Trang 5 ABSTRACT This study deals with using VOA special English to improve listening skills for the second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education
HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON USING VOA SPECIAL ENGLISH TO IMPROVE LISTENING SKILLS FOR THE SECOND YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG VOA SPECIAL ENGLISH NHẰM CẢI THIỆN KỸ NĂNG NGHE CHO SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGỮ NĂM HAI TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Nam, M.A Student: Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao Student number: 11317058 Hung Yen – 2021 HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON USING VOA SPECIAL ENGLISH TO IMPROVE LISTENING SKILLS FOR THE SECOND YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG VOA SPECIAL ENGLISH NHẰM CẢI THIỆN KỸ NĂNG NGHE CHO SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGỮ NĂM HAI TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) Student: Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao Student number: 11317058 Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Nam, M.A Hung Yen – 2021 i DECLARATION I certify study entitled: “A study on using VOA Special English to improve listening skills for the second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education” is the result of my own research and the substance of this dissertation has not been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution Hung Yen, May 2021 Signature Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the process of implementing my graduation paper, I have received lots of encouragement, precious ideas, and experiences from my teachers, family, and friends I would like to thank all my teachers at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education for their useful advice I would like to show my deep gratitude and sincerely thank my supervisor Nguyen Thi Nam, lecturer of the Faculty of Foreign Language for her generous time, insightful comments, and constant support Most importantly, her constructive feedback on the drafts of my thesis has allowed me to sharpen my research knowledge and complete the thesis I would face many difficulties without her help My deep appreciation also goes to the teachers of Hung Yen University of Technology and Education for their interesting lectures that provided me a strong inspiration for this study and all of the second-year major students in class TAK17 at the Faculty of Foreign Languages in Hung Yen University of Technology and Education for their enthusiastic cooperation without their support, I would not have been able to complete this paper Last but not least, I am deeply indebted to my family and my friends who always stood by my side throughout my research Their encouragement and support have inspired me to finish this dissertation, especially my classmate in group TAK15, who always help me for such a long time and hard time iii ABSTRACT This study deals with using VOA special English to improve listening skills for the second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education (UTEHY) In order to achieve the desired aims, the study gives a systematic presentation of the key theories related to listening skills The theories of VOA Special English, its advantages, and its purposes in learning listening skills are given in this study to prove that listening skills are very important The researcher has conducted survey research using survey questionnaires and interviews It is carried out with the participation of 50 second-year English major students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education The results of such research showed that the data analysis, as well as the interpretation of the results obtained from the questionnaires, is also given, students used VOA Special English to improve listening skills Last but not least, the study gives some suggestions for using VOA special English in learning listening skills or the second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Methods of the study 1.6 Design of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW Theoretical backgrounds of listening skills 2.1 2.1.1 Listening skills definition 2.1.2 The importance of listening skills 2.1.3 Types of listening 2.2 Theoretical backgrounds of VOA broadcasts 2.3 VOA Special English – a kind of authentic material 2.3.1 Authentic material 2.3.2 VOA Special English as a kind of language teaching and learning material 10 CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 12 3.1 Methodology and data 12 3.2 Participants of the study 12 3.2.1 Teachers 12 3.2.2 Students 12 3.3 Procedures of data collection 13 3.4 Data analysis 13 3.4.1 The questionnaire for teachers 13 3.4.2 The questionnaire for students 20 3.4.3 The interview for students 28 v 3.5 Discussion 29 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 32 4.1 Summary of the study 32 4.2 Limitations of the study 33 4.3 Suggestions for further study 33 REFERENCES 34 APPENDIX I APPENDIX V APPENDIX VI vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS FFL: Faculty of Foreign Languages VOA: Voice Of America UTEHY: Hung Yen University of Technology and Education vii LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES I: List of charts Chart 3.1 The importance of listening skills Chart 3.2 Teacher’s frequency of using VOA Special English to teach listening skills Chart 3.3 Interest of teacher in teaching listening skills with VOA Special English Chart 3.4 Teacher’s opinion on usefulness of VOA Special English to teach listening skills Chart 3.5 Students' frequency of difficulty when teachers using VOA Special English to improve their students' listening skills Chart 3.6 The importance of listening skills Chart 3.7 