(LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ) Teachers'' difficulties in teaching English listening skills to the 11th -grade at Daimo High school, Hanoi and some suggested solutions

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ************** NGUYỄN THỊ LỆ THỦY TEACHERS’ DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS TO THE 11TH-GRADE AT DAIMO HIGH SCHOOL, HANOI AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS (Khó khăn giáo viên việc dạy kĩ nghe hiểu cho học sinh lớp 11 Trường THPT Đại Mỗ, Hà Nội số giải pháp) M.A Minor Thesis Major: English Teaching Methodology Code : 60 14 10 Hanoi – 2011 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ************** NGUYỄN THỊ LỆ THỦY TEACHERS’ DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS TO THE 11TH-GRADE AT DAIMO HIGH SCHOOL, HANOI AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS (Khó khăn giáo viên việc dạy kĩ nghe hiểu cho học sinh lớp 11 Trường THPT Đại Mỗ, Hà Nội số giải pháp) M.A Minor Thesis Major: English Teaching Methodology Code : 60 14 10 Supervisor: CHU THỊ PHƯƠNG VÂN M.A Hanoi - 2011 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of abbreviations viii List of tables and charts viii PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Aims and objectives of the study Scope of the study Methods of the study Significance of the study Design of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definitions of listening 1.2 Communicative approaches to listening comprehension 1.3 Stages of a listening lesson 1.3.1 Pre-listening stage 1.3.2 While-listening stage 1.3.3 Post-listening stage TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com v 1.4 The teacher’s role in the listening lesson 10 1.5 Potential problems in learning ELS 12 1.6 Strategies of listening comprehension 13 1.7 Role of motivation, interest and relevance in learning ELS 14 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 16 2.1 Introduction of language teaching and learning conditions in DM school 16 2.1.1 Subjective factors_Human 16 2.1.1.1 The learners_ Grade 11th students 16 2.1.1.2 The teachers 16 2.1.2 Objective factors_Teaching and learning conditions 17 2.1.2.1 Teaching aids 17 2.1.2.2 Duration 17 2.1.2.3 Class size 17 2.2 The new “Tieng Anh 11” textbook 17 2.2.1 Grade 11 listening objects 18 2.2.2 Listening lessons 18 2.3 Research questions 18 2.4 Data collection instruments 19 2.4.1 Instrument one: Questionnaires 19 2.4.2 Instrument two: Interviews 19 2.5 Summary 20 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 21 3.1 Questionnaires 21 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com vi 3.1.1 Questionnaires for students 21 3.1.2 Questionnaires for teachers 28 3.2 Results of the interviews 34 3.3 Summary 37 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND SUGGESTED SOLUSIONS 38 4.1 Findings 38 4.1.1 Teachers’ attitudes towards teaching ELS 38 4.1.2 Students’ attitudes towards learning ELS 38 4.1.3 Students’ difficulties in learning ELS 39 4.1.4 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching ELS to grade 11 students 39 4.2 Suggested solutions 40 4.2.1 Doing a pre-listening warm up activity effectively 40 4.2.2 Encouraging students to practice ELS outside the classroom 40 4.2.3 Giving support and encouragement 41 4.2.4 Upgrading teaching aids 42 4.2.5 Adapting and re-designing the tasks 42 4.2.6 Equipping students with listening strategies 42 4.3 Summary 43 PART III: CONCLUSIONS 44 Summary of the study 44 Limitations of the study 44 Recommendations for further study 45 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com vii REFERENCES 46 APPENDICES I Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students I Appendix 2: Questionnaire for teachers III Appendix 3: Interview questions for teachers V Appendix 4: Topics of the listening texts in English textbook 11 VI TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS DM school Dai Mo high school ELS English Listening Skill Ss Students LIST OF TABLES Tables Titles Pages Table Teachers’ techniques of encouraging students 25 Table Students’ evaluation on other students’ participation 26 Table Factors affecting students’ difficulties in learning ELS 27 Table Students’ suggested techniques to better teaching ELS 28 Table Teachers’ assessment and attitudes towards ELS 29 Table Teachers’ assessment of listening topics & tasks in “Tieng Anh 29 11” textbook Table Teachers’ opinion of students’ attitudes towards listening lessons 30 Table Teachers’ opinions of the difficult stage(s) of a listening lesson 30 Table Difficulties encountered by the teachers 31 Table 10 The frequency of teachers’ using techniques in a listening lesson 33 Table 11 Teachers’ suggested solutions to improve listening teaching 34 Table 12 Four teachers’ answering interview questions 36 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ix LIST OF CHARTS Charts Titles Pages Chart Students’ assessment of their listening abilities 21 Chart Students’ attitudes towards the importance of listening skills 22 Chart Students' frequency of listening to English outside the class 23 Chart Students’ assessment of tasks in the “Tieng Anh 11” textbook 23 Chart Students’ attitudes towards the appropriate time for learning ELS 24 Chart How students discuss their listening comprehension