A study on pre listening activities of the second year english major students at hung yen university of technology and education

Trang 1 HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES --- GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES OF THE SECOND-YE

HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES OF THE SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUNGYEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG TIỀN NGHE HIỂU CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGỮ NĂM HAI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) Supervisor: M.A Nguyen Thi Nam Student: Vuong Thi Thom Student number: 11317119 Hung Yen – 2021 HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES OF THE SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUNGYEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG TIỀN NGHE HIỂU CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGỮ NĂM HAI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) Supervisor: M.A Nguyen Thi Nam Student: Vuong Thi Thom Student number: 11317119 Hung Yen – 2021 i DECLARATION I certify that this thesis is the result of my own research and the substance of this thesis has not been submitted for a degree to any other universities or institutions and that if this declaration is found to be false, disciplinary measures and penalties can be taken and imposed in accordance with university policies and rules Signature Vuong Thi Thom ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this paper could not have been possible without the participation and assistance of so many people whose names may not all be enumerated.Their contributions are sincerely appreciated and gratefuly acknowedged First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs NGUYEN THI NAM, lecturer of the Foreign Languages Department, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education who has always been willing to give me valuable advice and suggestions in order that I can complete successfully this study I moreover would like to require this opportunity to appear my true much appreciated to all of lecturers in the Foreign Languages Department of Hung Yen University of Technology and Education of Innovation and Instruction for failingly giving time and endeavors to enhance, broaden and develop my information over the past four a long time I am also thanks to all second-year students of the Faculty of Foreign languages for their whole-hearted participation in the study Besides, my words of much obliged are moreover sent to all the creators of the books, magazines, and other materials recorded within the reference portion for their thoughts that have been reflected and created within the think about Final but not slightest, my most profound appreciation and appreciation go to my family, my companions and my classmates Their adore, back and steady support gave me an incredible bargain of quality and assurance that offer assistance me amid the upsetting time of composing this paper iii ABSTRACT Listening may be a exceptionally vital ability in learning English particularly, pre-listening exercises Be that as it may, for the second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education (UTEHY), they still get numerous troubles in listening Therefore, the researcher decided to conduct a study to investigate the status of using pre-listening activities for listening performances, the difficulties faced by students and offer some solutions to improve students' listening skills To attain the specified points of the current think about, the researcher combined both qualitative and quantitative methods, counting study survey questionnaire and interview The subjects of the ponder are 57 second-year English major students and lecturers of English at Faculty of Foreign Dipartment, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education These lecturers and students are welcomed to reply surveys With the desire of improving the reality situation, the researcher recommended some suggestions to improve listening skill for both teachers and students to help them in teaching and learning this difficult skill better iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Methodology 1.5.1 Questionnaires 1.5.2 Interview 1.6 Significance of the study 1.7 Structure of the study CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Overview of listening 2.1.1 Definition of listening 2.1.2 Listening processes 2.1.3 The stages in listening comprehension 2.2 The concept of pre-listening ativities 2.2.1 Pre-listening stage 2.2.2 Definitions of pre-listening activities 2.2.3 Types of pre-listening activities 10 v 2.2.4 Aims of pre-listening activities 10 2.3 EFL Learner's Difficulties 12 CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 15 3.1 The overview of situation of teaching and learning English listening at UTEHY 15 3.2 Methodology 15 3.3 Participants of the study 16 3.3.1 Teachers 16 3.3.2 Students 16 3.4 Data analysis and discussion 16 3.4.1 The questionnaire of teachers 16 3.4.2 The questionnaire of students 22 3.4.3 The interview for students 29 3.5 Discussion 30 3.6 Summary 31 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 32 4.1 Summary of the study 32 4.2 Limitations of the study 32 4.3 Suggestions for further study 33 REFERENCES 32 APPENDICES I APPENDIX I APPENDIX V INTERVIEWS QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS VIII vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS UTEHY: Hung Yen University of Technology and Education MA: Master of Art FFL: Faculty of Foreign Languages EFL: English as a foreign language vii LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Chart 