Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS using movies to increase motivation and listening comprehension of third year EFL students at academy of finance an action research study

INTRODUCTION

Motivation is the key to any learning process If you do not have motivation, you cannot learn well Motivation often performs two important characters in second language learning process; it firstly arouses people‟s interest and secondly helps people keep their enthusiasm Also in English learning process, it takes time and effort to be able to master the language The question is that, how can teachers increase motivation for students? How can students be motivated during the class?

Another aspect that catches the attention of educators in Vietnam is that many students complain they can read very well, but they cannot hear anything from native speakers when they talk Rost (1994) appreciates the importance of listening in second and foreign language learning and states that listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides input for learners Without understanding input at the right level, any learning simply cannot begin Nevertheless, teaching listening is a challenging job

It takes much time and energy to make progress in this skill For teachers, it is difficult tasks to get students participate in listening lessons For students, they often feel fed up with activities in listening lesson

In Vietnam, most students have taken English classes for at least 5 years before they enter college However, most of them remain insufficient in their ability to use the language Many surveys conducted by language educators and scholars have revealed that films in video format should be utilized as teaching aids because movies provide exposures to the real language used in authentic settings and the culture in which the foreign language is spoken They also have found films that draw the learners‟ interest can positively affect their motivation to learn (Sommer, 2001; Kusumarasdyati, 2004;

Luo, 2004) The fact is that in Vietnam, not much attention has been paid to this way of teaching foreign languages Most of teachers use textbook and materials as their main tools to teach in class With a view to making some changes, a study entitled

"Using movies to increase motivation and listening comprehension of third year EFL students at Academy of Finance: An action research study" is carried out to investigate the effects of the movies to be used in EFL class to support the students and help them feel more comfortable with the approach of learning a language through movie viewing and thus facilitate learning

Firstly, the study aims to find out possible explanations for the weak competence of the students in listening comprehension skills and their passiveness when participating in listening activities Besides, the researcher aims to figure out how the use of movies in EFL classroom increases students‟ motivation and their listening comprehension

As a result, recommendations are made to further improve the effectiveness of the use of movies in EFL classes at Academy of Finance, Hanoi.

This is an action research study, with the use of a number of data collection instruments, namely observation, questionnaires, tests and interviews The data are then analyzed to figure out the findings for the research

Action research has proved to be the best choice for this study because the study is aimed at improving the students‟ motivation and their listening comprehension within a certain context The combination of different instruments used in this research would help to gain reliable data and help the researcher have a close investigation into the problems that the students may find challenging

The research questions are posed as follows:

- To what extent does the use of movies in class increase students‟ motivation?

- What are the students‟ attitudes towards using movies in EFL classroom?

- To what extent does the use of movies improve students‟ listening comprehension?

The focuses of the study are levels of motivation, students‟ attitudes to the use of movies in classroom and changes in their listening comprehension The researcher used only 1 class and two movies to carry out an action research study on the topic of using movies as a teaching aid instrument in EFL classroom at AOF for six-week period

The research was conducted on third-year accounting students at AOF Regarding its scope, the research was only aimed at justifying the effect of movie viewing on the students‟ listening comprehension Other aspects of English skills would not be investigated

The study highlights the important role of using movies in English teaching and learning process at AOF The findings of the study are believed to be useful for both teachers and students to be aware of the essential role of movies with the aim to prepare students for listening lessons and increase their motivation Furthermore, this study also helps teachers to upgrade their teaching activities in relation with the process of renovation for teaching

The thesis is divided into five chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction, Chapter 2: Literature Review, Chapter 3: Methodology, Chapter 4: Results and Discussion, Chapter 5:

This chapter provides an overview of the study such as background to the study, the aims and objectives of the study, the research questions and the outline of the study.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The importance of listening skill in English teaching and learning process

The word “motivation” might appear simple and easy, but it is in fact very difficult to define Because motivation cannot be seen, heard or felt, it can only be inferred from behavior Thus, it seems to have been impossible for theorists to reach consensus on a single definition

According to Harmer (1991), the nature of motivation is some kind of internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a course of action Skinner and Belmont

(1991) develop the definition further, noting that students who are motivated to engage in school “select tasks at the border of their competencies, initiate action when given the opportunity, and exert intense effort and concentration in the implementation of learning tasks; they show generally positive emotions during ongoing action, including enthusiasm, optimism, curiosity, and interest” (Skinner and Belmont, 1991, p.3)

Crooks and Schmidt (1991) define motivation in terms of interest in and enthusiasm for the teaching method used in class, persistence with the listening task as indicated by levels of attention or action for an extended duration; and levels of concentration and enjoyment From the researcher‟s point of view, this definition is exactly right for the motivation in this study Through the innovation of teaching method like the use of movies in class, students are interested and motivated to participate in the tasks with high concentration and enjoyment

2.1.2 The importance of motivation in English teaching and learning process

Interestingly, many researchers consider motivation as one of the main elements that determine success in developing a second or foreign language

Motivation is a central issue in understanding second language proficiency

McDonough (1981) believes that motivation is important in influencing a person‟s success or failure in learning a foreign language Among other things, motivation is the need for achievement and success, curiosity, desire for stimulation, and new experiences It is more important than language aptitude Oxford and Shearin (1994) state that motivation determines the extent of active, personal involvement in second language learning Ellis (1997) concludes that the relationship between motivation and achievement is an interactive one A high level of motivation does stimulate learning, but perceived success in achieving L2 goals can help to maintain existing motivation and even create new types

Obviously, unmotivated students are insufficiently involved and therefore unable to develop their potential L2 skills As a result, motivation is one of the determining factors in the success of foreign or second language learning

2.1.3 The importance of listening skill in English teaching and learning process

The importance of listening in second and foreign language learning is admirably summarized in a recent publication by Rost (1994): “Listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides input for the learners, without understanding input at the right level, any learning simply cannot begin” (p.141-142) There are more and more studies indicating the sheer importance of listening in communication and language learning (Dunkel, 1991) As Lewis (1993, p.32) highlights: “Almost all the world‟s natural output is spoken rather written As well as listening being a vital skill for almost all interaction, it follows from this that it is therefore the most important medium for input in learning a foreign language by increasing student‟s ability to perceive speech, the amount of input will be increased and therefore aiding language acquisition”

Moreover, listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying This involves understanding a speaker‟s accent or pronunciation, his grammar and his vocabulary, and grasping his meaning (Howatt & Dakin, 1974) Willis (as cited in Saricoban, 1999) lists a series of micro-skills of listening, which she calls enabling skills They are: (1) predicting what people are going to talk about, (2) guessing at unknown words or phrases without panic, (3) using one‟s own knowledge of the subject to help one understand, (4) identifying relevant points; rejecting irrelevant information, (5) retaining relevant points (note-taking, summarizing), (6) recognizing discourse markers, e.g Well, Oh, Another thing is, Now, Finally, etc., (7) recognizing cohesive devices, (8) understanding different intonation patterns and uses of stress, etc., which give clues to meaning and social setting, (9) understanding inferred information, e.g speaker‟s attitude or intention

The focus of listening teaching and learning has also changed a lot and it has moved from teacher-centered approach to more learner-centered one That is why listening is now recognized as an active receptive skill (Anne and Lynch, 1988) in which the listener activates previous or existing knowledge to integrate new knowledge