Students’ frequency of using VOA Special English to improve listening skills Chart 3.8 Interest of students in learning listening skills with VOA Special English Chart 3.9 Students opinion on usefulness of VOA Special English to learn listening skills Chart 3.10 Students' frequency of difficulty when learning listening skills with VOA Special English II: List of tables Table 3.1 Difficulties of students when learning listening skills through VOA Special English Table 3.2 Teacher’ opinions about solutions to help students overcome these difficulties when using VOA Special English to improve listening skills Table 3.3 Teacher’ opinions about student’s solutions to overcome these difficulties when using VOA Special English to improve listening skills for students Table 3.4 Students' difficulties when learning listening skills through VOA Special English Table 3.5 Students’ opinions about solutions to overcome these difficulties when using VOA Special English to improve listening skills Table 3.6 Students’ opinions about teacher’s solutions to overcome these difficulties when using VOA Special English to improve listening skills for students CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study When individuals with various languages come together globally, they frequently use English to communicate In fact, it is used as the mother tongue in some nations, and other nations learn it in their schools as a second language English is in addition, the language of science and technology It is also the language of computers that through the Internet and email, helps to communicate with people around the world English, however, opens up possibilities instantly Being able to work with international customers and business partners can offer you a more demanding role in your career In the future, you will also have the option of applying for jobs that require English Therefore, the need to learn a foreign language, especially English, is becoming increasingly important In their effort to use English efficiently, listening is one of the key methods for learners Studying a language cannot be isolated from listening skills as far as we are concerned However, perfect English listening skills are not easy to study Other students face the issue of hearing difficult or not keeping up with the speed of the speaker to understand English sounds, and this is also a source of difficulties when learning English abilities Besides, the skill of listening is really important in any foreign learning, especially the English major In fact, it's very difficult to hear the exact words and ask a lot of people to learn In order to be able to hear English fluently, students not only need to listen to as many words as possible but also memorize vocabulary because learning is essentially remembering Interesting strategies for teaching English are therefore important to help students better learn English listening skills; they also draw the interest of students in English Most of Hung Yen University of Technology and Education's second-year English majors decided that listening is very difficult For language students and teachers, the great challenge is to turn the content from easily forgotten to never forgotten When learning a foreign language, listening is the most important skill Therefore, one of the most important aspects about studying English cannot be overlooked I have the passion, for the above reasons, to use VOA Special English to develop listening skills in technology and education at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education I 29 Question 3: What are your difficulties in learning listening skills by VOA Special English? According to the collected information of the interview, the main difficulties that students often meet when learning listening skills by VOA Special English are VOA sometimes uses slang words and their accent makes me a bit hard to listen to what they say Another student thinks that they lacking vocabulary and listening skills Question 4: What are suggestions when using VOA Special English to improve listening skills? According to the details gathered during the interview about suggestions when using VOA Special English to improve listening skills First students say that she improving her vocabulary by herself and practicing listening every day Second students say she just listens to video even she doesn't understand the whole topic and during listening skills, should slow down the speed, try to listen to keywords and the last student, she says learn new words and vocabulary 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: 3.5.1 What are the attitudes of teachers and the second-year English major students at UTEHY towards using VOA Special English to improve listening skills? In general, the following data analysis shows that both teachers and students find interested in teaching and learning listening skills According to the data gathered from the survey questionnaires, the majority of FFL teachers and students at UTEHY firmly believe that English listening is very difficult to master and that its significance and necessity are highly valued In general, the following data analysis shows that both teachers and students find interested in teaching and learning listening skills According to the data gathered from the survey questionnaires, the majority of FFL teachers and students at UTEHY firmly believe that English listening is very difficult to master and that its significance and necessity are highly valued A large number of students sometimes using VOA Special English to learn listening skills Although teachers and students have different ideas, they both agree 30 that VOA Special English is useful to improve listening skills, and they both interested in using it 3.5.2 