3.1: Teachers’ opinion about the importance of listening skill 17 Chart 3.2: Teachers’ opinion about the difficulty of listening skill 17 Chart 3.3: Teachers’ opinion about the importance of pre-listening activities 18 Chart 3.4: The frequency of pre-listening activities organized by teachers 18 Chart 3.5: The frequency of students having difficulty using pre-listening activities 20 Chart 3.6: The students’ opinion about the importance of listening skill 22 Chart 3.7: Students’ opinion about the difficulty of listening skill 23 Chart 3.8: Students’ feeling about learning listening skill 23 Chart 3.9: The students’ opinion about the importance of pre-listening activities 24 Chart 3.10: The frequency of teachers organizes pre-listening activities for students 24 Chart 3.11: The difficulties of students 25 Chart 3.12: The students’ frequency of doing pre-listening activities 28 Table 3.1: Teachers’ reasons for using pre-listening activities ·········································· 19 Table 3.2: Teachers’ dificulties when teaching listening skill ··········································· 20 Table 3.3: Teachers’ opinion about solution to improve listening skill ································ 21 Table 3.4: The factors that cause difficulties for students in listening ·································· 26 Table 3.5: Students’ favorite genres of pre-listening activities ·········································· 27 Table 3.6: Benefits of pre-listening activities ······························································ 29 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study It can be affirmed that listening is one of the most essential and necessary skills to help English learners communicate in real life as well as in the learning and teaching process When you are learning foreign language, listening skill become more and more important Among four skills, listening is considered the most difficult Like other skills, listening is closely related to store of vocabulary that carries most meanings of the passage but learners have to get it aurally, which is very difficult because of the speed, the accent, the intonation of the speakers and even the external factors that interrupt the sound Moreover, Vietnamese learners not have many opportunities to communicate or speak to native speakers, especially high school students They only learn language through materials or Vietnamese teachers that not provide them so good pronunciation as native speakers Last but not least, learners' motivation, one of the most important factors to study language well, is discouraged by all of the factors mentioned above If they cannot hear anything or little, they cannot communicate in the language they are listening to As a result, to help students improve listening skills, teachers first have to find out teaching techniques to attract them to the listening lesson, then to help them enlarge store of vocabulary, be familiar with the pronunciation of native speakers As a English leaner, I think interesting and suitable pre-listening activities can raise students' motivation and have other positive effects on learning procedures Hence, I choose the topic "A Study on the Pre-listening Activities of second-year English major students at UTEHY” with the hope, to some extent, to discover the dificulties of listening skill and benefits that pre-listening activities bring to students 1.2 Aims of the study The study has three main aims as follows: - Find out the current situation of using pre-listening activities of the second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education - Find out the difficulties of the second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education in using pre-listening activities - Give some pre-listening activities and solutions to these problems 29 Benefits Yes No They help students prepare for what they are going to hear 73% 27% They give more interaction among students 68% 32% They offer opportunities for class discussion 86% 14% They help students mitigate the anxiety which comes from 63% 37% listening in a foreign language by providing a clear context Table 3.6: Benefits of pre-listening activities The table 3.6 shows that most students (86%) agree that pre-listening activities provide them with opportunities for class discussion This helps them to exchange and absorb more knowledge Next, at 73%, students said that using pre-listening activities helps them know what will be covered in the listening text In addition, the number of students who think that pre-listening activities create more interaction among students accounts for a significant proportion with 68% Finally, 63% of students said that doing pre-listening activities helped them reduce their anxiety when listening in a foreign language by being provided with a clear context 3.4.3 The interview for students During the interview, there were four questions for students Question talks about students' opinions about listening skills Question is about students' difficulties in learning listening skills Question talks about how often students pre-listening activities And the last question aims to offer some solutions to improve difficulties when students learn listening skills by using pre-listening activities Question 1: What you think about listening skill? In this question, the students all said that listening skill is very important and necessary in communication because it is the key to deciding whether the conversation is carried out or not Besides, there are also students saying that this is one of the skills that students face the most difficulty in the