Sử dụng hoạt động xây dựng các tập hồ sơ nghe trong việc học kỹ năng nghe của sinh viên năm thứ nhất không chuyên ngữ tại khoa luật, đại học quốc gia hà nội

TẠP CHÍ Ct NG MG USING PORTFOLIOS IN LEARNING LISTENING SKILLS AMONG THE FIRST-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF LAW, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI • PHAMTHUY DUONG ABSTRACT: This study is to explore first-year students' attitudes toward the effects of the portfolio listening activity The participants of this study are 25 first-year students from the Faculty of Law, Vietnam National University - Hanoi (VNU-Hanoi) The survey questionnaire is used to investigate the students' attitudes towards the effects of portfolios, and find out problems and pedagogical suggestions for both teachers and students to apply portfolios in teaching and learning listening skill The results indicate that a majority of students have positive attitudes towards the use of portfolios in learning listening skill They are fully aware of the importance of portfolios to their listening skill improvement Therefore, this study suggests that portfolio making deserves to be taken into consideration in teaching and learning listening skill at the Faculty of Law, VNU-Hanoi Keywords: portfolios, listening skill, non-English major students Introduction I am currently teaching General English for non-English major first year and second year students at the Faculty of Law, Vietnam National University - Hanoi (VNU-Hanoi) Most of them are at elementary level, some are even at lower one They are required to learn General English during three semesters: two semesters in the first year and another semester in the second year These students specialize in law so English is 120 So 10-Tháng 5/2022 necessary for them when using legal English documents as references in their study and also crucial for them to get a good job in the future because today there are many international legal companies in Vietnam However, many of them find that English lessons are so challenging as English is not their major and favorable subject In addition to this, their English learning at high school often focused on grammar and reading proficiency for the sake of taking national exams QUẢN TRỊ-QUẢN LÝ From my own observations in the classrooms as well as an open discussion in Vietnamese with my students, of four language skills - listening, speaking, reading and writing, listening is believed to be the most difficult skill to them They encounter difficulties in comprehending the information due to unfamiliarity with the pronunciation, stress, intonation and a lack of listening skill and so on Added to this, the time to practice listening in class is not enough because every week my students have only two periods lasting 90 minutes to learn this skill To overcome such difficulties, it is necessary for students to spend much more time practicing listening skill at home However, Asian students in general and Vietnamese ones in specific are to some extent influenced by the Confucian Heritage Culture, which means that they presumably submit to the teacher authority As a consequence, students are dependent on teachers for input and learning materials (Ha & Lam, 2010) and their learner autonomy gradually deteriorates Nevertheless, the survey research conducted by Little Wood (2000: 33) suggests that Asian students from various countries including Vietnam not wish to be merely ‘obedient listeners’ From the context mentioned above, the question posed for me is how to improve my students’ overall listening skill as well as their self-study in learning this skill In the process of searching for the materials for my topic of research interest, I have found out a considerable number of researches on the use of portfolios to promote autonomous learning in general as well self-study in listening skill in specific Lo (2010) did an investigation on the implementation of reflective portfolios to develop learner autonomy among EFL college students in Taiwan The study pointed out several potential benefits of portfolios, that is “they encouraged students to engage in multi-domain learning, and were also effective in facilitating some of the skills needed for autonomous learning” (Lo, 2010) Ducker’s study (2013) in Japan also reported one teacher’s effort to ‘promote students exposure to English input, primarily aural, but also through written texts’ as well as ‘to encourage students to continue to practice listening activities in addition to set homework once courses have ended’ through the use of extensive listening portfolios Therefore, have planned to incorporate portfolios in my teaching and learning context to engage my students more in their own learning listening skill process For the above reasons, I decided to choose the study entitled ‘Using portfolios in learning listening skill among the first - year non-English major students at the Faculty of Law, VNU-Hanoi’ In order to implement the study, the following research questions