Using dictation technique to develop listening skills for the first year english majors at hong duc university

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES GRADUATION THESIS USING DICTATION TECHNIQUE TO DEVELOP LISTENING SKILLS FOR THE FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT HONG DUC UNIVERSITY Supervisor : Dang Thi Nguyet

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

GRADUATION THESIS

USING DICTATION TECHNIQUE TO DEVELOP LISTENING SKILLS FOR THE FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT HONG DUC

UNIVERSITY

Supervisor : Dang Thi Nguyet, M.A

Student : Nguyen Thi Hao Class : K22A - FFL - HDU Course : 2019 – 2023

Thanh Hoa, June 2023

DECLARATION

I certify that this minor thesis entitled ―Using dictation technique to develop listening skills for the first-year English majors at Hong Duc University‖ is the

study of my own research and the substance of this research has not been submitted for

a degree to any other university or institution

Thanh Hoa, 2023

Nguyen Thi Hao

I would like to express my special thanks to my supervisor Ms Dang Thi Nguyet for her constant guidance, suggestions, dedication and professionalism throughout my research

Then, I would like to thank other teachers of the Department of Foreign Languages for their useful lessons and materials during 4 years which constructed the background of the paper

I am also indebted to 60 students of class K25A and K25B for their support and participation in my research

I would like to thank the librarians at Hong Duc University who lent me a lot of materials and provided me with the advantageous condition to complete the thesis

Last but not least, I wish to express my heart-felt gratitude to my family and friends, who always encouraged and supported me in completing the paper

Finally, I would like to thank the readers who have patiently read and given valuable comments on this thesis

Thank you very much!

ABSTRACT

The main goal of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of the dictation technique in developing the English listening skills of freshmen in English Education at Hong Duc University In the English learning process, learners find it more difficult to understand spoken text than they do with written one of the same content, one probable hurdle they cannot overcome is a translation of the sounds into the corresponding linguistic forms The paper focused on dictation because, to do dictation, the learner is first required to recognize the words and phrases in the sound chain before writing them down Participants in the study included 60 first-year English major students in two classes K25A and K25B of the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Hong Duc University They were chosen to become the subjects of survey questionnaires about attitudes as well as techniques to learn listening English Furthermore, 60 students were divided into 2 groups (a control group and an experimental group) to be subjects who took part in the experimental research The information was gathered through casual conversations with students and a survey questionnaire administered as a pretest and a posttest at the beginning and conclusion of the term The findings show that all students face to a lot of difficulties in the listening process and make considerable progress when applying the dictation method Besides, the article discusses some specific suggestions in order to successfully use the dictation technique

DECLARATION ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENT iii

ABSTRACT iv

LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES vii

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF FIGURES vii

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationable Error! Bookmark not defined 2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research questions .2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Methods of the study 2

6 Design of the study

3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 General concepts of listening 4

1.1.1 Definitions of listening 4

1.1.2 Models of listening 5

1.1.3 The process of listening 6

1.1.4 Difficulties in learning listening 9

1.1.5 Techniques to improve listening skills

2.1 Context of the study 199

2.2 Participants of the study 20

2.3 Instruments of the study 21

2.3.2 Interview 211

2.3.3 Pre-test and Post-test 222

2.4 Experimental procedure 222

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 26

3.1 Students’ perceptions on learning English listening skills 26

3.1.1 Students’ level of English listening skills 26

3.1.2 Students’ difficulties in learning English listening skills 27

3.1.3 Techniques used by students in learning English listening skills 28

3.1.4 Students' needs in learning listening skills .29

3.2 The effectiveness of dictation 29

3.2.1 Findings from students' tests 29

3.2.1.1 The results of pre-test 30

3.2.1.2 The results of post-test 30

3.2.2 Findings from questionnaire and interview 32

3.2.2.1 Students’ self-evaluation on their improvement after using dictation 32

3.2.2.2 Students’attitudes towards the effectiveness of using dictation method 34

3.2.2.3 Students’ willingness to continue practice with dictation technique 35

PART III: CONCLUSION 37

1 Summary 37

2 Limitations of the study 37

3 Suggestions for further study 38

REFERENCES 39

APPENDICES 43

LIST OF FIGURES

Firgure 1.1: The process of listening (Babita Tyagi 2013)

Firgure 1.2: The process of listening (Hirokazu Yonezaki 2014)

Firgure 1.3: Model of dictation (Oller, 1971)

Firgure 3.1: Students’ self-evaluation on their listening skills

Firgure 3.2: Students’ attitudes towards the effectiveness of using the dictation method

Firgure 3.3: Students’ willingness to continue practice with dictation technique

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1: Types of dictation (Oller, 1979)

Table 2.1: The listening English competence of levels A2 & B1 according to the 6-level foreign language proficiency framework in Vietnam

Table 2.2: Dictation tasks following Basic Tactics for Listening third-edition textbook

Table 3.1: Techniques used by students in learning English listening skills Table 3.2: Students’ needs on improving listening English skills

Table 3.3: Results distribution of Pre-test Table 3.4: Results distribution of Post-test

Table 3.5: Students’ self-evaluation on their improvement after using dictation

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 3.1: Students’ difficulties in listening process

