Some strategies to improve listening skills for the first year students at faculty of english hanoi open university

GRADUATION PAPER DECLARATION Title: SOME STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE LISTENING SKILLS FOR THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH, HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY I certify no part of the above report has been copied or reproduced from any person‟s work without acknowledgement and that the report is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor Hanoi, 2nd May 2015 Student Supervisor Kieu Bich Ngoc Pham Thi Bich Diep KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) GRADUATION PAPER ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, I would like to express my profound gratitude and indebtedness to my supervisor – Mrs Pham Thi Bich Diep, M.A, the lecturer of English at the Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University for her careful instructions, valuable advice, and supervision during the course of writing I also would to express my special thanks to all teachers at the Faculty of English, who have provided me with not only knowledge but also the study condition during my student life, as well as their useful advice in completing this graduation paper I would also like to extend my thanks to 100 students of first-year students at the Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University for their support in implementing the survey Finally yet importantly, I am indebted to my family and friends who have encouraged and supported me so much in the completion of this paper If there had not been great help from the above people, the study could not been fulfilled Hanoi, 2nd May 2015 Student Kieu Bich Ngoc KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) GRADUATION PAPER TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ACKNOWLEDEGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the Study Scope of the Study Subject of the Study Research Questions Methods of the Study Design of the Study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1.The Definition of Listening 1.2.The Importance of Listening 1.3.What Makes Listening Difficult? 1.4 The Listening Skills 11 1.4.1 The definitions of listening sub-skills 11 1.4.2 The Classification of Listening Sub-skills 13 1.4.2.1 Skimming 13 1.4.2.2 Guessing Meaning of Words or Context 14 1.4.2.3 Listening and Note-taking 14 1.4.2.4 Scanning 15 1.4.2.5 Inference 16 1.4.2.6 Listening for Total Comprehension 17 1.4.2.7 Predicting 17 1.4.2.8 Summarizing 18 KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) GRADUATION PAPER 1.5 Summary 18 CHAPTER II: THE STUDY 20 2.1 Data Collection Method 20 2.2 Data Analysis 21 2.3 Summary 31 CHAPTER III: SOME EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES AND TEACHING METHODS TO IMPROVE LISTENING SKILLS FOR THE FIRSTYEAR STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF ENGLISH, HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY 32 3.1 Strategies for Achieving Good Results in Listening 32 3.1.1 Pre-listening 32 3.1.2 While-listening 34 3.1.3 Post-listening 35 3.2 Applying Listening Sub-skills 37 3.2.1 Improving Skimming Sub-skills 37 3.2.2 Listening and Note-taking 38 3.2.3 Scanning 41 3.2.4 Guessing Meaning of Words or Context 43 3.2.5 Inference 44 3.2.6 Listening for Total Comprehension 45 3.3 Summary 48 PART C: CONCLUSION 49 REFERENCES APENDIX KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) GRADUATION PAPER PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Communication plays an important role in human life, and language which is one of the most useful tools for communication Nowadays, the development of global economy demands people to have more than one foreign language in communication English has become one of the main foreign languages which are used all over the world It is also known as an international language in communication and business When we think of learning a new language, normally we think about four learning skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing It is the fact that listening is listed first because it is used most Listening is not only hearing but also understanding what is being said Listeners must receive and encode the information that they hear and react They also need to check any prediction they have made and understand the speaker‟s meaning by their intonation, stress or emotions In comparison with other skills, listening skills is one of the most difficult tasks because it is a complicated process for learners It demands many other skills, so that is the reason why many students learning a new language often get into trouble dealing with them In the learning process, the author of this paper and other students at the Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University have to cope with difficulties in listening comprehension Therefore, the author decided to choose the topic “Some strategies to improve listening skills for the first-year students at the Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University” as the subject for the graduation KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) GRADUATION PAPER paper Through this study, the author would like to present some listening comprehension knowledge and suggest some effective strategies to improve the listening skills for the first-year students at the Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University Aims of the Study This study aims at finding meaning, problems and understanding all of the current situations related to teaching and learning listening skills for the first-year students at HOU as well as recommending some suggestions that they could use in learning to improve their listening-skills and extend their abilities to listen effectively in a variety of situations for a variety of purposes Scope of the Study Listening comprehension is a wide field for research Through the graduation paper, the study mainly focuses on some issues the first-year students at the Faculty of English, HOU often face They have been taught English listening skills for a considerable time and must have had