A Study on the Problems in Teaching English Listening Skills to the 10th form Students at Phu Ly B High School and some Suggested Solutions

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ************** VŨ THỊ THANH HƯƠNG A STUDY ON THE PROBLEMS IN TEA

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

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

VŨ THỊ THANH HƯƠNG

A STUDY ON THE PROBLEMS IN TEACHING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS TO

THE 10 TH FORM STUDENTS AT PHU LY B HIGH SCHOOL, HA NAM

AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

(Tìm hiểu những khó khăn của giáo viên trong việc dạy kĩ năng nghe hiểu cho học sinh lớp

10 Trường THPT B Phủ Lý, Hà Nam và một số giải pháp khắc phục)

MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410

Hanoi – 2012

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

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

VŨ THỊ THANH HƯƠNG

A STUDY ON THE PROBLEMS IN TEACHING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS TO

THE 10 TH FORM STUDENTS AT PHU LY B HIGH SCHOOL, HA NAM

AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

(Tìm hiểu những khó khăn của giáo viên trong việc dạy kĩ năng nghe hiểu cho học sinh lớp

10 Trường THPT B Phủ Lý, Hà Nam và một số giải pháp khắc phục)

MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410

SUPERVISOR: KIM VĂN TẤT, M.A.

Hanoi - 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of abbreviations viii

List of tables and charts viii

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Methods of the study 2

5 Significance of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Definitions of listening 5

1.2 Common methods of teaching ELS 5

1.3 Stages of a listening lesson 6

1.3.1 Pre-listening stage 7

1.3.2 While-listening stage 8

1.3.3 Post-listening stage 9

1.4 Strategies of listening comprehension 10

1.5 Problems with listening activities 11

1.5.1 Situational problems 11

1.5.2 Problems from the listening materials 12

1.5.2.1 Unfamiliar topics 12

1.5.2.2 Different accents 12

1.5.2.3 Speed of speech 12

1.5.2.4 Strange sounds 13

1.5.3 Problems from student factors……… 13

1.5.3.1 Students’ low motivation 13

1.5.3.2 Students’ low level of proficiency 14

1.5.3.3 Students’ anxiety 14

1.5.3.4 Students’ limited vocabulary and structures 14

1.5.3.5 Students’ lack of background knowledge 15

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 16

2.1 Introduction of language teaching and learning conditions in PB school 16

2.1.1 Students 16

2.1.2 Teachers 16

2.1.3 Teaching and learning conditions 16

2.1.3.1 Teaching aids 16

2.1.3.2 Teaching hours 17

2.1.3.3 Class size 17

2.2 The new “Tieng Anh 10” textbook 17

2.2.1 Form 10 listening objectives 17

2.2.2 Listening lessons 18

2.3 Research questions 18

2.4 Data collection instruments 18

2.4.1 Instrument one: Questionnaires 19

2.4.2 Instrument two: Interviews 19

2.5 Summary 19

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 20

3.1 Questionnaires 20

3.1.1 Questionnaires for students 20

3.1.2 Questionnaires for teachers 25

3.2 Results of the interviews 30

3.3 Summary 31

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND SUGGESTED SOLUSIONS 32

4.1 Findings 32

4.1.1 Teachers’ attitudes towards teaching ELS 32

4.1.2 Students’ attitudes towards learning ELS 32

4.1.3 Students’ difficulties in learning ELS 32

4.1.4 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching ELS to grade 10 students 33

4.2 Suggested solutions 33

4.2.1 Doing pre-listening activities effectively 34

4.2.2 Encouraging students to practice ELS outside the class 35

4.2.3 Giving support and encouragement 36

4.2.4 Upgrading teaching aids 36

4.2.5 Adapting and re-designing the tasks 37

4.2.6 Equipping students with listening strategies 38

4.3 Summary 39

PART III: CONCLUSIONS 40

1 Summary of the study 40

2 Limitations of the study 40

3 Recommendations for further study 40

REFERENCES 42 APPENDICES I

Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students I Appendix 2: Questionnaire for teachers III Appendix 3: Interview questions for teachers V Appendix 4: Four teachers’ answering interview questions VI Appendix 5: Topics of the listening texts in English textbook 10 VIII Appendix 6: Contents of some listening lessons IX

