THE USE OF STUDENT TEAMS-ACHIEVEMENT DIVISIONS METHOD (STAD)

TO IMPROVE LISTENING COMPREHENSION OF THE SECOND GRADE

STUDENTS OF SMAN 2 SALATIGA IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2012/2013
Zaenul Wafa
A Graduate student of Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta
Department of English Education
E-mail:zaenulwafa90@gmail.com
(An Assignment of Language Skill)
Abstract
Listening is the hardest part of language skill particularly in English subject. Looking for the precise
method to do in classroom is going to be better idea than maintaining the traditional method practiced all
the times without any significant progress. This study is to explore the use of STAD (Student TeamsAchievement Division) to improve listening comprehension. The participants are the second grade
students of SMAN 2 Salatiga which consists of 34 students. This research design is classroom action
research. It is aimed to improve students participation and comprehension in listening. This research
was done in six meetings with the different types of material. There are two cycles in every cycle
include two meetings; those are cycle I, and cycle II. The data collection techniques used in this
research are documentation and test, the researcher took a test of their improvement in each cycle.
In the mean of preliminary assessment was 6.9, in the first meeting of cycle I was 7.3, the second
meeting was 7.6 then in cycle II; the first meeting was 7.8, the second meeting was 8.0 and the final
assessment was 8.4. The result of the research showed that the students listening comprehension
skill improves significantly and the students also enjoyed in teaching listening comprehension using
STAD.
Keywords: Student Teams-Achievement Divisions (STAD), Listening Comprehension,
Classroom Action Research.

I.

INTRODUCTION
Listening comprehension is a key initial step in communication. Good communication
depends on the way a listener can understand what a speaker says. The better students can
understand what is being said, the better will be their ability to communicate. In
addition, they will be better able to notice the characteristics of the target language
which will help improve their language development in all four key skill areas. The real
goal in most listening is not only to understand every word but also to comprehend the
information that the listener wants or needs from the message. Actually there is
misconception in teaching listening in our country. Some teachers have tendency to force
student to understand as much as possible words on the tape. On the contrary, in real life even

native speakers do not always understand or hear every word when they are talking with
someone or watching TV but they just take main point of the speakers utterance. Listening in
teaching and learning process is often neglected by a teacher. The teachers attach the
listening aspect of listening skill in lesson plan, but

they

do

not

teach

listening

comprehension as they make in the lesson plan.

Moreover, the major things have happened in English as a Foreign Language
(EFL) in our country is that the students rarely taught the listening skill properly. They do not
even get sufficient portion of learning in the classroom. Teachers in Indonesia also would
prefer to teach reading, grammar or speaking rather than to teach listening as unity of
language aspect that must be mastered.
The purpose of this study is to describe how Student Teams-Achievement Divisions
Method is implemented to improve Listening Comprehension of SMAN 2 Salatiga in the
academic year of 2012/2013, and to analyze and evaluate how is the improvement of
Listening Comprehension after using Student Teams-Achievement Divisions Method.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Definition of Listening Comprehension
Listening comprehension is based largely on the amount of information listeners
can retrieve from what they hear and the inferences and connections that they can make
(American Council on The Teaching of Foreign Languages/ACTFL, 2012:15).
Listening comprehension is a mental process by which listeners take in the sounds
uttered by a speaker and use them to construct an interpretation of what they think the
speaker intended to convey (Fauziati, 2005:117).
Hence, listening comprehension is a process of interpreting and understanding what
the speakers intention. Listening is also compulsory ability that must be possessed by a
student especially English learner. In listening comprehension learners need to consider some
of the characteristics of spoken discourse and the special problems they speak for listeners.
Spoken discourse has very different characteristics from written discourse, and these
differences can add many dimensions to our understanding of how we process speech. For
example, spoken discourse is usually instantaneous. The listeners must process it directly and
there is often no chance to listen to it again. In studying listening comprehension the learners will

undergo many difficulties. That is very different with other skills in English such as
reading, writing and speaking. In listening, the learners are demanded to focus on the listening
play and conclude what is posed and it happens once.
2.2. Student Team Achievement Division (STAD) Method
2.2.1 Definition of STAD Method
Method is derived from met and hodes that mean through. Method is an overall
plan for the orderly presentation of language material, no part of which contradicts, and all of
which is based upon the selected approach Anthony (1963:95).
According to Wang (2009) in his journal Applying Slavins Cooperative Learning
Techniques to a College EFL Conversation Class, STAD is a prevailing and simple
technique in cooperative learning. It consists of five major components: class presentations,
teams, quizzes, individual improvement scores, and team recognition.
From the definition above it can be concluded that Student Teams Achievement Division
Method (STAD) is one of popular cooperative learnings that combines students activeparticipation and collaboration team including five major components such as class
presentations, teams, quizzes, individual improvement scores, and team recognition.
2.2.2 Implementation of STAD in listening comprehension
To implement STAD is not easy. A teacher is demanded to prepare the instrument and
technique well to apply this method in learning. Here are some procedures to apply STAD in the
class:
a) Make a team summary that is given for students.
b) Arrange the students achievement
c) Determine the members of the team
d) Divide the students into a team.
e) Suggest students to fill the paper of team summary (Slavin,2008: 143).
2.2.3 Implementation Guide and STAD Steps in teaching listening comprehension
Slavin (2005) in his book Cooperative Learning: theory, research and Practice stated
Implementation Guide and STAD Steps as follows:
a). Implementation Guide
1. Make the students enthusiastic to do the question
2. Ask students randomly. It will make the students to prepare their answers every time.