problems 25 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -1- PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study In this new era of globalization, English language becomes the international language It has become the most popular language of communication among countries and in many fields of human endeavor So it is important that we learn to use English if we not want to be old fashioned Therefore, there is a great demand for teaching and learning English in the world as well as in Vietnam In order to use English effectively, learners need to develop communicative competence Accordingly, they should be helped to develop four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing Listening, therefore, is essential not only as a receptive skill but also to the development of spoken language proficiency Aware of the importance of teaching listening skills, all the teachers of Dai Mo high school are trying their best to make the listening lessons effective The teachers themselves always try to find out the best approach to apply in teaching However, the quality of learning and teaching English listening skills still remains very low Therefore, this thesis takes a critical look at the real situation of teaching and learning listening skills at Dai Mo high school to explore the problems as well as to suggest some feasible solutions From the real experience in teaching, the researcher attempts to carry out a research to make the problems clear Aim and objectives of the study Within the frame work of a minor thesis, the study is aimed at: - Clarifying the practices of teaching and learning ELS in grades 11 in DM school - Finding out the difficulties teachers and students in grades 11 in DM school have had to undergo - Suggesting some feasible solutions to the teaching of ELS for grade 11 It may appear contradictory that in the first two concentrations, the study attempts to investigate both teaching and learning of ELS whereas the main topic raised in the title of the study is only about the teaching However, according to Brown (2007), it is not a contradiction “if we look at the teaching process as the facilitation of learning.” TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -2- Scope of the study Learning a second language as a scholar once said “is a long and complex undertaking” Therefore, teachers of a second language certainly have many problems during their teaching In the scope of this research, however, the researcher only has ambition to investigate the difficulties that teachers in DM school have been faced when teaching listening skill for 11th graders Hopefully, they will have more smooth and successful listening lessons Also, it is not expected that the study can bring solutions to the ELS teaching for students of all levels Methods of the study The study is designed to use both qualitative and quantitative methods Besides, many resources such as books, magazines, articles, newspapers and some sources on the Internet have been read by the researcher In order to gain the most reliable results, the quantitative data will be collected through two survey questionnaires One survey questionnaire is for 140 students from five different groups in grade 11 in DM school and the other survey is for teachers teaching English for grades 11 during the time they took part in the survey The data, then, will be processed and analyzed to yield conclusions for the study Along with the quantitative method, the qualitative data has been obtained by informal interviews with some teachers to collect further information about the real situations of teaching and learning ESL in grades 11 at DM school Significance of the study This research provides an insight into the difficulties that are often met by teachers teaching English for grades 11 in DM school In addition, this research also points out some feasible solutions which are beneficial for both teachers and students Hopefully, the findings and recommendations of this study will be of some help to the improvement of the teaching and learning ELS of Vietnamese students in general and of DM school students in particular The study also gives some guidelines for teachers to TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - 39 - 4.1.3 Students’ difficulties in learning ELS From the data analysis, it was clear that the students had to face many difficulties such as: their low level of English proficiency, lack of background knowledge in listening topics, lack of motivation, limited time, speakers‟ fast speed, bad quality of cassette tapes and etc The majority of the students had trouble with listening because of their low level of English proficiency Besides, their low background knowledge also made them feel stressed when listening All these reasons led to the fact that many of them said they sometimes did not have enough time to complete listening tasks in class Then students‟ low motivation was also a problem Only a small number of the students liked learning ELS Furthermore, students did not highly appreciate their teachers‟ assistance Only 16% of the students discussed listening comprehension problems with their teachers Besides, their English teachers considered the result of the final exam as the most important element They cared much about teaching