Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS developing compensation strategies in listening for 10th form students at nguyen van cu upper secondary school, gia lam, hanoi

Rationale

English language teaching in the recent years has moved from traditional approaches, involving the explicit teaching of grammar and translation, to various versions of communicative methodology Consequently, a greater emphasis has been placed on learners and what strategies they adopt to be successful Well-known researchers such as Cohen

(1988), O‟Malley and Chamot (1990), and Oxford (1990) have pointed out that learning strategies are among the main factors that help determine how well students learn a second or foreign language Therefore, it is the role of the teacher to help students discover and apply appropriate learning strategies in their learning

The necessary to equip students with listening strategies to help them develop their listening skill at upper-secondary schools in Vietnam can be seen clearly The new series of English textbooks for students have been used in schools in Viet Nam for some years and it seems that listening skill is the most difficult one for our students to master Listening is also the skill that causes a lot of difficulties for teachers to prepare and carry out the lesson because the old textbooks do not have a separate part for teaching and learning listening skill The students who are using the new kind of textbooks often find it hard to catch up with the listening text and as a result they fail to comprehend what is spoken Besides, they come to listening activities with little knowledge of how to listen effectively and successfully The situation at Nguyen Van Cu Upper-secondary School is the same, if not to say it is more serious We have many weak students who lack vocabulary, grammatical knowledge and have poor pronunciation Listening lessons are really hard for them

There is a variety of strategies that can be employed in listening skill such as memory strategies; cognitive strategies; compensation strategies; metacognitive strategies; affective strategies; and social strategies (Oxford, 1990) However, compensation strategies which involve in the ability of guessing intelligently from linguistic clues and other clues are of great help to weak students These strategies help students to overcome their limitations to guess what is heard

The facts above explain the reasons why the researcher conducts the study

“Developing compensation strategies in listening for 10th form students at Nguyen Van Cu upper-secondary school, Gialam, Hanoi” It is hoped that this study can be of some help to teachers and students in listening lessons.

Aims of the study

First of all, the study aims at investigating the perception of compensation strategies in listening by teachers and 10 th form students at Nguyen Van Cu Upper-secondary School; the target students‟ frequency of use of these strategies; and their difficulties and preferences in applying these strategies Secondly, the author intends to propose pedagogical implications and suggestions for developing the target students‟ compensations strategies in listening

To achieve these aims, four research questions have been presented as follows:

1 How do teachers and 10 th form students at NVC School perceive compensation strategies in listening and their importance?

2 How often do 10 th form students at NVC School apply compensation strategies in listening? Which specific strategies do they use?

3 What are the difficulties and preferences of 10 th form students at NVC School in applying compensation strategies in listening?

4 What recommendations should be made for teachers to help 10 th form students at NVC School develop compensation strategies in listening?

Scope of the study

Firstly, this study only focuses on compensation strategies used in listening (guessing intelligently) although the new kind of textbook covers all of four skills, namely reading, speaking, listening and writing as well as there are a lot of English language learning strategies that can be employed

Secondly, due to the small scale of the study the subjects are restricted only to 10 th form teachers and students at Nguyen Van Cu upper-secondary school, who are using the new kind of textbook.

Methods of the study

The author has applied the following methods in this study:

Data collection results from interviews (for teachers), survey questionnaires (for students) and class observations

Data analysis is done through coding, classifying, and reporting the information.

Design of the study

The study is divided into three parts

Part A Introduction shows the research problem and the rationale for the research

Subsequently, it presents the aims, the scope, the methods and the design of the study

Part B Development consists of three chapters

Chapter 1 provides a summary of theoretical background which covers a review in key concepts relating to the research topic as well as the literature in the field

Chapter 2 deals with the setting of the study and the data collection process The results obtained are also analysed and interpreted in this part, so that major findings are revealed and discussed

Chapter 3 is concerned with recommendations for developing 10 th form students‟ compensation strategies in listening at the target school These recommendations are drawn from the literature review and from the findings in Chapter 2

Part C Conclusion reviews the main findings of the study and provides suggestions for further studies

LITERATURE REVIEW

Listening comprehension

Language is the tool of communication, while listening is the most important part of language communication and it is the basic path to understand others Listening is more than merely hearing words and comprehension is often considered to be the first-order goal of listening, and the highest priority of the listener During the last few decades, scholars have been trying to find out the nature of listening comprehension and as a result different definitions of listening comprehension have been proposed

Underwood (1989: 1) puts a simple and easy-to-understand definition According to her, listening “is the activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from something we hear.” Underwoord emphasizes the consciousness of listeners by using the phrase “paying attention” Besides, listening here is not stressed the word level but the meaning of the whole utterance She clarifies that “ to listen successfully to spoken language, we need to be able to work out what speakers mean when they use particular words in particular ways on particular occasions, and not simply understand the words themselves ”

In Rubin‟s point of view, “listening is conceived of as an active process in which listeners select and interpret information which comes from auditory and visual clues in order to define what is going on and what the speakers are trying to express.” (Rubin, 1995: 7 as cited in Helgesen & Brown, 2007: 3) The author emphasizes the activeness of listeners in the listening process and also identifies two distinctive features of listening comprehension which are selecting and interpreting Selecting means listeners use only part of the incoming information whereas interpreting means listeners make sense of the input from their background knowledge as well as the new information

More specifically, Richards and Schmidth (2002: 313) as cited in Helgesen & Brown (2007: 3) views listening comprehension as “the process of understanding speech in a first or second language The study of listening comprehension in second language focuses on the role of individual linguistic units (e.g., phonemes, words, grammatical structures) as well as the role of the listeners’ expectations, the situation and context, background knowledge and topic.” In this definition, the writers mention the role of non-linguistic units such as the views which regard the listeners as tape recorders I agree most with this definition because it covers all of the necessary factors relating to listening comprehension

Besides the controversies over the definition of listening comprehension, there also exist the concerns about the process of listening comprehension

Listening is different from hearing in the aspect of listeners‟ paying attention Paying attention results in the fact that listeners actively process what they hear

According to Underwood (1989: 4) the aural process has three stages Firstly, the

„echoic memory’ takes the sounds for a very short time and classifies them into „meaningful units’ according to the background knowledge of the listener Secondly, the information is processed by the short term memory In a matter of seconds, the meaning is taken out through word-checking and word-comparing (with long term memory information) Finally, the meaning extracted is stored in the long-term memory for the use in the future It can be seen that here Underwood relates the aural process in terms of time and memory The background knowledge of listeners is also mentioned in the listening process

The two fundamental modes of information processing that are widely accepted by researchers such as Rumelhart (1977), Nunan (2001), Flowerder and Miller (2005) are the bottom-up and top-down processing In bottom-up processing, listeners use their linguistic knowledge to form final message Linguistic knowledge includes sounds, words, grammatical relationships, lexical meanings In other words, “bottom-up processing is trying to make sense of what we hear by focusing on the different parts: the vocabulary, the grammar or functional phrases, sounds, etc.” (Helgesen & Brown, 2007: 6) On the contrary, Nauman (2002: 25) illustrates that top-down processes “focus on the overall meaning of a passage and the application of schemata Schemata are mental frameworks based on past experiences which can be applied to and help us interpret the current situation.” In top-down processing, listeners use their prior knowledge to generate hypothesis Prior-knowledge includes topic of the listening material, context of the listening material, culture of the listening material, text type of the listening material It is important for both teachers and students to recognize the existence of these two types of processing listening input as they both contribute to the development of listening skill

However, bottom-up processing and top-down processing as well has its weak points

Bottom-up processing fails to see that understanding a text does not only depend on one‟s linguistic knowledge It is also an interactive process between the listener‟s previous knowledge and the text Top-down processing cannot evoke listeners‟ schemata if the incoming information they hear is unfamiliar to them Besides, although listeners can trigger a schema, they might not have the suitable schema expected by the speaker Therefore, one of listening teacher‟s jobs is to help students learn to balance the two kinds of processing

