Scope of the study
With regard to the scale of this undertaking, this study only focuses on the mater within the group of grade 11 students at Dong Anh High school Furthermore, for the purpose of going deeply into the subjects’ matter, the researcher only concentrates on teaching English listening comprehension.
Methods of the study
To realize the objectives of the study, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used The data for the study were obtained through the following instruments:
Pre and post-tests were designed by the researcher to find out the students’ ability in listening comprehension
A pre and post-questionnaire was designed by the researcher to find out the students’ readiness, interests, confidence and behavior in learning listening comprehension and learning English in general
Classroom observation was conducted four times to investigate students’ readiness, interests and confidence in learning listening comprehension and learning English in general
Informal interviews were carried out to discover students’ attitudes towards learning listening comprehension.
Organization of the study
The thesis consists of three main parts:
Part A is the introduction, which gives the rationale, the objectives of the study, methods used in this study and the organization of the thesis
Part B is the development, which includes three chapters as follows:
Chapter 1 is the Literature review This chapter presents all the related theoretical background that precedes and necessitates the information of the research
Chapter 2 presents the methods of the study
Chapter 3 is the data analysis and discussion In this chapter, the data collected are analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively Afterwards, some teaching implications are drawn to improve the situation of teaching and learning listening comprehension at the researcher’s school
Part C is the conclusion which presents the study conclusions and teaching implications Besides, it also offers the limitations and suggestions for further study
LITERATURE REVIEW
Definition of listening and listening comprehension
Since the early 70's, listening has been paid attention as a tool for understanding and as a key factor in facilitating language learning Thus, listening has emerged as an important component in the process of second language acquisition
There have been various ways to define listening
In Field’s viewpoints, “listening is an invisible mental process, making it difficult to describe Listeners must discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammar structures, interpret stress and intention, retain and interpret this within the immediate as well as the large socio-cultural context of the utterance (Field, 1989:38)
Rost had another way to define listening by emphasizing the vital role of listening in second language learning In his opinion, “listening is vital in the classroom because it provides the input for students Without understanding the input at the right level, any learning simply can’t begin.” (Rost, 1991:141)
Researchers have different views on the definition of listening comprehension:
“Listening comprehension is defined as the process of understanding speech in a second or foreign language When comprehending something, we can understand what is said It is assumed that speaking and writing are the process of encoding messages while listening and reading decode them Listening comprehension, therefore, is a perceptive skill involving identifying and retaining information orally perceived.” (Boyle, 1981:13)
For Buck, “ Listening comprehension is an active process of constructing meaning and this is done by applying knowledge to the incoming sound “in which” number of different types of knowledge are involved; both linguistic knowledge and nonlinguistic knowledge.” (Buck, 1984:31)
Anderson and Lynch also share the shame ideas with Buck They believe that listening comprehension requires not only the linguistic knowledge but also the non- linguistic knowledge in order to reach the final message of the speaker in communication
“Listening comprehension means to understand what a speaker says: the listener has a crucial part to play in the process by activating various types of knowledge, by applying what he knows to what he hears and trying to understand what the speaker means”
Listening is an invisible mental process, making it difficult to describe However, it is recognized by Wipf (1984) that listeners must discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, interpret stress and intonation, understand intention and retain and interpret this within the immediate as well as the larger socio-cultural context of the utterance Rost (2002) defines listening, in its broadest sense, as a process of receiving what the speaker actually says (receptive orientation); constructing and representing meaning (constructive orientation); negotiating meaning with the speaker and responding (collaborative orientation); and creating meaning through involvement, imagination and empathy (transformative orientation)
In short, listening comprehension involves multiple skills It is a complex and active process of interpretation in which listeners match what they hear with what they already know.
Significance of listening
Language learning depends on listening since it provides the aural input that serves as the basis for language acquisition and enables learners to interact in spoken communication Listening provides the foundation for all aspects of language and cognitive development, and it plays a life-long role in the process of communication A study by Wilt (1950), found that people listen 45 % of the time they spend communicating Listening is the medium through which people gain a large portion of their education, their information, their understanding of the world and of human affairs, their ideals, sense of values, and their appreciation
In this day of mass oral communication, it is of vital importance that students are taught to listen effectively and critically According to second language acquisition theory, language input is the most essential condition of language acquisition As an input skill, listening plays a crucial role in students’ language development Krashen (1985) argues that people acquire language by understanding the linguistic information they hear Thus language acquisition is achieved mainly through receiving understandable input and listening ability is the critical component in achieving understandable language input Given the importance of listening in language teaching and learning, it is essential for language teachers to help students become effective listeners.
Nature of listening
According to Wang Shouyuan (2003), listening is the most important component in the five aspects of overall English competence He suggests among the five aspects (listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation), listening deserves particular attention Educators must actively explore the nature and process of listening comprehension and study the theory and methodology of listening comprehension in order to improve listening and make students recognize that listening comprehension is the crucial aspect of English learning
From the point of view of constructivist linguistics, foreign language teaching should focus on language form and structure, thus, teaching listening is undertaken in each of the four aspects of language form When students are taught to understand a passage of text, teachers first let them discriminate between the pronunciation of vowels and consonants, then understand vocabulary, sentences and discourses The goals of this listening teaching model from the “bottom-up” is to help students understand the meaning of vocabulary by discriminating sounds, to understand sentence meaning, and to monitor and control the meaning of discourses by understanding sentence meaning
Since the 1970s, with the development of functional language theory, there has been an emphasis on the research of language function in society Functional linguistic experts recognize language as a communicative tool, but not an isolated structure system
Consequently the teaching of listening is not simply intended to make students hear a sound, a word or a sentence, rather, the goal is to cultivate students’ abilities to understand speakers’ intentions accurately and communicate with each other effectively.
