Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards listening activities in the piloted english 10 textbook a survey at bien hoa gifted high school, ha nam

INTRODUCTION

Rationale

In the globalization era, English, undeniably an international language, is of prime importance in assisting people in effective communication and swift interaction with technological development and information It is essential that a man should master his English if he desires to obtain success in the society

Of the four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) that are generally recognized as the key to “knowing” a language, listening is probably the least understood, the least researched and, historically the least valued In the past, foreign languages were learnt mainly by reading and translating rather than listening In the second half of the twentieth century, increased research into how people learn both first and second languages, as well as developments in linguistics, sociology and anthropology, led to an understanding that listening is probably the key initial skill After all, we cannot talk without listening first Visibly, listening plays a vital part in language learning because it provides input for learners and it has also an important role in the development of learners‟ language knowledge

Teachers and scholars have increasingly recognized the prominence of listening comprehension in English language classroom and education developers have paid more and more attention to advancing listening section in the students‟ textbooks with the aim of meeting the demand of English competence

At Bien Hoa gifted high school, where I have been working as an English teacher for a long time, in some classes, listening skills have been experimentally taught based on the set of piloted textbooks English 10, 11, 12 published by the Minister of Education and Training From my personal observation and professional experience, I have realized that teaching and learning listening skills have still encountered certain difficulties and the students‟ ability to listen to English has not improved much I have always been haunted by the questions what difficulties in listening the teachers and students get into and how to improve the students‟

English listening ability successfully Exploring and analyzing the attitudes of the teachers and students towards activities in listening section in the piloted English 10 textbook will help me find out the situation of teaching and learning listening skills in general and teaching and learning listening skills in this textbook in particular

From the result of the investigation, some possible measures will be taken to improve the situation.

Aims of the study

With the above-presented rationale, the specific aims of the study, accordingly, are:

- to investigate the attitudes of Ts and Ss at BHGHS towards listening skill

- to find out the attitudes of Ts and Ss at BHGHS towards listening activities in the piloted English 10 textbook

- to propose some possible solutions to increase the effectiveness of listening lessons.

Research questions

In order to achieve the mentioned aims, the following questions have been proposed:

 What are the Ts and Ss‟ attitudes towards listening skill?

 What are their attitudes towards listening activities in this textbook?

 What should be done to improve listening lessons?

Scope of the study

As it has been stated above, the study is designed to investigate teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards listening activities in the piloted E10 textbook in the context of Bien Hoa Gifted High School, Ha Nam in order to make some recommendations for teaching and learning listening skill effectively The researcher focuses on listening activities including pre-, while- and post-listening activities in listening section but not other sections of the book

The study also limits itself to focus on the Ts and the tenth-form non-English major Ss at BHGHS who have taught and studied the piloted E10 textbook

Besides, attitudes are explored in terms of feelings, opinions and behaviors, to some extent As this is only a small-sized scale study, a number of issues, though intriguing, would be beyond the scope of inquiry and would be best dealt with in a further study.

Significance of the study

The study highlights the Ts and Ss‟ attitudes towards the newly- designed listening section in the piloted E10 textbook It gives the impressions of the Ts and

Ss towards this experiment Hence, This will be a good indicator in evaluating the listening section and in working on improving it further in the following school years based on the feedback received from the Ts and Ss This research is expected to be beneficial to both English Ts and Ss at BHGHS in particular and those at other high schools in general where the piloted E 10 textbook has been applied.

Methodology of the study

To achieve the aims stated, a survey research was conducted at BHGHS The survey questionnaire was used as the main instrument to collect the needed data from the learners Besides, the survey interviews with five English Ts at the school were also carried out The data acquired from the questionnaire and interview were then analyzed by means of descriptive statistic devices It is hoped that with the combination of these data collection instruments, reliable findings would be yielded from the research.

Structure of the study

The study consists of three main parts, a list of reference and appendices

Part 1 is the introduction which deals with the reason for the research, the aims, research questions, scope, significance, methodology and structure of the study

Part 2 is the development which includes three important chapters:

Chapter 1 is intended to give some theoretical background related to communicative language teaching, listening skill, attitudes and textbook recordings

Chapter 2 is the methodology It presents the research context and the method of the research Also included in this chapter is the information of the research participants, instruments, method of data collection and data analysis

Chapter 3 – Findings and discussion - provides the details of the analysis which has a general description of findings and discussion It ends with the summary of main findings

Part 3 is the conclusion which consists of conclusions, pedagogical implications, summary of the study, limitations and suggestions for further study.

DEVELOPMENT

The literature relevant to the current study is presented in four major categories: communicative language teaching, listening skill, attitudes and textbook recordings

According to Richards (1992), Communicative Language Teaching is an approach to teach foreign or second language which emphasizes to acquire communicative competence

Littlewood (1981) states that CLT pays systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language, combining these into a more fully communicative view CLT advocates go beyond teaching grammatical rules of the target language, and recommend that, by using the target language in a meaningful way, learners will develop communicative competence

To conclude, communicative language teaching is aimed at improving learners‟ communicative competence in the target language and to enable them to use the target language appropriately as a means of communication in any given social context

In CLT, the teacher spends less time on the structures of the language and more time encouraging the children to use the language This gives children the opportunity to say what they want to say, and the teacher does not always have control over their language Fluency plays a big role in CLT

In a real language situation (e.g writing to a pen friend or speaking to visitors in English), children will focus more on what they are saying rather than the grammatical structures of English CLT tries to bring this idea into the classroom, and helps children communicate effectively in the world outside school Fluency activities provide this practice because during these activities children often have to check that they have understood each other, repeat themselves, or change what they say, just like in real life.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Communicative language teaching (CLT)

According to Richards (1992), Communicative Language Teaching is an approach to teach foreign or second language which emphasizes to acquire communicative competence

Littlewood (1981) states that CLT pays systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language, combining these into a more fully communicative view CLT advocates go beyond teaching grammatical rules of the target language, and recommend that, by using the target language in a meaningful way, learners will develop communicative competence

To conclude, communicative language teaching is aimed at improving learners‟ communicative competence in the target language and to enable them to use the target language appropriately as a means of communication in any given social context

In CLT, the teacher spends less time on the structures of the language and more time encouraging the children to use the language This gives children the opportunity to say what they want to say, and the teacher does not always have control over their language Fluency plays a big role in CLT

In a real language situation (e.g writing to a pen friend or speaking to visitors in English), children will focus more on what they are saying rather than the grammatical structures of English CLT tries to bring this idea into the classroom, and helps children communicate effectively in the world outside school Fluency activities provide this practice because during these activities children often have to check that they have understood each other, repeat themselves, or change what they say, just like in real life

Fluency isn‟t the only skill practiced these types of activities Accuracy is important too, and the teacher should balance activities which focus on accuracy (correct grammar) as well as fluency However, the main point behind CLT is that accuracy alone isn‟t enough, and children improve accuracy through focusing on fluency