have been formulated: What is students’ previous experience in learning listening skill? What are students’ perceptions towards the effects of the portfolio listening activity? Methodology and methods From the aim of my research, I have decided to deploy the qualitative methodology because qualitative methodology is concerned with the participants’ viewpoints, attitudes towards a certain matter The qualitative research is advantageous in gathering abstract information such as human beliefs which are contradictory, emotions which are difficult to express in ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions, behaviors which are seemingly opposite, and human relationships Furthermore, I am going to research my own practice The subjects of the study are 25 first — year non­ English major students from a class of the Faculty of Law, VNU-Hanoi These students are randomly selected to go in for the research All students are between 18 and 20 years old, both male and female They all have similar language background, that is, they are supposed to be at elementary level of English In my study, the main instruments developed for the data collection are two questionnaires for students Two sets of survey questionnaires designed by myself will be delivered to 25 firstyear students both before and after the portfolio process: So 10-Tháng 5/2022 21 TẠP CHÍ CƠNG THƯƠNG - Before the portfolio process, the pre­ questionnaire will be given to explore the students' their past experience in learning listening skill Students are expected to spend about two to three minutes to complete this questionnaire - After the portfolio process, the post­ questionnaire will be delivered to 25 subjects to find out participants' perceptions towards the effects of listening portfolio activities This latter questionnaire includes 15 statements which students have to response on a 4-point Likert scale, ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree and two multiple choice questions This post­ questionnaire is supposed to take the respondents from five to seven minutes to complete The questionnaire method allows the author to collect the data needed in quantitative form In addition, it is rather easy to summarize, analyze and report the gathered data Results and discussion 3.1 Students' previous motivations and learning experiences in listening as well as in the use of portfolios The questionnaire results demonstrated that most of the students were quite inactive in their learning They did not have the habit of practice listening to English outside the class Even they did not get used to listening to English songs to relax They just listened when teachers assigned them to some tasks In addition, the purposes of their study are mainly for the sake of getting good marks and satisfying the school requirement instead of interests Because students did not learn actively, a great number of them knew nothing about portfolios as well as their use Actually, the listening activities in the class were not much of use and unable to create favorable conditions for students' interest motivation and autonomy development 3.2 Students' attitudes towards the effects of the portfolio listening activity At first, the students did not know what the portfolio was about and how to use it Nevertheless, after compiling the portfolio, the students began to enjoy this activity Although some of them 122 SỐ 10-Tháng 5/2022 complained that they had to spend a lot of time making the portfolio It seems that this is the disadvantage of portfolio In general, the students have a clear concept about how to compile the portfolio Especially, almost of the students have a positive attitude towards the portfolio listening activity because of numerous benefits which it has brought to them Firstly, the portfolio listening activity enhances students' awareness of self-study The students take more responsibility for their learning process They think that portfolios will help them keep the habit of listening to English regularly The students can use the portfolio as their reflective journal Every day, they will listen to one piece of news or a story, etc and then they will write down its contents and their reflection about that story or that piece of news Needless to say, portfolios are of great usefulness for home-listening and self-listening activities It seems that without portfolios, the students have little chance to have access to different sources of listening material, work with other classmates and so on It is the portfolios that help students increase theứ willingness to learn more actively Secondly, thanks to the portfolio listening activity, the students' listening skill has been improved The reason behind this improvement might be the frequent practice in listening from different sources Initially, the students had to listen to numerous listening files and then they chose the most suitable files according to the given topics What's more, they had to exchanged designed exercises with one another and