process of learning a foreign language Question 2: In your opinion, which difficulty you consider the most hindrance to your learning of listening skills? Why? In this question, there were many difficulties raised by students such as fast speaking speed, failure to grasp the context of the talk, limited vocabulary, lack of subject knowledge and inability to distinguish between words from different sounds… But the two difficulties mentioned most often are the lack of vocabulary on the topic covered in the listening passage 30 and the listening of words one by one They said that due to lack of vocabulary along with listening to word-for-word translation, they could not continue listening when they encountered a new word they did not know This makes it impossible for them to grasp all the information that has been conveyed in the talk Question 3: How often you pre-listening activities and what kind of activities you like? For this question, two out of five students said that they rarely pre-listening activities, they mostly activities before being asked by the teacher There was a student who used to pre-listening activities by listening to songs whenever he had free time Other students say they often listen to and answer fun quizzes in English together Question 4: What are some suggestions to improve your learning listening skills? There are many techniques which were suggested by five of the students below: - Student and 2: “ We have to regularly learn more vocabulary about many different topics” - Student 3: “We should often use English while communicating with friends.” - Student and 5: “We should often listen to songs, short reportage in English.” 3.5 Discussion After analyzing all the data, the researcher mainly discusses the findings of the study in order to apply the three research questions in chapter The results of the study are given below: Regarding the attitudes of teachers and students towards listening skills, both teachers and students believe that the skill is an extremely important skill for students' foreign language learning It is also a skill that students have the most difficulty with in the process of learning a foreign language Next is about the difficulties that students have encountered while learning this skill There are many difficulties listed such as limited vocabulary, lack of knowledge on various topics, speaking speed of local people too fast, not knowing exactly how to make listening easy and effective, Finally, to solve the above problems, both the lecturers and students participating in this study actively contributed their ideas There are many solutions that have been applied by students and achieved a certain effect and the use of pre-listening activities is also one of them 31 In conclusion, each student have different ways of learning which are appropriate for themselves, it is important that they should always try their best and maintain their motivation when learning English listening skill 3.6 Summary In this chapter, the researcher discusses the findings of the study to answer three questions and suggests some activities for the pre-listening period It can be said that prelistening activities have been regularly performed by students to improve their listening skills Besides, students also face a lot of difficulties when they learn listening skills They often can't skim to grasp the main idea, can't understand the content of the listening text and have difficulty concentrating, easily get bored with the listening From these difficulties, there are a few pre-listening activities that students did to improve their listening skills such as playing games, listening to music, discussing the topic of the listening lesson 32 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION This chapter will deal with a summary of the major findings, limitations of the study and some suggestions for further studies 4.1 Summary of the study The main purpose of this study is to show the influence and difficulties encountered by second year English majors at UTEHY when learning listening skills for pre-listening activities Besides, the researcher suggests the most effective solutions for them to improve their listening skills when performing pre-listening activities To this end, the study is divided into four chapters with specific purposes The first chapter is an introduction, including the rationale, purpose, research questions, scope, and research methods The second chapter presents an overview of the literature such as theoretical background, definitions, types, processes, and difficulties of the title The next chapter of research presents research methods, data analysis, discussion and solutions from questionnaires and interviews The final chapter contains summaries, limitations, and suggestions for further study of the topic Research has been completed to help second year English majors at UTEHY avoid the difficulties they may face in learning to listen as well as improve their listening skills by performing pre-listening activities The results show that the students often perform prelistening activities and achieve a certain effect to improve their listening skills It helps students prepare psychologically before listening, understand the context of the listening lesson as well as learn more vocabulary While listening, it is possible to list the difficulties that students often face such as not being able to skim to get the main idea, not being able to skim to get specific information, difficulty concentrating and easily getting bored in the listening passage Students face these difficulties due to the influence of factors such as limited