vocabulary, grammar, structures and reading skills Obviously, this attitude decreased students‟ interest in learning listening 4.1.4 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching ELS for grade 11 students Not only the students but also the teachers coped with numerous problems when teaching listening The difficulties the teachers at DM school were coping with were the factors from the students such as the low level of English proficiency of the students, low background knowledge in listening topics and their low motivation The next difficulty was the problem of large class Teachers had to face difficulties in shortening a big gap among their students‟ different abilities In the same class, some students who were good at English were active while many others were de-motivated The good ones usually dominated the activities that pair work and group work were needed while the weaker ones were shy and contributed nothing In addition, English classes at the school were very large There were more than 40 students in a class Hence, it was difficult for the teachers to give each of the student individual attention For the next difficulty, teaching equipments and reference materials were important in the teaching process; however, the teaching condition in the school was not good Moreover, there were not available listening materials in the library for students to improve their listening competence The final TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - 40 - challenge was the limited time for listening lessons According to 71% of the teachers in DM school, the time was too short for listening practices Thus, teachers should encourage students to learn listening by using flexible techniques, exploring internet websites which facilitate listening teaching and learning, and so on With all the difficulties mentioned above, it was necessary to have workable solutions to overcome the existing problems for further improvement of the listening lessons 4.2 Suggested solutions As concluded previously, teachers teaching listening should spend more time and effort in order to upgrade their teaching The researcher, in this part, tries to give some suggestions for English teachers at DM school to improve their teaching 4.2.1 Doing a pre-listening warm-up activity effectively Because of the low level of English proficiency, students need to be provided necessary words and structures before listening So, “Before you listen” in the English 11 textbook provides some new and important words in the listening texts Teachers can use these words or can modify them to suit students‟ level by removing or adding some words They can also pick up some key structures from the listening text to introduce to students These key words and structures not only activate learners‟ schemata but also get them to predict and think in the right direction to guess the answers effectively In addition, teachers should make full use of all pictures provided in the textbook before listening so that students can easily answer the questions from the key words provided Then they will build a schema in their mind and it will facilitate the listening process 4.2.2 Encouraging students to practice ELS outside the class Listening material is now readily accessible, especially with the developments in technology and media While class time (45 minutes) spent on listening is important, it is not sufficient for developing this difficult language skill However, nearly half of the teachers at DM school (43%) never encouraged students to listen to English outside the classroom So it is essential to assist the students to build up the habit of listening English TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - 41 - For example, teachers can ask students to listen to the tape at home before listening in class When listening at home, they have to write down all the words they catch from the tape If teachers so, they can save time in class Moreover, teachers should create language-learning environments that stimulate students‟ interests and raise students‟ passion and enthusiasm for learning English In activities outside the class, students need to be taught many different varieties of language phenomena and more knowledge through TV programs, radio and the Internet Teachers need to select a wide range of materials to increase listening contents besides using the textbooks For example, teachers can start with introducing students interesting English songs, games, and films with English text to motivate their students Since, a game is often considered as the first step to draw students‟ attention to an English environment Therefore, games should be used in class more frequently If students are made to take part in games voluntarily, they will become more active and hard-working And music is also useful for teaching ELS It is used to soothe and relax the mind Hence, it enables learners to be free from pressure and stress Furthermore, it is not difficult to find them on-line Teachers can use sites such as www.mtv.com, www.songsforteaching.com and music.yahoo.com which provide music video in a variety of genres Using the Internet to look for these sources, teachers and students can save time and money In these ways it is possible to raise students‟ enthusiasm, cultivate their