Teachers can provide motivating communication activities such as games and puzzles, and ask students to complete the activity working in pairs or groups

They do not correct or intervene too much during the activity, and provide most of the feedback after the students have finished the task

David Nunan (1991:279) lists five basic characteristics of CLT:

1) An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language

2) The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation

3) The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on the language but also on the learning process itself

4) An enhancement of the learner's own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning

5) An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outside the classroom

In short, CLT emphasizes the use of English for real communication rather than demonstration of target grammar and vocabulary Using information-gap activities, role-plays, games, discussion of real issues, etc, CLT seeks to engage the student on a personal level through meaningful interaction and personalization

The crucial factor of CLT related to teaching listening is starting from the term “input” According to Rost (1994) and Ziane (2011), listening comprehension is a process through which we get input and without its comprehension, learning does not happen Helgesen (2003) stated that input hypothesis means learners understand input language that contains linguistic items and the way to use language in particular situation The Ts may use bottom-up or/ and top-down in teaching listening Bottom-up means Ss begin with component parts whereas top- down based on Ss‟ general knowledge or prior experience (Helgesen, 2003)

Communicative language teaching shifted the emphasis from the teacher to the learner The choice of listening material in a communicative approach is done in such a way that it meets learners‟ expectations and interests It also serves to motivate them Moreover, teachers might give several listening tasks and different listening types depending on Ss‟ level Helgesen (2003) suggested that listening task is necessary to know what Ss need to improve their listening skill The other main development in listening in CLT stems from the ways in which the passages are used – in other words, what the students do with them In CLT there is more room for personal, emotional or critical responses to the content, and less emphasis on drilling and repetition Listening in CLT has a communicative purpose in that students are expected to use the information they hear, just as we do when we listen outside the classroom

CLT brought with it significant developments in terms of listening to second language It emphasizes reality of materials, contexts and responses The passages

Ss listen to in a communicative approach tend to be closer to real-life use of language than was the case in, say, Audiolingualism, which often used contrived dialogues as carriers of the target grammar According to Ma (2010:464) and Adelmann (2012:512), The communicative situation includes real-life activities such as listening with a purpose, listening to the news on radio or exchanging news over the telephone, discussions with colleagues, asking for directions, asking questions, arguing and taking notes, receiving instructions to go somewhere or do something, retelling stories, participating in an interview, or attending a seminar, lecture or listening to a speech

In short, the communicative approach had a noticeable impact on the way in which listening was taught and is still being taught The effect is apparently expressed through the emphasis on listening‟s importance, the use of realistic materials and a learner-centered approach.

Listening skill

“Hearing” and “Listening” are habitually used interchangeably, but there is a great difference between these two terms Hearing is merely picking up sound vibrations Listening is understanding what we hear That is, listening requires paying attention, interpreting, and remembering sound stimuli Hearing occurs when your ears pick up sound waves being transmitted by a speaker whilst listening involves making sense out of what is being transmitted (Hamilton, 1999) as he quoted “Hearing is with the ears, listening is with the mind”

Particularly, Listening is variously defined

Thompson & Rubin (1996: 331) defines listening as "an active process in which listeners select and interpret information that comes from auditory and visual clues in order to define what is going on and what the speakers are trying to express"

Another definition identifies listening is "the active and dynamic process of attending, perceiving, interpreting, remembering, and responding to the expressed (verbal and nonverbal), needs, concerns, and information offered by other human beings" (Purdy, M 1997:8)

Rost (2011: 2-4) share the same idea about listening when the author points out listening as a process of receiving what the speaker actually says, constructing and representing meaning, negotiating meaning with the speaker and responding, creating meaning through involvement, imagination and empathy

From the definitions of listening discussed above, it is clear that listening is the ability to identify and understand what the speaker is saying through understanding his accent, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and grasping his meaning Moreover, listening plays an important role in acquiring a foreign language and language Ts as well as Ss need to be aware of the importance of effective teaching of listening skills

There are different definitions of the term “listening comprehension”

According to Hamouda (2013), listening comprehension refers to the understanding of what the listener has heard and it is his/her ability to repeat the text despite the fact that the listener may repeat the sounds without real comprehension

Listening comprehension used to be characterized as a passive activity which means that learners nearly get information passively while practice listening skill in the class like “tape recorder or trained parrot” (Anderson and Lynch, 1988) In other words, listeners inactively absorb what the speakers say without taking enough notice of the discourse such as the background knowledge or the speaker‟s purposes, attitudes and implications However, many theorists realized that listening is not a passive but an active process of constructing meaning from a stream of sounds (Berne, 1998; Vandergrift, 1999) Listeners actively attempt to grasp the facts and feelings in what they hear by attending to what the speakers say, to how the speakers says it, and to the context in which the message is delivered (Purdy, 1997) O„Malley, Chamot, and Kupper (1989) also have the same point of view when supposing that listening comprehension is an active process in which the listener constructs meaning through using cues from contextual information and from existing knowledge, while relying upon numerous strategic resources to perform the task requirement

In short, although defined in many different ways, listening comprehension certainly requires the activeness of listeners It demands to “get inside” the speaker‟s head to understand the communication from his point of view A successful listener actively engage in the process of comprehension thanks to both his linguistic knowledge and his nonlinguistic knowledge, but not merely absorb and record the information given

1.2.3 The importance of listening in language learning

Listening is always regarded as a key skill in language learning Listening comes before speaking, reading, and writing (Wolvin & Coakley, 1988) Children

“listen before they speak, speak before they read, and read before they write”

(Lundsteen, 1979, as cited in Coakley & Wolvin, 1997, p.180) It is the most regularly used language skill in human communication Morley (1990) clarifies further that “we listen twice as much as we speak, four times as much as we read, and five times as much as we write” (p.1) Apparently, listening holds a prominent place in language learning Although the other skills such as reading, speaking and writing are essential to develop language proficiency, listening contributes predominantly to language expertise Listening awakens the awareness of the language as it is a receptive skill that first develops in a human being Learning to listen to the target language improves language ability The sound, rhythm, intonation, and stress of the language can only be perfectly adapted through listening To understand the shades in a particular language, one must be able to listen As we get to understand spoken language by listening, developing the other skills and gaining confidence become much easier

Furthermore, listening is believed to be the basic for communicative competence in terms of CLT This results from that listening provides the aural input and enables learners to interact in spoken communication It helps the language learner to acquire pronunciation, word stress, vocabulary, and syntax and the comprehension of messages conveyed can be based solely on tone of voice, pitch and accent; and it is only possible when we listen Without listening skill, no communication can be achieved Besides, every study carried out concerning the language skills acquisition has showed that when communicating, we gain 45% of language competence from listening, 30% from speaking, 15% from reading and 10% from writing With the utmost percentage of involvement in the exchange of information in effective communication, listening has to be considered a language forerunner With the advent of CLT and the focus on proficiency, the teaching and learning of listening have received more and more attention, and understandably should be concentrated on as much as possible