vocabulary and background knowledge, different accents, fast speaking speed, etc The researcher also found some solutions to help students improve their listening skills by performing pre-listening activities such as listening to songs on a certain topic, conducting discussions, exchange with friends to get more information about listening, strengthen vocabulary through looking at pictures, playing games, solving quizzes, etc 4.2 Limitations of the study In the process of carrying out the above research, although the researcher has tried very hard, the study still has many limitations 33 Due to time constraints as well as the number of people participating in the study, only a very small part of the total number of students and lecturers of the Department of Foreign Languages at UTEHY, the results of this study cannot be represented for all opinions of students and lecturers of the Department of Foreign Languages Besides, survey participants may not actually answer the fact that they did Therefore, the results of the study may deviate from what happens in reality In conclusion, although there are many limitations, the researcher also hopes that through this study, we will have more research on this issue in the future to find solutions to help English major students at UTEHY can improve their listening skills 4.3 Suggestions for further study In general, all the content related to teaching English listening cannot be covered in this study Due to the aforementioned limitations, the article only sets out the first step in the research on investigating the attitudes of teachers and second-year English majors students towards teaching and learning listening, especially towards pre-listening activity Further studies with a wide subject and population range as well as thorough data analysis are recommended More specifically, the scope of other studies may involve first-year English majors or third-year English majors at UTEHY Finally, the study also offers some suggestions for the pre-listening stage However, further studies should focus more on activities to develop while-listening and post-listening phases 32 REFERENCES Anderson, J.R (1983) The architecture of cognition Camhridge, Mass: Hardvard University Press Anderson, J R (1985) Cognitive psychology and its application New York: Freeman Brette, P (1995) Multimedia for Listening comprehension: The Design of Maltimedia-based resources for Developing Listening Skills System, 23(1) 77-88 Brown, H D (2000), Murcia, M C 2001, Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language 3rd Edition Los, Beijing Angeles: University of California Bown, S (2006) Teaching Listening New York US: Camhridge University Press Harmer, J (2001) The Practice of English Language Teaching New Edition London: Longman Hasan, A S (2000) Learners’ perceptions offistening comprchension problems Langunge, Culture and Cumiculum 13(2), 137-153 Helgesen, M (2003) "Teaching listening" In D Nunan (Ed.) Practical English Language Teaching New York: McGraw-Hill Morley, J (2001) "Aural Comprchension Instruction: Principles and Practices" In Marianne Celce-Murcia (Eds.) Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language U.S: Heinle and Heinle 10 Nunan, D (1991) Language teaching methodology Sydney: Prentice-Hall 11 O'Malley, J M & Chamot, A U (1990) Learning strategies in acquisition Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 12 Richards, J C (1983) Listening Comprehension: Approach Design, Procedure TESOL Quarterdy 17, 219-240 13 Richards, J C & Schmidt, R (2002) Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguisties (Third edition) London, UK: Pearson Education Ltd 14 Rost, M (1994) Introducing listening London: Penguin 15 Rubin, J & Thompson, I (1994) How to be a more successful language learner: Toward learning autonomy MA: Heinle & Heinle Publisbers 16 Underwood M (1989) Teaching listening New York, US: Longman 17 Ur, P (1984) Teaching Listening Comprehension Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 33 Website: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/pre-listening-activities I APPENDICES APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS Hello! My name is Vuong Thi Thom, I am from class TAK15.1, Faculty of Foreign Language at Hung Yen University Technology and Education This survey questionnaire is designed for my study entitled “A study on pre-listening of the second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education” Your support in completing this survey will be appreciated Please select the answer by circling the first letter of each sentence and tick the checklist items or express your ideas in the blanks All the information provided by you is for learning purposes only and you can be confident that your identity will not be disclosed in any discussion of data Your answer will help me a lot in the research process Thanks for your help! I Personal information Fill in the information where appropriate What is your gender? A Male B Female What is your class? …………… How long have you been studying English? …… years II The attitudes of students toward English listening skills Please circle for each response that you choose How important you think listening skill is? A Very important B Important C Little important D Not important at all How difficult is it to learn English listening skill? A Very difficult B Difficult C Not very difficult D Easy II E Very easy What you think about learning English listening skills? A Very interesting B Interesting C Normal D Boring E Very boring How important you think pre-listening activities are? A Very important B Important C Little important