A Study On The Reality Of Teaching Listening Skills To Second-Year Non-English Major Students At Hanoi University Of Industry - Relevant Problems And Some Suggested Solutions 6815355.Pdf

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES  ĐỖ KIM THUỲ A STUDY ON THE REALITY OF TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS TO SECOND YEAR[.]

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -  - ĐỖ KIM THUỲ A STUDY ON THE REALITY OF TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS TO SECOND-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY: RELEVANT PROBLEMS AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS Nghiên cứu thực trạng dạy kỹ nghe cho sinh viên không chuyên năm thứ trường Đại học Công nghiệp Hà Nội: Khó khăn số giải pháp đề xuất M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HA NOI – 2015 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -  - ĐỖ KIM THUỲ A STUDY ON THE REALITY OF TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS TO SECOND-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY: RELEVANT PROBLEMS AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS Nghiên cứu thực trạng dạy kỹ nghe cho sinh viên không chuyên năm thứ trường Đại học Cơng nghiệp Hà Nội: Khó khăn số giải pháp đề xuất M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: PhD Mai Thi Loan HA NOI – 2015 DECLARATION I certify that the minor thesis entitled “A study on the reality of teaching listening skills to second-year non-English major students at Hanoi University of Industry: Relevant problems and some suggested solutions” is my own work and has not been submitted in any form for another degree to any other university or institution Hanoi, November 2015 Do Kim Thuy i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In the completion of this thesis, I have received valuable supports from many individuals and groups First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs Mai Thi Loan, PhD for providing careful guidance, thorough encouragement, valuable comments and constructive supervision throughout my study Without her deliberate help, my thesis would not have been completed I would like to show my sincere thanks to all the lecturers who have been engaged in teaching K22 M.A course for their precious lectures My special thanks also go to my colleagues and students at Hanoi University of Industry for willingly participating in the study Furthermore, I owe my great acknowledgment to my parents, my husband, my son and my friends who unceasingly gave me encouragement and support throughout the study Eventually, this research has been fulfilled to the best of my knowledge; however, mistakes and shortcomings are unavoidable Therefore, I exceedingly appreciate comments and suggestions from any readers for the perfection of this work Hanoi, November 2015 Do Kim Thuy ii ABSTRACT This study was conducted to investigate the reality of teaching listening skills at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) To collect relatively objective information, a combination of both qualitative and quantitative approaches was used Data collection instruments consisted of questionnaires- one for teachers and one for students, and class observations The findings pointed out that teachers and secondyear non-English major students at HaUI were encountering many difficulties in teaching and learning listening such as students’ low listening competency, students’ limited vocabulary and students’ poor background knowledge Some suggestions were made by the teachers and the students to improve the current situation of teaching listening skills at HaUI including using different motivating activities to motivate students; having students work in pairs/groups and different tasks and guiding students what and how to without understanding all the text At last, the researcher gave some recommendations for effective listening lessons iii LIST OF ABBRIVIATION EFL: English as foreign language HaUI: Hanoi university of Industry iv LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Page Chart 1: The importance of teaching listening skills 16 Chart 2: Teaching aids used in listening lessons 18 Chart 3: Exercises often used at while-listening stage 21 Chart 4: Activities often used at post-listening stage 22 Chart 5: Teaching procedures followed by teachers 22 Chart 6: Stages often omitted in listening classes 23 Chart 7: Reasons for teachers' omission 23 Chart 8: Students’ evaluation of the listening skill 27 Chart 9: The importance of learning listening skills 27 Chart 10: Students’ assessment towards listening topics in the textbook 28 Chart 11: Level of difficulty of listening tasks in the textbook 28 Chart 12: Students' favorite activities in listening classes 29 Table 1: Listening strategies employed by teachers 17 Table 2: Frequency of organizing pre-listening activities 19 Table 3: Frequency of organizing while-listening activities 20 Table 4: Teachers’ adaptation of listening sections in the textbook 24 Table 5: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching listening skills 25 Table 6: Teachers’ suggested solutions 26 Table 7: Students’ difficulties in learning listening skills 30 Table 8: Students’ suggested solutions 31 Table 9: Teacher’s preparation 32 Table 10: Teachers’ presentation 33 Table 11: Teacher and students’ interaction 34 v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLE v TABLE OF CONTENS vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study .1 Aims of the study Research questions Scope of the study Methods of the study Significance of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .4 1.1 Definition of listening 1.2 Significance of listening 1.3 Process of listening 1.3.1 Bottom-up listening process .5 1.3.2 Top-down listening process 1.4 Stages of a listening lesson 1.4.1 Pre-listening stage 1.4.2 While-listening stage 1.4.3 Post-listening stage 1.5 Potential problems in listening 1.5.1 The message .9 1.5.2 The speaker .10 1.5.3 The listener .10 vi 1.5.4 Physical setting .11 1.6 Summary 11 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 12 2.1 The context .12 2.1.1 The University 12 2.1.2 The English course and its objectives at HaUI 12 2.2 Participants 12 2.2.1 The teachers 12 2.2.2 The students 13 2.3 Data collection instruments 13 2.3.1 Questionnaires 13 2.3.2 Class observation 14 2.4 Data collection procedure .14 2.5 Data analysis method 15 2.6 Summary 15 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION .16 3.1 Findings from questionnaire for the teachers .16 3.1.1 The importance of teaching listening skills 16 3.1.2 Teachers’ methodology and strategies of teaching listening 16 3.1.2.1 Listening strategies 16 3.1.2.2 Teaching aids used in listening lessons .17 3.1.3 Activities in listening lessons 19 3.1.3.1 Pre-listening stage .19 3.1.3.2 While-listening stage 20 3.1.3.3 Post-listening stage 22 3.1.3.4 Teaching procedures of a listening lesson 22 3.1.3.5 Teachers’ adaptation of listening sections in the textbook 24 3.1.4 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching listening skills 25 3.1.5 Teachers’ suggestions for better teaching listening skills .26 3.2 Findings from questionnaire for the students .27 vii 3.2.1 Students’ attitudes towards listening learning 27 3.2.1.1 Evaluation of the listening skill 27 3.2.1.2 The importance of listening skills .27 3.2.2 Evaluation and assessment on listening sections in the textbook 28 3.2.2.1 Listening topics in the textbook 28 3.2.2.2 Listening tasks in the textbook 28 3.2.3 Students’ difficulties in learning listening skills 30 3.2.4 Students’ suggestions for better learning listening skills .31 3.3 Findings from class observations 32 3.3.1 Teacher’s preparation .32 3.3.2 Teacher’s presentation 33 3.3.3 Teacher and students’ interaction 34 3.4 Discussion of the findings 36 3.5 Summary 38 PART C: CONCLUSION 39 Recapitulation .39 Implications 40 2.1 For the school administrations 40 2.2 For the teachers 40 2.3 For the students 41 Limitations of the study .42 Suggestions for further research .42 REFERENCES .43 APPENDICES I Appendix A : Questionnaire for teachers I Appendix B : Questionnaire for students (English version) VI Appendix C : Questionnaire for students (Vietnamese version) IX Appendix D: Classroom observation checklist XII viii ... teaching listening to the second-year non-English major students at HaUI? 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