Listening comprehension, is an active process of constructing meaning by means of attending to and processing aural input (Buck, 2001:31) He also explains this as follows: “Meaning is not something in the text that the listener has to extract, but is constructed by the listener in an active process of inferencing and hypothesis building.” In the process of listening comprehension, one has to keep in mind that both linguistic and non-linguistic types of knowledge are involved Linguistic knowledge involves phonology, lexis, syntax, semantics and discourse structure, whereas non-linguistic knowledge which plays a role in understanding is knowledge about the topic, knowledge about the context and general knowledge about the world and its workings (Buck, 2001:1-2) To understand how these two types of knowledge are applied to help learners make sense of what they hear, a distinction is made between bottom-up processing and top-down processing

Richards (2008:4-5) points out that to understand utterances from speakers using bottom-up processing, one needs to mentally break down the message into its components; a process he refers to as „chunking‟ Richards notes that chunking helps the listener to understand the underlying core meaning of the expressed message The „chunks‟ or units of meaning are what the listeners remember, and not the form in which the message was heard

Bottom-up processing is the term used in the application of linguistic knowledge in comprehension, whereby the sounds, words, clauses and sentences of a passage are decoded in a fairly linear fashion to elicit meaning (Buck, 2001:2;

Bottom-up processing is used when a listener builds meaning from the sounds he or she hears The listener converts the sounds into words, then into grammatical relationships, and upwards until he or she arrives at a meaning (Nunan, 1998:25)

Because bottom-up processing is a strategy in which the listener depends on the message of the language, the learner creates meanings to understand the message sequentially from sound to words and from words to grammatical relation

Thus, Bottom-up processing necessitates linguistic knowledge; especially, knowledge of vocabulary and grammar

Attitudes

There are a variety of definitions related to the term “attitudes”

Attitudes are defined by Baron & Byrne (1984) as relatively lasting clusters of feelings, beliefs, and behavior tendencies directed towards specific persons, ideas, objects or groups

In the brief words of Daryl Bem, "Attitudes are likes and dislikes" (1970, p

14) Similarly, Eagly and Chaiken (1993), in a highly influential textbook, defined attitudes as "a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor" (p 1)

The term attitude is often used as an umbrella expression covering such concepts as preferences, feelings, emotions, beliefs, expectations, judgments, appraisals, values, principles, opinions, and intentions (Bagozzi, 1994a;1994b)

The attitude is an association in memory between a given object and a given summary evaluation of the object (Fazio, 1995)

According to Malhotra (2005), an attitude is a summary evaluation of an object or thought

Canh and Barnard (2009a) define attitudes as “the surface expression of underlying values, beliefs, and knowledge” (p 250)

To sum up, attitudes are an overall evaluation of an object that is based on cognitive, affective and behavioral information

Three components of attitudes are:

- Cognitive Component (Belief/ Thought) Cognition refers to the thoughts and beliefs individual has about an attitude object

- Affective Component (Feeling/ Emotion) The affective component is the emotional response towards an attitude object The significance of affective components is emphasized An individual‟s attitude towards an object cannot be determined by simply identifying its beliefs about it because emotion works simultaneously with the cognitive process about an attitude object

- Behavioral Component (Response/ Action) The behavioral component refers to actions or responses (favorable/unfavorable) to do something regarding attitude object

In brief, the theoretical knowledge of attitudes proves that teachers and students‟ attitudes play an important role in teaching and learning a second/foreign language, particularly, in this study, teaching and learning listening skill Therefore, it is necessary to explore the teaching and learning attitudes for the purpose of improving teaching and learning a second language Due to limitations, the study finds out teachers and students‟ attitudes by focusing on their feelings, opinions and behaviors, to some extent, concerning listening skill.

Textbook recordings

According to the webpage Wikipedia, a textbook or course book is a manual of instruction in any branch of study Textbooks are produced according to the demands of educational institutions Tomlinson (1998) describes a textbook as a book “which provides the core materials for a course” and which covers many issues in a single volume by taking into consideration all the points that students are required to learn during a course period Harries and Hodges (1995) stated

“Textbook- a book used for instructional purposes, especially in schools and colleges” In most cases, textbooks symbolize the hidden curriculum of the language studies in a certain program or country That's why they play an important role for obtaining information about the likely teaching and learning practices of a particular school, program or institution

1.4.2 Textbook recordings – a good source of listening

There are a lot of listening sources like textbook recordings, the internet, television, video, DVD and radio Of these sources, textbook recordings are of great prominence Textbook recordings have a lot of strengths

One of these strengths is variety Modern textbooks contain recordings of many types: news bulletins, interviews with experts in their field, stories, jokes, songs, situational dialogues, discussion, and so on

Besides variety, textbooks provide listening sequences – exploitation material that gives students a “way in” to the recording, guides them through its difficulties and provides discussion point at the end All of this saves the teacher a lot of work

Textbook recordings also have a degree of integration within the syllabus – perhaps they reinforce grammar or vocabulary that has been recently studied, or they introduce or extend the topic of the unit.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research context

This small part has provided an overview of the current situation of teaching and learning English at BHGHS, given some information about the institution, the teachers, the students and the listening materials

The research was carried out at Bien Hoa Gifted High School, which is located in Phu Ly city, Ha Nam province The school was established in September,

1959 However, it was not until 1997 that the school was in charge of educating gifted Ss at upper-secondary education in Ha Nam province Since 2014-2015 school year, lower-secondary school Ss were recruited and educated in the school

In 2016-2017 school year, the school has a total of 31 classes including 9 classes of grade 12, 9 classes of grade 11, 9 classes of grade 10, 2 classes of grade 7 and 2 others of grade 6 There are about 35 Ss in each class The school has 10 Ts of English and more than 80 Ts of other subjects

The school has been equipped with many modern facilities for English teaching and learning like computers, projectors, interactive boards, software applications, etc

There are 10 female Ts of English at BHGHS They all graduated from the University of Languages and International Studies, Viet Nam National University,

Ha Noi Most of them earned Master‟s Degree at the same university The researcher is also a teacher of this school She is 30 years old and has been teaching English for 8 years Moreover, she took part in teaching the piloted English 10 textbook Therefore, she has certain knowledge and experience in teaching English as a foreign language, which is supposed to be very valuable in conducting the present research

As for the Ss of the school, about 60% of them come from five districts of the province and approximately 40% of them live in the city or near the city Since 2013-2014 school year, the piloted English textbooks have been taught for the Ss of

English-, Math-, Literature- major classes in the school with 3 periods a week

Whereas, the Ss in the other classes go on following the curriculum in the standard textbooks

The set of the piloted English textbooks have been used for English-, Math-, Literature- major classes at BHGHS for 4 years now The piloted English 10 textbook is the first of a three-level English language set of textbooks for the Vietnamese upper-secondary schools It is divided into 2 volumes Each volume consists of 5 units At the beginning of each unit, the language points and sub-skills to be taught are clearly stated Each unit has five sections including getting started, language, skills, communication and culture, looking back and project that should be taught in eight 45-minute lessons These them-based units are designed to provide students with memorable lessons and enjoyable learning experience

The listening sub-section consists of 4 or 5 activities representing 3 stages of the lesson: pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening The first activity is to draw Ss‟ attention to the topic of the lesson, making them interested in the content of the listening text This is also chance for Ss to share with their peers their background knowledge related to the topic The following two activities provides Ss with practice of the skills of listening for gist and/ or listening for details There are also tasks that help Ss learn new vocabulary in meaningful contexts The most common task types are true/ false, multiple choice, comprehension question, etc

The last activity, which can be considered as a post-listening one aims at checking Ss‟ listening comprehension and asking them to express their opinion of the content of the listening text.