Chart 3.2: The experimental group's results distribution of pre-test and post-tests

PART I INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale

Language is used as a means of communication It functions to express ideas, thoughts, opinions, and feelings English is an international language that is spoken around the world It also has an indispensable role in many aspects of life, such as business, education, technology, and tourism, and in international relations as an important means of global communication (Carretti et al., 2014) For this reason, English is taught in Vietnamese schools, from elementary school to university or college, and even it is taught in kindergarten school However, teaching-learning English still faces some problems since most of the students are afraid of using English They think that English is very difficult to study

English as a language has four skills, namely: listening, reading, writing, and speaking Among those skills, listening is the skill that is acquired and mastered first, and the other skills follow afterwards Because the basis of language is sound and there are languages without any written forms but no languages without sound so that listening skills must come first Listening is the skill to understand and identify what others saying For foreign language learners, especially EFL students, listening may be one of the most difficult skills to learn In the classroom, the listening process is acquired from the teacher, a CD, or other learners In fact, Vietnamese learners of English find it more difficult to understand spoken text than they do with written one of the same content, one probable hurdle they cannot overcome is translation of the sounds into the corresponding linguistic forms That is the reason why listening should be more focused than the other three language skills

How can listening skills be effectively developed? In the last decades, many experts have developed ways to improve listening skills Dictation is one of the most practical and successful ways for foreign language learners to develop their listening skills Dictation is widely used as a teaching technique in listening comprehension classes as well as a testing device in many experiments Although the positive effect of this technique has been reported, a specific explanation about its effect is yet seen: How should it be used? ; For what level is it effective?

Based on the interviews, it was found that the first-year English majors at Hong Duc University were interested in studying English, but they found difficulties in listening Their listening score was low, and the students made mistakes in answering the questions from the teacher, like inappropriate vocabulary, and wrong spelling, could not catch the content of the text, and they also could not distinguish the pronunciation well

To solve a such problem faced by the students, it was necessary to conduct

experimental research The researcher chose the topic " Using dictation technique to develop listening skills for the first-year English majors at Hong Duc University

" for the reasons stated above Hopefully, this thesis will prove to be a valuable resource in resolving various issues associated with learning English, particularly listening skills

2 Aims of the study

The study aims at the following concrete targets:

 Investigating students’ perceptions on learning English listening skills

 Examining the effectiveness of dictation techniques in improving students’ English listening skills

3 Research questions

The study is conducted to find out the answers to the following questions:

1 What are the students’ perceptions on learning English listening skills?

2 What effect does the use of the dictation technique have on first-year English majors at Hong Duc University's learning listening skills process?

4 Scope of the study

Due to limited time and limited knowledge, in this research, the author would like to focus only on the content of the dictation technique: presenting perceptions on learning English listening skills of first-year English majors at Hong Duc University (30 English major freshmen were selected to participate in the research experiment), presented the process of applying this technique in self-training listening skills

5 Methods of the study

To seek answers for the research, the data are analyzed from the material

collection and were collected from survey questionnaires, interviews and comparison between pre-test and post-test

First of all, for the theoretical basis, a lot of reference materials on dictation are analyzed and synthesized carefully with due consideration for students’ learning situations

Secondly, the questionnaires and interviews are conducted with the students to collect the most reliable data for the study

Thirdly, the pre-test and post-test are conducted to evaluate the students’ listening levels The pre-test is conducted to evaluate the reality of students’ listening level and the post-test is conducted to examine the effectiveness of the dictation technique in improving listening skills after one trial month

6 Design of the study

This thesis consists of three parts:

PART I: INTRODUCTION – shows the rationale, aims, scope, methods, and design of the study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT – (the main part of the study) is divided into three chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature review – provides an overview of dictation, listening skills Chapter 2: Methodology – provides context of study, participants, instruments and procedure

Chapter 3: Findings, discussion

PART III: CONCLUSION – shows the conclusion, references and suggestions for further study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter shows the research review relevant to the study It will elaborate on the definition of listening, models, the process of listening and difficulties in listening to English Moreover, the definition of dictation, types of dictation, and advantages of dictation are also presented

1.1 General concepts of listening 1.1.1 Definitions of listening

Listening is one of the language skills that are very important People need this skill in daily activities They do this activity much more than the other skills such as: speaking, reading, and writing (Ramadhika, 2014; Sadiku, 2015)

Based on, listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying This involves understanding a speaker's accent or pronunciation, grammar and his vocabulary, and grasping his meaning (Howatt and Dakin) DeVito (1995) defines listening as ―the efficient process of perception, comprehension, recognition, evaluation and reaction in communication‖

According to Bulletin (1952), listening is one of the fundamental language skills It's a medium through which children, young people and adults gain a large portion of their education their information, their understanding of the world and of human affairs, their ideals, their sense of values, and their appreciation In this day of mass communication (much of it oral), it is of vital importance that our pupils be taught to listen effectively and critically, he says For learners, listening is how spoken language becomes input (i.e., it is the first stage of learning a new language) Most people assume that listening has the same meaning as hearing and this is one of the problems that students face Actually, there is a difference between listening and hearing According to Sadiku (2015), listening is a process of hearing with comprehension and appreciation, while hearing is a process to perceive sounds, which is not followed by comprehension and appreciation Burns and Siegel, (2018) also reported that 45% of the time adults spend in interactions is listening, 30% speaking, 16% reading and 9% writing Hearing particularly in academic and professional contexts is a highly refined ability that requires a

student's attention to a series of strategies to extract meaning from texts This means the students have to pay attention and understand the text given The students have to understand the content of the text; they have to listen for general specific information in the text The general information that involving listening for finding a topic and listening for main ideas

