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Tg Thj Mai Hucmg vd Dig Tgp chi KHOA HQC & CONG NGTTE 175(15) 109 114 E F F E C T S O F P O R T F O R L I O S O N I M P R O V I N G L I S T E N I N G C O M P R E H E N S I O N S K I L L F O R S T U D[.]
Tg Thj Mai Hucmg vd Dig Tgp chi KHOA HQC & CONG NGTTE 175(15) 109-114 EFFECTS O F PORTFORLIOS ON IMPROVING LISTENING COMPREHENSION SKILL F O R STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY AT THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY OF E C O N O M I C S A N D BUSINESS A D M I N I S T R A T I O N Ta Thi Mai Huong', Nguyen Van Thinh, Nguyen Thi Hanh Hong TNU Univeisity of Economics and Business Administration SUMMARY In the current trend of globalization, the demand on language skills for the workforce is becoming more lugent To help students well prepare for their iiiture career as well as enhance thencommunication skill, teachers of English at Thai NgUyen University of Economics and Business Administration have kept looking for new teaching techniques and been contmuously applying modem teachmg methods to maximize the efficiency of the teaching process In this study, the authors looked at the effectiveness of using portfolios in helping leamers enhance theu listening comprehension ability then based on the findmgs to make suggestions for the effective use of listenmg portfolios to help develop students' listening ability and partly contribute to improving their language proficiency Keywords portfolios, listening comprehension, listening ability, communication skill, Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration TNTRGDUCTION In the current trend of globalization, the demand on language skills for the workforce is becoming more urgent T o better prepare students for their future career, in addition to providing quality training of their majors Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration also put the focus on the teaching of English Since 1 , students have been required to have a certificate proving that their language proficiency satisfies the graduation requirements to be able to get the university degree The advisable language test is Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC); however, the outcomes are still limited To help students well prepare for those demands as well as enhance their communication skill, teachers of English at the University of Economics and Business Administration, Thai Nguyen University (TUEBA) have kept looking for new teaching techniques and been continuously applying modern teaching methods to maximize the efficiency of the teaching process However, due to some subjective factors such as students' limited background knowledge, theu lack of autonomy in studying and objective factors such as the inadequate number of class hours, the application of learning activities has not yet shown significant and apparent efficacy To better control students' self-studying- time and improve students' autonomy, which consequently helps develop listening ability, listening portfolios have been employed in some language classrooms Previous researches into the application of portfolios in some other educational institutions have shown that portfolios not only facilitate teachers in evaluating learners' self-studying process but also have positive influence on learners' independence in studying Tn this study, the authors looked at the effects of using portfolios in helping enhance students' listening comprehension ability then based on the findings to make suggestions for the effective employment of such method for the improvement of students' listening ability, which significantly contributes to their success in taking the TOEIC and boosting their general language proficiency, Tel: 0983826327; Email khanhha27IO@gmail com 109 Tg Thi Mai Huong vd Dtg Tgp chi KHOA HQC & CONG NGHE METHODOLOGY Research questions The study aimed at investigating the influence of portfolios on the listening skill and based on the findings to make some suggestions on using portfolios to enhance the listening skill With such objectives, the study aims at answering the following research questions: 1, To what extent portfolios influence students' listening skill? 2, How can teachers improve the content of portfolios to help develop student's listening skill? Sample choosing Participants; Twenty students, aged 19 -20 at Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration participated in the study Participants were classmates at an evening classroom who were received regular listening tasks as homework twice every week Instrumentation- Pre and post questionnaires, a designed portfolio with listening files for ten weeks and a pre-test and post-test were used to collect data for analysis Scope ofthe study The study is concerned with using portfolios in teaching the listening skill to the second-year non English major students of TUEBA The listening tasks used for thejDortfolios focus on getting students to practise to well prepare for the TOEIC, the advisable language test for learners' graduation outcome, THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Listening comprehension Regarding listening comprehension, authors such as Buck (2001)[ I ], Underwood (1989)[2], O'Malley and Chamot (1989)[3] all agree that it is "an active and conscious process" in which listeners constructing meaning by applying knowledge to the incoming sounds According to Scott Shelton (2008)[4], the process of effective listening is demanding and involved as learners need to deal with different accents or pronunciation no 175(15): 109-114 unfamiliar