According to Austin (1970), a teacher‟s roles in a listening lesson are to create interest, reasons for listening, and the confidence to listen Underwood (1989) appreciate teacher‟s role in directing students in listening lessons Students will naturally turn to their teachers when they have difficulties in understanding spoken English and teacher will wish to assist in whatever ways they can The author sets objectives to the teachers Firstly, teachers are to expose students to a range of listening experiences, which can be done by using many different listening texts such as stories, conversations, descriptive talks, etc, which incorporate a variety of language Secondly, it is necessary for teachers to make listening purposeful for the students This can best be achieved by providing tasks, which are as realistic as possible, so that the students can relate what they are doing in the lesson to things that happen in real life, outside the classroom Thirdly, teachers are to help students understand what listening entails and how they might approach it Often, this means changing the attitudes of students, particularly if in the past their attempts to learn to listen have been unsuccessful It is worth spending a little time explaining the processes of listening to students and talking to them about how they listen in their native language The final objective is to build up students‟ confidence in their own listening ability Success breeds success and students who feel they are succeeding will be encouraged to go on trying The teacher‟s role in this study is to provide experiences and activities in which students can benefit from It is important to remove the idea of testing from listening activities and to take advantage of the almost universal interest in problem-solving as a basis for most of teacher‟s listening work

In order to make listening tasks become more attractive to students, it is necessary for listening teachers to be cautious about the reasons why listening is challenging to learners and it is the role of the teacher to help them with useful learning strategies.

Previous studies on the use of movies in English teaching

Visual aids are a great enhancement for teaching an ESL class An even better resource is the presence of film and video in class as they change the learning atmosphere of the class, and ESL students can hear authentic English in real life scenes and natural settings Many scholars have revealed that movies used in EFL classroom can become an important part of the curriculum This is based on the fact that movies provide exposures to “real language,” used in authentic settings and in the cultural context which the foreign language is spoken They also have found that movies catch the learners‟ interest and it can positively affect their motivation to learn (Kusumarasdyati, 2004; Luo, 2004)

Firstly, movies can be considered as authentic material and they provide the learners with genuine input (Mishan 2004: 216) Moreover, as Krashen (1985: 4) points out, a natural input helps the learners to acquire language without necessarily even noticing that they are hearing or reading a foreign language Using videos to facilitate learners‟ listening comprehension has also been widely discussed in the past two decade (Secules et al, 1992; Weyers, 1999; Linebarger, 2001; Kusumarasdyati, 2004; Luo, 2004; Lin, 2009) Joseph R Weyers (1999) carried out a study with an authentic soap opera to measure whether it can increase students listening comprehension and enhance their oral production There were two groups in his study:

17 subjects in the control group and 20 subjects in the experimental group The experiment was conducted in two second-semester Spanish classes for 8 weeks at the University of New Mexico All the students were present for the pre-and post- treatment tests Both groups followed the established curriculum for second-semester Spanish However, the experimental group was supplemented by the experimental treatment The treatment required that the subjects in the experimental group watched two episodes of a Spanish soap opera per week, which was taped off-air with the commercials and was not specifically designed for language learners The viewing consumed approximately 45 minutes of the 60-minute class period Before viewing each episode, the teacher gave the participants a short summary in English of the telenovela The result of the experiment suggests that telenovelas are a valuablesource in increasing the students‟ listening comprehension skills

Luo, J.J (2004) in his study examined the influence of DVD movies on students‟ listening comprehension Nine films were incorporated into the class curriculum over the entire school year The DVDs were the main materials of the course, supported by specially designed additional activities Instructional activities included story-telling, picture description and open-ended questions for group discussion on topics retrieved from the movies The researcher incorporated caption- on and caption-off activities in order to practice student‟s listening skills The final results of the statistical analyses indicated that student‟s listening skill “did improve” through the instruction of using DVD movies in a motivating learning environment with “lower level of anxiety” after a whole school year (Luo, 2004)

Herron and Seay (1991) had conducted research on using video in listening comprehension for EFL students He used intermediate level of students and has divided them into two groups, experimental and controlled group The experimental group has substituted the regular classes with listening to the authentic radio tapes The controlled group followed the regular class activities without and exposure to the radio tapes The study has provided evidence that the experimental group performed significantly better on the final tests of listening comprehension with both the video and the audio than did the control group in which no strategy training occurred

Champoux (1999) has studied the use of films as a teaching resource and Allan

(1985), Stoller (1988), Katchen (2003) and Sufen (2006) have analyzed the use of films and videotapes concerning particularly EFL or ESL teaching

However, in Vietnam, the fact is that, not much research on this topic has been carried out A number of thesis or assignments focus only on studies of the use of pictures or short video clips as their teaching aids As a result, by combining these previous studies, it is easier to notice why using movies in EFL teaching is a useful method and has several advantages compared to the more traditional teaching styles.

Advantages and disadvantages of movie viewing in classroom

Movies provide a wonderful opportunity for students to gain background understanding to combine with their own understanding about a story or concept It has been studied that films enhance English language skill development since they bring variety, reality, authenticity and flexibility into the EFL classroom Good films can serve as a valuable pedagogical aid, both for classroom use and self-study The ultimate goal is to arouse sensitivity in the learner and to provide a stimulus to stretch his/her imagination and creativity Moreover, using movies can motivate the students to study English and the visuality of the film may also help the weaker students to understand since it offers another channel of understanding in addition to just listening to the language (Champoux 1999, Allan 1985: 48-65, Stoller 1988) Allan (1985: 48-

65) also highlights the realistic examples that the films enable Combining both audio and visuality makes film a comprehensive tool for language teaching The visuality also supports the students: it helps learners by supporting the verbal message and provides a focus of attention while they listen In addition, viewers are not just passive observers but their responses also add to the power of the film According to Stoller

(1988) films are a flexible tool for second language learning and instruction since they add an extra dimension to course design and assure a rich variety of language and cultural experiences Additionally, films expose the students to authentic target language, speech forms that are not normally encountered in the more restricted classroom environment The more realistic language often also motivates the students to participate actively in film-related activities With the help of films teachers can present these characteristics to students better than with only a textbook By watching films the students can also explore the issues of appropriateness and pragmatics while observing also linguistic, paralinguistic and nonverbal behaviour According to Allan (1985: 48-65) films actually get students to talk and they can be a stimulus to genuine communication in the classroom by bringing out different opinions within the group

Authentic materials usually help them to notice, that knowing foreign language is very useful and that the language can be used every day in different contexts

Even though using movies can diversify the curriculum and motivate the learners to study a foreign language, using movies is not always straightforward and trouble-free From the teacher's perspective, it may be argued that the planning stage is time-consuming and demanding since it requires previewing the film and designing adequate activities According to Stoller (1988) using movies requires for instance extensive preparation and thus some teachers may feel that using movies is too demanding Since teachers usually are rather busy, preparing film lessons is considered too time-consuming and it is perhaps easier to follow a text book instead of preparing the film and the related assignments Moreover, Champoux (1999: 240-251) points out that using films is not only time-consuming for the teacher, but it can also take time away from other classroom activities In addition, Stoller (1988) mentions also poor equipment as a factor which may complicate the use of films in teaching

However, nowadays the language classrooms are rather well equipped, and almost every classroom has either a television or a computer, which allows using for instance DVD films Nevertheless, the teacher must keep in mind the costs and make sure that the film lesson does not overrun the budget It is also important to notice that the students‟ reactions may vary and for some students, for instance, a certain scene can be distracting The teachers in Vietnam should be aware that young learners of English just would love to go to the cinema or theatre with friends to relax and then leave for home They might think movies are for entertainment and do not pay enough attention to the benefit it might bring to them Therefore, it would be much better if they have chance to have movies in class under the instructions of teachers DVD films would be much interesting if it is used appropriately

In sum, it is obvious that the pendulum swings to the asset side, and the pros outnumber the cons So, why not give it a try?