Strategies of listening comprehension
Listening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension and recall of listening input Listening strategies can be classified by how the listener processes the input
Two views of listening have dominated language pedagogy over the last twenty years They are the “bottom-up” and “top-down” processing They are simultaneous and complementary
In the view of Nunan, D (1999:200), “bottom-up processing is a process of decoding the sounds that one hears in a linear fashion, from the smallest meaningful units or phonemes) to complete texts According to this view, phonemic units are decoded and linked together to form utterances and utterances are linked together to form complete meaningful texts.”
Hedge, T (2000:230) argues that “In the bottom part of the listening process, we use our knowledge of language and our ability to process acoustic signals to make sense of the sounds that speech presents to us In other words, we use information in the speech itself to try to comprehend the meaning We segment speech into identifiable sounds and impose a structure on these in terms of words, phrases, clauses, sentences and intonation patterns At the same time, we use whatever clues are available to infer meaning from the developing speech”
Bottom-up strategies are text-based in which the listener relies on the language in the message, that is, the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates meaning Bottom-up strategies include:
recognizing word-order patterns Alternatively, top-down process infers meaning from contextual clues and from making links between the spoken message and various types of prior knowledge which listeners hold inside their head Contextual clues to meaning come from knowledge of the particular situation, i.e the speaker, the setting, the topic and the purpose of the spoken text, and from knowledge of what has been said earlier Prior knowledge has been termed schematic knowledge
Top-down strategies are listener-based; the listener taps into background knowledge of the topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language This background knowledge activates a set of expectations that help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate what will come next
listening for the main idea
In summary, in the bottom-up process, learners rely on their linguistic knowledge to comprehend the message whereas in top-down process, they must use their prior knowledge in order to arrive at the final message Nevertheless, “it would be a mistake to see top-down and bottom-up strategies as somehow in opposition It is generally accepted that both function simultaneously and are mutually dependent.”(Hedge.T, 2000:
Factors affecting listening comprehension
It can be said that listening skill often causes much trouble for language learners
With five-year-teaching experience, the researcher has discovered that many of her students are often afraid of listening comprehension skill Her students often complain that they are in short of vocabulary, they lack the background knowledge or they are not familiar with the speed of the speaker or the different accent, etc So, what makes listening difficult?
There have been different views about factors that affect listening comprehension:
According to Brown and Yule (1983:74), there are four main groups of factors that cause difficulty in listening comprehension They are in turns the speaker, the listener, the content and support “ there are four main groups of factors that cause difficulty in listening comprehension These are the speaker (that includes the numbers of speakers, the speaker’s speed, and the speaker’s accents); the listeners (this consists of the roles of the listeners, the level of response required and the listener’s interest in the subject): the content (vocabulary, grammar, information structure and background knowledge); and support (whether there are pictures, diagrams and visual aids….)
Sharing the shame ideas, Boyle suggests three major factors that affect the listening process They include the listener factors; the speaker factors; factors in the material and medium
1 Experience/ practice in listening to the target language: use of media (cinema, TV, radio, etc)
3 General background knowledge of the world More specific
4 Physical and educational 4.1 Age/sex
4.2 Home background, size of family
4.3 Educational background and type of school 4.4 Physical health and alertness
5 Intellectual 5.1 Knowledge of the target language in its various aspects: phonology, lexis, syntax, and cohesion
5.2 Powers of analysis and selection: ability to distinguish between main and supporting points
5.3 Knowledge of the specific topic or subject 5.4 Memory (short term and long term)
6 Psychological 6.1 Motivation and sense of purpose while listening 6.2 Attitude of the listener to the speaker
6.3 Attitude of the listener to the message: level of interest 6.4 Listener’s powers of attention and concentration
1 Language ability of the speaker; native speaker- beginner-level, non-native speaker
2 Speaker production: pronunciation, accent, variation, voice etc
4 Prestige and personality of the speaker
C Factors in the material and medium
1 Language used to convey the message: phonological features, including stress, intonation, weak forms (especially in conversation), lexis, syntax, cohesion, etc
2 Difficulty of content and concepts, especially if the material is abstract, abstruse, highly specialized or technical, esoteric, or poorly organized
3 Acoustic environment: noise and interference
4 Amount of support provided by gestures, visuals, etc
In short, the teacher should take into considerations the factors mentioned above in order to assist the students to overcome the difficulties in listening comprehension and gain success in their listening.
Approaches to teaching listening comprehension
Underwood (1989, 90-109) presents some approaches to teaching listening such as grammar-translation method, grammar method, audio-lingual method and task-based method
Grammar translation method: learners listen to a description of rules of the second language in the first language As a result, when the second language is used, the focus of any listening is on translation of lexical items or grammar structures
Grammar method: in this method, the teacher requires students to look at a written text while they listen to a recording They are forced to do several things: identify words by their position in the sentences, work out the relationship between words and phrases, use forward and backward cues, and make intelligent guesses based on textual cues
Audio-lingual method: this method was started by American linguist This method emphasizes first listening to pronunciation and grammatical forms then imitating those forms by way of drills and exercises Dialogues and drills are the basic of classroom practice with this method Students are encouraged to listen carefully either to a recording of, or a teacher reading out, a dialogue, or a drill
Basically, the more the students repeat a correct phrase or sentence, the stronger of their memory of the structures will be
Task-based method: this method places stress on activities or tasks that learners do in class in order to develop their communicative competence A task-based syllabus should be constructed according to the difficulty of the tasks required of the learners at different stages in a course
In conclusion, the four methods of teaching listening are not mutually exclusive and in reality they may be mixed in any particular course or classroom However, with the development of the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), teaching listening seems to be more important as they enable to develop listening skills and other skills as well.