Because neither bottom-up process nor top-down process alone is sufficient for comprehension, “these two processing intersect to develop an interactive processing.” (Wu, 2008: 23) In the interactive process listeners use both prior knowledge and linguistic knowledge in understanding messages The degree to which listeners use the one process or the other will depend on their knowledge of the language, familiarity with the topic or the purpose for listening

Understanding how listeners process listening comprehension will provide students and teachers with a lot of ideas to listen more effectively It is also necessary to consider the possible problems students often encounter in learning to listen to English

1.1.3 Possible problems in listening comprehension

Listening is usually a hard skill to master in one‟s own language as well as in second language acquisition There exist some problems from the point of views of the listeners when learning to listen

Ur (1996: 111) refers to six major problems in listening comprehension which are difficulties in perceiving sounds, following natural speed and native accent, catching up with the load of information as well as the needs to understand everything, to get things repeated, and to have a rest Trouble with sounds seems to be the biggest problem as most students have difficulty catching the actual sounds of the foreign language The misconception that listening means having to understand every word is a very common problem and is often unconsciously fostered by teachers and/ or listening materials The effort to understand everything results in ineffective comprehension as well as feelings of fatigue and failure The speed of the speakers also causes many difficulties to students because they cannot hear the sounds clearly when dealing with fast and natural native-sounding speech

Underwood (1989: 16) shares some of the main points with Ur about problems in listening comprehension She states seven problems which include “lack of control over the speed at which speakers speak”, “not being able to get things repeated”, “the listener’s limited vocabulary”, “failure to recognise signals”, “problems of interpretation”, “inability to concentrate”, and “established learning habits ” Lack of vocabulary is really an obstacle for people listening to a foreign language since they can sometimes hear the words clearly, but the problem may occur in understanding the meanings of the words they do not know An unknown word can be like a suddenly dropped barrier causing them to stop and think about the meaning of the word and thus making them miss the next part of the speech Besides,

“established learning habits” mean students are traditionally taught to understand everything in the English lessons by listening carefully to teachers who probably speak slowly and clearly As a result, students become worried and discouraged if they fail to understand every word while listening

Yagang (1993: 1) provides a little bit different point of view when saying that “The evidence that shows why listening is difficult comes mainly from four sources: the message to be listened to, the speaker, the listener, and the physical setting.” The message is considered in terms of the content (topic, organization …) and linguistic features (liaisons, elision …)

The speaker factor includes redundancy, speaker‟s voice, accent and speech style The listener factor involves in linguistic knowledge, background knowledge, exposure to different kinds of listening materials, psychological and physical factors The physical setting consists of background noises, visual and aural environmental clues, etc

Language learning strategies

Research on LLS has been a growth area since 1970s, when the emphasis on teachers and teaching shifted to the learners and learning Different researchers have presented their definitions of this term differently

Learning strategies in the view of O‟Malley and Chamot are “the special thoughts or behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn or retain new information.”

(O‟Malley and Chamot, 1990: 1) LLS in this definition are emphasised as cognitive skills, which relate to being in a state of conscious intellectual activity

Cohen defines LLS as the “processes which are consciously selected by learners and which may result in action taken to enhance the learning or use of a second or foreign language, through the storage, retention, recall, and application of information about that language” (Cohen, 1998: 4) Cohen emphasises that students consciously select these processes but in fact there may be strategies students take unconsciously

According to Oxford, LLS are “specific actions, behaviours, steps, or techniques that students (often intentionally) use to improve their progress in developing L2 skills These strategies can facilitate the internalization, storage, retrieval, or use of the new language

Strategies are tools for the self-directed involvement necessary for developing communicative ability” (Oxford, 1992/1993:18 as cited in Nguyen (2007: 6)) This definition is clear, moderate and reflects the nature of LLS LLS here are learner generated (taken by students); they enhance language learning and help develop language competence, they may be visible (behaviours, steps, techniques, etc.) or unseen (thoughts, mental processes) The definition of Oxford, an expert in LLS research, will be applied in this study due to its comprehensiveness

This definition also serves as guideline for the classification of LLS in the following part

1.2.2 Classification of language learning strategies

Oxford (1990: 16 - 22) classifies second LLS into two major classes: Direct Strategies (strategies which directly involve the subject matter) and Indirect Strategies (strategies which do not directly involve the subject matter itself, but are essential to language learning) Direct Strategies are classified into memory strategies; cognitive strategies; and compensation strategies Indirect strategies include metacognitive strategies; affective strategies; and social strategies

4 Creating structures for input and output V Affective Strategies

2 Overcoming limitations in speaking and writing VI Social Strategies

Table 1: Classification of language learning strategies (adapted from Oxford, 1990)

Memory strategies help learners link one second language item or concept with another but do not necessarily involve deep understanding Various memory strategies enable learners to learn and retrieve information in an orderly string (e.g., acronyms), while other techniques create learning and retrieval via sounds (e.g., rhyming), images (e.g., a mental picture of the word itself or the meaning of the word), a combination of sounds and images (e.g., the keyword method), body movement (e.g., total physical response), mechanical means (e.g., flashcards), or location (e.g., on a page or blackboard)

Cognitive strategies enable the learner to manipulate the language material in direct ways, e.g., through reasoning, analysis, note-taking, summarizing, synthesizing, outlining, reorganizing information to develop stronger schemas (knowledge structures), practicing in naturalistic settings, and practicing structures and sounds formally

Compensation strategies (e.g., guessing from the context in listening and reading; using synonyms and “talking around” the missing word to aid speaking and writing; and strictly for speaking, using gestures or pause words) help the learner make up for missing knowledge

Metacognitive strategies (e.g., identifying one‟s own learning style preferences andneeds, planning for a second language task, gathering and organizing materials, arranging a study space and a schedule, monitoring mistakes, and evaluating task success, and evaluating the success of any type of learning strategy) are employed for managing the learning process

Affective strategies, such as identifying one‟s mood and anxiety level, talking about feelings, rewarding oneself for good performance, and using deep breathing, have been shown to be significantly related to second language proficiency

Social strategies (e.g., asking questions to get verification, asking for clarification of a confusing point, asking for help in doing a language task, talking with a native-speaking conversation partner, and exploring cultural and social norms) help the learner work with others and understand the target culture as well as the language

Oxford‟s classification is appropriate since it covers fully LLS, from direct strategies to indirect ones It is a combination of the strategy classification systems by different experts such as Rubin (1987), Chamot and O‟Malley (1990) It is more comprehensive and detailed, and more accessible for readers because the strategies are organized hierarchically However, there is some overlap among sub-strategies in Oxford‟s classification

1.2.3 The importance of language learning strategies for students

LLS can enable students to become more independent, autonomous, lifelong learners (Allwright, 1990; Little, 1991 as cited in Oxford (2003: 9)) Students are freer to act, and to make their own decision and able to learn continuously and permanently thanks to appropriate LLS Besides, a study by O'Malley and Chamot (1990) also suggests that effective second language/ foreign language learners are aware of the LLS they use and why they use them

LLS “make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations” (Oxford, 1990: 8) Oxford (1990: 1) argues that strategies are important for two reasons In the first place, strategies “are tools for active, self

– directed involvement, which is essential for developing communicative competence”

Secondly, learners who have developed appropriate learning strategies have greater self – confidence and learn more effectively According to Oxford (1990: 9), LLS:

- contribute to the main goal, communicative competence

- allow learners to become more self – directed

- expand the role of teachers

- support learning both directly and indirectly However, the effectiveness of LLS “may depend largely on the characteristics of the given learner, the given language structure(s), the given context, or the interaction of these”

(Cohen, 1998:12) For beginning and intermediate language learners, compensation strategies may be among the most important ones (Oxford, 1990: 90).