lexical items and syntactic structures, competing background noise to be able to succeed in communication process, " Portfolios A portfolio is often defined as "a purposefii] collection of students' work" [5] that not only "exhibits students' effort, progress, and achievement" [5], but also takes the role of "an assessment tool that allows creator to pul his or her best foot forward and document the knowledge and skills mastered through the learning process" [6] Portfolios exist in a number of types, each serves its own purpose and has differenl required elements According to Wolf and Dietz (1998) [7], there are three purposes of portfolios: (i) learning portfolio, (ii) assessment portfolio and (iii) employment portfolio These authors stated that portfolios normally contain selected evidence of performance and products in various contexts accompanied by a teachCT's comments and reflections Previous studies Portfolios have been in application for some decades as an altemative assessment tool In language teaching and leaming, a large number of researches were conducted to investigate the effectiveness of portfolio instructions; however, the main focus is on writing and reading skills In Vietnam, as recognized by the researchers of the current research paper, there were three researchers including Giang (2010) [8], Hoa (2011) [9] and Trang (2013) [10] who showed their interest in investigating the influence of portfolio mtervention on the teaching and learning of listening skill for thek non-English major students Findings from their studies showed that most participants had positive attitudes towards the application of portfolio and some progress has been made However, some tasks and activities were reported to be over-challenging, therefore need to be revised to meet students' needs and belter correspond to their language proficiency Tg Thi Mai Huong vd Dig Tap chi KHOA HQC & CONG NGFTE RESULTS Data collected questionnaire Students' learning from the pre- survey experience • AU of the students have learnt English for at least years However, many reported that grammar was the main focus o f t h e lessons at their secondary schools As a result, all students taking part in the survey found it difficult to Ieam listening and felt unwilling to the assigned tasks IJ^fcr10°/j^M'' •t'N I5',^m':'.'Sjfeo% •Not very often nOSeii aveiy often QNever Figure Students 'frequency of practicing the listening skill after class (Source: Questionnaire) As can be seen from figure 1, a very small number of students (10%) reported that they usually practiced listening after class while the majority rarely did it at home (60%) % of the students never practiced doing things related to listening Student's knowledge of listening portfolios When being asked about listening portfolios, 100% of students said they had no ideas about it and had never done it before Data collected from the post- survey questionnaire Students' attitude towards the port/olios According to the summary of students' response to the question on their awareness of the role of listening portfolios, shown in table I, a total of % were conscious of the importance of portfolios to the improvement of their listening skill and autonomy Only % of the students thought that it was not very important and no response refused the role of portfolios in promoting listening ability According to table 2, most students, which account for % and % find the portfolio contents interesting and useful, respectively More specifically, students stated that their background knowledge in terms of vocabulary and grammar structures was 175(15): 109-114 enriched However, roughly two third (65%) of students thought that the contents of the listening were difficult because of new vocabulary, native accents, speed of speaking, proper names, etc Table I, Students' awareness ofthe importance of listening portfolios Attitude Very important Important Not very important Not important Total {%) Response with agreement (%) 80 15 100 (Source: Survey questionnaire) Table Students' general evaluation ofthe contents of listening audios Attitude/ Opinion Agree (%) Disagree (%) Total {%) Interesting Useful Difficult 60 80 65 40 20 35 100 JOO 100 (Source Survey questionnaire) The results of the survery also showed students' perspectives on the advantages of listening portfolios after this method was applied to theu classrooms Generally, more than half of the students (75%i) found portfolios beneficial in helping them build a habit of practising listening, improve selfstudying of listening after class (75%), help evaluate language outcomes (60%) and most students confirmed that portfolios were good for improving team-work skill (85%.), Students' perspectives on the knowledge gained most Also fi-om the questions on the knowledge gained most after weeks of compiling portfolios, 80% of the respondents believed that they knew more phrases and expressions used in everyday activities, % students approved that doing activities on portfolios help them enrich their vocabulary and knowledge However, only 55%) of students are confident about their improvement of using listening strategies thanks to the application of listening portfolios Ill Tap chi KHOA HOC & CONG NGHE Ta Thi Mai Huong vd Dtg Students' arrangement preferences for on the portfolios working According to the response of the survey questionnaires, 80% of the informants preferred to work in groups Groupwork gave students an opportunity to share their knowledge and experiences with others, and learn more valuable things from their partners A bigger proportion of students (90%) found