Stages in teaching listening
The teaching of a listening lesson is usually divided into three main stages: pre- listening, while-listening and post-listening Each stage has its own purposes, activities and time allocation
“Starting lessons with pre-listening activities brings a host of benefits to language learning.” (Boyle, 1984:24) Inevitably, pre-listening stage plays a vital role in the whole process of teaching This stage is carried out before students begin listening A “before- listening” activity needs to be short (five or ten minutes) However, it depends on each lesson Pre-listening stage is aimed at preparing students to listen and think about what they are going to hear The purposes of pre-listening phase are:
- to introduce and arouse interest in the topic
- to promote an active and flexible learning environment
- to help increase learners’ motivation for learning
- to motivate learners by giving a reason for listening
- to provide some language preparations for the text (Baker & Westrup, 2000:233; Lewis & Hill, 1992; 195)
During this phase, teachers may use some activities such as: teachers giving background information, students read something relevant, brainstorming, questioning, group discussing, predicting and so on The choice of which activities to be used should depend on the time, the material available, the interest of the class and the teacher, the place in which the work is being carried out, the nature and the content of the listening text itself If one of these forgotten, the whole process of activity can be failed
This stage is the main part of a listening lesson aiming at facilitating learners’ listening and checking their comprehension Time allocation for this stage is nearly two thirds of the whole lesson “The work at the while-listening stage needs to link in relevant ways to the pre-listening work While they listen, learners will need to be involved in an authentic purpose for listening and encouraged to attend to the text more intensively or more extensively, for gist or for specific information.” (Hedge, 2000:84)
Activities in while-listening stage relate directly to engagement with text, and students do them during or immediately after the time they are listening These points are kept in mind when planning while-listening activities:
Decide what is and is not important to understand
Use predicting to encourage students to monitor their comprehension as they listen
Use questions to focus students' attention on the elements of the text crucial to comprehension of the whole
Organize activities to guide listeners through the text (combine global activities such as getting the main idea, topic, etc.)
Give an immediate feedback whenever possible (encourage students to examine how or why their responses were incorrect.)
It is the final step of a listening lesson Therefore, it is the time for students’ production The activities at this stage are aimed at helping learners to use what they have had from the listening text The teacher should make up and vary the activities for learners to do depending on their level of English competence This stage often last for ten or fifteen minutes Hedge (2000:24) argues that “post listening activities can take students into a more intensive phase study in which aspects of bottom-up listening are practiced.”
Post-listening work can be more effective if they are integrated with other skills like reading, writing or speaking skills
The followings are some activities that teacher can make use of for the post- listening stage
Write questions on the board and ask students to answer them Students are also stimulated to talk and actively participate in the task
Tell students to compare their notes and discuss what they understood in pairs or small groups
Encourage students to respond to what they have heard For example, where possible ask questions like “Do you agree?” And encourage debate
Tell pairs to write a summary of the main points Then have them compare their summaries and check if they covered all the main points
Evaluate comprehension in a particular task or area
Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose and for the task, modify strategies if necessary
1.8 The relationship between teaching listening comprehension and teaching reading comprehension
Wang, Miao (2005:1) in “Teaching EFL Listening: From Theory to Practice” suggests that one of the best way to improve the teaching of listening comprehension is to integrate listening with other language skills such as reading, speaking and writing skills Within the objectives of this paper, the researcher would only focus on teaching listening comprehension in integration with teaching reading comprehension
There have been many studies about teaching listening integrated with other skills such as studies of Cambourne (1981), Nagel and Sanders (1986), and Smith (1990
1975), Murphy (1999), Dow (2006) Teaching listening comprehension in integration with reading comprehension brings about the following benefits:
According to Brown and Yule (1983:74), Boyle (1984:35), vocabulary and grammar are important factors that hinder the process of listening Consequently, it is essential to provide vocabulary, grammar in advance in order to understand the listening texts Thus, teaching reading comprehension can provide vocabulary and grammar which are necessary for listening comprehension
Furthermore, it is widely accepted that listening comprehension involves not only the linguistic knowledge but also the non-linguistic one (Buck, 1984: 31;
Anderson & lynch, 1988: 13) As Chen (2006:1) has asserted “…the lack of cross-cultural knowledge and inadequate mastery of the target language often resulted in incomplete listening comprehension.”
Thus, it can be said that background knowledge is an important factor that contributes to the success of listening As a result, reading comprehension should be taught in advance to provide the background knowledge necessary for the listening comprehension.
Relationship between teaching listening comprehension and reading Comprehension
In this chapter, the methods applied to gain the data for the research is described
First of all, the researcher finds it necessary to give the context or back ground in which the study took place The background of the study includes the syllabus, the participants, the teaching and learning conditions The second part of this chapter deals with the data collecting instruments They are: pre and post –test, pre and post- questionnaire, class observation and interviewing
The researcher is working at a High school in the suburb of Hanoi for over five years The following gives some descriptions of the context where she is working
In the author’s school, the new English textbooks have been in use for four years
Before 2002, like other schools in Vietnam, her school used the old English textbooks which mostly laid the emphasis on language items, particularly, grammar Therefore, the majority of students could have a good command of English grammar but they were incapable of communicating in the target language Since 2002, the new English textbooks have been introduced into the teaching curriculum These give the main focus on skills Each textbook contains sixteen units Each unit consists of five sections They are, in turns, reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus It seems that the new textbooks are more suitable for the purpose of teaching English at present With the focus on skills, students are required to be able to communicate in the target language.
