skkn cấp tỉnh some solutions to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning listening skills for grade 10 students at tinhgia4 high school

According to the new general education program, English is a compulsory subject from grades 3 to 12, built withcommunication ability as the goal of the teaching process andlanguage knowl

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC 1

1.2 THE PURPOSES OF THE RESEARCH 1

1.3 THE OBJECTS OF THE RESEARCH 2

1.4 RESEARCH METHODS 2

1.5 NEW POINTS OF THE RESEARCH 2

2 THE CONTENT 2

2.1 THE THEORICAL BASIS 2

2.1.1 Definition of listening skills in language teaching and learning 2

2.1.2 Stages of a listening lesson 3

2.2 THE CURRENT STATUS OF THE RESEARCH ISSUE 4

2.2.1 The new text book – English 10 Global Success 4

2.2.2 Teachers 4

2.2.3 Students 6

2.3 SOLUTIONS TO THE RESEARCH ISSUE 7

2.3.1 Task adjustment and adaption 7

2.3.2 Flexible and appropriate use of techniques, aids and tools 8

2.3.3 Using mini-games 9

2.3.4 Equipment of relevant vocabulary, phonetics and sub-skills 10

2.3.5 Practice makes perfect 13

2.4 THE RESULTS 16

3 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 19

3.1 CONCLUSION 19

3.2 RECOMMENDATIONS 19

3.2.1 For teachers 19

3.2.2 For students 19

3.2.3 For the department of education and training 20

REFERENCES

1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC

As we know, English provides students with an importantinternational communication tool, helping them exchangeinformation, advanced scientific and technical knowledge, andlearn about different cultures English contributes to buildingunderstanding between peoples, forming a sense of globalcitizenship, and contributing to the development of personalqualities and competences

According to the new general education program, English

is a compulsory subject from grades 3 to 12, built withcommunication ability as the goal of the teaching process andlanguage knowledge as a means to form and developcommunication skills through listening, speaking, reading, andwriting, among which, listening skill is the one that causesmany difficulties for English learners in general, and high schoolstudents in particular

Although listening skills have been included in textbooks

to be taught integrated with other skills, the process of teachingand learning listening skills for teachers and students still faces

a great deal of challenges Many students feel pressured duringlistening lessons, and they find no motivation in doing the tasks.Meanwhile, many students who really do the best every lessonreceive unexpected results at tests Most students miss theopportunity to get points in the listening tests They leave theanswers blank, or choose the answers without finishing theirlistening tapes

Moreover, for many students who want to continue theirtertiary education, they will have to undergo a competencyassessment test according to the 6-level foreign languagecompetency framework for Vietnam (regulated under Circular

No 01/2014/TT-BGDDT January 24, 2014 of the Minister ofEducation and Training) Therefore, to them improve theirlistening skills as well as be well prepare for the competencyassessment exams, I tried to find understand, learn and drawsome experience to help make listening lessons more effective

For above mentioned reasons, I chose the topic: "Some solutions to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning listening skills for grade 10 students at Tinh Gia 4 High school" to continue improving the quality of

teaching and learning English in high schools

1.2 THE PURPOSES OF THE RESEARCH

This research aims at

- Providing English teachers with some helpful techniques thathave been proved to be effectively used in teaching listeningskills

- Providing students with strategies and learning tools toimprove listening skills effectively, increase their proactivenessand interest in learning and practicing listening to English onmany different channels

- Increasing the efficiency of the test-taking process both in theassessment and semester exams, help them prepare well forthe competency assessment exams and even the TOEFL andIELTS in the near future

1.3 THE OBJECTS OF THE RESEARCH

- 10th grade students at Tinh Gia 4 High School – The academic year 2023-2024

1.4 RESEARCH METHODS

To conduct this research, I used the following methods:

- Survey method: finding out about the current situation of teaching and learninglistening skills at Tinh Gia 4 High School

- Studying documents and reference books related to the topic

- Experimental and statistical methods: applying some techniques, conductingtests, evaluating, comparing and analyzing data

- Observational method: observing changes in students' motivation andexcitement through lessons with the help of information technology

- Collecting consultation from colleagues and students

1.5 NEW POINTS OF THE RESEARCH

Up to now, there have been many research projects on teaching listeningskills at high schools They mainly focused on lessons in the old Englishtextbooks, which are no longer in use