From those explanations, the researcher concludes that listening is a fundamental and indispensable prerequisite of individual communication in social life Listening is a receptive skill, the ability to perceive another via sense and comprehend what others are saying When a learner listens, he or she tries to decode what a speaker has encoded that is, what a speaker means So, in this listening process, if we have our students produce something, the teaching will be more effective

1.1.2 Models of listening

Effective listening is an extremely important life skill The act of listening involves complex affective, cognitive, and behavioural processes It requires a high level of concentration and energy Babita Tyagi (2013) conducted a study to have a deeper insight into models of listening He pointed out that there are three major forms of listening, which are active or reflective listening; passive or attentive listening and competitive or combative listening

Active or Reflective Listening

It is the single most useful and important listening skill In active listening, the listener is genuinely interested in understanding what the other person is thinking, feeling, wanting or what the message means The person is active in checking his understanding before he responds with his new message The listener restates or paraphrases our understanding of the message and reflects it back to the sender for verification This verification or feedback process is what distinguishes active listening and makes it effective

Essentials of Active Listening

1 Intensity 2 Empathy 3 Acceptance

4 Recognizing responsibility for completeness

Passive or Attentive Listening

The listener is genuinely interested in hearing and understanding the other person’s point of view He will be attentive and will passively listen The listener assumes that what he heard and understand is correct but stays passive and does not verify it

Competitive or Combative Listening

It happens when the Listener is more interested in promoting his own point of view than in understanding or exploring someone else’s view He either listens for openings to take the floor, or for flaws or weak points

According to Yurko N.A and Styfanyshyn I.M (2020, p43), there are two forms of listening: active and passive Active listening is focused listening You are trying to truly understand the meaning behind what is being said Passive listening simply involves hearing what is being said, but not really attempting to understand every word, for example playing music but not focusing on it

In formal educational environments, the quality of student listening affects learning considerably Students who are uninterested in a lesson listen reluctantly, wanting time to pass quickly and the class to end as soon as possible In such situations, students become passive and, though appearing to be listening, will not use listening strategies that promote productive and permanent learning By contrast, when students willingly participate in lessons by listening to instructors, asking questions, and holding discussions, they practice active listening which allows them to achieve more productive and more permanent learning

1.1.3 The process of listening

As reported by Babita Tyagi (2013), the process of listening occur in five stages They are hearing, understanding, remembering, evaluating, and responding

Figure 1.1: The process of listening (Babita Tyagi 2013)

HEARING – It is referred to as the response caused by sound waves stimulating the sensory receptors of the ear; it is a physical response; hearing is a perception of sound waves; you must hear to listen, but you need not listen to hear (the perception necessary for listening depends on attention) Brain screens stimuli and permits only a select few to come into focus- these selective perceptions are known as attention, an important requirement for effective listening

UNDERSTANDING- This step helps to understand symbols we have seen and heard, we must analyze the meaning of the stimuli we have perceived; symbolic stimuli are not only words but also sounds like applause… and sights like blue uniform…that have symbolic meanings as well; the meanings attached to these symbols are a function of our past associations and of the context in which the symbols occur For successful interpersonal communication, the listener must understand the intended meaning and the context assumed by the sender

REMEMBERING- Remembering is an important listening process because it means that an individual has not only received and interpreted a message but has also added it to the mind's storage bank In Listening our attention is selective, and

so too is our memory- what is remembered may be quite different from what was originally seen or heard

EVALUATING- Only active listeners participate at this stage in Listening At this point, the active listener weighs evidence, sorts fact from opinion, and determines the presence or absence of bias or prejudice in a message; the effective listener makes sure that he or she doesn’t begin this activity too soon; beginning this stage of the process before a message is completed requires that we no longer hear and attend to the incoming message-as a result, the listening process ceases

RESPONDING- This stage requires that the receiver complete the process through verbal and/or nonverbal feedback; because the speaker has no other way to determine if a message has been received, this stage becomes the only overt means by which the sender may determine the degree of success in transmitting the message

Hirokazu Yonezaki (2014, p22) defined that an ordinary person usually takes the following three processes in listening: (1) perception: the listener perceives sounds, (2) recognition: the listener decodes the sounds he or she has perceived, recognizing them as certain linguistic forms (3) comprehension: the listener decodes the forms he or she has recognized, this time comprehending the meaning of the forms

(1) (2) (3)

Figure 1.2: The process of listening (Hirokazu Yonezaki 2014)

Based on those statements, it can be assumed that there are 3 main steps in the listening process-receiving, attending, and understanding For example, in the classroom, the first listening process is acquired from the teacher, a CD, or other learners which means the learners perceive sound waves After recognizing the

language spoken, they convert these sounds into linguistic forms Finally, in the comprehension process, they interpret the meaning of the forms he or she has just recognized and understand what the speaker means Responding and/or remembering may or may not follow Particularly, it may be desirable for the listener to respond immediately or to remember the message in order to respond at a later time

