ABSTRACT
Story is one of the most familiar texts for children. In miming a story, the students without speaking do the actions together with the teacher. They have to listen carefully when the teacher describes what they have to mime. It will sustain their concentration and also provide physical movements which can keep them interested. So it may help the students to learn English better.
The study is an action research with two cycles which is based on the problem “How effective is the use of miming stories as a technique in teaching listening to elementary school students?”. In cycle 1, The Walk story was used and there was no division of the students. Whereas in cycle 2, I explored The Little Indian Boy story and divided the students into five groups. There were four tests in this study: pre-test, formative test of cycle 1, formative test of cycle 2, and post-test.
The result of the pre-test showed the mean score was 61%. After having activities by using miming stories, the students’ listening skill was improved. It was supported by the result of the formative tests. The mean of cycle 1 was 67.86% and the mean of cycle 2 was 72.37%. The result of the post-test indicated that the mean score was 76.86%. It was higher than the mean of the pre-test.
In the questionnaire session, the students chose learning English by using miming stories because it was enjoyable and lively. Furthermore, the result of the field notes written by the English teacher showed that the students were interested in the activities by using miming stories to improve their listening skill.
Based on the result above, it can be concluded that the use of miming stories is effective as a technique in teaching listening to elementary school students. In this study, I offer some suggestions. First, for students, it is good for them to practice listening by using miming stories. Second, for teachers, they should use miming stories as one of the techniques in teaching listening by regarding the students’ condition and characteristics. Third, for the next researchers, they could conduct deeper research by developing other stories.