Compensation strategies in listening

For purposes of this study and for ease of discussion, the term “compensation strategies”, one type of LLS, as Oxford (1990) proposes, will be used in this paper

Compensation strategies are classified as one of the direct strategies in Oxford‟s classification Learners use compensation strategies for comprehension of the target language when they have insufficient knowledge of the target language In other words, compensation strategies are needed to fill any gaps in the knowledge of the language When learners do not know new words and expressions, they guess the meaning Learners bring their own life experience to interpret data by guessing

Compensation strategies are also divided into two strategy sub-groups: Guessing intelligently and Overcoming limitations Oxford proposes to use the acronym GO to remember these two strategy sub-groups when stating that “language learners can GO far with compensation strategies” (Oxford, 1990: 90) Each of these strategy sub-groups consists of some specific strategies as shown in the following table:

1 Guessing intelligently a Using linguistic clues Listening, Reading b Using other clues Listening, Reading

2 Overcoming limitations in speaking and writing c Using mother tongue for an expression without translating it

Speaking d Getting help Speaking e Using mime or gestures Speaking f Avoiding communication Speaking, Writing g Selecting the topic Speaking, Writing h Adjusting/ Approximating the message

Speaking, Writing i Coining words Speaking, Writing j Using a circumlocution or synonym Speaking, Writing

Table 2: Classification of compensation strategies (adapted from Oxford, 1990)

As can be seen from Table 2, compensation strategies in listening are accompanied with guessing intelligently:

- Using linguistic clues: Listeners can use such clues as prefixes, suffixes, word order, stress, intonation, etc to guess the meaning of unfamiliar language items they hear In order to do so, they need to have sufficient knowledge of the target language

- Using other clues: Listeners can rely on clues from other sources such as visual clues, situational context, background knowledge, text structure, etc to make guesses about what is heard

Compensation strategies in listening is the combination of both bottom-up and top- down processing as listeners have to employ all available information from linguistic knowledge to background knowledge to understand the message

1.3.2 The importance of compensation strategies in listening

Willing (1989: 130) confirms that “the importance of willing and accurate guessing has long been recognized by language teachers everywhere” Compensation strategies in listening (guessing intelligently) can be of great help to students in general and beginning and intermediate students in particular because they allow students to comprehend the new language despite their gaps in knowledge All effective listening involves guesswork because listeners (even native speakers) often miss some words when listening and speakers can never be completely explicit or clear about their meaning It is always better to find ways to construct meaning rather than give up; to try to build meaning based on what you understand than to worry about what you do not understand Compensation strategies in listening provide ways for listeners not to guess blindly but to make intelligent guesses basing on clues „inside‟ and „outside‟ language If used successfully, compensation strategies can help students overcome knowledge limitations when they do not hear something clearly or they cannot catch all the words

Compensation strategies have been among the listening strategies with highest frequent use A study on listening comprehension strategies of Taiwan students by Teng (1998) indicated that among the six strategy categories, compensation strategies were most often employed by subjects Vu (2004) studied listening strategies of the students at an university in Vietnam and concluded that compensation strategies were most highly employed

Monolingual Korean students are reported to use compensation strategies most in a study by Leavell & Hong-nam (2007)

Compensation strategies, along with other listening strategies, serve as effective tools for listeners in the listening comprehension process “Learners who are aware of a range of strategies, and who are able to match their strategies to their listening purposes, will be better listeners and better learners” (Nunan as cited in Helgesen & Brown, 2007: 147) It is of vital importance that our students be taught to listen effectively and critically

1.3.3 Guidelines on applying compensation strategies in listening

These guidelines are constructed according to a lot of ideas from Oxford‟s Strategy Inventory of Language Learning (Oxford, 1990), other researchers, language teachers and my own experience They are also applied in my survey to investigate students‟ current application of compensation strategies in listening

- Using grammatical clues (part of speech, prefixes, suffixes …) to guess the unfamiliar language items in the listening passage

- Using background knowledge to guess the meaning of the listening

- Using the words and phrases surrounding the unknown word to make quick guesses about its general meaning

- Using the titles, subtitles, pictures, diagrams accompanying the listening task to understand the topic/ content of the listening

- Using phonological clues (intonation, stress …) to guess the meaning of the listening

- Using clues from discourse markers (markers of addition/ cause and effect/ sequences/

…) to guess the meaning of the listening

- Using clues from body language of speakers to guess the meaning of the listening

- Using clues from background noises to guess the meaning of the listening

- Writing down the transcript for the word that listeners do not remember the spelling in doing gap-filling exercises

This chapter has provided an overview of definitions of key terms such as listening comprehension, LLS, and compensation strategies It also deals with the listening comprehension process, classification of LLS, the importance of LLS in general and compensation strategies in listening in particular Finally, guidelines on applying compensation strategies in listening have been proposed

It can be seen that there have been quite a lot of studies related to compensation strategies in listening However, these studies spend only a small part on compensation strategies because they focus on a variety of listening strategies Besides, there is little information about ways to help students develop compensation strategies This is the gap that the current thesis study tries to bridge By using Oxford‟s and some other researchers‟ ideas about compensation strategies in listening, this study hopes to add further evidence to the small but growing body of research on this topic.

DATA COLLECTION, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

Data collection

Nguyen Van Cu Upper-Secondary School (NVC School) is located in Gia Lam district, the suburb of Hanoi It has had a history of 33-year development since its foundation in 1977

In the school year 2009 - 2010, our school has 32 classes with more than 1,500 students, so there are about 47 students in a class One thing worth to note here is that the entry level of students entering NVC School is not very high They mostly come from rural areas where English teaching and learning has not been paid much attention Besides, NVC School shares common features with classrooms elsewhere in Vietnam: large size, students sitting in rows of four each and irremovable furniture

English is taught here as a compulsory curriculum subject like other upper-secondary schools Students have three periods of English a week and each period lasts 45 minutes The new textbook of English 10, English 11, and English 12 aims at enabling the students to communicate in the target language with four language skills There are 16 units in a textbook, and each unit is divided into 5 parts: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Language Focus

There are two reasons why this study aims at 10 th form teachers and students at NVC School Firstly, the 10 th form students are the newcomers to the new kind of textbooks for upper-secondary schools in which listening is stressed equally to other three skills Secondly, the students are at pre-intermediate level for which compensation strategies are of great help as these strategies help them overcome knowledge limitations

There are five out of eight teachers of English at NVC School participating in this study

These five teachers include one male and four females Their ages range from 26 to 33 with at least four years of teaching English One of them has finished an M.A course at Vietnam National University, Hanoi The reason for this choice of participants is that they are all in charge of 10 th form classes at NVC School

The samples of students here are restricted to four 10 th form classes (among eleven 10 th form classes at NVC School) These four classes, which were chosen randomly, account for

180 students They are aged from 15 to 16 and all of them have had at least four years of learning English at lower-secondary schools They are not the same at English speaking competence Some of them are really good and active while a lot of them are quite passive and unmotivated in learning English

The process of collecting data was carried out in the following steps:

Firstly, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five teachers to obtain their attitudes towards compensation strategies in listening

Secondly, the author observed two classes of listening to get some more detailed information

Thirdly, the questionnaires were distributed to 180 students to investigate their attitudes towards compensation strategies in listening, the frequency of use of these strategies and their difficulties and preferences

The interviews in this study serve as a useful tool to invest the teachers‟ perception and evaluation of compensation strategies in listening They also aim at seeking information about some points related to developing students‟ compensation strategies in listening

Each interview consists of two parts: the first one for personal information and the second one for the content information The number of prepared questions for the content information is eight The interviews are semi-structured, which means there is “a prompt which requests certain information but the exact shape of the response is not predetermined”

(Cohen, 1989: 28) In the interviews, the author can sometimes add some explanation as well as ask for some more detailed information

The one-on-one interviews were conducted in Vietnamese and in informal ways so that the teachers were able to express their ideas freely It was lucky that all of the teachers were very enthusiastic in participating in the interviews The method of recording information was note-taking Then the interviews were translated into English for analysis

The method of class observation is used not to investigate the compensation strategies applied by students since guessing skill is mentalistic and not behavioristic Instead, it intends to address the ways in which the teachers help students to develop compensation strategies in listening

