Exploring online learning materials for listening skill development a case study of first year students at hue university college of foreign languages

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES NGO THI MEN EXPLORING ONLINE LEARNING MATERIALS FOR LISTENING SKILL DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY OF FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Languages HUE, 2015 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - NGO THI MEN EXPLORING ONLINE LEARNING MATERIALS FOR LISTENING SKILL DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY OF FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.14.01.11 SUPERVISOR: PHAM HOA HIEP, D Ed HUE, 2015 i BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ - NGÔ THỊ MẾN NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG TÀI LIỆU HỌC TRỰC TUYẾN ĐỂ PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NGHE: TRƯỜNG HỢP SINH VIÊN NĂM MỘT TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ HUẾ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.14.01.11 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS PHẠM HOÀ HIỆP HUE, 2015 ii STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself Date: …./ …./ 20… Signature NGO THI MEN iii ABSTRACT This study aims to explore first year students’ perceptions about the use of online materials for learning and improving their English listening skill outside the classroom The methods used for the data collection include interviews and questionnaires Twenty-four questions were given to 100 students and four questions were given to 10 teachers In depth interviews were conducted with 10 students and teachers at Hue University College of Foreign Languages The findings show that (1) most students acknowledged the importance and necessity of using online materials to practice the listening skill, (2) using online materials to practice listening skill outside classroom were interesting and useful, (3) all students were aware of the usefulness and effectiveness of online materials for learning and improving listening skill out of class, (4) all students had a positive tendency of using three types of online materials (audio materials, videos materials, and human voice) to practice listening skill Based on the findings, it is recommended that (1) students should spend much more time to practice listening skill, (2) students should know how to choose the online materials suitable for their level, (3) students should ask for help from the teachers to make better use of online materials, (4) students should imply three types of online materials to develop their learning listening skill effectively, (5) teachers should help students by introducing and guiding them some practical and reliable online materials, (6) teachers should also give student some strategies to make better use of online materials for practicing listening skill effectively, (7) teachers should raise students’ awareness of the benefits of online materials for their self-study iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would have never been able to complete my research project without the guidance, the help and the encouragement from many people First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Pham Hoa Hiep, who has supported me throughout my thesis with his patience and acknowledge Actually, his guidance and feedback helped me during the time of the study and writing of this thesis I have been extremely lucky to have a great supervisor who cared so much about my work Besides my supervisor, my sincere thanks also go to the teachers and the first year English students at Hue University College of Foreign Languages who took part in this research Their enthusiasm and agreement for my data collection have helped my project be completed My thesis would not been completed without the help from my close friends for their generosity in time, advice, support and encouragement Last but not least, I am deeply grateful to my partner, Yushi, and especially my beloved parents and sisters for their unconditional support, both financially and emotionally They have always given me strength and encouragement during the hardest time in my master’s program I love all of you so much v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AUS: Australia BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation CEFR: Common European Framework Reference CNN: Cable News Network EFL: English as a Foreign Language ESL: English as a Second Language HUCFL: Hue University College of Foreign Languages IELTS: Internationals English Language Testing System TCP/IP: Internet Protocol TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language TOEIC: Test of English for International Communication TV: Television UK: United Kingdom USA: United State of America VOA: Voice of America vi CONTENTS STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY iii ABSTRACT iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi CONTENTS vii TABLES OF CONTENTS x FIGURES OF CONTENTS xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Background and rationale of the study Aims and research questions of the study Significance of the study .4 Scope of the study Structure of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction .6 2.2 The Internet and its impacts on English Language Learning 2.3 Online materials 2.3.1 Definition of online materials 2.3.2 Advantages and disadvantages of online materials 2.3.2.1 Advantages of online materials 2.3.2.2 