Criteria to choose

An important factor when planning the movie lessons is choosing the movie It can be based on thematic content to reinforce and consolidate topics treated within the language syllabus, such as discrimination, moral issues, mass media, ecology, education, and work, or to illustrate language functions and grammatical patterns in real use.Selection should be very careful especially with respect to accent since some problems may arise Comprehension may be hindered by dialectal varieties of the language used by the characters

There are also other important points that need to be made sure before using movies in foreign language teaching These are, for instance, copyright matters, the teaching environment in which to use films and the proficiency level of the learners It is also important to remember, that the films are not a substitute for the teacher.

Moreover, students should understand that they are not expected to understand every word The teacher should get students to accept that getting the „main idea‟ is enough

In addition, it is the teacher‟s responsibility to promote active viewing and the film should also promote active participation from the beginning of the lesson in order for the students to be more than just passive listeners and watchers

Each film dictates different types of activities Thus, careful selection and previewing of the films is important It is also important that the students understand the instructional objectives of a film lesson Thus, it is important to give understandable and simple instructions to the students, in order to make them understand that the film is not just an entertaining way to pass time but that it has certain pedagogical goals However, Allan (1985) emphasizes that it is important to choose topics that are relevant to the students The stories should interest and appeal in order for the students to stay motivated All in all, the topics should be both interesting and pedagogically rich

Additionally, one important factor that should be taken into account when selecting appropriate movies is the proficiency level of the students and the comprehensibility of the film The film should be sufficiently comprehensible so that students can complete the language related tasks and that the teacher does not have to work too hard in order to help the students to understand the language

Allan (1985) points out some concrete factors which should be taken into account when choosing a film for certain proficiency level Firstly, the density of language is important There should be enough pauses in the dialogue in order for the students to be able to follow along Secondly, the film should provide the students with enough visual support This means that the visual messages support the verbal message and it is also possible, at least to some extent, guess what is happening in the film Thirdly, delivery of the speech is also a factor that affects understanding If the characters speak too quickly or there are various different accents, it can be difficult for the students to understand the language However, for instance different accents are again a simulative challenge for the more advanced learners

Moreover, according to Stoller (1988), also the length of the film is a useful thing to consider It is important to choose films that are long enough to convey meaningful content, yet short enough to allow classroom time for pre-viewing and post-viewing activities

The teacher also should think about the reasons why he or she wants to use the film, what for and with which students It is also important to think beforehand, what he or she expects the students to understand from the film It makes the preparations easier, if the teacher also thinks about what techniques might work with the film, how much time the film will need and what kind of preparatory work is necessary before the film lessons However, Stoller (1988) states that films can be linked into syllabus in various ways: by language items, by functions or by thematic units It is also possible to use content-based curriculum, in which case the subject matter of the selected film must be related

There are many kinds of movie available such as Thriller, Comedy, War movies, Action movie, Romance, Documentary, Walt Disney movie, etc However, in Vietnam, youngsters love to watch Walt Disney‟s Picture films for some reasons

Firstly, films of Walt Disney are popular all around the world They usually make films that catch the interest of many types of people, especially kids and teenagers

Secondly, the messages in their films are very gentle, understandable and encouraging

Many films are well-known in Vietnam such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Treasure Island, The Story of Robinhood and His Merrie Men, Little Chicken, Aladdin, Tarzan and Jane, etc These are very good movies for young learners of English as the content is very comprehensible, the music is so interesting and the characters are beautiful and professional Especially, the DVDs are easy to find That is the reason why the researcher in this study decides to choose 2 Walt Disney movies to present to her students as a teaching aid instrument; they are High School Musical 1 and The Parent Trap 1998

It is not an easy task to make a good movie class because there are so many things the teacher must be aware of However, if the teacher really takes it for granted when using movies as a teaching aid, he or she will make the students really interested and motivated.

How to exploit

According to Stoller (1988) the film lesson and its activities should consist of pre-viewing, viewing and post-viewing activities This ensures that the students stay focused and motivated throughout the lesson, and the goals of the lesson are clear to them Stoller (1988) emphasizes that the pre-viewing activities prepare students for the actual viewing Some examples of pre-viewing activities could be student polls, interviews, problem solving discussion of the title of the film, brainstorming activities, information gap exercises, and dictionary or vocabulary exercises and so on Pre- viewing is important in order for the students to be able to follow the film and understand the storyline and characters Pre-viewing can make it easier for also the weaker students to benefit from the film and its many beneficial aspects Pre-viewing task gives the ESL instructor an opportunity to provide some background information on the film (director, producer, actors, year of production, music, writer, etc.) or discuss the background and setting of a scene (characters, plot, and themes)

Stoller (1988) points out, that viewing activities during the film, on the other hand, facilitate viewing of the film The activities help students to deal with specific issues and focus on characters or storyline also at crucial junctures in the film Some examples of viewing activities are directed listening, information gathering, film interruptions and second screening For instance a film interruption helps the teacher to control whether the students have understood what happens in the film While- viewing tasks provide an opportunity to deepen the understanding of a film and conduct a comprehension check One idea is for the teacher to play important scenes with the sound off and the English subtitles on (subtitles can be in the students‟ first language if the level demands) The teacher then replays the scene with both the subtitles and sound, and replays it a third time with the sound alone and no subtitles

This technique is suitable for dramatic scenes, or when dialect or slang is spoken, because it facilitates understanding and makes students feel more confident (Roell,

Finally, Stoller (1988) highlights also the importance of post-viewing activities

They are meant to stimulate both written and oral use of the target language utilizing insights and information from the film Post-viewing activities should extract the main ideas, concepts or issues of the film, since the small details may have been missed, and it is essential to understand the main points of the film Post-viewing activities can be for instance film summaries, alternative endings, discussions, comparisons, speed writing, using notes for writing practice, role plays or debates Post-viewing activities allow students to check their comprehension and use the new language they have learned (Roell, 2010) In the activity called “Fly on the Wall,” students reconstruct a movie scene from memory, as if they are unseen witnesses After writing down their accounts, they view the scene again to check their recall and have the opportunity to amend their rendition (Sherman 2003) To strengthen their descriptive abilities, students can analyze characters in a film and write descriptive portraits of the characters‟ appearance, education, profession, relationships, likes and dislikes, and other qualities According to Allan (1985: 66) it is important to try to exploit all the positive sides that a film can offer on language teaching For instance visuality is obviously a great part of films, and it can help also the weaker students to follow the film and understand what is happening There are non-verbal signals in a film, for instance gestures, facial expressions, eye-contact, posture, proximity, appearance and setting All these factors play an important part in the film and may help or, on the other hand, also possibly hinder watching the film

In brief, the following are some techniques for using film or video in EFL classroom:

Active viewing increases students‟ enjoyment and satisfaction and focuses their attention on the main idea of the movie presentation Therefore, it is necessary for the students to take an active part in the movie Before starting the showing, the teacher should write some key questions on the board about the presentation so that the students can get an overview of the content of it After viewing the questions, the students answer them orally For more comprehension, the students may be provided with cue sheets or viewing guides The teacher then let them watch and listen for specific details or features of the target language