Two classes of listening which were observed were Unit 15 - Listening, Unit 16 - Listening in English 10 During observations, the researcher was an observer and did not take part in any classroom activity The observer took notes focusing on techniques that the teachers help students to develop compensation strategies in listening

The major means of data collection is the questionnaires for students Each questionnaire is constructed from two parts: part A for personal information and part B for content information Part B is divided into three small sections, namely B1, B2, and B3 B1 consists of five yes/no questions in order to find out students‟ perception and evaluation of compensation strategies in listening B2 includes eight questions to investigate students‟ degree of frequency in using specific strategies of compensation strategies in listening These questions are adapted from Oxford‟s Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (1990) and some other ideas Students answered each item statement using a 5-point Likert-scale that ranged from 1 (Never) through 5 (Always) B3 is made up from two multiple choice questions and its purpose is addressing students‟ difficulties and preferences in applying compensation strategies Students can choose more than one option in this part

The questionnaire questions were worded carefully and translated into Vietnamese to make it easy for the students The questionnaires were also piloted with the help of three students before delivering to the large number The specific strategies are carefully illustrated with examples, so students can clearly understand them and increase the accuracy of their responses The students were encouraged to share their ideas frankly and accurately, i.e representing what they actually do rather than what they should be doing Besides, the questionnaire papers were collected anonymously in order that students can freely express their ideas.

Findings and discussions

The data from questionnaire were keyed into the computer and analyzed by using EXCEL Descriptive statistics, including frequencies, means, standard deviations and percentages, were implemented in order to investigate the use of language learning strategies

Besides, information from interviews and class observation was also synthesized and interpreted

2.2.1 Teachers’ perception and evaluation of compensation strategies in listening

In general, three out of five teachers in the interviews were aware of the concept

“listening strategies” As adapted from Oxford‟s definition of language leaning strategies, listening strategies can be defined as “specific behaviors or thought processes” that students use to enhance their learning listening comprehension Listening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension and recall of listening input Three teachers shared the same concept For example, Teacher 3 stated that “listening strategies are techniques and skills that listeners use to listen more effectively.” However, two teachers still had vague ideas of “listening strategies” when they considered listening strategies as listening for general or specific information

In term of the concept “compensation strategies in listening”, four out of the five teachers admitted that they had never heard of this one However, when the interviewer replaced this concept with “guessing intelligently in listening” they all stated the familiarity

Teacher 1 emphasized that “guessing skill in listening helps students get the answers and comprehend the listening although they do not catch all the words” Although all the teachers reported to be familiar with “guessing intelligently in listening”, results from the interviews indicated they did not have a full understanding of this strategy They all thought of guessing strategy as guessing the answers from the topic and the key words of the listening For example, Teacher 2 explained that “students can base on instructions and key words of tasks in listening to guess the meaning” Only one teacher (Teacher 5) added the background knowledge factor as a guessing clue It is shown that the teachers were not fully aware of the detailed system of specific techniques in guessing intelligently in listening (as mentioned in the guidelines in Chapter 1 Literature Review)

Some information from class observations has validated the above finding In two classes of Unit 15 – Listening and Unit 16 – Listening, the teachers often asked students some information relating to the topic of the listening and helped students identify the key words of the questions or the statements provided before students listened

To answer the question “What do you think about the importance of compensation strategies in facilitating your students’ listening comprehension?” all five teachers emphasized the importance of compensation strategies in listening lessons Teacher 2 confirmed that “guessing intelligently is very important to students’ listening comprehension

It can make up for 50 percent of the success of listening” Teacher 4 explained that “guessing skill helps students orient the listening information” Teacher 5 added a very interesting idea that students‟ implementation of guessing skill “helps lessons not to be overloaded”

As a result of the approval of the significance of compensation strategies, teaching compensation strategies in listening have been done by all of the five teachers interviewed

They reported that they usually help students develop these strategies by “introducing the topic and providing necessary vocabulary” (Teacher 1), “asking students to scan the tasks and identify key words” (Teacher 2), “asking students to predict the answers before listening” or

“to predict the content of the listening” (Teacher 3 & 4), and “helping students to see the differences among options in the answers” (Teacher 5) Two class observations also showed the teachers‟ efforts of helping students to guess intelligently However, these techniques are not enough to develop a full system of specific compensation strategies in listening for students because they only concentrate on some clues such as the topic and the key words

In conclusion, the five teachers at NVC School held some understanding of compensation strategies in listening but they failed to reach a full knowledge of the specific strategies The reason for this limited knowledge lies in the fact that compensation strategies in listening have not been properly investigated and introduced to English teachers and learners Besides, all five teachers in this study acknowledged the importance of compensation strategies in listening to students By this, they all meant the necessity of teaching compensation strategies in listening to students However, they need to be equipped with more useful techniques to help students develop guessing strategies effectively

2.2.2 Students’ perception and evaluation of compensation strategies in listening

Most of the students in the survey (84%) admitted that they had never heard of the term “listening strategies” This term seemed to be quite new to them because even not all of the teachers were aware of this concept (as mentioned in the previous part) and some teachers taught listening strategies without naming them Moreover, students can employ listening strategies consciously and unconsciously, which means that students can exploit the strategies with or without being aware of them

The concept of “compensation strategies in listening”, therefore, was explained with the term “guessing intelligently in listening” to make it easier for students as well as to collect the reliable data More than half of the students, namely 56%, reported that they were familiar with “guessing intelligently in listening” Guessing skill seems to be very natural to people, even in mother tongue However, the ability to guess intelligently requires a lot of practice

The students who reported their familiarity may know some ways to guess but they still need a lot of practice to be intelligent guessers In the two classes of listening observed, the correct guesses students made accounted for only about 50%

It is noted that a very large number of students appreciate compensation strategies in listening 88% of the informants thought that compensation strategies are important in facilitating their listening comprehension This revelation matched Oxford‟s evaluation of compensation strategies in listening when she stated that they were among the most important strategies for beginning and intermediate students (Oxford, 1990: 90) As a result, 85% of the students agreed on the necessity of teaching compensation strategies in listening classes It is possible to meet the students‟ need since a lot of researchers have agreed that learning strategies can be taught through strategy training

These above figures showed that the students have recognized the importance of these strategies and are willing to learn them However, only 42% of the students claimed that they had ever been taught compensation strategies in listening It contradicted with teachers‟ responses that they usually taught these strategies in class This contradiction can be explained that teachers often taught these strategies implicitly so students were not aware of this teaching

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DEVELOPING COMPENSATION

Raising awareness of compensation strategy training

Oxford (1990: 202) describes awareness training as a programme in which participants become aware of and familiar with the general idea of language learning strategies and the way such strategies can help them accomplish various language tasks She also notes that if teachers “explain how using good strategies can make language learning easier, students will even be more interested in participating in strategy training.”

Chen (2005:16) in a study about barriers to acquiring listening strategies for EFL learners found that “some learners considered strategies as the last priority in improving listening comprehension, and believed that other language skills such as vocabulary or grammar development were more important With this belief, learners were prevented from realizing the potential that listening strategies could provide as a compensation for their inadequate language proficiency” In other words, the unawareness of listening strategies acted as a barrier for students to develop the strategies

The results of this study showed that both teachers and students at NVC School had not had adequate knowledge about listening strategies in general and compensation strategies in particular Therefore, the value and power of compensation strategies needs to be made explicit to both the target teachers and students Firstly, the teachers themselves have to improve their knowledge of compensation strategies in listening Secondly, the teachers need to make students aware of guessing strategies in listening and their importance This can be done at the beginning lessons of 10 th forms students For example, in Unit 1 – A Day in the Life of , the teachers can introduce some guessing strategies such as using background knowledge about a daily life of a cyclo driver, using the pictures in the textbook to predict the information After that, the teachers confirm the helpfulness of these strategies in facilitating the listening comprehension process.

