VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE A CASE STUDY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING INTENSIVE LISTENING IN KET C[.]
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE A CASE STUDY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING INTENSIVE LISTENING IN KET CLASSES AT VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH-AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE SCHOOL A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By LE THI THUY DUNG Supervised by DOAN HUE DUNG, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2022 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE A CASE STUDY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING INTENSIVE LISTENING IN KET CLASSES AT VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH-AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE SCHOOL A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By LE THI THUY DUNG Supervised by DOAN HUE DUNG, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2022 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: A CASE STUDY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING INTENSIVE LISTENING IN KET CLASSES AT VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH-AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE SCHOOL in terms of the statement of the Requirements for the Theses in Master s program issued by the Higher Degree Committee The thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institutions Ho Chi Minh city, July 2022 LE THI THUY DUNG RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Le Thi Thuy Dung, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Mater s Theses deposited in the Library In terms of conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses Ho Chi Minh city, July 2022 LE THI THUY DUNG ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to send many thanks to all people below because my thesis would not be completed without their guidance, advice, encouragement and participation Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Doan Hue Dung who is always kind and patient with me and my thesis She orientates and gives me constructive suggestions to the thesis in the most appropriate way due to the arrival of the pandemic Without her academic guidance, it will be a huge disadvantage to me Next, I am sincerely grateful to my colleagues, who spent time with me for the interview because of their significant contributions to my thesis Without their assistance, I could not complete the study Furthermore, I appreciate the participations of the learners in the questionnaire of the thesis They supported me in collecting data and figuring out valuable findings Moreover, I send my great thanks to my classmates and my friends, who always inspire, promote, and support me in conquering this studying phase Last but not least, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my parents, who always encourage me to keep studying and complete the thesis despite many obstacles i TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 The structure of the study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Listening comprehension and listening section of KET 2.1.1 Listening comprehension 2.1.2 Listening section of KET 2.2 Elements relevant to listening comprehension and listening section of KET 2.2.1 Types of listening 2.2.2 Listening processes 2.2.3 Listening stages 2.2.4 Listening strategies 10 2.2.5 Teaching methods for listening 13 2.3 Learners’ characteristic and learning style 13 2.4 Factors causing the difficulty in the KET's listening section 15 2.4.1 Learner factor 16 2.4.2 Teacher factor 18 2.4.3 Input factor 19 2.4.4 Output factor 26 2.4.5 External Factor 29 2.5 Previous studies relevant to factors and solutions to tackle issues in learners' listening comprehension 31 2.6 Conceptual Framework 34 CHAPTER 36 METHODOLOGY 36 3.1 Research design 36 3.2 Research site 36 ii 3.3 Research participants 37 3.4 Data collection instruments 37 3.4.1 Questionnaire 37 3.4.2 Interview 39 3.5 Data collection procedure 40 3.6 Data analysis procedure 40 CHAPTER 42 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 42 4.1 Reliability Analysis 42 4.2 Research Question 1: What are the difficulties that learners encounter in the listening section in KET? 43 4.2.1 Students’ and teacher’s perception toward difficulty in listening comprehension and tasks in KET listening section 43 4.2.2 Factors creating students’ difficulty in listening comprehension in KET listening section 46 4.3 Research Question 2: How teachers help students overcome these listening comprehension problems? 60 4.3.1 Teachers’ methods and strategies in teaching five parts of the KET listening section that solve students’ issues in KET listening comprehension 60 4.3.2 Teachers’ solutions that tackle students’ issues in KET listening comprehension 61 4.4 Summary of finding 62 4.5 Discussion 63 4.5.1 Students’ and teacher’s perception toward listening comprehension in tasks of KET listening section 63 4.5.2 Factors creating students’ difficulty in listening comprehension in the KET listening section 63 4.5.3 Teachers’ methods and strategies in teaching five parts of KET listening section that solve students’ issues in KET listening comprehension 72 4.5.4 Teachers’ solutions that tackle students’ issues in KET listening comprehension 73 CHAPTER 75 CONCLUSION 75 5.1 Implications 75 5.1.1 Implications for students at the center 75 5.1.2 Implications for teachers at the center 75 5.1.3 Implications for administrator at the center 77 5.2 