Output file VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FALCUTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ HỒNG HẠNH DEVELOPING COMPENSATION STRATEGIES IN LISTENING FOR 1[.]
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FALCUTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ HỒNG HẠNH DEVELOPING COMPENSATION STRATEGIES IN LISTENING FOR 10TH FORM STUDENTS AT NGUYEN VAN CU UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL, GIALAM, HANOI (Phát triển chiến lược bù kỹ nghe cho học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Nguyễn Văn Cừ, Gia Lâm, Hà Nội) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Major: English Methodology Code: 60 14 10 HANOI, 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FALCUTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ HỒNG HẠNH DEVELOPING COMPENSATION STRATEGIES IN LISTENING FOR 10TH FORM STUDENTS AT NGUYEN VAN CU UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL, GIALAM, HANOI (Phát triển chiến lược bù kỹ nghe cho học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Nguyễn Văn Cừ, Gia Lâm, Hà Nội) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Major: English Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: VŨ MAI TRANG, M.A HANOI, 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration …………………………………………………………………………………… i Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………… ii Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………… iii Table of contents……………………………………………………………………………….iv List of abbreviations………………………………………………………………………… vii List of tables………………………………………………………………………………….viii List of figures………………………………………………………………………………… ix PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the study Scope of the study Methods of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Listening comprehension 1.1.1 Definitions of listening comprehension 1.1.2 Listening comprehension process 1.1.3 Possible problems in listening comprehension 1.2 Language learning strategies 1.2.1 Definitions of language learning strategies 1.2.2 Classification of language learning strategies 1.2.3 The importance of language learning strategies for students…………………… 10 1.3 Compensation strategies in listening 11 1.3.1 Definition of compensation strategies 11 1.3.2 The importance of compensation strategies in listening 13 1.3.3 Guidelines on applying compensation strategies in listening .13 CHAPTER 2: DATA COLLECTION, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS .15 2.1 Data collection 15 2.1.1 Setting of the study 15 2.1.2 Subjects of the study 15 2.1.3 Methods and instruments 16 2.2 Findings and discussions .18 2.2.1 Teachers’ perception and evaluation of compensation strategies in listening 18 2.2.2 Students’ perception and evaluation of compensation strategies in listening 20 2.2.3 The current situation of applying compensation strategies in listening 21 2.2.4 Students’ difficulties and preferences in applying compensation strategies in listening 25 2.2.4.1 Students’ difficulties in applying compensation strategies in listening 25 2.2.4.2 Students’ preferences in applying compensation strategies in listening 27 CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DEVELOPING COMPENSATION STRATEGIES .30 3.1 Raising awareness of compensation strategy training 30 3.2 Integrating strategy training into the lessons 31 3.3 Teaching basic grammatical rules and phonological rules 32 3.4 Teaching discourse marker clues 33 3.5 Exploiting background knowledge 35 3.6 Recalling key words and structures .36 3.7 Making full use of visual aids .36 3.8 Providing pairwork and groupwork .37 3.9 Giving encouragement .37 3.10 Providing a variety of listening tasks 37 PART C: CONCLUSION 39 Conclusion 39 Limitations and suggestions for further research 40 References…………………………………………………………………………… …… 41 Appendixes…………………………………………………………… …………………… I Appendix 1: Interviews for teachers………………………………………… ………… I Appendix 2: Survey questionnaires for students III Appendix 3: A sample of an interview transcript XI Appendix 4: A sample of a class observation XIII Appendix 5: A suggested lesson plan of integrating strategy instruction XVI LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as a Foreign Language LLS: Language Learning Strategies NVC School: Nguyen Van Cu Upper-secondary School LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Classification of language learning strategies Table 2: Classification of compensation strategies Table 3: Descriptive statistics for frequency of compensation strategy use Table 4: Students’ difficulties in applying compensation strategies in listening Table 5: Students’ preferences in applying compensation strategies in listening LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Frequency of use for strategy “using titles and visual clues” Figure 2: Frequency of use for strategy “using background knowledge clues” Figure 3: Frequency of use for strategy “using contextual clues” Figure 4: Frequency of use for strategy “writing sound transcript” Figure 5: Frequency of use for strategy “using background noise clues” Figure 6: Frequency of use for strategy “using grammatical clues” Figure 7: Frequency of use for strategy “using discourse marker clues” Figure 8: Frequency of use for strategy “using phonological clues” PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale English language teaching in the recent years has moved from traditional approaches, involving the explicit teaching of grammar and translation, to various versions of communicative methodology Consequently, a greater emphasis has been placed on learners and what strategies they adopt to be successful Well-known researchers such as Cohen (1988), O‟Malley and Chamot (1990), and Oxford (1990) have pointed out that learning strategies are among the main factors that help determine how well students learn a second or foreign language Therefore, it is the role of the teacher to help students discover and apply appropriate learning strategies in their learning The necessary to equip students with listening strategies to help them develop their listening skill at upper-secondary schools in Vietnam can be seen clearly The new series of English textbooks for students have been used in schools in Viet Nam for some years and it seems that listening skill is the most difficult one for our students to master Listening is also the skill that causes a lot of difficulties for teachers to prepare and carry out the lesson because the old textbooks not have a separate part for teaching and learning listening skill The students who are using the new kind of textbooks often find it hard to catch up with the listening text and as a result they fail to comprehend what is spoken Besides, they come to listening activities with little knowledge of how to listen effectively and successfully The situation at Nguyen Van Cu Upper-secondary School is the same, if not to say it is more serious We have many weak students who lack vocabulary, grammatical knowledge and have poor pronunciation Listening lessons are really hard for them There is a variety of strategies that can be employed in listening skill such as memory strategies; cognitive strategies; compensation strategies; metacognitive strategies; affective strategies; and social strategies (Oxford, 1990) However, compensation strategies which involve in the ability of guessing intelligently from linguistic clues and other clues are of great help to weak students These strategies help students to overcome their limitations to guess what is heard The facts above explain the reasons why the researcher conducts the study “Developing compensation strategies in listening for 10th form students at Nguyen Van Cu upper-secondary school, Gialam, Hanoi” It is hoped that this study can be of some help to teachers and students in listening lessons Aims of the study First of all, the study aims at investigating the perception of compensation strategies in listening by teachers and 10th form students at Nguyen Van Cu Upper-secondary School; the target students‟ frequency of use of these strategies; and their difficulties and preferences in applying these strategies Secondly, the author intends to propose pedagogical implications and suggestions for developing the target students‟ compensations strategies in listening To achieve these aims, four research questions have been presented as follows: How teachers and 10th form students at NVC School perceive compensation strategies in listening and their importance? How often 10th form students at NVC School apply compensation strategies in listening? Which specific strategies they use? What are the difficulties and preferences of 10th form students at NVC School in applying compensation strategies in listening? What recommendations should be made for teachers to help 10 th form students at NVC School develop compensation strategies in listening? Scope of the study Firstly, this study only focuses on compensation strategies used in listening (guessing intelligently) although the new kind of textbook covers all of four skills, namely reading, speaking, listening and writing as well as there are a lot of English language learning strategies that can be employed Secondly, due to the small scale of the study the subjects are restricted only to 10 th form teachers and students at Nguyen Van Cu upper-secondary school, who are using the new kind of textbook Methods of the study The author has applied the following methods in this study: Data collection results from interviews (for teachers), survey questionnaires (for students) and class observations Data analysis is done through coding, classifying, and reporting the information Design of the study The study is divided into three parts Part A Introduction shows the research problem and the rationale for the research Subsequently, it presents the aims, the scope, the methods and the design of the study Part B Development consists of three chapters Chapter provides a summary of theoretical background which covers a review in key concepts relating to the research topic as well as the literature in the field Chapter deals with the setting of the study and the data collection process The results obtained are also analysed and interpreted in this part, so that major findings are revealed and discussed Chapter is concerned with recommendations for developing 10th form students‟ compensation strategies in listening at the target school These recommendations are drawn from the literature review and from the findings in Chapter Part C Conclusion reviews the main findings of the study and provides suggestions for further studies - Using background knowledge to guess the meaning of the listening - Using the words and phrases surrounding the unknown word to make quick guesses about its general meaning - Using the titles, subtitles, pictures, diagrams accompanying the listening task to understand the topic/ content of the listening - Using phonological clues (intonation, stress …) to guess the meaning of the listening - Using clues from discourse markers (markers of addition/ cause and effect/ sequences/ …) to guess the meaning of the listening - Using clues from body language of speakers to guess the meaning of the listening - Using clues from background noises to guess the meaning of the listening - Writing down the transcript for the word that listeners not remember the spelling in doing gap-filling exercises Conclusion This chapter has provided an overview of definitions of key terms such as listening comprehension, LLS, and compensation strategies It also deals with the listening comprehension process, classification of LLS, the importance of LLS in general and compensation strategies in listening in particular Finally, guidelines on applying compensation strategies in listening have been proposed It can be seen that there have been quite a lot of studies related to compensation strategies in listening However, these studies spend only a small part on compensation strategies because they focus on a variety of listening strategies Besides, there is little information about ways to help students develop compensation strategies This is the gap that the current thesis study tries to bridge By using Oxford‟s and some other researchers‟ ideas about compensation strategies in listening, this study hopes to add further evidence to the small but growing body of research on this topic ... clues Listening, Reading intelligently b Using other clues Listening, Reading Overcoming c Using mother tongue for an Speaking limitations in expression without translating it speaking and d Getting... and interpreted in this part, so that major findings are revealed and discussed Chapter is concerned with recommendations for developing 10th form students‟ compensation strategies in listening. .. DIRECT STRATEGIES Centering learning Arranging and planning learning Evaluating learning Lowering anxiety Encouraging oneself Taking emotional temperature speaking and writing Strategies Overcoming