METHODOLOGY
Background of the study
The researcher is working at a High school in the suburb of Hanoi for over five years The following gives some descriptions of the context where she is working
In the author’s school, the new English textbooks have been in use for four years
Before 2002, like other schools in Vietnam, her school used the old English textbooks which mostly laid the emphasis on language items, particularly, grammar Therefore, the majority of students could have a good command of English grammar but they were incapable of communicating in the target language Since 2002, the new English textbooks have been introduced into the teaching curriculum These give the main focus on skills Each textbook contains sixteen units Each unit consists of five sections They are, in turns, reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus It seems that the new textbooks are more suitable for the purpose of teaching English at present With the focus on skills, students are required to be able to communicate in the target language
However, this purpose also has caused many difficulties for teachers and students in learning English, particularly in learning the listening skill
In the textbook 11, there are twenty listening periods with different topics They are arranged as follows:
Unit 1: Friendship Unit 2: Personal experience Unit 3: A party
Test yourself A: Friendship Unit 4: Volunteer work (Activities at Spring school) Unit 5: A survey of students’ attitude in Perth Unit 6: Boston marathon competition
Test yourself B: The history of Olympic Games Unit 7: World population
Unit 8: Tet holiday in Japan Unit 9: The development of telecommunication in Vietnam Test yourself C: Ordering a conversation
Unit 10: National parks Unit 11: Renewable & non-renewable sources of energy Test yourself D: Water conservation
Uni1 13: Hobbies Unit 14: Holidays Test yourself E: Benefits of watching television Unit 15: The first human moon landing
Unit 16: The Great Wall of China Test yourself F: Man in Space
The subjects of the study are two hundred grade 11 students at Dong Anh High school They come from class 11A2, 11A5, 11A6 and 11A9 Their pre-supposed level in English is pre-intermediate; however, the majority of them can not reach this level In fact, they are not very good at English This can be proved by their results in this subject
English results in the class and in examinations are usually the lowest in compared with other subjects’ In short, it can be said that the majority of the subjects possess low English competence
This study can not be done without the help of other teachers at Dong Anh High school There are seven teachers in the writer’s school All of them have at least five- year-teaching experience Before 2002, the majority of teachers in the author’s school followed the traditional way of teaching (grammar translation method) However, with the application of the new English textbook, most of them come to realize that they should vary the way of teaching to suit the new goal of teaching They highly appreciate the communicative teaching approach, though they sometimes still employ traditional way as a result of the students’ low English competence
2.1.3 The teaching and learning conditions
In recent years, computer has been used in her school A multi-functional room equipped with a computer and a projector was built in 2004 This has made the application of information technology into language teaching feasible Teachers can design electronic lesson plans and use them to teach their students The lessons become more interesting and easier to understand with visual illustrations and audio aids
Students appear to be more enthusiastic with these kinds of electronic lessons Moreover in each listening lesson, students no longer have to listen to the teacher’ voice They have chance to listen to tape recorder This helps them to get familiar with the native accent.
Data collecting instruments
The study employed four instruments to obtain the data They are pre and post- tests, pre and post-questionnaire, interviewing and class observation The combination of different instruments will increase the preciseness and reliability of the data collected because the data obtained from one method will help to inform and refine the other
First of all, pre and post listening tests were designed by the researcher to find out the student’s ability in listening comprehension The pre and post tests were carefully designed in terms of the following quality:
The tests were designed for students of pre-intermediate level
The tasks in both pre and post test must be equal in terms of the difficulty
The task types in the pre and post test are similar Each listening test has three tasks including gap-filling, true or false and question-answering
The topic for each listening task in both pre and both test is similar Task
1 is about people introducing themselves Task 2 is about people talking about their countries Task 3 is about people talking about their neighbor
These similarities between the two tests help ensure the reliability and validity of the research The test had been piloted with two hundred students in four different classes Then, the results obtained were analyzed by mean The mean scores from the pre test and post test was compared to see the changes in their ability in listening comprehension
Secondly, a pre and post questionnaire was designed by the researcher to find out the students’ attitudes, interests, confidence and behavior in learning listening comprehension Questionnaires were provided “to learn about the characteristics, attitudes, or beliefs” (Marshall & Rossman, 1999:1995) of the participants
The questionnaire also required students to give their previous background of language learning such as their grades they had got in English in the first semester The main questions in the questionnaire were grouped into four main parts
The first part aimed at finding how students could see the importance, necessity of learning listening skill
The second part discovered the factors affecting listening comprehension
The third one involved the affective and cognitive elements in learning listening comprehension such as how they understood and felt about learning listening skill and learning English
The last part asked about how they behaved in learning listening comprehension
In other words, it aimed at finding how students think, do about learning listening skill
The questionnaire was piloted with the same students who had taken part in the pre and post tests
“Observation is an effective research technique to directly elicit the data in the context being investigated” (Merriam, 1998:88) In this study, the researcher was able to directly observe listening task interaction Selinker (1974:35) claims that “[from] the only observable data in meaningful performance situations can we establish legitimate judgment’’ In this study, the purpose of class observation is to check the reliability of the data collected from the questionnaire and hopefully clarify what has not been done through questionnaire For each class, she observed in forty five minutes Class observation was conducted four times in four different classes The checklist for listening class observation includes the teacher’s activities; students’ activities
Interviews enabled the researcher to gain more in-depth understanding of the participants’ perspectives, which other methods could not identify “The purpose of interviewing, then, is to allow us to enter into the other person’s perspective” (Patton,
1990:196) In this study, informal interviews were carried out to discover students’ attitudes towards learning English listening comprehension.