The new point of this research is that it was conducted on the brand newEnglish 10 Global Success textbook as well as some new teaching techniquesand learning tool which are now much preferred by both teachers and students

of foreign languages in the world

2 THE CONTENT 2.1 THE THEORICAL BASIS

2.1.1 Definition of listening skills in language teaching and learning

Listening is the first language skill learned or masteredbefore somebody learns speaking, reading, and writing Sevik(2012, p.328) states that listening is the fundamental skill thatmust be learned in the language learning process[6]

Listening is very important in language learning because itprovides input for students and has a vital role in developingstudents’ language knowledge (Rost, 1994) If students cannotunderstand the input, the learning process cannot begin[5]

In line with this statement, Kim and Kang (2015, p.175)report that many linguists and English teachers state thatlistening becomes the most fundamental and crucial skillamong other language skills because it is a key role to study aforeign language [4] Jafari and Hashim (2015) emphasizedthat listening is a channel for comprehensible input, and morethan 50 percent of the time learners spend learning a foreignlanguage is devoted to listening [2] Goss (1982) definedlistening as a process of understanding what is heard andorganizing it into lexical elements to which meaning can beallocated.[1]

Although listening is categorized as a receptive skill,listening is a complex process of interpretation in whichlisteners match what they hear with what they already know

Listening is a skill of critical significance in all aspects ofour lives—from maintaining our personal relationships, togetting our jobs done, to taking notes in class, to figuring outwhich bus to take to the airport To be a successful listener, it’simportant to understand that listening involves more than justhearing the words that are directed at us Listening is an activeprocess by which we make sense of, assess, and respond towhat we hear The listening process involves five stages:receiving, understanding, evaluating, remembering, andresponding An effective listener must hear and identify thespeech sounds directed toward them, understand the message

of those sounds, critically evaluate or assess that message,remember what’s been said, and respond (either verbally ornonverbally) to information they’ve received [3]

To summarize, listening is identifying and understandingwhat others are saying It involves understanding a speaker’s

accent or pronunciation, his/her grammar and vocabulary, andgrasping his/her meaning to interact with the speakers.Therefore, listening is essential; teachers and learners shouldpay enough attention to obtain communication aims.

2.1.2 Stages of a listening lesson

A listening lesson typically consists of three main stages [3]

a Pre-Listening:

During this stage, you prepare students to listen byengaging them with activities related to the topic they areabout to hear Some common pre-listening activities include:

- Vocabulary Preview: Introduce key vocabulary related to the

listening passage

- Prediction: Encourage students to make predictions about the

content based on the topic or context

- Discussion: Engage students in a brief discussion related to

so Activities during this stage include:

- Comprehension Questions: Ask questions related to specific

details, main ideas, or specific information

- Gap-Fill Exercises: Fill in missing words or phrases from the

passage

- Note-Taking: Encourage students to take notes while listening.

- Multiple-Choice Questions: Assess understanding of the

content

c Post-Listening:

After students have listened to the passage, engage them

in activities that reinforce what they heard Post-listening tasksinclude:

- Discussion: Encourage students to discuss the content, share

opinions, or express their thoughts

- Summary Writing: Ask students to summarize the main points

of the passage

- Follow-Up Tasks: Extend the topic by having students write,

create, or research related content

- Reflection: Discuss the listening experience and any

challenges faced

Post-listening activities help consolidate learning andprovide opportunities for further language practice.

2.2 THE CURRENT STATUS OF THE RESEARCH ISSUE

2.2.1 The new text book – English 10 Global Success

Along with science and technology, Education - Training is

a top national policy, aiming to improve people's knowledge,train human resources, and foster talents View investment ineducation as investment in the future The Education andTraining industry has constantly innovated in content andteaching methods The English subject has been taught sinceelementary school to help students grasp the commonlanguage of the world To achieve that goal, it is necessary tohave a positive orientation in teaching to help students have asolid foundation as a basis for later higher education and goodcommunication through English

The new English program has been implementednationwide for nearly ten years now The outstandinginnovation of this program's content is to create maximumopportunities for students to practice the four skills of listening,speaking, reading, and writing on topics and situations orcommunication content related to the environment live athome and abroad The above change creates conditions forteaching and learning English in high schools to becometeaching living languages instead of teaching words like manyyears ago However, in practicing English skills for students,teachers have to face many difficulties, especially in practicinglistening skills Through practice at my school, when starting tolearn foreign languages, most students like to study, butgradually students get bored with studying Most of the childrenare very weak in listening skills It is difficult for children tolisten and understand the content of a text or conversation.After each listening lesson, it is very difficult for the teacher tocheck the information that the students have heard andchecking old lessons is often not easy