Research method

This small part presents the research method including the participants, the instruments, the data collection and the data analysis methods

The participants in the study are 70 students in Math- and Literature-majored class of grade 10 and 5 English teachers at BHGHS The study was conducted with non-English-majored Ss The reason for choosing this group is because this book will be widely taught for 10 th -form basic Ss at high schools throughout the country and listening skill is not very familiar to these students, who are not specialized in English The author hopes the findings from this study will be helpful for non- English-majored Ss at BHGHS in particular and those at other high schools in general All of participant Ts have at least 5 year English teaching experience and they have taught the piloted E10 textbook

The study used two research instruments: the students‟ survey questionnaires and survey interviews with the teachers

Survey questionnaires were used to collect information and evidence for the study with the hope that the research would be reliable and the processing of the data would be manageable within limited time budget With a view to help the participants to answer questions at ease, the questionnaire is thoroughly explained to the participants during responding to it

The questionnaire consists of 16 questions The first four questions are to explore the Ss‟ attitudes towards listening skill in language learning The last questions deals with their attitudes to listening activities in the listening section of the textbook and the options to improve listening lessons (See the full questionnaire in Appendix 1)

Interviewing is used in this study as another key research instrument The main reason for conducting interviews is to have better insights into the research questions by providing a deep understanding of Ts‟ attitudes towards listening activities The interview consists of 9 questions The interviewed Ts were further probed for clarification when necessary The interviews were conducted in English, and the Ts were interviewed individually

The interview questions are structured as follows The first three questions are to find out the Ts‟ attitudes to listening skill in English learning The final questions deals with the Ts‟ attitudes towards listening activities in the listening section of the textbook and their recommendations to improve listening lessons (See the Interview Guide in Appendix 3)

To collect the data for the study, a 16-question survey questionnaire for Ss and a nine-question survey interview for Ts were designed after the author revised carefully and received comments from the researcher‟s supervisor as well as her colleagues

To make it easy in analyzing data, 70 photocopied copies of the questionnaire were delivered to the students in class Before giving the questionnaires to the respondents, the researcher explained the purpose of the questionnaire, the requirements for the respondents and answered any questions asked by them Then, they were instructed to take as much time as they need to complete the questionnaire To make sure the collected questionnaires were all correctly completed, the researcher asked for permission to have another contact with the respondents after data collection so that she could clarify any unclear responses Besides, nine interview questions were answered by 5 teachers of English after group meetings

Data from the questionnaire are classified into categories including students‟ attitudes towards listening skills, the difficulties they encounter while listening, their attitudes to listening activities in listening section of the textbook and their expectations Because the number of respondents is small, the data are manually analyzed using descriptive statistics (percentage) and interpretations The information is then displayed in forms of charts and tables Besides, the discussion of the result collected by means of the interview with teachers is presented, using thematic analysis.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Findings by means of the survey questionnaire and discussion

The information gathered by means of 16 questions for students can be analyzed one by one as follows:

3.1.1 Students’ attitudes towards listening skill in language learning

Chart 1: Students’perceptions on the importance oflistening skill

(Please refer to question 1 in appendix 1)

As can be seen from chart 1, nearly all the participants (92.9% including 38.6%-very important and 54.3%-important) consider listening an important skill in learning English at school, whereas only 4.3% do not find listening skill very important 2.8% choose a “not important” answer These numbers can result from the fact that listening helps the participants much in learning a language It motivates learners in communicating and in learning three other skills

Chart 2: Students’perceptions on learninglistening skill

(Please refer to question 2 in appendix 1)

According to the result in chart 2, most Ss (87.1%) find learning listening skill is not easy Actually, 27.1% of the Ss consider this skill very difficult Other 60% think it is difficult to learn listening The rest of the Ss accounting for 12.9 percent think that listening skill is not very difficult None of the participants chooses the option “D Easy” It is obvious that listening is a challenging skill for most learners

Chart 3: Students’ interest in learning listening skill

(Please refer to question 3 in appendix 1)

According to the data collected, 24.3% of the Ss feel very interested in listening skill; 35.7 percent of them feel quite interested in this skill, whereas 40% don‟t like listening skill very much or at all Although aware of the importance of listening skill in language learning, almost half of the Ss seem to lack interest in this skill

Chart 4: Students’ frequency of practicing listening skill

(Please refer to question 4 in appendix 1)

Most Ss (88.6%) hardy ever practice listening skill after school while only 11.4% of the Ss often or sometimes do listening activities after class This is easy to understand because English is not their majored subject and normally they do not devote too much time to learning English

3.1.2 Students’ attitudes towards listening activities in the listening section of the textbook

Students’ difficulties in listening lessons based on the piloted English 10 textbook

A Lack of vocabulary and grammatical structures 70

H Linguistic features (elision, linking words, colloquial words)

Table 1: Students’ difficulties in listening lessons

(Please refer to question 5 in appendix 1)

The table shows that most Ss have difficulty in listening mainly due to lack of vocabulary and grammatical structures (70%) and poor background knowledge (64.3%) Some of them (30%) can‟t pay attention to the listening lesson probably because of lack of interest and the difficulty of the listening tasks Some Ss (25.7%) encounter listening difficulties because of linguistic features like elision, linking words and colloquial words The linking of words in speech when the second word begins with a vowel, e.g., an orange /ənˈɒrɪndʒ/) and elision (leaving out a sound or sounds, e.g., suppose may be pronounced /səˈpəʊz/ in rapid speech) are common in the stream of speech Sometimes the recordings contain colloquial words such as

“stuff” for “material”, “guy” for “man”, etc, which makes listening more challenging for Ss Only a few Ss are affected by objective factors like long listening, speed of speech, different accents and surrounding noise Almost no student complains about the tape quality and facilities

The quality of the recordings

Generally, all Ss are satisfied with the quality of the textbook recordings 47.1% of the Ss state that the quality is very good and 52.9% think the recordings are of good quality

Unit Listening topic Suitable Interesting

2 Your body and you The food pyramid 90% 10% 88.6% 11.4%

4 For a better community Help the needy 92.9% 7.1% 90% 10%

6 Gender equality Same work-same pay

8 New ways to learn Triple “E” at your fingertips

Table 2: Students’ ideas about the listening topics

(Please refer to question 7 in appendix 1)