What are the difficulties of the second-year English major students when using VOA Special English to improve listening skills? Many teachers believe that their students have difficulty learning to listen When learning listening skills with VOA Special English, the majority of students also struggle The main difficulties according to the teachers and students are lack of vocabulary, lack of background knowledge, and lack of listening skills/ strategies The frequency of these difficulties is quite frequent Firstly, students are lack vocabulary when learning listening skills by VOA, this affects students so that they can better understand the listening passage if there are words that students not understand in the lesson Furthermore, a lack of background knowledge makes it impossible for students to comprehend the show's material and makes them bored And the last, the lack of skills/strategies when learning to listen to English through VOA may cause students to spend a lot of time studying but not be effective and not motivated to learn to listen to that word, creating depression and finally it is simply listening to it, but it is ineffective In summary, the researcher identified students' and teachers' attitudes toward, as well as some challenges students face while studying listening skills through VOA Special English, and the author hopes to find some useful suggestions for students at FFL, UTEHY, after collecting data 3.5.3 What are the solutions to overcome these difficulties when using VOA Special English to improve listening skills of the second-year English major students at UTEHY? From the data collected from the survey and interview, based on difficulties, the author will give some suggestions for teachers and students when using VOA Special English to improve listening skills • About teachers: ❖ Encourage students to broaden their vocabulary on subjects that might be discussed during the listening skills Before letting students hear about a certain VOA news, the teacher can ask to learn about the topic of the listening text so that students can better prepare for vocabulary For example, if the news is related to politics, teachers should 31 ask students to learn about political vocabulary so that students will not be surprised when they encounter new words ❖ When listening to various listening materials, teachers should provide background knowledge and linguistic knowledge to their students A good suggestion for teachers is to include some background material before the students begin listening If the students are going to listen to a piece of VOA Special English about culture, for example, the teacher can explain the names of nations, customs, and traditions, and people mentioned in the news, which can be challenging for second language learners If some of the videos are about healthy, the lecturer might ask students to search for information and then discuss what they find with the rest of the class ❖ Design types of exercises related to the listening skills Based on the VOA news provided by the teacher, the teacher can design many types of exercises on that topic such as filling in words, choosing the best option, connecting sentences, etc By doing related exercises, students can remember more about the topic studied along with new words and grammar Only listening to students will not understand the content, so they need practice exercises to accompany it • About students: ❖ Improving your vocabulary by yourself When self-studying at home, students can improve their own vocabulary and pronunciation on topics that may be mentioned in the listening lesson Not only help students listen well to their listening, but also improve their vocabulary to be able to use all four skills well ❖ Preparing good background knowledge Good background knowledge can help students understand the listening passage and the words mentioned correctly and capture the keywords For example, if the news mentions a geographical topic, if students have good background knowledge, they will hear about places, culture, etc ❖ Rewind slowly and try listen to the keywords and taking note the key words By slowing down the speed of the listening lesson, students can accurately hear the keywords as well as note them easily and without missing important details ❖ Practice listening every day With daily listening practice, not only improves listening skills but also other skills Listening to it a lot will create for yourself a good habit and above all, improve listening skills and pronunciation skills a lot 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 In general, the results gained from the research give the researcher enough confidence to say that the research questions at the beginning of the study have finally been answered and the thesis has finally succeeded in completing the objectives that had been mentioned in the introduction This research was divided into four parts, each with its own goal The first chapter covered the rationale, aims, scope, methods, and design of the study The second chapter briefly covered the theories related to the study, namely, the theoretical backgrounds of listening skills, and theoretical backgrounds of VOA broadcasts and VOA Special English – a kind of authentic material The third chapter presented the overview on the situation of learning English listening skills, research methodology, main findings, and discussion about difficulties and solutions for the students to improve English listening skills by VOA Special English at UTEHY After all the data collected from the two research instruments (survey questionnaire and interview) are analyzed, the author finds out some major findings which shed light on the research questions are revealed below: The study has been completed to