An investigation into efl listening problems of intermedia learners at ho chi minh city university of education foreign language center causes and solutions

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HO cm MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES , , , HOANG THJ BIeH THAO AN INVESTIGATION INTO EFL LISTENING PROBLEMS OF INTERMEDIATE LEARNERS AT HO em MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTER: CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS A THESIS SUBMITIED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQumEMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS (TESOL) r "" Til HVIEN f- II IKHXill:; ~IV • , I Ti'.H0 CHI MINI"I LA l t{;IL1 ,,' : ~ (I sj: :::1:": • t-J , '" -L , J -, CODE NUMBER: 5.07.02 SUPERVISOR: LE THJ THANH, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY - 2006 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: AN INVESTIGATION INTO EFL LISTENING PROBLEMS OF INTERMEDIATE LEARNERS AT HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTER: CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS in terms of the statement of Requirements for Theses in Master's Programmes issued by the High Degree Committee Ho Chi Minh City, September 2006 , , HOANG TI-Q: BICH TRAO RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS , , I hereby state that I, HOANG THl BICH THAO, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master's Theses deposited in the Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for care, loan or reproduction of theses Ho Chi Minh City, September 2006 , , HOANG TIll BICH THAO 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Dr Le Thi Thanh, for her valuable assistance, guidance, encouragement and comments during the time of implementing the thesis Without her help, I could not have finished this thesis I am greatly indebted to the organizers of the Master course, Dr Le Hiiu Phudc, Head of the Department of Post Graduate Studies of Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities and Mr Nguyen Huynh Dat, M.A., Dean of the Department of English Linguistics and Literature, Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, their staff members, and all my teachers for their dedication and helpful instruction during the course My sincere thanks to all teachers and learners who were willing to respond to my questionnaires, especially to the teachers who have offered favourable conditions for my thesis data collection Last but not least, I would like to thank my family and friends for their love, encouragement, understanding and moral support iii ABSTRACT Listening plays a critical role not only in communication but also m language acquisition Although the majority of intermediate learners at Foreign Language Center of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education Branch 10 have learnt English for rather a long time, they still face difficulties in listening comprehension This thesis aims at: (1) investigating intermediate learners' problems of learning EFL listening at HCMC UE - Branch 10; (2) fmding out the reasons for those problems; and (3) suggesting solutions to help learners overcome their difficulties and improve their listening ability In order to achieve these objectives, a survey was carried out and based on the questionnaires delivered to 109 intermediate learners and 22 English teachers at this center The results of the study show that the learners encounter various kinds of listening problems related to the listening text, the speaker factors, the listener factors, the listening tasks and the teaching and learning facilities The data analysis reveals that the causes of the difficulties are: (1) the learners seriously lack listening practice and training in class as well as at home ; (2) some of the learners' listening learning ways are improper and ineffective; (3) the teaching material is out of date, not authentic and lacking in listening tasks for helping improve listening ability; (4) limitations of learning and teaching facilities obstructs learners' listening learning; and (5) a proportion of teachers not have effective ways of teaching listening Based on the fmdings of the study, the thesis recommends that (1) the teachers need to master modem teaching methods, techniques and then apply them suitably, effectively, flexibly and creatively to their listening teaching; IV they should pay sufficient attention to their listening teaching; (2) the learners must have a positive attitude towards learning listening; they should learn actively, hard and practise listening regularly; (3) the Streamline English Destinations should be changed for another course book which is up-to-date, relevant and appropriate to the learners' needs and level; and (4) teaching and learning facilities should be well equipped to help learners learn listening more effectively v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL English as a Foreign Language FLC Foreign Language Center L2 Foreign / Second language OUP Oxford University Press CUP Cambridge University Press HCMC Ho Chi Minh City UE University of Education VI TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Certificate of originality i Retention and use of the thesis ii Acknowledgements iii Abstract iv List of abbreviations vi Table of contents vii List of figures xi List of tables xii Chapter I:NTRODUCTION 1.1 The rationale of the study 1.2 Aim of the study 1.3 General background to the study 1.4 Overview of the thesis Chapter LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 An overview of listening comprehension 8 2.1.1 Definitions 2.1.2 The nature of listening comprehension 2.1.3 The importance of listening comprehension in foreign 2.1.4 language learning 11 Different types of knowledg e used in listening 12 Vll 2.1.5 Listening processes 2.2 Listening stages 13 15 2.2.1 The pre-listening stage 15 2.2.2 The while-listening stage 18 2.2.3 The post-listening stage 20 23 " strategies L istening 21 2.4 Materials 23 2.5 Potential problems of listening to English as a foreign language 24 2.5.1 The factors related to the speaker 24 2.5.2 The factors related to the listening text 27 2.5.3 The factors related to the listener 32 2.5.4 The factors related to the teaching and learning facilities 34 2.5.5 Listening task 35 2.5.6 Surnrnary 36 Chapter METHODOLOGY 37 3.1 Research questions 37 3.2 Research design 37 3.2.1 3.2.2 3.2.3 3.3 Subjects of the study 38 3.2.1.1 Subject selection 38 3.2.1.2 Characteristics of the subjects 39 Instruments 41 3.2.2.1 Questionnaire for the learners 43 3.2.2.2 Questionnaire for the teachers 45 Data collection procedures Surnrnary 45 46 viii PART IV: YOUR ENGLISH LISTENING PROBLEMS 11 When listening to English, how often you encounter these following difficulties (related to the speaker factors)? Please tick one choice that best describes your problem for each answer Never IRarely Sometimes Usually IAIways 11 Have difficulty understanding natural speech which is full of ungrammatical sentences, hesitations, corrections, redundancies, and pauses,etc 11.2 Have difficulty keeping up with natural native speech (the speakers speak too fast) 11.3 Have difficulty understanding the speaker's meaning because of not seeing the speaker's body language and facial expressions 11.4 Have difficulty understanding different or unfamiliar accents 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 When listening to English, how often you encounter these following difficulties (related to the listening text and listening task)? Please tick one choice that best describes your problem for each answer Never Rarely Sometimes Usually IAIways 12.1 Have trouble with sounds (e.g sounds not exist in Vietnamese, vowel sounds , consonants clusters) 12.2 Have difficulty with stress and intonation 12.3 Have difficulty distinguishing or recognising known expressions and words within the swift stream of speech (because of elision, liaison, assimilation, etc.) 12.4 Have difficulty recognising the ' signals' (e.g the way the speaker indicate that he/she is moving from one point to another, or giving example, or repeating a point) 115 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 12.5 Have difficult answering questions which require long, complete answers (e.g questions with question words such as Why, How , etc.) 12.6 Find it more and more difficult to interpret and concentrate if the listening goes on a long time 0 0 0 0 0 13 When Iistenmg to English, how often you encounter these foUowing difficulties (related to the listener factors)? Please tick one choice that best describes your problem for each answer Never Rarely Sometimes 13.1 Have difficulty understanding the spoken text which is not interesting or difficult to understand 13.2 Have difficulty predicting what the speakers are going to say 13.3 Have difficulty in comprehension because of lack of vocabulary, grammar 13.4 Have difficulty in comprehension because of lack of background knowledge, knowledge of culture, context, situation, etc Usually IAIways 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13.5 Feel dismayed, discouraged and 0 0 worried when I don't understand the spoken te xt 14 When listening to English, how often you encounter these foUowing difficulties (related to the teaching and learning facilities)? Please tick one choice that best describes your problem for each answer Never 14.1 Lack of visual aids hinders me from listening comprehension 14.2 Outside noise interferes with my listening comprehension 14.3 An inferior machine or poor recording makes it hard for me to understand the spoken text 14.4 Poor classroom conditions obstruct my listening comprehension (e.g hot, stuffy ) 116 Rarely Sometimes Usually Always 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 PART V: ABOUT YOUR ENGLISH LISTENING PRACTIC (AT HOME) 15 Do you practise listening English at home? Yes No /f you not practise listening at home, please proceed to item /9 16 If yes, how often you practise listening? Less than once a month About once a month About once a week Everyday 0 0 17 How you practise listening? (You may have more than one choice) Listen to the Streamline English Destinations tapes Listen to the tapes or CD which you have Liten to programmes in English on the radio, on TV, Internet Watch films in English Listen to English music Others (please specify) 0 0 18 In your opinion, is the coursebook suitable for learning and developing listening comprehension? Yes o o No If yes, why? (please specify) If no, why? (please specify) 19 How you assess your own English listening ability? very bad o o ODD 117 very good 20 In your opinion, to improve the learning and teaching of listening comprehension, what should be done? - Teaching and learning facilities (audio visual aids, classroom condition): o - The coursebook: - The learner: - The teacher: - Other (please specify): Thank you very much for your help 118 APPENDIX 3: QUESTIONNAIRE ( IN VIETNAMESE VERSION) " "'" ? ? , MQT SO CAU HOI KHAO SAT Th1!a quy Th~y ICo Nham chudn bi eho d~ tai nghien CU'u: "An investigation into EFL listening problems of intermediate learners at 80 Chi Minh City University of Education Foreign Language Center: causes and solutions ", toi xin phep d1!~c tham khdo y kie'n tit quy Th~y/Co Xin quy Th~y/Co vui long tra ICfi nhilng diu hoi bang khao sat d1!di day bang each danh da'u cheo (X) vao cau tra ICfi d1!~c chon , D6i vdi nhiYng cau dn y kie'n cu th~, xin quy Th~y/Co vui long ghi ro vao khoang tr6ng dli chita san Cac cau tra ICfi ciia quy Th~y/Co la ra't quan cho sl! cong cua d~ tai Nhilng Ykie'n ciia quy Th~y/Co se hoan toan dl1~c giil kin va chi phuc vu cho d~ tai nghien cU'u cua toi rna thoi Xin chan cam on sl! giup cua quy Thfryl Co PHAN I: HQ va ten: Gidi tinh : Tu6i: A , A, THONG TIN CA NHAN Nam 22 -30 Nil 31-40 41-50 tren 50 Thoi gian giang day tieng Anh: 1-4nam -10 nam • tren 10 nam BAng ca'p (cao nha't): • Cit nhan (BA) • Dang hQC Cao hQC (postgraduate) o o o o o o • Th~c si (MA) ,., khac , (xi • Nhilng bang cap xm ghi ro) ro PuAN D: Nll!N DfNH CVA TuA Y/CO vE KY NANG TIENG AND ,., trlnh day va hoc tie'ng Anh Thfry/Co c6 cho r~ng nghe hi~u la quan Trong tren ' ' khong? C6 Khong Ne'u c6, vi sao? xin ghi ro Ne'u khong, vi sao? xin ghi ro 119 Theo quy nhat? Th~y/Co, b6n Icy nang: nghe ' n6i 'doc vie't ley nang nao la kh6 day ' , N6i Nghe Theo "" ? quy Th~y/Co, nh at Doc 0 Vi'e't b6n ley nang: nghe ' n6i tdoc vie't, In.i nang nao la ' aJ Noi Nghe Trong qua trlnh day, quy Noi Nghe d~ day 0 DQc Vie't Th~y/Co clnl de'n ley nang nao nhat? DQC 0 Vie't PHAN lll: Y KIEN CVA THAY/CO vE TAl LItU NGHE 10 Theo Th~y/Co, giao trtnh Streamline English Destinations c6 phil hop cho viec phat tri~D Icy nang nghe cua hoc vien hay khong? Rat phil hop Tuong d6i phil hop Phil hop Khong phil hop Xin Th~y/Co cho bie't ro ly vi 0 11 Theo Th~y/Co, co dn thie't tlm nhO'ng tai lieu khac d~ cho hQC vien luyen nghe them khong? Co KhODg 12 Ngoai tai li~u chinh (Streamline English Destinations), Th~y/Co co tlm them nhO'ng tai lieu khac d~ giup hoc vien phat tri~n ley nang nghe hay khong? Co Khong '" c 0,xm Th~ayIC~0 c h b'''' lieeu nao , - N eu let ro- d'0 l'a tal - Ne'u khong, xin Th~y/Co tie'p rue tra lC1i cau 14 13 Th~y/Co sir dung nhO'ng tai lieu qua trlnh day c6 thirong xuyen khong? Hie'm Thuong Thinh thoang Luon luon , ? ~ A PnAN IV: pHlfi~u ki~n moi tnrong khong t6t cho viec hoc nghe (n6ng mrc, 6n ao ) - Nhi1ng yeu t6khac (xin ghi ro) vmc 18 Theo Thdyl Co, nhdng giai phap dE giup hoc vien kh&c phuc nhilng kh6 khan vi~c hec nghe la gl? (TMy/Co co thl co han mQt lua chon) - Chi d&n va n6i ro cho hoc vien bie't du'«;fC muc dich cua bai ~p nghe la gl 0 - Tnrdc nghe, dung mQt s6 hoat d pUla ' A -v« phia giao vien: _ c~~'~l~'~~.~~~"(~'~w :~i);: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Xin chin cam 00 sf! ghip da cua quy Thayl Co 122 APPENDIX 4: QUESTIONNAIRE (IN ENGLISH VERSION) QUESTIONNAIRE Dear research participants, This questionnaire aims at collecting data for a study entitled: " An investigation into EFL listening problems of intermediate learners at Ho Chi Minh City University of Education Foreign Language Center: causes and solutions " Please answer this questionnaire to the best of your knowledge Please read all the options and choose one by putting an X next to it To open response questions, please write your answers in the space provided Your answers are very important to the success of the study They will be completely confidential and used for research purposes only Thank you for your time and help PART I: ABOUT YOU Teacher's name : Gender: Male Female Age : 22-30 31 -40 How long have you been teaching English? - years - 10 years • More than 10 years Your quali fications (the highest degree) BA in English P.G (postgraduate ) in English MA in English Others (please specify) 41 -50 Over 50 o o o o o o PART U: TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS OF THE FOUR ENGLISH SKILLS comprehension is important in the process of EA teaching Do you think listerung andleaming? o Yes No If yes , why? (Please specify) ii·~~:·~·~·~·~·(;i~~·~~·~~·~~~f;:;·:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 123 According to you, among the four skills, which skill is the most difficult to teach? Reading Speaking Listening Writing According to you, among the four skills, which skill is the easiest to teach? Reading Speaking Listening Writing When you teach English, which skill you pay your full attention to? Speaking Reading Listening Writing Why? (Please specify) PART m: TEACHERS' OPINIONS ABOUT LISTENING MATERIALS 10 According to you, is the present coursebook (Streamline English Destinations) suitable for improving learners' listening skills? Very suitable Rather suitable Suitable Not suitable Why? (please specify) 11 According to you, is it necessary to have other materials to help learners develop their listening skills? Yes No 12 Apart from the main coursebook, you find any other materials to help learners develop their listening skills? Yes No If yes, please specify If no, please proceed to item 14 13 How often you use those supplementary materials in your teaching process? Rarely Usually Sometimes Always PART m TEACHERS' WAYS OF TEACIllNG LISTENING COMPREHENSION 14 When teaching listening, which step you follow? - Just pay I the tap e , ask learners to listen and answer questions or , the task, then check answer~ s' Pre-listemng, While-listenmg, and Post-listemng th e stage - Fo IIowes id ta sks , activities appropriate to different stages PrOVl e 124 0 ~5 If you follow three stages: pre-listening, while-listening, post-listening, how Important is each stage according to you? Please tick one choice that best describes your opinion for each answer Very Important Little Not important important important The Pre-listening stage 0 0 The While-listening stage 0 0 The Post-listening stage 0 0 16 When teaching listening, which process you center on? - Bottom-up processing (refers to a process of decoding a message that the listener hears through the analysis of sounds, words, and grammar, etc.) - Top-down processing (refers to using background knowledge to comprehend a message) - Both of the processes PART IV: TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS OF THE DIFFICULTIES OFTEN PREVENTING LEARNERS FROM LISTENING COMPREHENSION AND SOME FEASmLE SOLUTIONS 17 According to you, what factors often prevent learners from listening comprehension? (You may have more than one choice) - Lack of linguistic knowledge (vocabulary, grammar, etc.) 0 - Lack of background knowledge, knowledge of the context, situation, culture, etc - Unfamiliarity with natural native speech (for learners, the speakers speak too fast) - Learners' improper ways of learning listening - Lack of facilities for listening study (e.g audio-visual aids) - Poor classroom conditions - Others (please specify) O' O' O'.O' O'.O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' • • O' • • • • • O' O'.O' O'.O' O' O'.O'.O' O' O' O' O' O' 18 AC~~~di~~·~~·;~~:·~h~~·~;~·f~~~ibi~·~~i~ti~~~·~~·~~~;~~~~·~~~~·iliffi~·~iti~~? (You may have more than one choice) _Give clear instructions and offer a specific purpose for the task _Use pre-listening activities to activate learners' background knowledge and provide necessary information - Provide linguistic knowledge _Explain their improper ways of learning listening to them _Provide learners with appropriate listening strategies to help them listen effectively 125 O' O' ···· o o o o o - Provide learners with a variety of task types - Provide learners with a variety of accents, different kinds of input (such as everyday conversation, interview, radio news, storytelling, English songs, lectures, etc.) - Ask learners to work in pairs or in groups - Let learners listen more than once with different task and purpose each time (e.g for the first listening: the task need s to be fairly straightforward and general, the second listening may focus on details, etc.) - Others (please specify) 0 0 19 According to you, in order to help learners to improve their listening comprehension, what should be done? - Te aching and learning facilities (audio -visual aids, classroom conditions): - Materials: - The learners: - The teacher: - Others (Please specify) : Thank you very much for your help 126 APPENDIX 5: A COpy OF UNIT 13 FROM THE COURSEBOOK "STREAMLINE ENGLISH DESTINATIONS" (Bernard Hartley and Peter Viney , 1982) FLYINGTO SPAIN Ar rhe a irport Landing-cards Norman is at Heathrow Airport He ' s checked in He's been th rough Pa ssPOrt Control and he ' s in the Deparlure Lounge Listen to the a n no unc e merits Look at the chart, look at the ex am ple, and cornplere the chart in Steward Span ish nat ional or nonSpanish, sir? Norman Er I'm Brit ish Steward Would you mind complcting th is landing ca rd , sir ? Norma n Right Thank yo u the same way, Landing-card Family name FOlename(s) ',;:.,;:·:·:.:I RR !i:.(:; :,:·.~,\L JAN : Falher's name •,!:,;': t :r.U ~I,.I~.rAlR Lunch on rhe plane Place otbirth Nationality \;JJ! ,i·:~T.E lt of",; ;.,~ 1:', 1:\ A • • Passport no ~ J t ~ ~7Z PermanenladdlCSS 37 CVIIIl~o hvrn v~ .;:.: l.l!.!:i1! ;~:.O.'>i I' EJ,l(;,L.AN't> Poinl 01 departure :"I.l,~[)!HJ (II£Al}{~ ~ },.,"tor >", 10~ Oesunanon I, " :": ••• •• • Oaie " •.:.·"'.S'1l]1"ldIute,oj :_'I~ It:, • • r; Passport control In flight Norman is now on the plane Listen 10 the four announcernen rs, ;1I1d answer these questions, What's the p ilot's name ] H ow long will rhe delay t", ? When w ill they arri ve ill ~b dr ill ? Wh,1 arc they wa il ing fcor ? Where is the plalle ? Whal k ind is ir? How h igh is it ? How fasl is it go ing ? How hot is ir in ,\ l:" lriJ ? What's the we ather l i l :~ ? Why should the r,~ ~c n !=er; remain in the ir seats ? W h at's the p lane b ~l:illllillg 10 ? \"'hat rwo th ings should Ihl' I'.ISsengers ? When ca n Ih e)' st a rr smo ki ng as;1 in ? W h al sh oul d rhe passe l1~l'~" :.J,, ? \"'hen ca n they nand u p ? Steward Here's yo ur reay, sir Norman Oh , thank you Steward Wo uld you like someth ing to drink ? Norman Er yes, please Some ted wine Steward That's 100 pes etas Norman Thanks, Can I pay in British money? Stew ard Of course You needn't pay n ow,l'lI collect it later Official Pas sport, pleas e Th a nk you Who re h ave you come fro m , sir? Norman London Official And wh at 's the putpose 01 your visit bus iness or pleasure ? Norman Business Offici.1 Fine , and how long will you be staying here? Norma n Just for five days Official Thank you, Me Garrard , hope you enjoy your visit , Unit 13 127 APPENDIX 6: A COpy OF UNITS2 FROM THE COURSEBOOK "STREAMUNE ENGLISH DESTINATIONS " (Bernard Hartley and Peter Viney, 1982) DESCRIBING PEOPLE Name Donna Age late teens B UI;~ eoad figure Heighl 'airly lal/ Hair colour blJc,~ Halfslyle long, wa'Y Face he.ln·sIlaDed lumed-UD nose, luI/lips Eyes blue long tyelaSlles Complexion olive-skinneD OislinguiS/ling "fealures dimples Colin Janel Lisren '0 these people talking aboul their irienes, look at the example, Co m plete the oth er columns Ro bert Dress Personalily lively lalkali~ look at this "Hairstyle Age Build Height Hair colour young middle·aged eloesly in hislher 30's in hiSllBr late teens in hisiller mid-20's in his/hel early 40's fal Ihin slim P!l:!l1P rn."dium-Ouild well-buill (M) broad-shouldered (M) :lVesweighl 1.70m medium heighl a~rage heighl below average Iall short Iallish shortISh Eyes blue grey brown long eyelashes I/lick eyelashes bushy eyelashes I/lin eyebrows Complexion pale sunburnedllanned olive-skinned Ia;r-skinned Oriental brown black Dress smart serul'V well-dressed casual conservative eleoant Iashionable long short led straight wavy lair curly blon~ e neat grey unlidy while wilh pla,ls (F) dyed a bruhehe a Iringe swepl back (F) a blonde in a bun (F) pony-Iail (F) : (F) a redhead bald (M) balding (M) (F) Ihinning (M) mousey receding (M) dark old black bro~n Describe these-people 'Describe y?urself, another student, • famous person 128 Faee Distinguishing leatures Personality Quiel lleare (!.I/ Ihin mo~~ta:.-.e (M) ~et\led long sice·tl\;rr-s (M) 1ho~1lhllul round Wi:m ur$".a·";i, ( ~4 i oval moody dean·s~.! \~ (M) square unsociable heart-shaped (f) • scar high cIlW:lcnes a bea~ly-~! (F) sociable sophiSlicale!' amole highIorellead r.VP.Iy wilh freck!es thin lips theenul wilh dimples full lips ~ing - _ with spots long nIlse polile with 'N~;:k les slraighl nose re na~le lurned-up nose wilh iiroes ' wilhgimes Ialkalive ' - , broken nose (~II) INde-up (f) ~g ressive a clell.chin friendly a poinled chin shy dO\Jble chin ,~ 'i ri· ,,-:~ '< TRANSCRIPT UNIT 13 UNIT 52 A Airport announcements Th is is the lasr call fo r the rw.