Disadvantages of online materials .10 2.3.3 Online materials as an educational tool in language programs 11 2.4 Listening skill 13 2.4.1 Listening skill and its place in English language learning .13 2.4.2 The importance of listening skill 14 2.4.3 Characteristics of listening .15 2.4.4 Reasons for using online materials to practice listening skill 16 2.5 Self-study 18 2.5.1 Definition of self-study 18 2.5.2 Self-study listening skill 18 2.6 Types of listening materials 19 vii 2.7 Some available and useful online materials to practice listening skill 20 2.8 Previous studies 20 2.9 Summary 25 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 26 3.1 Introduction .26 3.2 Research Approach 26 3.3 Research site and participants 26 3.4 Data Collection .27 3.4.1 Questionnaire 27 3.4.2 Interview 29 3.5 Procedure 29 3.6 Data Analysis 30 3.7 Summary 30 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 31 4.1 Introduction .31 4.2 Students' awareness of the online materials for practising listening skill 32 4.2.1 Students’perception about listening skill 32 4.2.2 Students’ awareness of using online materials to practice listening skill 33 4.2.3 The positive aspects of online learning listening materials .39 4.2.4 Disadvantages of online learning listening materials .44 4.3 Types of online materials that can help them improve listening skill .48 4.3.1 Human Voice as a type of online materials 48 4.3.2 Audio materials as a type of online materials 50 4.3.3 Video materials as a type of online materials 52 4.4.1 The importance of guiding students about choosing suitable materials 54 4.4.2.The necessity of asking students to portfolio to make them use online learning materials effectively .55 4.4.3 The difficulties in guiding students to use online learning materials .57 4.5 Chapter summary 59 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 60 5.1 Restatement of the rationale of the study .60 5.2 Summary of the findings 60 viii 5.3 Contributions of the study 61 5.3.1 Online learning materials 61 5.3.2 The use of online materials in learning English outside classroom 62 5.4 Limitations of the study 62 5.5 Implications 62 5.6 Suggestions for further studies .63 REFERENCES 64 APPENDICES 68 ix Tôi sử dụng tài liệu trực 5 5 5 tuyến để tự học kĩ nghe học lớp Tài liệu trực tuyến công cụ học lý tưởng để thực hành kĩ nghe Tôi nghĩ dạng tập tài liệu trực tuyến thiết kế dạng trị chơi, đố vui làm việc học tiếng anh trở nên hấp dẫn hơn, đơn giản Tài liệu trực tuyến cịn mơi trường lý tưởng để học cải thiện thêm kĩ nghe Chúng cung cấp cho tơi nguồn kiến thức mẻ, lí thú đầy thách thức 10 Kiến thức kĩ nghe tài liệu trực tuyến thường phong phú,đa dạng sách học lớp 11 Từ nội dung nghe học luyện, nâng cao kĩ ngơn ngữ, tơi cịn biết thêm phong tục văn hố nước khác giới 12 Ngồi nâng cao kĩ nghe, kĩ khác tơi đọc, viết, nói cải thiện đáng kể Ý kiến khác: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 13 Tôi thường thực hành kĩ nghe qua video You Tube 77 Xem nghe video tivi 14 5 5 trang web VOA, CNN, VOA… cách hữu ích để cải thiện kĩ nghe Xem phim cách tốt để hướng 15 tới/đối mặt với nghe thực tế Nghe tin tức đài nghe nhạc 16 anh cách hiệu để cải thiện kĩ nghe Thực hành làm tập nghe 17 Podcast phương pháp hữu ích để cải thiện kĩ nghe Giao tiếp, nói chuỵện với người nước 18 ngồi cách thực tế hiệu để cải thiện nâng cao kĩ nghe Ý kiến khác: - Khi dùng tài liệu trực tuyến để học/luyện kĩ nghe ngồi thuận lợi, tơi gặp khơng khó khăn như: Nội dung Hồn tồn đồng ý Đồng ý Khơng có ý kiến Khơng đồng ý Hồn tồn khơng đồng ý 19 Có nhiều trang web nên nên chọn trang hay tài liệu phù hợp với trình độ tơi 20 Tơi cần phải tạo tài khoản gặp trang web hay 78 21 gặp trang web hay tơi phải khoản tiền 22 Khi học nghe mạng, hay gặp rắc rối chẳng hạn việc hiểu nội dung có nhiều giọng điệu nói khác băng/video 23 Nếu khơng có hướng dẫn từ giáo viên, tơi thường gặp khó khăn học nghe trực tuyến Ý kiến khác: CÁM ƠN SỰ HỢP TÁC CỦA BẠN! 79 APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRES (For teachers) This questionnaires is designed with the aim to collect necessary information for my research paper on the topic: “Exploring online learning materials for listening skill development: the case study of first year students at Hue University College of Foreign Languages” The collected data will be confidential and used only for the purpose of the current research Please read the questions and express your opinion by circling the number in the box indicating best extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement Your cooperation will be of much help to the success of the research I am sincerely to you for your contribution PART 1: BACKGROUND INFORMATION Please fill in some information about yourself Name (optional): ………………………………… Age: ………… Sex: Male ☐ Female ☐ Address: ………………………………………… PART 2: Please read the following questions carefully and answer each of them Your honest and specific answer will contribute to the accuracy of the analysis To answer the question, please circle the capital letter (A, B, C, D, or E) that indicates the option you choose If there is no option right to yourself, please give your other opinions Some questions might have more than one answer And also in some questions, you are required to write down the answer in your own words In your opinion, guiding students how to use and how to choose the online materials suitable for their level is ……………… A Extremely important B Very important 80 C Important D Fairly important E Not important at