DICTOGLOSS TECHNIQUE TO TEACH STUDENTS LITERAL

LISTENING IN EFL CONTEXT

Lucky R. Nurjamin
nurjaminlucky@yahoo.com
Sekolah Tinggi Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan (STKIP) Garut, Indonesia

Abstract
The communication used in our real life situation spent 45% involvement of
listening activity (Feyten; 1991). This big involvement of listening skill triggered
the theorist to extent the method in teaching listening. In order to make an extension
of teaching listening, thus, this study was undertaken. This study investigated the
effectiveness of dictogloss technique in teaching students literal listening.
Quantitative approach used pre-experiment study was chosen to examine the
method. The research site in this study is the first semester of university students,
particularly 40 students were chosen as participants of the study.
Keywords: Dictogloss, listening skill, literal listening

INTRODUCTION
The hypothesis that language acquisition takes place when learners are exposed to
comprehensible input is going through with listening or reading (Krashen, 1985;
1989). In his hypothesis, Krashen argues that the comprehensible input process, in
this case listening, has a big role in acquiring a second language. As in often quoted
definition, listening is the prior skill that should be acquired by students. More than
45% of communication is spent by listening skill (Feyten, 1991; Jacobs, 2001). In
a traditional approach, listening was taught in isolation or at least combined it with
speaking. However, in fact, listening skill must be related with real life
communication. In other words, listening should be integrated and favoured with
all of the skills.
Many different techniques or approaches used in teaching listening are
integrated with other skills. One of the techniques is Dictogloss which is known as
interactive technique of teaching listening (Wajnryb, 1990; Herrel & Jordan, 2004;
Myartawan, 2012). Further, it is a classroom dictation activity where learners listen
to a passage, note down key words and then work together to create a reconstructed
version of the text (Wajnryb, 1990, Feyten, 1991; Swain, 1998; Jacobs, 2001)
focusing on training students grammar. Wajnryb argues that the reconstruction of
the text can support both meaning and negotiation of form. Hence, he believes this
technique forces students to be actively involved and engaged in a learning process.
Furthermore, this technique also stimulates the learners motivation.
Dictogloss has been promoted by several studies conducted by Swain &
Miccoli (1994), Nabei (1996), Swain & Lapkin (1998), Storch (1998), Jacobs &
Small (2003). They argue that dictogloss is a multiple skill and system activity
related listening, writing and speaking. Further, they also contend that dictogloss

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rely on their knowledge of semantic, syntactic and discourse system of the target
language.
Basically, dictogloss is the antithesis technique of dictation which known as
the old technique in long history in the literacy of education. Traditionally, dictation
procedure is the activity whereby the teacher reads a passage slowly and repeatedly.
This activity is followed by the students activity by writing the passage that they
listen. However, as long as the improvement of literacy education, this activity is
categorised as a rote learning method which support students to copy every single
word that they listen, hence producing a mechanical or of literacy. By this situation,
Wajnryb (1990) developed a new way in teaching dictation, Dictogloss.
Since this techniques objective is for teaching grammar, the improvements
in listening comprehension or students note-taking skill are seen as by-product of
method or beneficial side-effect. Along with this theory, in EFL context (e.g.
Indonesia), students have been given listening practice since they were in the junior
high school level effectively. However, in fact, as the basic of listening, the
university students seem hard to recognise the word that they listen. Thus, by the
needs of EFL learner in improving listening skill and the success in such second
language countries, this technique is going to be experimented in EFL context,
particularly in Indonesia.
Dictogloss has been conducted by Kowa and Swain (1997) in immersion
program which found the evidence of noticing, hypothesis-testing and metatalk.
This covered grammatical aspect, orthographic, and semantic issues. Further,
Vasiljevic (2010) conducted dictogloss as an interactive method in teaching
listening comprehension. The study found that dictogloss covered learners
autonomy, cooperation among learners, focus meaning, and self and peer
assessment. In terms of interpretive listening, dictogloss can improve students
interpretation toward the message through listening skill. Additionally,
Muwaffiqoh (2011) Wulandari (2011) conducted this technique in the junior high
school and senior high school students which is effectively used in improving
students comprehension in grammar and tenses. Though many students get
improvement toward this technique, this technique is still needed to be tested in
other circumstance for its effectiveness. In accordance with that, this study is going
to examine dictogloss in teaching literal listening in tertiary level in EFL context,
particularly in Indonesian context.