Procedure
The intervention was carried out in ten listening lessons during the second term
Before each listening lesson, students were given the reading texts which were relevant to the topics of the listening lessons This aimed at equipping students with necessary vocabulary, grammar structures and background knowledge before listening Therefore, it can facilitate students to listen better in the listening lessons Due to the lack of time in class, they were required to do the reading texts at home.
DATA ANALYSIS AND DICSUSSION
Analysis of the pre, post-questionnaire and interviews
At the beginning of the pre and post-questionnaire, students were required to give their grades in English in the first and second semester In other words, students had to inform their results in English before and after the intervention Detailed grades in English are displayed in appendix 4 The average results are shown in figure 2 below
Happily, there was a considerable increase in their English competence The students’ average grade in English went up by 0.7 points (from 5.5 to 6.2) As a result, it could be said that there is a strong connection between teaching the listening skill in particular and teaching English in general When students’ ability in listening comprehension improves, this will better their English in general
Figure 2: Comparison of results in English before and after the intervention
Grade on average before the intervention
Grade on average after the intervention
Students’ attitudes towards the listening skill in comparison with other ones are shown in question 1 The results were illustrated in figure 3 As can be seen, above one third of the students (35%) agreed that listening comprehension is the most challenging
However, after the intervention, listening was no longer the most difficult skill Only 18 percent of the students thought it was the most difficult one Undoubtedly, the intervention facilitated students to listen more effectively Therefore, listening skill was not considered to be the most difficult one as it used to be
Concerning the importance of learning listening comprehension, there is a lucky sign that many of the students realized the necessity of learning listening comprehension
The majority of them knew that it was important or very important No one supposed it to be not important at all Even though, the intervention made a dramatic change in
Figure 3: Students’ assessment towards learning the listening skills in comparison with other skills before and after the intervention students’ cognition Before the study took place, only 32 percent of the students believed listening comprehension was very important Surprisingly, after the study, the number of students thought it was very important reached 83 percent The number of the subjects assumed listening comprehension to be not very important declined sharply from 23 percent to 4 percent Detail of the results for question 2 is reflected in figure 4 In order to understand more about the changes in students’ attitudes towards the importance of learning the listening skill, an interview was administered The results were shown below:
“Frankly, I generally pay less attention to develop listening comprehension because I recognize it gains a lower percentage of marks in examinations, while reading and writing are highly rewarded I understand I will gain high scores only if I can master the grammar and writing well.” (Tran Ngoc Anh-class 11 A9)
Obviously, these psychological factors had a direct impact on students’ willingness and commitment to listening instruction Consequently, the ways to assess students’ learning should be changed in order to encourage students to pay more attention to listening comprehension
Figure 4: Student’s assessment of the importance of learning the listening comprehension before and after the intervention
Question 3 investigated students’ evaluation of learning listening comprehension
The answers for this question were presented in figure 5 As can be seen in figure 5, listening comprehension was not easy at all as nobody chose option D Observably, the number of the subjects thought that listening was very difficult declined sharply by 31 percent On the other hand, the number of students supposed listening skill to be not very difficult boosted considerably by 25 percent
These results proved for the fact that the intervention was quite helpful in enhancing students’ listening comprehensive competence.
Question 4 aimed at searching the reasons that made listening compression difficult for lots of students The answers for this question were disclosed in figure 6
Figure 5: Students’ evaluation of learning the listening comprehension before and after the intervention
It can be seen that, the core factors that caused many difficulties for students in listening comprehension before the intervention were the lack of vocabulary, grammar and the lack of background knowledge These two factors made up 74 percent
Nevertheless, after the study, these two factors only accounted for 48 percent Other factors included the lack of strategies in listening, lack of time for listening and the speed of the speakers
This means that providing reading texts before listening was really necessary and efficient It could solve the problems that the majority of students were encountering in listening comprehension Hence, it facilitated students to listen better
Even though, the lack of vocabulary and grammar still caused much trouble for many students in comprehending the listening tasks As a result, it is necessary for teachers to provide students with techniques of guessing meaning in contexts in order to cope with the new words or new grammatical structures
The aim of question 5 was to investigate students’ attitude towards doing relevant reading assignments before listening The results are expressed in figure 7 below
A lack of vocabulary and grammar
Figure 6: Factors affecting students’ listening comprehension comprehension
As can be seen in figure 7, the intervention made a significant change in students’ attitudes towards using reading-based strategies to improve listening comprehension
This can be proved by the fact that before the intervention nearly 70% of the students thought that doing related reading assignments before listening was not very necessary
However, after the study, many students came to realize the necessity of doing the related reading assignments Thus, over 70% of them supposed doing related reading tasks before listening to be necessary The number of students believed reading comprehension to be very necessary for listening increased from 6% to 16% It is happy that after the study no one thought doing related reading assignments before listening was not necessary at all The interviews with some students enabled to clarify these findings
“Before the study, I didn’t think that there is a strong connection between reading and listening comprehension But now I have realized the necessity of doing reading assignments before listening It is really effective in that it can help develop vocabulary, grammar structures and it also provides background knowledge related to the topic of the listening.” (Nguyễn Thị Yến- clas 11A9)
Figure 7: Students’ attitudes towards the necessity of using reading-based listening strategies to improve listening comprehension before and after the intervention
Figure 8 describes the outcomes for question 6 which aimed at investigating students’ understanding in the listening lessons before and after the intervention
Analysis of the class observations
Classroom observation was conducted four times in four different listening lessons and in different classes The observer set the aims to focus on aspects of teaching
A always participate in all activities with enthusiasm
B often participate in all activities with enthusiasm
C sometimes participate in all activities with enthusiasm
D rarely participate in all activities with enthusiasm