knowledge of some typical skills to some extent Subject of the Study In this study, the author focuses on the students who are the first-year students in Hanoi Open University In the process of learning English at the Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University, they have to face many problems in listening skills Especially, the policy requiring that students who graduate from 2013 onwards need to satisfy a language standard (a minimum band score of 6.5 on the IELTS scale for the English language proficiency) to be awarded a university degree also makes English increasingly important Research Questions There is no doubt that listening plays an important role in our life and students of HOU, they always have trouble with it The objective of the study KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) GRADUATION PAPER is to find out some strategies which help students improve their listening comprehension skills This study focused on the following main points:  What difficulties in listening the first-year students face?  What are some suggestions for students to improve their listening skills? Methods of the Study The author implemented a survey with subjects who are the first-year students at the Faculty of English and then find out the current situation of teaching and learning listening skills and then introduce some effective strategies for the first-year students of HOU Besides, the author has acquired all the literature from many sources of data such as the Internet, newspapers and linguistics book in the Library of the Faculty of English, HOU Personal observation consulted and discussed by the supervisor in the process of researching also contributed much to the completion of this study Design of the Study The study is divided into three main parts: Part A: Introduction It is like a touch on the chosen subject such as reason for the study, aims and objectives, methods performed in the study Part B: Development It is the most important part of my paper, including three chapters: Chapter I: Literature Review: The chapter provides and introduces some definitions and theories related to listening KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) GRADUATION PAPER Chapter II: The Study: It is the main part of study, which discloses the current situation of teaching and learning listening skills for first-year students at HOU and identifies their problems in listening Chapter III: Some effective strategies to improve listening skills for the firstyear students at the Faculty of English, HOU In this chapter, the author wants to give out some suggestions and solutions to deal with difficulties in learning listening skills Part C: Conclusion This chapter is the concluding part where the author gives the conclusion and sum up the main ideas of the graduation paper KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) GRADUATION PAPER PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW The importance of listening in communication is enormous When you are not listening, you are not learning When you are not listening, you are preventing opportunity The fact that you not listen reveals the reality that your mind is closed When you are not listening, you are preventing intelligence When you are not listening, there is nothing new There are only your reactions If you wish to live life to its fullest, and then listening is vital For almost all learners of foreign languages, listening is considered the most difficult skill It brings many problems through our student life In order to deal with the problems, this study would provide an overview of listening issues to help students be aware of the listening skills more clearly 1.1 The Definition of Listening People can easily find many definitions of listening skills on the Internet or books Although there are many definitions of listening in different ways, they have the same point of view about listening In general, listening is an invisible mental process, making it difficult to describe Listening is the process of making sense out of what we hear Listening is an active process of receiving, processing, and interpreting aural stimuli Apart from that, listening involves taking in meaningful sounds and noise and in some ways, retaining and using them Just as we speak for different purposes, we also listen for different purposes We listen for enjoyment, information, and evaluation According to Dunkel (1986) “Listening is receiving language through the ears Listening involves identifying the sounds of speech and processing them into words and sentences When we listen, we use our ears to receive individual sounds (letter, stress, rhythm and pauses) and we use our brain to convert these into messages that mean something to us.” KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) GRADUATION PAPER From the point of view of Rost (1990), the person who defined listening in the most comprehension way, “Listening is one of fundamental language abilities that allow users of language to get not only information but also instruction.” In addition, Brown (1994) defined that “Listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying This involves understanding a speaker’s accent or pronunciation, his grammar and his vocabulary and grasping his meaning.” Meanwhile, Peter Sense (2002) added: “To listen fully means to pay close attention to what is being said beneath the words You listen not only to the “music”, but to the essence of the person speaking You listen not only for what someone knows, but you listen what he or she is, Ears operate at the speed of sound, which is far slower than the speed of light the eyes take in Generative listening is the art of developing deeper silence in yourself, so you can slow our mind’s hearing to your ears’ natural speed, and hear beneath the words to the meaning.” So listening means you are paying attention to what you are hearing Listening means you paid attention and understood what was said, even being motivated by what you hear In contrast, one of the most complete and detailed definitions of listening is the one provided by Brownell (1996) “…it is not a skill, but a set of