Integrating strategy training into the lessons

The strict division of the new textbooks at upper-secondary schools spares no extra time for teaching listening strategies separately It is also noted that compensation strategies can be applied in all of the listening lessons of the new textbook English 10 As a result, teachers should integrate the strategy training into the lessons The teaching of the listening lessons can be parallel with the teaching of the compensation strategies

The general steps of strategy training are strategic awareness, modelling, practicing, and evaluating strategy use The application of strategic awareness and modelling can take place at the pre-listening stage when the teachers introduce and demonstrate the strategies The practicing process is carried out both in the pre-listening stage and while-listening stage The evaluation of the strategies is often done in the post-listening stage

A suggested lesson of integrating strategy training: Unit 7 – The Mass Media is provided at the Appendixes.

Teaching basic grammatical rules and phonological rules

The knowledge of grammatical rules and phonological rules plays an important part in helping students have correct guesses in listening The results of this study showed that the target students did not employ grammatical clues and phonological clues frequently and they really longed for the teaching of some basic grammatical rules and phonological clues

The ability to understand grammatical signals include parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, plural of nouns: books, churches, possessive of nouns: man‟s, men‟s; prefixes such as “un, dis, re, im…”, suffixes such as “ful, less, er, …”; etc These clues help students predict the words they are going to hear or have the best choice among different options they may hear In other words, they are useful triggers for guessing the intended meaning of the speech The teachers should choose the appropriate linguistic knowledge in each lesson to introduce to students In gap-filling exercises, students should be guided to identify the parts of speech or the form of the missing words, so they can have some clues to guess the words For example, in Unit 5 – Technology and You, the teachers can instruct students to use grammatical rules to guess the missing words: (1) is a past form verb, (2) may be an adverb, (3) is a past form verb, (4) is a singular noun, (5) is a noun

He was very helpful He (1) me to sit down in front of the computer screen I did not know what it was called When I asked him what it was, he said that it was a VDU I (2) _ didn’t know what a VDU was, but I was too shy to ask him anymore From that moment my memory (3) to learn because I really didn’t understand at all After a few lessons I began to fell tired I made an (4) , saying that I had a headache I suggested we should leave the lesson for another day Since then I haven’t said (5) _ about the computer to my son and my secretary

The students also should understand phonological rules such as the stress, rhythm and intonation of the words and sentences in the speech in order to get rid of the listening barriers in phonetics The ability to identify the intonational devices of English consists of rising intonation, falling intonation, stressed words versus unstressed words, in the length of pauses, etc These clues may help students guess the intended meaning of the listening, for example, the knowledge of word stress in a sentence helps students direct their attention to important words and therefore can guess the meaning of the listening The intonations are also important indicators of meanings These clues also help students predict what they are going to hear, for example, Ur (1984: 139) explains that stress on a particular word in the first part of an utterance is often explained or clarified by a comment in the second

“She wore a RED dress …” (“she didn‟t wear a blue one”)

“I didn‟t see HARRY …” (“I saw Tom”)

In Unit 13 – Films and Cinema, students are asked to take notes of Huong‟s and Lan‟s plans for the following week Students should be instructed to pay attention to stressed words to guess the information:

Lan: Hi, Huong Titanic is on at Thang Tam Cinema next week Can you go with me on Wednesday?

Huong: Wednesday? Sorry Lan I have lots of work to do during the day and I’m going to the singing club at night Can we go on Thursday, instead?

Lan: I don’t think so I’m going to visit my grandparents on Thursday

Huong: Well, what about Monday? I suppose you are free on Monday

Lan: No, sorry I’m going to see a play with Tuyet on Monday What about Friday?

Huong: Sorry Lan Friday is not a good time for me I’m taking Chinese classes on Fridays

How does your weekend look like, Lan?

Lan: Um , I’m busy on Saturday But I’m free the whole day Sunday

Huong: I’m going on a picnic to Hoa Lu with some of my friends on Sunday I’ll be back late at night

Lan: Well I guess that we just leave Uh, wait a second, what day are we both free, Huong?

Teaching discourse marker clues

Using discourse maker clues was reported as one of the two strategies of low use by the 10 th form students at NVC School whereas these clues are really of great help for students to guess the meaning of the listening Effective listeners can follow spoken discourse when they recognize key signal expressions such as the following:

►Example words: for example, for instance, thus, in other words, as an illustration Usually found in: generalization plus example (but may be found in enumeration and argumentation)

►Time word: first, second, third, meanwhile, next, finally, at last, today, tomorrow, soon Usually found in: narration, chronological patterns, directions (and whenever events or examples are presented in a time sequence)

► Addition words: in addition, also, furthermore, moreover, another example Usually found in: Enumeration, description, and sometimes-in generalization plus example

►Result words: as a result, so, accordingly, therefore, thus Usually found in: Cause and effect

► Contrast words: however, but, in contrast, on the other hand, nevertheless Usually found in: comparison and contrast (and whenever speaker makes a comparison or contrast in another pattern) (Devine, 1982:24)

The teachers should select the appropriate discourse markers in each lesson to present to the students For example, in Unit 9 – Undersea World, the teachers can introduce some discourse markers: for example, due to, however, such as

Whales are mammals that live their entire lives in the water Some whales are huge The blue whale, for example, grows to 30 metres in length and over 200 tons in weight It is the largest animal that has ever lived on earth Whales may also be the most intelligent animals in the ocean Whales like to feed in the cold oceans where there is a lot of krill – their favourite food

Cold waters in the North and South Atlantic Ocean and the North and South Pacific are good feeding grounds for whales Some whales are to known to migrate into warm waters to bear their calves Whale populations decrease quickly due to heavy hunting pressure Conservation groups have asked the International Whaling Commission to stop most whaling However, Native American hunters, such as the Eskimos, are still allowed to hunt a limited number of whales to feed their communities If no effective measures were taken to protect whales, these wonderful animals would disappear forever.

Exploiting background knowledge

Using background knowledge clues were employed at medium level by students in the survey However, still 49% of the students voted for the exploitation of background knowledge before listening The teachers in the interviews commented that students lacked background knowledge to make guesses The class observations also shared the same result

As a result, students need to be activated their prior knowledge to guess the answers effectively This belongs to top-down processing strategies

Before listening, students need assistance to activate what they already know about the ideas they are going to hear Discussion and prediction before listening build up the students‟ expectations for the coming passage Teachers can ask students some questions related to the topic or let students discuss the topic before listening The important thing is calling for the participation of as many students as possible, so students can help each other to compensate their lack of background knowledge For example, in Unit 10 – Conservation, the topic of the listening text is “a forest fire”, the teacher can ask students to discuss the following questions:

What may cause a forest fire?

In which season do forest fires usually happen?

How does a forest fire spread?

What can we do to put out a forest fire?

In addition, from students‟ background knowledge, they can predict the key words that may appear in the listening text This will narrow down the things students expect to hear Here is an example In Unit 7 – The Mass Media, students are supposed to listen to a piece of radio news about “heavy rain” The teacher can ask students to find the key words that may appear and students can easily find the words such as “flood, cloudy, rise, bad weather”

To help students have more background knowledge, before the listening lessons the teacher can ask students to prepare the information at home For example, before Unit 14 – The World Cup, students may be asked to gather information about Pele, the football player that will be focussed in the listening text.

Recalling key words and structures

The results of the survey revealed that 92% of the students preferred to be recalled important words and structures Therefore, it is important to find good ways to make use of these words and structures

The listening lessons in the new textbook English 10 always provide some new and important words in the listening texts The teacher can use these words or can modify them to suit students‟ level by removing or adding some words The teacher can also pick up some key structures from the listening text to introduce to students If the teacher just gives the meaning of the new words and structures, he/she may be wasting this resource These key words and structures not only help students comprehend the listening text better but also help them to predict the meaning of listening

For example, in Unit 6 – An Excursion, students are provided with some words such as

“glorious, delicious, guitar, left-overs, Botanical Garden” After introducing these words, the teacher can ask students some questions:

Where did they go for the picnic?

What was the weather like?