 Freeze framing and prediction Freeze framing means stopping the picture on the screen by pressing the still or pause button Teacher freezes the picture when he or she wants to teach words and expression regarding mood and emotions, to ask questions about a particular scene or to call students‟ attention to some points By freezing the scene, the students can be asked what is going to happen next and they, then, will speculate on what will happen in the next action Freeze framing is excellent for speculation This activity also fires the imagination of the students by leading them predicting and deducing further information about the characters

As video is an audiovisual medium, the sound and the vision are separate components

Silent viewing arouses students‟ interests, stimulate thoughts, and develop skills of anticipation In silent viewing, the video segment is played with the sound off using only the picture This activity can also be a prediction technique when students watch the film for the first time One way of doing this is to play the video segment without the sound and tell the students to observe the behavior of the characters and to use their power of deduction The teacher presses the pause button at intervals to stop the picture on the screen and get students to guess what is happening and what the characters might be saying or ask students has happened up to that point Finally, video segment is replayed with the sound on so that the learners can compare their impressions with what actually happens in the movie

This activity can be interesting and useful to play a section of a video unit and remove the visual element from the presentation by obscuring the picture so that students can hear only the dialogue but unable to see the action Through this activity, the students predict or reconstruct what has happened visually depending only on what they hear

It is easier for students to watch with both sound and visual on In terms of listening and the overall ESL comprehension, captioned videos are more effective for the following reasons:

- Students are more motivated to learn the English dialogue

- The gap between reading and listening skills is bridged

- Students can follow a plot more easily

- Pronunciation of words is learned

- Reading and processing skills are improved (King, 2002)

 Reproduction activity After students have seen a section, students may be asked to reproduce either what is being said, to describe what is happening, or to rewrite what has happened

This activity encourages students to try out their knowledge Students will benefit from experimenting in English, even though it may be challenging and mistakes can be made As it seems a bit difficult to act out, guidance, help and reassurance from instructor may be needed.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Rationale for the use of action research

According to Jerry G Grebhard (1999), the concept of action research originated in the work of Kurt Lewin (1948, 1952) Action research had been defined in many different ways In Stephen Corey‟s definition “(Action research is) a way in which teachers try to study their own problems scientifically, in an effort to evaluate, guide and correct their procedures” Tsui‟s definition was more detailed and simpler:

"Action research is a very effective way of helping teachers to reflect on their teaching and to come up with their own alternatives to improve their practice.” (Tsui, 1993)

Teachers in general and teachers of English in particular actually carry out action research for most of their time Whenever s/he identifies a problem which is happening in the class, it is his/her task to find ways to solve that problem Therefore, action research is inevitably a very common practice As defined by Mills (2003: 4), action research is “any systematic inquiry conducted by teacher researchers to gather information about the ways that their particular school operates how they teach, and how well their students learn The information is gathered with the goals of gaining insight, developing reflective practice, effecting positive changes in the school environment and on educational practices in generals, and improving student outcomes.” A typical action research needs to go from one step to another Nunan

(2001) defines the framework of a research as consisting of seven steps:

 Step 1: Initiation (Identify the problem)

 Step 2: Preliminary investigation (Collect data through a variety of means)

 Step 3: Hypothesis (Develop research questions)

 Step 4: Intervention (Devise strategies and innovation to be implemented)

 Step 5: Evaluation (Collect data again and analyze it to work out the findings)

 Step 6: Dissemination (Report the result by running workshops or issuing a paper)

 Step 7: Follow-up (Find alternative methods to solve the same problem) Another researcher that has conducted a thorough investigation into action research, Eileen Ferrance (2000) suggested an action research cycle as follows:

In brief, action research is a kind of scientific study which is often carried out by a teacher or an educator in order to solve a practical problem in a classroom As it was named, it focuses mainly on the actions of both students and teachers So, it can solve the problems which are related to all actions and activities in a classroom The problems which are solved by action research are often practical and useful for teachers

One of the most significant features of action research is it is very situational, which means it appears to provide specific solutions to specific problems in each context While other types of researches focus on experimenting or testing a pre- assumed theory or concept, action research aims at “improving the situation”

Therefore, it is very beneficial to the teaching and learning process

When thinking of choosing an appropriate methodology, the researcher, who is also a teacher, found out that action research is the best choice for the purpose of improving the students‟ pronunciation

First of all, action research means “act upon research” It is impossible to assume listening problems that students are having without having adequate amount of observation An action research enables the teacher to have a thorough investigation on the listening problems of students on a weekly basis Thanks to this, the findings would be up to date and mostly reliable The teacher can have a thorough look and is able to work out a detailed analysis on the students‟ performance during the progress of the research In short, an action research helps the teacher design a detailed program which is most suitable to the class and therefore benefits students to the most This program will be consulted for building up a more suitable listening course for students who share the same problems as the subjects of the research

Secondly, in this action research, the data is taken from every student and treated individually Therefore, the teacher can see students‟ progress easily S/he will be able to get the most up-to-date information and make sensible changes if necessary to the research while applying it to meet the demand of the students For listening mistakes that persist for a long time, the teacher can spend more time on it by giving more practice time in class, as well as paying more attention when giving feedback to students Performance of students is collected weekly, and any potential problems can be solved in time

Last but not least, by using an action research on the use of movies, the researcher gives the student a strong sense of themselves They will have chance to practice listening on their own This is typically different from other types of research in which the teacher treats all the students in one class the same way In this case, data is carefully collected and analyzed for each student The students‟ awareness as well as their gratefulness for the teacher‟s effort will serve as a strong motivation to make progress in their listening skills

Despite the obvious advantages, the research has some shortcomings compared to other types of research, such as an experimental one It is sometimes claimed that action research has limited application This comes from one of its typical characteristic, which is situational This means the research program may work well in one class but cannot be applied to other classes in different context If the same research is carried out in another class, the result may not be effective as expected In other words, action research lacks generalization

3.1.3 How is action research carried out in a language classroom?

Action research in schools, colleges or universities solves everyday practical problems experienced by teachers, rather than the “theoretical problems” defined by non – teaching researchers It should be carried out by the teachers themselves or by someone who is interested in educational research

Action research in education focuses on the three related stages of action:

1 Initiating action, such as adopting a text, choosing an alternative assessment strategy

2 Monitoring and adjusting, such as seeing how a pilot project is proceeding, assessing the early progress of new program, improving a current practice

3 Evaluating action, such as, preparing a final report on a completed project”

In more details, action research in a language classroom can be understood as follow:

Firstly, the teacher identifies the problem in his teaching job in class He/she observes by himself/herself or asks somebody to observe or has his/her lessons video- taped in class to get data to prove the problem He/she also proves the problem by conducting a survey to get information from his/her students Then, the teacher tries to find out the causes of the problem from professional books or journals, colleagues and students

Secondly, the teacher designs the strategies for improvement and tries them out in some following lessons Next, a lesson is observed or video-taped to get data to illustrate the changes and improvements

Finally, the teacher reflects on the reasons for the changes and improvements

To ensure the success of the applied strategies in action research a survey is necessary to get the evaluation from students From the results of the action research some conclusions and comments will be made

If the teacher was trained to conduct action research, he could solve his problems on his own or in collaboration with other teachers It also needs the supports from both students and education administrators Its results should be popularized and shared with anybody who is interested in.