listening interests, and achieve the goals of learning English 4.2.3 Giving support and encouragement From the reality of teaching ELS in DM school the researcher finds that anxiety, distress, frustration, resistance, and so forth, might distract learners from learning the ELS Hence, it is very important for students to have a good psychological state while listening to build up confidence to overcome difficulties Teachers should encourage students to guess the answers by creating a relaxing atmosphere The purpose of checking the students‟ answers should be viewed only as feedback, as a way of letting the students to find out how they did and how they are progressing During the listening lessons teachers should teach students how to listen, not always test students‟ listening ability And as the result of the TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - 42 - study, teachers should encourage students to listen in class by giving comments, high marks or some small prizes often 4.2.4 Upgrading teaching aids In terms of materials and facilities, classroom should be equipped with modern equipments like computers, overhead projectors and the library should be equipped with various listening materials The modern facilities will help the teachers use techniques in the prelistening stage and correct students‟ listening tasks more effectively as well as save a lot of time in writing down everything on the board Equipping the library with various listening materials is not only useful for the students to self-study but also help the teachers to design more interesting lessons Besides, making use of computers with the Internet in the library will be necessary for the teachers to make teaching plans or search for listening materials online Finally, other types of teaching aids such as pictures, sub-boards should also be equipped to stimulate the students to go in for listening activities more actively 4.2.5 Adapting and re-designing the tasks in the textbook more suitable to students Teachers should design the tasks in the textbook which focus on what learners can rather than what they cannot For example, teachers can leave out inappropriate parts of a listening lesson or skip some activities in order to give time to other more useful activities Also, they should adjust the difficulty level of the tasks to match the students‟ abilities Teachers should organize activities and tasks that are best suitable to all students in a class They should not ask students to something boring or beyond their abilities 4.2.6 Equipping students with listening strategies From the reality of teaching ELS, the researcher realizes that students should be encouraged to listen for general understanding first rather than trying to pick out details immediately Therefore, students should be guided to use listening strategies effectively such as predicting what a speaker is going to say, getting the general ideas, using signals words to predict what comes next and taking notes while listening and so on To improve TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - 43 - the students‟ listening strategies, teachers should design some listening activities purposefully in order to lead students to get the information with certain purpose and option, for example, listening for time, places, events, names, etc What teachers are not only making listening easier, but also helping students improve their listening comprehension so that they will achieve a good result of listening 4.3 Summary This chapter has mentioned some findings and suggested solutions to improve teaching and learning listening skills for 11th form students at DM high school The last part will conclude the main contents of the study and review its limitations and suggestions for further research TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - 44 - PART III: CONCLUSIONS Summary of the study Listening is one of the receptive skills, through which students can gain more vocabularies, grammar structures and knowledge about the world Besides, listening helps students learn other skills Therefore, the importance of listening is undeniable In the process of studying the reality of teaching and learning ELS at DM school, the attitudes of the teachers and students towards teaching and learning ELS, the difficulties facing the teachers and students were studied The results from the research reveal the present teaching and learning listening at DM school is far from satisfaction The students faced five main problems at listening class: the low level of English proficiency, low background knowledge, low motivation, teachers‟ assistance and time limitation Also teachers coped with many problems such as students‟ low level of English proficiency, low motivation, time limitation, large and mixed-ability classes as well as lack of necessary facilities In order to improve the situation, an effort should be made to present some useful listening techniques which hopefully can be employed to help the teachers at DM school improve their listening skills teaching Limitations of the study Although the researcher has made effort conducting this thesis, there undoubtedly exist some limitations Firstly, the study only carry out an investigation into the reality of teaching and learning ELS of grade 11 