Students can easily answer these questions from the key words provided Then they will build a schema in their mind and it will facilitate the listening process.

Making full use of visual aids

The visual clues were applied the most frequently by the target students in this study

However, this fact does not mean the students used these clues very effectively The teachers still need to help students make full use of the visual aids provided in the textbook or the ones designed by the teachers

The teachers can create a lot of activities to develop students‟ guessing strategies in listening such as describing the images, ordering the pictures, eliciting important words from the visual aids, matching the pictures and the information, identifying the differences between two pictures.

Providing pairwork and groupwork

A majority of the target students in this study showed their preferences to work in pairs or groups when learning compensation strategies in listening Nauman (2002: 28) also stated that students may be more willing to make guesses “if they do not need to put their ideas before the entire class” Thus, it may be wise to have students verbalize the ideas with a partner, which can help them gain ideas from one another and think more broadly Students can be asked to work in pairs or groups to make guesses before listening or to check the guesses after listening Another interesting idea from Djiwandono (2006) is students‟ sharing the strategies they employed during the listening Students will tell each other what strategies they used to guess the spoke message and why they used these strategies This cooperative listening technique allows weak students to learn from more able students how to guess strategically and effectively It also helps teachers understand clearly the guessing strategies the students used, and the students can confirm or enhance the effectiveness of their guessing strategies.

Giving encouragement

The findings from Chen‟s study (2005) indicate that negative affective influences, such as anxiety, distress, frustration, resistance, and so forth, might distract learners from learning the target strategies 51% of the students in this study also admitted that the lack of interest and confidence was their difficulty in leaning compensation strategies in listening As a result, it is very important for students to have a good psychological state while listening Meanwhile, they should realize the difficulty So students should have a strong perseverance on it and build up confidence to overcome difficulties, and never be afraid of it The 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‟ find out how they did and how they are progressing Listening lessons should teach students to listen, not always test students‟ listening ability.

Providing a variety of listening tasks

A variety of listening tasks can motivate students more as well as create more chances to help students develop different sub-strategies of guessing The teachers can use the tasks in the textbook, or modify them, or remove them and add some more tasks

The main tasks in the listening lessons of course are the tasks provided in the textbook such as Marking true/ false statements, Filling in the gaps, Answering the questions, and Taking notes Teachers should ask students to predict the answers for these tasks before listening and train them to use the appropriate guessing clues

In addition, the teachers can create some small activities to help students develop guessing ability These activities should be short and contribute to the goal of the main listening tasks An effective method to train students‟ guessing ability is that we play a short conversation or a passage, give pauses in the middle, and ask students to guess who the speakers are, where the conversation takes place, what the speakers talk about and what the speaker‟s attitude This activity can be employed in Unit 2 – School talks where students are provided with four small conservations Another activity suggested by Ji (2003) is letting students listen to the first sentence (usually the topic sentence) and then stop the tape and students are asked to discuss the sentence and predict the next one For example, in Unit 14 – The World Cup, from the first sentence “Pele is considered one of the greatest football players of all time”, students can predict they are going to talk about Pele‟s life such as his date of birth, his scores, his clubs, etc Or the teachers can provide the first part of a sentence and ask students to predict the second one basing on grammar structures, collocations, idioms, or background knowledge In Unit 9 – Undersea world, students may be given the first half “If no effective measures were taken to protect whales …” and they can predict the second half such as “they would disappear” or “they would become extinct”

This chapter has discussed some recommendations to develop compensation strategies for 10th form students at NVC School The recommendations include raising awareness of compensation strategy training; integrating strategy training into the lessons; teaching basic grammatical rules and phonological rules; teaching discourse marker clues; exploiting background knowledge; recalling key words and structures; making full use of visual aids; providing pairwork and groupwork; giving encouragement; and providing a variety of listening tasks The next and last chapter will conclude the main contents of the study and review its limitations and suggestions for further research

Conclusion

This minor thesis “Developing compensation strategies in listening for 10th form students at Nguyen Van Cu upper-secondary school, Gialam, Hanoi” initiated from the facts that language learning strategies have been proved to be of great help to EFL learners and the students at NVC school have faced a lot of difficulties in listening lessons

To have a thorough understanding of the problem, the study has reviewed some key concepts such as listening comprehension, listening comprehension process, the possible problems in listening comprehension, language learning strategies and their importance

Specially, the basic ideas of Oxford (1990) about taxonomies of LLS have been adopted The study has also presented the definition, the importance of compensation strategies in listening as well as the guidelines on applying compensation strategies in listening

The main objectives of this study were to examine the target teachers‟ and students‟ perception and evaluation of compensation strategies in listening; to investigate the students‟ application of compensation strategies in listening and their difficulties and preferences The data was collected from interviews, classroom observations and questionnaires The major findings are summarized as the following:

First of all, the target teachers and students all realized the importance of compensation strategies in listening but their understanding of the issue was deficient

Secondly, the 10 th form students at NVC School mainly applied compensation strategies in listening at medium and low levels of frequency The two most commonly used sub-strategies were using titles and visual clues and using background knowledge clues The two unpopular sub-strategies were using phonological clues and using discourse marker clues

Thirdly, students had the most difficulties in understanding and using phonological rules and grammatical rules In addition, the majority of the students showed their preferences for working in pairs/ groups and recalling important words/ structures

From the findings of the data analysis and the literature review, the study has proposed some implications for developing compensation strategies in listening for 10 th form students at NVC School The implications include raising awareness of compensation strategy training, integrating strategy training into the lessons, teaching basic linguistic and phonological rules, recalling important words/ structures, providing pairwork and groupwork etc.

Limitations and suggestions for further research

This study reveals some limitations due to the limit of time, scope, and knowledge In the first place, the survey questionnaire was conducted among only 180 10 th form students at NVC School (four out of eleven classes) Although this number of participants is enough to ensure the validity of the data, a larger number would provide a more complete picture of the issues Moreover, the recommendations provided may be subjunctive and incomplete Other teachers may have different ideas to help students develop compensation strategies in listening

Lastly, if time had allowed, some recommendations should have been in practice, so the teachers can evaluate their effectiveness

There should be further research on listening strategies in general and compensation strategies in particular A similar study can be done in different schools to find out more about the situation of applying compensation strategies in listening Besides, other researchers can exploit other listening strategies such as memory strategies, cognitive strategies; metacognitive strategies; affective strategies; and social strategies Last but not least, further studies can investigate the application of compensation strategies in reading, writing and speaking skills

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1 What do you think about your students‟ listening competence?

2 Are you familiar with listening strategies? What are they?

3 What do you know about compensation strategies in listening (guessing intelligently)?

Which clues can students use to guess the meaning of the listening?

4 What do you think about the importance of compensation strategies in facilitating your students‟ listening comprehension?

6 Have you ever taught listening compensation strategies to your students? If yes, how often do you teach them and how do you teach?

7 What are the difficulties teachers may encounter in teaching listening compensation strategies to the students?

8 What do you think teachers can do to overcome the difficulties?

CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN DÀNH CHO GIÁO VIÊN

Thời gian giảng dạy Tiếng Anh:

1 Thầy/ Cô đánh giá như thế nào về kỹ năng nghe của học sinh?

2 Thầy/ cô có thấy quen thuộc với khái niêm các chiến lược nghe không? Các chiến lược nghe là gì?

3 Thầy/ cô hiểu biết thế nào chiến lược bù trong kỹ năng nghe (kỹ năng đoán thông minh)?

Học sinh có thể dựa vào những dấu hiêu nào để đoán nghĩa bài nghe?

4 Thầy/ cô nghĩ thế nào về tầm quan trọng của của kỹ năng đoán thông minh đối với việc giúp học sinh nghe hiểu dễ dàng hơn?

6 Đã bao giờ thầy/ cô dạy kỹ năng đoán thông minh khi nghe cho học sinh chưa? Nếu có, cô thường dạy với tần xuất như thế nào và cách dạy của thầy/cô ra sao?

