their own voices undistorted. This also makes it possible for the teacher to play back the voices of each individual student. This model of language laboratory supplements the possibilities for the recording of the utterances of individual students with some facilities for selfcorrection on the part of the students, correction of the utterances produced by individual students by the teacher. c. Audio Active Comparative (AAC) In the Audio Active Comparative Systems, the students can do all activities as those of audio system and Audio Active System. The system provides tape recorders and head-sets Indonesian EFL Journal, Vol. 4(2) July 2018 p-ISSN 2252-7427, e-ISSN 2541-3635 AISEE The Association of Indonesian Scholars of English Education 58 (headphone and microphone) in each student's booth. d. Audio Active Distributive (AAD) There is one tape recorder available for a small group of students but which in other respect has all the characteristics of the AAC laboratory, there are such laboratories as the open access and dial-access laboratories. Some common problems displayed by students and teacher in the language laboratory are: a. Working straight through a whole unit without stopping, then going right through again listening, thus leaving too big a time gap for effective identification and correction of errors. b. Finishing the work before the language laboratory tine is up. c. Being unable to do the language laboratory exercise. d. Being unable to identify their mistakes on tape. e. A commonly held error maintains that audio equipment for speech requires much less fidelity than for music. Listening Skill Listening, as one of the language skills, is of great importance in communication as there will be no communication unless what is being said is comprehend by another person. As Hornby (2000) defines listen or listened or listening as "... to pay attention to somebody something that can you hear.... To take notice of what somebody says so that you can follow their advice or believe them.. " Listening is assuming greater and greater importance in foreign language classroom. As Rost (1994) points out, listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides input for the learner. Without understanding input at the right level, any simply cannot begin. Listening is thus fundamental to speaking. Stack states the steps in teaching language are: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The first two are audio-lingual skills; the last two are graphic skills.Listening is first because the students must be able to recognize the sounds of language, and differentiate among its various components. Michael D. Bush and Robert M. Terry explained concerning with the general concept of listening: The status of listening began to chance from one of neglect to one of increasing importance, as instructional programs of the 1970s expanded their pragmatic skill-focus on reading, writing, and speaking, including listening. To improve their listening skill in listening English language, it is important for students to increase their language input by practicing extensive and intensive listening. Wright (1976) states that “extensive listening is the students’ attempts to understand the gist of what he hears.” Jeremy Harmer explained in detail about extensive listening as follows: Students can improve their listening skill – and gain valuable language input – through