Participants

The participants of the research were all the students in class CQ48/21.03 The researcher, who is also a teacher, was in charge of teaching English for 3 rd year students at Academy of Finance Naturally, they became ideal samples for the research

Taking every factor into consideration so as to minimize the risk of invalidity and to ensure that every single participant was treated under the same conditions of the research, the researcher reached the final number of 25 students whose performance would be appropriate data provider for the research They were the ones who participated thoroughly in the research from the beginning to the end They are all in a multi-level classroom setting and their level of proficiency is pre-intermediate and intermediate

The participants in this study were Academy of Finance (AOF) undergraduate students, between the ages of 19-21 They are all 3 rd year students because for the first two years and even at high school they just studied grammar and not much of listening and speaking The researcher supposed that third year students could utilize the benefits of watching movies to learn English listening because these students certainly had the basic knowledge to comprehend not very complicated English talks as well as the skills to deal with new contexts in a movie The study took place over six-week period of time, from August, 2 nd to September, 13 th at Academy of Finance (AOF) in the academic year 2013 In this study, in order to get students‟ perceptions on using movies in ELT classroom, 2 Walt Disney movies presented to the students were High School Musical 1 and The Parent Trap 1998.These two movies were chosen because there are similar scenes in each movie and the participants of the project could be exposed to repeatedly utilize English language, such as school activities, songs, daily conversations among friends and family members The language used in these films is understandable and not too difficult to comprehend In addition, the messages conveyed by the characters are meaningful and quite attracting Especially, the spirit and the atmosphere created in the films would completely arouse the students‟ interest

The pedagogical goals in these films are very clear and attainable During the films, the students were asked to do listening exercises to check their listening comprehension and after that, the students were expected to share their thoughts and understanding of what they had seen

The sample class had chance to participate in the research program during 6 weeks The first week was for some investigation into the study The next 4 weeks were for High School Musical 1 and The Parent Trap The last week was for consolidation of the research program Every student of the sample class covered the same materials and the same setting The researcher was also the instructor who gave presentation to the class and one English teacher was invited to observe the activities during the time of the study.

Data Collection Instruments

In order to ensure the validity of the research, a number of different instruments were implemented, which were largely qualitative

Questionnaire 1 comprised of six questions and was conducted at the first week and Questionnaire 2 was delivered to the student at the last week of the research

Questionnaire 1 was to find out the problems of the students in listening skill and evaluate the students‟ level of interest in listening lessons By doing so, the researcher hoped to work out possible solutions to help improve students‟ listening comprehension Questions 1 to 3 in this section were designed to get to know what listening activities were employed in class and the students‟ problems as well as their opinions about their listening lessons in general Questions 4 to 6 focused on investigating the students‟ opinion about the new way of teaching listening skill which is the use of movies in class Questionnaire 2 included 8 questions This questionnaire was aimed to assess the value of using movies in class to teach listening comprehension From questions 1 to 5, the questionnaire was adapted from Gliksman, et al, (1982, p.648) Each question was based on a semantic differential scale of adjectives expressing students‟ motivation such as interesting/boring, enjoyable/unenjoyable Each learner at the end of the research completed the questionnaire and each item scored from one to five Questions from 6 to 8 aimed at finding out students‟ impression on the use of movies in listening lessons

As for action research, observation is obviously one of the main instruments because it provides the researcher with a deep insight into how the research program is going Regarding this study, observation was conducted through the whole research program The researcher paid great attention to the students‟ motivation This helped her find adequate amount of data to yield any conclusions about the students‟ motivation, as well as how much progress in listening comprehension they made during the research However, to make it more reliable, an English teacher at Academy of Finance was invited to observe the class during the research program An observation sheet which was adapted from Nunan (1989, p.110), was used to assess overall class motivation generated by the listening activities applied during the listening lesson The observation was manifested by levels of learner interest, enthusiasm, and persistence with listening activities, concentration and enjoyment during class Each item was scored on a scale of one (low) to five (high) Observations were made for the whole 4 weeks while the listening lessons were carried out

Two semi-structured interviews were conducted with selected students so that the researcher could be able to find possible explanation for the students‟ choices when they answered the questionnaire and did the pre-test, and get a deeper understanding of the listening problems that the students have made The researcher chose 1 of the students who had best performances in pre-test and 1 of the students who had the worst results in pre-test to interview They were selected for the reason that the researcher wanted to get the most objective opinions from different students to plan for the action in the most suitable way so that every students can benefit from

The researcher took notes in her paper while the conversations were conducted

The first interview was carried out right after the students did questionnaire 1 and pre-test It was aimed at finding evidence for the students‟ problems in listening skill over questions such as „What are your listening problems?” and “What are the reasons for those problems that you can think of? In the interview, the researcher also asked the students about the use of movie in class to get a thorough understanding about the situation

We were fully aware that there might be differences between the listening performances of different participants even though they all participated in the same research program therefore another interview was conducted at the end of the research with a hope to find reasons for the students‟ remaining problems and to work out a more effective listening program to apply to other classes The interviewees were the same as in interview 1 The students were asked to talk about what they had learnt from the movies, what problems they had or had not made progress with and what they think about the application of movies in listening classes

During the research program, the students were asked to attend two listening tests The first test was conducted at the first week, and the second test was delivered in week 4 They were designed according to the real TOEIC Listening test‟s model, Part 3: Conversations The two tests were marked by the invited teacher to ensure the validity of the results and then compared so as to reveal any improvements that students had made during the progress of the research.

Procedures

The chronological steps of the study are summarized as follows:

- Step 1: Preliminary investigation (Collect data through questionnaire 1, pre-test and interview 1)

- Step 2: Plan the action (Develop 3 research questions)

- Step 3: Intervention (Implement the research program on the pilot class)

- Step 4: Evaluation (Collect data again through questionnaire 2, post-test and interview 2 and analyze them to work out the findings and yield conclusions, recommendations and suggestions for further study based on findings)

- Step 5: Reflection (what changes can be made to the actions to elicit better results (Ferrance, 2000)

The detailed program of the research is presented as follows:

Week In – class Out – of - class

1 Introduction and orientation Pre-test (Test 1)

Introduction to the research program

2 1 st half of High School Musical 1 Listen to Present

Listen to Slangs and Intonation

3 2 nd half of High School Musical

Listen to Talks and do the exercises

Talk about what Ss can understand from the scenes

4 1 st half of The Parent Trap Listen to /s/ and /z/ sounds Listen to /θ/ and /ð/

Listen to other sounds in English: /d/, /t/, /b/, /p/ sounds Observation – invited teacher

5 2 nd half of The Parent Trap Listen to pronunciation of new words and repeat Observation – invited teacher

Table 3.1: An overview of the research program for third-year students

6 listening lessons were taught in 6 weeks The time allowed for each movie class was

45 minutes The researcher in every film class followed the listening teaching framework of three stages: pre-, while- and post-viewing stages In pre-listening stage, the teacher gave the students with new vocabulary and explained to the students a little bit about the plot of the session to be watched so that the students could familiarize with the context and prepare for listening comprehension In while-listening stage, the researcher made the students focus on the aspects of pronunciation, intonation, listening comprehension and do the exercises From time to time, the teacher would pause to check understanding of the students by asking small questions such as: Who is he? What are they going to do next? Or would you do the same if you were him/her?