7 Theo thầy/ cô, giáo viên thường gặp những khó khăn gì khi dạy học sinh kỹ năng đoán thông minh khi nghe?

8 Thầy/ cô nghĩ giáo viên có thể làm gì để vượt qua những khó khăn này?

APPENDIX 2 SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES FOR STUDENTS

This questionnaire is designed for the research “Developing compensation strategies in listening for 10 th form students at Nguyen Van Cu upper-secondary school, Gialam, Hanoi” Your assistance in fulfilling the following items is highly appreciated All the information provided will be used for the research purpose only; so please respond to each statement or question thoroughly and as frankly and accurately as you can

Please put a tick in the or write the answers briefly for the following information

 Your English listening competence (according to your assessment)

B1 Please put a tick in the for the following questions:

1 Have you ever heard of the term “listening strategy”?

2 Are you familiar with the listening compensation strategies (guessing intelligently)?

3 Do you think the listening compensation strategies are important in facilitating your listening comprehension?

4 Have you ever been taught the listening compensation strategies?

5 Do you think it is necessary to teach the listening compensation strategies?

B2 Please put a tick in the to describe the degree you use the following listening strategies

1 I use grammatical clues (part of speech, prefix, suffix, word order …) to guess unfamiliar language items in the listening passage

2 I use my background knowledge to guess the meaning of the listening

3 I use the words and phrases surrounding the unknown word to make quick guesses about its general meaning

4 I use the titles, subtitles, pictures, diagrams accompanying the listening task to understand the topic/ content of the listening

5 I use phonological clues (intonation, stress …) to guess the meaning of the listening

6 I use clues from discourse markers (markers of addition/

LIII cause and effect/ sequences/ …) to guess the meaning of the listening

7 I use background noises to guess the meaning of the listening

8 I write down words according to the transcript for the word that I do not remember the spelling in doing gap- filling exercises

B3 Please circle the letters a, b, c to describe your difficulties and preferences in applying listening compensation strategies (You can have more than one answer)

1 What are your difficulties and problems in guessing the answers in listening? a I lack background knowledge about the topic of the listening b I have difficulty understanding and using grammatical rules (part of speech, prefix, suffix, word order …) c I have difficulty understanding and using phonological rules (stress, intonation, … ) d The listening text does not provide many visual and contextual clues e The teacher does not teach me how to guess the answers f I am not used to guessing skill g I lack confidence and interest

2 What do you like to be able to guess the answers in listening? a The teacher teaches us some basic grammatical rules (part of speech, prefix, suffix, word order …) b The teacher teaches us some basic phonological rules (stress, intonation, … ) c The teacher exploits the background knowledge of the students about the topic of the listening

LIV d The teacher recalls important words and ideas related to the listening e The teacher provides us with some visual clues f The teacher provides us with a variety of listening tasks g The teacher encourages us to guess the answers freely h The teacher lets us work in pairs or groups to discuss our guesses

Thank you for your cooperation!

CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT DÀNH CHO HỌC SINH

Bản câu hỏi khảo sát này được thiết kế cho nghiên cứu “Phát triển chiến lược bù trong kỹ năng nghe cho học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Nguyễn Văn Cừ, Gia Lâm, Hà Nội” Tác giả rất cảm kích sự giúp đỡ của các em trong việc trả lời các câu hỏi sau Tất cả các thông tin được cung cấp ở đây chỉ sử dụng cho mục đích nghiên cứu; vì vậy rất mong các em trả lời các câu hỏi một cách chính xác và trung thực

Hãy đánh dấu  vào ô hoặc trả lời ngắn gọn những thông tin sau

 Thời gian học tiếng Anh: …… năm

 Khả năng nghe tiếng Anh của em (tự đánh giá)

Xuất sắc Tốt Trung bình Kém

B1 Hãy đánh dấu  vào ô để trả lời những câu hỏi sau:

1 Em đã bao giờ nghe đến khái niệm “listening strategy” (chiến lược nghe) chưa? Đã từng Chưa bao giờ

2 Em có thấy quen thuộc với chiến lược bù trong kỹ năng nghe (đoán thông minh khi nghe)?

3 Em có nghĩ là kỹ năng đoán thông minh có vai trò quan trọng trong việc làm cho em nghe hiểu dễ dàng hơn ?

4 Em đã bao giờ được dạy kỹ năng đoán thông minh khi nghe chưa? Đã từng Chưa bao giờ

5 Em có nghĩ là việc dạy kỹ năng đoán thông minh khi nghe là cần thiết không?

B2 Hãy đánh dấu  vào ô để miêu tả mức độ em sử dụng các chiến lược nghe sau

Các chiến lược nghe Luôn luôn sử dụng

Không bao giờ sử dụng

1 Em sử dụng các dấu hiệu ngữ pháp (loại từ, tiền tố, hậu tố, …) để đoán những từ/ cụm từ mới trong bài nghe

2 Em sử dụng các kiến thức hiểu biết sẵn có của bản thân để đoán nghĩa bài nghe

3 Em sử dụng các từ/ cụm từ xung quanh để đoán nghĩa từ mới

4 Em sử dụng các tiêu đề chính, tiêu đề phụ, tranh ảnh, biểu đồ kèm theo bài nghe để đoán chủ đề/ nội dung của bài nghe

5 Em sử dụng các dấu hiệu về ngữ âm (ngữ điệu, trọng âm

…) để đoán nghĩa bài nghe

6 Em sử dụng các dấu hiệu diễn ngôn (dấu hiệu chỉ sự bổ sung thông tin, chỉ nguyên nhân và kết quả, chỉ sự tiếp nối

…) để đoán nghĩa bài nghe

7 Em sử dụng các dấu hiệu từ âm thanh nền trong bài nghe để đoán nghĩa

8 Em viết theo cách đọc từ em không nhớ chính tả khi em làm bài điền từ

B3 Hãy khoanh tròn các chữ cái a, b, c … để miêu tả những khó khăn và những mong muốn của em khi áp dụng kỹ năng đoán thông minh khi nghe (Em có thể chọn nhiều câu trả lời)

1 Em gặp những khó khăn và những vấn đề gì khi đoán câu trả lời trong kỹ năng nghe? a Em thiếu những hiểu biết sẵn có của bản thân về chủ đề của bài nghe b Em găp khó khăn trong việc hiểu và sử dụng các quy tắc ngữ pháp(loại từ, tiền tố, hậu tố, trật tự từ ….) c Em gặp khó khăn trong việc và sử dụng các quy tắc ngữ âm (trọng âm, ngữ điệu …) d Bài nghe không cung cấp nhiều các dấu hiệu về hình ảnh và ngữ cảnh e Thầy/ cô giáo không dạy em cách đoán câu trả lời f Em không quen với kỹ năng đoán g Em thấy thiếu tự tin và không hào hứng

2 Em mong muốn điều gì để có thể đoán được câu trả lời khi nghe? a Thầy/ cô giáo dạy em các quy tắc ngữ pháp cơ bản ( cách xác định loại từ, tiền tố, hậu tố, trật tự từ … ) b Thầy/ cô giáo dạy em các quy tắc ngữ âm cơ bản (trọng âm, ngữ điệu …) c Thầy/ cô giáo khơi gợi những hiểu biết sẵn có của học sinh về chủ đề bài nghe d Thầy/ cô giáo gợi mở cho học sinh những từ, những ý tưởng quan trọng liên quan đến bài nghe e Thầy/ cô giáo cung cấp cho học sinh các dấu hiệu gợi mở bằng hình ảnh

LVIII f Thầy/ cô giáo cung cấp cho học sinh đa dạng các loại bài tập nghe g Thầy/ cô giáo khuyến khích học sinh tự do đoán câu trả lời h Thầy/ cô giáo cho học sinh làm việc theo cặp/ nhóm đề thảo luân phần dự đoán của mình

Cảm ơn sự hợp tác của các em!