D Not important at all How often your teachers organize pre-listening activities? A Very often B Often C Sometime D Rarely E Never III The difficulties when leaning English listening skill Which difficulties have you faced when you listen to English? A I am unable to skim to get the main idea B I am unable to scan to get the specific information C I am unable to understand the listening text D I am unable to infer the meaning E I find difficult to concentrate and easy to get bored in listening F Other difficulties (please notify) ……………………………… 10 What are the factors that cause difficulties for students in listening? Tick on the box Factor Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree III You have problems with various and unfamiliar accents Your vocabulary is not efficient enough to comprehend the spoken texts Stress and intonation make you feel hard to understand the message intended Your social knowledge comprehend and is not all the cultural good to spoken messages The speech rate of native speaker is too fast You feel stressful and nervous while you are listening VI Some suggestion for pre-listening activities to improve English listening skills 11 What kind of pre-listening activities you like? Tick on the box Favorite activities Strongly agree Games Songs Discussion Quizzes Information- gap Pictures Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree IV 12 How often you pre-listening activities in listening class? Tick on the box Activities Very Often Occasionally Rarely Never often Games Songs Discussion Quizzes Information- gap Pictures 13 What are the benefits of pre-listening activities in listening skill? (You can choose more than one) A They help students prepare for what they are going to hear B They give more interaction among students C They offer opportunities for class discussion D They help students mitigate the anxiety which comes from listening in a foreign language by providing a clear context 14 What other suggestion for pre-listening activities can you give to improve learning listening skills in English? ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ….…………………………………………………………………………………………… ………….…… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ………….…… Thank you very much for your cooperation! V APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS Hello! My name is Vuong Thi Thom, I am from class TAK15.1, Faculty of Foreign Language at Hung Yen University Technology and Education This survey questionnaire is designed for my study entitled “A study on pre-listening of the second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education” Your support in completing this survey will be appreciated Please select the answer by circling the first letter of each sentence and tick the checklist items or express your ideas in the blanks All the information provided by you is for learning purposes only and you can be confident that your identity will not be disclosed in any discussion of data Your answer will help me a lot in the research process Thanks for your help! I General information Fill in the information where appropriate What is your gender? A Male What is your age? B Female …………….years How long have you been teaching English? ……… years II The attitudes of teacher toward English listening skills Please circle for each response that you choose How important you think listening skill is? A Very important B Important C Little important D Not important at all How difficult is it to learn English listening skill? A Very difficulty B Difficulty C Not very difficulty D Easy E Very easy VI Pre-learning activities How important you think pre-listening activities are? A Very important B Important C Little important D Not important at all How often you organize pre-listening activities for your students? A Very often B Often C Sometime D Rarely E Never According to you, why teachers pre-listening activities for students? A Because they help students prepare for the vocabulary, language structures in the text B Because they help teachers find out about what students already know about topic C Because they help students mitigate the anxiety which comes from listening in foreign language by providing a clear context D Because they offer opportunities for class discussion and more interaction among students E Others……………………………………………………………………………… III The difficulties when teaching English listening skill How often your students have difficulty when using pre-listening activities in your listening class? A Very often B Often C Sometimes D Rarely E Never 10 Which difficulties your students have when using pre-listening activities to learn English listening skill? A They are unable to skim to get the main idea B They are unable to scan to get the specific information VII C They are unable to understand the listening text D They are unable to infer the meaning E They find difficult to concentrate and easy to get bored in listening D Other difficulties (please notify) ……………………………… IV The suggestions to improve listening skill 11 What pre-listening activities you think will help your students to improve their listening skills? A Songs B Games C Quizzes D Discussion E Pictures F Information- gap G Others……………………………………………………………………………………… Thank you very much for your cooperation! VIII INTERVIEWS QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS What you think about listening skill? In your opinion, which difficulty you consider the most hindrance to your learning of listening skills? Why? How often you pre-listening activities and what kind of activities you like? What are some suggestions to improve your learning listening skills?