Figure 12: Students’ involvement in the listening lessons before and after the intervention procedure, namely: the teacher-student interaction, the student-student interaction, and the classroom general atmosphere The data was analyzed based on the notes given under each aspect and then descriptively summarized
The teacher could develop a good rapport with students Because more students volunteered in the listening lessons, teacher could remember almost every students and showed intimacy by calling them their names
The students themselves were quite interested in the lessons
The students tried to co-operate and help each other to learn They participated in pair work and group work quite satisfactorily There were even some students who developed the courage to ask questions when the lessons seemed unclear to them These kinds of behavior rarely existed in their classes before
The class atmosphere was quite desirable and everyone became active participants
In this part, the conclusions and teaching implications from the previous part are briefly presented Besides, it also gives the limitations and suggestions for further study
Conclusions
In terms of the students’ difficulties in learning listening comprehension, listening appears to be rather hard skill for the majority of students
In terms of the factors influencing students’ English listening comprehensive competence, the most prominent ones are the lack of vocabulary, grammar structures and lack of background knowledge Other factors include the different accent of the native speakers, lack of preparation or lack of time for listening etc
Concerning the effectiveness of the intervention on students’ performance in listening comprehension, the results from data analysis has shown that the measures taken in the study were both effective and efficient in cultivating students listening comprehension:
Firstly, the intervention made students more highly value the significance of learning the listening skill
Secondly, it allowed students to ease the difficulties in learning listening comprehension Thus, students’ competence in listening comprehension was rapidly improved Listening skill is no longer considered to be the most challenging one
Thirdly, students did learn active listening strategies and applied those listening strategies to learning English; especially important were the skills of combining listening with the development of other language skills
Finally, it created a noticeable change in students’ behavior in learning the listening skill The study motivated students to learn the listening skill more eagerly Students seemed to be more active in the listening lessons in class Outside class, students were able to make good use of their spare time to listen to a variety of language materials to develop their listening ability.
Teaching implications
The results of the intervention are the strong demonstration for the effectiveness of combining teaching listening with reading comprehension Hence, it is advisable for teachers to combine listening with other skills such as reading, speaking or writing skills
Through a variety of listening-reading, listening-writing and listening-speaking activities, students can not only strengthen their language skills but also sharpen their interests and raise their motivation to improve their learning efficiency
2.2 Providing background knowledge particularly the cultural knowledge in language teaching
The study has shown that background knowledge is an important factor affecting listening acquisition Therefore, it is necessary to provide background knowledge, particularly the cultural knowledge before listening If the cultural differences between the students’ own culture and that of the language they are to learn are excessive, learners will usually keep some distance from the target language in their efforts to maintain their psychological comfort level Thus, teachers need to be aware that breaking down the barriers is a significant part of cultural teaching and forms an important aspect of the whole process of language teaching
2.3 Developing students’ listening micro-skills
Successful listening skills are acquired over time and with lots of practice The demands of the listening task are often frustrating for students because there are no precise rules, as in grammar teaching Speaking and writing also have very specific exercises that can lead to improvement As a result, teachers must develop students’ micro skills of listening comprehension, specially such skills like discriminating, predicting and guessing meaning in context:
For beginners, the most important listening skill is discrimination in English pronunciation, intonation and language flow They need to acquire the crucial skill of identifying the main information In class, for example, teachers can ask students to listen to the general meaning of the passage, and to sum up key points and main information
Predictive ability is also an extremely important listening micro skill In everyday communication, people continually make unconscious predictions about what speakers will say, and these predictions are made on the basis of their knowledge of the context in which the communication is made The development of predictive ability has many aspects Before listening training, teachers might ask students questions related to listening materials, or introduce relevant background knowledge to enlighten students’ thinking to allow students a clear recognition of the goals and requirements of listening training
The ability to guess the meaning of words is also an important listening micro skill Listening comprehension does not mean understanding every word, but some words do play a crucial part in listening comprehension It is a normal phenomenon not to understand every word that is uttered However, students may guess the meaning of new words on the basis of the topic being discussed and gain some understanding of the probable linguistic items on the basis of the context of discourses, the grammatical structure and the background knowledge of the topic
2.4 Textbook-based learning and other listening contexts
Listening lessons require listeners to concentrate on the content and make fast responses to what is heard If students are passive and apprehensive during listening training, they will probably feel nervous and wary of taking chances Teachers need to take a lesson that is varied, vivid and interesting Teachers need to select a wide range of materials to increase listening content besides using textbooks
Students need to listen to different levels of English in order to be exposed to natural, lively, rich language, such as listening to English songs, seeing films with English text
In these ways it is possible to raise students’ enthusiasm, cultivate their listening interests, and achieve the goals of learning English
2.5 Combining “intensive listening” with “extensive listening”
Intensive listening requires students to understand the meaning of each discourse and, ultimately, to understand every sentence and word Alternatively, extensive listening does not require students to understand every sentence, and every word; instead, students are encouraged to grasp the general meaning of the passage In listening teaching, both intensive and extensive listening should be combined with cultivating students’ basic skills Therefore, teachers must encourage students to engage in intensive listening in class, requiring students to understand the general meaning and also to become familiarized with English pronunciation, intonation and the changes in language flow In activities outside the class, students need to engage in extensive listening; listening to many different variety of language phenomena and gaining more knowledge through TV programs, radio, the Internet and as many other kinds of exposure to listening training they can find Teachers must create language-learning environments that stimulate students’ interests and raise students’ passion and enthusiasm for learning English.