The participants agree that the majority of the topics are interesting and suitable with their levels The topics that the Ss all like absolutely are family life- changing roles, inspirational music, flying cars, triple “E” at your fingertips and ecotourism in the Mekong Delta while the sub-topic “same work-same pay” belonging to the subject “Gender equality” seems not to be very interesting to the learners, only 64.3% of the students love it In terms of the level of suitability, most topics get the high rating (“Ecotourism in the Mekong Delta” with 85% to “Family life-Changing roles” with 95.7%) “Gender equality” and “Cultural diversity” appear to be unfamiliar topics and quite difficult for the students 41.4% do not think “Gender equality” is suitable with their level and 34.3% suppose “Cultural diversity” is unsuitable

8 Are you satisfied with listening lessons in class?

A Very satisfied C Not very satisfied

9 In general, listening activities in the listening section of the textbook are:

10 In listening lessons, you usually

A take part in all activities eagerly and actively

B participate eagerly and actively in only some activities you like

C participate in no activity eagerly and actively

D do other things not related to listening lessons

Table 3: Students’ general perceptions on listening lessons in class

From the results of the table above, it is concluded that a high percentage of the respondents (18.6%: very satisfied and 62.8%: satisfied) are contented with listening lessons in class 18.6% of the Ss show not very good attitudes towards listening lessons but none of them feel dissatisfied with listening ones

In terms of the Ss‟ opinions about the listening activities, 35.7% of the Ss think that they are very interesting and suitable with their levels and they are interesting and suitable for 38.6% of the Ss Whereas, 25.7% of the Ss find them interesting but difficult for their levels

30% of the Ss often take part in all activities eagerly and actively 51.4% of them participate eagerly and actively in only some activities they like The percentage of the learners who participate in no activity eagerly and actively is 18.6% It is good that no one do other things not related to listening lessons

A Looking at the pictures, diagrams or graphs or listening to pieces of music about the topic of the listening lesson

B Answering some pre-listening questions relating the content of the passage: True/ False questions, Yes/

No questions Open-ended questions

C Discussing the questions relating to the topic of the passage in pairs or in groups

D Predicting the content of the listening text through pictures

E Being introduced new vocabulary and structures relating to the content of the text (through doing matching or using dictionaries)

1 Very necessary, 2 Necessary, 3 Not very necessary, 4 Not necessary

Table 4: Students’ opinion about the necessity of using pre-listening activities

(Please refer to question 11 in appendix 1)

The data from the table above point out that the responses in this section spread from “very necessary” to “not necessary” for all items, except for item E with no one chooses the “not necessary” response As for item E, 95.7% of the participants find it “very necessary” and “necessary” while only 4.3% consider it

“not very necessary” Similarly, a high percentage of the respondents (91.4%) suppose item A is really necessary, 8.6% think it is not very essential or not essential Followed these items are items C, B and D, which manifest that a smaller percentage of the students state that these items are very necessary but a rather high percentage of the students choose the option “necessary” for using these pre- listening activities (87.1% for C, 81.4% for B, 74.3% for D)

The items A, C and E have a high percentage of students who pick up the answer “very necessary” and ”necessary” This is because the fact that in these activities, they do not spend much time achieving background knowledge about what they are going to listen Moreover, Ss can enrich their knowledge, vocabulary and improve their communication ability through being provided new vocabulary and structures, discussing the questions or listening to pieces of music and looking at the pictures, diagrams or graphs relating to the content of the listening passage

Chart 5: The benefits students get from using pre-listening activities

(Please refer to question 12 in appendix 1)

The chart displays clearly that the Ss‟ main benefit of pre-listening activities is to help Ss understand listening lessons better and get better results 81.4% of the participants admit this benefit of pre-listening phase This means that the Ss always lessons better 74.3% of the Ss indicate the advantage of before listening activities is making students more interested and motivated to learn listening skills 52.9% of the Ss suppose that helping them feel more confident in learning listening is what pre-listening activities bring about 35 responses think they can communicate more thanks to pre-listening activities Enriching vocabulary and grammatical structures is the choice of 34 Ss (48.6%) It is good that no Ss choose “nothing” for their answer It means they all consider pre-listening activities bring them benefits in learning listening skill Thus, it can be safe to conclude that the Ss highly appreciate pre-listening activities because they hope to succeed more in listening skills thanks to these activities

A Ticking words and phrases that are heard 34.3% 54.3% 8.6% 2.8%

D Filling in the missing information 22.9% 28.6% 37.1% 11.4%

F Completing tables, charts and diagrams 18.6% 35.7% 31.4% 14.3%

Table 5: Suitability of while-listening activities with students’ levels

(Please refer to question 13 in appendix 1)

Findings by means of the survey interview and discussion

The information gathered by means of 9 questions for teachers can be analyzed as follows:

3.2.1 Teachers’ attitudes towards listening skill

In general, all of the interviewed teachers have positive perceptions on listening skill All of them think that listening skill is vitally important in language learning The Ts also add that as one of the four key skill in language learning, listening helps apply communication-oriented teaching methods more conveniently and effectively Moreover, listening helps their Ss be exposed more to English, the target language All of the interviewees find teaching listening skill very interesting

They say that in listening periods, their Ss have more chances to communicate with each other, they can listen, speak and widen their vocabulary and cultural knowledge at the same time Besides, thanks to available teaching aids, they can conduct listening lessons in a more effective and intriguing way

Almost all Ts don‟t usually design supplementary listening activities for their Ss to practice The reasons they state are designing them is quite time-consuming and non-English majored students often find it unnecessary to do these activities; instead, they want to spend their time on other activities relating to their majored subjects 2 out of 5 Ts often design extra listening exercises Teacher 3 says “With class which has good Ss, I often design supplementary listening activities for them so that they have chance to acquire more knowledge With class which has Ss who are bad at English, I often stick to the book to help them consolidate the standard knowledge required by the curriculum.” Teacher 5 says “I often design listening activities after reading and speaking lesson Because I want Ss to apply the knowledge they have learnt to listening and practice listening regularly to prepare for the reality”

3.2.2 Teachers’ attitudes towards listening activities in the listening section of the textbook

Teachers’ difficulties during listening lessons

The difficulties the Ts encounter during listening lessons can be listed as follows First, some listening lessons are quite long, which makes it difficult for them to cover all the content of the lesson just in 45 minutes Second, the levels of

Ss are quite different A lot of Ss do not take notice of learning listening at secondary schools, so their listening skill is not good enough while some others are quite good at this skill The gap of their levels is a big problem for almost all Ts

Third, their Ss lack background knowledge, which makes listening lessons not smooth Fourth, a lot of their Ss have restricted vocabulary, which results from their laziness in learning new words by heart and updating vocabulary Fifth, sometimes a few Ss do not pay attention enough to listening lessons because some activities are rather difficult and not interesting enough