skills all marked by the fact that they involve the aural perception of oral signals … [it] is not necessary for almost any other work with language, especially for speaking and even for writing.” In short, no matter how listening is defined, it is obviously that listening is the skill that we use the most when learning a second language And in our own language, listening is usually the first skill that we learn KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) GRADUATION PAPER 3.2.3 Scanning Scanning is one of the most important sub-skills in learning English It involved looking for specific information Looking for specific information does not mean reading processing every word to find answer Rather, it is about scanning for the needed data The reader‟s focus was probably something like this: Linh: xxxxx xxx execise xxxxxxxxxxxxx outside? xxxxxxxx xx play tennis? Duong: xxxxxxxx xxx xxxx window xxxx raining Linh:Raining? xxxx Rather than paying attention to every word, people think about what they need to understand and look for that information Listening for specific information is quite similar to the reading skill of scanning This is where students often get into trouble They try to catch everything, often taking the time to mentally translate it into translate their mother tongue This word-byword processing leads to slow, tedious reading With listening, it‟s impossible It simply takes too long The key is to get students to focus what they are listening for One good way is simply to have them read the task or questions before listening Do they have to write answer? Check in boxes? Fill in a form? Number pictures? In real life, people always know why they are listening In class, the learners need to know, too “Listening for specific information does not mean understanding everything and using what you need It’s understood that what you need and catching that” (Marc Helgesen, 1998) KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) 41 GRADUATION PAPER Scanning is an important sub-skill Do the students need practice? Of course, they need more Then, some activities to improve the skill of scanning in listening  Goal: Selecting Details from the Text (Word recognition) o Match a word that you hear with its picture o Listen to a sentence that contains clock time Circle the clock time that you hear, among three choices(2:30, 2:45, 3:45) o Listen to a weather report Look at a list of words and circle the words that you hear o Listen to an advertisement, select out the price of an item, and write the amount on a price tag Listen to a series of recorded telephone messages from an answering machine Fill in a chart with the following information from each caller: name, number, time and message  Goal: Recognizing Pertinent Details in the Speech Stream o Listen to a short dialog between a boss and a secretary changes and the daily schedule o Use an appointment calendar Cross out appointments that are being changed and write in new ones o Listen to announcement of airline arrivals and departures With a model of an airline information boarding front of you, fill in the flight numbers, destinations, gate numbers, and departure times KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) 42 GRADUATION PAPER o Listen to a series of short dialogs Before listening, read the questions that apply to the dialogs o While listening, find the answers to questions about prices, places, names o Listen to a short telephone conversation between a customer and service station manager Fill in a chart which lists the car repairs that must be done Check the part of the car that needs to repair, the reason, and the approximate cost 3.2.4 Guessing Meaning of Words or Context Sometimes the questions we hear are guessing question An inference is assumption made from information that we have That is, in the case of listening comprehension, an inference is an interpretation or a conclusion based on the information that we hear Guessing is a critical skill because not all important information is clearly or explicitly stated: therefore, even if we understand all the words in a listening segment, we still may not have complete comprehension How can we guess successfully? Here are strategies that will help you make better guesses about the meaning of words you not know  Use the words and phrases surrounding the unknown word to make quick guesses about its general meaning: when guessing, however, you should not worry if you not know exactly what type the words When you are listening, you need to make very fast guesses regarding the general meanings of words If you stop to think about a word for too long, you will probably sacrifice your understanding of the speaker‟s next point In sum, KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) 43 GRADUATION PAPER make you guesses quickly and learn to be comfortable with less than 100%certainty Also, be confident!  Recognizing when the speaker offers a definition or an explanation of an unknown words: speakers sometimes define words or phrases using appositives An “appositive” is any word or phrase – a noun, pronoun, noun clause, infinitive phrase, prepositional phrase, etc – which stands after another word or phrase without a grammatical link  Pay attention to body language: A speaker‟s gestures often provide obvious clues to the meaning of words or phrase  Finally, try to build your vocabulary as quickly and broadly as possible: the more words you know, the easier it is to guess unknown words from context As you complete this course, keep a vocabulary log of the new words and idioms you learn, and review this log frequently These above activities can reinforce and help you to improve your guessing skills in particular and your listening skills in general 3.2.5 Inference Inference is an important skill, but one that is often left out of elementary level textbooks since it is considered a higher level of comprehension This is unfortunate because students really need able to “listen between the lines” from the very beginning Indeed, beginners who lack extensive vocabularies and knowledge of language functions and grammar often need to infer a lot, just to