Devi Nur Vebriyanti 6.

I The Implication of Using Natural Reader Software to Increase Students Listening Comprehension

Students are the main focus for the teachers; therefore, the teachers success in achieving the purpose of the study can be viewed from the ability of the students which successfully achieve the learning target. Many students believe that listening is the difficult skill to be learned. Many techniques has been used, but it is often ineffective even make the students bored with listening class. So, many of them get unsatisfactory results in listening class. The fact can be seen in the toefl test, many of whom had poor results in listening competence, even in the final exam students often rely on each other. Therefore, teaching and learning listening comprehension should have good techniques to be successful; Natural Reader software might be one of the solutions on it. Regarding to ILA ( The International Listening Association) as quoted by Diamond (2007, p.11) said that listening could be seen as a process of receiving information then process it in order to get the point of information and finally give feedback to the sender. It is indeed in practice listening students must receive, process, and give feedback to make a good listening activities. As theory above confirmed listening are important in purpose to make something easier to understand in order to join knowledge and bring back the information then calculate the important information. By doing so, misunderstanding the information will be likely avoided. It is also important to keep the theory above in practice listening as listening is essential in our life for instance: students in a classroom which is having listening practice should keep the quotation in their mind gather, process, and feedback the information easier. Practicing listening technique in most of Indonesian senior high school are plenty, but most of them are also ineffective. It occurs because most of the techniques that used in listening classes are common. According to Richard & Rodgers (2004, p.19), technique is implementational- that which actually take place in the classroom. Therefore, it is necessary for English teachers to realize the importance of how to make listening class is more interesting so that they can make progress in
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listening comprehension. The common techniques such as listening with tape recorder, radio tape, or dictation are not very effective in practice as many disturbances will occur during the process. The rapid development of technology today requires teachers to be more creative in teaching, especially in teaching listening. Ozge (2010, p.1) says, Text-tospeech applications let us listen to nay written text, create audio narration of the text with a human sounding voice, adjust the pitch and decide the speed and the accent. Hence, text-to-speech is expected to facilitate the process of teaching and learning. There are many software of text-to-speech that can be used for listening class such as Vozme, iSpeech, Hear Who, Talking Pets, Read Speaker, Voki, and Natural Reader. Those are software that can be used to increase the ability to listen, but Natural Reader is most possible to be used in listening class. Thomas (2009, p.1) stated that Natural Reader is one of text to speech applications that comes with the ability to use a number of different and natural sounding voice. As statement above, the writer believe that Natural Reader can help students with learning difficulties to improve their spelling, reading, and listening skill. In listening class, teachers can use Natural Reader to create the materials itself, and they can convert the materials into audio files such as MP3 and WAV that can be played on students cellular phone or IPOD. It is one of the benefits; moreover, the software still has many important advantages that are very beneficial. Smith (2009, p.1) said that Natural Reader reads out loud all the text on your computer using real human voice (native speaker). We can choose the reading voice with US or British accents. All have both male and female reading voice. Natural Reder is also available/provide with free version and commercial version. So, It very helps teachers to teach listening comprehension so that they do not need to fear for pronunciation errors and a high price to get the software. Many students is really not interest in listening comprehension class, this because older techniques that be used by teachers on it. It is proved that the students still have low profiency in listening comprehension when teachers use it. On the other side, there are some of the teachers who has used Natural Reder software for listening class, and the students find it useful. It is reinforced by the students statement that the voices are amazing and there are a good number of speed settings, so during I
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have been using Natural Reader I get more and more profiency in listening. Accordingly, It proves that Natural Reader could be one solution on it. Some the inefficiency of using Natural Reader can be seen that many teachers who are not yet have proficiency in technology sufficient for it, and they do not have the stuff to provide it. However, technology is very essential to support teaching and learning activities, and it help the education practitioners in enhancing and reaching the goals of teaching and learning process. It means that teachers should have proficiency in technology, and they should have the stuff to provide it. All in all, to sum up as teaching and learning listening comprehension the writer realize that Natural Reader as such is not the answer to all problems. What really matters is how they study intensively. Natural Reader can never replace teachers, but they offer new opportunities for better listening practice. On the other hand the writer believed that Natural Reader Software is one of the effective

technique to be used in teaching listening comprehension. Thus, the teachers who have disability to use the software do not worry, the software is very easy to be used.

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The Implication of Using Natural Reader Software to Increase Students Listening Comprehension Introduction Thesis Statement : Natural Reader software might be one of the solutions to solve the difficulties on listening comprehension class.

Body Listening Introduction of listening as one of the most essential skill. The essential part that influence of students listening comprehension. Technique The meaning of technique. Kinds of technique to teach listening. Text-to-speech The explanation of text-to-speech. Kinds of text-to-speech software. One of the good text-to-speech software. Natural Reader The explanation of Natural Reader. The used of Natural Reader in listening class. The advantages of using Natural Reader in listening class.

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The Effect The result of the students when using the other techniques in listening class. The result of the students after using Natural Reader software in listening class. Refutation; unefficiency of using Natural Reader software Not all of teachers have the stuff. Not all of the students and the teachers have the ability to use the software. Conclusion The writer believed that Natural Reader Software is the effective technique to be used in teaching listening comprehension. The teachers who have disability to use the software do not worry, the software is very easy to be used.

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Bibliography

Ozge. (2010). Let the computer talk. Available: http://ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org/2010/11/03/text-to-speechletthecomputers-talk.html Weiss, Thomas C. (2009). Naturalreader-free edition. NaturalSofts NaturalReader Review. Available: http://www.disableworld.com/assistivedevices/computer/naturalreader.php Smith, Bill. (2009). Is it really the best text to speech software?. Natural Reader Review. Available: http://bill-smith.hubpages.com/hub/Natural-Reader-ReviewIs-It-REALLY-the-Best-Text-to-Speech-Software.html Bratt, Paulston C, Mary N.B. (1989). Techniques and procedures. Teaching English as a Second Language. Cambridge: Winthrop Publishers, Inc. Diamond, Linda Eve. (2007). Rule#1 Stop Talking! A Guide to Listening. California: Listener Press. Verderber, F, & associates. (2011). Comm2. Boston: Wadsworth. Richard J.C, Rodgers T.S. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching: Cambridge University Press.

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