all In your opinion, you think that asking students portfolio by practicing the exercises on the online materials to make students use of online learning materials better and to improve their listening skill is …………… A Extremely necessary B Very necessary C Necessary D Fairly necessary E Not necessary at all What strategies you often to make students use of online learning materials better? (you can choose more than one option) A I introduce the online materials such as VOA, BBC, CNN…to students in my teaching process B In extra periods, I often use the videos or exercises on online materials to teach them C Sometimes when the lessons aren’t interesting, I replace them into exercises on online materials D Others Why you think so? (please be specific) ………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… What is (are) the difficulty (ies) that you have when you guide your students using online learning materials? (you can choose more than one option) A The differences of students’ levels B Devices learning C Explanation to students how necessary of online learning materials helpful for practicing/enhancing the listening skill D Others: ……………………………………………… THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION! 81 APPENDIX A INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (For students) How long have you been studying English? For the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) which one is the most important and difficult to improve? Why? Have you ever used online materials to practice your listening skill? Explain why? And if yes, what are they? Do you think that online materials are the useful learning tools? Why or why not? When you use online material resources to practice your listening skill, have you ever experienced some difficulties? If yes, what are they? What kinds/types of online materials you think they are good to practice the listening skill? Do you like to use online materials for practicing the listening skill? In your opinion, what are the advantages and disadvantages of using online materials to practice the listening skill? THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION! 82 APPENDIX 3B BẢNG CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN (Dành cho sinh viên) Bạn học tiếng anh rồi? Trong kĩ (nghe, nói đọc, viết) bạn thấy kĩ khó, quan trọng cần/muốn cải thiện nhất? Tại sao? Bạn dùng nguồn tài liệu trực tuyến để học/luyện kĩ nghe chưa? Nếu có, bạn liệt kê vài số chúng? Bạn có nghĩ tài liệu trực tuyến cơng cụ học hữu ích? Tài bạn nghĩ/không nghĩ thế? Khi bạn sử dụng chúng, bạn có gặp trở ngại khơng? Nếu có, bạn vui lịng liệt kê trở ngại khó khăn đó? Những loại tài liệu trực tuyến mà bạn nghĩ chúng tốt/hữu ích để thực hành cải thiện kĩ nghe? Bạn có thích sử dụng nguồn tài liệu trực tuyến để học/luyện kĩ nghe? Theo bạn, lợi ích hay khó khăn mà bạn biết học/luyện kĩ nghe tài liệu trực tuyến? CHÂN THÀNH CÁM ƠN SỰ CHIA SẺ CỦA BẠN 83 APPENDIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (For teachers) In your experience, which skill makes students to find the most difficult? In your opinion, online materials are good materials for students to practice and improve the listening skill effectively? Do you think that using online materials to practice the listening skill is necessary? Why or why not? (please be specific) Could you suggest some good online resources for students to practice and develop the listening skill? Teachers’ suggestions helping their students use of online learning listening materials effectively? Teachers’ comment on your difficulties when you guide student use of online materials THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION! 84 APPENDIX THE REALIBILITY OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE-PILOT Reliability Statistics Cronbach's N of Items Alpha 728 23 Item-Total Statistics Scale Mean Scale Corrected Cronbach's if Item Variance if Item-Total Alpha if Item Deleted Item Deleted Correlation Deleted Q1 Necessity of using online materials to practice Listening skill 86.7600 55.900 159 726 Q2 Using online materials to practice LS are interesting & useful 87.0400 56.243 072 733 Q3 Using online materials to practice LS are effective way to improve Listening skill 86.9400 51.527 454 706 Q4 Online materials are best to practice Listening skill 86.8800 49.536 549 696 Q5 Flexibility of online learning materials 86.8600 53.184 372 713 Q6 Using online materials to 86.9200 practice LS outside and in the future 54.687 161 728 Q7 Online materials are learning tool 87.3000 50.296 428 705 Q8 Online materials make learning fun & interesting 86.7600 57.125 000 738 51.527 454 706 Q9 Online materials provide an excellent learning environment 86.9400 85 Q10 Online materials are richer than 86.9200 normal materials 55.953 068 736 Q11 Online materials help to know 86.8000 the culture of other countries 50.082 673 693 Q12 Online materials help to improve other skills 86.9600 52.856 347 714 Q13 Practice listening through videos on YouTube 86.9600 54.202 233 722 Q14 Practice listening by watching 87.3400 videos on websites 59.453 -.178 755 Q15 Practice listening by watching 86.9600 English movies 55.141 155 728 Q16 Practice listening by listening exercises on Podcast 86.9000 54.378 234 722 Q17 Practice listening by listening radio and music 86.8400 55.892 094 732 86.6200 56.036 080 733 Q19 Difficulty in choosing suitable 86.8000 materials 50.122 669 693 86.9800 53.734 247 721 Q21 Take some money for many great websites 86.9200 53.014 320 