working in pairs effective and only 20%) said they liked working on their own Students' preferences for task requirements on the portfolios In the study, the researcher designed different types of listening task in order to figure out student's preferences for types of task in the portfolios The response indicated that most students (60%)) considered multiple choices their favourite type Sentence completion and ordering were less popular with % and 30% respectively Writing the tape scripts appeared the most difficult and lime-consuming as only 10% response showed positive attitude towards this type of task Also, the scores students got for muhiple choices and information ordering were higher than for writing tape scripts In fact, most students left those questions unanswered or with some separate words only Students' portfolio difficulties process in the listening According to students' reports, 80% agreed that one of the biggest difficulties they encountered was the speakers' fast speed in speaking The accents of native speakers in authentic listening audio were also one problematic factor as % of the participants agreed that they were confused by unfamiliar accent Besides, proper names in the recordings were reported to cause students' difficulty in completing the listening tasks by % of the participants Time-consuming (50%) was also mentioned as one of the factors affecting students' portfolio completion Surprisingly, though the majority of students liked working in group, it was reported that conflicts among group members, which sometimes led to disagreement, was an 112 175(15): 109-114 affecting factor that decreased interests and motivation for portfolios, 15%) of the informants blamed their members for being uncooperative and % admitted that their groups lacked leadership Only 10% of students thought that the quality of audio fil^ was troublesome for them Data collected from students' pre and posttest scores Table Summary ofthe score results students received before and after the intervention of portfolios Above average score (Vu) 30 Total {%) Pretest Below average score {%) 70 Posttest 45 55 100 Scores/ Test 100 (Source: Pre-test and post-test results) From the summary of the figures in the table, obviously, the application of portfolios has made a significant impact on the improvement of students' listening skill More specifically, before the application of portfolios, two third of the students' got below average score for listening Thanks to the frequent practice of different listening activities in the portfolios, the post-test i esulls showed some progress made by students when only 45%) of students got below average score The number of students got above average score increased by % to 55% after portfolio's instructions Though the change might not be satisfying enough, this change confirmed that the use of portfolios had some positive influence on the improvement of students' listening ability, P E D A G O G I C A L IMPLICATIONS Basing on the findings from different date collected, the researchers made the followmg suggestions with a view to reducing the drawbacks as well as making the best benefit from the application of portfolios for students Frequent tasks to form students' habit of learning listening after class The responses from the questionnaire showed that most students were not really autonomous and active in learning, which was Ta Thi Mai Huong vd Dtg Tgp chi KHOA HQC & CONG NGHE conducive to the slow progress Thus, it is advisable that teachers assign frequent and suitable task for students to at home on a regular basis and cheek work done carefully to help students form good habit of listening Clear instructions of portfolio implementation to help students overcome the obstacles "Portfolios" was a newly introduced concept for students; therefore, to Increase the possibility of success with this type of intervention, teachers should provide students with the clear instructions before assigning listening tasks then repeat the instructions regularly during the teaching process; building up disciplines for group portfolio and making right selection of group leaders are also what need to be done In addition, a brief introduction of portfolio and its potential benefits should also be clarified in order for students to be better motivated in following their teachers' instructions Careful selection of listening materials and designed tasks Among the challenges the students dealt with during listening, the speaking speed, the accents of native speakers in authentic listening audios, time limit as well as the quality of audio files were the most problematic Therefore, it is suggested that for low level of students, teachers should be really careful in choosing the audio files which are clear enough and suitable with students' English proficiency in order not to make them demotivated Besides, getting students to watch some interesting videos with subtitles then get them to listen again without subtitles can be another good ways to encourage students to practise listening more outside their classrooms Regarding the listening tasks, as writing tapescripts caused the biggest problems to students and sometimes made them demotivated, it is advisable that teachers use it less regularly and make some adjustment such as changing it into dictation notes to prevent the negative feelings that may arise in students' self-studying process 175(15): 109-114 Advice on tactics for listening and additional help As the appearance of proper names In the sound recordings was reported to be challenging, which often took students much