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

PB school ELS

Phuly B high school English Listening Skills

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Students’ attitudes towards the importance of listening skills 20

Table 4 Students’ suggested techniques to better teaching ELS 25

Table 5 Teachers’ assessment of listening tasks in “Tieng Anh 10” textbook 25

Table 6 Teachers’ opinion of students’ attitudes towards listening lessons 26

Table 8 The frequency of teachers’ using techniques in a listening lesson 28

Table 9 Teachers’ suggested solutions to improve listening teaching 29

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1 Students’ assessment of tasks in the “Tieng Anh 10” textbook 21 Chart 2 Students’ attitudes towards the time for learning ELS 22 Chart 3 Students' frequency of listening to English outside the class 22

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

In Vietnam, in the recent years, the teaching and learning of English have been gaining significance firstly because it is an international language; secondly it is also seen as a means

to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between Viet Nam and other countries There have been an increasing number of people desiring to know English with the hope of keeping up with the latest modern technology in the world English has now been taught not only at all universities and colleges, but also at almost every senior high school and it is considered as a compulsory subject at secondary schools

At PB school, where the author studies, English is a compulsory subject in the curriculum and

it is considered as a major subject for the high school examination It is taught with the purpose that students have some basic knowledge of English in order to communicate and to use it as a key to science and technology However, there still exist many difficulties facing English language teachers at PB school, especially in teaching listening skills to students The teachers of English at PB school find it difficult to teach listening lessons successfully

Listening has long been considered a difficult and boring subject by many second language learners It takes much time and energy to make progress in this skill For listening teachers, it

is a difficult task to get students involved in listening lessons

At my school, teaching listening is really a problem In addition to the lack of well-equipped facilities, teaching listening methods are not satisfactory Another problem is students’ low level of proficiency in terms of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, skills and so forth It is the reason why students find it difficult and tough to listen to and they are not confident enough to do listening tasks successfully Moreover, learning habits do not help much to improve their listening in classroom

All of the above reasons have inspired the author to do the research “A Study on the Problems

in Teaching English Listening Skills to the 10 th form Students at Phu Ly B High School and some Suggested Solutions” with the hope to make a small contribution to the quality of

teaching and learning listening skills at PB school

2 Aims and objectives of the study

Within the framework of a minor thesis, the study is aimed at:

- Clarifying the practices of teaching and learning ELS in 10th form in PB school

- Finding out the difficulties teachers and students in 10th form in PB school have had to undergo

- Suggesting some feasible solutions to the teaching of ELS for 10th form students

It may appear contradictory that in the first two concentrations, the study attempts to investigate both teaching and learning of ELS whereas the main topic raised in the title of the study is only about the teaching However, according to Brown (2007), it is not a contradiction

“if we look at the teaching process as the facilitation of learning.”

3 Scope of the study

Learning a second language as a scholar once said “is a long and complex undertaking” Therefore, teachers of a second language certainly have many problems during their teaching

In the scope of this research, however, the researcher only has ambition to investigate the difficulties that teachers in PB school have been facing when teaching listening skill for 10thgraders Hopefully, they will have more smooth and successful listening lessons Also, it is not expected that the study can bring solutions to the ELS teaching for students of all levels

4 Methods of the study

The study is designed to use both qualitative and quantitative methods Besides, many resources such as books, magazines, articles, newspapers and some sources on the Internet

have been read by the researcher

In order to gain the most reliable results, the quantitative data will be collected through two survey questionnaires One survey questionnaire is for 180 students from four different groups

in grade 10 in PB school and the other survey is for 7 teachers The data, then, will be processed and analyzed to yield conclusions for the study

Along with the quantitative method, the qualitative data has been obtained by informal interviews with some teachers to collect further information about the real situations of teaching and learning ESL in grade 10 at PB school