1.1.4 Difficulties in learning listening

According to Azmi Bingol, Celik, Yidliz, and Tugrul Mart (2014), there are a lot of difficulties that learners may encounter in the listening comprehension process and the purpose is to be aware of these problems and try to solve them Some of these problems are as follows:

 Quality of Recorded Materials

In some classes, teachers use some recorded materials that do not have high quality The quality of sound system can impact the comprehending of learners’ listening

 Cultural Differences

Learners should be familiar with the cultural knowledge of language that has a significant effect on the learners’ understanding If the listening task involves completely different cultural materials then the learners may have critical problems in their comprehension It is the responsibility of teachers to give background knowledge about the listening activities in advance

 Accent

Munro and Derwing (1999) expressed that too many accented speech can lead to an important reduction in comprehension According to Goh (1999), 66% of learners mentioned a speaker’s accent as one of the most significant factors that affect listener comprehension Unfamiliar accents both native and non-native can cause serious problems in listening comprehension and familiarity with an accent helps learners’ listening comprehension Buck (2001) indicated that when listeners hear an unfamiliar accent such as Indian English for the first time after studying only American English will encounter critical difficulties in listening This will certainly interrupt the whole listening comprehension process and at the same time

an unfamiliar accent makes comprehension impossible for the listeners  Unfamiliar Vocabulary

According to Azmi Bingol, Celik, Yidliz, and Tugrul Mart (2014), when listening texts contain known words it would be very easy for students to them If students know the meaning of words this can arouse their interest and motivation and can have a positive impact on the students’ listening comprehension ability A lot of words have more than one meaning and if they are not used appropriately in their appropriate contexts students will get confused

 Length and Speed of Listening

Azmi Bingol, Celik, Yidliz, and Tugrul Mart (2014) stated that the level of students can have a significant role when they listen to long parts and keep all information in their mind It is very difficult for lower level students to listen more than three minutes long and complete the listening tasks Short listening passages make easy listening comprehension for learners and reduce their tiredness According to Underwood (1989), speed can make listening passages difficult If the speakers speak too fast students may have serious problems understanding L2 words In this situation, listeners are not able to control the speed of speakers and this can create critical problems with listening comprehension

According to Underwood (1989), there are some barriers to the effective listening comprehension process First, listeners cannot control the speed of speech The biggest problem with listening comprehension is that listeners are not able to control how quickly speakers talk Second, listeners cannot have words repeated and this can cause critical difficulties for them Students cannot replay a recording section Teachers decide what and when to repeat listening texts and it is very difficult for teachers to know whether or not their learners understood what they have heard Third, listeners do not have high vocabulary knowledge Speakers may select words that listeners do not know them Listeners may face an unfamiliar word which can stop them and think about the meaning of that word for a while and miss the next part of the speech Fourth, listeners may lack contextual knowledge Mutual knowledge and familiar texts can make communication easier for listeners Listeners can sometimes comprehend the surface meaning of a

passage but they can have substantial problems in understanding the whole meaning of a passage unless they are familiar with it Fifth, it is not very easy for listeners to concentrate on the listening text Sometimes the shortest break in attention can prevent comprehension If the listening passage is interesting for listeners, concentration will be easy for them

Graham (2006) said that there are some other factors that increase learners’ listening comprehensions problems such as restricted vocabulary, poor grammar, and misinterpretations about listening tasks Bloomfield et al (2010) and Walker (2014) expressed that one of the serious problems of listening comprehension is related to the pronunciation of words that is different from the way they appear in print Due to the fact that the spoken language varies to the form of the written language, the recognition of words that make the oral speech can create some difficulties for students According to Vandergrift (2007) and Walker (2014), in addition, to identify the words despite their unfamiliar pronunciation, students should try to decide which linguistic part belongs to which word Prosodic features of the spoken language like where the stress falls, weak forms and strong forms of words, and intonation also impact the comprehension of oral text

Vandergrift (2004) and Walker (2014) indicated that oral passages exist in real time and should be processed rapidly and when the passage is over, only a mental representation remains Listening needs immediate processing to access the spoken input again, making the skill more complex than reading Students’ cultural background knowledge can have an important role in their listening comprehension A general understanding of the country’s culture and its history can facilitate listening processes Vandergrift (2007) and Walker (2014) declared that listeners can use pragmatic knowledge to make inferences and identify speakers’ implied meaning that these should be specifically considered by teachers when teaching listening comprehension Bloomfield et al (2010) told that regional accents can impact the spoken message that is understood by the listeners and familiar accents are easier to understand than unfamiliar accents

1.1.5 Techniques to improve listening skills

Listening is key to all effective communication, without the ability to listen

effectively messages are easily misunderstood-communication breaks down and the sender of the message can easily become frustrated or irritated There are a number of different techniques that can be employed to improve students’ listening skills The main ones include watching subtitle movies, listening to English songs and practising dictation techniques

