Applying learning strategies to improve TOEFL listening skill of Advanced Program students at Thai Nguyen University of Technology

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ APPLYING LEARNING STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE TOEFL LISTE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ

APPLYING LEARNING STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE TOEFL LISTENING SKILL OF ADVANCED PROGRAM STUDENTS AT

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

SỬ DỤNG CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC HỌC TẬP ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN

KỸ NĂNG NGHE TOEFL CỦA SINH VIÊN CHƯƠNG TRÌNH TIÊN TIẾN TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KỸ THUẬT CÔNG NGHIỆP THÁI NGUYÊN

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ

APPLYING LEARNING STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE TOEFL LISTENING SKILL OF ADVANCED PROGRAM STUDENTS AT

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

SỬ DỤNG CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC HỌC TẬP ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN

KỸ NĂNG NGHE TOEFL CỦA SINH VIÊN CHƯƠNG TRÌNH TIÊN TIẾN TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KỸ THUẬT CÔNG NGHIỆP THÁI NGUYÊN

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

Supervisor: DUONG DUC MINH, PhD

DECLARATION

This thesis is a presentation of my original research work Wherever contributions of other sare involved, every effort is made to indicate this clearly, with due reference to the literature, and acknowledgement of collaborative research and discussions The work was done under the guidance of my supervisor, Dr Duong Duc Minh, at the University of Languages and International Studies, VNU

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Writing a thesis, especially in such a limited time, was one of the most challenging things I have ever gone through In this demanding process, I was lucky enough to have the support of several people

First and foremost, I would like to express my deep thank to my advisor, Dr Duong Duc Minh for all his efforts, for not only being a very hardworking advisor, but also an understanding counselor He never left me without an answer to my never-ending questions; he was always so quick to give feedback that I could finish

my thesis on time thanks to him

I also would like to thank the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies, University

of Languages and International Studies, Hanoi National University for granting

me the opportunity to pursue my studies and my research

I am grateful to my collegues and my friends, who are always willing to share with me any kinds of work, documents or experience in doing a thesis They also symphathize with with my difficulties as well as my fault in life

Last but not least, I owe my genuine, deepest gratitude to my family for their everlasting belief in me, for always encouraging me They have been the strongest motivation for me to pursue my degree I am indebted to my family, especially my parents who are always ready to look after my little daughter Without the support from my family members, I would not have finished my thesis

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

CHARTS

Chart 1: TOEFL score obtained by AP students 22

TABLES Table 1: Content Validity of the Listening Strategies verified by 5 experts 30

Table 2: Pre-listening Planning Strategies 34

Table 3: While-listening Monitoring Strategies 35

Table 4: Post-listening Evaluation Strategies 35

Table 5: Cognitive Formal Practicing Strategies 36

Table 6: Bottom-up Strategies 37

Table 7: Top-down strategies 37

Table 8: Social Strategies 38

Table 9: Affective Strategies 39

Table 10: Variation in Frequency of Use of Listening Strategies According to Language Proficiency Level 40

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research Questions 2

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Methods of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Learning Strategies 5

1.1.1 Definition of Learning Strategies 5

1.1.2 Classification of Learning Strategies 6

1.1.2.1 O'Malley's (1985) Classification of Language Learning Strategies 6

1.1.2.2 Rubin's (1987) Classification of Language Learning Strategies 7

1.1.2.3 Oxford's (1990) Classification of Language Learning Strategies 8

1.1.2.4 Stern's (1992) Classification of Language Learning Strategies 9

1.2 Listening Strategies 11

1.2.1 Definitions of Listening by Different Researchers 11

1.2.2 The importance of listening 12

1.2.3 Overview of listening strategies 13

1.3 Previous studies in the world and in Vietnam 16

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 21

2.1 Participants and setting of the study 21

2.1.1 Participants 21

2.2.2 Setting of the study 23

2.2 Data Collection 24

2.2.1 Data Collection Instruments 24

2.2.1.1 Interview 24

2.2.1.2 Classroom observation 25

2.2.1.3 Think-aloud Protocols 26

2.2.1.4 Diary studies 26

2.2.1.5 Written Questionnaire 27

2.2.2 Data Collection Procedures 31

2.2.3 Data analysis 32

2.2.3.1 SPSS Software 32

2.2.3.2 Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) 32

2.2.3.3 The post-hoc Scheffé Test 32

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 34

3.1 Findings 34

3.1.1 Frequency of Strategy use from the results from questionnaire 34

3.1.1.1 Metacogitive Strategies 34

3.1.1.2 Cognitive Strategies 36

3.1.1.3 Social/ Affective Strategies 38

3.1.2 Variation in Frequency of Use of Listening Strategies According to Language Proficiency Level 40

3.2 Discussion 42

3.3 Pedagogical Implications 43

PART C: CONCLUSION 46

1 Conclusions 46

1.1 Research question 1: What is the frequency of listening strategies reported by AP students at TNUT? 46

1.2 Research question 2: Do students‟ choices of listening strategies vary significantly according to their levels of proficiency? If they do, what are the main patterns of variation? 47

2 Limitations of the study 47

3 Suggestions for further study 48

REFERENCES 49 APPENDICES I

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Nowadays, when the world has become increasingly global and information technology has developed with rapid speed, English is considered as an indispensable means of international communication On this basis, since an open-door policy was adopted in Vietnam, the focus of teaching has been promoting oral skills in order to meet the students‟ needs of mastering English for effective communication It is English that becomes a compulsory subject at high schools as well as universities throughout the country Among these universities is Thai Nguyen University of Technology (TNUT), Thai Nguyen University TNUT is one

of the educational institutions in Vietnam which uses the results of Test of English

as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) in evaluating English proficiency of lecturers as well as students, especially students studying Advanced Program (AP) AP is the program that TNUT is granted from Vietnamese Government to offer two Bachelor

of Science programs, major in Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering The two courses are implemented in English, with the same syllabus, curricular and training method as in the University of New York at Buffalo and the University of Oklahoma, the United State AP is set of engineering courses in English, established

to meet the increasing trends of globalization on engineering items As language instruction of AP is English, students have to obtain TOEFL score according to the regulation of the program before they get the Degree of Engineer

However, that most students were taught focus too much on grammar, structures and vocabularies when they were at high school makes it difficult for them to do the listening test Despite teachers‟ efforts to help students develop their communication skills, effective listening teaching and learning is still a challenge to both teachers and students in Vietnam Researchers showed that listening skill is employed the most frequently among four language skills Hence, strategies for listening and the ability to use them effectively are particularly significant in language learning

As a lecturer at TNUT, I would like to do a research in the hope of improving

listening skill for AP students and as a result, the thesis title goes as: “Applying learning

strategies to improve TOEFL listening skill of Advanced Program students at Thai Nguyen University of Technology”

2 Aims of the study

Difficulties in listening are challenges for Vietnamese learners in general and for second year AP students in particular if they do not find the suitable study methods for themselves In order to develop this skill, many different methods have been applied and various activities have been employed in classrooms Teachers have sought ways to teach foreign language learners strategies to adopt In addition

to applying strategies, researchers and teachers have designed and tried to follow different techniques Nevertheless, listening has remained one of the most difficult skills due to certain reasons Applying strategies into the listening learning and teaching process has become a mounting concern for both teachers and learners.The aim of this study is to investigate listening strategies that AP students reported employing when doing TOEFL listening tests then draw out some tips for teaching processes Hopefully, this research will be useful for second year AP students in improving listening skills as well as for teachers in finding new teaching methods

This study has three specific aims:

- Finding out the frequency of listening strategies used by AP students

- Investigating the relationship between listening strategy use and language proficiency level of AP students at TNUT

- Pointing out some suggestions for English teachers and students to help students improve listening skill

3 Research Questions

This study will find answers to two questions:

* What is the frequency of listening strategies used by AP students at TNUT?

* What are the main patterns of variation of listening strategies choices according to their levels of proficiency ?

4 Scope of the study

Due to the limitation of page number of the minor thesis, the author can only conduct a survey on the frequency of listening strategies use and the relationships between listening strategy use and proficiency level of second year AP students at TNUT After that, researcher will give some suggestions for English teachers to help students better in improving listening skill

5 Methods of the study

To seek answer to the research questions, following tasks have to be done:

- Collecting TOEFL test results of AP students to investigate their language proficiency levels

- Doing a survey on the use of listening strategies by AP students by delivering questionnaires

- Using SPSS software to analyze the frequency of strategy use and the relationships between listening strategy use and proficiency level of AP students

- Evaluating the techniques that are most suitable for students to improve their listening skill

6 Design of the study

This minor thesis consists of three parts:

Part A, “Introduction”, presents the rationale, aims, method, subject and

design of the study It expresses the reason why the author decided to choose this study and the methods for the fulfillment of the study

Part B, “Development”, is divided into three chapters:

- Chapter one: Literature review presents the concepts relevant to the

research topic such as different point of views of listening, the importance of listening, definition of learning strategies and listening strategies The previous studies in the world and in Vietnam are also presented in this chapter

- Chapter two: Methodology presents the participants and setting of the study

Also in this chapter there is a focus on data collection, data procedure and data analysis

- Chapter three: Findings and discussion finds out the relationships between

listening strategy use and proficiency level as well as the strategies of TOEFL listening skills by AP students at TNUT by analyzing data collected from the questionnaire Also in this chapter, researcher will give out pedagogical implication

Part C, “Conclusion” summarizes the key issues in the study, points out the

limitations and provides some suggestions for the further study

This chapter presented the background of the present study, the statement of the problem, the research questions, method and design of the study The next chapter will introduce the review of the previous literature on learning strategies and listening strategies

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter mainly focuses on the review of related literature concerning language learning strategies It starts with some brief discussion on how previous scholars define and classify language learning strategy Then, the researcher reviews the related literature and research works conducted in both Vietnam and other countries with regards to the characteristics of participants, focal points of the studies,

methods of data collection, methods of data analysis, and results of the study

1.1 Learning Strategies

1.1.1 Definition of Learning Strategies

Apart from what are defined in learning strategy, the term language learning strategy has been defined by key figures in the field of foreign language education

as the followings:

Oxford (1990) defines learning strategies as “specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, and more self - directed, more effective and more transferable to new situations”

Tarone (1983, p.67) defined a language strategy as "an attempt to develop linguistic and sociolinguistic competence in the target language to incorporate these into one's interlanguage competence"

Wenden and Rubin (1987, p.19) define learning strategies as " any sets of operations, steps, plans, routines used by the learner to facilitate the obtaining, storage, retrieval, and use of information." As Wenden (1987) says: “Learning strategies are the various operations that learners use in order to make sense of their learning”

Rubin (1987, p.22) later wrote that learning strategies are “strategies which contribute to the development of the language system which the learner constructs and affect learning directly"

Rigney (1978) and Rubin (1987) defined language learning strategies as behaviors, steps or techniques that language learners apply to facilitate language

learning Moreover, the definition be Oxford (1990) also included cognitive, emotional and social aspects of language learning strategies that enhance learners‟ language learning proficiency and self - confidence (Oxford, 1990; Ehrman & Oxford, 1990)

O'Malley and Chamot (1990, p.1) defined learning strategies as "the special thoughts or behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn, or retain new information"

Therefore, when language learners encounter language learning tasks, they can apply the several different strategies to complete the task Language learners will be successful in the tasks due to use of an appropriate language learning strategies (Richard, 1994) Oxford (1990, p 9) claims that language learning strategies have the following features:

- Contribute to main goal, communicative competence

- Allow learners to become more self-directed

- Expand the role of teachers

- Are problem-oriented

- Are specific actions taken by the learners

- Involve many aspects of the learners, not just the cognitive

- Support learning both directly and indirectly

- Are not always observable

- Are often conscious

- Can be taught

- Are flexible

- Are influenced by a variety of factors

In short, language learning strategies are applied by language learners as a means to acquire and to use information that learners have acquired, stored or recalled, and can also promote autonomous learning (O‟Malley & Chamot, 1990,; Nisbet & Shucksmith, 1986)

1.1.2 Classification of Learning Strategies

1.1.2.1 O'Malley's (1985) Classification of Language Learning Strategies

O'Malley et al (1985) divide language learning strategies into three main

subcategories:

 Metacognitive Strategies: According to O'Malley et al, metacognitive is an expression to indicate an executive function, strategies which involve planning for learning process as it is taking place, observing of one‟s production or comprehension, correcting your own mistakes, and evaluating learning after an activity is completed Therefore, he stated that major metacognitive strategies included advance organizers, directed attention, selective attention, self-management, functional planning, self-monitoring, delayed production and self-evaluation

 Cognitive Strategies: It has been stated (Brown, 2007) that “Cognitive strategies are more limited to specific learning tasks and they involve more direct manipulation of the learning material itself” (p.134) Repetition, resourcing, translation, grouping, note taking, deduction, recombination, imagery, auditory representation, key word, contextualization, elaboration, transfer and inferencing are among the most important cognitive strategies

 Socio-affective Strategies: have close relationship with social-mediating activity and interacting with others The main socio-affective strategies include cooperation and question for clarification (Brown, 2007)

1.1.2.2 Rubin's (1987) Classification of Language Learning Strategies

Rubin made a distinction between strategies contributing directly to learning and those contributing indirectly to learning Direct strategies include metacognitive and cognitive strategies and indirect strategies include communicative and social strategies According to Rubin, there are three types of strategies used by learners used by learners that contribute either directly or indirectly to language learning They are learning strategies, communication strategies and social strategies

a Learning strategies:

Learning strategies are divided into two main types: Cognitive Learning

Strategies and Metacognitive Learning Strategies

* Cognitive Learning Strategies: refer to steps or operations used in learning

or problem - solving that require direct analysis, transformation, or synthesis of

learning materials Rubin identified 6 main cognitive learning strategies contributing directly to language learning:

* Metacognitive Learning Strategies: These strategies are used to supervise,

control or self-direct language learning They involve various processes as planning, prioritizing, setting goals, and self-management

b Communication strategies

Communication strategies are not as much of directly related to language learning since their emphasis is on the process of communication through conversion and getting meaning across or clarifying what the speaker intended Communication strategies are exploited by speakers when they are faced with some troubles regarding their communication and conversion or when confronted with misunderstanding by a co-speaker A usual communication strategy is to make use

of one‟s linguistic or communicative knowledge to remain in the conversation

c Social strategies

Social strategies are activities in which learners are exposed to the opportunities that can be a great help to practice their knowledge Even though these strategies offer exposure to the target language, they contribute to learning indirectly since they do not lead directly to the obtaining, storing, retrieving and using of language (Rubin, 1987)

1.1.2.3 Oxford's (1990) Classification of Language Learning Strategies

Oxford's (1990) divided language learning strategies into two main categories: direct and indirect strategies which are also subdivide into six classes

 Direct strategies

o I Memory

 A Creating mental linkages

 B Applying images and sounds

 C Reviewing well

 D Employing action

o II.Cognitive

 A Practicing

 B Receiving and sending messages strategies

 C Analyzing and reasoning

 D Creating structure for input and output

o III Compensation strategies

 A Guessing intelligently

 B Overcoming limitations in speaking and writing

 Indirect strategies

o I Metacognitive Strategies

 A Centering your learning

 B Arranging and planning your learning

 C Evaluating your learning

o II Affective Strategies

 A Lowering your anxiety

 B Encouraging yourself

 C Taking your emotional temperature

o III Social Strategies

 A Asking questions

 B Cooperating with other

 C Empathizing with others

1.1.2.4 Stern's (1992) Classification of Language Learning Strategies

According to Stern (1992, pp 262-266), there are five main language learning strategies These are as follows:

- Decide what dedications to make to language learning

- Set reasonable objectives

- Decide on a suitable methodology, select proper resources, monitor progress

- Evaluate his success based on previously determined objectives and expectations

b Cognitive strategies: These strategies refer to procedures and activities

which learners apply to improve their ability to learn or remember the material, and solve the problems, especially those actions which learners use with specific classroom task According to Stern, the cognitive strategies include Clarification/Verification, Guessing/Inductive Inferencing, Deductive Reasoning, Practice, Memorization and Monitoring

c Communicative - Experiential Strategies

Communicative strategies, such as gesturing, paraphrasing, or asking for repetition and explanation are methods employed by learners to keep the conversation going In other words, communicative strategies involve the use of verbal or nonverbal instruments for useful transfer of knowledge The purpose is to avoid interrupting the course of communication

d Interpersonal Strategies

According to Stern (1992), interpersonal strategies monitor the learners‟ development and evaluate their performance Learners need to have communication with native speakers and cooperate with them Learners need to get familiar with the culture of the target language

e Affective strategies

In the process of language learning, good language learners use various kinds

of affective strategies Sometimes, it can be frustrating to learn another language It can arouse feeling of unfamiliarly and confusion In some other cases, learners might not have a positive perspective towards native speakers On the other hand, good language learners are relatively aware of these emotions, and they try to build positive feelings towards the foreign language and its speakers as well as the learning activities To a great deal, training can be of assistance to the students to face these controversial feelings and to overcome them by drawing attention to the possible frustration or mentioning them as they come up (Stern, 1992)

1.2 Listening Strategies

1.2.1 Definitions of Listening by Different Researchers

Listening has been defined similarly by different researchers For instance, Morley (1972) defines listening as involving basic auditory discrimination and aural grammar as well as reauditorizing, choosing necessary information, recalling it, and relating it to everything that involves processing or conciliating between sound and composition of meaning Similarly, according to Postovsky (1975) “Listening ranges in meaning from sound discrimination to aural comprehension (i.e., actual understanding of the spoken language)” (p 19).What Bowen, Madsen and Hilferty (1985) state is very similar to those mentioned before: “Listening is attending to and interpreting oral language The student should be able to hear oral speech in English, segment the stream of sounds, group them into lexical and syntactic units (words, phrases, sentences), and understand the message they convey” (p 73) Goss (1982) denotes that listening is a process of getting what is heard and arranging it into lexical units to which meaning can be assigned James (1984) by asserting that listening is intertwined with other language skills strongly, argues that it is not a skill, but a set of skills all marked by the fact that they involve the aural perception

of oral signals Secondly, listening is not “passive.” A person can hear something but not be listening His or her short-term memory may completely discard certain

incoming sounds but concentrate on others This involves a dynamic interaction between perception of sounds and concentration on content (James, 1984, p.129)

As defined by Oxford (1993, p.206), „Listening is a complex, problem solving skill‟ and it is „more than just perception of the sounds Listening includes comprehension of meaning bearing words, phrases, clauses, sentences and connected discourse‟

Listening is an important part of foreign language learning process, and it has also been defined as an active process during which listeners construct meaning from oral input (Bentley & Bacon, 1996, pp 1-5)

Howatt and Dakin (1974) defined listening as the ability to identify and understand what others are saying, and involved understanding a speaker‟s accent

or pronunciation his grammar and his vocabulary, and grasping his meaning

Vandergrift (1999, pp 168 - 176) show “strategy development is important for listening training because strategies are conscious means by which learners can guide and evaluate their own comprehension and responses”

We can see that listening ability is one of the important skills in foreign language learning and it plays an important role in our daily communication Among four skills, researchers show that listening skill is employed most frequently Therefore, strategies for listening and the ability to use them effectively are particularly significant in language learning

1.2.2 The importance of listening

Listening is growing in importance more and more and calling for more attention (e.g., Cheung, 2010; Field, 2008; Renandya & Farrell, 2010) The reason for why listening is important has been interest of many researchers, various book chapters or articles For example, Hedge (2000) argues that listening plays an important role in everyday life and states that when a person is engaged in communication nine percent is devoted to writing, 16 percent to reading, 30 percent

to speaking, and 45 percent to listening which illustrates the place of listening in everyday communication Lundsteen (1979) discusses that “Why put listening first

in the language arts? For one reason, listening is the first skill to appear Chronologically, children listen before they speak” (p xi) The importance of listening can be seen more clearly when the lack of listening input is analyzed To illustrate, the case of people who cannot speak because they cannot hear is a tangible proof of this

People cannot live in isolation from other people; nor can they live without technological devices There are indispensable situations in which people need to comprehend the things around them aurally; that is, in which they need to activate their listening skills

1.2.3 Overview of listening strategies

Listeners make use of a variety of strategies to make sense of the incoming messages and compensate for their lack of knowledge especially in EFL context

Vandergrift (1999) show “strategy development is important for listening training because strategies are conscious means by which learners can guide and evaluate their own comprehension and responses”

According to Oxford (1990), there are two general types of listening strategies: direct strategies and indirect strategies

a Direct strategies

Compensation strategies: can help the listeners overcome knowledge

limitations when they do not hear something clearly or they can not catch all the words They can make use of „clues‟ to help them guess the meaning of certain words or pieces of information Therefore, Oxford (1990) considers these strategies

as the tools for guessing intelligently‟ because listeners do not need to hear every word as long as they can guess „systematically‟ through using clues Furthermore, making connections with background knowledge that includes knowledge of the culture, the topic and the world, proves to be of great help to listeners According to the findings of the study by Bacon (1992), listeners tend to rely on their knowledge

of the world when trying to comprehend a difficult text, probably because it is the

main and the source of knowledge that is available to them, from which they can draw some possible logical interpretations

Cognitive strategies: According to the results of the two research studies,

Bacon (1992) and O‟Malley et al (1989), cognitive strategies prove to be the most common type of strategies used by language learners Bacon categories them under two main headings: Top-down and bottom-up strategies

- Bottom-up strategies are „text-based‟ strategies because they depend on using clues or evidence from the existing text to understand new information That includes strategies, like repeating some words that the learners hear probably because they seem to be „key‟ words as long as they occur more frequently than other words As well, some listeners tend to break down some unknown

„expression‟ in to smaller „meaningful units‟ and try to make out the whole meaning through understanding the meaning of individual words In contrast, listeners can get some information from the text through paying attention to „intonation‟ and pauses that help them recognize „chunks‟ of words as particular „speech patterns‟, each of which carries one piece of information, Rixon (1986, p 52)

- Unlike bottom-up strategies, top-down strategies is thought to be at a higher cognitive level in the sense that it deals with more „abstract‟ clues Thus, listeners using top-down strategies relate what they hear to what they already know which is known as „schemata‟ knowledge This includes background knowledge, knowledge

of the world and knowledge of discourse Having such knowledge, listeners can keep up with the listening text because they formulate some „expectation‟ as well as

„prediction‟ before and while listening

According to Bacon (1992), listeners tend to rely on bottom-up strategies trying to comprehend a difficult text, while they use more top-down strategies with

a less difficult one, which seems very logical; listeners can use their previous knowledge as long as they are familiar with the text, but with an unfamiliar one they can make good use of some „textual clues‟

Generally, the results of these two studies show that successful or effective listeners use more top-down strategies compared with less successful of ineffective listeners Moreover, ineffective listeners are at a disadvantage because they fail to

„elaborate‟ on what they hear; they are not able to make the connections between what they hear and their own „personal experiences‟

b Indirect strategies

 Metacognitive strategies are strategies that help learners „coordinate their own learning process‟ which includes:

- Identifying the purpose: As in the case in real-life situation, listeners need

to set a purpose for listening in order to set right „channels‟ for their attention Setting a purpose helps them be better prepared before listening because they will probably have a kind of „mental plan‟ to follow, which proves to be true for most of the listeners in Bacon‟s research study

- Self-monitoring: Listeners need to be „self-conscious‟ while listening to be able to „monitor‟ their comprehension In other words, they can „monitor‟ their understanding as they continue listening as long as they can notice their „errors‟ or any „inaccurate‟ guesses and try to improve on them Although both successful and less successful used „monitoring‟ successful listeners have the advantage of being able to „revise a hypothesis or choose between alternative interpretation‟ Bacon(1992, p 237)

- Self-evaluation: After the listening process is completed, some listeners evaluate their overall comprehension progress and assess how well they have done Oxford (1990) points out that „any self-evaluation must take into consideration the difficulty of the situation or the language‟ and that learners should try to be as specific as possible for an „accurate evaluation‟ Bacon‟s research study shows that

„successful listeners tended to be more realistic in evaluating comprehension, while

„less successful listeners sometimes exhibited a false level of confidence‟

rather than individual one In learning situations, there are always mixed ability

groups within which learners can develop some appropriate strategies for sharing ideas and asking for help

c Affective strategies

Oxford (1990) argues that „the affective side of the learners is one of the biggest influences on language learning success or failure Thus, learners need some kind of strategies to help them control to a certain extent, their emotions, attitudes and values

According to O‟Malley and Chamot (1990), there are three main types of strategies: metacognitive, cognitive and social strategies

attempt to plan, check, monitor, select, revise and evaluate, etc Generally, it can be discussed through pre-listening planning strategies, while-listening monitoring strategies, and post-listening evaluation strategies

working memory or long-term memory for later retrieval They are investigated from the aspects of bottom-up strategies, top-down strategies

the strategies as the techniques listeners used to collaborate with others, to verify understanding or to lower anxiety Habte-Gabr (2006) stated that socio-affective strategies were those which were non academic in nature and involve stimulating learning through establishing a level of empathy between the instructor and student They included considering factors such as emotions and attitudes (Oxford, 1990) It was essential for listeners to know how to reduce the anxiety, feel confident in doing listening tasks, and promote personal motivation in improving listening competence (Vandergrift, 1997) According to O‟Malley & Chamot (2001), among the four strategies of management strategies, social strategies, cognitive strategies, affective strategies in listening comprehension, both social and affective strategies influenced the learning situation immediately

1.3 Previous studies in the world and in Vietnam

There have been many studies on listening strategies of students at universities in the world as well as in Vietnam, the following titles are examples:

Yukselci (2003) conducted a research to explore the extent to which teacher participants, incorporate listening strategies into teaching listening, and perceive listening strategies as useful and encounter difficulties with listening lessons in English preparatory programs of Turkish EMUs One hundred and twenty five participants from nine universities participated in the study Data collected through the questionnaire were analyzed using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS, Version 10.0) Frequencies, percentages and one-way Chi-square values were calculated to analyze the questionnaire items Results revealed that while at least two third of listening strategies commonly mentioned in the literature are taught commonly, there is a lack of emphasis on social and cognitive listening strategies The results also revealed that teachers faced problems because of the difficulty of listening materials for students, dependence on ready-made materials and a need for a richer repertoire of listening activities

James (2010) studies the reasons why Tunisian EFL learners have difficulty understanding oral English transactional texts Using quality research and a cognitive, strategy-based theoretical framework, the study used a questionnaire, interviews, listening diaries, and think-aloud protocols with Tunisia university EFL learners to identify the listening strategies that they use and the obstacles that they encounter while they listen to oral English transactional texts The findings of this study show that Tunisian EFL learners are active in the listening process and use some strategies to help them understand some texts However, when they encounter listening obstacle during the listening process, they are unable to orchestrate their strategy use and fail to comprehend the texts Furthermore, the study indicates that the learners have few reserve strategies to use when they are prevented from using their default strategies

Fouad (2012) conducted a research to identify the listening strategies of advanced and intermediate second language listeners in English and to compare listening strategies of both groups of research participants A total of 30 Arabic - speaking ESL learners were administered a listening comprehension test and a listening strategy use questionnaire After completing the test, participants were also asked to complete a Likert-scale questionnaire that included 20 items asking

about the use of cognitive, metacognitive and socio-affective strategies The results indicated that both advanced and intermediate listeners used metacognitive, cognitive and socio-affective strategies However, there were some variations in terms of the use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies As far as cognitive strategies were concerned, the results revealed that the advanced listeners employed more top down strategies than the intermediate listeners, whereas there were no significant differences in the use of metacognitive strategies The results also indicated that cognitive strategies are the most powerful predictor of listening comprehension, followed by socio-affective strategies, whereas metacognitive strategies were the predictor that accounted the least for listening comprehension

Another study carried out in 2012 was to discover processing strategies used

by listeners with different levels of listening comprehension ability and gender In this study, 42 students including 33 female and 9 male third-year tourism management students from a university in the south of Thailand were given the IELTS listening test in order to identify their level of English listening ability and categorize them into lower performance and better performance listeners The scores for the correct answer were calculated and compare between different ability groups, and between genders using the independent samples t-test An interview and

a questionnaire were used to confirm which strategies they used while listening The results showed that there was a significant difference between the strategies used by learners with different levels of listening performance The results also showed that male and female listeners did not differ in their top-down and bottom-up processing strategies use The results indicated that gender was not as important as learners‟ listening ability in making the choice of strategies The results of this study suggested strategy training for learners to improve their levels of listening comprehension both inside and outside the classroom

In Vietnam, many studies relating to teaching listening have been done For example, Lan (2006) conducted a research on techniques for improving listening

skills of gifted students of Foreign Language Specializing School, College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National University In this study, a survey questionnaire was used for 200 students of 10th and 11th forms at FLSS, including 8 classes The study points out problems in learning listening and suggests some stages for listening skill The findings from the survey show that most of the students are active and well-aware of what they need to do every listening lesson However, what they have done seem not efficient enough to improve their listening skill

In 2010, a thesis was carried out by Do Van Hoa, Hong Duc University The participants of this study were 2 third-year B.A English classes and 10 teachers in the language skills division, aged from 20 to 22 The researcher used survey questionnaire in this study The result found out the role of portfolios in students‟ self-listening, the frequency of using the contents in the portfolios, teachers‟ difficulties when applying the portfolios in teaching listening Finally, researcher pointed out some suggestions for applying suggestions for applying the portfolios

Ngan (2011) did a research with the aims of investigating difficulties that Listening teachers face with when teaching the Listening Comprehension section of the course book „Head for Business‟ and suggesting some solutions to improve the efficiency of the Listening comprehension for second-year students of Economics, HOU 112 second year students majoring in both Accounting (60) and Administration (52) and English teachers aging from 25 to 33, who are working with the Listening Comprehension of “Head for Business”, participated in this research The researcher used Survey Questionnaires for students and Informal interview with teachers to collect data The results revealed that both groups of participants share the same view on many points concerning sources of difficulties

in teaching listening comprehension in course book “Head for Business” to second year students at Economic Department, Hanoi Open University Researcher also finds out some solutions to those difficulties

Even though many studies have conducted on the use of listening strategies, there has been very little research on the listening strategies for TOEFL ITP Test

Hence, while doing this research, researcher wishes to find out the effective listening strategies of AP students at TNUT and suggest some solutions for them to improve their listening skill

This chapter shows that research works in the past have been carried out in a variety of purposes, target population, methods of data collection, locations of research conduction and different variables and factors Therefore, it established a theoretical framework for the topic of the study Next chapter will provide and discuss the available research methods in the field of language learning strategies and the theoretical framework for the present investigation

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter aims to present the research methodology in the field of listening strategies which the researcher applied to the present investigation In the first section, the setting and participants are described In the second section, data collection including data collection instruments, data collection procedure and data analysis procedures are explained

The purposes of this study were to find out the frequency of listening strategy use by AP students and the relationships between listening strategy use and proficiency level of AP students with the hope of helping the students improve their listening skill Therefore, this study is classified as exploratory and discriptive, and the survey is the main method Quantitative approach is also applied in this survey

2.1 Participants and setting of the study

2.1.1 Participants

The participants of the present study were Advance Program students at TNUT who study completely in English, including taking classes, discussing, doing homework Even though AP students spend their first two year focusing on learning English, that does not seem to be enough for many students to comprehend completely the following special subjects In fact, many of them find it hard to learn different skills that might be a result of lacking listening strategies or wrong choice

of strategies More important, students have to gain at least 500 of TOEFL ITP before getting Degree of Engineering

The data for the present study were gathered from a group of 40 AP students randomly selected from five classes, including 33 males and 7 females sampled from the total population of 150 AP students at TNUT It would be ideal if the proportion of male and female is balanced However, as the engineering and technology is male - oriented, the number of male students is much larger than female students in this field Researcher administers this questionnaire to these 40 second year students, who focus on studying English in the first year and only take

part in the TOEFL ITP test in the second year This selection was to ensure they would provide enough useful information for the researcher The langage proficiency of the participants is mixed - level

Levels of language proficiency in this study were determined by students‟ TOEFL test score that researcher collected from two tests, which were organized by IIG Vietnam - the biggest provider of International Educational and professional tests in Vietnam, including the most world test: Foreign Language Test, Information Tests and other types of tests To investigate the AP students‟ level of language proficiency through TOEFL ITP test, the researcher look at the TOEFL results that they obtain at the first and the second exam Based on the requirement for the TOEFL test score of Advance Program at TNUT, the researcher classified the score into three levels: high level (from 500 to higher), moderate level (from 450 to 500) and low level (smaller than 450) The results in the chart below showed the percentage of students obtaining the different levels of TOEFL score

Chart 1: TOEFL score obtained by AP students

Chart 1 shows the TOEFL ITP test score got by 47 AP students at the first time (organized on October 31st 2012) and the second time (organized on May 5th

2013) As can be seen from the chart, we can see that most students sitting for the TOEFL test at the second time did not perform better than the first time More students get the score higher than 500 at the second time whereas the rate of students getting the score from 450 to 500 at the first time is higher than that at the second time The results show that not all students perform better at the second time than the first time In short, proportion of levels of language proficiency is not well - balanced since there are more students with moderate and low level of language proficiency than those with high level of language proficiency The smallest proportion of level of language proficiency is high level

2.2.2 Setting of the study

The present study was conducted at TNUT, one of 23 universities in Vietnam which was allowed by Ministry of Education and Training to offer two international programmes in Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering in corporation with New York University at Buffalo and University of Oklahoma AP is one of breakthrough ways in taking a short cut of modernizing Vietnam education Imported from well-known universities in the US, AP are set of engineering courses in English, established to meet the increasing trends of globalization on engineering items As language instruction of AP is English, the courses of AP are taught in English by professors from the US and in TNUT as well After four years of implementing, AP has brought remarkable effects to lecturers and students at TNUT It therefore provides students many good chances to find a job after their graduation as most of them are quite good at English Moreover, AP students also have opportunities to become lectures at TNUT or apply many national scholarship programs for master or PhD courses in the US or other countries in Europe In order to perform well in this program, AP students are taught English skills of doing TOEFL Test

The TOEFL test is adopted at TNUT to measure the English proficiency of nonnative speakers of English It is required primarily by English-language colleges and universities Additionally, institution such as government agencies, businesses,

or scholarship programs may require this test The TOEFL test currently exists in