A SAMPLE OF AN INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT (Teacher 1)

Date conducted: April 4 th , 2010 (Translation into English)

H: the initial letter for Hanh, the interviewer

T1: the initial letter for teacher 1, the interviewee

 Years of teaching English: 6 years

H: What do you think about your students’ listening competence?

T1: My students‟ listening competence is quite poor, they hardly complete the tasks in the textbook and I have to help them much

H: Are you familiar with listening strategies? What are they?

T1: I think that listening strategies are familiar with English learners In my opinion, the main listening strategy is listening comprehension for general ideas or specific ideas

H: What do you know about compensation strategies in listening?

T1: I haven‟t heard of this term What is this?

H: Compensation strategies in listening are the strategies of guessing intelligently in listening What do you know about these strategies?

T1: Ah, guessing strategies are important in listening Guessing skill in listening helps students get the answers and comprehend the listening although they do not catch all the words

H: Which clues can students use to guess the meaning of the listening?

T1: Students can use some clues such as the topic of the listening, or the key words

H: What do you think about the importance of compensation strategies in facilitating your students’ listening comprehension?

T1: They are very important They make the listening process easier

H: Have you ever taught listening compensation strategies to your students?

T1: Yes, I have taught the guessing strategies to my students

H: How often do you teach them and how do you teach?

T1: I often teach them by introducing the topic and providing necessary vocabulary

H: What are the difficulties you encounter in teaching listening compensation strategies to the students?

T1: I think the main difficulties are students‟ lack of background knowledge and their limited vocabulary

H: What do you think teachers can do to overcome the difficulties?

T1: I think the teacher can ask students to prepare the lesson at home such as vocabulary and information related to the topic

A SAMPLE OF A CLASS OBSERVATION (English 10 - Unit 15: Cities – Listening) Date conducted: April 21 st , 2010

- Ask ss what they know about the Statue of Liberty

- Introduce some new words using the picture

+ robe + crown + burning torch + tablet

- Lead to the listening passage

II Before you listen (10 minutes)

- Ask ss to work in pairs to look at the picture and answer the questions

- Call some ss for the answers

1 It is The Statue of Liberty

2 It is beautiful, it looks like a woman

3 It has got a crown on its head

4 It has got a tablet in its left hand

5 It is holding a burning touch in its right hand

- Have ss repeat some words

+ stone (n) + pedestal (n) + copper (n) + iron frame (n) + weigh (v) + except (prep.) + base (n) + concrete (adj)

III While you listen (20 minutes)

- Introduce the listening lesson then ask ss to listen to do the tasks

- Give instruction: Listen to the passage and choose the correct answers

- Ask ss to read the questions and answers and give new words if they get

- Remind ss that they can listen twice then give the correct answers

- Ask ss if they have any answer

- Let ss work in pairs to compare their answers while call 1 or 2 ss to the board

- Have ss listen again, pause where necessary so that ss can check their answers

- Ask ss to remember what they have learnt from task 1

- Give instruction Listen again, and fill in the missing information in the table

- Require ss to read the items in the table and guess the missing information

+ height: …m + weight: … tons + material: stone, concrete, copper, iron … + the base: concrete, stone, iron …

- Tell ss that they can listen twice more to give the information

- Ask if ss have any answers

- Let ss work in pairs to compare their answers

- Call some ss to give the answers

- Have ss listen again to check Pause where necessary

Formal name Liberty Enlightening the World Height 46 metres

Weight 205 tons Material copper (outside) and iron (frame) The base stone and concrete

Opening time 9:30a.m – 5:00p.m daily except Christmas Day

IV After you listen (8 minutes)

- Ask ss to work in groups of 4 to tell what they have learnt about the Statue of Liberty from the listening passage using the information in task 1 and 2

- Go around to listen and correct

- Give ss homework and guide them to do homework + Learn vocabulary

+ Write what you learnt about the Statue of Liberty

+ Prepare for the writing lesson

A SUGGESTED LESSON PLAN OF INTEGRATING STRATEGY INSTRUCTION

(English 10 - Unit 7: The Mass Media – Listening)

The time is 7 o‟clock and here is the news summary

Heavy rain during the night has caused floods all over the country today Many people have left their homes because rivers have risen Some roads in the north-west are under two metres of water The rain has stopped at the moment, but it‟s still cloudy and there‟s a strong wind Because of the bad weather, people can‟t go out to work

A ninety-year-old woman has climbed Mount Whitney in California for the twenty-third time At 4,418 metres, Mount Whiney is the highest mountain in California The woman says the view from the top is wonderful, so she tries to climb it often She also says that the mountain has kept her young and healthy In spite of her old age, the woman tries to climb the mountain very often

Tasks: (modified by the teacher)

Task 1: Listen to the two radio news stories and tick the words you hear in the right column under News story 1 and News story 2

News story 1 News story 2 healthy  strong young cloudy highest wonderful

Task 2a: Listen to news story 1 and decide whether the statements are true (T) or false (F)

1 Heavy rain during the day has caused floods all over the country today

3 The level of water on some roads in the north-west is three metres

4 It‟s still cloudy and there‟s a strong wind but the rain has stopped

5 Everyone goes to work as usual

Task 2b: Listen to news story 2 and fill in the missing words

A ninety-year-old woman has climbed Mount Whitney in California for the (1) _ time At (2) _ metres, Mount Whiney is the highest mountain in (3) _ The woman says the view from the top is (4) , so she tries to climb it often She also says that the mountain has kept her (5) In spite of her old age, the woman tries to climb the mountain very often

Task 3: Listen to the two news stories again and answer the following questions

1 What has happened during the night?

2 Why have people left their homes?

3 How many times has the old woman climbed Mount Whitney?

4 Why does she climb it so often?

- Ask ss to listen to four pieces of music and match them with the names of the radio programmes

- Check the answers with the whole class:

- Ask: Do you like listening to the radio?

- Lead in Before you listen

- Ask ss to work in pairs to ask and answers some questions:

How often do you listen to the radio?

How many hours peer week do you listen to the radio?

Which programme do you like listening to and why?

- Ask 1 st to tell what they know about his/her partner

- Introduce the lesson: Today we are going to listen to some radio news

- Introduce some guessing strategies: guessing from visual aids, background knowledge, and linguistic rules

What can you see in the pictures in News story 1?

What can you see in the pictures in News story 2?

- Introduce the two new stories through pictures: News story 1 is about floods, News story

2 is about a woman climbing mountain

- Ask ss to guess which words they can hear in News story 1 and News story 2 Give examples: rain (NS1), climb (NS2)

Task 1: Ticking the words you hear (6’)

- Set the task: You are going to listen to two new stories While listening, tick the words you heard in the right column

- Read the words and ask ss to repeat in chorus

- Ask ss to guess the answers

- Ask ss to compare the answers in pairs

- Ask 2 ss to write the answers on extra-board

- Play the tape again to check the answers

- Show the pictures to check the meanings of the words Give feedback

- Set the task: Close your books, listen to news story 1 and decide whether the statements are true or false

- Ask ss to read the statements carefully and find the key words

- Check the key words with the whole class

1 heavy rain/ floods/ day/ all/ country/ today

2 many/ left home/ rivers/ risen

3 water/ roads/ north-west/ three metres

4 cloudy/ strong wind/ rain/ stopped

- Ask ss to guess the answers

- Ask students to work in pairs to compare their answers, explain why the statements are true or false and correct the false statement(s)

- Call 2 ss to write the answers on the extra-board

- Ask ss to give feedback

- Play the tape again, stop where necessary

- Ask ss: What tense do they often use to tell news?

- Reaffirm: People often use Present perfect to tell news

Task 2b: Filling in the missing words (7‟)

- Set the task: Open your books, listen to news story 2 and fill in the missing words

- Ask ss to read the listening text and guess kinds of the words needed basing on linguistic rules

- Check with the whole class:

(1): a number (2): a number (3): a place (4): an adj (5): an adj

- Ask 2 ss to write the answers on the extra-board/ others to work in groups of 4 to compare the answers

- Ask ss to give feedback

- Play the tape again to check