Limitations of the study 77 iii 5.3 Recommendations for further research 77 5.4 Conclusion 77 REFERENCE 79 APPENDIX 92 Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students (English Version) 92 Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students (Vietnamese Version) 98 Appendix 3: Interview questions for teachers 104 Appendix 4: Transcription of the interview 107 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATION ALM : Audiolingual Method CEFR : Common European Framework of Reference for Languages CLT : Communicative Language Teaching EF EPI : EF English Proficiency Index GTM : Grammar Translation Method IELTS : International English language Testing System KET : Key English Test TOEIC : Test of English for International Communication v LIST OF TABLES Table The reliability of the items in the students’ questionnaire 43 Table Students’ perception of difficulty in listening comprehension and tasks in KET listening section 44 Table Students’ perceptions toward the toughest parts of the KET listening section 45 Table Students' interests, anxiety, and working memory capacity 47 Table Students' purpose of taking the KET certificate (intrinsic and extrinsic motivation) 48 Table Students' practice at home (intrinsic motivation) 48 Table Students' abilities regarding listening, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation 49 Table Students’ strategies in listening to KET 50 Table Input factors creating difficulty in the KET listening section 54 Table 10 Output factors creating difficulty in KET listening section 57 Table 11 Teacher and external factors creating difficulty in KET listening section 59 vi h Sự vào thẳng trực tiếp văn v w x i Sự mô tả cụ thể y z aa j Từ vựng văn hóa thành ngữ bb.cc dd k Cấu trúc câu phức tạp ee ff gg hh.ii jj l Phủ định m Các từ, cụm từ để nối ý, diễn đạt ngôn ngữ n Tính thực tế (liên quan đến đời sống thực) kk.ll mm nn.oo.pp qq.rr ss o Các chủ đề khơng quen thuộc p Vị trí thơng tin đoạn văn q Tài liệu học nghe (sách giáo trình khóa học) tt uu.vv ww.xx.yy 10 Âm - thông tin đầu vào kiểm tra gây khó khăn 101 a Tốc độ nói nhanh b Giọng người nói c Tình trạng khơng rõ tiếng ồn file nghe d Sự dự tạm dừng người nói 11 Các tập kiểm tra đánh giá đề thi KET - thông tin đầu kiểm tra gây khó khăn a Thể loại câu hỏi trả lời phần thi nghe đề KET (trắc nghiệm, điền từ, nối) b Số lượng ngữ cảnh khác cho câu hỏi phần 1,4 c Hình ảnh khơng rõ ràng phần d Viết tả từ từ số yêu cầu điền vào chỗ trống phần e Sự khác biệt tổ chức thông tin văn nghe câu hỏi trắc nghiệm phần 1,3,4 nối phần f Thiếu hỗ trợ hình ảnh phần 2,3,4,5 102 zz aaa.bbb 13 Các yếu tố khác gây khó khăn a Cách giảng dạy giáo viên b Chỗ ngồi xa với loa c Tiếng ồn bên d Chất lượng thiết bị dạy học e Giới hạn thời gian f Số lần nghe 14 Làm để bạn giải vấn đề bạn gặp phải bạn nghe đề thi KET? (Bạn chọn nhiều câu trả lời) □ Sử dụng kiến thức bạn để nghe hiểu nghe □ Dự đoán nghĩa từ vựng thông qua chủ đề ngữ cảnh cho đề thi □ Xem viết lại ghi âm để hiểu toàn văn trước nghe □ Xem viết lại ghi âm nghe lúc để hiểu toàn văn sau nghe □ Áp dụng số chiến lược nghe chiến lược làm kiểm tra □ Khác: ……………………………………………………………………………… Xin chân thành cảm ơn hợp tác bạn Câu trả lời bạn góp phần tạo nên giá trị cho nghiên cứu 103 Appendix 3: Interview questions for teachers INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS How long have you been teaching the Key English Test (KET)? How many KET classes have you taught? Do you know that the format of the KET has changed recently? If yes, what are the changes in the new format? Do you think listening is the most challenging skill in KET for your students? Do your students often have troubles in the listening section of the KET? If so, which part(s) your students encounter some problems with in the KET listening section? Do you find tasks in the listening section of KET interesting for your students? 7.1 Do you think some learner factors like students’ anxiety, memory and motivation cause difficulties in their listening comprehension in KET? 7.2.Do you think students’ ability including listening, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation as well as their background knowledge towards the topics create difficulties in their listening comprehension in KET? 8.1 Do you think some characteristics of the text like length, authenticity, and unfamiliar topic affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? 8.2 Do you think infrequent words and paraphrasing affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? 8.3 Do you think information density and position of information affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? 8.4 Do you think directness and concreteness, as well as culturally specific vocabulary and idioms affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? 104 8.5 Do you think complexity of sentence structure and negation as well as signal words or fillers affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? 8.6 Do you think stress, rhythm and intonation affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? 8.7 Do you think connecting sounds as well as similar sounds affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? 9.1.Do you think some traits of the audio like fast speech and speaker accent affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? 9.2.Do you think distortion and noise of the audio, as well as hesitation and pauses of the speaker affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? 10 Do you think material like course books affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? 11.1 Do you think some traits of KET like response formats and the number of contexts affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? 11.2 Do you think the unclarity of pictures in part 1, correct spelling and grammar of words in part affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? 11.3 Do you think differences in organizing the information between the text and the question or the order of information in part 3,4,5 affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? 11.4 Do you think lack of visual support in part 2, 3,4,5 affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? 12 Do you think teachers could be a factor affecting your students' listening comprehension in KET? 13.1 Do you think physical settings (seating far from the speakers, outside noise, poor quality equipment) cause issues in learners’ listening comprehension? 105 13.2 Do you think test conditions (time limit and multiple hearing) cause issues in learners’ listening comprehension? 14 Apart from those factors, you think your students have more difficulties in the KET listening section? If yes, what are they? 15 How you teach five parts of the KET listening section? 16 Can you suggest some solutions to solve those problems? (How you deal with difficulties your learners encounter?) 106 Appendix 4: Transcription of the interview Transcript R: Good morning Thanks for your time spent on the interview today As I discussed with you before, today we will have an interview on a study named “ A case study of teaching and learning intensive listening in KET classes at Vietnamese-EnglishAmerican international language school” This study is carried out to investigate learners' difficulty in the KET listening section, so your answers will help me have profound insight into some issues of learners, along with the way you teach them five parts of KET and also suggest more solutions to tackle their problems So are you ready for the questions? T1: Yes, of course R: Great So the questions are how long have you been teaching the Key English Test and how many KET classes have you taught? T1: I have taught for six years and I have worked with two classes R: Wow, so you know the format of the KET has changed recently? If yes, what are the changes in the new format? T1: Yes, as far as I know, the new format have reduced one gap-filling task in parts and of the old format, and added one new task as part (multiple-choice questions with five different contexts), and one more thing is changing and swapping the position of part and part in new format R: Do you think listening is the most challenging skill in KET for your students? T1: Well, I totally agree because my students always have low scores in the listening part of KET R: Uhm Do your students often have troubles in the listening section of the KET? If so, which part(s) your students encounter some problems with in the KET listening section? T1: Yes, of course, As I mentioned before, most of my students have trouble with the listening part and they are not good at multiple choice and matching I mean part 3,4,5 107 in the new format Part is less difficult for them because it has some pictures, and part is their favorite, so I think they well with this part R: Oh, yes So you find tasks in the listening section of KET interesting for your students? T1: In my opinion, some parts like part and part may be interesting for them because I see my students feel confident to these parts, but part 3,4,5 have lots of words and long questions without pictures, so I think these parts are not interesting enough for them R: Yes, I agree So now I would like to ask you some questions related to factors creating the difficulty of the KET listening section In my opinion, there are five factors like learner factor, teacher factor, the input and output of the KET and external factor Okay And now I will ask you the first factor relevant to learners So you think students’ anxiety, memory and motivation cause difficulties in their listening comprehension in KET? T1: Uhmm, about students’ anxiety, I think just some or a few of my students get nervous when listening because they want to have the best result And memory? I think yes, a lot of them don't remember what the speakers speak or what they have heard And lastly motivation, right? They seem to be bored when they learn listening skills and sometimes I ask them to listen again, I mean the second time, some say “no” and want to the next questions to finish the lesson as soon as possible R: Oh, I see, they aren’t interested in listening And now one more question relevant to learners so you think students’ ability including listening, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation as well as their background knowledge towards the topics create difficulties in their listening comprehension in KET? T1: Definitely, because if their ability and the background knowledge are good, I don't think they will have problems But most of my students just focus on grammar, so they are good at it and not good at other skills R: Oh yes, How about their listening, vocabulary, and pronunciation ability? 