students, so to some extent, the results may not be generalized for all students of the school Secondly, the author‟s practical experience in TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - 45 - teaching ELS with the textbook is limited; the suggestions to overcome difficulties are likely to be subjective and incomplete Recommendations for further study On the basis of findings and limitations of the study, the following suggestions are made for further research: - A study on the reality of teaching reading, speaking or writing to DM school students - A study on techniques and activities for DM school students which help them improve their listening skills TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - 46 - REFERENCES Anderson, A & Lynch, T Listening 1998 Oxford: Oxford University Press Brown, H Douglas, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, 2007 White Plains: New York Brown, D.H Teaching by Principles 2001 New York: Pearson Education Limited Brown, G, & Yule, G., Teaching Spoken English.1983 Cambridge University Press Buck, G Assessing Listening 2001 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Cottrell, S Teaching Study Skills and Supporting Learning 2001 Macmillan Press Ltc Flowerdew, J and Miller, L Second Language Listening: Theory and Practice 2005 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press Helgesen, M & Brown, S Practical English Language Teaching: Listening 2003 New York: McGraw Hill, 24 Hoang, V.V, Hoang, X.H, Do, T.M, Dao, N.L, Vu, T.L, Nguyen, Q.T English 11 2006 Hanoi: Education Publishing House 10 Larsen, D Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching 1986 Oxford: Oxford University Press 11 Nunan, D Language Teaching Methodology 1991 Sydney: Prentice Hall 12 O‟Malley, J.M, Chamot, A.U & Kupper, L, Listening Comprehension Strategies in Second Language Acquisition 1989 Applied Linguistics 10(4),418-437 13 Richard, J.C and R Schmidt Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - 47 - Applied Linguistics 2002 London, UK: Longman 14 Rixon, S Developing Listening Skill 1986 Macmillan 15 Rost, M Listening 1994 London: Longman 16 Rubin, J An Interview to “A Guide for the Teaching of Second Language Listening.” 1995 17 Rumelhart, D.E 1977 Toward an Interactive Model of Reading 1977 VI Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum 18 Schmidt-Reinhart, B C 1994 The Effects of Topic Familiarity on Second Language Listening Comprehension The Modern Language Journal 78(2), 179-189 19 Underwood, M Teaching Listening 1989 New York: Longman 20 Ur, P A Course in Language Teaching: Practice & Theory 1991 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 21 Vandergrift Listening: Theory and Practice in Modern Foreign Language Competence 1997a http://www.lang.ltsn.ac.uk/resources/ref6#ref6 22 White, G Listening 1998 Oxford University Press 23 Yagang, F Listening: Problems and Solutions 1994 English Teaching Forum, 31(2).16-19 24 http:// www.mtv.com 25 http:// www.songsforteaching.com 26 http:// music.yahoo.com TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com I APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS (Version in Vietnamese) Mục đích câu hỏi điều tra thiết kế nhằm tìm hiểu khó khăn việc học kĩ nghe học sinh lớp 11 trường THPT Đại Mỗ Câu trả lời em đóng góp to lớn nghiên cứu Xin chân thành cảm ơn hợp tác em! Hãy điền thêm thông tin khoanh trịn trước lựa chọn I Thơng tin cá nhân Giới tính: ………… (Nam/Nữ) Lớp: 11A……… Em học tiếng Anh năm? II Việc học kĩ nghe tiếng Anh Khả nghe tiếng Anh em nào? A Rất tốt B Tốt C Bình thường D Kém Học kĩ nghe hiểu tiếng Anh có quan trọng với em không? A Rất quan trọng B Quan trọng C Hơi quan trọng D Không quan trọng Ngồi học tiếng Anh lớp em có thường luyện nghe thêm kĩ không? A Luôn B Thường xuyên C Thỉnh thoảng D Không Em đánh tập nghe sách giáo khoa tiếng Anh 11? A Rất khó B Khó C Bình thường D Dễ Em có đồng ý 45 phút đủ để học kĩ nghe hiểu tiếng Anh không? A Đủ B Thừa C Thiếu Em thường trao đổi khó khăn học kĩ nghe với ai? A Các bạn lớp B Giáo viên C Người thân D Không Thầy (cơ) giáo em làm để khuyến khích em nghe? A Khen gợi B Cho điểm cao C Tặng quà D Khơng làm Em đánh tiết học nghe lớp? A Tất học sinh học tích cực B Nhiều học sinh học tích cực C Số học sinh vui vẻ sẵn sàng nghe D Hầu hết học sinh khơng muốn nghe Theo em học kĩ nghe tiếng Anh lại khó? TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com II A Giáo viên chưa có phương pháp dạy phù hợp với học sinh B Các chủ điểm nghe hoạt động nghe nhàm chán C Học sinh thiếu động học tập D Khả tiếng Anh học sinh thấp E Học sinh thiếu kiến thức liên quan đến nội dung nghe F Lớp học đông G Tốc độ người nói nhanh H Thời gian nghe hạn chế I (Lí khác): ………………………………………………………………… 10 Theo em, thầy cô giáo nên làm để tiết học nghe hay hiệu hơn? A Dành nhiều thời gian soạn dạy nghe cẩn thận B Giúp học sinh cải thiện kiến thức ngôn ngữ xã hội C Hướng dẫn học sinh cách nghe nhà D Hướng dẫn học sinh cách làm nghe hiệu E Trao đổi kinh nghiệm phương pháp dạy nghe với F Có nhiều cách thức khuyến khích học sinh nghe (như khen thưởng, cho điểm cao) G Cho học sinh nghe nhiều hát chơi trị chơi tiếng Anh H (Lí khác): ………………………………………………………………………… CẢM ƠN SỰ HỢP TÁC CỦA CÁC EM RẤT NHIỀU! TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com III APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS The purpose of the research is to clarify difficulties that teachers and students of grade 11 at Dai Mo High School have in teaching and learning listening skill Please complete the questions below I About yourself - Your gender: Male □ Female □ - Your age: ……… - Years of teaching: ………………………………………… II II About teaching of listening comprehension skill * Please circle the appropriate choice(s) in answering each of the following questions Which of these following skills in English you think the most difficult for your teaching? A listening B speaking C reading D writing How important you think listening skills is to your students? A very important B important C not very important D not important at all What you think about listening topics and tasks in “Tieng Anh 11” textbook? A very interesting B interesting C appropriate D boring What is your students’ attitude towards listening comprehension skills? A Attentive and interested C Sometimes inattentive B Not very interested but still attentive D Totally ignorant Which stage of a listening lesson you think the most difficult? A Pre-listening stage B While-listening stage C Post-listening stage What are your difficulties when teaching English listening skills? (Rank them in order of priority: 1- 6) A Students’ low motivation B Students’ low background knowledge in listening topics TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com IV C Students’ low level of English proficiency D Large class problems (noise, mixed ability, class management) E Lack of necessary facilities (cassette tapes, VCD, CD, projector) F Time limitation Please put a tick () in the techniques you in your listening lessons - Very often – Often – Sometimes - Never Activities - use pair or group work - use English games and songs - use pre-listening activities to warm up - encourage students to listen in English outside the classroom - equip students with necessary strategies in listening comprehension - re-design listening tasks to be more suitable to students’ listening levels and interests What should teachers to overcome the difficulties? (Please circle your choice(s)) A help students improve their knowledge of the language and knowledge of the world B spend more time preparing the listening lessons more carefully C encourage student to listen to English outside the classroom D ask for improvement of the teaching and learning conditions E equip students more listening strategies F exchange experiences and methodology among the English staffs G encourage students to listen by giving evaluation (comments, feedback and marks) H others: (please specify) …………………………………………………………… THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR COOPERATION! TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com V APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS (English version) Do you like teaching listening skill? Why (not)? - Do you have enough time to teach “After you listen” in the textbook? - If not, you assign this part to your students to at home? Why don’t you guide students to listen to English outside the classroom? Why (not)? Do you re-design the tasks in “While you listen”? Why few students pay attention to learning listening skills? What is the best way to encourage students to listen to English? Do you conduct tests on listening? Why (not)? TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VI APPENDIX TOPICS OF THE LISTENING TEXTS IN ENGLISH BOOK 11 Units Topics Friendship Lan and Long talk about their best friends Personal experiences An interview with Christina about her unforgettable experiences A Party Monologue about Mai’s birthday party Volunteer work Spring School for disadvantages children Illiteracy Monologue about an informal survey on what makes an effective school carried out in Perth, Western of Australia Competitions The dialogue about Boston Marathon World Population An interview with Dr Brown, a world population expert, about the world population Celebrations Two people talking about how the New Year is celebrated in Japan The Post Office The development of Vietnam’s telephone system over the past few years 10 Nature in danger National parks in the United States 11 Sources of energy Monologue about natural resources 12 The Asian Games “The Asian Games Report” programme 13 Hobbies A student talks about his hobby 14 Recreation Three American students talk about how they would like to spend their summer holiday 15 Space Conquest A talk about the 1st human moon landing, one of the most important historical events in the 20th century 16 The Wonders of the The Great Wall of China world TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ... attitudes toward the teaching of listening, the difficulties they encounter in teaching ELS, the teachers‟ knowledge of teaching listening and the teachers‟ expectations for better teaching and. .. contradictory that in the first two concentrations, the study attempts to investigate both teaching and learning of ELS whereas the main topic raised in the title of the study is only about the teaching. .. mostly on teaching vocabulary, grammar and reading skills rather than on other skills such as speaking, listening and writing Also, the main purpose of teaching and learning English at the school