Teachers’ opinions about the tape quality and the listening topics

All of the Ts think that the listening recordings have quite good quality but some of them have a little bit slow speed of speech, which sounds unnatural and boring and causes loss of interest from time to time In terms of the listening topics, the majority of the topics are said to be relatively interesting and suitable However, the topics like “Gender equality”, “Cultural diversity” and “Ecotourism” are not very familiar to the grade 10 Ss, which makes it quite difficult for them to do activities relating to these topics

Teachers’ attitudes towards listening activities

When being asked about the pre-listening activities, the Ts find them quite effective Those activities help their Ss review their prior knowledge about the listening topic, set up the purposes of listening and provide them with some key words or phrases relating to the topic They are really helpful for their Ss to increase interest and limit difficulty while listening Doing the pre-activities, the Ss are well- prepared for the next stages of the listening lessons However, the Ts sometimes organizes other activities to make their teaching lessons more effective Instead of introducing new words/ phrases by doing matching or through dictionaries, they suggest using visual aids, giving examples containing the words/ phrases and have the Ss guess the meaning Also, they supply their Ss with important structures appearing in the listening passages Sometimes, they let their Ss spend a little time in this stage on a game to create the friendly and pleasant atmosphere before listening

Answering the questions about the most effective pre-activities, all the Ts choose pre-teaching vocabulary and using visual aids or games to lead in the lesson

Besides, answering the questions and discussing are meaningful but only receive cooperation from enthusiastic students

While- and post-listening activities

As for question 8, teacher 1 shares “Some while- and post-listening activities are suitable with my Ss‟ level but some are not With activities that are not suitable with my Ss‟ level, I often adapt them For example, with the requirement “Making questions and answering the questions based on the content of the listening”, I often ask Ss to do role play In unit 2, with the topic food pyramid, in the post-listening part, I ask my students to work in pairs and do the role play: one is a nutritionist, the other is having a health problem and need some advice from nutritionist.” Another states that “Filling in the missing information is quite difficult for my Ss, so I often adapt to make it easier by redesigning and limiting the number of words needed in each blank

Teachers’ suggestions on how to improve listening lessons

All of the interviewees agree that the Ts need to be flexible in listening lessons, using listening activities sensibly and adapting them intelligently on the ground of the objectives of lessons, levels of Ss and interest factors Teacher 2 says

“It depends on each lesson and levels of students In my situation, I often make the tasks in some lessons easier by adapting them, for example, answering multiple choice questions instead of writing answers to questions, filling in the blank with only one word instead of two or three words/ phrases“ Teacher 4 states that she always try to make an effective pre-listening stage in each listening lesson because this stage has a prominent impact on Ss‟ listening and she spends quite a lot of time making teaching plans for pre-listening phase Another participant suggests that extra English afternoon classes should be organized for students to improve their listening skill as well as other skills and language knowledge.

Main findings

To sum up, the data from the survey questionnaire and interview help the author answer the research questions raised Both the Ts and Ss have positive attitudes towards listening skill in general and listening activities in the textbook in particular They are well aware of the importance of listening skill and perceive that listening comprehension in the textbook is quite satisfactory, interesting and suitable However, they meet some difficulties in listening lessons caused mainly by the problems from the learners related to vocabulary, grammatical structures, prior knowledge and concentration or the gap in the Ss‟ levels Regarding listening activities, they emphasizes the importance of pre-listening activities and show the opinions about the effective pre-listening activities Besides, they think some activities in the while-and post-stage are not easy for the learners and need to be adapted To improve listening lessons, the Ss suggest pre-teaching vocabulary and structures should be carried out in various ways and the Ts recommend organizing listening activities flexibly and suitably and developing Ss‟ language knowledge through supplementary listening periods.

CONCLUSION

Conclusions

The study about the teachers and students‟ attitudes towards listening comprehension in the piloted E10 textbook has revealed the following main points

With regard to listening skill, both the teachers and the students share the same viewpoint that it plays a greatly important role in language learning However, while the Ts feel quite interested in teaching this skill, the Ss do not show interest in learning listening for one of the reasons that listening skill is not easy for most of them to acquire Moreover, the Ss do not really have enough practice in listening despite awareness of its importance Also, the Ts do not spend enough time designing extra practical exercises for their Ss to do Briefly, they all have positive attitudes towards listening skill but they need to devote more time and efforts to improving listening skill

In terms of the difficulties Ts and Ss often get into in listening lessons based on the piloted E10 textbook, it has been pointed out that the problems from listeners are the main factors, namely lack of vocabulary and grammatical structures, lack of background knowledge and lack of concentration The Ss add that their troubles come partly from linguistic features, whereas the Ts think the gap in the Ss‟ levels creates difficulty in their teaching

The findings have also shown that most of the participants have quite good general perceptions on listening comprehension in the textbook: the recordings have good quality; the listening topics are quite suitable and interesting; the listening lessons are satisfactory; the listening activities are relatively interesting and suitable with their levels Yet, there exist some problems: some topics like “Cultural diversity”, “Gender equality” are quite strange to the Ss; some Ss‟ participation and contribution during the lessons are not active and enthusiastic, they only actively take part in the activities they like

In addition, the Ts and Ss shows their feelings and opinions about listening activities in each listening stage They all highly appreciate the importance and the benefits of the textbook pre-listening activities in improving listening lessons Of all these activities, pre-teaching vocabulary and grammatical structures is their most favorite and is supposed to be taught flexibly in more other ways like using visual aids, synonyms/ antonyms, even translation With reference to while-and post- listening activities, the Ts and Ss share the same idea that recognition responses include ticking words and phrases that are heard, answering multiple-choice questions and answering true/ false questions are relatively suitable with the learners‟ levels, whereas productive responses include filling in the missing information, writing answers to questions, correcting errors and completing tables, charts and diagrams are more challenging for the Ss, which may result in the Ss‟ loss of interest and confidence in listening lessons

To make listening lessons more effective, it is suggested that pre-listening phase be focused on and some while-and post-listening activities be adapted to be more suitable with the learners‟ levels and increase the effectiveness of listening lessons.

Pedagogical implications of the study

Based on the findings of the study, the researcher would like to put forward some pedagogical implications to improve listening lessons The implications fall into two main parts: suggestions for the teachers and suggestions the students

Firstly, in addition to fostering their awareness of the importance of listening skill in language learning, the Ss should be more concerned with learning listening skill so that they will achieve success in learning this skill It is undeniable that listening is a challenging skill for every learner; however, having interest for learning listening helps facilitate it quite much

Secondly, practice makes perfect, which means if you do an activity regularly and try to improve your skill, you will become very good at it The Ss should actively and enthusiastically practice their listening skill both in class and at home They should make use of listening sources Supplementary listening materials not only in reference books but also on TV, the radio and the Internet help polish the Ss‟ aural or oral skills They are really useful for their learning and make it different

Thirdly, Ss‟ role is no longer passive recipients It is essential that they take part in class activities enthusiastically and acquire knowledge dynamically They are free to raise their voice, give their answers and express their own thoughts and ideas as well as offer suggestions to have better lessons The Ss‟ resistance in participating in class activities will limit their language competence Therefore, they should be stimulated to voluntarily do learning activities and then gradually become confident in joining them