5 Significance of the study

This research provides an insight into the problems that are often met by teachers teaching English for 10th form students in PB school In addition, this research also points out some feasible solutions which are beneficial for both teachers and students

Hopefully, the findings and recommendations of this study will be of some help to the improvement of the teaching and learning ELS of Vietnamese students in general and of PB school students in particular The study also gives some guidelines for teachers to help their students overcome their listening comprehension problems The results of this study may also

be useful for those who are interested in this field

6 Design of the study

The study is divided into three parts: the Introduction, the Development and the Conclusion Part I: INTRODUCTION- deals with the rationales, aims, methods, scope, significance and design of the study

Part II: DEVELOPMENT – consists of three chapters

Chapter 1: Literature review – provides some theoretical background about listening

comprehension, teaching listening skill and problems with listening activities

Chapter 2: Methodology – presents the current situation of teaching and learning

listening at PB school This chapter also deals with the introduction of the research methods which cover research questions, the participants and data collection instruments

Chapter 3: Data analysis and discussions – presents the data results, analysis collected

from two questionnaires as well as the interviews

Chapter 4: Findings and suggested solutions – concludes the findings the researcher has

from the study and proposes some solutions to the teaching of ELS to 10th form students in

PB school

Part III: CONCLUSION- gives a brief description of the study and states the limitations as well as recommendations for further research

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Definitions of listening

There appear many different points of view on the definition of listening:

Underwood (1989, p.1) describes listening in a simple and easily understandable way:

“Listening is the activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from something you hear” As a matter of fact, to succeed in listening, the duty of listeners is not

only to understand of the words given, but also seek the real meaning hidden in words Buck (2001, p.3) asserts listening in communicative approach: “Listening comprehension is the result of an interaction between a number of information sources, which include the acoustic input, different types of linguistic knowledge, detail of the context, and general world knowledge, and• so forth, and listeners use whatever information they have available, or what ever information seems relevant to help them interpret what the speaker is saying” In this definition, Buck aims to highlight the active role of the learners who act as the negotiators and integrators in the process of learning listening In this process, learners activate both linguistic cues and nonlinguistic knowledge to achieve the meaning

In other words, listening is the active combination of new input gained by what the listeners get and their prior knowledge and experience This view is valuable and worth considering in setting up listening syllabus in the sense that it aims to build communicative competence

to the learners in listening lessons

To conclude, listening demands many skills It is an active process in which learners use their prior knowledge to infer the message of the listening text

1.2 Common methods of teaching listening skills

In the past, common methods of teaching listening are grammar-translation method and direct method Currently, researchers put focus on audio-lingual method and task-based method as

the view provided by Larsen-Freeman (2000, p.35-145): Audio-lingual method: Following this method, dialogues and drills (backward build up, chain, substitution, transformation, and question-and-answer) are used to introduce new vocabulary and structures Learners get the dialogues by imitation and repetition Learners receive the knowledge of grammar naturally through examples provided by the teachers Knowledge of culture is given in the dialogue or

by the teacher Teacher acts as “orchestra leaders” and their role is “directing and controlling the language behavior of her students” and “providing her students with a good model for imitation” In this case, the learners perform as “imitators of the teacher’s model” and “follow the teacher’s directions and respond as accurately and as rapidly as possible”

Task-based method: By this method, learners are equipped with a natural context for listening The time they perform the task is the time they have interaction with each other which activate language acquisition The author focuses that: “by interacting with each other, they get to listen to language which may be beyond their present ability, but which may be assimilated into their knowledge of the target language for use at a later time” and “the language practiced in the classroom is not predetermined, but rather derive from the nature of a particular project that the students elect to do”

1.3 Stages of a listening lesson

Rixon (1986, p.63-64) stated that a commonsense way of dividing up a listening lesson is into three stages:

- Things to do before the students hear the passage, to help them get the most out of what they are going to hear

- Activities and exercises to be carried out as the students listen to the passage, to guide them as they try to gasp the main information in it

- Things to do once the class has come to grips with the meaning and content of the passage, and is ready to look back, to reflect on some of the language points in it or to

do some extension work based on the content of the passage

The three stages are summarized as: Pre-listening stage, While-listening stage and listening stage Each stage has its own aims and activities

Post-1.3.1 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

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, Underwood (1989, p.33) stated that 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 Teachers need to select some kinds of suitable activity to some types of text

Davies and Pearse (2000, p.78) points out that pre-listening work can consist of a whole range

of activities, including:

- Discuss a relevant picture

- Discuss relevant experiences

- Associate ideas with the topic

- Associate vocabulary with the topic

- Predict information about the topic

- Write questions about the topic

1.3.2 While-listening stage

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 understand the text and develop the skill of eliciting message from spoken language Teachers should not expect students to try to understand every word For example, teachers may ask students to listen for three pieces of information the first time they hear the recording, and tell teachers about the attitude of the speakers after the second time they have heard it In general, teachers should help their students understand rather than testing their understanding the whole time Underwood (1989, p.49) pointed out that when choosing while-listening activities, teachers should consider the following factors:

a) The possibilities for varying the level of difficulty if required;

b) 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;

c) 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 students different work according to their level of ability, to provide additional instructions, or to select activities which generate little or no marking;

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

Furthermore, Davis (2000, p.78) suggests the following while-listening activities:

- Identify the exact topic, or an aspect of it

- Note two to four pieces of information

- 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 Underwood (1989, p.80), when the teachers select post-activities, the attention should be given to the following factors:

- The amount of language work which the teacher wishes to do in relation to the particular listening text;

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

- Whether the post-listening work should consist of speaking, reading or writing;

- Whether the post-listening stage is seen as an opportunity for pair/group-work or it is intended that students should work alone;

- Whether it is necessary to provide post-listening activities which can be done outside the classroom (at home/ in the listening centre);

- The chosen activity should be made motivating

And here are the possible post-listening activities by Davis (2000, p.78):

- Give opinions

- Relate similar experiences

- Role-play a similar interaction

- Write a brief report

- Write a similar text

- Debate the topic

In conclusion, by raising students' awareness of listening as a skill that requires active engagement, teachers should help their students develop both the ability and the confidence to handle communication situations they may encounter beyond the classroom In this way teachers will give their students the foundation for communicative competence in the new language

1.4 Strategies of listening comprehension

Listening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension and recall of listening input Listening strategies can be classified by how the listener processes the input

Top-down strategies are listener based; the listener taps into background knowledge of the topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language This background knowledge activates a set of expectations that help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate what will come next Top-down strategies include:

- listening for the main idea

- predicting

- drawing inferences

- summarizing

Bottom-up strategies are text based in which the listener relies on the language in the message, that is, the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates meaning Bottom-up strategies include:

- listening for specific details

- recognizing cognates

- recognizing word-order patterns

Listening comprehension tends to be an interactive, interpretive process in which listeners use prior knowledge and linguistic knowledge in understanding messages Listeners use meta-cognitive, cognitive and socio-affective strategies to facilitate comprehension and to make their learning more effective Meta-cognitive strategies are important because they regulate and direct the language learning process Research shows that skilled listeners use more metacognitive strategies than their less-skilled counterparts (O'Malley & Chamot, 1989, Vandergrift, 1997a) The use of cognitive 5 strategies helps students to manipulate learning materials and apply specific techniques to a listening task Socio-affective strategies describe the techniques listeners use to collaborate with others, to verify understanding or to lower anxiety

1.5 Problems with listening activities

Teaching listening as well as learning listening is not simple, complex and difficult processes Teachers and students meet many challenges in this skill

1.5.1 Situational problems

As matter of fact, currently, many classes have over thirty students with inequality in the level

of proficiency which poses a lot of obstacles to the teachers to control their students To this problem, Hess (2001, p.137) states: “In large class, it is important to create activities that will keep the more advanced students interested and at the same time allow the less advanced students to make progress at their own pace” According to Hess (2001, p.138), to help multilevel students not lose motivation, teachers can individualize the listening task For example, with the same listening text, for the more competent students, it is advisable for the

teacher to give more difficult tasks, but for the less competent ones, the less difficult tasks should be introduced Also considering this problem, Hess (2001, p.182) suggests

“establishing routines and procedures” because “well-established routines give students a sense of stability and security” The exploitation of pair-work and group-work is also appreciated by this author in coping with large and multilevel classes

The problem of noise needs to be focused for the reason that many teachers and students complain noise affects the success of their listening lesson For teachers, they find it difficult

to control the class and to instruct students For the students, they feel distracted and sometimes can not capture the essential words and phrases due to the noise The feasible solution for this matter is to conduct listening lesson in lab room with good quality recorders and CD players and it is necessary that students keep quiet during the lessons It is not new that many teachers and students reveals good class equipments assist listening

1.5.2 Problems from the listening materials

1.5.2.1 Unfamiliar topics

Listening texts can be about various topics in life including daily conversation, formal meeting and class discussion which make students confused and anxious Almost of words and phrases are new to them and they do not have any background knowledge of these topics In this case, it is a need for students to practice as much as they can on the topics at home And teacher’s role is providing students with essential background and systemic knowledge

what they hear that they miss the next part Teachers’ role in this situation is very important The solutions include asking the learners to pick up the important words that they need to listen to; having them expose as much as possible the spontaneous informal talk as they can

1.5.2.4 Strange sounds

Many students have problems in hearing and catching the strange sounds in listening text because “most listeners rely mostly on context for comprehension; they are often themselves unaware of inaccurate sound perception” (Ur, 1991, p.111) This is not the only reason Another reason comes from the features of native speaker’s pronunciation of English which is shown by Rixon (1986, p.38): The weak relationship between English sounds and the way they are spelt in the written language, changes in sounds when they occur in rapid, connected speech, the rhythm pattern of English speech, different ways of pronouncing the “same” sound In this case, practicing pronunciation is a need, but usually at home In class, it is essential for the teacher to introduce some strange sounds to students During the listening process, if students have difficulty with sounds, they should omit them and try to guess the meaning of words

1.5.3 Problems from student factors

1.5.3.1 Students’ low motivation

Students’ low motivation is really a problem in listening lessons As the matter of fact, if the students get tired and feel not interested in the lesson, it will be difficult for them to seek the success in the process of listening This fact is also confirmed by White (1998, p.13) as

“listening well involves motivation and concentration” Many researchers provide the solutions for this kind of problem Hedge (2000, p.247) gives the suggestion which highlights that: “creating purpose for listening can motivate students” This viewpoint is reasonable because if the students make out the point of what they are performing, they will feel encouraged to join the listening tasks Teachers can gain this 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 classroom” (Underwood, 1989, p.21) Along with these, the students will get disappointed when they always fail in doing tasks Therefore, to

motivate and encourage students during the lesson, it is advisable for the teachers to

“help students see how successful they have been in doing the task” (Hedge, 2000, p.244) And Tuyet (2007, p.35) provides one solution which states that: “teachers had better not treat the activities as tests to be marked or scored” Giving students background knowledge before listening is also a good advice The use of visual aids should be taken into consideration when teachers try to seek the path to have students’ motivation Students themselves can seek the interest in learning listening through English songs, movies and stories at home as well as joining in pair-work and group-work in class

1.5.3.2 Students’ low level of proficiency

Teaching listening to intermediate and advanced students is difficult, and for the beginners, the case is more complex because they do not gain themselves a lot of experiences with listening, plus their lack of linguistic and cultural knowledge of the language Therefore, it is not easy to understand the provided input to infer the meaning of the listening text Buck (2001, p.47) approves the use of visual aids in teaching listening to low competent learners This will help the students feel more excited in acquiring the lesson In addition, with the beginners, the listening tasks given should be simple enough They tend to be interested in the simple ones first, and then move to the more complex one because they need time to get used

to the level of difficulty in each task For students, it is a need to practice a lot with simple listening exercises at home because everything always starts with the simplest points

1.5.3.3 Students’ anxiety

The feeling of anxiety always appears among beginners who are worried about the difficulties and the failure encountered during the lesson Rixon (1986, p.79) and Hedge (2000, p.237) give some suggestions for teachers who wish to cope with students’ anxiety including: contextualizing the text; activate the prior knowledge; the pace and the length of listening task are not too taxing; the degree of response should be simple; treating the listening lesson like training lesson, not a test: giving students sense of autonomy

1.5.3.4 Students’ limited vocabulary and structures

Wood (1989, p.17) pinpoints this problem as: “an unknown word can be like a suddenly dropped barrier causing them to stop and think about the meaning of the word and thus

making them miss the next part of the speech” There are many solutions for teachers in this case which suggest instructing them how to identify the important words that they need to listen to, giving students chances to guess the meaning from the relevant clues and presenting some important words and structures before allowing the students to do their listening

1.5.3.5 Students’ lack of background knowledge

Lack of background knowledge will cause the wrong interpretation to the listening text given because “when we listen we use our background knowledge of the world to set up expectations, and then we use those expectations to help us comprehend what we hear” (Buck,

2001, p.8) Get the importance of this, Lingzhu (2003) states that it is advisable for teachers to introduce the listening topic and after that, students write down as many words and phrases related to the topic as they can The problem also can be solved by giving students some questions related to the text and having them answer to get prior knowledge In addition, looking at some pictures is considered a very exciting way for students to gain background knowledge

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Introduction of English teaching and learning conditions at PB school

2.1.1 Students

The level of English for grade 10 students is targeted at pre-intermediate level though a

few actually reach the standard As their lower-secondary years were spent with the grammar translation method, most students are good at grammar, but bad at listening and speaking the target language They can do written exercises on English grammar accurately but they can hardly communicate in English Using English to comm unicate is a big challenge for most of them who think that learning a foreign language means learning

grammatical rules or a list of irregular verbs

Students at PB school are sixteen years old and have experienced in English, including listening skill for five years at lower-upper schools Nevertheless, they basically are beginners of English They are likely to be motivated or de-motivated easily This matter of fact should be taken into account in using teaching methods and approaches

in order to foster and develop their listening skills efficiently

2.1.2 Teachers

The teachers are the most important factors in the process of teaching and learning a target language To carry out this process properly, the teachers need to have good experience of teaching and understanding of the syllabus At PB school, there are 7 teachers of English and

no one has ever been to an English speaking country

Methodologically, the teachers at PB school are familiar with traditional language teaching

English They lack teaching experience, particularly teaching listening skills

2.1.3 Teaching and learning conditions

2.1.3.1 Teaching aids

Facilities in PB school are brought into question The classes are not well-equipped with tapes, cassette players, speakers, TVs, CDs or overhead projectors except for a board, chalks, pictures or other visual aids designed by teachers themselves There are two modern classrooms for language teaching and learning equipped with teaching aids such as overhead projectors and the Internet Students only have a chance to use these devices when the teachers present model lessons on special occasions such as Women’s Day and Vietnamese Teacher's Day Therefore, students do not have many chances to use both visual and audio aids to practice listening skills often

2.2 The new “Tieng Anh 10” textbook

The new “Tieng Anh 10” textbook composed by Hoang Van Van (2006) has been in use since

2006 as the official textbook to obtain general English at grade 10 The textbook consists of 16 units in terms of 16 topics There are five parts in each unit represented through 5 lessons: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Language Focus respectively The book adopts two new approaches: learner–centered and communicative aiming at students’ better use of English as a tool of communication at basic level in terms of listening, speaking, reading and writing

2.2.1 Form 10 listening objectives

The aim of the course is to equip students with English listening skills for basic communication For 10th form students, the objectives are to develop listening comprehensive skills such as intensive listening, extensive listening, listening for specific information, listening for gist, etc

2.2.2 Listening lessons

In the “Tieng Anh 10” textbook, reading, speaking and listening lessons are divided into three

parts: Before you listen, While you listen and After you listen In Before you listen, learners

listen to the subject matters related to the unit topic; new vocabulary is presented in listening

sessions While you listen includes 2 - 3 tasks (matching, multiple choice questions, true/false,

comprehension questions, gap-filling, taking notes, etc.) aiming at developing students’

comprehensive listening After you listen consolidates comprehensive listening via summary,

speaking and writing activities In order to realize the course objectives, the listening section focuses on daily and popular topics