Limitations and suggestions for further study
On the whole, the study is really a fruitful experience for the researcher It helps her to understand more about her students’ problems and make her teaching more interesting and more effective However in this research, she finds there are still some limitations Firstly, the study was conducted in a modest scale within only two hundred grade 11 students and seven teachers at Dong Anh high school Secondly, this study only focuses on teaching listening using reading-based strategies Thirdly, the study was done in a short period of time (only three months) Finally, only some techniques considered to be the most suitable and effective in teaching listening comprehension for high school students are introduced in this study
Upon realizing the limitations of the study, the researcher would like to suggest several directions that the further study may follow First of all, the groups of subjects may be expanded to a larger number and a larger scale in order to draw a more comprehensive picture of the learning and teaching listening comprehension at high schools in Vietnam Secondly, future study may assess students’ listening performance in a longer period of time to strengthen the reliability of the study Thirdly, more research about teaching listening comprehension integrated with other skills such as speaking, writing should be paid attention to Finally, more useful techniques to teach listening comprehension at high school need to be explored
All in all, it is hoped that the results of this study are beneficial for teachers and students at high schools Mistakes are inevitable; therefore, any criticisms and recommendations are highly appreciated
1 Aarnoutse, C., Von den Bos, K.,&Brand-Grewel.(1998), “Effects of Listening Comprehension Training on Listening and Reading” Journal of Special
2 Anderson A & Lynch T (1988), Listening, Oxford University Press
3 Boyle J (1984), “Factors Affecting Listening Comprehension” ELT journal,38,(1), pp.33-38
4 Brown.S(2006), Teaching Listening, Cambridge University Press
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Teaching of Second Language Listening Singapore, Domonie Press, Inc
6 Diakidoy , I.A., Stylianou, P., Karefillidou, C., & Papageorgiou, P (2004), “ The Relationship between Listening and Reading Comprehension of Different Types of Text at Increasing Grade Levels” Reading Psychology and International Quarterly, 26(1), pp 55-80
7 Lerkkanen, M K., Rasku-Puttonen, H., & Nurmi, J.E., (2004) “Predicting Reading Performance During the First and Second Years of School”, British
8 Lewis M.& Hill J.(1992), Practical Techniques for Language Teaching, Language Teaching Publications
9 Marriam, S.B (1998) Qualitative Research and Case Study Application in
Education USA, Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers
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11 Selinker, L (1974) Interlanguage In J.Richards J.(Ed.), Error Analysis:
Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition London: Longman
12 Patton, M.Q (1990) Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods (2 nd ed)
13 Rost M,(1990), Listening in Language Learning, London, Longman
14 Rost, M (2002) Teaching and Researching Listening, London, Longman
15.Underwood M.(1989), Teaching Listening, London, Longman
16 Ur P.(1984), Teaching Listening Comprehension, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
17 Ur P (1996), A Course in Language Teaching, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
18 Wallace M.J.(2001), Action Research for Language Teachers, London, Methuen
19 Wilt, Miriam E, “A Study of Teacher Awareness of Listening as a factor in Elementary Education,” Journal of Educational Research, 43(8), April, 1950, pp.626-636
19 Xiaoying Wang “Three Ways to Motivate Chinese Students in EFL Listening Classes”, Asian EFL Journal Press, Volume 1, pp.5-28
References from the internet http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/listening/liindex.htmhttp://www.broadmindedcom edy.com/files/MKingston_Thesis.pdf http://www.broadmindedcomedy.com/files/MKingston_Thesis.pdf http://www.lang.ltsn.ac.uk/resources/ref6#ref6 http://www.ew.com.cn/yynl/tlnl/ca7440.htm http://zhushenhai.anyp.cn http://pdf-free-download.com/listen-hear-25-effective-listening-comprehension- strategies.pdf
APPENDICES APPENDIX 1 Pre and post-questionnaire
This questionnaire is designed for my thesis with a view to improving teaching listening comprehension in our school It is highly appreciated if you could spend your little time completing truthfully the questionnaire All the information provided by you is solely for the study’s purpose, and you will not be identified as any discussion of the data
Thank you very much for your co-operation!
What grade have you got in English in the first semester?
What grade have you got in English in the second semester?