2.2.2 Teachers

When it comes to listening skills class, the teacher oftenonly lets students practice the listening section in the textbook.Teachers do not look for other listening sources and ways tomake students interested in the lesson They often only playCDs or audio files for them to listen to for short periods of time,and sometimes do not teach them listening techniquessystematically

- Firstly, teachers encounter certain difficulties in implementing

a number of operations and techniques in teaching listening,especially in choosing techniques to suit each lesson and eachstage of the lesson

- Second, there has been the fear of changing the existing

traditional methods among most teachers, especially the oneswho teach in rural, mountainous and remote areas Theyassume that innovation will take time and effort while teachingusing traditional methods is still okay

- Last but not least, in most cases, the school's network system

is unstable (sometimes not), so teachers do not want to exploitonline listening websites for students

To have an accurate view of the current state of teachingand learning listening skills for teachers in the school, Iconducted a survey among 11 English teachers at my school.Below are the results I obtained

No

Methods and techniques used

Level (%)

Always

Sometim

1

Developing effective lesson

plans (with appropriate

2

Creating interest in learning for

students, offer solutions to

support students when

practicing listening (organizing

games)

3 Practicing listening skills 16,7 25,0 58,3

4 Exploiting and providing listening websites for students. 8,3 25,0 66,7

5

Searching for movies and songs

for children to practice listening

(Table 1: The frequency of using methods and techniques in teaching listening skills at Tinh Gia 4 high school)

1 2 3 4 5 0

Note:

1 Developing an effective lesson plan (with appropriate changes).

2 Creating interest in learning for students, offer solutions to support

students when practicing listening (organizing games).

3 Practicing listening skills.

4 Exploiting and providing listening websites for students.

5 Searching for movies and songs for children to practice listening to.

Picture 1: Survey chart on the current status of teaching listening skills of teachers

This shows that teachers are not really determined toinnovate themselves; reformed the education sector and moststill kept the traditional method of teaching listening skills byplaying tapes for students and keeping the tasks in thetextbook intact

2.2.3 Students

- Students are not motivated to practice listening Asmentioned above, the less listening skills are regularlypracticed, the more difficulties they cause students When thestudents don't understand, they often get discouraged, losemotivation and give up Many students have the idea of skipping the listening section to spend more time on other testsections Many children is so worried about listening that theybecome distracted and find it hard to finish the tests

- Students still have many limitations in pronunciation andvocabulary It is undeniable that most high school students andeven teachers do not pronounce correctly The pronunciation ofnative speakers is very different from the way they still speakEnglish, causing them to get "lost" when listening, unable tocatch the right words and keep up with the content of thelesson Besides, vocabulary is also an extremely importantfactor They can pronounce correctly, but when they listen tomany topics, they cannot understand them, because their

vocabulary is still small Some students are lazy to learn newwords, do not grasp the most basic words, so they cannotaccumulate vocabulary Few students try hard to improve theirvocabulary, but have find no effective way to obtain that

- The amount of time that students spent on studyinglistening skills is still small It is a fact in Tinh Gia 4 high schoolthat listening hours are often cut or included in the self-studyprogram, leading to students not having much time to practicelistening in class

To clearly analyze the current situation of teaching andlearning in the listening skills lesson, thereby providing thenecessary evidence for proposing solutions to improve thequality of teaching English 10, I conducted a survey of thecurrent situation Learning listening skills of 10th grade, highschool students After taking votes from 180 grade -10students, I obtained the following results:

2 - Not paying attention to

studying during listening

time

3 - Listening skills lessons are

very boring and difficult to

5 - Do not practice listening

through English websites,

movies, or songs

(Table 2: Students’ answers on how they learn listening skills

at Tinh Gia 4 high school)

As can be seen from Table 2, most students find listening

skills lessons boring Students have difficulty grasping keywords or don't know where to listen for information Most of thestudents think it's because they don't practice listeningtechniques regularly

2.3 SOLUTIONS TO THE RESEARCH ISSUE

2.3.1 Task adjustment and adaption

To build effective lesson plans, teachers need to:

- Carefully study the lesson content in textbooks andteacher's books because it is an important basis for teachers toplan their lessons Careful study of textbooks will help teachersdetermine whether the given lesson tasks are appropriate? Is itguaranteed to be suitable for students? Thereby, there isrefinement and adjustment to suit the objectives of the lesson

- For listening lessons in textbooks, if the tasks areirrelevant, teachers can redesign the learning tasks or findalternative learning materials to ensure the approach to thestructure of the competency assessment test according to the6-level foreign language competency framework

For example: English 10 - Unit 8: New ways to learn – Lesson 5: Listening

[7, p.91]

Picture 2: Listening task 2 – Unit 8: New ways to learn –

Tiếng Anh 10 Global Success

I have changed the Task 2 section from 2 traditionalquestions that students must answer to multiple-choicequestions to suit students and ensure an approach to the

structure of the competency assessment test according to the6-level foreign language competency framework.

Picture 3: Listening task 2 (Adapted )– Unit 8: New ways to

learn Tiếng Anh 10 Global Success- Page 91

2.3.2 Flexible and appropriate use of techniques, aids and tools

To improve the effectiveness of a listening lesson,teachers need to choose and coordinate listening teachingtechniques in a flexible and appropriate way The selection oflistening teaching techniques must be determined on the basis

of the content of the lesson, the characteristics and abilities ofthe class and the stages in the listening teaching process, whichincludes 3 stages: Pre-listening stage ( Pre-Listening), the stagewhile listening (While-Listening), the practice stage afterlistening (Post-Listening) In each stage, there are specificlistening teaching techniques suitable for each stage

- Using teaching aids and tools well for listening lessons (projectors, smart TVs, computers, teaching aids, smart phones,ect …)

+ Before teaching, you need to prepare the equipmentand ensure a stable connection stable, good quality audio files

+ Must ensure safety when operating

+ Consider the necessity, effectiveness, and specific timefor each job

paragraph

+ Have a backup plan in case of technical problems such

as lost connection, power loss

- Making full use of illustrations available in the textbook

One of the strengths of the textbooks compiled according

to the new program is that there are many illustrations Makingthe most of pictures in textbooks to help students understandnew lessons is something that needs to be emphasized in alllessons In addition, teachers can use pictures from outside toprint or display via projector or TV)

- Preparing a reasonable and scientific lesson plan

Teachers need to plan clearly teacher's activities,

student's activities, time for activities, requirements of each exercise, and student answer options

- Having consultations with colleagues.

The effectiveness of the listening lesson will be can be improved if teaching plans are discussed among colleagues before and after teaching, this job not only brings positive

results

for listening lessons and other skills also have the same results

- Careful and detailed guidance to students before, during and after each lesson

+ Build a system of suggestive questions about the lesson you are about to learn To that end, students will have time to think and learn the material

+ Ask students to do some exercises related to the topic ofthe lesson

+ Encourage and motivate students to be confident,

proactive, and creative in expressing ideas, issues and

questions related to the lesson

2.3.3 Using mini-games

Listening skills are always considered the most difficultskills for students, especially weak students Students do notunderstand and cannot grasp information, which leads to notbeing able to solve the lesson tasks Over time, they tend togive up and skipping listening exercises Therefore, teachersneed to create excitement and motivation for students, makingthem not feel pressured when practicing listening skills

Teachers can combine listening practice with games tocreate excitement, motivation and increase students'concentration Mini-games may be the best choice for asuccessful Pre-listening/ Warm-up section Below are somegames I used in my listening lessons

a Simon Says: A classic game that has stood the test of time In Simon Says

one person (the leader) gives commands, and the others must follow only if thecommand begins with “Simon says.” For example, “Simon says touch yourhead” or “Simon says hop on one foot.” This game encourages children to payclose attention to directions and respond accordingly

b Noisy Neighbor: This game involves a feely bag or box containing objects

that make noise The “noisy neighbor” selects an object from the bag and makesthe corresponding noise The other players try to guess what the object is based

on the sound It’s a simple yet effective way to improve listening skills

c Wonky Donkey: Gather children in a circle Choose one child to be the

“wonky donkey” and blindfold them The donkey holds a fake tail (such as asmall black sheet) draped over their shoulder Another child silently stands up,creeps over, and shakes the tail while saying “Wonky Donkey.” The donkeythen guesses who made the sound This game helps develop voice recognitionand spatial awareness

d Telephone: A classic game where children sit in a line or circle The first

child whispers a message to the next, who passes it along The last child says themessage out loud, and everyone compares it to the original It’s a fun way todemonstrate how information can change as it’s passed along

e 20 Questions: In this game, one person thinks of an object, and the others

take turns asking yes-or-no questions to guess what it is It encourages criticalthinking and listening, as players must consider the information they’ve heard toask relevant questions

f Popcorn Storytelling: Players take turns adding to a story The first person

starts with a sentence, and the next person continues the story by incorporatingwhat they just heard This activity promotes active listening and creativity

Picture 4: Playing games at Class 10 B9