Finally, the learners need to cope with the listening problems from themselves like lack of vocabulary and grammatical structures or lack of background knowledge It is necessary that the students make it their concern to build a repertoire of vocabulary, enhance their vocabulary and revise main grammatical structures, which helps them understand and remember what they have learnt Besides, extending background knowledge is an essential component in learning in general and learning listening skill in particular According to Robert Marzano, "What students already know about the content is one of the strongest indicators of how well they will learn new information relative to the content"

First of all, the teachers should take steps to increase their Ss‟ involvement in listening activities They should pay more attention to the Ss who do not learn enthusiastically and encourage them to volunteer to take part in class activities

Sometimes the Ts need to ask these learners to do listening tasks without their willingness The important thing is being tolerant to the learners‟ language mistakes and praising learners as much as possible when they actively learn, which motivates

Ss to be more eager, interested and confident to cooperate with Ts for more interactive and effective lessons Moreover, it is necessary for the Ts to help the Ss realize how useful listening is It is listening that will help Ss understand the information and communicate better When the Ss have high motivation to listen, they will participate in the lesson willingly

Second, it is important that the Ts always apply their teaching methods appropriately, continuously update their knowledge and skills with regard to the teaching of EFL and especially with regard to the teaching of listening in EFL, which facilitates their work For example, in the piloted E10 textbook, the objective of each listening lesson is that students can listen and get specific information as well as main idea To accomplish it, teachers help learners develop the necessary skills of listening comprehension like listening for detail and listening for gist thanks to their teaching skills Moreover, teaching listening in the light of CLT approach, teachers are aware of the importance of pair-work and group-work in developing communicative competence, then they are flexible and skillful to use these techniques effectively in listening lessons Observing colleagues‟ teaching lessons and exchanging ideas about experiences in teaching listening are very helpful ways to improve teaching methods Besides, the Ts should notice that the application of the new modern equipment in teaching and learning and designing lesson plans applying information technology can support their teaching efficiently

Third, in EFL listening classrooms, the Ts should ensure a balanced approach in the use of both bottom-up and top-down strategies in the listening comprehension process The extent to which Ts help learners to balance the use of the two approaches depends on learners‟ familiarity with the topic, content and the type of text (listening passage), and the purpose of listening (Richards, 2008:10)

Top-down processing motivate students to discuss what they already know about a topic and bottom-up processing give confidence in the understanding of the components of the language such as sounds, words, intonation, and grammatical structures

Fourth, to increase the effectiveness of pre-listening phase, the teachers had better concentrate on activating their Ss‟ background knowledge, strengthening their motivation and interest and pre-teaching them new words through more interesting activities The Ts stimulate their Ss to share their knowledge and ideas as much as possible about the listening topic before listening The Ts also can use visual aids to introduce the meaning of words or a game to lead in the listening lesson For instance, in unit 3 with the topic “Music”, the Ts can organize a music game, in which the Ss listen to the short tracks and guess the name, the singer and/ or composer of each song This game will make them more interested in the lesson

Next, the teacher need to get their students well-prepared for listening lessons Giving practice in linguistic knowledge (elision, linking sounds, colloquial words) helps reduce the difficulties in listening Reading supplementary materials suggested by the Ts helps broaden background knowledge and improve vocabulary

Besides, the Ts should design listening exercises for the Ss to do at home or recommend listening sources for them to practice listening

In addition, the Ts should suggest extra listening classes be organized in the afternoon so that the Ss have more opportunities to practice and develop their language knowledge in general and their listening skill in particular

Last but not least, the Ts should be ready to adapt some while- and post- listening activities which are not very suitable with the Ss‟ levels or not very interesting Adaptation is considered as making changes to materials in order to improve them more congenial for a particular type of learners Most Ts adapt materials every time they use a textbook in order to maximize the value of the book for their particular learners For instance, the post-listening activity in unit 3 “Work with a partner Tell him/ her about your favourite music Give reasons.” may be adapted by adding some cues like kind of music, favourite musician/ singer/ music band, favourite song/ piece of music, reasons These cues simplify the activity and help the Ss be involved in more confidently Another example is activity 5 in the listening lesson of unit 9 The task of answering 7 questions is quite long and difficult In this case, the Ts can transform it in the activity of using the given words to fill in the summary It is quite ideal as a post-listening activity.

Summary of the study

The current survey research has been carried out to explore the attitudes of the teachers and non-English majored students at BHGHS towards listening activities in the new E10 textbook This study has been worked out with an analysis of the teachers as well as the students‟ attitudes to listening skill, the difficulties they encounter during listening lessons based on this textbook, their attitudes towards listening activities in the textbook and their suggestions for more effective listening lessons

Based on the research instruments, survey questionnaires and survey interviews, this study has discovered the significant findings with a help to improving the English listening teaching and learning at BHGHS

It is hoped that the study will be beneficial for both learners and teachers at Bien Hoa gifted high school in teaching and learning listening skill The study is also hoped to be worth reading for those who are concerned with listening skill.

Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study

The present study has several limitations that can be noticed for future research on teachers and students‟ attitudes towards listening activities in the piloted English 10 textbook

First, the size of the sample population is quite small The participants are only 70 students and 5 teachers The findings may, to some extent, not be generalized to all the teachers and students

Second, the participants in the study were limited to teachers and 10 th form students at BHGHS A replicate study should focus on examine teachers and students of other forms or/and at other upper-secondary schools

Moreover, there are a lot of components of attitudes but the researcher explores attitudes based on analyzing opinions, feelings and behaviors, to some extent Further research should be done to get better insights into attitudes

Finally, because of the limitation of knowledge and experience of the researcher, the suggestions in the last part are likely to be subjective and incomplete Therefore, future work and effort should be made to overcome this shortcoming

All the existing limitations of the study call for further study Hopefully, more research will be carried out to improve listening activities in the textbook and increase the effectiveness of the textbook

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This survey questionnaire is designed for my study “Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards listening activities in the Piloted English 10 textbook: A survey at Bien Hoa Gifted High School, Ha Nam” Your assistance in fulfilling the following questions is greatly appreciated Please put a tick (√) to indicate your choice For some questions, you can choose more than one option Thank you very much for your help

1 How important is listening skill in your English learning?

A Very important C Not very important

2 What do you think about learning listening skill?

A Very difficult C Not very difficult

3 How much do you feel interested in listening skill?

A Very much B Rather C Little D Not at all

4 How often do you practice listening skill after school?

5 What are the difficulties you have experienced when learning listening based on the piloted English 10 textbook? (You can choose more than one option)

A Lack of vocabulary and grammatical structures

H Linguistic features (elision, linking words, colloquial words)

6 How is the quality of the textbook recordings?

A Very good B good C Not very good D Poor

7 Are the listening topics in the textbook suitable with your levels and interesting?

(Tick Yes or No to clarify your answers)