1 Of all four skills, which is the most difficult for you?
2 How do you find the importance of the listening skill?
3 In your opinion, listening comprehension is:
4 What factor makes it difficult in listening comprehension?
A lack of vocabulary and grammar
5 In your opinion, providing relevant reading texts before listening is:
6 How much can you comprehend in the listening lessons?
7 How do you feel about your listening lessons?
8 How confident are you in the listening lessons?
9 What do you often do to improve your listening comprehension?
A listen to tape recorder regularly
B search and read the material related to the topic of the listening in advance
C listen to the native speakers
10 In the listening lessons, you
A always participate in all activities with enthusiasm
B often participate in all activities with enthusiasm
C sometimes participate in all activities with enthusiasm
D rarely participate in all activities with enthusiasm
(PRE AND POST TESTS) PRE-LISTENING TEST
Level: Pre-intermediate Time allowed: 30 minutes Introductory: The listening test is consisted of three tasks You will listen twice At the end of the listening, you will have 5 minutes to exchange you answers to the answer sheet
TASK 1: Listen to Magaret introducing herself, and then fill in the blank with the missing words
Hello! My name is Magaret Celi I (1) _ from London I’m a student at the Cambridge University At the moment, I’m studying modern languages, Russia and (2) _ I also knew a little Italian, so I can speak four languages I (3) _ the course very much, but it’s really a hard work The course (4) _ three years a go I live at home with my parents and my sister My brother went to work in the United States last year After I (5) , I’m going to work as a translator I hope so, anyway
TASK 2: Listen to Silvia talking about her country then decide the following statements are true (T) or false (F)
1 The weather was nice in January
2 You need thick winter clothes in January
4 There are many historic buildings in the capital city
5 Silvia’s country has many beautiful mountains
7 You don’t need bring much money to enjoy holiday in Silvia’s country
9 Silvia’s country has fifty kinds of peppers
10 Tacos are kinds of meat
TASK 3: Steve has just moved to a new flat Listen to him talking about his neighbor and answer questions that follow
1 When did Steve move to this new flat?
4 How is Mrs Snell strange?
6 What time did the party end?
7 How many people were there at the party?
8 Where did they go after the party?
9 What is the Japanese restaurant famous for?
10 Why does Steve like the Japanese restaurant?
Task 1: 1 come 2 Spanish 3 enjoy 4 started 5 graduate
1 (He moved to the new flat) a few days ago
3 He works for an advertising company
Or: He works in an advertising company
Or: He works as an advertiser
4 She never speaks to anyone
8 They went out to the club
9 It is famous for a variety of fishes
10 Because the food is delicious and the atmosphere is pleasant
Hello! My name is Magaret Celi I (1) _come from London I’m a student at the Cambridge University At the moment, I’m studying modern languages, Russia and (2)_Spanish_ I also knew a little Italian, so I can speak four languages I (3) enjoy _ the course very much, but it’s really a hard work The course (4) started three years a go I live at home with my parents and my sister My brother went to work in the United States last year After I (5) graduate , I’m going to work as a translator I hope so, anyway
In January, the weather is wonderful It is the most perfect time of the year, not too hot, not too cold, but the temperature can change a lot in just one day It can go from quite chilly to very warm So, you should perhaps bring a jacket but you don’t need thick winter clothes The capital city is the most populated in the world and there’s a lot of thing to do and to see there We have lots of very old historic buildings We are very proud of our history with Mayan and Aztec temple But you should also go to the coast
We have beautiful beaches Perhaps you’ve heard of Acapulco
You don’t need a lot of money to enjoy your holiday There are a lot of good cheap hotels and restaurants, and of course you must visit the markets You can buy all kinds of pottery and things quite cheaply And don’t forget our wonderful food and vegetables We have one hundred different kinds of pepper You should try tacos, which are a kind of bread filled with meat, beans and salad And our beer is very good, especially if you add lemon and salt And of course you can drink tequila
I moved into this new flat a few days ago, and I’m really enjoying living here
There’s only one bedroom, and at the moment my sister is staying with me because she is looking for a job I work in advertising It’s hard work, and the hours are really long, but
I like it And it’s well paid The office is really relaxed The only thing that I don’t like about this flat is one of my neighbors, Mrs Snell She is really strange She never speaks to anyone I always say “hello” to her but she never says a word Maybe she doesn’t like young people I had a party a few days ago It really wasn’t very noisy About ten of us were here until 11.00 and then We went out to the club When I saw Mrs Snell the next day, I said I hope there wasn’t too much noise, but as usual she didn’t say anything
This evening, I and my sister are going to visit a friend of ours who is in hospital
And then we will go out for diner in a Japanese restaurant It is very famous for variety of fishes which are really delicious And the atmosphere there is really warm and pleasant
Level: Pre-intermediate Time allowed: 30 minutes Introductory: The listening test is consisted of three tasks You will listen twice At the end of the listening, you will have 5 minutes to exchange you answers to the answer sheet
TASK 1: Listen to Carly then fill in the blank with the missing words
Hello! My name’s Carly I come from (1) but I live in London now with my husband and our three children I came to Britain (2) years ago when I got married I’m the student with the Open University This means I watch special (3) on television and work at home I send my work to my course teacher every week I study the Art and the course is really (4) _ At the moment, I’m reading about Italian painters in Italian, which is difficult because I only speak a little Italian My course started three years ago After I graduate, I’m going to look for a job in an art gallery or (5) _
TASK 2: Listen to Silvia talk about her country then decide the following statements are true or false
1 It always rains in January
2 You don’t need warm clothes
3 Islamic Art is the name of a gallery
4 The thing must be seen is the Pyramids
5 You should go to the pyramids in the evening
6 A cruise down the Nile is interesting
7 The city center is famous for many kinds of food
8 Kobta and Keba are the names of the restaurants
9 Farafel is made of meat
10 Drinking mint tea is really pleasant
III Listen to Mrs Maria talk about her neighbor-
Mr Thompson and answer questions that follow
1 When did Thompson move to this new flat?
2 Who does he live with?
4 What does Mr Thompson often wear?
5 Does he always come home late?
6 Has Mrs Maria ever spoken to Mr Thompson?
7 When did Mr Thompson have a party?
8 How many people were there at the party?
10 What time did the party end?
Task 1: 1 Australia 2 fifteen 3 Programme/program
1 (He moved to this new flat) a few weeks ago
2 He lives with his girlfriend
4 He often wears Jeans and T-shirt
7 (He had a party) last week