DICTATION AS A TESTING TECHNIQUE IN MEASURING THE STUDENTS’ LISTENING MASTERY

ABSTRACT
The purpose of my study is to find out the students’ mastery of listening using
dictation as a testing technique.
To achieve the objectives of the study, I conducted descriptive research
design. I did two activities: library activity and field activity. In the library
activity, I explored some reference books that were related to dictation, test,
listening, the elementary school students, and research. While in field activity, I
gave the students a dictation test. The population of this study was the fifth grade
students of SD Negeri Wonorejo 01 Karanganyar Demak in the academic year of
2006/2007. There were 36 students; 12 boys and 14 girls.

Before conducting the investigation, I tried-out the instrument to 21 students
of SD Negeri Bandungrejo 03 Karanganyar Demak in order to know the validity
and reliability of the instrument. From the results of the try-out, it shows that the
instrument in this study has good reliability.
In analyzing the data, I used a descriptive qualitative and a simple quantitative
measurement to find the result. The results of the dictation test showed the mean
is 73.26 which equals to 73.26% and the percentage of the students’ mastery in
listening is 16.67% outstanding level, 16.67% very good level, 22.22%
satisfactory level, 22.22% very weak level, and 22.22% fail level. The results of
statistical analysis show that 26 students got 65 above while only 10 got below 64.
It meant that the majority of the students have already mastered listening material
given. Based on this, it could be concluded that the students’ mastery in listening
met the criteria of Basic Course Outline (GBPP) standard and according to
Tinambunan (1988) it was classified into below average.
Based on the results above, it can be said that dictation can be used as a test
instrument of listening mastery of the fifth grade students of elementary school. I
concluded that dictation is very useful for the teacher as a test instrument to check
the students’ progress and motivates the students in learning the listening material
given. It is suggested that the teacher should give more chances to the students to
have listening practices from the book as well as other sources of listening
materials that can improve and enhance their listening ability. So that they have
good proficiency in this skill, not only in perceiving the contents of the passage
and recognizing all the words and phrases being read but also understanding
written English.

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