2.3 Research questions

In order to find out the problems that the teachers and students of form 10 in teaching and learning ELS, it is necessary to answer the following questions:

1 What is the present situation of teaching and learning ELS at PB school?

2 What difficulties do the teachers and the 10th form students encounter in teaching and learning ELS?

3 What are the suggested ways to effectively improve the current situation of teaching and learning ELS at this school?

2.4 Data collection instruments

In order to obtain in-depth, rich data and information for investigating the situation and the problems that teachers and students encountered in teaching and learning ELS, the study used

two methods of data collection: questionnaires and informal interviews

2.4.1 Instrument one: Questionnaires

The questionnaire for the students was written in Vietnamese so that they would not misunderstand the questions The questionnaire was designed to investigate the students’ attitudes toward the learning of listening, the difficulties they encounter in learning ELS, and the students’ expectations for better teaching and learning ELS

The questionnaire delivered to the teachers was strictly conducted in English It aimed to find out the teachers’ attitudes toward the teaching of listening, the difficulties they encounter in teaching ELS, the teachers’ knowledge of teaching listening and the teachers’ expectations for better teaching and learning ELS

Questionnaires for students and teachers both had closed questions After collecting all the questionnaire responses from both teachers and students, the researcher calculated the numbers of responses and the percentages respectively of the questions in each questionnaire

2.4.2 Instrument two: Interviews

In order to understand better about the reality of listening teaching and learning and difficulties that teachers had to face with listening lessons, the researcher had unconventional talks with 4 teachers The questions in the interview were basically based on those in the questionnaire in order to find out the real reasons for their answers as well as to understand more about the reality of teaching and learning ELS Hopefully, the results from the interviews

would contribute much to finding out the solutions to the improvement

2.5 Summary

To conclude, this chapter presents the methodology of the study In other words, it describes the aims, context, participants and instruments of the study Given the collected data, Chapter 3 will depict the data analysis and the study results

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS

The comments and perceptions made by the teachers of English and students of 10th form in

PB school in response to the questionnaire were consolidated and categorized by the researcher These results were converted to percentages for the conveniences of analysis Besides the questionnaires, information gained through interviews was added to assist interpretation

3.1 Questionnaires

3.1.1 Questionnaires for students

Question 1: How are English listening skills important to you?

very important important little important not important

Table 1: Students’ attitudes towards the importance of ELS

As shown in table 1, nearly half of the students (48%) thought that listening was important and even 30% revealed that it was a very important skill 12% of participants stated that it was of little importance and the smallest percentage (10%) underestimated the significance of this skill In general, most of the students highly appreciated the importance of English listening skills, especially communication ability However, it seems to be contradictory to the low level of their participation in classroom activities in fact This was also a challenge for both students and teachers to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning ELS at PB school

Question 2: What do you think about listening tasks in “Tieng Anh 10” textbook?

Difficult 21%

Very difficult 13%

Appropriate 63%

Easy 3%

Chart 1: Students’ assessment of tasks in the “Tieng Anh 10” textbook

The data from chart 1 shows that 63% (114 out of 180) found that listening tasks in “Tieng Anh 10” textbook were appropriate and suitable for their level 21% (38 out of 180) thought that the tasks were difficult and 13% stated that the tasks were very difficult for them Only 3% of the participants found them easy This finding showed that listening tasks were somewhat challenging to one thirds of the students This might cause students’ boredom and it could not motivate them in learning because levels of the listening tasks were much higher than their proficiency Besides, most of the activities in the lessons came from the textbook without any change, which could not inspire students’ motivation to study Therefore, the researcher thinks that having a good listening lesson requires teachers to have good teaching techniques, knowledge and enthusiasm to design creative and interesting activities with more in-depth information than the textbook

Question 3: Do you think that 45 minutes/ period is suitable for learning ELS to 10 th form students?

As can be seen from the chart, nearly half of the students (44%) thought that the time for teaching and learning ELS one period a week was suitable Even 11% stated that 45 minutes/ period was unnecessary However, 45% revealed that they needed more time for this skill In my interview, most of the teachers said that due to the students’ low level of English proficiency, they could not complete the tasks in the while-listening Also, the teachers spent a lot of time re-playing the tape so that their students could know the answers to each task Sometimes, students could not

check all the answers for each task again and teachers did not have time to carry out activities in the post-listening Thus, they often asked students to do the last part, post-listening tasks at home to save time

44

11

45

0 10 20 30 40 50

Very often 4%

Never 17%

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

The chart reveals that 66% of the students did not often listen to English outside the class Especially, some students (17%) said that they never listened to English outside the class This means that they did not even listen to English songs in which many students were interested Only seven out of one hundred eighty (4%) students practiced listening skill very often at home and 13% stated that they often listened to English at home The students who never listened to English at home might not like English because even the laziest students sometimes listen to English songs Hence, the students’ little practice outside classroom also accounted

for their difficulties in listening acquisition and comprehension Learning a language need continually practicing Therefore, only learning ELS at school is not enough to have a good achievement No matter how good the teachers are, students’ self-study plays a very important part in their learning process

Question 5: How does your teacher encourage you to listen?

by giving good comments

by giving high marks

by giving prizes doing nothing

Table 2: Teachers’ techniques of encouraging students

Table 2 shows students’ evaluation on teacher’s ways of encouraging students to learn listening skills According to 40% of participants’ responses, their teachers often encouraged them to listen in the class by offering high marks Some students stated that their teachers used good comments (36%) or prizes (7%) to motivate students’ involvement In contrast, 17% thought their teachers did nothing to encourage them It was understandable that most teachers gave their students high marks to stimulate them In addition, teachers should give students good comments to build up the confidence in their own listening ability It is advisable that all teachers should use some ways of encouraging students more often

Question 6: What makes it difficult for you to learn ELS?

E Lack of background knowledge in listening topics 110 61%

Table 3: Factors affecting students in learning ELS

According to the statistics from table 3, students’ low level of English proficiency was the most important factor of reluctance in listening accounting to 72% 61% of the students stated that they were lack of background knowledge in listening topics while 40% blamed for their lack of motivation And 30% revealed that bad quality of cassette tapes and CDs caused them difficult Besides, some other factors such as speakers’ fast speed, bad quality of cassette tapes, limited time, teachers’ inappropriate teaching methodology, large class sizes, boring topics and activities also accounted for factors affecting students’ learning ELS These four biggest factors should be noticed by all the teachers of English It was high time teachers found solutions to help students overcome their problems and to improve the quality of the teaching aids Only by doing these problems, teachers could involve more students in their listening lessons

Question 7: In your opinion, what should teachers do to better teaching ELS?

B help students improve their knowledge of the language and of

E exchange experiences and methodology among the English

F encourage students to listen by giving evaluation (comments,

Table 4: Students’ suggested techniques to better teaching ELS

Table 4 shows the suggestions that students expected their teachers to do to increase the involvement 61% of participants highly appreciated teachers’ instructions Next, 56% of students expected that teachers should help them improve their knowledge of the language and

of the world 47% desired that teachers would offer them more English songs and games in listening lessons Then teachers are always expected to encourage students to listen by giving evaluation (comments, feedback and marks) according to 77 students (43%) And 30% thought that teachers should exchange experiences and methodology among the staffs Besides, the same number of students (25%) hoped that their teachers re-designed the listening tasks and guided them how to listen effectively outside the classroom Although students really wanted to learn listening skills and they knew its importance, there were only 15-minute listening tests at the school

3.1.2 Questionnaires for teachers

The questionnaire was conducted among 7 teachers in PB school All of the participants have been teaching English for more than four years and share the same views towards listening teaching Their ideas are shown clearly in the answers to questions below

Question 1: What do you think about listening tasks in the textbook?