compensate for what they not understand When we listen we make inferences, we get ideas about things that are not directly stated KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) 44 GRADUATION PAPER Types of inference questions  Goal: Making inferences o Listen to a series of sentences, which may be either statements or questions After each sentence, answer inferential questions, such as: “Where might the speaker be?” “How might the speaker be feeling?” o Listen to a series of sentences After each sentence, suggest a possible context of the sentence (place, situation, time, and participant)  Goal: make inferences by identifying ideas on the sentence level that lead to evaluative statements o Listen to a statement and take notes on the important words Indicate what further meaning can be inferred from the statement Indicate the words in the original statement Indicate the words in the original statement that serve to cue the inference 3.2.6 Listening for Total Comprehension For beginning students of English, the main reason for listening comprehension is difficult because there are simply too many new and unfamiliar words So it is very important to build “Listening fluency,” in other words, the ability to recognize and understand English words and phrases very quickly when you hear them – without pausing to try to remember Obviously, this is a skill that is built mainly through practice – lots and lots of practice What is the best kind of listening practice? There are many good ways to practice: listening to the radio, to tapes, to native English speakers, and KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) 45 GRADUATION PAPER even to native speakers of English The most important thing is to find listening practice material that has the right level of difficulty If you listen to mouthing that is very easy to understand, it will not challenge your listening skills to improve, and you will probably also become bored But if you listen to material that is too difficult, you will not be able to understand it even if you listen many times, and you will become discouraged or frustrated First of all, remember that you are not alone Listening comprehension is probably the most difficult task for almost all learners of English has a foreign language The most important thing is to listen, and that means as often possible The next step is to find listening resources This is where the Internet really comes in handy as a tool for English students First you need to: (1) Download the RealPlayer from RealMedia.com: The RealPlayer allows you to listen to RealAudio and use the Internet like a radio station Many sites now also provide listening using the Windows Media Player or even have their own players on the site Once you have the RealPlayer you can begin to listen to English as it is used in every life The possibilities are almost unlimited You can: (2)  Listen to All Things Considered news stories on NPR  Listen to the BBC, CNN, VOA Strategies: Once you have begun to listen on a regular basis, you might still be frustrated by limited understanding Here is some of the advice:  Accept the fact that you are not going to understand everything KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) 46 GRADUATION PAPER  Keep cool when you not understand- even if you continue to not understand for a long time  Do not translate into your native language  Listen for the gist of the conversation Do not concentrate on detail until you have understood the main ideas (3) Suggested exercises: Some exercises will help students recognize and improve listening total comprehension such as:  Goal: Use Knowledge of reduced forms to clarify the meaning of an utterance o Listen to a short sentence containing a reduced form Decide what the sentence means On your answer sheet, read three alternatives and choose the alternative that is the best paraphrase of the sentence you heard Example: You hear, “You can‟t be happy with that.” You read: “(a) Why can‟t you be happy? (b) That will make you happy, (c) I don‟t think you are happy”  Goal: Use incomplete sensory data and cultural background information to construct a more complete understanding of a text o Listen to one side of a telephone conversation Decide what the topic of the conversation might be and create a title for it o Listen to the beginning of a conversation between two people and answer questions about the number of participants, their ages, gender, and social roles Guess the time of day, location, temperature, season and topic Choose among some statements to guess what might come next KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) 47 GRADUATION PAPER 3.3 Summary In summary, as Quaker author Douglas Steere puts it: “To listen” another‟s soul into a condition of disclosure and discovery may be almost the greatest service that any human being ever performs for another.” Listening at the level described there is a disciplines and an art that will pay big dividents in your personal relationships and in your business endeavors When you practice this level of listening, you will provide people around you with a gift that they have rarely been given in their lifetime Becoming a better listener requires improving behavior and attitudes We have to understand our listening mistakes so that we can learn to be better listener Suggestion for improving listening can help the student correct poor habits and practice good ones KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) 48 GRADUATION PAPER PART C: CONCLUSION Listening skills is very necessary in our real life and it plays an important role in successful communication Therefore, teaching and learning listening in English is considered as the most difficult skill to achieve among the four skills Moreover, in the trend of regional and international economic integration, learning of English has been popularized in Vietnam‟s universities However, many students have difficulties in listening that are barriers to communicate well This paper was carried out with the purpose of finding some difficulties in process learning listening of the first year students at FOE, HOU First and foremost, in