A study on the relationship between teaching and learning listening comprehension at a high school in Hoa Binh = Nghiên cứu về mối quan hệ giữa việc dạy và học

ABSTRACT This study aims at finding out students‟ needs and expectations to listening comprehension, how students learn listening comprehension, how English teachers teach listening comp

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES



BÙI THỊ THỦY

A STUDY ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHING

AND LEARNING LISTENING COMPREHENSION

AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN HOA BINH

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ MỐI QUAN HỆ GIỮA VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC NGHE HIỂU

Ở MỘT TRƯỜNG THPT TẠI HÒA BÌNH

M.A MINOR THESIS

CODE : 60.14.0111

HANOI – 2013

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES



BÙI THỊ THỦY

A STUDY ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHING

AND LEARNING LISTENING COMPREHENSION

AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN HOA BINH

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ MỐI QUAN HỆ GIỮA VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC NGHE HIỂU

Ở MỘT TRƯỜNG THPT TẠI HÒA BÌNH

M.A MINOR THESIS

CODE : 60.14.0111

SUPERVISOR : Ph.D PHẠM THỊ THANH THÙY

HANOI – 2013

STATEMENT OF THESIS ORIGINALITY

I certify that this minor thesis entitled ‘A study on the relationship between

teaching and learning listening comprehension at a high school in Hoa Binh’ is the

result of my own research and that it has not been submit for any other degree to any other university or institution

Hanoi, 2013 Student‟s signature

Bùi Thị Thủy

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This minor thesis has been accomplished with the help and encouragement of many people Thus, I hereby would like to express my appreciation to all of them Firstly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my beloved supervisor Ph.D Pham Thi Thanh Thuy for her invaluable guidance, critical comments, positive supports and precious corrections on my writing and thesis completion

Secondly, I would like to thank all lectures and staffs of faculty of postgraduate for their valuable lessons and precious help that help me overcome difficulties in doing this thesis

Thirdly, I also owe my sincere thanks to English teachers and 10th form, 11thform and 12th form students, who enthusiastically took part in this study at Yenthuy

C high school where I conducted this minor thesis I would not have completed my thesis without their help

Last but not least, I would like to thank my beloved family, my husband who gave me love, tolerance and encouragement during the study

ABSTRACT

This study aims at finding out students‟ needs and expectations to listening comprehension, how students learn listening comprehension, how English teachers teach listening comprehension and some ways to fill the gaps between students‟ needs and expectations with how listening comprehension is taught at Yenthuy C high school Firstly, all five English teachers and 166 students were invited to answer two survey questionnaires Then, six listening comprehension periods were observed randomly Last, four English teachers were invited to joined an informal interview The research reveals that the majority of the students have their own certain needs, expectations in learning listening comprehension and most of the teachers‟ teaching methods satisfy students‟ needs and expectations

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the Study 1

3 Methods of the study 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Design of the study 2

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Listening comprehension 4

1.1.1 Definition of listening comprehension 4

1.1.2 The importance of listening comprehension 5

1.2 Teaching listening comprehension 6

1.2.1 The stages of teaching listening comprehension 6

1.2.2 Processes of teaching listening comprehension 7

1.2.3 Techniques ofteaching listening comprehension 8

1.2.4 Principles of teaching listening comprehension 10

1.3 Learning listening comprehension 11

1.3.1 Motivation in learning listening comprehension 11

1.3.2 Strategies of learning listening comprehension 12

1.3.3 Classroom interaction in learning listening comprehension 13

1.3.4 Difficulties in learning listening comprehension 14

1.4 Needs analysis and expectations 17

1.4.1 Need analysis 17

1.4.2 Expectations 18

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 20

2.1 Introduction 20

2.2 Participants 20

2.3 The data collection instrument 21

2.3.1 Classroom Observation 21

2.3.2 Questionnaires 21

2.3.3 Informal Interview 22

2.4 Data collection and analysis 22

2.5 Conclusion 22

CHAPTER 3: REAL SITUATION OF TEACHING LISTENING COMPREHENSION AT YENTHUY C HIGH SCHOOL 23

3.1 Teachers’ stages in teaching listening comprehension 23

3.1.1 Results of the teachers’ stages through questionnaire 23

3.1.2 The results of teachers’ stages through classroom observation 24

3.1.3 The results of teachers’ stages through interviews 24

3.2 Teachers’ processes in teaching listening comprehension 24

3.2.1 The results of teachers’ processes through questionnaire 24

3.2.2 The results of teachers’ processes through classroom observations 26

3.2.3 The results of teachers’ processes through informal interview 26

3.3 Teachers’ techniques for teaching listening comprehension 26

3.3.1 The results of teachers’ techniques through questionnaire 26

3.3.3 The results of teachers’ techniques through interviews 28

3.4 Teachers’ applications of techniques to check students’ listening comprehension 29

3.5 Teachers’ principles in teaching listening comprehension 31

CHAPTER 4: REAL SITUATION OF LEARNING LISTENING COMPREHENSION AT YENTHUY C HIGH SCHOOL 33

4.1 Students’ needs in learning listening comprehension 33

4.2 Students’ expectations to teachers’ teaching listening comprehension 34

4.3 Students’ motivation in learning listening comprehension 35

4.4 Students’ strategies in learning listening comprehension 37

4.5 Students’ interactions in learning listening comprehension 40

4.5.1 The results of students’ interactions through questionnaire 40

4.5.2 The results of students’ interactions through classroom observation 41

4.6 Students’ difficulties in learning listening comprehension 42

CHAPTER 5: FILLING THE GAPS BETWEEN STUDENTS’ NEEDS AND EXPECTATIONS WITH TEACHING LISTENING COMPREHENSION 45

5.1 Filling the gaps between students’ needs in learning listening comprehension and teachers’

teaching listening comprehension 45

5.2 Filling the gaps between students’ expectations in learning listening comprehension and teachers’ teaching listening comprehension 47

5.3 Some activities for gap filling between teaching and listening comprehension 48

PART 3: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION 51

1 Findings and suggestions 51

2 Conclusion 52

3 Limitations of the study 52

4 Suggestions for further study 53

REFERENCES 54

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Students‟ background information 211 Table 2: The results of teachers‟ processes in teaching listening comprehension 255 Table 3: The results of teachers‟ techniques for teaching listening

comprehension.277

Table 4: The results of teachers‟ applications of techniques to check students‟

comprehension in the classroom 30 Table 5: The results of teachers‟ principles for teaching listening comprehension

(n=166) 411 Table 13: The results of students‟ difficulties in learning listening comprehension

(n=166) ……….………

444

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students I Appendix 2: Questionnaire for teachers IX Appendix 3: Informal interview for teacher 1 XII Appendix 4: Informal interview for teacher 2 XIX Appendix 5: Informal interview for teacher 3 XVI Appendix 6: Informal interview for teacher 4 XVIII Appendix 7: Classroom observation 1 XX Appendix 8: Classroom observation 2 XXI Appendix 9: Classroom observation 3 XXIII Appendix 10: Classroom observation 4 XXV Appendix 11: Classroom observation 5 XXVI Appendix 12: Classroom observation 6 ……… XXVIII

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Teaching and learning comprehension should be interesting and motivated to students; however, teaching and learning listening at Yenthuy C high school is rather boring Two years ago, teachers of English at this school taught listening lessons only by reading transcripts (teachers‟ voice) Students here just practiced listening skills in classroom Recently, the school has been equipped with cassette players and teachers do not have to read transcripts anymore Many good students of English are just good at grammar points and other skills except listening skills They don‟t have many chances to practice English listening skills and lack facilities, and listening materials to self-study listening outside classroom Moreover, students‟ low levels of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, other skills, which makes students find

it not easy to listen and not confident to do listening tasks in classroom

Being a teacher of English, the researcher has found listening teaching in Yenthuy C high school challenging and boring Her desire is to increase her students‟ awareness learning of listening comprehension and to improve listening

comprehension skills That is the biggest reason for choosing the theme: „A study on

the relationship between teaching and learning listening comprehension at a high school in Hoa Binh‟

2 Aims of the Study

The main purposes of this study aim to find out the relationship between teaching and learning listening comprehension at Yenthuy C high school in general The researcher would like to find out students‟ needs and expectations to teaching listening at this school Basing on the findings, teachers found some effective and suitable ways to teach listening comprehension Thus, this study aims to find answers to four research questions below:

1/ What are students‟ needs and expectations to teaching listening comprehension?

2/ How do students learn listening comprehension in classroom?

3/ How do English teachers teach listening comprehension at the school? 4/ What are some ways to fill the gaps between students‟ needs and expectations with how listening comprehension is taught in Yenthuy C high school?