 Watching subtitle movies

Subtitle movies can be used as an instructional tool for learning to listen since they are a rich source of conversation and dialogue for English speakers In the literature on movie subtitling and captioning, there is controversy over the effects of these help options on the listening comprehension ability of language learners (Danan, 2004) Nonetheless, the studies that support subtitling have usually demonstrated improvement in two major areas: a higher level of comprehension and better vocabulary recognition ability In terms of comprehension, several studies have reported a significant improvement in the listening comprehension of language learners after being exposed to captioned/subtitled movies For example, Markham (1989) investigated the effects of subtitled TV programs on the listening comprehension of beginner, intermediate and advanced learners of English He used two subtitled videos on topics not known to the learners Each group viewed both movies with and without subtitles Measuring the participants’ comprehension by some multiple‐ choice questions, he found that all three groups using the subtitles performed significantly better

In another study, Garza (1991) compared learners’ comprehension of video segments with second-language captions with that of video segments without captions By means of a 10‐ item comprehension test, he measured students’ comprehension of the video segments The results of the data analysis revealed that students who viewed the video segments with captions gained the highest scores In addition, Guillory (1999) investigated the effect of different types of captioning on the comprehension ability of three groups (full captions, keyword captions and no captions) who were shown two video clips over the period of one semester Immediately after the treatment, all participants completed a short‐ answer comprehension test The results first supported full captioning as the most effective

procedure followed by keyword captioning, and the least effective one was the no captioned video

 Listening to English songs

English songs can be the media to improve listening skills because it is easy to get English songs Murphey (1990) suggests that many English teachers have long recognized that song and music work well in language classes Lieb (2008) points out that songs can reduce one’s pressure and create a relaxed atmosphere Not only kids but also adults love songs Wang (2008) summarized the three main features of pop songs: songs that are highly motivating, songs that contain linguistic information, and songs that contain historical and cultural knowledge Besides linguistic features, Lynch (2008) puts forth that pop songs are so popular that have strong influences to use in teaching What’s more, it creates fun for both teachers and students Lems (2001) Rapport (2005) and Farrug (2008) put that English songs can improve comprehension skills, increase vocabulary and create fun Vernon (2006) claims that English songs bring energy to the classroom and boost students’ confidence English songs provide authentic materials and contain various universal themes (Eg: love, friendship, dream, and joy) English songs also promote an active atmosphere Music has the greatest potential in ESL classrooms since music has related closely to language (Lieb, 2008) Much linguistic information is contained in English songs, such as grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation

 Dictation technique

According to Chai (2011), dictation is an activity that helps students to increase their awareness of phonics, listening, and writing skills Moreover, Jain

(Mentari, 2018) stated that dictation is a strategy that can develop students habits in

listening, and also can help students to understand punctuation and spelling, to understand words, phrases, sentences, and clauses, and also enables students to increase their abilities in listening language, so they get used to the language It might be a nerve-racking experience, but it would be great for your English

1.2 Dictation technique 1.2.1 Definitions of dictation

Dictation has been considered as an effective tool that can help teachers and learners during language teaching/learning processes to promote learning (Hassankiadeh, 2013) According to Burns et al (2018), dictation refers to a person reading some text aloud so that the listeners can write down what is being said More than half of language teachers use dictation either regularly or occasionally in Europe (Davis and Rinvolucri 1993, p1) Also, textbooks for listening comprehension available on the market often contain dictation exercises However, Hassankiadeh also states that it was ignored during the years in foreign language classes Dictation has been used in language learning for many years There are many researchers who work on dictation as a useful tool in learning/teaching a language For example, Norris (1993, p72) studied dictation as a beneficial tool for managing and motivating learners in language classrooms

Davis and Rinvolucri (1998) defined dictation as a combination of the decoding of language sounds and recording them by writing Also, Morris (1983, p126) stated that dictation was an ―active re-interpretation by the learner‖ To support this, Oller (1971) suggested a model of dictation in which learners first differentiated phonetic units, and then worked out the wording and phrasing sequences that made sense Finally, learners analytically translated this into a representation of graphemes

Figure 1.3: Model of dictation (Oller, 1971)

Several studies (Valette 1967, ORer 1971, Oller et al 1974) reported that dictation scores correlated with overall language achievement Dictation has been Iong and widely used and recommended for use in the listening classroom (Rivers & Temperley 1979, Ito 1984) Ito (1984) indicated that dictation practice using natural English speech as cues from the early stages are highly recommended and suggested that dictation is an effective way to string together an auditory image a learner has with a corresponding visual one in written forms, saying that dictation practice will help the learners realize and internalize flexible correspondence between visual forms of English words and their spoken counterparts

In summary, the definition of the dictation technique has varied over time In this study, the researcher agrees with the definition of Nation and Newton (2009) about dictation as a technique where the learners receive some spoken input, hold this in their memory for a short time, and then write what they heard Dictations help language learning by making learners focus on the language form of phrase and clause-level constructions, and by providing feedback on the accuracy of their perception

1.2.2 Types of dictation

A significant number of researchers introduce several types of dictation According to Oller (1979, p.264), there are five forms of dictation: standard dictation, partial dictation, dictation with competing noise, dicto-Comp and elicited imitation

Table 1.1: Types of dictation (Oller, 1979)