complete those ones Thirdly, the portfolio listening activity can give the students much learning freedom as they can work with their own interest and ability Furthermore, making the portfolio can help the students to monitor their learning goals Next, the portfolio sharing activities makes the relationship among students in the class much better The portfolio completion requires the students to cooperate with others in groups As a result, they had many opportunities to share their idea Besides, sharing portfolios helps the students QUẢN TRỊ - QUẢN LÝ to leam a lot from their friends They can share useful English learning sources and methods with each other In addition, the portfolio provides good chances for teacher - student interaction Making the portfolio is a challenging task, which results in plenty of contacts to teachers for help Also questions and doubts on finding sources for listening files, designing listening exercises could best be solved by teacher guidance 3.3 Students' difficulties in implementing the portfolio The new listening activity points out several weaknesses For instance, some students believe that making the portfolio is time-consuming The students had to collect listening files which were the most suitable to the given topics They also had to negotiate artifacts with other group members Moreover, a few students thought that finding materials for the portfolio was sometimes a real challenge Other students supposed that making the portfolio was costly because of extra materials 3.4 Students' suggestions to improve the selflearning portfolio The subjects confirmed that designing more suitable portfolio contents might improve the quality of the self-learning portfolio Actually, the students would be attracted if the contents of portfolio were interesting Other factors which influence the improvement of the self-study portfolio are that teachers should provide clear guidelines for implementing portfolios Besides, a few students agree that it is advisable that teachers provide them with more useful website, software or other resources The final suggestion is that the teacher should make the students more aware of the importance of self-learning 3.5 Suggestions for applying the portfolio Based on the foregoing findings from the research on the portfolio listening activity for increasing student's self-study, some suggestions are put forward for the teachers and students as follows: 3.5.1 Suggestionfor the teachers The fact shows that it is essential for teachers to introduce to the class the idea, objectives, plans, contents and assessment criteria If possible, a sample portfolio should be introduced at the beginning of the course This step is extremely important as poor performance in some portfolios can be found due to the misunderstanding of the plan and content of portfolios Besides, the contents applied by the teachers in the portfolio should be purposeful, meaningful and suitable to students' interest and levels of language proficiency In order to design such contents, it is advisable for the teachers to have a discussion with the students about the suitable portfolio contents Under the light of the analysis of the present data, it is clear that the subjects of this study are aware of the advantages and benefits of portfolio assessment in their language classes; however, they find it time-consuming and costly Therefore, before the portfolio process, the teachers should help the students to formulate a sound plan to make the portfolio Actually, compiling the portfolio is not time-consuming if the students are provided necessary information of ways to make it effectively When the students are familiar with making the portfolio, they will spend less time compiling it Moreover, the teachers can require students to work in groups of four or five Group members will share the work with one another It cannot be denied that it costs the students an amount of money to implement the portfolio because they have to print plenty of extra materials to submit to the teachers Therefore, the teachers can require groups to send their portfolios by email Using the internet in the library is free for the students In addition, it is necessary for the teachers to raise the students' awareness of the importance of self-learning From the findings mentioned above, most students are passive learners waiting for their teachers to assign them the tasks and explain everything to thing Thus, the students should be told that they are the most crucial factor for their success, not the teachers or someone else Next, the teachers should take into account such things as the students' feelings, motivation as well as attitudes towards the use of portfolio listening SỐ 10 - Tháng 5/2022 123 TẠP CHÍ CƠNG THƯƠNG activity The teachers should help the students to recognize the importance of portfolio to improve their listening skill The data also shows that some of the students feel that the concept of portfolio is quite new and difficult to understand They think