716 Q22 Difficulty in understand the content 87.4200 49.677 427 705 Q23 Lacking of teachers’ instruction 87.4200 49.677 427 705 Q18 Practice listening by communicating with foreigners Q20 Difficulty in accessing some great websites 86 APPENDIX THE REALIBILITY OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE Reliability Statistics Cronbach's N of Items Alpha 747 23 Item-Total Statistics Scale Mean Scale Corrected Cronbach's if Item Variance if Item-Total Alpha if Item Deleted Item Deleted Correlation Deleted Q1 Necessity of using online materials 87.2200 to practice Listening skill 54.461 144 747 Q2 Using online materials to practice LS are interesting & useful 87.4000 55.918 009 751 Q3 Using online materials to practice LS are effective way to improve Listening skill 87.4000 49.878 467 726 Q4 Online materials are best to practice 87.3400 Listening skill 48.474 515 721 Q5 Flexibility of online learning materials 87.3200 51.324 404 732 Q6 Using online materials to practice LS outside and in the future 87.3800 52.404 216 745 Q7 Online materials are learning tool 87.7600 48.717 434 727 Q8 Online materials make learning fun 87.2600 & interesting 56.686 -.097 763 Q9 Online materials provide an excellent learning environment 87.4000 49.796 474 726 Q10 Online materials are richer than normal materials 87.3800 54.118 087 754 87 Q11 Online materials help to know the 87.2600 culture of other countries 48.931 639 717 Q12 Online materials help to improve other skills 87.4200 50.942 381 732 Q13 Practice listening through videos on YouTube 87.3800 52.444 274 740 Q14 Practice listening by watching videos on websites 87.3800 56.730 -.104 758 Q15 Practice listening by watching English movies 87.4200 53.432 167 747 Q16 Practice listening by listening exercises on Podcast 87.3600 52.766 239 742 Q17 Practice listening by listening radio 87.4000 and music 54.163 176 745 Q18 Practice listening by communicating with foreigners 87.0400 54.692 076 752 Q19 Difficulty in choosing suitable materials 87.2600 48.890 643 716 Q20 Difficulty in accessing some great 87.4400 websites 52.333 236 743 Q21 Take some money for many great 87.3800 websites 51.873 288 739 Q22 Difficulty in understand the content 87.8800 48.189 427 727 Q23 Lacking of teachers’ instruction 48.189 427 727 87.8800 88 APPENDIX Some useful and reliable websites for practicing listening skill: Name Function/usefulness Help English learners improve their listening comprehension through a variety of audio and video Randall’s Cyber conversations, interviews, and news reports The audio Listening Lab: clips include idiomatic phrases in American English http://www.esllab.com/ Exercises are separated into easy, medium, and difficult levels ELLLO (English The site includes interviews, news reports, songs, Language Listening games, and “mixers”; speakers are from all over the Lab Online): world, and demonstrate a variety of accents http://www.elllo.org/ Offers pre-listening and listening comprehension exercises based on current news stories From the main Breaking News English (current events/news stories) http://www.breakingne wsenglish.com/ page, click on the news topic you are interested in There you’ll find a transcript of the article, along with extensive exercises and activities to test your understanding and to help you strengthen your vocabulary To listen to the article, click on the “Listening” download link in the top left corner of the page Note that the speaker for these listening exercises is usually British Providing a wealth of opportunities to hear spoken National Public Radio (NPR) http://www.npr.org English on a diverse variety of topics NPR began providing free written transcripts of their shows “Morning Edition,” “All Things Considered,” “Weekend Edition Saturday,” “Weekend Edition Sunday,” and “Talk of the Nation.” Scroll down the 89 homepage to find these particular shows listed in the left-side PROGRAMS menu, or simply listen to whatever strikes your fancy English Television - Provides English movies, news and live shows Programs: HBO, CNN, iMovie, and so on Is an extraordinary resource to watch the World News It also offers us the written version of the news, so we can both listen and read or use the audio or the written http://news.bbc.co.uk texts with different purposes For those who just want to have a quick overview of what is happening in the world, they can watch a short summary of the news by clicking on the option “One Minute World News” http://www.bbc.co.uk/ra If you prefer listening to the radio instead, you just have dio/ to enter this site and click on the loudspeaker icons Offers reports on World News and information on American Culture and History, which students can http://www.voanews.co m/specialenglish/index.c fm either read, listen to it or both, so as an independent learning tool, this site has ample opportunities for students Particularly the interesting program is called “Words and Their Stories”, in which a five-minute feature about American English words and expressions is broadcasted Any of these three links gives you the lyrics for almost http://www.lyrics.com, every song, a very useful tool if we want to use music in http://www.azlyrics.com our listening sessions ,http://www.lyricsworld com 90 This is undoubtedly the most visited webpage for videos Students are very familiar with it, so they will know very well how to use it You can find almost http://www.youtube.com anything here by just typing the topic of your choice on the search box 91