Standard dictation Learners will listen to a passage with moderate content, and an average reading speed suitable for learners' short-term memory After each dictation sentence, learners will copy the content verbatim

Partial dictation Learners will receive a text with content similar to the content they will hear but with some words and phrases missing The task of learners is to listen and fill in the

missing content to complete the text Dictation with

competing noise

In this type, in the dialogues, background noise is added, creating a context like in real life At that time, learners have to focus on listening, and comprehending the transmitted content and have to copy everything

Dicto-Comp This type of exercise combines the two tasks of listening to dictation and copying the content yourself After listening to the text 3 times, learners use their memorization to reproduce the content they have heard

Elicited imitation Learners will hear each sentence in the text, and then, instead of copying the content, learners will immediately repeat the same content they just heard

Sawyer & Silver (1961) identifies types of dictation as follows 1) phonemic item dictation, involving presentation of individual sounds, 2) phonemic text dictation, whereby learners phonetically transcribe a short text, 3) orthographic item dictation, the dictating of individual words used for testing spelling, and 4) orthographic text dictation, using short texts rather than individual words

The first, the phonemic item dictation, consists of the teacher presenting the individual sounds of a language (i.e., their IPA coordinates) to students for transcription The phonemic item dictation is useful in that it increases the student's ability to recognize the sounds of a language and their contrasts, thereby facilitating their accurate production This dictation is an excellent way to teach beginners to stop imposing the sound system of their native language upon the sound system of English

The second, the phonemic text dictation, is an extension of the phonemic item dictation It consists of the teacher reciting a passage which students phonetically transcribe The phonemic item dictation is valuable as a way to understand how English sounds change in connected speech

The orthographic item dictation is the dictating of individual words in isolation for transcription, similar to the traditional spelling test It is useful for

reinforcing the correlation between the spelling system and sound system of a language In English this correlation is more complex than it is in other languages (e.g., Spanish and many Slavic languages), and so it is a worthwhile ESL/EFL exercise

The dictation with the broadest learning and teaching possibilities is the orthographic text dictation, in which students transcribe a unified passage This is the classic dictation exercise all foreign language teachers are familiar with Besides reinforcing the spelling/sound correlation of English, the orthographic text dictation uncovers comprehension and grammatical weaknesses in learners which the teacher can analyze and address in future lessons

Nation and Newton (2009, p62) propose that dictation is an easily prepared activity that can become a part of the regular classroom routine There are some variations that can add variety to this routine and can refocus the learning goal of the dictation activity There are running dictation, one chance dictation, dictation of long phrases, guided dictation, dictation for a mixed class, peer dictation, completion dictation, perfect dictation, sentence dictation, and unexploded dictation

1.2.3 Advantages of dictation technique in developing listening skills

Dictation has several advantages, such as practising students' listening skills, training students to distinguish sounds, enabling students to interpret spoken language to written language, helping students to develop their understanding, and helping students to evaluate their abilities in learning According to Montalvan (2006), dictation has several following advantages:

(1) Dictation can help develop all four language skills in an integrative way

(2) Dictation helps to develop short-term memory Students practice retaining meaningful phrases or whole sentences before writing them down

(3) Dictation can serve as an excellent review exercise (4) Dictation is psychologically powerful and challenging (5) Dictation fosters unconscious thinking in the new language (6) Dictation involves the whole class, no matter how large it is (7) During and after the dictation, all students are active

(8) Correction can be done by the students (9) Dictation can be prepared for any level

(10) Dictation can be administered quite effectively by an inexperienced teacher (11) While dictating, the teacher can (in fact should) move about, giving individual attention

(12) Dictation exercises can pull the class together during the valuable first minutes of class

(13) Dictation can provide access to interesting texts (14) Correcting dictation can lead to oral communication

(15) Practice in careful listening to dictation will be useful later on in note-taking exercises In other words, dictation gives students valuable practice in note-taking (16) If the students do well, dictation is motivating

(17) Dictation can be prepared for mixed ability groups

(18) The students, as well as the teacher, can get instant feedback if the exercise is corrected immediately

(19) The dictation passage can (and should) be completely prepared in advance (it also can be taped)

(20) As students develop their aural comprehension of meaning also of the relationship among segments of language, they are learning grammar

(21) Research has shown that the learning to write down what you hear can encourage the development of literacy

CHAPTER 2 : METHODOLOGY

2.1 Context of the study

The study is conducted in the Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL), one of the 12 most essential faculties of education and training at Hong Duc University which is the largest local university in Thanh Hoa province FFL is an outstanding faculty with qualified lecturer staff The faculty classrooms are equipped with modern equipment such as smart TVs, projectors, and speakers which support a lot of English language teaching and learning In terms of the training programs for English major students, the department trains 2 majors: English Language Teacher Education and English Language

According to the training program, the English education major consists of 126 credits Listening-Speaking Skills account for 18 credits which are divided into 6 modules from 1 to 6 throughout 4 years In the first academic year, Listening-Speaking Skill 1 is being studied as a compulsory in Achievers A2 and Basic Tactics for Listening third-edition textbooks According to the 6-level foreign language proficiency framework in Vietnam, the first-year English majors must achieve level 2 (A2) More specifically, it will be equal to the end of Level 2 (A2) to the beginning of Level 3 (B1) according to the 6 language assessment Vietnamese framework for freshmen who have recently finished their Listening-Speaking Skill 1 and proceeded to Listening-Listening-Speaking Skill 2

