Writing from What You Hear: The Role of Critical Listening in Students' Writing Skills

Abstract

This study highlights the importance of critical listening and writing as interconnected language competencies that support students’ literacy and cognitive development. In elementary education, listening activities are often limited to passive comprehension and are rarely integrated with productive language skills, such as writing. Therefore, this study aimed to describe the levels of critical listening and writing skills among fifth-grade elementary school students and to analyze the relationship between the two variables. This research employed a quantitative approach with an ex post facto correlational design. The participants consisted of 59 fifth-grade students from a public elementary school in Serang City, Indonesia. Data were collected through observation and tests measuring students’ critical listening and writing skills. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson product-moment correlation analysis. The findings revealed that the students’ average critical listening score was 53.36, while their average writing score was 44.08; both were categorized as moderate. The Pearson correlation test showed a positive and significant relationship between critical listening and writing skills (r = 0.422, p < 0.01). These findings indicate that students with stronger critical listening abilities tend to demonstrate better writing performance. This study contributes to the framework of integrated language learning by emphasizing that critical listening functions as a cognitive foundation for developing coherent and meaningful writing skills in elementary education.