At other times, the teacher might ask the students to do exercises While the students were watching, the invited teacher would move around the class to observe and note down into the observation sheet that was given to her beforehand In post-viewing stage, the students were given some discussion questions and asked to work in pairs or in groups Then they would have chance to talk about their ideas In every lesson, the class would cover different items of English listening skills so that the students could find it interesting and useful for learning process.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Findings

Questionnaire 1 was to find out the problems of the students in listening skill and evaluate the students‟ level of interest in listening lessons

For the background information, the students were asked to insert the years they have been learning English and the locations of the English lessons Most of them said they have been learning English for at least 3 years 25% of the students have studied English for 6 years 98% of them have studied English at their high schools and at University 2% said they did not study English at high school; they had French or Russian as their foreign languages This means that almost all of the students are familiar with English and they all have the basic knowledge about English skills such as speaking, listening, writing and reading This helped the researcher to carry out the research program more easily

For the questions 1 and 2, the information was collected and presented as below

Question 1 What were the listening activities that your teacher(s) employed in class? (You can choose more than one options)

Completing cloze (fill-in) exercises

When being asked about kinds of listening activities employed by teachers in class, 70% of the students said their teachers usually employ these kinds of activities in listening lessons because these are popular listening activities in Vietnam However, 30% said their teachers did not use songs or visuals aids in class

As can be seen from the table below of question 2, half of the students thought that the lessons were interesting and motivating However, 40% of the students did not feel motivated with those kinds of listening lessons There was a blank line for students‟ explanation at the end of question 3 However, few students wrote down their comments, but for those did, the researcher found out that students were demotivated in listening lesson because they were not good at pronunciation and be short of concentration Moreover, their knowledge of vocabularies was still weak

From this, the researcher decided to investigate about the listening problems of the students to help 40% of the students have more motivation to study English listening skill

Q2 How do you feel about your English listening lessons at AOF?

In question 3 about the students‟ problems in listening skill, 80% of the students said that understanding conversations is so difficult together with accents, intonation, word stress and sentence rhythm that make the comprehension more challenging In comparison with only 10% of the students who thought that talks is so difficult, most of the students supposed that conversations is more difficult because they have to listen to different voices, different genders that are not easy to distinguish Besides, their knowledge about accents, intonation or sentence rhythm is very little 10% of the other students thought that they themselves have other listening problems

To instruct the students to a new teaching way to help motivate and deal with listening problems, questions 4 to 6 were designed to investigate their opinions and the results are presented as follow

Question 4: Have your teachers ever used movies in yours listening lessons?

100% of the students said they have never used movies in listening class This is completely new to them

Question 5: Do you wish to watch movies in class under the guidance of your teacher? Please put a tick () before your specification

95% of the students said „Yes‟ because „They are motivating and encouraging, I can learn many things from the movies and Listening through movies is better than other ways of listening‟

Only 5% said No because „It is too difficult to listen to the speakers, I do not have good knowledge about English speaking culture and I do not have motivation to listen to English‟

For the last question about what kinds of movies the students think would be beneficial in learning English, 70% of the students thought musicals and Walt Disney Movies are the most suitable ones to be shown in class As a result, the researcher decided to present 1 Musical movie (High School Musical 1) and 1 Walt Disney Movie (The Parent Trap) with the hope that the students would find them motivating and useful for their listening lessons

For the first 5 questions in learner questionnaire 2, the researcher collected the scores from students‟ answer for each question and the results are shown as below:

The first question was about overall impression on the listening lessons of the students The score was 103 (2 students marked 5, 20 students marked 4 and the others marked 2 and 3) This means that the movies were rather enjoyable to most of the students

Figure 4.1: Scores of Questions 1 to 5

1st Question2nd Question3rd Question4th Question5th Question

The second question was students‟ impressions of individual components of the lessons For this question, the researcher got the mean score for all the three stages which is (92+95+93)/3= 93

In question 3 about the involvement of the students in the movie class, the score was

95 This explains for the big focus of the students in each listening lesson presented

Especially about the students‟ opinions towards the teaching method of the teacher in the movie class, most of the students said it was very appropriate which got

The score for Question 5 was 98 Many students out of 25 students in the class said that listening through movie viewing is very suitable for students

Generally, there was a slight difference on the students‟ opinions about the application of movies in listening comprehension lessons during the study However, for most of them, movies are very motivating and beneficial

Question 6: Did taking the lessons in which the teacher uses movie as a teaching aid increase your motivation?

It is clear from figure 4.2 that most of the students agreed upon the use of movies in class with a view to increasing their motivation 74% of the students said that movies substantially increased their motivation in comparison with only 2 % of those who said that movies are not encouraging at all For other students, they thought that they were motivated somewhat during movies class

Figure 4.2: Students' levels of motivation

SubtantiallySomewhatNot muchNot at all

Question 7: Do you think these films are useful in learning English?

Question 8: Do you agree you have significantly improved your listening ability?

Figures 4.3 and 4.4 below show the results for these two questions

As can be seen from the 2 figures above, most of the students strongly agreed with the effectiveness of movie use in listening comprehension 63% of them said that they have made progress with their listening problems These bring hope to the researcher for more improvement actions in the future

The results of this questionnaire indicate that most of the students gained many benefits and had positive attitudes towards movie use in class The students seemed to show more interest in the listening activities as well Thus, applying movies in listening comprehension might be a good way in English teaching at Academy of Finance

There were eight items to be observed Each item was scored on a scale of one (low) to five (high) The highest score for whole class motivation in each lesson was

Figure 4.3: Effectiveness of movie use

40 (equivalent to 100%) if almost all students observed as a whole were engaged in learning activities The invited teacher observed the class for the whole 4 weeks

Figure 4.5 below shows the scores of the pilot students steadily increased from week 2 (20) to week 5 (35) For the first time the students had chance to watch moves in week 2, they were rather quiet and showed not much interest in it because the movie was still new to them and their listening problems made them more silent However, form week 3 to week 5, when they became more familiar with movies, they showed more interest and participated more in the listening activities From the results stated, it can be concluded that students are much more involved and motivated after the teacher applied the use of movies in teaching listening comprehension

After the second interview at the end of the research program, some conclusions can be made about the students‟ opinions towards the use of movies in listening lessons Firstly, when the interviewed students were asked to talk about the progress that they had made after watching the two movies under the instruction of the teacher, most of them said that they had learnt a lot from those movies, especially their

Figure 4.5: Students' levels of motivation over 4 weeks

Discussion

Base on the results of the data analysis in previous parts, this part focuses on the discussion of the 3 research questions to figure out the possible answers for each of them

4.2.1 Research Q1: To what extent does the use of movies in class increase students’ motivation?

From findings of questionnaires, observation sheet and from the answers of the interviewed students, it proved that the use of movies does increase students‟ motivation to learn English

Firstly, from learner questionnaires, it was founded that watching movies under teacher‟s instructions helped activate the students a lot about listening topics, even the most unexciting student who rarely expressed his excitement Movies supplemented new input for students Besides, it provided the learners with linguistic knowledge or an overview of structures, vocabulary and expressions which helped them more self- confident, thus encouraging them to the learning of listening skill, which is the most difficult skill considered by Vietnamese students The more motivated they become in learning listening, the better performance they have

Secondly, from the observation sheet which was fulfilled by the invited teacher, it was shown that students‟ motivation was positively affected by the application of the use of movies in the experimental time It proved that the use of movies could increase students‟ motivation in listening lessons This is different from traditional listening activities in the way that it aroused students‟ interest and it allowed students to see actually what is going on rather than listen to silent cassette or CDs Moreover, the activities related to the movies created students many chances to use the new language items They have better understanding of English in real interaction and negotiations because the language is repeated times to times in the movies that could also help them memorize the language better Especially, the invited teacher also expressed her excitement when she had chance to observe the class and to know about the application of movies in teaching listening skill