The listening English competence of levels A2 & B1 according to the 6-level foreign language proficiency framework in Vietnam is illustrated in Table 2 below

Table 2.1: The listening English competence of levels A2 & B1 according to the 6-level foreign language proficiency framework in Vietnam

Level 2 (A2) - Can understand phrases and expressions related to daily

necessities (about family, self, shopping, place to stay, study and work ) when expressed slowly and clearly

- Can understand the main ideas of familiar everyday transactions when expressed slowly and clearly

Level 3 (B1) - Can understand simple factual information clearly expressed in a standard voice on topics related to daily life and work

- Can identify main ideas in clearly presented speeches on common topics in life, work or school, including stories when clearly expressed in common standard dialect

2.2 Participants

In the academic year 2022-2023, English Education majors are divided into 4 classes Therefore, it is difficult for me to select a random sample of individuals The solution to this case is that instead of randomly selecting the individuals, I randomly select classes for investigation Two classes chosen for the study are K25A and K25B which include 60 students They all come from different districts in Thanh Hoa province and most of them are at the age of 18, so they belong to the same family background and psychological age group Their time length of learning English is also the same That is, they all have been learning English since grade 6 Before conducting the experiment, the researcher invited 60 students (who participated in the survey and answered the questionnaire about their current situation of listening skills) to complete the English listening proficiency test This English listening proficiency test is designed based on a sample of the Listening Final Test of Listeng-Speaking Skill 1 which have the same structure as the KET form From the results, the author concludes that these classes have students with the same level of listening competence Therefore, she randomly selected 30 students in class K25A for investigation Besides, according to the first interview, most of the students are diligent and passionate about learning English However, they are in trouble with listening to English such as lacking vocabulary and cultural knowledge and being in touch with the speed of speech Therefore, it is reasonable to invite them to take part in my study related to listening improvement Those

students belong to 2 different classes: K25A and K25B in English Language Teacher Education but they have one thing in common It is they are enthusiastic and volunteer to cooperate with the researcher in conducting the study

2.3 Instruments of the study

To reach the primary objectives of the study, there are several approaches to collecting information concerning students' perceptions of learning English listening skills and the effect of the dictation technique in improving listening skills

2.3.1 Questionnaires

There is a variety of methods that can be employed to collect data such as questionnaires, interviews, meetings, tests, observation and so on Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages I chose questionnaires because it is one of the most popular instruments It is quite easy to prepare and it can be used with a large number of subjects What is more, the information collected is not very difficult to tabulate and analyze (Brown, 1995) Hence, a survey questionnaire was chosen to collect students' opinions and attitudes towards dictation as well as their comments and suggestions for using dictation in English lessons This set of questionnaires with both close-ended and open-ended questions containing the title, instructions, questionnaire items, additional information, and a final ―thank you‖ are written in English

The researcher designed two questionnaires: the first questionnaire investigated the students' experience and difficulties in listening to English prior to testing; while the next questionnaire explored their ideas of some effectiveness and comments after a term of practice with the technique

2.3.2 Interviews

In terms of the second instrument, after completing the first questionnaire, the researcher scheduled individual interviews with all of the students in the targeted group After the participants had finished their second questionnaire of the day, the following meeting was scheduled Each interview lasted approximately 15 to 20 minutes After gathering data, students are thanked once more for their assistance They can rest assured that their responses will only be

used for this study

The interview is defined as a qualitative research method The advantages of the interview are its possibility to gather detailed information to provide appropriate data for research questions Besides, in this collecting data method, the researcher has the power to control the process and deal if there are any issues The interviews are implemented with all 30 trial participants for further insight into students’ problems and difficulties in practising listening with the dictation technique They are interviewed individually with the questions in Vietnamese to avoid vagueness and misunderstanding The central points of the interview are around their general listening problems, their attitudes towards dictation technique effects, and their difficulties of using these techniques in practising listening and the interviews are recorded The researcher interviews twice, before and after practising The first time explored students' experienced and difficulties in listening to English; the following interview investigates students’ attitudes after training in the technique The interview questions are designed based on the questionnaires to gather more detailed data for the study’s objectives

2.3.3 Pre-test and Post-test

In addition to the survey questionnaire and interview, the author collected data by using two listening tests which are designed for students with an aim to measure the effect of using dictation on students’ listening skills improvement The first listening test (pre-test) is given to students with the aim to measure their overall listening competence before dictation is applied in the listening lessons The last test (post-test) is given to find out how much the students’ listening skill has improved after the experiment has been terminated These examinations are administered in accordance with the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Hong Duc University

2.4 Experimental procedure

I conducted my study over a period of 13 weeks during the first term of the school year 2022-2023 in classes K25A and KK25B at Hong Duc University Students went through three steps while engaging in the experiment, as follows:

- Step 1 – Before-experiment: 60 students completed a questionnaire, and did a listening pre-test

- Step 2 – While-experiment: 30 students who were selected to take part in the experimental research used the dictation technique under the instruction of the researcher

- Step 3 – Post-experiment: 60 students were required to take a listening skill post-test After that, the trial participants gave their feedback on using the dictation technique by answering a questionnaire survey and joining an interview with the researcher

All the tests, interviews and questionnaires were directly carried out in the classroom after school with the enthusiasm of students

Experimental procedure

In the first academic year, Listening-Speaking Skill 1 is being studied as a compulsory subject with 3 credits According to Listening-Speaking Skill 1 module outline, students have a 63-hour main period which is divided into 2 periods per week and a 135-hour self-study with the teacher's instruction Therefore, the author gave 2 dictation tasks a week which follow the students' studying program Students practised dictation at home before the lesson to get an effective lesson in class After the main class, the researcher gave the transcript for students to check their work Besides, the author connected with their lecturer to encourage and control the students' attitudes Students had to submit their dictation every week on a Zalo group under the lecturer's confirmation The experimental procedure is illustrated below:

Stage 1: The author created a Zalo group which consists of 30 trial participants Then the researcher provided detailed instructions on using dictation to the students It consists of four steps below:

 Step 1: Listen at normal speed Do not write

After the first listen, students can guess the listening topic to elicit their background knowledge

 Step 2: Listen again at a slow speed and write what you hear

Depending on students' listening ability, they choose when to stop the audio

For example, after a sentence of about 5-10 words, the students stop the video and note what they hear They will do this until the listening is over Students were encouraged to listen more times ( at least 5 times) to strengthen skills and not skip what was difficult

 Step 3: Compare your dictation with the transcript

After studying in class, students get their transcript then compare their work with the transcript, correct the mistakes and fill in the blanks that they missed This comparison will help students identify what are the mistakes they often make to avoid mistakes in the real test

 Step 4: Further improvement

Listening to it again and again with its transcript will increase the students’ English listening reflex, and help them remember a lot Because students can directly look at the words that they don't listen to and miss Besides, they can reread the text and record it Listening to the recording again will help them compare their pronunciation with the native speakers because the way we pronounce it will determine our listening comprehension

Stage 2: The author gave dictation tasks which students practice at home She posted dictation tasks on Zalo every week Students were required to submit their dictation before the lesson After the main lesson, she sent the transcript to the students for checking During the process, students were asked to document the difficulties they encountered during the practice At the end of the term, they had to fill out a second designed questionnaire

The researcher focused on Basic Tactics for Listening third-edition curriculum written by C Richards author It consists of 24 Units divided into small lessons which have themes close to life such as Name, Spelling, Family, People, Clothes, Time, Date, etc The listening tracks are fairly simple from numbers to single words Besides speakers speak slowly with standard accents and pronunciation In the experimental process, students concentrated on dictation Listening 2 part which has the content closest to the topic of the lesson, medium speed and lasts from 1-2 minutes The dictation plan in Table 3 was carried out based on Listening-Speaking Skill 1 module outline Students followed the

procedure of the experimental dictation technique as follows:

Table 2.2: Dictation tasks following Basic Tactics for Listening third-edition textbook

Week 5 Desscribing rooms and objects Unit 16: Apartment Living Unit 20: Describing things

Week 6 Progress test

Week 7 Vocations and journeys Unit 15: Vocations

Unit 19: Shopping

Week 9 People and Family Unit 2: Describing people Unit 10: The family

Week 10 Acquiatances and Friends Unit 14: Small talk Unit 22: People we know

Week 12 Places and Directions Unit 21: Directions

Unit 23: Places Week 13 Revision

Stage 3: The researcher collected the data and evaluated the results

At the end of the experimental research, the participants took a questionnaire and an interview to give their feedback using dictation

Thus, so far, this chapter has detailed the purpose, objectives, objects, tools and data collection process of the whole study

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Students’ perceptions on learning English listening skills

To find out the perceptions on listening to English skills of first-year language major students at Hong Duc University, the author conducted a survey of 60 first-year English majors of 2 classes: K25A and K25B including male and female students During the time the survey was conducted, they were studying Listening-Speaking Skill 1 in the 1st semester of the school year 2022-2023 The results after being collected and processed are as follows:

3.1.1 Students’ levels of English skills

First, all 60 students were required to evaluate their own levels of listening

English skills The results are illustrated in the pie chart below

Figure 3.1: Students’ self-evaluation on their listening skills

The pie chart shows the students' listening levels as determined by themselves It is clear that the majority of youngsters are self-conscious about their capacity to listen to English More than half of the participants (65%) assessed their listening ability as average Students who believe they are at the beginner level account for 25% Those who are unsure of their English listening ability should definitely choose the intermediate level Only two people assessed their listening skills as high, and two people ranked their listening ability as extremely terrible, indicating that they were at the novice level As a result, pupils still lack confidence in their listening abilities

However, when asked when and where they practised listening, the majority of the students in the focus group stated they only listened to English in class and rarely listen to English outside, such as in an English classroom or at home: "I didn't study at any English centre with foreign teachers to listen English, I just took English courses at Vietnamese schools and teachers' homes, thus I didn't listen English a lot" student 6 remarked

3.1.2 Students’ difficulties in learning English listening skills

The chart 3.1 shows how much-affected of problems students have in listening English process As can be observed, the participants will have difficulties