time to figure out because of strange pronunciation, it is advised that these proper nouns be introduced lo students before they the listening Also, it is necessary for teachers to provide some useful techniques for recognizing proper nouns so that students know what to expect when hearing a totally new word Similarly, other tactics applicable to different types of listening task should be introduced to students so that they know what is best to with each type of task Additionally, it is suggested that teachers give full tape scripts and get students to carefully analyze the content as well as to listen a number of times to master the recordings In this way, students know exacdy what they can and can't hear and whether they correctly understand what is communicated in the recordings, which is of great important for their future success in direct communication, CONCLUSION From the data analysis, it is obvious that the implementation of portfolios helps students improve their comprehension and feel more confident with their listening ability, provides a good set of daily expressions and vocabulary which are useful for their real communication Also, thanks to the frequent exposure to various listening activities, students are better at dealing with different types of test question Besides, as part of portfolio intervention's benefit, students develop both their teamworking skill and independence in completing different task, which are necessary for them in their future career Based on the findings, suggestions were also made to improve the use of portfolios for listening skill's enhancement Assigning task on a regular basis, together with a careful selection of recording and listening activities which are suitable for students' certain level, looking for interesting tapes and videos, 113 Ta Thi Mai Huong vd Dig Tgp chi KHOA HOC & CONG NGHE giving clear instructions and getting students familiar with portfolio instructions are essential things that teachers should consider when applying portfolio approach Additional help with listening techniques and tactics are also what teachers should provide to facilitate their students' self-studying process, prevent negative feelings, better motivate students in completing portfolios and gain most benefits REFERENCES Buck, G (2001), Assessing Listening, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Underwood, M (1989), Teaching Listening, New York: Longman O'Malley, J M, & Chamot, A U (1989), Listening comprehension strategies in second language acquisition Applied Linguistics, Vol 10(4), p.420 Shelton, S (2008), "Teaching Listenmg to Advanced Leamers: Problems and Solutions", 175(15): 109-114 reUieved from http ://wvinA' develop in gteachers, com/articles_tchtraining/l ist _scon,hlm Paulson, P.R & Meyer, C A (1991), "What Makes a Portfolio a Portfolio?" Educalioiud Leadership, 48(5), pp.60-63 Rieman, P & Okrasinki, J (2007), Creating your leaching portfolio: Presenting your professional best, Mc Graw-Hill Education Wolf, K & Dietz, M (1998), "Teaching portfolios: Purposes and Possibilities", Teacher Education Quarterly, 25(1), pp,9-22 Le Huong Giang (2010), Using portfolios in teaching listening skill to the first year non-English major students of Accounting Department, Academy of Finance, MA Thesis of TESOL, ULIS Do Van Hoa (2010), Improving listening skilh for third-year students al hong Due University through Portfolio, MA Thesis of TESOL ULIS 10 Nguyen Thuy Trang (2013), A study on the use of portfolios in improving listening skill ofsecondyear students al Hanoi University of Industry, MA Thesis of TESOL ULIS TOM T A T T A C D O N G C i l A V I E C SU" D U N G H O S O B A I T A P L E N SlT P H A T T R I E N K i N A N G N G H E H l £ u C U A S I N H V I E N : N G H I E N C U t J TRUCfNG H O P T A I TRUCfNG D A I H O C K I N H T E VA Q U A N T R I K I N H D O A N H - DAI H O C THAI NGUYEN Ta Thi Mai Hirong , Nguyen Van Thjnh, Nguyen Thj Hanh Hong Truang Dgi hoc Kinh le vd Quan tri kinh doanh - DH Thdi Nguyen Trong xu the loan cau hoa nay, nhQng doi hoi ve nang luc ngoai ngtt doi voi ngu6n nhan lire cang tro nen cap thiet Nham giiip sinh vien dap ung yeu cau chuan dau ve ngogi ngu noi rieng va gop phan phat trien nang luc giao tiep bang ngoai ngu noi chung, giang vien ngogi ngii' truong Dai hoc Kinh te va Quan tri kinh doanh - Dai hpc Thai Nguyen luon tim toi va ap dung phuong phap day hpc hien dai vcti muc lieu toi da hoa hieu qua hoat dong day hpc Trong nghien ciru nay, nhom lac gia tim hieu tac dpng ciia viec sijr dung ho so bai tap viec phat trien kt nang nghe hieu ctia sinh vien, tren co so de xuat cac giai phap sii dung hieu qua ho so bai tap nham phat trien kT nang nghe hieu, gop phan cai thien trinh dp ngogi ngu cho sinh vien nha truimg Tir khoa: ho sa bdi tap, nghe hieu, khd ndng nghe, kl nang giao tiip, tru&ng Dai hgc Kinh le vd Qudn In hnh doanh - Dgi hgc Thdi Nguyin Ngdy nhdn bdi: 16/11/2017; Ngdy phdn biin: 01/12/2017; Ngdy duyit ddng: 29/12/2017 Tei 0983826327; Email: khanhha2710@gmail com 114 ... trien kt nang nghe hieu ctia sinh vien, tren co so de xuat cac giai phap sii dung hieu qua ho so bai tap nham phat trien kT nang nghe hieu, gop phan cai thien trinh dp ngogi ngu cho sinh vien nha... Dgi hoc Kinh le vd Quan tri kinh doanh - DH Thdi Nguyen Trong xu the loan cau hoa nay, nhQng doi hoi ve nang luc ngoai ngtt doi voi ngu6n nhan lire cang tro nen cap thiet Nham giiip sinh vien... trinh dp ngogi ngu cho sinh vien nha truimg Tir khoa: ho sa bdi tap, nghe hieu, khd ndng nghe, kl nang giao tiip, tru&ng Dai hgc Kinh le vd Qudn In hnh doanh - Dgi hgc Thdi Nguyin Ngdy nhdn bdi: