INTRODUCTION
Rationale
In Viet Nam, English has been becoming a compulsory subject in schools No one can deny that due to being one of the four major skills in language learning, listening has become an indispensable part of learning English as a foreign language It is a very crucial skill because it is the most frequently utilized in everyday life According to Croom Helm Cross (1998), listening is the most essential part of communication because it has an important role in supplying a meaningful reply Thanks to listening, the language learner can obtain pronunciation, word stress, lexicon, and syntax and the gasp of messages communicated can be dependent solely on voice tone, pitch and accent Similarly, Harmer (2007) stated that listening helps our students pronounce words correctly because it helps them take in the appropriate “pitch and intonation, stress, and sounds” of both single words and ones which join together in connected speech when they hear and comprehend the spoken English texts Gilakjani and Ahmadi (2011) concluded that listening plays an integral role in people’s lives Learning listening will permit us to considerably enhance our communication ability If people wish to communicate accurately and meaningfully, it is necessary for them to frequently and consistently hear various English forms It means that it is impossible for people to learn a language without hearing, for listening supply language input
Not only does listening have a crucial role in daily life but it has great potential for learning activities in the classroom Rost (1994) stated that in the language classroom, listening is significant as it provides the learner with input Learning cannot start without the precise comprehension of input Likewise, according to Wallaceet al (2004), listening skills have a significant impact on learning purposes because students can get information and obtain insights This is in line with Harmer’s (2007) statement that listening could be useful for students to have successful communication The students are required to improve basic language knowledge on their own, such as “vocabulary, structure, pronunciation, phonology, and other language items” in order to gain good listening comprehension in English However, according to Lu (2008) (cited in Dang et al., 2021), most students perceived that the listening skill is probably the most important but the most difficult one to study He also stated that listening comprehension is hampered by many factors
It can be concluded that listening is an integral part of learning English, but it is a difficult skill for students Therefore, a number of research papers related to students’ perceptions of listening difficulties in learning English listening skills have been conducted in many countries (Anadapong, 2011; Juan & Abidin, 2013; Duong and Chau, 2019; Diora & Rosa, 2020; Tran & Duong, 2020; Nadhira & Warn, 2020; Hardiyanto et al., 2021) Nevertheless, the studies concerning students’ perceptions of learning English listening skills have been limited Nguyen and Thai (2018) concluded that the majority of students have a positive awareness of listening skill development Listening comprehension issues faced by the first year English-major students include speakers’ various accents, pronunciation, speed of speech, inadequate vocabulary, dearth of concentration, worry, and poor quality of the recording
Similarly, according to Lestari et al (2019), the importance of English listening skill is realized by most of the students, but they assume that they are the weakest at the listening skill The authors also add that there are many problems students face in learning English listening skills These problems include accent, pronunciation, fast rate of speech, restricted vocabulary, sophisticated grammatical structures, prior knowledge, poor concentration, low recording quality, noise and length of oral texts In addition, in Rullu's study (2022), most of the students think that listening is more challenging than other skills They also emphasize that their major problems are repetitious activities, long material, anxiety, lack of concentration, bad quality of recording tapes, unknown words, noisy surrounding, texts with fast speed, unclear pronunciation, and dearth of vocabulary
In Vietnam, the 2022-2023 school year is the first time of implementing MoET’s 2018 General Curriculum for the tenth graders It is required that the new course books’ level of English proficiency for high school students be level B1 (level 3 in Common European Framework of Reference) It is obvious that there is a lack of investigation into perceptions of learning English listening skills of tenth graders who have just finished the grade ten
2018 General Curriculum Besides, being one of the English teachers at Tran Hung Dao high school, I recognize that the majority of students are weak at listening and learning listening skills is often ignored and not focused on I desire to help students at my school pay much attention to and improve their English listening skills
For those reasons, with a view to investigating how grade 10 students perceive learning English listening skills at Tran Hung Dao high school, I am so inspired to choose the topic “Tran Hung Dao High School students’ perceptions of learning English listening skills” for my MA thesis.
Aim and Objectives
This study aims to identify Tran Hung Dao high school grade 10 students’ perceptions of learning English listening skills
To achieve the aim, three specific objectives are identified:
(1) To identify what grade 10 students think about the importance of listening skills
(2) To explore what problems grade 10 students have when they learn listening skills
(3) To find out what means grade 10 students use to practice listening skills.
Research Questions
Based on the aim and the objectives of the research, the following questions are expected to be answered:
(1) What do grade 10 students think about the importance of listening skills?
(2) What problems do grade 10 students face when they learn listening skills?
(3) What means do grade 10 students use to practice listening skills?
Scope of the Study
As stated above, the study was restricted to the area of exploring students’ perceptions of learning English listening skills through the descriptive study with two main instruments including a closed-ended questionnaire and a semi-structured interview Specifically, the researcher identified students’ perceptions of listening skills’ importance, some listening difficulties they might face and the means they might use to practise their listening skills Due to the constraints of resources and time, the study limited its scope to the participation of 200 grade 10 students at Tran Hung Dao high school Therefore, the study limits itself to the teaching and learning of English listening, not for all students of Tran Hung Dao high school The justification for choosing participants is that they finished the grade ten 2018 General Curriculum Therefore, they well perceived some requirements of new course books’ level of English proficiency for high school students as well as listening challenges.
Significance of the Study
Students' perceptions of learning English listening skills are the focus of this study From an educational perspective, the study is significant for both theoretical and practical reasons
In terms of theory, the study contributes to the methods, techniques and activities of teaching listening
In terms of practice, the findings of this study may benefit English teachers, students, and researchers As for the teachers, the findings of the study can raise teachers’ awareness of how their students perceive learning English listening skills As a consequence, they will endeavor to implement listening lessons in an effective way in order that their students can improve their listening performance This study can also be used as a reference, not only by English teachers at Tran Hung Dao high school but also by teachers who want to know how students perceive learning listening skills and improve students’ listening skills For students, this study hopes to help them realize the importance of listening skills, some listening problems and methods of practising listening skills Finally, with regard to the researchers, the findings could be used as a database for further study.
Organization of the Study
The research is presented in five chapters: Introduction, Literature Review, Research Methodology, Findings and Discussion and Conclusion and Implications
Chapter 1, Introduction, presents the rationale, the aim and objectives, the scope, the research questions, the scope, the significance and the structure of the study
Chapter 2, Literature Review, defines major related concepts and briefly reviews the related studies It provides a theoretical background for the study
Chapter 3, Research Methodology, introduces the research design, research setting, participants, research instruments, data collection, data analysis and data’s reliability and validity
Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion, describes the analysis of data in detail and presents the findings as well as a thorough discussion of the findings of the study
Chapter 5, Conclusion and Implications, summarizes the main findings, draws some implications, indicates the limitations of the study as well as offers suggestions for further research.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Perception and its Importance in Teaching and Learning
In recent years, a variety of studies on students’ perceptions of the teaching and learning process have been carried out because thanks to the understanding of students' perceptions, teachers can evaluate teaching and learning approaches Therefore, perception has been defined in various ways Perception is defined as “the way you notice things, especially with the senses” Following, it is “the ability to understand the true nature of something” and it is “an idea, a belief or an image you have as a result of how you see or understand something” (Oxford Students’ Dictionary of English, 2010) According to Glinow and McShane (2010), perception is defined as the process of gaining information about and understanding the real world As our senses receive environmental stimuli, perception starts In the same vein, Wardet al (2015, p 74) stated that “perception is the process by which we interpret the world around us, forming a mental representation of the environment.” The authors also show that this concept handles the five human senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste)
Besides, according to Irwanto (2002) (cited in Fadillah, 2019), there are two types of perceptions: positive and negative perceptions Positive perception is one that describes all information and reactions that go on trying to be used This will be repeated by actuating, accepting, and backing the object of perception Negative perception is one that describes all information and reactions opposed to the perceived object McDowell and Newell (1996) (cited in Putri & Tanau, 2018) concluded that there are two perception aspects: cognition aspects and affective aspects Aspects of cognition are aspects involving ways of thinking, recognizing, and interpreting a stimulus received by the five senses, experience or that has been seen in daily life The affective aspects are aspects creating cognitive aspects This affective aspect consists of the way a person feels and shows emotions towards a stimulus based on the values in them which then have an influence on their perception According to Sidhu (2003), students' perceptions are students' opinions about things that happen during the learning process and give ideas or disagreements to teachers or classmates to improve their learning process
From the above definitions, it can be concluded that in order to grasp one’s behavior, one needs to comprehend their perceptions
2.1.2 Importance of Perception in Teaching and Learning
According to Danim (2010) (cited in Hrahap & Suryaman, 2022), the major and most useful resource in teaching and learning activities is the student He also concludes that “students can learn from teachers, while teachers cannot teach without students” and every learning process always starts with perception which the whole learning process is always centered on
The process by which students treat information they learn from an object with preference is known as “students’ perception” Students can form an opinion on an object by observing it with their senses Besides, according to Mitchell and Myles (1998), learners are viewed as “active constructors” of their own learning environment according to a sociocultural perspective on language learning, so they are reliable and take responsibility for their own learning environment
In addition, Williams and Burden (1997) stated that teachers must be conscious of what they think about learning and teaching so that they can make wise decisions in their daily teaching There is no doubt that even if students are the target of the teaching activities, teachers' perceptions have an impact on how they set up their classrooms Therefore, students and teachers can support one another and join hands to create the learning and teaching environment
It can be concluded that perception data show how people perceive the learning environment, so they are crucial for planning continual improvement in teaching and learning.
Overview of Listening
There are a wide range of definitions for the term “listening” Listening is described as a process of receiving what is heard and analysing in into verbal units where meaning is then applied (Gross, 1982) According to Bowen et al (1985), listening is understanding the oral language Students hear spoken speech, categorize sounds into lexical and syntactic items, and grasp the information Listening is defined as a complicated process of clarification in which listeners connect what they hear with what they already know (Rost, 2002) Rost (2009) (cited in Saraswaty, 2018) also concluded that thanks to listening, we can grasp the world and listening is one of the vital factors in establishing successful communication In the same vein, Hamouda (2013) stated that listening is the ability to recognize and comprehend what other people are saying This process involves understanding a speaker's accent or pronunciation, the speaker’s grammar and lexicon, and grasp of meaning Besides, Steinberg (2007) (cited in Darti & Asmawati, 2017, p 214) stated listening process as one person’s ability to understand another through senses, aural organs, to interpret a meaning of the message and to grasp it Some important features of listening consist of imitating the sounds, understanding intonation and stress, duplicating verbosity and noise, forecasting, knowing informal vocabulary, tiredness, recognizing various accents, using “visual and environmental clues”
As for listening in EFL, according to Spratt et al (2011, pp 43-44), listening is “a receptive skill as it involves responding to language rather than producing it” Understanding “the meaning sounds of spoken language” is a key component of listening and there are a variety of text types in spoken language such as dialogues, narratives, announcements, songs, guidelines, lectures and advertisements Therefore, listening requires much more than just comprehending the “grammar, vocabulary, and functions of what we hear” They conclude that handling spoken language characteristics, making use of context and world knowledge, grasping different text types, recognizing various speech rates and accents, understanding connected speech (sentence stress, linking sounds and words, and the use of contracted forms), and employing the proper listening subskills (listen for gist/global understanding, specific information, detail, or to infer attitude) are entailed in listening
Listening comprehension has been defined by a number of researchers Rost (2002) (cited in Tran & Duong, 2020) and Hamouda (2013) stated that listening comprehension is a sophisticated interactive process in which listeners get involved in assigning meaning Listeners grasp the spoken input via sound recognition, previous lexical knowledge, grammatical structures, stress and intonation, and the other linguistic or non-linguistic cues Similarly, Vandergrift (1999) (cited in Tran & Duong, 2020) viewed listening comprehension as an intricate interactive process in which all components such as sounds, intonation, linguistic structures, and social structural contexts must be concentrated on by listeners In addition, according to Holden (2004) (cited in Tran & Duong, 2020), listening comprehension is defined as a sophisticated activity that needs mental effort to make sure of grasp Moreover, the author argued that listeners create what they have understood after listening passively On the other hand, according to Thomson (2003), and Helgesen and Brown (2007), the listeners are actively concentrating in the process of listening comprehension, not passively
On this point, Nadig (2013) defined listening comprehension as the various processes of grasp of oral languages These processes include recognizing speech sounds, understanding the meaning of single words, and knowing the syntax of sentences Jinhong (2011) (cited in Tran & Duong,
2020, p 79) indicated that listening comprehension is both “a process- oriented activity” in which listeners have to handle “the input actively” gradually and “a creative activity” that thanks to the given message or their experience and prior knowledge, listeners assign meanings
From the above definitions, it can be concluded that listening comprehension is a complicated process in which in order to grasp what others are saying, students have to use not only their linguistic knowledge (i.e., lexical items, sounds, and grammar) but also background knowledge
2.2.3 Importance of Listening Skills in Language Learning
Listening is important to language learning Scarcella and Oxford (1992) (cited in Dang et al., 2021) concluded that learners often use listening the most during language learning
According to Nunan (1998, p.1), most people think that knowing a second language means that you can write and speak in that language; however, it is impossible for them to have efficient communication without effective listening skills Therefore, “listening is the fundamental skill in language learning and over 50% of the time spent functioning in a foreign language by students will be dedicated to listening” Besides, Peterson (2001, p.87) stated that spoken language, received via listening, is the easiest type of language “Through listening, learners can build an awareness of the interworkings of language systems at various levels and thus establish a base for more fluent productive skills” The significance of listening and speaking skills is the same as if two skills are not developed together, people cannot communicate directly (Anderson & Lynch, 2003)
The significance of listening in the language classroom is clarified by Rost (1994, pp 141-142) Firstly, listening gives the student input, so it is essential in language classes No learning simply can start without the appropriate input Secondly, spoken language offers students “a means of interaction”, which helps them gain understanding Therefore, access to language speakers is crucial In addition, interaction and learning are facilitated, not hindered, by students' failure to comprehend the spoken language The next importance of listening is that authentic spoken language poses a challenge for the learner to understand language as it is truly used by native speakers Last but not least, the teacher may use listening exercises to help students focus on new language features such as vocabulary, grammar, and interaction patterns
Spoken language provides students with a means of communication because comprehension requires interaction between students Having access to language speakers is very important
In summary, listening skills play an integral part in the language learning process It provides the students with information from which they can acquire the essential knowledge for using the language As a result, listening is a fundamental language skill that helps students develop the other language skills.
Teachers’ Roles in Listening Activities
Gilakjani and Sabouri (2016, p 1673) stated that “teachers have a major responsibility in their classes and they can have a great effect on their students to create friendly atmosphere” Harmer (2007, p 307) reported that there are four main roles of teachers in extensive listening
First, the teacher is an organizer It is essential for the teacher to give students listening objectives and provide them with guidance on how to accomplish goals Besides, increasing students’ confidence by giving them achievable tasks and understandable texts will be one of the teacher’s main responsibilities
Second, the teacher is a “machine operator” Before bringing the recording into class, the teacher should try it out in order to avoid losing time in attempting to make the appropriate decisions or get things to function For specific exercises and questions, the teacher should decide where to pause the recording However, in class, he/she should be ready to adjust to the demands of the students If the teacher asks students to participate in live listening, he/she must carefully monitor their comprehension of what he/she is saying After that, the teacher can adapt to speak in a more appropriate manner
Third, the teacher is a “feedback organiser” To ensure that students have succeeded in doing the task, a feedback period needs to be given by the teacher To begin with, the teacher may ask students to exchange their answers in pairs, which is often preferred by students because by “sharing their knowledge”, they also take “responsibility for the answers” Then, the teacher may get answers from the class as a whole or specific pairs In addition, if the teacher wants to prevent any bad expectations of students and keep them motivated, he/she should be encouraging while giving feedback following listening
Lastly, the teacher is a “prompter” After having listened to a text for understanding, students can be required to listen again so that they pay attention to a range of language and spoken characteristics Moreover, in order to encourage their awareness of particular linguistic elements, the teacher may occasionally provide them with script dictations in which some words in a transcript are missing.
Principles for Teaching Listening Skills
There are seven general principles for teaching listening skills stated by Forseth et al (1996) and Harmer (1998)
First, it is critical for using real texts such as texts from radio broadcasts or interviews and presenting them as naturally and realistically as possible because authentic texts accommodate background noise and interruptions, which are common, use a variety of voice types and accents, and eliminate words not relevant to the context
Second, it is essential that teachers include different types of texts including conversations, humor, lectures, news broadcasts, songs or stories
Third, meaning-based tasks should be often employed by teachers In addition to hearing sounds, listeners also need to comprehend meaning
Fourth, teachers ought to specify a goal of listening tasks The task should be designed to practice one or more different subskills If students are skimming to find the key point, they may overlook some specific information
If they are scanning to find specific pieces of information, they may fail to hear the main idea Teachers need to inform the students of the task’s purpose before it is started
The next principle is that before giving a listening task, it is important for teachers to introduce it by asking questions, introducing one or two key words, having a short discussion about the topic, or prompting the students to share their personal experiences Teachers should give the listeners the topic or the setting of the text whenever presenting a listening text All of these will aid students to concentrate
Another principle is that pre-teaching vocabulary should be avoided, which will let students guess the meaning from context In actual life, vocabulary word lists are not previewed It is important for students to practice comprehending texts without fully understanding all the words Only vocabulary words that are essential for comprehending the main idea ought to be taught in advance
Finally, it is recommended that teachers allow students to listen to the text more than once Normally, when hearing something for the first time, the listeners will not fully understand it However, students will fully comprehend the text if it is repeated, each time with a different focus
2.5 Factors Affecting EFL Students’ Learning English Listening Skills
Listening is of great importance to language learning Indeed, it will not be possible to have effective communication unless you can listen well According to Kurita (2012), although listening comprehension is regarded as the heart of language learning, it is the most challenging skill to learn Consequently, it is vital to explore factors that create difficulties for students’ learning English listening skills
Boyle (1984) (cited in Yildiz, 2015) concluded the listener is among the factors that affect listening comprehension Listeners’ good background knowledge such as grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation makes a positive contribution to their understanding of the input Moreover, learners’ motivation and memory have an influence on their listening skills
Underwood (1989) (cited in Dang et al., 2021) stated that listeners’ lack of the lexicon is one of the difficulties in learning English listening skills Due to the dearth of vocabulary, learners have an intention of thinking about the meaning of words instead of paying attention to the content of the speech Limited contextual knowledge is a hindrance to learners’ grasping the meaning of the listening input Besides, listeners’ attempt to understand all the words leads to neglecting the next part of the listening text
According to Yagang (1994) (cited in Dang et al., 2021, p 166), the listener is one of the causes of students’ difficulties in learning English listening skills He also shared Underwood’s (1989) idea that because language is used as a tool to show its culture, “lack of social cultural, factual, and contextual knowledge of the target language” can become an impediment to grasp of the text In the same vein, Walker (2014) their low listening achievement students' limited cultural background knowledge of the foreign language may cause their low listening achievement
Rubin (1994) (cited in Nguyen, 2018, p 291) concluded that “some listener characteristics such as language proficiency level, memory, attention, affect, age, gender, learning disability in L1, and background knowledge” are one of the reasons for learners’ inability to learn L2 listening skills, whereas Teng (2002) suggested that learners’ insufficient linguistics knowledge is the major problem of leaning English listening skills, which resembles Boyle’s (1984) description Moreover, Elkhafaifi (2005) (cited in Brunfaut & Révész, 2015) and Golchi (2012) stressed the effect of listeners’ anxiety on listening comprehension They investigated the relationship between listening worry and listening comprehension and concluded that listening nervousness has a negative impact on students’ listening performance
Like Underwood’s (1989) report, Abbas and Mohammad (2011), and Trinh (2020) stated that the common problem of learning English listening skills is learners’ inadequate vocabularies It is sure that students are not able to identify a word unless they do not know that word Furthermore, that learners pronounce words incorrectly leads to not being able to identify the sounds and misunderstanding the content as they listen to The author reported that the habit of trying to listen to every word and comprehend all unknown words results in the failure of listening comprehension This habit also prevents learners from focusing on the clues that help them forecast the topic of the text However, Trinh (2020) added that students’ listening comprehension failure may come from their limited short-term memory Indeed, the limitation of short-term memory enables students not to note down information as fast as possible; therefore, the next ideas will be missed This description is similar to Goh’s (2000) (cited in Nguyen, 2018, p 291) idea that the most prevalent issue is “quickly forget what is heard” With reference to the listener factor, a study done by Diora and Rosa (2020) revealed that it is listeners’ anxiety, inference of the meaning of strange words, lack of concentration, understanding of “every single word of incoming speech” and low remembering ability that prevent students from achieving listening success
In Vietnam, students’ listening comprehension problems related to listeners have been identified by some researchers For instance, Nguyen and Thai (2018) confirmed that listeners’ psychology, dearth of concentration and practice are among the principal factors in listening failure In addition, the finding of the study conducted by Bui (2019) (cited in Nguyen & Luu, 2021) revealed that it is students’ lack of practicing listening skills and dearth of exposure to various types of listening texts that hinder them from listening success, which is the same as Anadapong’s (2011) investigation
Boyle (1984) (cited in Yildiz, 2015) concluded that lexis and grammar level of the listening texts have a huge impact on listening comprehension They also stated that the familiarity of listening topics is important to learners’ learning listening skills and if listening topics are familiar to learners, they will show a lot of interest and have better performance
Underwood (1989) (cited in Dang et al., 2021, p 167), and Brunfaut and Révész (2015) came to the same conclusion that fast speed of texts influences listening comprehension negatively Underwood (1989) concluded that “the greatest difficulty with listening comprehension for many English language learners is they cannot control how quickly a speaker speaks”
Related Studies on Students’ Perceptions of Learning English
Knowing learners’ perceptions is very important to teachers Thanks to learners’ perceptions, teachers explore strengths and limitations of teaching methods, teaching material or teaching strategies so that they have appropriate adjustments As a result, the quality of teaching and learning will be enhanced As a matter of fact, some studies related to students’ perceptions of learning English listening skills have been investigated in recent years Surprisingly, the following research papers took place in different contexts; however, their results were nearly the same
A study on identifying students’ listening comprehension problems was conducted by Hamouda (2013) The participants were 60 first year English major students Data collected from a questionnaire and interviews revealed that most of the learners have strong awareness of the crucial role of listening skill and listening is considered as the weakest skill He also stated that the participants encounter the main listening comprehension problems such as accent, pronunciation, speed of speech, unfamiliar vocabulary, complex grammar, strange topic, long spoken texts, dearth of concentration, worry, bad memory, and low recording quality In respect of means of improving listening comprehension, many students enhance their listening ability by listening to teachers and classmates speaking English in class, watching British or American television channels and using voice chat on the internet communicating with their friends
Similarly, Maulidyah (2015) also conducted a study to investigate the fifth semester students’ problems in listening comprehension Data collected from the questionnaire revealed that most students are conscious of the value of English listening skills Besides, he concluded that the fifth semester students encounter a variety of problems related to listening comprehension The ten most prevalent problems are concentration lapse with noises around and the poor recording, unclear sounds from the classrooms’ inadequate acoustics, poor-quality CD player or poor equipment, inability to comprehend spoken texts with fast speed and many strange words, difficulty grasping the meaning of words without clear pronunciation, difficulty comprehending the listening text if key words are not taught beforehand
In investigating students’ perceptions toward listening comprehension, Rahayu and Apriyanti (2017) implemented descriptive quantitative research design The first graders of English Education Program were asked to fill out a Likert Scale questionnaire and answer the interview questions In terms of self-evaluation of listening ability, the study showed that most of the students have the average listening performance and of all the language skills, they are the worst at listening Besides, students find it hard and boring to learn this skill They also think that their boredom and listening inability are derived from “listening materials, linguistics features, failure to concentrate, psychological factors, listener, speaker, physical setting, and repetitious techniques in teaching listening” Related to the importance of listening, many students have a deep awareness that listening plays a crucial role in language learning Lastly, the results showed that the majority of the respondents were told about listening strategies, but lacked training in doing listening tasks before going to college
Lestari et al (2019) undertook a cross-sectional survey to explore students’ perceptions of listening comprehension difficulties and the use of Top-down listening strategy in listening class The study involved 168 ninth- grade students in the year 2018-2019, who completed a Likert-scale questionnaire The results of the study revealed that the importance of English listening skills is realized by most of the students, but they assert that among the language skills, they have the lowest level of listening The authors also added that accent, pronunciation, fast rate of speech, restricted vocabulary, sophisticated grammatical structures, prior knowledge, poor concentration, low recording quality, noise and length of oral texts are main problems students confront in English listening learning procedure The data from the questionnaire also demonstrated that “Top-down listening strategy” is only applied by a few ninth-grade students Lastly, the researchers suggested that teaching techniques such as pre-teaching new and odd lexis, designing warming-up activities and choosing suitable listening texts ought to be deployed so that teachers can help students improve their listening skills
Alzamil (2021) conducted a study to find out whether they have difficulties in learning English listening skills The research was conducted with 87 female university students To collect data, an online five-point Likert scale questionnaire and closed-ended questions were used From collected data, he concluded that speaking and listening are recognized as the most critical skills by the majority of the respondents, but they rank listening as the most demanding one The results also disclosed that some problems exerting considerable influences on students’ English listening ability are pronunciation, speed, unfamiliar topics, nervousness, and insufficient vocabulary Nonetheless, participants assert that it is indispensable for further practice after school to better their listening skills
A descriptive qualitative study undertaken by Rullu (2022) examined Senior High School students’ perceptions towards learning English listening Interviews, which the author used a cell phone to record, were used to collect data Based on the data, he reached the conclusion that most of the students at Senior High School suppose that listening is harder than speaking, reading, and writing They also confirm that they encounter major problems of listening comprehension such as repetitious activities, long material, anxiety, lack of concentration, bad quality of recording tapes, and unknown words, noisy surrounding, high speed of text delivery, unclear pronunciation, and dearth of vocabulary
In Vietnam, Doan (2018) carried out a study on investigating erceptions of learning English listening comprehension The study involved
193 non-English majors who responded to the reasearch questionnaire The survey findings showed that most of the students attend English classes for the following two reasons The first one is that English is a mandatory subject and the second one is that it is vital for their future job Besides, they are much aware of the significance of listening comprehension and recognize that of all the language skills, listening is the most difficult one However, in terms of listening practice, they admit that the frequency of their English listening practice outside the classroom is very low Lastly, the study revealed that the principal factors such as natural speed of spoken texts, deficient vocabulary knowledge and dearth of efficient listening strategies hinder the participants’ listening success
Another study on exploring students’ perceptions toward listening comprehension and listening problems was done by Nguyen and Thai (2018) The participants of the study were 115 first year English-major students at some universities Data collection instruments consisted of questionnaires, interviews, and observations They concluded that the majority of students are highly conscious of the significance of listening skill development The study showed that listening comprehension problems experienced by the first year English-major students include speakers’ various accents, pronunciation, speed of speech, strange vocabulary, difficult grammatical structures, the text length, dearth of concentration, worry, and poor quality of the recording
Likewise, in order to investigate listening comprehension problems perceived by first year English major students, Nguyen (2018) carried out a study with the paricipation of 150 English major students To collect data, the author used questionnaires and focus-group interviews The findings of the study showed that large number of the respondents percieve the powerful role of listening in learning English She also reported that listening obstables students encounter came from listening material, linguistic features, the speaker, the listener, concentration failure and physical setting
To sum up, regarding previous related studies and available literature in the field of learning and teaching English listening skills, students’ perceptions of learning English listening skills are taken into adequate consideration However, so far there has been no study on investigation into perceptions of learning English listening skills of tenth graders at high schools in Gia Lai province who have just finished the grade ten 2018 General Curriculum Filling in this gap is vital because it can make a positive contribution to enhancing teaching and learning listening skills Hence, the requirements of the 2018 General Curriculum will be fulfilled.
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
In this research, a mixed-method approach was used Quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed to answer the research questions Fraenkel et al (2012, p 415) stated that qualitative research favors “detailed information, often in narrative form, frequently obtained through the analysis of written communications and “qualitative data are collected in the form of words or pictures rather than numbers” On the other hand, they confirmed that quantitative research prefers “numerical data and statistical analysis” Therefore, Thus, combining quantitative research and qualitative research in this study is useful to have a thorough understanding of Tran Hung Dao high school students’ perceptions of learning English listening skills In this study, the quantitative data were collected by using a closed-ended questionnaire, while the qualitative data were gathered by using semi-structured interviews.
Research Setting and Participants
This study was conducted at Tran Hung Dao high school in Gia Lai, a province in Central Highland of Vietnam The total number of tenth graders in the school year 2022 – 2023 is 426 students Its student population is composed of Kinh and some ethnic minorities such as Bahnar, Nung, Tay and Muong The proportion of ethnic minorities (mainly Bahnar) accounts for about 18% of the number of students Because the school is located in a mountainous area, the conditions for learning foreign languages, especially English are limited The number of students keen on learning English is low
The teachers of English in this school use the new course book assigned by the 2018 General Curriculum Students at grade 10 receive three 45-minute classes of English every week The curriculum for grade 10 takes 105 forty- five-minute periods Eighty-one 45-minute periods are allotted to teaching and twenty-four 45-minute periods are allotted to reviews, tests and test corrections Besides, the coursebook for grade 10 consists of 10 units and 4 reviews Each unit comprises 8 lessons: Getting Started, Language (Vocabulary, Pronunciation, Grammar), Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, Communication & Culture/CLIL, and Looking Back & Project Each lesson is instructed in one 45-minute period Three 45-minute periods are allocated for each review It can be seen that each unit has a 45-minute listening lesson, so students will totally study 10 listening lessons during a school year
About the teachers, there are six female English teachers at Tran Hung Dao High School All the teachers have a Bachelor’s degree The number of years they have spent teaching English ranges from 6 to over 17 years All the teachers have extensive expertise in teaching English to high school students and they also claim that high school students are facing with many problems when they learn listening skills
The participants in this study were grade 10 students who finished the grade ten 2018 General Curriculum The study involved 200 students from nine classes There were both females and males (including Kinh and ethnic minority students) selected randomly The participants have been learning English as their main subject at school Table 3.1 provides a summary of participants’ background characteristics
Summary of Participants’ Background Characteristics
As shown in Table 3.1, there were 113 females and 87 males joining the study, making up 56.5% and 43.5%, respectively Particularly, 172 of students (86.5%) are Kinh students; 23 of them (11.5%) are Banah ones; 5 students (2.5%) are from other ethnic groups (Jrai, Nung, Tay or Thai) In reference to years of learning English, only 10 students (5.0%) have been studying English for 5 years, while most of them (95.0%) have been learning English for 6 years or more As for their self-rating of English listening ability, there were 62 participants (31%) assessing themselves as poor listeners, 109 of them rating themselves as average listeners, accounting for 54.5%, 27 of them (13.5%) self-evaluating their listening ability as being at the good level and only 2 students, with 1.0%, admitting that they were very good at English listening.
Research Instruments
This study employed a mixed-method research designinvolving the use of both quantitative and qualitative methods The quantitative and qualitative data were collected by using a closed-ended questionnaire and semi- structured interviews The questionnaire and interview questions were in both Vietnamese and English so that they did not have any language difficulties in responding to the questionnaire and interview
The questionnaire in this study was used with the aim of collecting the students’ background information and exploring their perceptions toward learning English listening skills in reference to perceptions of the role of listening skills, listening problems and means used to practice listening skills
The first part of the questionnaire was about general information of the participants such as their sex, ethnic group, their time for studying English and their general self-rating to listening proficiency The second part that was about students’ perceptions toward learning English listening skills was based on a five-point Likert scale ranging from one “strongly disagree” to five
“strongly agree” It means that answers ranging from 1 to 2 correspond to disagreement levels, those ranging from 4 to 5 correspond to agreement levels, and 3 refers to the neutral level The questionnaire was adapted from Lotfi (2012), Hamouda (2013) and Maulidyah (2015) It had 26 items created according to the three categories
The first cluster consisting of five items is about students’ perception of the importance of listening skills The second cluster, including ten items, is about students’ problems related to listening material and teachers’ teaching method The third cluster, comprising five items, is about students’ problems related to listeners The last cluster, encompassing six items, is about the means students use to practice listening skills (Appendixes 1, 2)
The semi-structured interview was carried out with a view to acquiring a comprehensive understanding about students’ perceptions of learning English listening skills It had eight questions The researcher randomly interviewed 10 grade 10 students The first four questions were used to gather more data for the first research question supporting findings from the questionnaire about the importance of listening from students’ view The next three questions were utilized to further clarify the second research question about students’ listening problems and the final question sought to explicitly address the third research question about students’ ways to enhance their listening skills (Appendixes 3, 4).
Data Collection
Data for the research were gathered via using a questionnaire and semi- structured interviews The details of the data collection procedure for each instrument are described as follows
The first instrument to be utilized is the questionnaire The questionnaire was distributed to 200 grade 10 students in person after the questionnaire had been piloted It was carried out by developing the adapted questionnaires, and those were submitted to get valuable comments from experienced teachers and the supervisor After making sure that the questionnaire was appropriate, the researcher directly distributed the questionnaire to 200 grade 10 students during their break time or class meeting periods The students were expected to pay attention to answering all the items It took them about 10 to 15 minutes to complete the questionnaire Because there were some participants who are Bahnar, the researcher was present in the class so as to clarify the students’ questions or requests
The second instrument is a semi-structured interview Ten participants attended a semi-structured interview with the researcher The participants were coded from ST1 to ST10 to serve as the data for description The author used a mobile phone to record conversations and ensured that data collected from interviews were only used for research purposes and would be kept confidential A semi-structured interview provided the researcher with in- depth information related to the research questions.
Data Analysis
For data analysis, the software SPSS was used to analyze the quantitative data of the questionnaire Descriptive Statistics was used to determine the mean scores of the students’ perception of learning English listening skills The interval mean scores were interpreted as: 1-1.80: strongly disagree; 1.81-2.60: disagree; 2.61-3.40: neutral; 3.41-4.20: agree; and 4.21-5.00: strongly agree (A sample answer – Appendix 5)
In addition, the qualitative data of the semi-structured interviews were analyzed by content analysis within the following steps First, the data from interviews were transcribed into transcription Second, the transcripts were read many times and categorized into different groups Next, the data having similar ideas will be put into large categories The final step is to draw a conclusion from the data presented based on the research questions
(Transcription of the interviews - Appendix 6).
Reliability and Validity
As described above, the researcher used the questionnaire and semi- structured interviews to collect the data for the research With the help of Statistical Package for Social Science (IBM SPSS; Version 26) program, Scale Tests were run to check the reliability of the questionnaire Table 3.2 displays the result of the Scale Reliability Statistics of the questionnaire
Reliability Statistics of the Questionnaire
It can be seen that the reliability of the questionnaire was acceptable (α=0.778) Accordingly, this questionnaire was reliable enough to be used as instruments in this research
In terms of validity, the questionnaire and semi-structured interview were mainly adapted from Lotfi (2012), Hamouda (2013) and Maulidyah (2015), which were utilized as a research instrument in a number of studies related to learning listening English skills, so its validity was ensured.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Students’ Perceptions of The importance of Listening Skills
In an effort to address the first research question “What do grade 10 students think about the importance of listening skills?”, this section reports the findings from the questionnaire, which consists of 5 questions concerning students’ perception of the importance of listening skills as well as from semi- structured interviews The questionnaire was in the form of a five-point Likert scale, ranging from one “strongly disagree” to five “strongly agree” Hence, the higher the mean score obtained, the more agreement with the statement the participants had Besides, to further clarify this research question, 10 participants were invited to respond to four questions
Students’ perceptions of the importance of listening skills are shown in Table 4.1
Students’ Perceptions of Importance of Listening Skills
1 I am aware of the importance of
2 I find that listening comprehension is difficult, but essential
3 I find that listening comprehension is exciting
4 It is important that teachers provide me with sufficient training in English listening comprehension during class
5 It is important that students should be taught listening strategies
As can be seen from Table 4.1, the overall mean score of participants’ perspectives about the importance of listening skills was variable It was valued from 3.36 to 4.16 4 out of 5 items had high mean scores (M>3.82), which indicated that the majority of participants agreed with the given statements In particular, in terms of the importance, the findings showed that most participants were aware of the importance of English listening skills (M=4.10; SD=.882) In respect of the difficulty, many students agreed that listening comprehension was challenging (M=3.82; SD=.829) However, when asked about the appeal of listening comprehension, many students were not sure whether listening was interesting or not (M=3.36; SD=.913) This item had the lowest mean score compared to the others Besides, in response to questions on the importance of teachers’ listening teaching methods, most of the students concurred that it was essential that teachers provide them with sufficient training in English listening comprehension during school and teach them listening strategies Specifically, items 4 and 5 had high scales with mean scores of 4.11 and 4.16 respectively
To have a deeper understanding of students’ perceptions of the importance of listening skills, the detailed descriptions help to find out the result for the research question
To begin with, the students’ awareness of the significance of listening skills is illustrated in Table 4.2
Detailed Description of Importance of Listening Skills
Table 4.2 gives information about participants’ awareness of the significance of listening skills Although most of the students (82.0%) were aware of the importance of listening skills, 8.0% did not appreciate the vital role of listening skills 20 participants (10%) showed their uncertainty about it
This finding was supported by answers from the interviews where 10 participants expressed that listening skills were crucial For example, ST1, ST3, ST5, ST6, ST8, ST9 and ST10 stated that listening was very important ST6 added “English listening skills help me learn many valuable things and develop my communication skills Besides, it is listening to English songs that makes me relax after school” This finding is similar to other previous studies
(Hamouda, 2013; Rahayu & Apriyanti, 2017; Doan, 2018; Nguyen & Thai,
2018, Nguyen, 2018; Lestari et al., 2019; Alzamil, 2021), which revealed that a large number of the respondents acknowledged the critical role of English listening skills In spite of the fact that the setting and participants of this study were different from those of the previous studies, perception towards the importance of listening skills was significantly similar This might explain the fact that listening is an important skill in English learning in general
As for the difficulty of listening skills, the issue was presented in the next item with the mean is 3.82, which means that the majority of the students agreed with the statement It is described in Table 4.3
Detailed Description of Difficulty of Listening Skills
Table 4.3 shows that 13 out of 200 students disagreed that listening comprehension was challenging, which accounted for 6.5% However, over three-thirds of the students (68.5%) agreed with this idea The number of unsure ideas represented 25% In an attempt to clarify this result, 8 out of 10 participants taking part in the interviews confirmed that listening was difficult for them For instance, ST1, ST2, ST3, ST4, ST5, ST7, ST8 and ST9 reported that they had many difficulties in listening and they often failed to understand the listening texts Students ST2, ST3, and ST7 stated that listening comprehension was very hard, and they did not often complete the listening task well Student ST8 added “I sometimes even choose alternatives in multiple-choice tests randomly” This finding is in line with other studies (Hamouda, 2013; Rahayu & Apriyanti, 2017; Doan, 2018; Alzamil, 2021), whose participants recognized that of all the language skills, listening is the most challenging one Thus, it could be concluded that this was a common perception and might explain why most students (85.5%) rate themselves as average and poor listeners
As regards the appeal of listening skills, item 2 had a neutral rate with M=3.36, which makes it hard to determine the students’ attitudes towards this item Therefore, Table 4.4 shows key data on the allure of listening skills
Detailed Description of Appeal of Listening Skills
The finding revealed that about half of the participants (46.5%) agreed that listening comprehension was exciting, whereas 38 out of 200 participants disagreed with this idea, which accounted for 19% Surprisingly, the data showed that the number of students unsure of listening skills’ appeal was quite high (34.5%)
The results of the questionnaire and the data from the semi-structured interviews were consistent 3 out of 10 participants said that listening comprehension was often boring and not exciting For example, students ST2, ST4 and ST5 stated that listening was not attractive and even tedious Three students (ST1, ST8 and ST9) said that they often felt bored with listening; however, they sometimes found listening exciting when they understood the text Besides, four students confirmed that listening was always interesting For instance, ST6 said “It is exciting to get news when my eyes are not glued to the screen I can cook while listening to news and stories, which is fascinating and helps me save a lot of time” The result does not totally match previous studies’ findings (Hamouda, 2013; Rahayu & Apriyanti, 2017), which concluded that the majority of participants felt bored with listening skills Hamouda (2013) found that only 12% of learners considered listening comprehension exciting The inconsistency might be explained by the different settings and participants or by the teachers’ methods of teaching
Related to the importance of teachers’ teaching methods, sufficient training in English listening comprehension during school and listening strategies were taken into consideration
Detailed Description of Sufficient Training in Listening Comprehension
It can be noted from Table 4.5 that 159 out of 200 students (79.5%) concurred that teachers’ providing adequate training in English listening comprehension during school was necessary 35 of them were unsure about the idea Only 5 participants showed disagreement on the importance of students’ receiving sufficient training in English listening skills
In terms of listening strategies, item 5 obtained the highest score with M= 4.16 It is described in Table 4.6
Detailed Description of Listening Strategies
As can be noticed in Table 4.6, a large proportion of the participants (86.5%) felt that it was crucial to teach students listening strategies Only 3 students (1.5%) undervalued listening strategies and 24 students (12%) were not sure about the vital role of listening strategies
These findings related to the significance of teachers’ teaching methods and listening strategies were aligned with the answers from the semi- structured interviews 9 participants confirmed that sufficient training in English listening skills and listening strategies were critical for listening success ST7 stated “I feel confident when listening if I use listening strategies” The students ST6 and ST10 added that it was necessary for students to gain proper training in English listening comprehension and teachers should not depreciate listening skills and overemphasize reading, writing and grammar This might suggest that many students received sufficient training in English listening comprehension and were taught listening strategies during school This is different from what Hamouda (2013), Rahayu and Apriyanti (2017), and Nguyen (2018) concluded Hamouda (2013) stated that the majority of the respondents (over 80%) were not given thorough training in English listening comprehension during school and never heard about listening strategies Rahayu and Apriyanti (2017) explored that most students lacked training in doing listening tasks before going to college According to Nguyen (2018), most participants stated that when they were in high school, listening techniques were not taught; therefore, they were unsure of what to do before and during listening The reason for this discrepancy might be the difference in English teaching and learning settings and participants It might suggest that teachers’ practices in teaching listening comprehension are not the same in different settings However, the result related to listening strategies is compatible with Rahayu and Apriyanti’s (2017) They found that many respondents (55.56%) were told about listening strategies Thus, this might also prove that listening strategies were important for students’ listening success
In summary, based on the qualitative and quantitative data collected from the first question, most of the participants were conscious of the value of listening skills, but they found it difficult to understand spoken texts Besides, about half of them thought that listening was exciting In addition, sufficient training in English listening skills and listening strategies were really important to students Therefore, not only should teachers seek appropriate teaching methods to arouse students’ interest in English listening but they should teach students listening strategies and ensure that students receive comprehensive training in English listening comprehension.
Problems Students Face When Learning Listening Skills
This part aims to answer the second research question “What problems do grade 10 students face when they learn listening skills?” To find out what listening problems the respondents had, the second part of the questionnaire with
15 items was given to them This part of the questionnaire consists of 3 sub- categories: students’ problems related to the listening materials, students’ problems related to teachers’ teaching methods and students’ problems related to the listener In addition, the semi-structured interview was utilized to round off the data by adding details that were absent from the questionnaire responses
4.2.1 Students’ Problems Related to the Listening Materials
Table 4.7 is a summary of descriptive statistics of problems related to the listening materials including the total number of participants (N), Mean, Min., Max., and the standard deviation (S.D)
Students’ Problems Related to Listening Materials
6 I find it difficult to understand the listening text when the topic is unfamiliar
7 I find it difficult to understand listening texts in which there are too many unfamiliar words
8 I find it difficult to understand listening texts which have difficult grammatical structures
9 I find it difficult to understand well because the speech rate is fast
10 Unfamiliar stress, pronunciation, intonation, and accent of listening texts interfere with my listening comprehension
11 I feel distracted when I listen to a long- spoken text
12 Unclear sounds resulting from poor- quality recordings interfere with my listening
Based on the analysis of the scale data, 200 participants selected the different options regarding problems related to the listening materials As seen in Table 4.7, the mean score for all sub-items falls from 3.64 to 4.23 It means that most of the students showed their agreement with the given statements The results revealed that the majority of participants approved of unclear sounds from poor-quality recordings hindering their listening Item 12 accounted for the mean score of 4.23, the highest compared to 6 other items The fast speed of spoken texts came in second place with a high mean score (item 9: M=4.09) Items 7 and 8 ranked third The respondents agreed that they found it challenging to comprehend listening materials with too many unfamiliar words anddifficult grammatical structures (M=4.07), which meant that for the majority of students, major barriers to listening comprehension were a lack of vocabulary and poor grammar Ranking the fourth place was item 10 with a mean score of 3.97 This indicated that students’ listening comprehension was hampered by unfamiliar stress, pronunciation, intonation, and accent in listening texts This item was followed by item 6 (M=3.86) When the topic was unfamiliar, students had trouble understanding the listening texts The last problem was the length of the spoken texts with the lowest mean score (item 11: M=3.64) Students thought that the long text was one of the obstacles to their listening success
Regarding the unfamiliarity of the listening topic, the participants showed different ideas about the problem
Detailed Description of Unfamiliarity of the Topic
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
It can be seen from Table 4.8 that about three quarters of the participants (73.5%) showed their agreement with the given idea, which means that many students thought due to the unfamiliar topic, their listening comprehension was hampered 43 out of 100 students (21.5%) felt that they did not know whether they ran into difficulties with the strange topic or not Just 3% of the total respondents showed their disagreement with this idea
Turning to the result of item 7, it could be concluded that it was spoken texts with many strange words that had a negative influence on most of the participants’ listening ability
As can be seen in Table 4.9, 86% of the participants considered the listening text with many strange words as an impediment to their listening comprehension 9% chose the unsure options, which means that they did not know whether unfamiliar words prevented them from understanding the text Only 10 out of 200 respondents (5%) showed their disagreement with this idea
Detailed Description of Unfamiliar Vocabulary
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
In terms of difficult grammatical structures in listening texts, Table 4.10 clearly shows students’ opinions about this problem
Detailed Description of Difficult Grammatical Structures
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
While 161 out of 200 participants (80.5%) agreed that difficult grammatical structures were among the reasons for their listening failure, only
6 students (3%) disapproved of this idea 33 students (16.5%) were not sure about the problem
As for the speech of spoken texts, the detailed information is shown in Table 4.11
Detailed Description of Speech of Spoken Texts
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Over four fifths of the participants agreed that they had trouble understanding what was being said because of the quick speech rate Only 4% of the students did not recognize the fast speed as a barrier to their listening success Besides, there were 25 students (12.5%) uncertain about this problem
Regarding unfamiliar stress, pronunciation, intonation, and accent, it could be easily recognized that the agreement among the participants was high
Detailed Description of Stress, Pronunciation, Intonation and Accent
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
As can be seen from Table 4.12, a large number of participants agreed that their ability to understand listening texts was hampered by strange accents, intonation, stress patterns, and pronunciation, which accounted for 73% of the total Only 9 students (4.5%) stated that they disagreed with this idea and 22.5% of the students did not know for sure that their listening comprehension was affected by accents, intonations, stress, and pronunciation
Students’ difficulty related to the length of spoken texts is clearly explained in Table 4.13
Detailed Description of Length of Spoken Texts
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
The finding data showed that over half of the participants believed that listening to a lengthy spoken text made them feel distracted, which accounted for 58.5% of the total 10 of them (5%) showed the disagreement about the idea However, the number of students who were unsure about this was high (36.5%)
With reference to unclear sounds from low-quality recordings, it was undeniable that poor-quality recordings had the biggest effect on students’ listening The full details are clearly shown in Table 4.14
Detailed Description of Poor-quality Recordings
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
According to Table 4.14, most participants’ listening ability was interfered by bad recordings, which accounted for 91% of the total Meanwhile, only 3% of the participants did not regard poor-quality recordings as an obstacle 12 out of 200 respondents (6%) expressed that they had no idea about this statement
From the data of the questionnaire, it can be concluded that many students agreed that when learning listening skills, they encountered the listening materials related problems such as unfamiliar topics, strange words, difficult grammatical structures, rapid speed, unfamiliar stress, pronunciation, intonation and accent, the length of texts and bad recordings The data extracted from the semi-structured interviews confirmed this finding For example, ST1, ST4, ST5, ST7, ST8 and ST9 stated that they often had some problems related to listening texts such as the fast speed, many strange words, complicated grammatical structures, unfamiliar topics, poor quality recordings, long spoken texts Furthermore, ST2, ST3, ST6, ST10 thought that three problems having a considerable influence on their listening comprehension were noise and unclear sound from recordings, rapid speed rate and strange accents, stress, intonation and pronunciation Interestingly, ST10 added “I cannot distinguish the voices from two speakers of the same sex in conversations”
This finding is congruent with Hamouda’s (2013), Maulidyah’s (2015), Nguyen and Thai’s (2018), Nguyen's (2018), and Lestari et al (2019), who reported that most respondents encountered various kinds of listening problems related to material such as accent, pronunciation, speed of speech, unfamiliar vocabulary, complex grammar, strange topic, long spoken texts, and low recording quality For example, Maulidyah (2015) reported that among the items involving listening texts, the difficulty of following the content of the long and complicated listening texts was the most prevalent issue This finding suggests English teachers should not use lengthy and complex texts This might prove that learners from various settings encountered these above common problems Thus, these problems could help explain why students found listening challenging and most of them rated themselves as average and poor listeners
4.2.2 Students’ Problems Related to Teachers’ Teaching Methods
To obtain the students’ perceptions of their listening difficulties related to teachers’ teaching methods, three items were designed and delivered to 200 students The data from three items are described in Table 4.15
Students’ Problems Related to Teachers’ Teaching Methods
13 I find it difficult to understand the listening text if the teacher does not pre-teach important new vocabulary
14 I find it difficult to understand the listening text if the teacher does not give warming-up activities
15 I find listening difficult if the teacher does not clearly explain the tasks' instructions
Based on the descriptive analysis of the data shown in Table 4.15, the mean scores corresponding to items 13, 14, and 15 were 4.00, 3.41 and 3.77 respectively This indicated that a large number of students agreed that it was easier for them to comprehend the listening text when the teacher pre-taught key new words, gave give warming-up activities and clearly explained the tasks’ instructions
The following tables show the detailed descriptions of items 13, 14 and 15
Detailed Description of Pre-teaching Important Vocabulary
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Means Students Use to Practice Listening Skills
The third research question “What means do grade 10 students use to practice listening skills?” was addressed based on data analysis of the third part of the questionnaire including 6 items and the semi-structured interviews
Students’ perceptions of the means they use to practice listening skills are shown in Table 4.25
Means Students Use to Practice Listening Skills
21 I listen to teachers and classmates in class to practice listening skills
22 I watch YouTube English talk shows to exercise my listening skills
23 I listen to English news and
English songs to practice listening skills
24 I use voice chat on the internet to communicate with foreigners to practice listening skills
25 I use mobile applications to practice listening skills (E.g:
26 I watch British or American television channels to practice listening skills
Based on the analysis of the scale data, 200 participants selected the different options regarding means for practicing listening skills As seen in Table 4.25, the mean score for all sub-items fell from 2.59 to 3.96 The participants reached agreement on items 21 and 23 with the mean scores at 3.96 and 3.50 respectively The results revealed that there were two means many students employ to improve their listening They listened to teachers and classmates in class to practice listening skills (item 21: M=3.96, SD=.529) They also listened to English news and English songs to practice listening skills (item 23: M=3.50, SD=.930) The next 3 items 22, 25, and 26 were at neutral scale with mean scores of 3.16, 3.19 and 3.00 respectively This meant that many students were not sure whether they listened to English news and songs, used mobile applications and watched British or American television channels to practice listening skills In addition, the mean score corresponding to the item 24 was 2.59 The data indicated that many students did not utilize voice chat on the Internet to communicate with foreigners to enhance their listening skills
The detailed descriptions of the two most used means are illustrated in Table 4.26 and 4.27
Detailed Description of Means of Listening to Teachers and Classmates
Table 4.26 showed that 88% of the participants often listened to teachers and classmates in class to improve their listening, whereas only 2% did not employ this method 10% showed their uncertainty about this means.
Detailed Description of Listening to English News and Songs
According to Table 4.27, 62.5% of the participants usually listened to English news and songs to enhance their listening, whereas 19% did not apply this method 18% of them were unsure of their using this method.
Regarding items 22, 25 and 26 having neutral mean scores, less than half of the participants agreed to have watched YouTube English talk shows and British or American television channels as well as have used mobile applications
Tables 4.28 and 4.29 show an interesting result that the number of participants choosing each scale in both items 22 and 25 was nearly the same The number of participants practicing their listening skills by watching YouTube English talk shows and using mobile applications accounted for over 40% and about one third of them never or seldom used these means There were one fifth of respondents who did not show certainty with these items.
Detailed Description of Means of Watching YouTube English Talk Shows
Detailed Description of Means of Using Mobile Applications
According to Table 4.30, there was a nearly equal number (about one third) of the students agreeing and disagreeing to have practiced their listening skills by watching British or American television channels Besides, the number of students uncertain about this means accounted for 24.5%
Detailed Description of Watching British or American Television Channels
As for using voice chat to communicate with foreigners (Table 4.31), only 20% of the respondents used this method to improve their listening and 22.5% were not sure about their using this means However, 67.5% confirmed that they never or seldom applied this method
Detailed Description of Using Voice Chat to Communicate with Foreigners
Considering the answers from the interviews, the findings related to means students use to practice listening skills collected from the questionnaire are in line with the results found from the semi-structured interviews The means used regularly by 8 out of 10 students were listening to English news and songs andlistening to teachers and classmates in class For example, ST9 said “I often listen to English songs when I have free time or feel stressed Listening to English song not only makes me relaxed but also helps me improve my English listening skills I also make use of class time to practice my listening skills by paying attention to what my teacher and classmates say and talking with them” ST10 stated “Listening to music is a cheap source of entertainment I can improve my pronunciation, learn new words and enhance my listening when I listen to English songs Besides, I often to English news while cooking or drawing, and I always listen to my teacher and friends carefully during English lessons”
As for watching YouTube English talk shows or videos, there were 4 students often using this method and 2 students occasionally utilizing it For instance, ST3 said “I usually spend three hours a week watching English talk shows and short videos, which keeps me happy and contributes to improving my English listening” ST8 stated “I sometimes watch short videos on YouTube and TikTok for entertainment, so I am not sure whether this means helps me to enhance my listening skills” Only students ST6 and ST10 expressed that they regularly practice their listening skills through watching British or American television channels, using mobile applications and using voice chat on the internet to communicate with foreigners ST6 said “At the weekend I often watch the program “American Idol” on TV I also practice my listening skills by Podcast Besides, I use some apps such as Zoom and Weverse to talk with English friends and idols” ST10 added “I usually subscribe to online courses with English teachers in order to improve my communication skills”
These findings are somewhat similar to the ones found by Hamouda (2013), who reported that about 70% of the students improved their listening ability by listening to teachers and classmates speaking English in class, watching British or American television channels and using voice chat on the Internet to communicate with their friends frequently It could be concluded that the participants of both studies agreed the means they often used to practice listening skills was listening to teachers and classmates speaking English in class, so this means was common to many participants from diverse locations However, an opposite finding of this study was that the number of students watching British or American television channels and using voice chat on the Internet to talk with foreigners was much lower (36.5% and 20% respectively) Most students in this study stated that apart from listening to teachers and classmates speaking English in class, they usually listened to English news and English songs to practice listening skills Moreover, this study released the new results that in addition to the above mentioned methods, many students (over 40%) applied other methods such as watching YouTube English talk shows or short videos and using mobile applications Thus, these disagreements might result from the different regions, participants and research time
In a nutshell, the qualitative and quantitative data addressed the third research question It could be concluded that the most common means students used to practice listening skills included listening to English news and songs and listening to teachers and classmates in class, followed by other means such as watching YouTube English talk shows or short videos, using mobile applications and watching British or American television channels Besides, using voice chat on the internet to communicate with foreigners was the least common method
In conclusion, this chapter has presented, discussed and found the answers for the three research questions For the first research question, most students were aware of the importance of listening skills, but found listening comprehension difficult However, about half of the students found listening comprehension exciting They also recognized the significance of sufficient training in English listening skills and listening strategies For the second question, students’ common listening difficulties were related to listening material (topics, vocabulary, grammatical structures, speech rate, phonetics and accent, text length and poor-quality recording), teachers’ teaching methods (not pre-teaching key new words, giving warm-up activities and clearly explaining instructions for tasks) and the listener (anxiety, memory and a lapse of concentration) For the last question, most students often practiced listening skills through listening to English news and songs and listening to teachers and classmates in class In all, the aim of the research is to identify Tran Hung Dao high school tenth-grade students’ perceptions of learning English listening skills.
CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS
Summary of the Study
The present study mainly concentrated on indicating Tran Hung Dao high school tenth-grade students’ perceptions of learning English listening skills The study was carried out with the assistance of 200 students at Tran Hung Dao high school in Gia Lai province This study was a mixed-method approach The quantitative data was collected by distributing a questionnaire, whereas the qualitative data was gathered by using semi-structured interviews Based on the data analysis and data discussion, the following conclusions can be drawn
Based on the quantitative and qualitative data related to what students think about the importance of listening skills, most of the students agreed that listening skills were significant Moreover, the majority of the participants found listening skills challenging, which explained why most of them were not good at listening Additionally, about half of the participants were in agreement that listening was exciting As for the importance of teachers’ teaching methods, there was agreement among most students that it is vital that teachers provide students with adequate training in English listening comprehension in class as well as teach them listening strategies
As revealed from the data analysis and interpretation of the questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, most students confirmed that when they learn listening skills, they encountered a variety of problems related to listening materials, teachers’ teaching methods and themselves as listeners Regarding listening materials, a number of participants faced the problems such as strange topics, strange words, difficult grammatical structures, fast speed, unfamiliar stress, pronunciation, intonation and accent, long spoken texts and poor recordings In terms of teachers’ teaching methods, many students experienced listening difficulties as a result of teachers’ failing to offer warm-up activities, pre-teach important new vocabulary words, and provide clear explanations of the tasks’ instructions
As for problems related to themselves as listeners, most students confronted some difficulties pertaining to their anxiety and inability to recall and concentrate In detail, anxiety, difficulty in remembering the meaning of known words and recalling words or phrases they just heard, and a lapse of concentration had negative impacts on most students’ listening ability
In reference to the means students used to practice listening, the results from the questionnaire and interviews indicated that the most commonly used means were listening to teachers and classmates in class and listening to English news and English songs The second most popular means are watching YouTube English talk shows or short videos and using mobile applications Watching British or American television channels ranked third and the least common method was using voice chat to communicate with foreigners
As can be seen, the research fulfilled three objectives the author wanted to identify The findings helped the author know grade 10 students’ perception of the importance of listening skills, acknowledge some listening problems students face and some methods they often use to practise English listening skills.
Implications
The pedagogical implications for both teachers and students should be taken into account in the light of the study's findings
First, the results of this study suggest that most of the students were conscious of the significance of English listening skills, sufficient training in English listening skills and listening strategies, but they found it difficult to comprehend listening texts Accordingly, in addition to teaching students listening strategies and making sure they receive thorough training in English listening comprehension, teachers should look for effective teaching tactics to pique students’ interest in English listening
Second, the findings on problems students at Tran Hung Dao high school faced when learning listening skills may draw some implications Based on the data on problems related to listening materials, teachers should choose and modify listening materials that correspond to students’ background knowledge, interests and learning styles For example, teachers ought not to use lengthy and complex listening texts or texts with strange topics and fast speed In order to become good listeners, students should also get familiar with authentic English through English songs, English news, films, plays, daily conversation or stories that are appropriate for their levels Besides, the data on problems pertaining to teachers’ teaching methods suggest that teachers should give students clear directions for assignments and provide them with warm-up activities to introduce new lexical words and the topics of the listening materials Moreover, the result of problems related to themselves as listeners indicated that students should practice listening more and learn how to keep calm when listening It is necessary for them to make use of listening sources to improve their vocabulary Teachers need to create a comfortable learning atmosphere and give students some listening techniques such as guessing meaning based on contexts and neglecting unimportant strange words
Finally, the results of means students used to practice listening skills propose that in spite of the fact that there are many average and poor students, teachers should use English more in the classroom and encourage students to join group discussions, which contributes to enhancing their listening ability
In addition, it is essential that teachers supply students with various kinds of listening materials, such as lectures, interviews, news, films, plays, talk shows or short conversations on TikTok or YouTube, storytelling and English songs This aims at arousing students’ interests and introducing them to means of practicing English listening outside the classroom Besides, students, digital natives, were born at a time of technological developments and change, so they ought to exploit various means of learning English listening skills through mobile applications, television channels and social media to become experts in English listening.
Limitations
It is clearly acknowledged that even though the study has achieved its aim and objectives, it still has several limitations The first limitation is that the current study was only conducted with the limited number of samples in the natural setting of English teaching and learning at a high school in Gia Lai province, where the researcher is working Consequently, the study failed to adhere to random sampling and was able to produce data that could be applied to all EFL tenth-grade students The second limitation is that the study just focused on the descriptive approach to find out high school tenth-grade students’ perceptions of learning English listening skills, not the comparison or the correlation of their gender and years of learning English In addition, the discussion of this thesis only places emphasis on some main points regarding students’ perception of English listening skills’ importance, difficulties in learning listening skills and means used to practice the skill; therefore, the analysis and results should be better if it is related to practical solutions to address difficulties or teachers’ perception of students’ learning English listening skills.
Suggestions for Further Research
Because of the above limitations, several further studies have been suggested to fill in the gaps of this study First, further studies can be conducted to identify students’ perceptions of learning English listening skills with a larger size of participants and seek solutions for students’ listening difficulties For example, future work may be carried out in both advantageous areas and disadvantageous areas in Gia Lai province so that EFL teachers in Gia Lai have a more comprehensive understanding of students’ perceptions towards learning listening skills Second, it is vital to conduct further research to examine students’ perceptions of learning English listening skills in correlation with their gender and their years of learning English Third, in order to fully understand the problem, it is necessary for further research to be conducted with more comprehensive samples including students in grades eleven and twelve Last but not least, the current study was limited to students’ perception of learning listening skills, so future studies should expand to explore teachers’ perceptions and practices regarding students’ learning English listening skills
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APPENDICES APPENDIX 1 QUESTIONNAIRE (ENGLISH VERSION)
This questionnaire aims to better understand Tran Hung Dao high school students’ perceptions of learning English listening skills This questionnaire is used for research purposes only Please answer all of the questions as well as you can Any information you provide will be kept confidential
Thank you for your cooperation!
Please put a tick (✓) on the selected responses
Kinh Bahnar Other ethnic groups
3 How long have you studied English?
5 years 6 years to 8 years Over 8 years
4 How do you rate your English listening ability?
PART 2: CLOSE-ENDED QUESTIONS ABOUT STUDENTS’
PERCEPTIONS OF LEARNING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS
A Students’ perception of the importance of listening skill
S tr on gly d isa gr ee Disagr ee Not su re Agr ee S tr on gly agre e
1 I am aware of the importance of
2 I find that listening comprehension is difficult, but essential
3 I find that listening comprehension is exciting
4 It is important that teachers provide me with sufficient training in English listening comprehension during school
5 It is important that students should be taught listening strategies
B Students’ problems related to the listening materials and teachers’ teaching method
Strongly disagree Disagree Not sure Agree Strongly agree
6 I find it difficult to understand the listening text when the topic is unfamiliar
Strongly disagree Disagree Not sure Agree Strongly agree
7 I find it difficult to understand listening texts in which there are too many unfamiliar words
8 I find it difficult to understand listening texts which have difficult grammatical structures
9 I find it difficult to understand well because the speech rate is fast
10 Unfamiliar stress, pronunciation, intonation, and accent of listening texts interfere with my listening comprehension
11 I feel distracted when I listen to a long spoken text
12 Unclear sounds resulting from poor- quality recordings interfere with my listening
13 I find it difficult to understand the listening text if the teacher does not pre- teach important new vocabulary
14 I find it difficult to understand the listening text if the teacher does not give warming-up activities
15 I find listening difficult if the teacher does not clearly explain the tasks’ instructions
C Students’ difficulties related to the listener
Strongly disagree Disagree Not sure Agree Strongly agree
16 I feel nervous when I don’t understand the listening text
17 I am slow to recall the meaning of words that sound familiar while I am listening
18 I find it difficult to quickly remember words or phrases I have just heard
19 I lose my concentration during listening when I think about the meaning of unknown words
20 I lose the flow of the listening text because I concentrate very hard on understanding every word or phrase I hear
D Means students use to practice listening skills
Strongly disagree Disagree Not sure Agree Strongly agree
21 I listen to teachers and classmates in class to practice listening skills
22 I watch YouTube English talk shows to exercise my listening skills
Strongly disagree Disagree Not sure Agree Strongly agree
23 I listen to English news and English songs to practice listening skills
24 I use voice chat on the internet to communicate with foreigners to practice listening skills
25 I use mobile applications to practice listening skills (E.g: LearnEnglish
Podcasts, BBC Learning English, English Listening…)
26 I watch British or American television channels to practice listening skills
Phiếu khảo sát này nhằm mục đích tìm hiểu về suy nghĩ của học sinh trong việc học kĩ năng nghe Tiếng Anh Phiếu khảo sát chỉ sử dụng cho mục đích nghiên cứu, do đó thông tin các em cung cấp sẽ được giữ bí mật tuyệt đối Rất mong các em sẽ trả lời theo suy nghĩ thực sự của mình cho phiếu khảo sát này
Vui lòng đánh dấu (✓) vào ô thích hợp
PHẦN 1: THÔNG TIN CÁ NHÂN
☐ Kinh ☐ Ba na ☐ Dân tộc khác
3 Em đã học Tiếng Anh bao lâu?
☐ 5 năm ☐ Từ 6 năm đến 8 năm ☐ Hơn 8 năm
4 Em đánh giá kĩ năng nghe của bản thân như thế nào?
PHẦN 2: NHẬN THỨC CỦA HỌC SINH VỀ VIỆC HỌC KĨ NĂNG NGHE TIẾNG ANH
A Suy nghĩ của em về tầm quan trọng của kĩ năng nghe
STT Nội dung Hoàn toàn không đồng ý
1 Em nhận thức được tầm quan trọng của kĩ năng nghe tiếng Anh
2 Em cảm thấy khó khăn trong việc nghe hiểu, nhưng cần thiết
3 Em cảm thấy việc nghe hiểu thật là thú vị
4 Em nghĩ việc giáo viên dạy cho em đầy đủ về kĩ năng nghe hiểu tiếng Anh trong trường là quan trọng
5 Em nghĩ việc học sinh được dạy các chiến lược nghe là quan trọng
B Các khó khăn liên quan đến tài liệu nghe và phương pháp giảng dạy kĩ năng nghe của giáo viên
STT Nội dung Hoàn toàn không đồng ý
Không chắc chắn Đồng ý Hoàn toàn đồng ý
6 Em cảm thấy khó hiểu bài nghe khi chủ đề không quen thuộc
7 Em cảm thấy khó hiểu các bài nghe trong đó có quá nhiều từ không quen thuộc
8 Em cảm thấy khó hiểu các bài nghe có cấu trúc ngữ pháp khó
9 Em thấy khó hiểu bởi vì tốc độ bài nghe nhanh
10 Trọng âm, cách phát âm, ngữ điệu và giọng nói không quen thuộc của các bài nghe làm cản trở khả năng nghe hiểu của em
11 Em cảm thấy mất tập trung khi nghe một văn bản dài
12 Âm thanh không rõ ràng do bản ghi âm chất lượng kém làm cản trở việc nghe của em
13 Em thấy khó hiểu bài nghe nếu giáo viên không dạy trước những từ vựng mới quan trọng
STT Nội dung Hoàn toàn không đồng ý
Không chắc chắn Đồng ý Hoàn toàn đồng ý
14 Em thấy khó hiểu bài nghe nếu giáo viên không đưa ra các hoạt động khởi động
15 Em cảm thấy khó khi nghe nếu giáo viên không giải thích rõ ràng yêu cầu của các bài tập
C Các khó khăn liên quan đến bản thân em (người nghe)
STT Nội dung Hoàn toàn không đồng ý
Không chắc chắn Đồng ý Hoàn toàn đồng ý
16 Em cảm thấy lo lắng khi không hiểu nội dung bài nghe
17 Em chậm nhớ lại nghĩa của những từ nghe có vẻ quen thuộc
18 Em thấy khó nhớ nhanh các từ hoặc cụm từ mà em vừa nghe
19 Em mất tập trung trong khi nghe khi nghĩ về nghĩa của những từ chưa biết
20 Em không bắt kịp bài nghe vì em quá tập trung vào việc cố hiểu từng từ hoặc cụm từ mà em nghe được
D Những phương tiện em sử dụng để luyện kĩ năng nghe
STT Nội dung Hoàn toàn không đồng ý
Không chắc chắn Đồng ý Hoàn toàn đồng ý
21 Em lắng nghe giáo viên và các bạn trong lớp để luyện kĩ năng nghe
22 Em xem các chương trình
“Talk Show” tiếng Anh trên YouTube để rèn luyện kĩ năng nghe
23 Em nghe tin tức tiếng
Anh và các bài hát tiếng
Anh để luyện kĩ năng nghe
24 Em luyện kĩ năng nghe bằng cách sử dụng “voice chat” để giao tiếp với người nước ngoài
25 Em sử dụng các ứng dụng di động để luyện kĩ năng nghe (Ví dụ:
26 Em xem các kênh truyền hình của Anh hoặc Mỹ để luyện kĩ năng nghe
Cảm ơn em rất nhiều!
APPENDIX 3 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS(ENGLISH VERSION)
The following questions will be asked students during the interview:
1 How important are listening skills?
2 Do you think listening skills are difficult?
3 Do you think listening skills are exciting?
4 Do you think teachers’ teaching methods are important to your listening ability?
5 What are the difficulties related to listening materials?
6 What are problems related to teachers’ teaching methods that affect your listening comprehension?
7 What are the problems related to the listener that affect your listening comprehension?
8 Did you get opportunities to practice listening skills? If that was so, in what way?
APPENDIX 4 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS(VIETNAMESE VERSION)
Cô phỏng vấn em một số câu hỏi liên quan đến suy nghĩ của em về việc học kĩ năng nghe Tiếng Anh Cuộc phỏng vấn chỉ sử dụng cho mục đích nghiên cứu, do đó thông tin em cung cấp sẽ được giữ bí mật tuyệt đối Rất mong các em sẽ trả lời theo suy nghĩ thực sự của mình cho các câu hỏi sau Cám ơn em!
1 Theo bạn, kĩ năng nghe quan trọng như thế nào?
2 Bạn nghĩ kĩ năng nghe có khó không?
3 Bạn nghĩ kĩ năng nghe có thú vị không?
4 Bạn nghĩ phương pháp giảng dạy của giáo viên có quan trọng đối với khả năng nghe của bạn không?
5 Theo bạn, khi học nghe bạn gặp những khó khăn nào liên quan đến tài liệu nghe?
6 Theo bạn, khi học nghe bạn gặp những khó khăn nào liên quan đến phương pháp giảng dạy của giáo viên?
7 Theo bạn, khi học nghe bạn gặp những khó khăn nào liên quan đến bản thân bạn (với tư cách là một người nghe)?
8 Bạn có cơ hội để luyện kĩ năng nghe không? Nếu có, bạn thường luyện nghe bằng cách nào?
Phiếu khảo sát này nhằm mục đích tìm hiểu về suy nghĩ của học sinh trong việc học kĩ năng nghe Tiếng Anh Phiếu khảo sát chỉ sử dụng cho mục đích nghiên cứu, do đó thông tin các em cung cấp sẽ được giữ bí mật tuyệt đối Rất mong các em sẽ trả lời theo suy nghĩ thực sự của mình cho phiếu khảo sát này
Vui lòng đánh dấu (✓) vào ô thích hợp
PHẦN 1: THÔNG TIN CÁ NHÂN
Kinh Ba na Dân tộc khác
3 Em đã học Tiếng Anh bao lâu?
5 năm Từ 6 năm đến 8 năm Hơn 8 năm
4 Em đánh giá kĩ năng nghe của bản thân như thế nào?
PHẦN 2: NHẬN THỨC CỦA HỌC SINH VỀ VIỆC HỌC KĨ NĂNG NGHE TIẾNG ANH
A Suy nghĩ của em về tầm quan trọng của kĩ năng nghe
STT Nội dung Hoàn toàn không đồng ý
1 Em nhận thức được tầm quan trọng của kĩ năng nghe tiếng Anh
2 Em cảm thấy khó khăn trong việc nghe hiểu, nhưng cần thiết
3 Em cảm thấy việc nghe hiểu thật là thú vị
4 Em nghĩ việc giáo viên dạy cho em đầy đủ về kĩ năng nghe hiểu tiếng Anh trong trường là quan trọng
5 Em nghĩ việc học sinh được dạy các chiến lược nghe là quan trọng
B Các khó khăn liên quan đến tài liệu nghe và phương pháp giảng dạy kĩ năng nghe của giáo viên
STT Nội dung Hoàn toàn không đồng ý
Không chắc chắn Đồng ý Hoàn toàn đồng ý
6 Em cảm thấy khó hiểu bài nghe khi chủ đề không quen thuộc
7 Em cảm thấy khó hiểu các bài nghe trong đó có quá nhiều từ không quen thuộc
8 Em cảm thấy khó hiểu các bài nghe có cấu trúc ngữ pháp khó
9 Em thấy khó hiểu bởi vì tốc độ bài nghe nhanh
10 Trọng âm, cách phát âm, ngữ điệu và giọng nói không quen thuộc của các bài nghe làm cản trở khả năng nghe hiểu của em
11 Em cảm thấy mất tập trung khi nghe một văn bản dài
12 Âm thanh không rõ ràng do bản ghi âm chất lượng kém làm cản trở việc nghe của em
13 Em thấy khó hiểu bài nghe nếu giáo viên không dạy trước những từ vựng mới quan trọng
STT Nội dung Hoàn toàn không đồng ý
Không chắc chắn Đồng ý Hoàn toàn đồng ý
14 Em thấy khó hiểu bài nghe nếu giáo viên không đưa ra các hoạt động khởi động
15 Em cảm thấy khó khi nghe nếu giáo viên không giải thích rõ ràng yêu cầu của các bài tập
C Các khó khăn liên quan đến bản thân em (người nghe)
STT Nội dung Hoàn toàn không đồng ý
Không chắc chắn Đồng ý Hoàn toàn đồng ý
16 Em cảm thấy lo lắng khi không hiểu nội dung bài nghe
17 Em chậm nhớ lại nghĩa của những từ nghe có vẻ quen thuộc
18 Em thấy khó nhớ nhanh các từ hoặc cụm từ mà em vừa nghe
19 Em mất tập trung trong khi nghe khi nghĩ về nghĩa của những từ chưa biết
20 Em không bắt kịp bài nghe vì em quá tập trung vào việc cố hiểu từng từ hoặc cụm từ mà em nghe được
D Những phương tiện em sử dụng để luyện kĩ năng nghe
STT Nội dung Hoàn toàn không đồng ý
Không chắc chắn Đồng ý Hoàn toàn đồng ý
21 Em lắng nghe giáo viên và các bạn trong lớp để luyện kĩ năng nghe
22 Em xem các chương trình
“Talk Show” tiếng Anh trên YouTube để rèn luyện kĩ năng nghe
23 Em nghe tin tức tiếng
Anh và các bài hát tiếng
Anh để luyện kĩ năng nghe
24 Em luyện kĩ năng nghe bằng cách sử dụng “voice chat” để giao tiếp với người nước ngoài
25 Em sử dụng các ứng dụng di động để luyện kĩ năng nghe (Ví dụ:
26 Em xem các kênh truyền hình của Anh hoặc Mỹ để luyện kĩ năng nghe
Cảm ơn em rất nhiều!
APPENDIX 6 TRANSCRIPTION OF THE INTERVIEWS
T: Chào em, cám ơn em vì đã nhận lời tham gia buổi phỏng vấn của cô Cô muốn biết suy nghĩ của em về việc học kĩ năng nghe Tiếng Anh Theo em, kĩ năng nghe quan trọng như thế nào?
S: Em thấy quan trọng lắm
T: Thế em thấy kĩ năng nghe có khó không?
S: Có ạ Em gặp nhiều khó khăn khi nghe Tiếng Anh và thường không hiểu nội dung bài nghe
T: Mặc dù em thấy kĩ năng nghe khó nhưng em có thấy thú vị khi nghe Tiếng Anh không?
S: Em thường cảm thấy chán khi nghe nhưng đôi lúc em cũng cảm thấy thú vị nếu em hiểu bài nghe
T: Thế em nghĩ phương pháp giảng dạy của giáo viên có quan trọng đối với khả năng nghe của em không? Chẳng hạn như việc giáo viên dạy cho em đầy đủ về kĩ năng nghe hiểu tiếng Anh và các chiến lược nghe có quan trọng không?
S: Có ạ Việc em được trang bị đầy đủ về kĩ năng nghe và cung cấp các chiến lược nghe giúp em nghe ổn hơn và tự tin hơn khi nghe
T: Theo em, khi học nghe em gặp những khó khăn nào liên quan đến tài liệu nghe?
S: Em cảm thấy khó khăn khi nghe nếu bài nghe dài, tốc độ nhanh, chủ đề lạ, có nhiều từ vựng, cấu trúc ngữ pháp phức tạp Âm thanh rè rè cũng làm em mất tập trung
T: Theo em, khi học nghe em gặp những khó khăn nào liên quan đến phương pháp giảng dạy của giáo viên?
S: Dạ có Em hầu như không nghe hiểu nội dung bài nghe nếu cô không dạy trước từ mới, không giới thiệu chủ đề bài nghe thông qua hoạt động khởi động và không nói rõ yêu cầu bài tập
T: Theo em, khi học nghe bạn gặp những khó khăn nào liên quan đến bản thân em (với tư cách là một người nghe)?
S: Em thường hồi hộp khi nghe Tiếng Anh Chắc vì vậy mà em rất hay cảm thấy khó nhớ lại những từ hoặc những thông tin vừa mới nghe Em còn thường không nhớ nổi nghĩa của những từ mà em cảm thấy rất quen Ngoài ra, em thường không bắt kịp nội dung bài nghe vì gặp từ lạ hoặc cố hiểu nghĩa từng từ khi nghe
T: Em có cơ hội để luyện kĩ năng nghe không? Nếu có, em thường luyện nghe bằng cách nào?
S: Dạ Thỉnh thoảng em có nghe nhạc Tiếng Anh thôi ạ
T: Thế trên lớp em có cố gắng nghe cô giáo và các bạn nói Tiếng Anh không? S: Dạ có Em thường cố gắng nghe nhưng chỉ hiểu được tầm 70%-80% thôi ạ T: Cám ơn em đã đóng góp ý kiến của mình trong buổi phỏng vấn này
T: Cám ơn em đã dành thời gian tham gia phỏng vấn nha Cô muốn tìm hiểu thêm về suy nghĩ của em về việc học kĩ năng nghe Tiếng Anh Giờ chúng ta bắt đầu nha
T: Theo em, kĩ năng nghe quan trọng như thế nào?
S: Em thấy khá quan trọng ạ
T: Thế em thấy kĩ năng nghe có khó không?
S: Có ạ Nghe hiểu Tiếng Anh rất khó ạ và em thường không hoàn thành tốt các bài tập nghe
T: Mặc dù em thấy kĩ năng nghe khó nhưng em có thấy thú vị khi nghe Tiếng Anh không?
S: Em thấy nghe không có gì hấp dẫn ạ Em thậm chí còn cảm thấy chán ạ
T: Vậy à Thế em nghĩ phương pháp giảng dạy của giáo viên có quan trọng đối với đối với việc cải thiện khả năng nghe của em không? Chẳng hạn như việc giáo viên dạy cho em đầy đủ về kĩ năng nghe hiểu tiếng Anh và các chiến lược nghe có quan trọng không?
S: Em nghĩ chắc có ạ Nhưng em thật sự chưa biết các chiến lược nghe nên em cũng không chắc nữa ạ
T: Theo em, khi học nghe em gặp những khó khăn nào liên quan đến tài liệu nghe?