Finally, the answers of the interviewed students were that they all agreed upon the effectiveness of the use of movies in class They thought movies are good for students because they would have more chances to share their feelings and become more active in class One student said that she was very excited to watch High School

Musical 1 and The Parent Trap because she could see some part of her personal feelings and thinking in the characters Another student answered when he was asked about his feeling after watching the 2 movies: “Oh, I wish I could do like Troy He encouraged me to practice English more to have a good knowledge and to do exercises more so that I can dance as beautifully as he does I hope to have chance to watch more interesting movies with you”

4.2.2 Research Question 2: What are the students’ attitudes towards using movies in EFL classroom?

Through learner questionnaires, it is clear that students paid special attention to listening comprehension Because this is a difficult skill so it is not easy to make students motivated in class However, the students in this research program highly appreciated the application of movies in listening lessons Most of the students claimed that the use of movies not only increased students‟ motivation but also very worthwhile Through movies, the students are supplied with cultural input and living styles of English speaking countries Besides, with movies, students have chances to learn in „authentic‟ language environment Movies help students contact with real English After watching the movies the students could speak out words and sentences in a natural way, not what is taught from textbook like traditional way

When being asked about the attitude towards the use of movies in class under instruction of the teacher, most of the students said that they loved it because movies make them feel like relaxing and studying at the same time They think they then become centers of the learning process and teacher is only the instructor who gives guidance and help when needed They love movies because they can learn so many things from it, not only language in use but also about the people and the lessons conveyed in it They expect to have such more authentic environment to experience in the future

4.2.3 Research Question 3: To what extent does the use of movies improve students’ listening comprehension?

One point that must be made clear is that the “improvement” here only means the students can make some progress after 6 weeks, not the expectation that they can understand every English talk because it takes time to have good listening skills This, nevertheless, apparently contributes to the improvement of their overall listening comprehension Despite the fact that there was a focus for each listening lesson, the researcher also regularly provided the students with out-of-class practice to improve listening skill Therefore, students spent more time practicing with their listening problems

From the results of pre-test and post-test, among the listening problems, the students made most progress with listening to conversations and dialogues because they had chances to listen to different people talking all the time Later interview with the students showed that the students could distinguish English sounds better They have more knowledge about English intonation and sentence rhythm as well as linking sounds in normal speech This was due to the fact that they are somehow more familiar with listening English all the time, again and again for the whole period In other listening classes they did not fully recognize this or did not pay enough attention to it

Only when the students listen to conversations in context, they will be aware of the language in use and can utilize the effectiveness of the use of movies in English learning process One student said that she realized the importance of such English concepts as word stress, sentence rhythm, or intonation via movies because they were introduced very clearly in the movies

In sum, the findings and discussion in this chapter have mentioned the results of the study through various types of data collection instruments Critical discussion and contrastive analysis were wholly made for the sake of assessing the collected data The findings as stated above indicate that the study has been done in a valid manner and has enabled the researcher to answer the three research questions However, for any action research, especially for an educator, it is necessary to review the research program again and again to add more changes to the actions to elicit better results and to figure out more solutions for them same problems.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary of major findings

After doing the research, it is concluded that the students had high levels of participation in listening lessons thanks to the use of movies in classroom The students also showed great interests in listening activities They were willing to share their knowledge and opinions as well as positively discussed the listening topics provided This means that when they are given with arousing topics that suit their expectations and tastes, they will pay more attention to listening and therefore have more chances to succeed in improving their English listening comprehension It is no doubt that movies can supply students with such great things

It is believed that the development of this research work has obviously been going in the right direction: combining theoretical and practical study, which is kind of characteristics of action research Through this study, the researcher surely has positive contribution to the innovation of teaching English listening skill at Academy of Finance, Hanoi From the analysis of the data collected, the researcher affirms that the use of English movies in classroom helps improve students‟ listening comprehension Students experienced the real feeling of accomplishment when they were able to comprehend material intended for native speakers When they are successful at dealing with and understanding „what is going on‟ in the movies under the instructions of the teacher, they are further motivated to seek out and understand other authentic materials Once they are motivated, they are willing or even eager to invest efforts in learning activities and make progress Consequently, students‟ motivation makes teaching and learning immeasurably easier and more pleasant as well as more productive.

Recommendations

It is necessary for the teacher to spend time on helping his/her students overcome their listening difficulties in learning a foreign language like English The teachers should first identify students‟ listening difficulties so that they can deal with each problem specifically and effectively In teaching listening, if the teachers pay attention to only those areas that affect students‟ comprehension most, they can use the limited teaching time more profitably Moreover, the teachers can help students improve their listening skills by providing them with practice in perception of the selected sounds, content word pronunciation of new words and intonation features

However, the practice in perception alone will not be sufficient for preparing students to deal with listening for meaning Therefore, it is essential that students should learn to adopt listening strategies which can help or enhance their comprehension

Moreover, the following suggested listening strategies also can help students achieve more success in listening comprehension

As a whole, students will take a listening session more effectively if they are given some background information about the topic, situation or context of the listening text The technique is usually performed by the teacher in pre-listening stage because in while-listening, students may encounter some potential problems For example, it can be confusing for students to distinguish the words which have similar sounding like bed and bad, see and sea, pat and pet, knew and new, etc The homophones and homonyms in the language are not many but as existing in listening, they may lead students to mishear what the speaker saying Therefore, if the students are provided the background information as an overall view of the listening text, they will place the context into the consideration while listening; this will help them to understand the listening text with less confusion However, the technique employed by the teacher should be simple, brief and realistic to students which can both draw students‟ attention and arouse their interest as well as the curiosity from the listening text The time for giving background information can be from two to five minutes depends on the students‟ English knowledge level and the difficulty of the listening text

Giving dictations to students is considered as one of the most effective and suitable techniques to improve listening skills of students Some teachers think giving dictation as an old-fashioned technique that should not be used nowadays In fact, giving dictations is like a bridge between written and spoken English through listening It not only helps students consolidate written structures, vocabulary but also is a useful test of students‟ listening comprehension The technique can be applied effectively when the teacher carries out the following steps:

Firstly, the teacher prepares the text which suits the students‟ level It is inadvisable to choose a text with too many new and difficult words for students to dictate Students may be bored with dictating the text which is strange and irrelevant to their learnt lessons They often desire to widen their knowledge based on the general knowledge and what they are interested in Before giving dictation, it is important for the teacher to present the new words or essential items by speaking out and writing them on the board Moreover, the teacher must be sure that all students know what they are supposed to do

Secondly, the teacher should let students hear the text at least three times The first time, the teacher reads the text aloud at rather high speed; students listen only and get the general idea of the listening text The second time, the teacher reads the texts, sentence by sentence at normal speed, students listen and take notes When dictating the passage to the students, the teacher should go round and see how their students write it The thirst time, the teacher can read the whole text through again This helps students correct their dictation themselves After the dictation, the teacher should check students‟ work and encourage them by giving mark for the best ones

In addition, students also need to know the ways to improve listening skill by themselves It is necessary for them to know some steps to improve English listening skills:

Many people think that pronunciation is all about speaking But in fact, learning the rules of English pronunciation allows students to understand native speakers better

This is because listeners need to know how the language is being changed if it doesn‟t come naturally to them (the way those changes are comprehended naturally by children)

- Watch a video or listen to audio in English with a transcript

There are plenty of free English podcasts that you can listen to often, so that you can “train” your ears to the different sounds and musical patterns of English Take advantage of all of the resources on the internet

- Watch TV shows in English with no subtitles in your native language or in English

Without a transcript, you need to be an active listener Think about what you are hearing, and if you don‟t understand, replay the audio and make an effort to figure out how the speech is being changed

- Talk to native English speakers

- Write down the sounds of sentences that you didn’t understand and try to figure them out later on your own or consult with your teachers

- Replace native language activities with English activities

Ask your friends to hang out with you in English Watch or listen to the news on the internet in English instead of your first language There are SO many free resources online and they really have no excuse not to replace some of our first language activities with second language activities.