Unit Listening topic Suitable Interesting

1 Family life Family life-Changing roles

6 Gender equality Same work-same pay

10 Ecotourism Ecotourism in the Mekong

8 Are you satisfied with listening lessons in class?

A Very satisfied B Satisfied C Not very satisfied D Not satisfied

9 In general, listening activities in the listening section of the textbook are:

A Very suitable and interesting C Interesting but difficult

B Suitable and interesting D Boring and difficult

10 In listening lessons, you usually

A take part in all activities eagerly and actively

B participate eagerly and actively in only some activities you like

D do other things not related to listening lessons

11 These are pre-listening activities in the listening section of the textbook

Please tick the appropriate box according to the level of necessity:

1 Very necessary, 2 Necessary, 3 Not very necessary, 4 Not necessary

A Looking at the pictures, diagrams or graphs or listening to pieces of music about the topic of the listening lesson

B Answering some pre-listening questions relating the content of the passage: True/ False questions, Yes/ No questions

C Discussing the questions relating to the topic of the passage in pairs or in groups

D Predicting the content of the listening text through pictures

E Reviewing new vocabulary and structures relating to the content of the text (Doing matching, using dictionaries)

12 What benefits do you get from these pre-listening activities? (You can choose more than one option)

A Being more interested and motivated to learn listening skills

B Feeling more confident in learning listening

C Understanding listening lessons better and getting better results

E Enriching vocabulary and grammatical structures

13 These are while-listening activities in the listening section of the textbook Please tick the appropriate box according to the level of suitability with your levels:

1 Very suitable, 2 Suitable, 3 Not very suitable, 4 Not suitable

A Ticking words and phrases that are heard

D Filling in the missing information

F Completing tables, charts and diagrams

14 These are post-listening activities in the listening section of the textbook Please tick the appropriate box according to the level of difficulty:

1 Very difficult, 2 Difficult, 3 Not very difficult 4 Easy

A Making questions and answering the questions based on the content of the listening

C Writing the sentences or paragraphs related to the listening topic

D Doing speaking tasks related to the listening topic

15 How often do you lack confidence and interest when doing post-listening activities?

16 What should be done to improve listening activities in the listening section of the textbook? (You can choose more than one option)

A Introducing new vocabulary and grammatical structures in various ways (using synonyms and antonyms, using visual aids like pictures, maps, videos)

B Using games as a pre-listening activity to increase students‟ interest and motivation

C Reducing the number of while- and post-listening activities

D Adapting some while- and post-listening activities to make them more suitable

APPENDIX 2 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (For Teachers)

This survey interview is designed for my study “Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards listening activities in the Piloted English 10 textbook: A survey at Bien Hoa Gifted High School, Ha Nam” Your assistance in fulfilling the following questions is greatly appreciated Thank you very much for your help

1 How important do you think listening skill is in language learning?

2 How much do you feel interested in teaching listening skill?

3 Do you often design supplementary listening activities for your students? Why (not)?

4 What are the difficulties you have experienced when teaching listening based on the piloted English 10 textbook?

5 What do you think of the quality of listening recordings and the listening topics?

1 Family life Family life-Changing roles

2 Your body and you The food pyramid

4 For a better community Help the needy

6 Gender equality Same work-same pay

8 New ways to learn Triple “E” at your fingertips

9 Preserving the environment Preserving the natural environment

10 Ecotourism Ecotourism in the Mekong Delta

6 Do you think pre-listening activities in the text book are effective?

Why (not)? Do you often add any other pre-listening activities?

A Looking at the pictures, diagrams or graphs or listening to pieces of music about the topic of the listening lesson

B Answering some pre-listening questions relating the content of the passage: True/ False questions, Yes/ No questions Open-ended questions

D Predicting the content of the listening text through pictures

E Reviewing new vocabulary and structures relating to the content of the text (Doing matching, using dictionaries)

7 Which pre-listening activities do you find the most effective in teaching listening skill?

8 Do you think while- and post-listening activities are suitable with your students‟ level? Do you follow the while – and post listening activities suggested in the textbook and how often do you adapt them?

A Ticking words and phrases that are heard

D Note-taking/ Filling in the missing information

F Completing tables, charts and diagrams

A Making questions and answering the questions based on the content of the listening

C Writing the sentences or paragraphs related to the listening topic

D Doing speaking tasks related to the listening topic

9 In your opinion, what should be done to improve listening lessons?

APPENDIX 3 CONTENTS OF LISTENING ACTIVITIES - LISTENING SECTION, ENGLISH 10 Unit/ Topic/

Pre-listening activities While-listening activities Post-listening activities

- Look at the chart and discuss the changes in the weekly hours of basic housework by married men and married women in the USA Guess the reasons for the changes

- Listen and decide whether the statements are true or false

- Work in pairs Match the word/ phrase with its appropriate meaning

- Listen again and answer the questions

2 Your body and you – The food pyramid

- What do you usually have for lunch or dinner? Do you care about the nutritional value of the things you eat?

- Look at the picture What do you think the listening is about?

- Listen and decide whether the statements are true or false

- Listen again and divide the plate into sections and label which food should be in each section

- Write some sentences to describe the plate you have just made in the previous activity

- Do you know these artists?

- Listen to the conversation between Anna and Nam What

- Work with a partner Tell him/ her about your favorite music Give

Tell your partner what you thought about and how you felt while listening to it

- Listen again and give short answers to the questions

4 For a better community – Help the needy

- Discuss the questions with a partner

- Match the words with their definitions

- Listen and decide whether the statements are true or false

- Listen again and choose the best answer

- Work in groups Ask and answer the questions

- Look at the picture and discuss with a partner what this flying car can and cannot do

- Listen and tick the words or phrases that you hear

- Listen and answer the questions

- Listen again and complete the information about the flying car

- Do you want to own a flying car like Mr Brown? Why or why not?

Is there a way to solve the problem with the car that Mr Brown discusses?

- Look at the picture The man and the woman do the same work, but they look different

- Listen and repeat the following words Do you know each word‟s meaning? Use a dictionary if necessary

- Listen and decide whether the statements are true or false

- Listen again and complete the missing information, using no more than three words or numbers

- Ask and answer the questions diversity –

Cultural diversity talk about the wedding traditions of the Amish community living in Pennsylvania, the USA Make your own predictions about them by deciding whether the statements are true or false

- Listen again and complete the missing information, using no more than three words you have learnt about the Amish wedding customs Did you find anything unusual or interesting? Tell your partner

8 New ways to learn – Triple “E” at your fingertips

- Look at the picture with the caption “Digital English at school and at home” What are the students doing? What do you think you are going to listen about?

- Listen and decide whether the statements are true or false

- Listen again and complete the sentences, using no more than three words

- Work in groups Ask and answer the question

What do you think of studying English with modern technology? Explain your opinion

- Look at the photo and describe what you see

- Listen to a student‟s talk What is he talking about? Tick the correct box

- Listen again Tick the words you hear Look up the meanings of these words in a dictionary

- Listen again Complete the sentences with one or two words

- Ask and answer the questions.