108 T1: Their listening ability is so weak because they don't have enough vocabulary for listening, and they pronounce some words incorrectly so they cannot recognize the words in the listening R: Okay, thanks Now we move on to some characteristics of the text, that is the input So you think length, authenticity, and unfamiliar topics affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? T1: From my perspective, the length and unfamiliar topics are obviously the main problems, because students may not follow or they lose concentration on the long speech And some unfamiliar topic will get them in trouble because they don't have enough vocabulary and background knowledge of it However, I think some authentic materials will help students a lot in terms of knowledge of real life They can apply these things in listening R: Okay, The next questions are about the lexis complexity, so “Do you think infrequent words and paraphrasing affect your students' listening comprehension in KET?” T1: Paraphrasing, yes, of course Because students’ ability is not good and lack of vocabulary makes them not understand or recognize the answers if the answers are paraphrased like synonyms And infrequent words, I don't think so Because KET is a basic level for them and there is vocabulary for KET, they can learn all the words there R: Yes, and you think information density and position of information affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? T1: Yes, because they can not follow all of the information at the same time, so I give them the first listening time without pause, but the second time, I pause at the end of each information and ask them to clarify what the information is for or they understand the information or ask them repeat what they have heard And the position of information, I think students may forget the information at the beginning of the audio and remember the information closest to them So yes 109 R: Oh yeah, so you think directness and concreteness as well as culturally specific vocabulary and idioms affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? T1: No is my answer, obviously they help students to listen better, conversely, without them, the information may be harder for students And there is the same answer for culturally specific vocabulary and idioms, too because KET described and included vocabulary at the basic level R: Okay, now you think complexity of sentence structure and negation as well as signal words or fillers affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? T1: Yes, there is no doubt that they will enhance the difficult level and students are not good enough to listen to complex sentences and negations However, signal words or fillers somehow support students to recognize the meaning of the sentence and choose the correct answer R: Now, I would like to ask you some characteristics of phonology like stress, rhythm, intonation or connecting sounds, similar sounds, okay? So you think stress, rhythm and intonation affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? T1: Well I think stress, rhythm and intonation help students recognize the feelings of the speakers so it can help them choose the correct answers if sometime they don’t understand the meaning of the speech R: Yes, so you think connecting sounds as well as similar sounds affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? T1: Absolutely Generally speaking, students don't know about connecting sounds or reducing sounds, especially some similar sounds because they don't have lessons about it and are not good at pronunciation R: Now I will ask you some traits of the audio like fast speech and speaker accent so you think they affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? 110 T1: Yes, my students cannot catch up with the speed of the audio although some of them are good at listening skills And the speaker accent, I think it’s not a big problem because if students practice a lot with KET, they will be familiar with the accent R: Yes, and you believe distortion and noise of the audio, as well as hesitation and pauses of the speaker affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? T1: The noise in the audio, yes, of course because students can not focus on the listening And hesitation and pauses of the speaker, I think, they give students more time to catch up with and follow the speech better R: Now the question is material like course books at the center, you think it affects your students' listening comprehension in KET? T1: Yes, it is the main reason, in my opinion, the material they learn is “Smart World” book and there are a few parts relevant to the format of KET but it is an old format One more material is practice books of KET, which are old format, too, so they won't help students practice and get familiar with the new format Until they join the last level, they will practice with the new format R: Okay, now some questions related to KET, so you think response formats like multiple choice, matching and gap-filling; and the number of contexts affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? T1: Yes, as I said before Students have some problems with multiple choice and matching And many contexts like in part may enhance the difficult level of KET for them because they don't have enough time to read and understand the contexts and questions R: Yes, I remember what you said And you think the unclarity of pictures in part 1, correct spelling and grammar of words in part affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? T1: Well, although my students quite enjoy doing part 1, sometimes they complain about unclear pictures and they cannot know what they are And part 2, for good 111 students, it is not a big problem for them, however, weaker students feel hard to fill in the correct spelling and grammar Sometimes, they regret that they can hear the words but they can't write correctly R: Do you think differences in organizing the information between the text and the question or the order of information in part 3,4,5 affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? T1: In my opinion, this is the most difficult one for students when they have to deal with the speed of speech, paraphrasing and the order information as well So they will have problems with this for sure R: Yeah, I totally agree, and you think lack of visual support in part 2, 3,4,5 affect your students' listening comprehension in KET? T1: yes, visuals are quite important for students because they can look at the visual things and get more understanding if they don't understand the speech So students get more problems when they don't have visual support R: Great Now we speak about some external factors creating the issues for students Sodo you think teachers could be a factor affecting your students' listening comprehension in KET? T1: Yes, because students interact with teachers most and some teachers require students to focus, answer the questions or understand every word in the speech, and then translate into Vietnamese, too So they make students feel bored and have to a lot of things in listening skills R: Yeah, this is quite often And how about physical settings like seating far from the speakers, outside noise, poor quality equipment, you think these things cause issues in learners’ listening comprehension? T1: I believe seating and outside noise are not main factors, but poor quality equipment is for sure because my students always complain about the soft volume of speakers although I turn up the maximum volume 112 R: Oh, yes And you think test conditions such as time limit and multiple hearing cause issues in learners’ listening comprehension? T1: I really don't think this is a negative thing because KET is a standard test with international criteria so all things relevant to time limit or two times of listening are appropriately estimated R: Well, I think so, too So apart from those factors, you think your students have more difficulties in the KET listening section? If yes, what are they? T1: Oh, a lot of questions relevant to the factors you asked me already so I don't think I have more ideas about this R: Yeah, So now one question on “how you teach five parts of the KET listening section?” T1: Oh, well For part 1, I let students read each question in turn and underline key words and describe the picture to find the differences among three pictures If they don’t know the words, I will provide them with some new words One more thing, I remind them to notice the time and tenses, who will be asked in the questions so that they can avoid some traps and choose the correct answers Part 2, First, I will ask them how many words and numbers they can fill in the blank so they must notice that only one word or one number After that, I give them time to read the note and think what kind of information they need in each blank and notice some answers needing singular nouns or plural nouns For part 3, I often ask them to read the context first, what they will listen about, and then I will let them read the questions and options, and sometimes ask them to translate some options into Vietnamese to make clear about the questions and options Besides, I encourage them to think about synonyms or different ways to present the ideas in the options if they can Part 4, it is the same as part and 3, but there are five different contexts, so I ask them to notice what they will listen about, look at the time and tenses, and who will be asked 113 in the questions like the man or the woman so that they are easier to choose the correct answers For the last part, matching, they need to be aware of the context first and then the answer in the example, so I ask them to cross it out Afterwards, I invite some students to read out loud the names of people in the first column, and in the second column, I ask them to find some synonyms of the things given in the questions or describe them in a negative form but still the same meaning R: Oh, that’s kind of a detailed answer, thank you And the next question is “How you deal with those difficulties your learners encounter? T1: Yeah, so in order to help them, the first thing, I often divide class into some small groups, ask them to listen and then go to the board to write their answers in teams To avoid some weak students working together, I have some good students work with them in groups After that, I will check their answers and give one point for the one correct answer The team that loses the game will buy some candies or snacks for other teams I think this is a good way to boost their motivation and concentration, too Sometimes, I have them listen to some songs and figure out some new words in it or encourage them to practice listening, especially the Key English Test at home so that they can enrich their knowledge and improve listening ability Before listening, I also give them some vocabulary relevant to the topic or Key English Test and its pictures on my phone so that they can generalize the words After listening, they can look at the transcript at the end of the book and listen at the same time to realize how the speaker pronounces the words After listening twice, I ask them to look at the transcript and listen at the same time to recognize how the words are pronounced and connected I also ask them to underline unknown words and tell me, after that, I will give them the meaning and pronunciation of those words 114 R: Great! Some activities are interesting Thank you so much Your answer will help me a lot to research and find out solutions to support our students Thanks again See you T1: You're welcome See you soon! 115