USING PORTFOLIOS IN TEACHING LISTENING SKILL TO THE FIRST YEAR NON ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS OF ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT ACADEMY OF FINANCE

USING PORTFOLIOS IN TEACHING LISTENING SKILL TO THE FIRST YEAR NON ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS OF ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT ACADEMY OF FINANCE Sử dụng hồ sơ bài tập để dạy kỹ năng nghe hiểu cho sinh viên không chuyên tiếng Anh năm thứ nhất Khoa Kế toán, Học viện Tài chính

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

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LÊ THỊ HƯƠNG GIANG

USING PORTFOLIOS IN TEACHING LISTENING SKILL TO THE FIRST-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS OF ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT, ACADEMY OF FINANCE

(SỬ DỤNG HỒ SƠ BÀI TẬP ĐỂ DẠY KỸ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CHO SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH NĂM THỨ

NHẤT KHOA KẾ TOÁN HỌC VIỆN TÀI CHÍNH)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Methodology

Code: 601410

Hanoi - 2010

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

LÊ THỊ HƯƠNG GIANG

USING PORTFOLIOS IN TEACHING LISTENING SKILL TO THE FIRST-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS OF ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT, ACADEMY OF FINANCE

(SỬ DỤNG HỒ SƠ BÀI TẬP ĐỂ DẠY KỸ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CHO SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH NĂM THỨ

NHẤT KHOA KẾ TOÁN HỌC VIỆN TÀI CHÍNH)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Methodology

Code: 601410 Supervisor: Lâm Thị Phúc Hân, M.A

Hanoi - 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration ……… i

Acknowledgements ……… ii

Abstract ……… iii

Table of contents ……… iv

List of abbreviations ……… vii

List of figures, tables and charts ……… viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ……… 1

1.1 Rationale of the study………

1.2 Aims and research questions of the study ………

1.3 Scope of the study ………

1.4 Methods of the study ………

1.5 Design of the study ………

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ………

2.1 Theoretical background of listening comprehension ………

2.1.1 Definitions of listening comprehension ………

2.1.2 Listening comprehension process ………

2.1.3 The importance of listening ………

2.2 Theoretical background of teaching and learning listening skill ………

2.2.1 Components skills for listening ………

2.2.2 Potential problems in learning to listen to English ………

2.2.3 Stages of a listening lesson ………

2.2.3.1 Pre-listening ………

2.2.3.2 While-listening ………

2.2.3.3 Post-listening ………

2.2.4 The roles of teachers in a listening lesson ………

2.2.5 Encouraging students' self-learning ………

2.3 Theoretical background of portfolio ………

2.3.1 Definitions of portfolio ………

2.3.2 The contents of portfolio ………

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2.3.3 Phases of portfolio development ………

2.3.4 Benefits of using portfolios ………

2.3.5 Weakness associated with using portfolios ………

2.4 Summary ………

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY ………

3.1 Context of the study ………

3.1.1 The institution ………

3.1.2 The teachers ………

3.1.3 The students ………

3.1.4 The course ………

3.1.5 Introduction to the coursebook ………

3.2 Research methodology ………

3.2.1 Participants ………

3.2.2 Data collection procedure ………

3.2.3 Data collection instruments ………

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ………

4.1 Data analysis of the students' survey questionnaire before the portfolio process 4.1.1 Students' motivation in learning listening skill ………

4.1.2 Students' past learning experience ………

4.1.3 Students' knowledge of portfolios ………

4.2 Data analysis of the students' survey questionnaire after the portfolio process 4.2.1 Students' feelings and awareness of the portfolio process ………

4.2.2 Students' attitudes towards the effects of portfolio listening activities ………

4.2.3 Students' opinion related to portfolio sharing activities ………

4.2.4 Students' difficulties in implementing the portfolio ………

4.2.5 Students' opinion to improve the self-learning portfolio ………

4.3 Summary ………

CHAPTER 5: FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR USING PORTFOLIOS 5.1 Major findings and discussions ………

5.1.1 Students' previous motivations and learning experiences in listening as well as in the use of portfolios ………

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5.1.2 Students' attitudes towards the effects of the portfolio listening activity ……

5.1.3 Students' difficulties in implementing the portfolio ………

5.1.4 Students' suggestions to improve the self-learning portfolio ………

5.2 Suggestions for using portfolios ………

5.2.1 Suggestion for the teachers ………

5.2.2 Suggestions for the students ………

5.3 Summary ………

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION ………

6.1 Summary of the study ………

6.2 Limitations of the study ………

6.3 Suggestions for further researches ………

REFERENCES ………

APPENDICES ………

Appendix 1: Portfolio guidelines for students ………

Appendix 2: Listening portfolios ………

Appendix 3: Description of portfolio assessment and evaluation ………

Appendix 4: Learning log ………

Appendix 5: Questionnaire (N01) for students ………

Appendix 6: Questionnaire (N02) for students ………

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AOF: Academy of Finance

L2: Second Language

LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS

TABLES

Table 1: Students' feelings and awareness of the portfolio process

Table 2: Students' attitudes towards the effects of listening portfolio activities Table 3: Students' opinion related to portfolio sharing activities

CHARTS

Chart 1: Students' reasons for learning listening skill

Chart 2: Students' frequency of listening to English outside the class Chart 3: Students' knowledge of portfolios

Chart 4: Students' difficulties in implementing the portfolio

Chart 5: Students' opinion to improve the self-learning portfolio

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

English is thought to be one of the decisive factors for people's success at the period of globalization Therefore, it leads to the increasing number of users of English in many parts of the world Since the open-door policy was introduced in Vietnam, English has become increasingly important not only as a means of global communication but also

as bridge to mankind's knowledge To students, nowadays, English is not only a subject in the curriculum at university but also a key to gain access to the information world that proves of great value to all people in general and to students of Academy of Finance in particular However, obtaining a good language competence is not easy for all students; it requires a huge effort from them, especially self-study

Of four language skills - listening, speaking, reading and writing, listening is believed to be the most difficult skill to students They encounter difficulties in comprehending the information due to unfamiliarity with the pronunciation, stress, intonation and a lack of listening skill, etc To overcome such difficulties, it is necessary for students to spend much more time practicing listening skill at home The time to practice listening in class is not enough because every week students have only two periods lasting 90 minutes to learn this skill

The question posed for English teachers is how to help students overcome difficulties and improve their listening skill One of the ways to help students deal with difficulties is using portfolios to learn at home Surely, portfolios which reflect what students have done at home are a useful additional learning tool On one hand, portfolios help teachers to assess what students have done at home On the other hand, portfolios keep students continuously learning It is obvious that portfolios can improve students' listening skill and encourage their self-learning, which is the decisive factor for their success in learning English

For the above reasons, the author decided to choose the study entitled

"Using portfolios in teaching listening skill to first-year non-English major students of Accounting Department, Academy of Finance"

1.2 Aims and research questions of the study

The major aims of the study are:

- To investigate students' motivation and learning experiences in listening skill

- To examine students' attitudes towards the effects of the portfolio listening activity

- To give some suggestions for using the portfolio to enhance students' autonomy in learning listening skill

In order to implement the study, the following research questions were formulated:

1 Were first-year students autonomous learners in terms of motivations and learning experiences in listening skill?

2 What are students' attitudes towards the effects of the portfolio listening activity?

3 What should teachers do to help students to develop their autonomy in learning listening skill?

1.3 Scope of the study

The study is concerned with using portfolios in teaching listening skill to the year non-English major students of Accounting Department, Academy of Finance Other approaches to teach listening skill intended for students at other levels of English language proficiency would be beyond the scope

first-1.4 Methods of the study

54 first-year non-English major students were chosen randomly to take part in the research of applying portfolio listening activity to develop learner self-study They came from two classes of Accounting Department, AOF They are both male and female, at the age from 19 to 20 and have learnt English for at least three years at high school

Questionnaires were delivered to first-year students at AOF before and after the portfolio process to collect the most reliable data for this study This research also based itself on some previous studies in listening skill and portfolios

1.5 Design of the study

The study is comprised of five chapters: Chapter I: Introduction; Chapter II: Literature review; Chapter III: The study; Chapter IV: Major findings and discussions and Chapter V: Conclusion

Chapter I: Introduction

This chapter introduces the rationale, the aims, research questions, the scope, the methodology and the design of the study

Chapter II: Literature review

This chapter reviews the literature related to the nature of listening comprehension, the importance of listening, components skills for listening, potential problems in learning

to listen to English, stages of a listening lesson, the roles of teachers in a listening lesson, ways of encouraging students' self-learning, definitions of portfolio, the contents of portfolio, phases of portfolio development, benefits of using portfolios and weakness associated with using portfolios

Chapter III: The study

This chapter presents the methodology used in the study including the context, participants, data collection procedure, data collection instruments and data analysis

Chapter IV: Major findings and discussions

This chapter shows some major findings which lead to some suggestions for using the portfolio

Chapter V: Conclusion

This chapter summarizes the main points discussed in the paper and some limitations of the study Future researches will also be presented in the chapter

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

This chapter discusses a variety of issues in the theories of listening skills and portfolios Three main features will be presented: theoretical background of listening comprehension, theoretical background of teaching and learning listening skill and theoretical background of portfolios

2.1 Theoretical background of listening comprehension

2.1.1 Definitions of listening comprehension

In the globalized information age in which we live, technological advances make global communication become much easier It is believed that to be part of global community, listening has taken on increased importance in a native language as well as in

a second or foreign language Thus, there have been numerous definitions of listening which present different views towards the concept

Mary Underwood (1989: 1) states that "Listening is the activity of paying attention

to and trying to get meaning from something we hear" The author also emphasizes: "To listen successfully to spoken language, we need to be able to work out what speakers mean when they use particular words in particular way on particular occasions, not simple to understand the words themselves"

Gary Buck (2001: 31) states that "listening comprehension is an active process of

constructing meaning and this is done by applying knowledge to the incoming sound" in which "a number of different types if knowledge are involved: both linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic knowledge"

Sharing the same view, listening is viewed as "an active, purposeful processing of

making sense of what we hear" (Helgesen, 2003: 24) Rost (2002: 279) defines listening as

"the mental process of constructing meaning from spoken input"

Richards and Schmidt (2002: 313) point out that "listening comprehension is the

process of understanding speech in a first or second language The study of listening comprehension in second language learning focuses on the role of individual linguistic

units (e.g phonemes, words, grammatical structures) as well as the role of listener's expectations, the situation and context, background knowledge and topic"

All in all, listening has been conceptualized in different ways However, the words

like "active" and "construct" have been found and highlighted Listeners are considered as

an "active model builder" (Anderson & Lynch, 1988: 11), who goes through a complex

process, drawing upon knowledge of linguistic code, cognitive processing skill, based understanding, and contextual clues to reach the essence of spoken message

scheme-2.1.2 Listening comprehension process

Listening comprehension is regarded theoretically as an active process in which individuals concentrate on selected aspects of aural input, form meaning from passages, and associate what they hear with existing knowledge

Cognitive psychology, the most developed model in accounting for comprehension processes, defines comprehension as information processing Schemata are the guiding structures in the comprehension process The schema is described by Rumelhart (1980, p 34) as “a data structure for representing the generic concepts stored in memory It can be used to represent our knowledge about all concepts: those underlying objects, situations, events, sequences of events, actions and sequences of actions.” According to the cognitive comprehension theory, “schema” means an abstract textual structure that the comprehender uses to make sense of the given text The comprehender makes use of linguistic and situational cues and also the expectations he/she has about the new input to evoke schemata When a schema has been evoked, it will become a guiding structure in comprehension If the incoming information is matched with the schema, then the listeners have succeeded in comprehending the text; if they are not compatible, either the information or the schema will be discarded or modified The principle of schema leads to two fundamental modes of information processing: bottom-up processing and top-down processing These two processing intersect to develop an interactive processing Thus, models for listening process fall into three types

Firstly, bottom-up processing is activated by the new incoming data The features

of the data pass into the system through the best fitting, bottom-level schemata Schemata are hierarchically formed, from the most specific at the bottom to the most general at the top It acknowledges that listening is a process of decoding the sounds, from the smallest

meaningful units (phonemes) to complete texts Thus, phonemic units are decoded and connected together to construct words, words are connected together to construct phrases, phrases are connected together to construct utterances, and utterances are connected together to construct complete, meaningful text That is to say, meaning is arrived at as the last step in the process A chain of incoming sounds trigger schemata hierarchically organized in a listener’s mind— the phonological knowledge, the morphological knowledge, lexical and syntactical knowledge (syntactical knowledge aids to analyze the sentence structure) Thus, the listener makes use of “his knowledge of words, syntax, and grammar to work on form” in the bottom-up processing (Rubin, 1994, p 210) This process is closely associated with the listener’s linguistic knowledge

However, bottom-up processing has its weak points Understanding a text is an interactive process between the listener’s previous knowledge and the text Efficient comprehension that associates the textual material with listener’s brain doesn’t only depend on one’s linguistic knowledge

Secondly, top-down processing is explained as employing background knowledge

in comprehending the meaning of a message Carrell and Eisterhold (1983, p 557) point out that in top-down processing, the system makes general predictions based on “a higher level, general schemata, and then searches the input for information to fit into these practically satisfied, higher order schemata” In terms of listening, the listener actively constructs (or reconstructs) the original meaning of the speaker employing new input as clues In this reconstruction process, the listener employs prior knowledge of the context and situation within which the listening occurs to understand what he/she hears Context and situation involve such things as knowledge of the topic at hand, the speaker or speakers, and their correlation with the situation, as well as with each other and previous events We must realize if the incoming information the listener hears is unfamiliar to him,

it can’t evoke his schemata and he can only depend heavily on his linguistic knowledge in

LC Besides, although the listener can trigger a schema, he might not have the suitable schema expected by the speaker Thus, only relying on top-down processing may result in the failure of comprehension

Apart from bottom-up and top-down processing, more specific listening comprehension processes have been analyzed One of them is the interactive model

illustrated by Clark & Clark (1977) and Richard (1983) Comprehension results from a number of different cognitive and affective mechanisms, which mainly falls into eight processes:

- The hearer processes what we will call "raw speech" and holds an "image" of it in term memory This image consists of the constituents (phrases, clauses, cohesive markers, intonation and stress pattern) of a stream of speech

short The hearer determines the type of speech event that is being processed The hearer must, for example, ascertain whether this is a conversation, a speech, a radio broadcast, etc and then "color" the interpretation of the perceived message

- The hearer infers the objectives of the speaker through consideration of the type of speech event, the context and content

- The hearer recalls background information relevant to the particular context and subject matter

- The hearer assigns a literal meaning to the utterance

- The hearer assigns an intended meaning to the utterance

- The hearer determined whether information should be retained in short-term or long-term memory

- The hearer deletes the form in which the message was originally received Instead the important information is retained conceptually

(Cited in Brown, 1994: 236)

2.1.3 The importance of listening

Nature has given us two ears but only one tongue, which is a gentle hint that we should listen more than we talk Listening is the most frequently used language skill in everyday life Researchers (for example, Rivers 1981; Morley, 1991) propose that we listen twice as much as we speak, four times as much as we read, and five times as much as

we write Listening is a highly integrative skill and research has demonstrated its crucial role in language acquisition The importance of listening in second language (L2) and foreign language learning is admirably summarized in a publication by Rost (1994):

"Listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides input for the learner Without understanding input at the right level, any learning simply cannot begin"

According to Bulletin (1952), listening is the fundamental language skill It is the medium through which people gain a large portion of their education, their information, their understanding of the world and of human affairs, their ideals, sense of values, and their appreciation In this day of mass communication, it is of vital importance that students are taught to listen effectively and critically

According to L2 acquisition theory, language input is the most essential condition

of language acquisition As an input skill, listening plays a crucial role in students’ language development Krashen (1985) argues that people acquire language by understanding the linguistic information they hear Thus language acquisition is achieved mainly through receiving understandable input and listening ability is the critical component in achieving understandable language input

In short, listening is essential not only as a receptive skill but also to the development of spoken language proficiency

2.2 Theoretical background of teaching and learning listening skill

2.2.1 Components skills for listening

Based on the listening skills, processes, and behaviors, Michael Rost (1994: p.142) draws up a partial list of components skills for listening:

- discriminating between sounds

- recognizing words

- identifying stressed words and groupings of words

- identifying functions (such as apologizing) in a conversation

- connecting linguistic cues to paralinguistic cues (intonation and stress) and to linguistic cues (gestures and relevant objects in the situation) in order to construct meaning

non using background knowledge (what we already know about the content and the form) and context (what has already said) to predict and then to confirm meaning

- recalling important words, topics and ideas

- giving appropriate feedback to the speaker

- reformulating what the speaker has said

Willis (1981: p.134) lists a series of micro-skills of listening, which she calls

enabling skills They are:

- Predicting what people are going to talk about

- Guessing unknown words or phrases without panic

- Using one's own knowledge of the subject to help one understand

- Identifying relevant points; rejecting irrelevant information

- Retaining relevant points (note-taking, summarizing)

- Recognizing discourse markers, e g , Well; Oh, another thing is; Now, finally; etc

recognizing cohesive devices, e g , such as and which, including linking words, pronouns,

references, etc

- Understanding different intonation patterns and uses of stress, etc., which give clues to meaning and social setting

- Understanding inferred information, e g , speakers' attitude or intentions

Edurne Scott (2008) also points out that the sub-skills that can be emphasized in listening include:

- listening for specific information

- following topic shifts

- predicting

- recognizing word boundaries

- identifying key words

- taking notes

In short, to listen successfully, students need to integrate many component skills Therefore, teachers should design tasks which help students to develop micro-skills for listening and improve their listening ability

2.2.2 Potential problems in learning to listen to English

It is true that language learners often feel overwhelmed with problems when they start to learn listening skill of a new language English language learners also encounter various problems when learning to listen to English Mary Underwood (1989) draws out potential problems of English language learners as follows:

- The lack of control over the speed at which speakers speak

- Not being able to get things repeated

- The listener's limited vocabulary

- Failure to recognize the 'signals'

- Problems of interpretation

- Inability to concentrate

- Established learning habits

According to Yagang (1994), the problems in listening were accompanied with the four following factors: the message, the speaker, the listener and the physical setting Furthermore, a numbers of research have been carried out to pick out the problems in listening The problems were believed to cause by the speech rate, vocabulary and pronunciation (Higgins, 1995) As Flowerdew & Miller (1996) assumed that the problems

of the students were for the speed of delivery, new terminology and concept, difficulty in focusing and the physical environment

Whatever the reasons for students' problems, it is important that teachers recognize the features of the spoken language and understand how they affect students From that, teachers can design exercises and assignments to help students practice and become familiar with the specific features of the English language such as sounds, stress, intonation, etc

2.2.3 Stages of a listening lesson

A listening lesson is often divided into 3 stages: Pre-listening stage, While-listening stage and Post-listening stage Each stage has its own aims and activities

2.2.3.1 Pre-listening stage

It is difficult for students to have ideas of what they are going to hear if the teacher just says "Listen to this" and then switches on the cassette recorder or begin to read aloud Even if the sounds and words are familiar with students, they may still be unable to comprehend because of the lack of necessary knowledge of the topic, setting or the relationship between speakers Therefore, the aim of pre-listening stage is to provide students with everything necessary for listening and understanding the text such as the topic, related vocabulary and additional information This stage also helps the teacher to

arouse students' interest in the listening text Penny Ur (1992, p.4) points out that "It would

seem a good idea when presenting a listening passage in class to give students some information about the content, situation and speakers before they actually start listening"

Pre-listening work can be done in various ways and consist of a wide range of activities Thus, teachers should consider the following factors when choosing pre-listening activities:

- The time available;

- The material available;

- The ability of the class;

- The interest of the class;

- The interest of the teacher;

- The place in which the work is being carried out;

- The nature and content of the listening text itself

The last item on the list, "the nature and content of the listening text", is very important when teachers choose activities

Pre-listening work can consist of a whole range of activities, including:

- The student looking at pictures before listening

- The teacher giving background information

- The student reading something relevant;

- The student predicting;

- Discussion of the topic/ situation;

- A question and answer session;

2.2.3.2 While-listening

While-listening activities are what students are asked to do during the time that they are listening to the text The purpose of while-listening activities is to help learners develop the skill of eliciting message from spoken language

When choosing while-listening activities, teachers should consider the following factors:

- The possibilities for varying the level of difficulty if required;

- The inconvenience of carrying out activities which require individuals to give their responses orally in the classroom This kind of work is best done in a language laboratory Classroom while-listening activities generally have to be limited to those which can be done without the need for each student to respond by speaking;

- Whether the work is to be done by the students with the teacher present or whether it is to

be done as private study, either in the classroom or at home This will influence the teacher's choice of activity as he/she may want to give different students different work according to their level of ability, to provide additional instructions, or to select activities which generate little or no marking;

- Whether or not the while-listening activities generate material or ideas which might be used for other, post-listening work, and if so, whether the teacher wishes to make use of these

2.2.3.3 Post-listening

Some post-listening activities are extensions of the work done at the pre-listening and while-listening stages and some relate only loosely to the listening text itself The purposes of post-listening activities are:

- Checking whether the students have understood what they need to or not;

- Reflecting on why some students have failed to understand or miss parts of the message;

- Giving the students the opportunity to consider the attitude and manner of the speakers of the listening text;

- Expanding on the topic or language of the message and transferring learned things to another context;

- Making introduction for the planned work

Again, According to Mary Underwood (1989), when the teachers select activities, the attention should be given to the following factors:

post The amount of language work the teacher wish to do in relation to the particular listening text;

- The time which is allowed to do post-listening work;

- The students should work in pair or groups;

- The chosen activity should be made motivating

2.2.4 The teacher's role in the listening lesson

According to Mary Underwood (1989: 21), the teacher's objectives should include:

(a) Exposing students to a range of listening experiences

This can be done by using a lot of different listening text (stories, conversations, descriptive talks, etc.) which incorporate a variety of language (formal or informal, spoken

by native speakers or foreign speakers, delivered slowly or quickly)

(b) Making listening purposeful for the students

This can best be achieved by providing tasks which are as realistic as possible, so that the students can relate what they are doing in the lesson to things that happen in real life, outside the classroom

(c) Helping students understand what listening entails and how they might approach it Often, this means changing the attitudes of students, particularly if in the past their attempts to learn to listen have been successful It is worth spending a little time explaining the processes of listening to your students (in their own language if necessary) and talking

to them about how they listen in their native language

(d) Building up students' confidence in their own listening ability

Success breeds success, and students who feel they are succeeding will be encouraged to go on trying The teacher' role in this is to provide experiences and activities

in which students can be successful It is important to remove the idea of "testing" from listening activities and to take advantage of the almost universal interest in problem-solving as a basis for most of the listening work

To have a successful listening lesson, the teacher should spend time preparing the lesson carefully There are a number of steps to take when the teacher plans the listening activity for the class:

- Choose the listening text

- Check that the activities are suitable

- Adjust the level of difficulty of the activities if you need to

- Consider whether the listening work you are planning will fill the time available

- Think about visual aids

- Make up your mind what procedure you will adopt for the listening session

- If you are planning to present the listening text 'live', practice reading it aloud

(Mary Underwood, 1989: 21)

Most of the teacher's work associated with listening practice is done before the actual lesson During the lesson, the teacher should create and maintain an encouraging class atmosphere by:

- Being available to give help whenever it is needed, but not inflicting help on those who

do not need it This may be at any stage during the lesson

- Encouraging the students to help each other, so that the emphasis is on the successful completion of the task(s) rather than on who got it 'right' or 'wrong'

- Not treating the activities as tests to be marked and scored

- Encouraging the students to alter their answers if they wish to, perhaps after listening for

a second time

- Encouraging students to jot down odd words, ideas and thoughts as they are doing their listening task

- Suggesting that the students use dictionaries when it would prove helpful

- Including lots of pair-work and group work

- Making listening work enjoyable

- Leaving out part of the work rather than rushing

- Giving immediate feedback

(Mary Underwood, 1989:21)

Obviously, teachers play a significant role in the listening lesson Hence, it is advisable that teachers prepare their lesson plans properly and conduct listening lessons in

a purposeful way to help students improve their listening skill

2.2.5 Encouraging students' self-learning

Self-learning refers to a process whereby the learner participates actively in the act

of learning, including planning, goal setting, progress monitoring, selecting learning strategies and controlling the learning environment Therefore, the aim of most good teaching listening skill is to help students be more autonomous and practice listening outside the class

 Autonomy for the students

Shelagh Rixon (1986: 126) states that "teachers cannot expect all students to be

able to work well by themselves from the very beginning Autonomy is often developed

from having the right amount of support at the right time, with the support being gradually lessened as students become more confident A good catalogue, usable worksheets and teacher's guidance will all contribute"

The teacher's role changes in self-access work The teacher becomes more of a manager and a counselor than an informant All students need the teacher to be available as

a source of advice, or even just as someone to boast to about an achievement The idea of self-access work is definitely not to cut learners off from all human contact

Having the right equipment also counts Cassettes are much more convenient and tangle-free than reel-to-reel tape for use in a self-access library Moreover, computers and internet are also useful equipment to support self-learning

It is certain that when listening tasks involve searching for pieces of information, there is an answer sheet that the student can find easily for himself Another loose-leaf binder, with all the answer keys in it, can be kept next to the main catalogue Students will then need to consult the teacher only in case where they do not understand why a certain answer is wrong or right, and will be independent as far as checking routine answer is concerned

 Listening outside the classroom

For teachers working with students within the United Kingdom, the opportunities to use English outside school are huge, but those working abroad need not despair either There are two ways in which you can encourage students to listen outside the school The first is to get student to exercise their listening outside school and the second is about finding opportunities for listening for pleasure

- Listening assignments outside the school

According to Shelagh Rixon (1986), self-access listening has been discussed as a stepping stone between listening guided by the teacher and greater independence Students who have met certain types of listening experiences in the listening library may feel prepared to try them in their own time Radio programs are an obvious example Opportunities for work involving live listening vary from place to place For example, it may be a project of finding a tourist and asking about his or her impressions of the town

- Listening for pleasure outside the school

Opportunities for making contact with the language outside the school will vary, as will the amount of enthusiasm shown by students about non-obligatory, 'extra-mural' listening Students have a perfect right not to be keen, but they should be equipped with good information Teachers need to do some research into: what English language broadcasting station can be receptive, what English language film showings are available and so on

2.3 Theoretical background of portfolio

2.3.1 Definition of portfolio

In the last decade, there have been numerous innovations in education theory and practice Education has moved from a traditional teacher-centred process to a student-centred process There is a wide variety of methods of education and training to choose from and portfolio-based learning is an increasingly popular option among educationists Portfolios are collections of relevant works reflecting students' individual efforts, development, and progress over a period of time The aim of learning portfolios is to provide students, teachers, parents, and administrators with an overview of students’ growth over time, including students' abilities, knowledge, skills, and attitudes (Flippo, 1997; Hamm & Adams, 1991; Mathews, 1990; Tierney, Carter, & Desai, 1991)

In defining the word portfolio, people have different points of views Some teachers consider the use of a portfolio as part of an alternative assessment which can contain either students’ best work or their accomplishments (Nunes, 2004) According to Simon and

Forgette-Giroux (1994), a portfolio is defined as "a cumulative and continuous collection

of entries selected and reflected on by students in order to assess their competency development" Paulson, Paulson, and Meyer (1991) gave an extensive definition of

portfolio They define a portfolio as "a purposeful collection of students’ work, not only

exhibiting students’ effort, progress, and achievement, but also demonstrating students’ participation in selecting contents and selecting the criteria for assessment"

To sum up, a portfolio is a purposeful and organized collection of students' work which reflects their talent, capacity and their own learning process

2.3.2 The contents of portfolio

For the contents of the portfolio, there is not necessarily a set of fixed components

to be included The decision on the components of the portfolio can be made by the teachers, the students, or through an agreement between teachers and students As a general guideline, Crockett (1998, as cited in Nunes, 2004) suggested five different groups

of materials that may be included in the portfolio of students:

- Samples that are considered class assignment requirements;

- “Processed samples” that were “previously graded by the teacher”;

- “Revisions of student work” that are “graded and then revised, edited, and rewritten”;

- Reflections that are associated with the “processed samples” and these reflections give

students opportunities to identity their own strengths and weaknesses;

- And portfolio projects, which cover work designed for the sole purpose of inclusion in the student portfolios and that can be arise from a review of portfolios that shows a particular interest or challenge to overcome

For each item, a brief rationale for choosing the item should be covered This may relate to students' performance, to their feelings considering their progress and themselves

as learners

According to Huong Nguyen Le et al (2007: 11-13), listening portfolio entails teamwork expose to a variety of listening resources and listening practice Thus, apart from listening skill building, the task also aims at students' development of information literacy and collaboration skills The contents of portfolios are presented as follows:

A Cover Sheet

B Declaration and Statement of Authorship

C Index of Listening Files

D Listening Files

1 File identification

2 Full script

E Reflection checklist

Students are to write only one reflection for the whole portfolio and this should not exceed 600 words (two pages) The reflection should contain the following components:

1 Reflection on strategies used

- The steps students went through when doing the portfolio

- The strategies students used while transcribing the files, especially how they coped with words that are hard to identify

2 Reflection on the contents of the files

- What (background) knowledge students have gained through flowing the issues?

- What contents students like and dislike most or any information that makes a deep impression on them

F Glossary

G Work distribution

H Collaboration peer assessment sheets

I Portfolio assessment sheet

Do not fill in this page

J Final grades report form

Fill in the team members' names Leave others blank

K Attached disc or/ and tape

In short, no matter what is in the portfolio, teachers have to communicate the contents of the portfolio clearly to students at the beginning of the course to avoid confusion and frustration At the same time, teachers have to be sensitive to students’ adjustments to the idea of the portfolio Besides, teachers need to introduce the use of portfolios and the materials to be put in the portfolio step by step and should expect some confusion from students at the very beginning

2.3.3 Phases of portfolio development

A portfolio can be formulated in the following stages suggested by the Gomes (2000)

Phase One: organization and Planning - in this stage, both teachers and students

make their decisions on the organization and the plan as well as fully discover the purposes

of the portfolio and its status For example:

- How to select times, materials, etc to reflect what is learned in class

- How to organize and present the items, materials, etc that have been collected

- How to maintain and store portfolio

Phase Two: Collection - This process involves the collection of meaningful

artifacts and products reflecting students' educational experiences and goals Decisions must be made at this phase about the context and contents of the portfolio based upon the intent and purposes identified for it The selection and collection of artifacts and products should be based upon a variety of factors that can include particular subject matter; a learning process; or special projects, themes, and/or units All selections included in the collection should clearly reflect the criteria and standards identified for evaluation

Phase Three: Reflection - There should be evidence of students' meta-cognitive

reflections upon the learning process and their monitoring of their evolving comprehension

or key knowledge and skills in the portfolio These reflections can take the form of learning logs, reflective journals and other forms of reflection upon their experiences, the thinking processes they have used, and the habits of mind they employed at given points in time and across time periods In addition, teacher and/or parent reflections upon the products, processes and thinking articulated in the portfolio should also be included wherever appropriate

2.3.4 Benefits of using portfolios

Various writers have noted the advantages of using portfolios in the language classroom These are summarized below:

- Promote learner autonomy by encouraging learners to select artifacts for their portfolios and sometimes evaluate them (Hancock, 1994);

- Portfolios increase learning by enhancing the learner's awareness of what they have learned and how they have learned it because they have a concrete record of their work to refer to Because portfolios can include a history of the developmental process (e.g., making repeated drafts of a composition) leading to a final product, learners can have a better understanding of how they have changed (learned) in order to create the final product (San Diego County Office of Education, 1997)

- Increase learner motivation by providing interesting activities (Brown and Hudson, 1998)

- Improve learner-teacher interaction through selection and review of portfolio contents and encourage student learning of meta-language for talking about language learning (Brown and Hudson, 1998)

- Encourage teacher professionalism as more responsibility is given to the teacher for creating the assessment instrument (Valencia and Calfee, 1991)

- Provide teaching/learning opportunities as the portfolio review process highlights areas of student weakness on an on-going basis which can then be redressed through teaching (Tanner et al., 2000)

- Provide an authentic description of learner achievement/ability (Gomez, 2000; Short, 1993)

2.3.5 Weakness associated with using portfolios

While the writers mentioned above have noted many advantages of using portfolios, many of the same writers highlighted problems with this approach as follows:

- Time-consuming (e.g negotiating artifacts with students, reviewing the contents, perhaps conferencing with learners during the review process (Valencia and Calfee, 1991) (Gomez, 2000)

- Costly (extra materials are often involved) (Valencia and Calfee, 1991)

- Teachers and students often need training in order to implement the portfolio process, and this requires initiative that may be lacking (Tanner et al., 2000)

- Difficult to select scoring criteria because it requires time and training that is often unavailable (Gomez, 2000)

- Low reliability of assessment results because of inter-rater disagreement due to different tasks and contexts (Valencia and Calfee, 1991)

2.4 Summary

In short, this chapter focuses on the useful concepts for the accomplishment of the study To begin with, prominent definitions of listening comprehension are introduced and then come the listening process and the importance of listening What is more is some background knowledge of teaching and learning listening skill such as components for listening, stages in a listening lesson, the teacher's role, potential problems in learning listening skill and encouraging students' self-learning Last but not least, the concepts and

ideas relating to portfolios such as definitions of portfolio, the contents and benefits of portfolio and phases of portfolio development are conceptualized and analyzed as a base for the study

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY

Introduction

The previous chapter was devoted to reviewing literature work in listening skill and portfolios in listening This chapter will focus on the details of the practical study, involving context of the study, participants, data collection procedure and data collection instruments

3.1 Context of the study

3.1.1 The institution

Academy of Finance is a reputational institution in Hanoi as well as nation-wide Founded in 1963, the university has ever since taken the responsibility to train under and post graduate, to do scientific research, to train management skill in finance and accounting business administration financial English and finance-accounting Informatics with various forms of training: regular and in-service courses, the second diploma courses, perfecting under and post graduate knowledge

There are seven primary departments, namely accounting, corporate finance, international finance, tax and custom, banking, business administration, and foreign languages departments The department of foreign languages consists of two groups: English-majored and non-English-majored which train English-majored and non-English major students, respectively

In terms of facilities for teaching and learning, the college is still facing some difficulties All the classroom buildings were built a long time ago and thus are not in very good conditions now The classrooms are not well-equipped with such modern devices as overhead projectors, loudspeakers, computers, etc This is a big challenge to the teachers in the department who are now enthusiastic about innovating the teaching methods as well as teaching and learning environment

3.1.2 The teachers

Teachers are considered one of the most important factors in teaching English At Academy of Finance (AOF), teachers working with First-year students are at different

ages, with different working experience and graduated from not the same kind of educational training institution Half of them are at the age from 40 to 55 and learned Russian before being re-trained to teach English The rest are ranked from 22 to 35 years old, majored in English and graduated from College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National University, and Hanoi University of Foreign Studies

In terms of language teaching method, an information exchange among these teachers shows that they are applying different kinds of teaching methods like the Grammar-Translation method, the Direct method, the Audio-lingual method, and the Communicative approach It is very important that most of them are very aware of the importance of the Communicative approach when working with the book "Business Basics" and teaching English to their students

3.1.3 The students

Like the students of other colleges and universities, students of Academy of Finance have to pass a challenging University Entrance Examinations Students of AOF come from all parts of the country: big cities, provinces, mountainous and remote areas

Freshman students of AOF have different level of English language proficiency Some of them have learnt English for 7 years at secondary and high schools Some have only learnt English for 3 years at high schools and the others have never learnt English but French or Chinese Students from big cities like Hanoi, Hai Phong, Nam Dinh seem better

at English However, they are only good at grammar They can do grammatical exercises quickly but cannot communicate in English

3.1.4 The course

The material "Business Basics" by David Grant and Robert McLarty published in

1995 by the Oxford University Press is introduced to first-year students The total time for this material is 150 periods divided equally into two semesters of academic year which cover totally 12 units Each week, students have 6 periods and each one lasts 45 minutes Each unit lasts from 8 to 12 periods, depending on the length and difficulty of its content The objectives of the course is to provide students with general knowledge of vocabulary, phonology, English grammar as well as developing students' integrated four language skills: listening skill, speaking skill, reading skill and writing skill

3.1.5 Introduction to the coursebook

 General description of the material "Business Basics"

"Business Basics" is written by David Grant and Robert McLarty, published in

1995 by the Oxford University Press This is a course book for business students at elementary level Business Basics is composed of:

 A students’ book

 Two students’ Audio Cassettes

 Two students’ Audio CDs

 A workbook

 A Teacher’s book

 Organization and contents in Business Basics

The Students’ book consists of:

Four main teaching points include Grammar, Pronunciation, Vocabulary, and Communication skills Exercises and activities are divided into six different types: Speaking, Listening, Writing, Reading, Vocabulary, and Pronunciation Speaking activities are used for initial discussion around a theme, to access students' knowledge of a language point, and to provide controlled and freer practice of the target language Listening