An Investigation Into Contextually Appropriate Strategies For Teaching Listening Skills To Students At Ninh Binh Center Of Informatics And Foreign.pdf

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES o0o ĐÀO THỊ HẢI YẾN AN INVESTIGATION INTO CONTEXTUALLY APPROPRIATE STRATEGIES FO[.]

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -o0o ĐÀO THỊ HẢI YẾN AN INVESTIGATION INTO CONTEXTUALLY APPROPRIATE STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS TO STUDENTS AT NINH BINH CENTER OF INFORMATICS AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES Nghiên cứu chiến lược dạy nghe phù hợp với điều kiện thực tế cho sinh viên Trung tâm Tin học Ngoại ngữ Ninh Bình M.A MAJOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60140111 Hanoi, 2015 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -o0o ĐÀO THỊ HẢI YẾN AN INVESTIGATION INTO CONTEXTUALLY APPROPRIATE STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS TO STUDENTS AT NINH BINH CENTER OF INFORMATICS AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES Nghiên cứu chiến lược dạy nghe phù hợp với điều kiện thực tế cho sinh viên Trung tâm Tin học Ngoại ngữ Ninh Bình M.A MAJOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60140111 SUPERVISOR : Assoc Prof Dr LÊ VĂN CANH Hanoi, 2015 DECLARATION I, Dao Thi Hai Yen, hereby certify that the thesis entitled “An investigation into contextually appropriate strategies for teaching listening skills to students at Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages” is the result of my own research in the fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies – University of Languages and International Studies, VNU, Hanoi I have provided fully documented references to the work of others The material in this research has not been submitted for assessment in any other formal course of study i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor Le Van Canh, PhD for his generous assistance, enthusiastic guidance and constructive supervision throughout my research Mr Le Van Canh’s enlightening suggestions and comments have shaped to a very large extent Without his help, this study would not have been completed I would also like to send my sincere thanks to all teachers at Post - graduate Studies Department, ULIS – VNU who gave me interesting lessons and comprehensive knowledge I am most thankful to learners of Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages in Ninh Binh province for their enthusiastic participation in the study I am grateful to colleagues at Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages for their continued help and encouragement Last but not least, I would like to thank my husband, my parents who always encourage me while the work was in process Ha Noi, September 2014 Dao Thi Hai Yen ii ABSTRACT Listening plays a significant role in daily communication and educational process This study tries to find the factors influencing English listening comprehension and the contextually appropriate strategies for teaching listening skills to students Participants were 60 learners and three English teachers at English Department of Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages Three questions which were examined are (1) What strategies teachers use to develop students’ listening comprehension?; (2) What teaching strategies students prefer their teachers to use in teaching listening? And (3) To what extent teachers’ teaching strategies match student’s preferences? To find out the answers to the above questions, a survey questionnaire, combining with class observation were conducted First, questionnaires were delivered to students of three different classes to find out what they thought of listening skills, what were their difficulties in listening comprehension; and what were their opinions on the teachers’ ways of teaching listening tasks; what strategies the students preferred their teachers to use in teaching listening Second, the questionnaire was delivered to teachers to find out what they thought of listening skills, what were their difficulties in teaching listening In addition, in each class, the researcher observed listening lessons to find out what strategies the teacher used to teach listening skills and how the learners performed in listening lessons Then, the data was collected and prepared for the next step of the analysis The results showed that the informants all realize the importance of listening skills in their learning English Most of the learners satisfied with the ways their teachers teaching listening skills In each stage of listening lessons teachers used different iii strategies to motivate learners and help them finish listening tasks effectively Besides, teachers taught learners how to combine direct and indirect learning strategies to better learners’ comprehension of listening texts and listening tasks effectively In addition, techniques for development of listening materials and for improvement of teachers’ activities in listening lessons were suggested Key words: listening comprehension, strategies, listening skills iv contextually appropriate TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ix PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the thesis Research questions Scope of the thesis Methods of the thesis The structure of the thesis PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical background of listening 1.1.1 Definition of listening and listening comprehension 1.1.2 The importance of listening comprehension in foreign language learning 1.1.3 Listening comprehension process 1.2 Stages of carrying out a listening lesson 11 1.2.1 Pre-listening stage 11 1.2.2 While-listening stage 12 1.2.3 Post-listening stage 13 1.3 The Shift to the Context-Based Pedagogy 14 1.3.1 Definition of “context” 14 1.3.2 Contextual factors that affect listening comprehension in English language learning 15 v 1.3.3 Contextually appropriate pedagogy 19 1.4 Previous research on contextually appropriate pedagogy in ELT 20 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 22 2.1 The setting of the study 22 2.2 Research participants 23 2.3 Data Collection Instruments 24 2.4 Data collection procedures 25 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS 27 3.1 Introduction 27 3.2 Findings of the students’ responses 27 3.2.1 Students’ attitudes towards listening skills 27 3.2.2 Students’ self-reported difficulties in learning listening skills and possible sources of difficulties 28 3.2.3 Students’ opinion on teachers’ ways of teaching listening tasks 31 3.3 Findings of the Teachers’ responses 36 3.3.2 Teachers’ attitude towards listening skills 37 3.3.3 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching listening skills 37 3.3.4 Teachers’ teaching strategies 37 3.4 Discussion 42 3.5 Summary 44 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS 47 4.1 Suggestions for the students 47 4.1.1 Having a positive motivation and active participation 47 4.1.2 Having an appropriate learning strategies 47 4.2 Suggestions for the teachers 58 4.2.1 Helping students build up a positive attitude, motivation and confidence 58 4.2.2 Teaching listening strategies to learners in a systematical way 59 4.2.3 Techniques for improvement of teachers’ activities in listening lessons 60 4.2.4 Techniques for development of listening materials 64 vi CHAPTER C: CONCLUSION 66 A brief summary of the thesis and the main conclusion 66 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research 67 REFERENCES 68 APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE (For Students) I APPENDIX 2: CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT VII APPENDIX 3: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE (For Teachers) XII APPENDIX 4: OBSERVATION SHEET XV APPENDIX XVIII APPENDIX XXII vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ED: English Department EFL: English as a Foreign Language ESL: English as a Second Language ESP English for Specific Purposes L2: Second Language LLS: Language Learning Strategies LS: Learning Strategies NEF: New English File NCIFL Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages SILL: Strategies for Inventory Language Learning ULIS University of Language and International Studies VNU Vietnam National University viii ... entitled ? ?An investigation into contextually appropriate strategies for teaching listening skills to students at Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages” is the result of my own... Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages in Ninh Binh province for their enthusiastic participation in the study I am grateful to colleagues at Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign... appropriate strategies for teaching listening skills to students Participants were 60 learners and three English teachers at English Department of Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages