Enhancing the quality of teaching learning listening skills appropriate to the curriculum and contents of the new textbook tieng anh 8 in phu yen province

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES HO THI VIET LUAN M.A THESIS in TESOL ENHANCING THE QUALITY OF TEACHING-LEARNING LISTENING SKILLS APPROPRIATE TO THE CURRICULUM AND CONTENTS OF THE NEW TEXTBOOK TIENG ANH IN PHU YEN PROVINCE SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN VAN MUOI, Ph D HO CHI MINH CITY – 2005 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: “ENHANCING THE QUALITY OF TEACHING-LEARNING LISTENING SKILLS APPROPRIATE TO THE CURRICULUM AND CONTENTS OF THE NEW TEXTBOOK TIENG ANH IN PHU YEN PROVINCE” In terms of the statements of requirements for the Thesis in Master’s Programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee HCM city, December, 2005 Hồ Thị Việt Luận i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Ho Thi Viet Luan 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 University Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the University Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Van Muoi, for his valuable assistance, instructions and encouragement during the time of implementing the thesis I am also greatly indebted to the Phu Yen DOET for creating favourable conditions for me to collect the essential data from the English teaching staff in the secondary schools in Tuy Hoa town My sincere thanks are also to the principals of two secondary schools: Nguyen Du and Tran Quoc Toan for their warm supports for me to carry out my study in their schools iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS DOET: The Department of Education and Training MOET: The Ministry of Education and Training GTM: Grammar-Translation Method ALM: Audio-Lingual Method CLTM: Communicative Language Teaching Method iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1 The frequency of implementing the three-stage procedure Figure 4.2 Degree of difficulty of the pre-listening stage Figure 4.3 Difficulties of the pre-listening stage Figure 4.4 Degree of difficulty of the while-listening stage Figure 4.5 Difficulties of the while-listening stage Figure 4.6 Degree of difficulty of the post-listening stage Figure 4.7 Difficulties of the post-listening stage Figure 4.8 The students’ attitude to learning listening Figure 4.9 Degree of confidence before listening v ABSTRACT Together with the movement which the total Education-Training Branch making best efforts in innovating the teaching-learning method at middle school level – in the tendency of stimulating the learners’ dynamism, active creativity in all the learning activities, the demands of enhancing the quality of teaching-learning language skills for the above trend have been being raised for not only those who are directly carrying out the process of teaching language skills but also education managers and researchers who are very interested in improving effectiveness of teaching-learning language skills in the system of secondary school education Under the current situation, the thesis is developed and focused mainly on listening skills in the pursuit of enhancing the quality of teaching-learning listening skills appropriate to the curriculum and the contents of the new text book Tieng Anh of MOET The data is handled and collected during the process of the study according to the descriptive and qualitative analysis The questionnaires, observations and interviews are implemented as the surveys with a hope of finding out the potential obstacles that teachers and learners have encountered in teaching-learning listening and presenting some vi implications, suggestions and recommendations in order to improve teaching-learning listening skills in the secondary schools more effectively TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality i Retention and use of the thesis ii Acknowledgements iii List of abbreviations iv List of figures .v Abstract .vi Table of contents .vii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background 1.2 The aim of the study 1.3 The structure of the thesis Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Listening and listening process 2.1.1 The importance of listening 2.1.2 Listening process 2.2 Stages of teaching-learning listening comprehension 2.2.1 Pre-listening 10 vii 2.2.2 While-listening 12 2.2.3 Post-listening .14 2.3 Uncertainty of learners .16 2.3.1 Uncertainty of confidence 16 2.3.2 Uncertainty of spoken language 17 2.3.2.1 Redundancy 19 2.3.2.2 Noise 19 2.3.3 Uncertainty of vocabulary and grammatical structures .20 2.3.4 Uncertainty of listening strategies .22 2.3.4.1 Predicting .22 2.3.4.2 Selective listening 23 2.3.4.3 Inferencing 23 2.3.4.4 Personalizing 24 2.4 Teaching methods 24 2.4.1 Grammar-Translation Method 25 2.4.2 Audio-Lingual Method 27 2.4.3 Communicative Language Teaching Method 28 2.5 Summary 30 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 31 3.1 Research setting 31 3.2 Research questions .31 3.3 The study 32 3.3.1 Background to the study 32 3.3.2 The design and content of the new textbook Tieng Anh 32 viii 3.3.3 The objects of the study 34 3.4 Methods for the study 35 3.4.1 Questionnaire 35 3.4.2 Questionnaire design 36 3.4.2.1 Questionnaire for teachers 36 3.4.2.2 Questionnaire for students .38 3.4.3 Observation .39 3.4.4 Interview 41 3.5 Summary 43 Chapter 4: FINDING AND ANALYSIS 44 4.1 The background of the English teachers 45 4.2 The potential obstacles in teaching-learning listening .46 4.2.1 The content of the listening lessons in the new textbook Tieng Anh 46 4.2.2 The issues concerning teaching listening 51 4.2.2.1 The issues concerning performing the three-stage teaching procedure 51 4.2.2.2 Pre-listening stage 54 4.2.2.3 While-listening stage .56 4.2.2.4 Post-listening stage 59 4.2.3 The issues concerning learning listening 62 4.3 Teaching methods of listening via the classroom observations and the small interviews with three observed teachers .69 4.3.1 The first class observation 69 4.3.2 The second class observation 71 ix Appendices Thank you for answering the questions Appendix C BAÛNG CÂU HỎI DÀNH CHO HỌC SINH LỚP Em đọc cẩn thận câu hỏi sau đánh dấu (5) vào ô thích hợp Trong học tiếng Anh, em có thích học nghe không? a Có b Không c Không biết Em cảm thấy trước bắt đầu nghe nghe đó? a Rất tự tin c Tự tin chút b Không tự tin Em có khó khăn học nghe? a Tốc độ nói băng nhanh b Giọng nói băng lạ c Số lượng từ vựng d Cấu trúc văn phạm e Ý kiến khác (nếu có xin ghi rõ vào đây): Em có biết chắn chiến lược nghe học nghe không? a Có b Không c Không biết Em có thích tham gia nhiều tốt hoạt động nghe lớp không? a Có b Không Khi học nghe lớp, em thích hoạt động hơn? a Các hoạt động bắt buộc sách giáo khoa -105- Appendices b Các hoạt động bổ sung khác giáo viên thiết kế Appendix D FINDINGS The issues concerning the grade-eight students’ learning listening in the secondary schools Questions Descriptors Do you like to learn listening a yes b no in English class? c no idea How you feel before a very confident officially listening to listening b confident a little c not confident texts? What difficulties you have a fast speed b unfamiliar accents in listening? c vocabulary d grammar structures e other ideas Are you certain about some a Yes listening strategies in learning b No c No idea listening? Do you like to join as many a Yes b No listening activities as possible? -106- Results (total number of students) N=125 n % 52 41,6 47 37,6 26 20,8 7,2 23 18,4 93 74,4 97 99 107 81 77,6 79,2 85,6 64,8 11 102 12 62 63 8,8 81,6 9,6 49,6 50,4 Appendices Which ones you prefer a The obligated when learning listening? activities in the textbook b The supplementary activities of the teacher 41 32,8 84 67,2 Appendix E INTERVIEW QUESTIONS WITH THE OBSERVED TEACHERS IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS Why have you just used the teaching method(s)? • Grammar-Translation Method • Audio-Lingual Method • Communicative Language Teaching Method Do you think the method(s), which you have employed bring(s) back the achievement and effectiveness of the teaching-learning period of listening? Why you think it is the most effective? What you think about the other teaching methods? Why have you not employed them for your recent period of teaching listening? Are you pleased with all of what you have presented? If not, what suggestions you desire to make in order to help you improve teaching-learning listening? INTERVIEW QUESTIONS WITH THE DOET’S TEACHERS AND PHU YEN COLLEGE’S ENGLISH TEACHERS Do you think the secondary school teachers’ using teaching methods is the major cause decreasing the effectiveness of teaching-learning listening? -107- Appendices If yes, what suggestions you make to improve the quality of teaching-learning listening in the secondary schools? If no, what factors affect the effectiveness of teaching-learning listening? What solutions you suggest to overcome the causes indicated in the question 3? Appendix F CLASSROOM OBSERVATION SHEET (1) - Teacher’s name: A * Sex: Female * Age: 36 - Class: 8A (Nguyen Du secondary school) - Unit : 7- My neighborhood - Objective: Developing skill of listening-comprehension through the listening activities of short responses, including closing and true/ false - Time: 45 minutes - Date: December 3th, 2004 Stage Board’s presentation I/ Prelistening The newcomer Town ground (15m) English speaking contest Culture house Teacher’s activities -Introducing the requirement of the listening lesson -Asking students to read four advertisements and guess the content missed in the gaps -108- Students’ activities -Reading the advertisements and thinking about the answer Appendices -Presenting the new words by some techniques (explanation, giving direct meaning in Vietnamese) -Asking students to listen to the conversation and fill the blank in each of the advertisement with one phrase in the box -109- -Taking notes of new words some questions related to the content of listening text -Being ready to listen the conversation Appendices While – listening II/ a T (25m) b F c F d T e- T f No information Post listening (5m) -Playing the tape the fist time -Playing the tape the second time (non-stopping the cassette player.) -Checking the students’ comprehension -Giving the correct feedback -Asking students to read the instructions of part in listening lesson -Playing the tape times (non – stop) -Checking feedback and giving out the correct - Listening -Giving some different feedback -Reading silently and guessing which statement is true or false - Listening -Giving some different feed back -Asking students to -Summarizing of summarize the content content of the listening text dialogue -110- the the Appendices UNIT MY NEIGHBORHOOD LISTEN Na is new to the neighborhood She’s talking with Nam about what she’s going to on the weekend Look at the advertisement of “What’s on this week?” Listen to the conversation Then fill the blank in each of the advertisement with one phrase from the box Town Ground The Newcomer English Speaking Contest Culture House What’s on this week? MILLENNIUM CINEMA The Newcomer Two performances Monday – Saturday 5pm – 8pm FOOTBALL Le Do School vs Quang Trung School _ _ kick off 4pm Saturday, 24th March _ _ Nguyen Khuyen school Thurday, 22nd March 7.30 pm – 9.30 pm PHOTO EXHIBITION Hundreds of photos taken By young photographers _ _ Monday – Friday Open: 9.00 am – 9.00 pm Listen to the conversation again and check (5) the correct box for True, False or No Information -111- Appendices Appendix G CLASSROOM OBSERVATION SHEET (2) Teacher’s name: B *Sex: Female *Age: 40 Class: 8E (Tran Quoc Toan secondary school) Unit 8: Country life and city life Time: 45 minutes Objective: Developing the skill of listening-comprehension through the listening activities of closing (short responses) Date: December 20th, 2004 Method: Grammar Translation and Audio-Lingual Method Stage Prelistening (25m) Board’s presentation Teacher’s activities Students’ activities -The present progressive -Explaining the form -Taking notes tense and uses of the present progressive am tense in Vietnamese S+ is + V-ing Are Uses: We are learning listening now -Taking notes -112- Appendices I am watching TV tonight -Rewrite the verbs in brackets using the present progressive tense Where you (phone) from? I (call) to tell you about a visit We (come) to visit you next week When (you) arrive)? We (arrive) is there in the late afternoon Whilelistening (15m) Postlistening (5m) 1.that 2.this 3.It’s 4.Where 5.from 6.coming 7.Week 8.arriving 9.Thursday 10.late 11.afternoon 12.speak 13.my 14.get - Writing the exercise -Finishing on the board exercise -Getting back the the feed -Giving the feed back -Reading in -Asking the students chorus to read loudly the -Reading the sentences in chorus dialogue with -Introducing the missing words situation of the -Being ready to listening text and listen and fill the requiring students to gaps fill the missing words -Listening and -Playing the cassette taking notes two times without any pauses -Giving the feed -Getting the feed back -Listening and back checking the -Playing the cassette missing words one more with some again pauses after each -Taking notes of the correct sentence -Correcting the feed back and writing the correct missing on the board -Asking students to - Translating translate the dialogue -113- Appendices -114- Appendices UNIT COUNTRY LIFE AND CITY LIFE LISTEN Fill the missing work Lan: Hello Aunt Hang: Hello Is (1) Lan? Lan: Yes Who is (2) ? Aunt Hang: (3) Aunt Hang How are you? Lan: I’m fine (4) are you phoning (5) _? Aunt Hang: Hue I’m calling to tell you Uncle Chi And I are (6) to visit you next (7) Lan: Great! When are you (8) ? Aunt Hang: On (9) We’re arriving in Ha Noi in the (10) _ (11)………… Lan: OK Do you want to (12) to (13) _ mom? Aunt Hang: Yes, please Lan: Hold on a moment and I’ll (14) her TAPE TRANSCRIPT: Lan: Hello Aunt Hang: Hello Is that Lan? Lan: Yes Who is this? Aunt Hang: It’s Aunt Hang How are you? Lan: I’m fine Where are you phoning from? Aunt Hang: Hue I’m calling to tell you Uncle Chi and I are coming to visit you next week Lan: Great! When are you arriving? Aunt Hang: On Thursday We’re arriving in Ha Noi in the late afternoon Lan: OK Do you want to speak to my mom? Aunt Hang: Yes, please Lan: Hold on a moment and I’ll get her -115- Appendices Appendix H CLASSROOM OBSERVATION SHEET (3) - Teacher’s name: C * Sex: Female *Age: 38 - Class: 8B (Tran Quoc Toan secondary school) - Unit: 9- A first-aid course - Time: 45minutes - Objective: Developing listening skill with the activity of short responses-Ticking off items - Date: January 18th, 2005 - Method: Communicative and Audio-Lingual Stage Pre – listening (10m) Board’s presentation - Ambulance - Stretcher - Crutches - Wheelchair - Scale - Eye chart - Paramedic - Eyesight - Wheel Teacher’s activities -showing the picture of some activities at the hospital -Asking some questions related to the picture + Where are the people in the picture? + What is he/she doing? - Presenting some new words using the technique of giving direct translation in Vietnamese -Giving practice of reading -Giving instructions of accomplishing the task, matching the letters A, B, C, D, E, F to the correct words in the box -116- Students’ activities -Observing the picture -Answering teacher’s questions - Taking note -Reading in chorus and in individual Appendices WhileAmbulance A listening Wheelchair B (25m) Stretchers C Eye chart D4 Scale E5 Stretcher F -Listening and -Playing the cassette matching first time -Giving feedback -Getting feed back -Listening and -Playing the castle checking the second time to cheek feedback feedback -Providing the correct feedback -Guiding Ss to the next task, putting the above words in the correct order when listening (emphasizing that they are not in available order in the text book) -Playing the tape two -Listening and taking times without any notes pauses - Getting feedback (a - Giving a variety of variety of order) feedback - Playing the tape again to check without any pauses -Providing the correct -Taking notes order Postlistening (5m) -Handling out the -Listening to the tape transcript of the with the transcript listening lesson paper in front of them -Playing the tape again -117- Appendices UNIT A FIRST-AID COURSE LISTEN Match the letters A, B, C, D, E or F to the correct words in the box, then put them in the correct order as you hear Ambulance Stretcher Crutches Wheelchair Scale Eye chart TAPE TRANSCRIPT: This is the emergency room in a large hospital A paramedic is wheeling a patient on a stretcher into the emergency room where a doctor is waiting to treat the patient doesn’t look well His head is bandaged and his eyes are closed A nurse is pushing an empty wheelchair towards the exit She is probably taking in to a patient in the ambulance The eye chart on the wall is used to check people’s eyesight The chart consists of about 28 letters ranging in size from about centimeters in height at the top of the chart to about I centimeter at the bottom A doctor is trying to weigh a crying baby on the scale The baby’s mother is standing nearing She’s trying to stop her child from crying The crutches, which are for someone with a broken leg, are leaning against -118- Appendices the wall -119-