METHOD
Quantitative in terms of pre-experimental design was used to examine whether
dictogloss is effective in teaching literal listening. Additionally, in order to confirm
the statistical result, close-ended questionnaire was also given to the students
(Creswell, 2010). In relation to the participants, 40 students were chosen randomly.
Moreover, there were six students serving as the focus participants who were
purposively selected based on the level of achievement in the pre-test result. In
collecting the data, tests and close-ended questionnaire were undertaken in this
study. The tests were done twice; pre-test and post-test. In the tests, students were

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asked to write down the script of monologue with the theme of people description.
Close-ended questionnaire was undertaken to support the findings gained in the
students text. Moreover, the data in this study were analysed using dependent t-
test (SPSS). Dependent t-test was functioned to examine the effectiveness of
dictogloss technique statistically.
Teaching procedure in this study was utilised Wajnrybs outline; preparation,
dictation, reconstruction, and analysis and correction.
In the first activity, preparation or warm-up is the activity that provides
students with the vocabulary related to the topic given. Second, in the dictation
process, the teacher played the audio repeatedly with the normal speed. Formerly,
the students were given twice audio playing since in the first playing, the students
were just listened and they conducted listening with taking notes in the second
playing. As the third phase, the students worked in group in reconstructing the text
that they listened. They were given a chance to share their resources as what they
have from dictation phase. In the last step, (Buck, 2001) the analysis and correction
by comparing their works with other students work and the original text.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
1.1. The effectiveness of dictogloss technique in teaching literal listening in first
year university level
As the first finding, the data gained in this study show that dictogloss is effective to
be used in teaching literal listening. It is in line with the result of the statistical
calculation using t-test formula. Below is the visualization of the data showing that
dictogloss is effective in teaching literal listening first year university students in
Indonesian context.

visualitation of pre-test and post-test result

200
150
100
50
0
DA CA NN KH NA DT
Pre-test Post-Test

It is also emphasised by the SPSS measurement as presented below.

Paired Samples Statistics
Std.
Error
Mean N Std. Deviation Mean
Pair 1 Pretest 71.2375 40 4.88192 .77190
Posttest 79.5875 40 5.33360 .84332

Paired Samples Test

Paired Differences T df

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 95% Confidence Interval
Std. Std. Errorof the Difference Sig. (2-
Mean Deviation Mean Lower Upper tailed)
Pair 1 Pretest
-8.350000 5.415088 .856200 -10.081833 -6.618177 -9.7522 399 .0000
Posttest
The table shows that the value of pre-test and post-test is different. In this case, the
= -9.752 has been found lower than the critical value. It means that it lies
out of the accepted area of ; therefore, is rejected and is accepted. By
this, it can be concluded that there is a difference of the students listening
performance between the students pre-test and their post-test score. Therefore, this
hypothesis testing shows that dictogloss is effective to be applied in the teaching
literal listening for university students in EFL context, particularly in Indonesia.
Moreover, the details of the students response on the use of dictogloss in
teaching literal listening would be covered in the next section.

1.2.The students responses on the use of dictogloss technique in teaching literal

listening for university students in Indonesian context
From forty, thirty seven participants responded the dictogloss technique positively.
They claimed that dictogloss is very helpful during their listening activity. More
specifically, from the close-ended question items in the questionnaire, it is
obviously seen that most students felt helpful in recognizing words, word
composition, grammatical features, and the aspect of meaning. Meanwhile, three
students remained were not consistent in answering the questionnaires; therefore,
the data were not calculated. Additionally, as seen from physiological aspect, the
data from questionnaire reveal that 80% of students felt less of stress in doing
listening activity. It is in line with a concept of dictogloss technique that students
have opportunities to ask some pauses when they need a particular time to catch the
meanings or some repetitions of the recording (see Wajnryb (1990); Swain, 1998).
In terms of the learning process, dictogloss is also considered as an interesting
technique since students were enjoyable with the teamwork designed during the
learning process; therefore, they could exchange their understanding one to another
in completing the listening task. In evaluation schema, the participants were so
excited since they could employ peer-feedback, giving them chances to give
constructive ideas and comments without any hesitations.

CONCLUSION
As the conclusion of this study, this will be presented in two parts; main conclusion
and an additional inference. The main conclusion is that dictogloss technique which
applied in teaching literal listening is effective for university students in Indonesian
context. It is revealed by the score gained in that site which show students score
improvement. As additional conclusion, dictogloss is categorised as one of the
interesting techniques which is mirrored by the students positive response toward
the technique.

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