that finding materials for the portfolio is challenging Therefore, it is recommended that the teachers play a role as a guide, a facilitator who understands students' needs and wants Recommending useful websites and software will help the students to find materials for the portfolio much easier In terms of evaluation, it is advisable that the teachers provide feedback on the portfolio that is more than just a grade If possible, the teachers write a letter about the portfolio, which details strengths and weaknesses and generates a profile of students' ability Consequently, the students will have the faith in what they are doing and continue to make the portfolio in the future 3.5.2 Suggestionsfor the students To ensure the success of the project, it is recommended that the students participate in making the portfolio actively Certainly, it takes time and great effort to overcome obstacles to complete the portfolio Therefore, active participation is needed What's more, the students should self-study and self-discover to widen their knowledge because the project is conducted successfully only when the students obtain certain language competence Finally, most of the work is done outside the class, so it is likely that some students could ask more competent students for help Conclusion In conclusion, this study focuses on the investigation into the effectiveness of using portfolios in learning listening skill With the use of questionnaires for students at the beginning of the portfolio process and at the end of the portfolio process, the findings point out both benefits and challenges when portfolios are applied to teach listening skill Portfolios can help students become more autonomous inside and outside the class, motivate students to learn listening skill as well as develop the ability of time management and dealing with deadlines Portfolios also improve learner-learner interaction and learnteacher interaction during the portfolio process However, making portfolios can be time­ consuming, costly and quite difficult for students to find suitable materials Despite these concerns, the benefits of portfolios seem to outweigh the worries Hopefully, with students' positive looks and attitudes towards the effects of portfolios, teachers will apply them in teaching listening skill and other languages skills more efficiently ■ REFERENCES: Ducker, N (2013) Self-directed Internet-based extensive listening portfolios In N Sonda & A Krause (Eds.), JALT2012 Conference Proceedings Tokyo: JALT Littlewood, w (2000) Do Asian students really want to listen and obey?, ELT Journal, 54 (1), 26-31 Lo, Y (2010) Implementing reflective portfolios for promoting autonomous learning among EFL college students in Taiwan, Language Teaching Research, 14(1), 77-95 Yang, N (2003) Integrating portfolios into learning strategy-based instruction for EFL college students International Review ofApplied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 41(4), 293-317 124 So 10-Tháng 5/2022 QUẢN TRỊ-QUẢN LÝ Received date: May 2,2022 Reviewed date: May 17,2022 Accepted date: May 28,2022 Author’s information: PHAM THUY DUONG Faculty of English, Vietnam National University - Hanoi SỬ DỤNG HOẠT ĐỘNG XÂY DƯNG CÁC TẬP HỒ Sơ NGHE TRONG VIỆC HỌC KỸ NĂNG NGHE CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHÂT KHÔNG CHUYÊN NGỮ TẠI KHOA LUẬT, ĐẠI HỌC Quốc GIA HÀ NỘI • ThS PHẠM THÙ Y DƯƠNG Khoa Tiếng Anh - Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội TÓM TẮT: Mục đích nghiên cứu nhằm tìm hiểu thái độ sinh viên năm thứ hiệu hoạt động xây dựng hồ sơ nghe Đối tượng tham gia vào đề tài 25 sinh viên không chuyên ngữ học năm thứ khoa Luật, Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội Các câu hỏi khảo sát sử dụng để tìm hiểu thái độ sinh viên với việc sử dụng hoạt động xây dựng hồ sơ nghe đồng thời tìm khó khăn gặp phải đề xuất số gợi ý cho sinh viên giáo viên trình áp dụng hoạt động hồ sơ việc học dạy kỹ nghe Những kết tìm phần lớn sinh viên có thái độ tích cực với hoạt động việc học kỹ nàng nghe Họ nhận thức cách đầy đủ tầm quan trọng hồ sơ đôi với việc cải thiện kỹ nghe Do đó, nghiên cứu đề xuất hoạt động hồ sơ nên xem xét để áp dụng việc dạy học kỹ nghe khoa Luật, Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội Từ khóa: hồ sơ, kỹ nghe, sinh viên khơng chuyên ngữ SỐ 10-Tháng 5/2022 125 ... Hanoi SỬ DỤNG HOẠT ĐỘNG XÂY DƯNG CÁC TẬP HỒ Sơ NGHE TRONG VIỆC HỌC KỸ NĂNG NGHE CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHÂT KHÔNG CHUYÊN NGỮ TẠI KHOA LUẬT, ĐẠI HỌC Quốc GIA HÀ NỘI • ThS PHẠM THÙ Y DƯƠNG Khoa Tiếng... trọng hồ sơ đôi với việc cải thiện kỹ nghe Do đó, nghiên cứu đề xuất hoạt động hồ sơ nên xem xét để áp dụng việc dạy học kỹ nghe khoa Luật, Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội Từ khóa: hồ sơ, kỹ nghe, sinh viên. .. viên không chuyên ngữ học năm thứ khoa Luật, Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội Các câu hỏi khảo sát sử dụng để tìm hiểu thái độ sinh viên với việc sử dụng hoạt động xây dựng hồ sơ nghe đồng thời tìm khó khăn