3. Do not give the question that needs long time to do. They will be bored and not be
interested in the learning.
b). STAD (Student Teams-Achievement Divisions) Steps in listening comprehension.
1) Teaching
This step is material delivery step (teaching) to transfer lesson to the student before they
learn in their team. A teacher must set the goal includes what aspect will be achieved and state
the general concept of the ongoing teaching and learning in the meeting.
2) Team study
Students work with the project paper of their team to master the material. The obligation
of the members of team is to master material that explained in the class and to help
other team members to master the material. The students get activity sheet and answer sheet
that is used to drill ability during teaching and to score their own selves and classmates. In the
first teamwork in STAD, A teacher must explain to the students how important to do in a team
and set the classroom rules:
a) Students have responsibility to ensure that their team to learn their material.
b) No one stops learning until their own entire team master the material.
c) Ask a help to all team members to help other team members before asking to the
teacher.
d) Team member is allowed talking each other in a soft of voice.
A teacher can also motivate the students to make additional rules if it is needed. Here are the
rules:
1) Allow students move to their team.
2) Give time around 10 minutes to choose name of their team.
3) Share activity sheets
4) Instruct the students to work together in pair.
5) Suggest the students that they have not finished yet in learning until they believe that
their team mates get 100 to their quiz.
6) Ensure that the students understand the worksheet is to learn not to just fill in the
blank.
7) Remind the students if they have question they must ask their team mates before
they ask the teacher.

c). Test
1) Give the quiz and time to the students to finish the task.
2) Allow the students to exchange the worksheet with other teams or collect the quiz
to score after the class ends. The teacher has to calculate the team score and quiz
immediately.
d) Individual Development Score
The main concept of individual development score is to tell students the purpose
of performance that is reached if they strive diligently and give better performance. Every
student is given first score that got from the average of student performance in doing the same
quiz before. Then the students collect point to their team based on their development
level of quiz score is compared with the first score. The students can give maximal
point contribution to their team in this scoring system if they can progress their first score.
e) Team recognition
The teacher announces the best team in the meeting based on the level of development in
the test and gives certificate to the best team.
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Question
a) How is the implementation of Student Teams-Achievement Divisions Method to improve
Listening Comprehension of thesecond grade students of SMAN 2 Salatiga in the academic
year 2012/2013?
b) How is the improvement of Listening comprehension after using Student TeamsAchievement Divisions Method?
3.2 Setting and time of the research
The research was conducted at SMAN 2 Salatiga on Tegalrejo street No. 79. SMAN 2
Salatiga is one of outstanding state schools in Salatiga because it has lots of achievements. The
students who want to study in SMAN 2 should have good achievement in their junior high
school. This research was carried out during 1 month from April,23rd, 2013 to May 31st, 2013.
The schedule of research can be presented in figure below.
3.3 The subject of the research
This research was conducted to the second grade students of SMAN 2 Salatiga in
the Academic Year of 2012/2013. The total of the second grade students is 310. The

students of second science class are selected as the subject of the study which is of 34 students
specifically consists of 8 males and 26females. They were selected on the basis of the
preliminary observation, which showed that students had low achievement in listening skill.
3.4 Research Procedures
The researcher did the research in two cycles in every cycle include two meetings; those
were cycle I, and cycle II. The steps in every cycle were same. There were four steps in one cycle
for doing classroom action research. They were planning, action and observation, and reflection.
The steps of action research could be presented in Kemmis and Mc Taggart Model.
3.5 Technique of Collecting Data
a. Test (pre-test and post-test)
the writer selects the scoring system from Slavin in (Rusman,2011: 216), STAD
(Student Teams Achievement Divisions) here is the description of the scoring system:

b. Observation
In conducting observation the writer used field note and instrument of observation and
the instrument form of observation which was quoted from Munib (2011). The field
note and instrument of observation were used to observe and to know the situation and
activities during teaching-learning process. By using field note the writer would like to
know class situation and participation of student in the teaching listening comprehension by

using Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD). (see in Appendix 2)

3.6 Techniques of Analyzing Data
1. Descriptive technique
A descriptive technique is used to know the students behavior during teaching and
learning process. In descriptive technique the researcher will analyze the observation
sheet which has been made with his collaborator.
2. Statistical technique
A statistical technique is used to know there are any influences to student listening
comprehension or no from the result of pre-test and post test. The researcher uses mean
formula from (Hadi, 1981:246) to analyze the data:

M : the mean obtained

x : the sum of the students value
N : the number of subject
4. FINDING
For the analysis of the data can be demonstrated that the use of Student TeamsAchievement

Divisions

in

teaching

listening comprehension not only had positive

development in classroom participation but in the individual and team score as well in
every cycle of the research. The condition of the class was getting better than before
because they were interested in teaching listening comprehension using STAD that the
English teacher never uses as teaching method in the classroom. It could be seen in the
results of observation sheet in cycle I was 62 % and cycle II was 82 %. Based on the result
of the tests during the research, the writer as the researcher would like to show the
students' listening comprehension improvement from cycle I to cycle II.
5. CONCLUSION
The conclusion of this study is the implementation of Student Teams-Achievement
Divisions Method (STAD) in teaching listening comprehension went well. The students
were not only enthusiastic about teaching and learning process but also happy to follow
the procedure of STAD; teaching, teaming, quiz, individual score development and

team recognition. The other advantageous sides of using STAD in listening comprehension
during the research are the students were more sociable with their own team other
teams. They could work, cooperate and discuss each other to catch the understanding
of listening comprehension task in the team then they made summary of the task for their
teams. Hence, this application of STAD in teaching listening comprehension is an
effective method to improve students listening comprehension skill.
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