Limitations

Firstly, the research has been done with a rather small number of participants and shortage of time for an action research The number of students participating in the research was only 30 and the study lasted for only two months with 2 movies and 8 lessons, thus it may limit the generalization of certain conclusions drawn from findings Therefore to make it more reliable the study should be conducted with a larger number of participants, with more time for observation and experiment

In addition, it is shown that some students make more progress than others during the research This may come from other factors, which is their interest, the amount of time they practice pronunciation, their attention directed to other classes, not only in English The researcher could not control those factors Thus, whether watching movies under teacher‟s instructions alone can have a significant effect on the students‟ performance is still questionable

Finally, the study only focused on the use of movies that affect students‟ motivation and listening comprehension The thesis has not yet fully discussed other pedagogical aspects covered in a movie such as cultural awareness and the variety of English accents as well as connected speech in normal English.

Suggestions for further research

For the limitation of the study, it is highly recommended that further study should be conducted to gain a better understanding of how effective English movies can help increase students‟ motivation and listening comprehension

As for the Accounting students at Academy of Finance, in their very first semesters, they are only required to have relatively correct grammar lessons, not much listening

However, they have studied grammar for years at high school and they expect to learn something new and more exciting for their jobs in the future Therefore, more research should be done in order to justify students‟ desire to be able to speak English and understand what native speakers say

Moreover, this is an action research so it is not as good as an experimental research in terms of evaluating how much students are motivated and how much they can understand English speeches It is suggested that an experimental research would be a trustworthy one to measure how much students can make progress in English skills

Last but not least, as listening is a vital part of any attempt to master a foreign language, it can be combined with the teaching of other language skills such as speaking, writing or reading More research should be carried out in this field so as to benefit the students to the most

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41 Tsui, A B (1993) Helping Teachers to Conduct Action Research in Their Classrooms In D Freeman, with S Cornwell (Eds) New Ways in Teacher Education Alexandria VA: TESOL

42 Underwood, M (1989) Teaching Listening London and New York: Longman

43 Weyers, J (1999) The Effect of Authentic Video on Communicative Competence

This questionnaire aims to help you understand your English learning background and in that way help you to learn even better It can also help you and your teacher to plan your course in English I would appreciate it if you can fill up the questionnaire All the information will be kept confidential!

I have studied English for ……….year(s) in

1 What were the listening activities that your teacher(s) employed in class? (You can choose more than one options)

Completing cloze (fill-in) exercises

2 How do you feel about your English listening lessons at AOF?

Very interesting  Interesting  Boring  Very boring Because

3 What are your listening problems?

Understanding conversations is so difficult

Understanding talks is so difficult

Accents, intonation, word stress and sentence rhythm are so difficult to listen to

4 Have your teachers ever used movies in your listening lessons?

5 Do you wish to watch movies in class under the guidance of your teacher?

Please put a tick () before your specification

Yes, because They are motivating and encouraging

I can learn many things from the movies Listening through movies is better than other ways of listening

No, because It is too difficult to listen to the speakers

I do not have good knowledge about English speaking culture

I do not have motivation to listen to English

6 What kinds of English movies do you think are beneficial in learning English?

(You can choose more than one)

□ Musicals □ Comedy □ Thriller □ Walt Disney Movies

□ Science Fiction □ Action movie □ Animated movie

THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION!

(Adapted from Gliksman et al, 1982, p.95)

This questionnaire aims to assess the value of movie viewing in listening lessons and not to assess the performance of you at all Your thoughtful assistance in completing the following items is highly appreciated All the information provided will be used for research purposes only Thank you very much for your co-operation!

Please circle one number for each statement below to indicate your choice from question 1 to 5 and tick the answer in question 6 to 8

1 Overall impression: On the whole, the listening lessons are:

2 Impressions of individual components of listening lessons:

(1) The pre-viewing stage is:

Not useful at all 1 2 3 4 5 very useful

(2) The while-viewing stage is:

Not useful at all 1 2 3 4 5 very useful

(3) The post-viewing stage is:

Not useful at all 1 2 3 4 5 very useful

3 Mark how involved in the movie class you are:

Not very involved 1 2 3 4 5 very involved

4 You find the teaching method appropriate for you

Not really 1 2 3 4 5 very so much

5 Listening by movie watching is suitable for students

Not really 1 2 3 4 5 very so much

6 Did taking the lessons in which the teacher uses movie as a teaching aid increase your motivation?

□ Substantially □ Somewhat □Not much □ Not at all

7 Do you think these films are useful in learning English?

□Strongly Agree □Agree □Disagree □Strongly Disagree

8 Do you agree you have improved your listening ability?

□ Strongly Agree □Agree □Disagree □Strongly Disagree

1 What are your listening problems? What are the reasons for those problems that you can think of?

2 Do you find your listening lessons at AOF motivating enough? Why or Why not?

3 Have you ever heard about the application of movies in teaching listening comprehension? If yes, where did you hear about that?

1 What have you learned from the movies?

Can you write down any words and sentences?

2 What problems have you made progress with and what you haven‟t? Please justify your answers

3 What do you expect more about the application of movies in teaching listening comprehension?

APPENDIX 4: Observation Sheet: Overall Class

Number of students: ……… Level of class:

Observation focus: Levels of student motivation generated by the teaching materials in use 3 is an average mark for any one item

1 This sheet is for observing the class as whole

2 Complete this sheet when the activity is drawing to a close

3 Circle one number for each statement below

4 Add final comments at the bottom of the sheet if you wish

(1) Mark how involved in the learning task the students are Not very involved 1 2 3 4 5 very involved

(2) Mark the level of student concentration on the learning task Low 1 2 3 4 5 high

(3) The students are enjoying the activity Not really 1 2 3 4 5 very so much

(4) The students are paying persistent attention to the learning task Not really 1 2 3 4 5 very so much

(5) Mark the students‟ activity level (effort/intensity of application) Low 1 2 3 4 5 high

(6) The students find the teaching materials interesting Not really 1 2 3 4 5 very so much

(7) Learning through movie viewing is challenging for students

Not really 1 2 3 4 5 very so much

(8) The applied method is appropriate for the students Not really 1 2 3 4 5 very so much

Week 1: High School Musical (part 1)

Class Teachers’ activities Students’ activities

CQ48/21.03 Pre – listening/viewing stage:

- Teacher provides Ss with new words and help them to pronounce them correctly before watching: scholastic decathlon musicale single audition callback

- Teacher gives Ss plot summary of HSM part 1 and asks them to work in pairs

Read the summary and then retell to their partners on their own words

Teacher shows the movie to the whole class with caption-off

- Asks Ss to listen and then retell the actions in Present Continuous tense of the characters in the session

- Pause to check Ss‟ understanding by asking questions such as: What is he talking about? What are they

Listen and note down Present Continuous actions

Listen and answer the questions