Chapter I the author has given some general literatures about listening comprehension to all the students In this chapter, students will have basic information about listening such as the definition, importance of listening, common problems when listening, the relationship between listening and other language skills, the definition and classification of listening skills After reading this chapter, the readers will have the general knowledge about listening Secondly, in the next chapter, the author has explored the real situation as well as the difficulties of teaching and learning listening skills of the students at English faculty, HOU through a survey with 10 questions This survey was carried out with the participation of 100 first-year students Last but not least, in the final chapter, based on the survey result, the author has pointed out some effective strategies to help the first-year students deal with the difficulties and improve their listening comprehension skills KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) 49 GRADUATION PAPER Within about fifty pages of the study, I have tried my own best to fulfill the work However, some imperfections are unavoidable, and I hope to get sympathy from readers I would like to get feedback from teachers and friends about any shortcomings of this study KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) 50 GRADUATION PAPER REFERENCES Books Anderson, A & Lynch (1998) Listening, OUP Bynes, H (1984) The role of Listening Comprehension: A theoretical base Foreign Language Annals Fang, L (1990) Listening: Problem and Solution English Teaching Forum Galvin, K (1985) Listening by Doing, Developing Listening Effective Listening Skills Lincoln Wood, Illinois: National Textbook Co Galvin, K (1985) The practice of Language Teaching, Longman Harmar, J (1985) The practice of Language Teaching, Longman Lei, F (December 1999) An Approach to Improve the Teaching of Listening, Teaching English in China, Issue 36, Beijing, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press Little Wood, W (1995) Communicative Language Teaching CUP Lund, S Steen and Sara, W (1979) Listening: Its Impact at All Levels on Reading and Other language Arts (Revised ed) Urbana, Illinois: ERIC Clearninghouse on Reading and Communication Skill; National Council of Teachers of English, p 179 10 Nunan, D (2007) Listen in, Book 2, Second editions, Nhà Xuất Bản Tổng Hợp Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh 11 Nunan, D and Miler, L,, Editors (1995) New way in Teaching Listening Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Language, Inc (TESOL) 12 Paulson, C.B and Bruder, Mary N (1976) Teaching English as a Second Language: Techniques and Procedures, Boston: Little, Brown and Company KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) 51 GRADUATION PAPER 13 Penny, U (1984) Teaching listening comprehension, Cambridge University 14 Rankin, T (1928) The Importance of Listening, English Journal, 19, October, pp 623-630 15 Rixon, S (1986) Developing Listening Skills London Longman 16 Rost, M (1993) Listening in Language Learning, Longman 17 Steil, L, K Barker (1983) Effective Listening Mc Graw-Hill, inc 18 Vy, Le Thi, (2007) Listening in the Process of Language Learning and Teaching, Hanoi Open University, Scientific Research in Open University 19 Wilson & Asher (2003) Listening Skills Oxford University Press Websites: http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/The_Gift_of_Listening.html http://www.sacredlistening.com/tlc_listening101.htm http://www.cambridge.org/other_files/downloads/esl/booklets/RichardsTeaching-Listening-Speaking.pdf http://iteslj.org/Articles/Saricoban-Listening.html http://www.espworld.info/articles_18/teaching_listening_skills_at_tertiar y_level.htm http://www.icpna.edu.pe/documentos/Seminar%20Public%20Schools%2 0-%20C%C3%A9sar%20Bazo%20Quintana.pdf http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/uk-culture/new-words http://ifa.amu.edu.pl/fa/files/ifa/papers/pospiesz.htm http://www.ehow.com/way_5183464_games-learning-effectivecommunication-skills.html 10 http://craigsenglish.com/blog/how-important-is-pronunciation KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) 52 GRADUATION PAPER APPENNDIX QUESTIONNAIRE This questionnaire is designed to identify the current situation of learning English listening skills for the first-year students in English Faculty, HOU Your cooperation is highly appreciated Please answer the following questions and circle the answer that you think is/are appropriate How you think about listening skills? A Difficult C Very difficult B.A little bit difficult D Not difficult Which sub–skills you often use while listening in class? (Choose more than one) A Skimming B Scanning C Note-taking D Guessing the meaning of word E Sensing styles and tones F Sound discrimination G Predicting H Inference I Summarizing J Comprehending structure K Listening for total comprehension L Critical listening What is the most difficult activity in listening processes? A Pre-listening B While-listening C Post-listening KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) 53 GRADUATION PAPER What kinds of listening exercises you find interesting? (Choose more than one) A True/False B Gap filling C Summarizing D Answering comprehension questions E Finding and correcting mistakes F Dictation and repetition G Prediction Which materials you use for listening skills? A Text book only B Text books and supplementary materials C Others D Sources from the Internet Which you prefer to work in class? A Individual B Pair-work C Group work D The whole class Do you want to play some games in post-listening process? A Yes B Not sure C Not necessary How often you self-study listening skills at home? A Often B Sometimes C Rarely D Never KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) 54 GRADUATION PAPER How often you listen to the News from CNN, BBC, VOA? A Often B Sometimes C Rarely D Never 10 Which strategies you use to practice IELTS, TOEFL, etc? A Based on sub-listening skills B Based on types of listening exercises C Based on tips of listening skills D Your ideas KIEU BICH NGOC-K18A3 (2011-2015) 55