Journal Article Review 6 (CAR)

Citation: Samawiyah, Zuhrotun. (2016). Phonetic Symbols through Audiolingual Method to Improve the Students’ Listening Skill. Dinamika Ilmu, Vol. 16, No.1 pp. 35-46

Listening is the first phase that a baby does in their first language acquisition phase.  It is the activity when ones know about certain words. In learning language, we don’t only study reading or writing, but it is important to learn oral communications. Before acquiring speaking skill, learners commonly learn how to obtain spoken information.  The process of communication engages the speaker willing to deliver their idea and the listener intentionally and actively obtain the meaning of the message. In this case, listener’s understanding is measured by knowing how well their understanding.

In this article, the authors clearly explain what listening is. She also wrote some steps while listening and mentioned about self-monitoring to improve it. However, I disagree with the point that stated that we should avoid teaching listening using distraction. In fact, the real communication full of accent distraction or contextual meaning. The first goal of learning language is enabling the students to communicate properly in a real situation. The author also mentioned that using objects such as pictures or real objects as teaching media is necessary. Media related to the real world help the teacher to explain the material.

In addition, the author suggested the audiolingual method and phonetic symbols for teaching listening. This decision is made by considering the students’ listening difficulties in her class. They are not able to perceive the information through spoken language since they do not know the pronunciation of the words mentioned by the speaker. In audiolingual method, drilling, practices, and memorization are emphasized. It is suitable for foreign language learners because most of them do not learn English since very young age and not speak English in their daily activity. The learners are expected to be accustom to the target language and easily identify the sound. Besides, phonetic is used to create students’ understanding of the pronunciation distinction. First, they are given the phonetic chart by the researcher and guided to identify the phonetic chart. Then, the recording which has those words in the phonetic chart is played to connect them to the real spoken language. For the first time, phonetic chart made the students confuse since it is unfamiliar for the students of the junior high school in Indonesia studying language through the phonetic chart. However, they still feel excited to follow the activity and the activity can improve their skill.

From this journal, I think it is important to introduce pronunciation rules in my future class. Pronunciation rules support them to do listening activity easier. Only knowing the written form of the words is not enough, but knowing the pronunciation rules is also required.