help the second-year English major at UTEHY to overcome difficulties that they may have in learning listening as well as improve their listening skills by VOA Special English The findings show that the students usually using VOA Special English improve listening skills and consider it is an effective way to improve their listening skills The difficulties that students often face can be a lack of vocabulary, lack of background knowledge, and lack of listening skills/ strategies The researcher also finds some solutions to enhance students to improve the listening skills by VOA Special English including teacher and students Teachers encourage students to broaden their vocabulary on subjects that might be discussed during the listening skills, when listening to various listening materials, teachers should provide background knowledge and linguistic knowledge to their students and design types of exercises related to the listening skills 33 Students are improving their vocabulary by themselves, preparing good background knowledge, rewind slowly and try to the keywords, taking note of the keywords, and practice listening every day The study has been completed to help the second-year English major at UTEHY to avoid difficulties that they may have in learning listening as well as improve their listening skills by VOA Special English 4.2 Limitations of the study Because of the limited time and unsustainable knowledge of the author, some limitations are unavoidable Firstly, the difficulties discovered in the sample are only from UTEHY second-year English students, so further research on various subjects is required Second, though learning listening with VOA Special English has proven to be useful and reliable, they are likely to be subjective and incomplete More strategies and exercises can be developed to assist UTEHY second-year English majors, in particular, and English major students in general, in making significant progress in their listening skills Finally, the data collection method of the author should be improved Together with using a survey questionnaire and interview, the author should be another method to have a more persuasive conclusion In conclusion, despite certain shortcomings, the author hopes that this thesis will help second-year English major students at UTEHY improve their listening skills in English 4.3 Suggestions for further study In spite of the limitations, the research has suggestions for further research proposal: This researcher does not cover all the uses of VOA Special English in four language skills because of the limited time of the author which only focuses on listening skills As a result, the researcher hopes that more research can be done on other aspects, such as VOA Special English to improve other skills and discover some unique and effective ways to use for all English major students to improve their listening skills The research has been completed with the author's efforts, although mistakes may not be avoided Therefore, any comments and criticism will be highly appreciated so that the author's further studies would be better 34 REFERENCES: Anderson, A.& Lynch, T (1988), Listening, Oxford University Press, p6 Bulletin (1952), Moorhead State Teachers College, Moorhead, p33 David (1986), Teaching listening, London, P.4 Harmer, J (2007) How to teach English Perason Education Limited Essex Heil, Alan L (2003), Voice of America: A History, Columbia University Press Hidayat, A (2013) The use of songs in teaching students’ listening ability Inhofe (1998), Teaching listening, Oxford, P.62 ITESL Journal (2005), Sept 2005, Sean Bayville, P.9 Kline, J A (1996) Listening effectively Alabama: Air University Press 10 Kreutanu, K (1998) The relationship between content prior knowledge and English listening ability of tourism students at the diploma level in Rajamangala Institute of Technology 11 Littlewood (1988) Foreign Language Teaching, Cambridge, CUP, P98 12 Noonan and Miller (1995), Listening in Language learning, In J c Richards & W.A Renandya, P.98 13 Oxford, R L (1993) Research Update on Teaching L2 Listening 14 Roost (2002), Teaching and Researching Listening, London, UK, Longman, p 59 15 Tomlisnson (1984), “Relational listening: theoretical and practical considerations.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the 5th International Listening Association, 1984.30pp.[ED 257 165] 16 Underwood (1990), Teaching Listening, Hongkong, Longman, P.4 17 VOA Public Relations, "Mission and Values" InsideVOA.com Voice of America 18 VOA Special English (2009), Word book, www.VOASpecialEnglish.com., SW Washington DC, p.7) 19 VOA Public Relations, "VOA Charter" InsideVOA.com Voice of America 20 Wolvin, A., & Coakley, C (1991) A survey of the status of listening training in some Fortune 500 corporations Communication Education I APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS Hello! My name is Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, 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 using VOA Special English to improve listening skill for 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 Thank you for your cooperation! Please tick ( ) for each response that you choose I Personal information: Your gender: Male Female Your age: …… How long are you learning English? II The survey questionnaire PART 1: Student’s attitudes towards using VOA Special English to improve listening skills What you think of the importance of learning English listening skills? Very important Important Normal Not important How often you use VOA Special English to improve listening skills? Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never II How interested are you in learning listening skills with VOA Special English? Very interested Interested Normal Boring Do you think VOA special English is useful for you to improve listening skills? Very useful Useful Not very useful Not useful at all PART B: The difficulties of the second-year English major students when using VOA Special English to improve listening skills How often you have difficulties in using VOA Special English to improve listening skills? Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never What are your difficulties when learning listening skills through VOA Special English? (Please select × in the cell of your choice) Difficulties Strongly Agree Neutral agree Lack of vocabulary Lack of background knowledge Lack of listening skills/ strategies Lack of take note key words skills The habit of listening (translate into Vietnamese, listen to a word by word, stop to think about the unfamiliar words) The length and speed of the materials Others (please write specify here) Disagree Strongly disagree III PART C: The solutions to overcome these difficulties when using VOA Special English to improve listening skills What you when using VOA Special English to improve listening skills? (Please select × in the cell of your choice) Solutions Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly agree disagree Improving your vocabulary by yourself Preparing good background knowledge Rewind slowly and try to listen to the keywords and taking note the key words Grasping the content of it and then check it with the typescript Just listen to it Practicing listening every day What should the teachers when using VOA Special English to improve listening skills for students? (Please select × in the cell of your choice) Solutions Strongly agree Encourage students to broaden their vocabulary on subjects that might be discussed during the listening lessons Provide background knowledge and linguistic knowledge to their students Design listening tasks that arouse students’ interest and help them learn listening skills and strategies Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree IV Design types of exercises related to the listening content Emphasize keywords and guide students to take note those keywords Choose the material suitable for length and speed Thank you for your kind cooperation! V APPENDIX QUESTION FOR INTERVIEW FOR STUDENTS What you think about using VOA Special English to improve listening skills? How often you learn listening skills by VOA Special English? What are your difficulties in learning listening skills by VOA Special English? What are suggestions when using VOA Special English to improve listening skills? VI APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS Hello! My name is Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, I am from class TAK15.1, Faculty of Foreign Languages at Hung Yen University Technology and Education This survey questionnaire is designed for my study entitled “A study on using VOA Special English to improve listening skill for 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 Thank you for your cooperation! I General information Your gender: Male Female Your age: …… Teaching experience: II Up to year 05 - 10 years 10-15 years More than 15 years The survey questionnaire PART A: Teacher’s attitudes towards using VOA Special English to improve listening skills What you think of the importance of learning English listening skill? Very important Important Normal Not important How often you use VOA Special English to teach listening skills? Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never How interested are you in teaching listening skills with VOA Special English? Very interested Interested Normal Boring VII Do you think VOA special English is useful for you to teach listening skills? Very useful Useful Not very useful Not useful at all PART B: The difficulties of your students in using VOA Special English to improve listening skills How often your students have difficulties in using VOA Special English to improve listening skills? Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never What are the difficulties of your students when learning listening skills through VOA Special English? (Please select × in the cell of your choice) Difficulties Strongly Agree Neutral agree Lack of vocabulary Lack of background knowledge Lack of listening skills/strategies Lack of note taking skills The habit of listening (translate into Vietnamese, listen to a word by word, stop to think about the unfamiliar words) The length and speed of the materials Disagree Strongly disagree VIII PART C: The solutions for the second-year English major students to overcome these difficulties when using VOA Special English to improve listening skills What should the teacher when using VOA Special English to improve listening skills? (Please select × in the cell of your choice) Solutions Strongly Agree Neutral agree Disagree Strongly disagree Encourage students to broaden their vocabulary on subjects that might be discussed during the listening lessons Provide background knowledge and linguistic knowledge to their students Design listening tasks that arouse students’ interest and help them learn listening skills and strategies Design types of exercises related to the listening content Emphasize keywords and guide students to take note those keywords Choose the material suitable for length and speed What should the students when using VOA Special English to improve listening skill? (Please select × in the cell of your choice) Solutions Strongly Agree Neutral agree Improve their vocabulary Prepare good background knowledge Disagree Strongly disagree IX Rewind slowly and try to listen to the keywords and take note the key words Grasp the content of it and then check it with the typescript Just listen to it Practise listening every day Thank you for your kind cooperation!