3 Methods of the study

Firstly, entirely naturalistic observation was created by note-taking and observing six listening comprehension periods to find out students‟ interaction in learning listening comprehension and English teachers‟ stages in teaching listening comprehension in classroom

Secondly, two survey questionnaires for teachers and students were conducted

to collect data for this study The first set of questions for 166 students were dealt with to find out students‟ expectations needs, motivation, strategies, interactions and difficulties in learning listening comprehension Another set of questions for all five English teachers aimed at finding out their stages, processes, techniques and principles in teaching listening comprehension at the school

Finally, the researcher conducted an informal interview with four teachers to find out more specific information about teachers‟ stages, processes, principles, techniques and applications of techniques in teaching listening comprehension in the classroom

4 Scope of the study

This study was conducted at Yenthuy C high school in order to study the relationship between learning and teaching listening comprehension at this school This study focuses on students‟ needs and expectations learning listening and teaching methodology and factors that affect them Then, the thesis offers some appropriate suggestions for the current context at this school

5 Design of the study

This thesis consists of three parts The first part is the introduction including the rationale for the study, aims of the study, methods of the study, scope of the study and the design of the study

The second part is the development of the study, which consists of five chapters The first one is literature review discussing theoretical background relevant to the purpose of the study The second one is about research methodology

giving a detailed description of how the study was carried out The third part gives teachers‟ teaching listening comprehension at Yenthuy C high school The fourth part discusses students‟ learning listening comprehension at this school The last part is on the study aiming to fill the gaps between students‟ needs and expectations with how listening comprehension is taught

The final part gives the conclusion and some suggestions for teaching and learning listening comprehension at Yenthuy C high school

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Listening comprehension

1.1.1 Definition of listening comprehension

According to Marc Helgesen and Steven Brown (2009), „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 the listener‟s expectations, the situation and context, background knowledge and topic‟

For Buck, (1984:31), „Listening comprehension is an active process of constructing meaning and this is done by applying knowledge to the incoming sound‟ in which „number of different types of knowledge are involved: both

linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic knowledge‟ As for Anderson and Lynch

(1988), listening is a receptive skill alongside with reading skills and the listener‟s role is not passive but active The objectives of listening comprehension are that after a period of listening, the learners are expected to be able to talk or write about what they have heard

Listening exercises can be constructed to four degrees of comprehension by Brown and Yule (1983) as follow:

- The listener can repeat the text

- The students should have heard and understood the meaning of particular vocabulary items used in the text

- The students should be able to resolve anaphoric reference and to determine which was referred to

- The students should be able to work out not only what is directly asserted in the text, but also what is implied

Brown and Yule (1983)

O‟Malley and Chamot (1989:420) includes „Listening comprehension is an active and conscious process in which the listener constructs meaning by using cues

from contextual information and existing knowledge, while relying upon multiple

strategic resources to fulfill the task requirement‟

According to Richards and Schmidt (2002:313), „Listening comprehension is the process of understanding speech in a first or second language The study of listening comprehension in second language focuses on the role of individual linguistic unit (e.g., phonemes, words, grammatical structures) as well as the role of the listeners‟

expectations, the situation and context, background knowledge and topic‟

To sum up, listening comprehension is not a “skill which can be mastered once

for all and then ignored while other skills are developed”, but “they must be regular

practice with increasingly difficult materials” (Vilga, 1986:157)

1.1.2 The importance of listening comprehension

Underwood (1989:1) points out that listening comprehension is an activity of paying attention to the speaker and subsequent attempt to understand what we hear Although listening may be seen as a passive process, it is not true because listeners have to concentrate on the message to be able to decode it Underwood argues that hearing can be thought of as a passive condition, listening is always an active process (1989:2) He also points out three main stages involving in the auditory process In the first stage, sounds are structured into meaningful units The process

of organizing the sounds into the units is based on learner‟s previous knowledge about the language During the second stage, listeners work on the new information, which means that they compare and contrast words or phrases they heard with already known information The last stage includes transmitting the newly acquired information into the long-term memory so that they can use this information later

As for Heinle & Heinle (2001), listening comprehension lessons are a vehicle for teaching elements of grammatical structure and allow new vocabulary items to

be contextualized with a communicative discourse body He also cited River‟s observation of an advocate for listening comprehension „Speaking doesn‟t itself constitute communication unless what is said is comprehended by another person… Teaching the comprehension of spoken speech is therefore of primary importance if the communication aim is to be reached‟

Listening comprehension is very important in language learning process For Rost 1994:141), listening comprehension is vital in language classroom due to providing inputs for the learner to understand at the right level and to begin

To sum up, the importance of listening comprehension in language learning is worth considering

1.2 Teaching listening comprehension

1.2.1 The stages of teaching listening comprehension

A listening lesson often includes three parts: pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening For Peterson (2001), pre-listening helps learners achieve the balance between top-down and bottom-up processing and activate their schemata – essentially reminding themselves of content related to what they will hear, vocabulary and forms what will carry the content, which is called interactive processing

The post-listening may be as simple as checking the answers to comprehension questions, in which the teacher either tells the learners what the correct answers are, elicits answers from the students themselves, or has students compare their answers

in pairs or in groups Although listening is a separate skill, most skills are not and should not be taught entirely separately

Finally, they include that though listening skill is a receptive skill, it is very active process Both top-down and bottom-up processes are necessary and useful They suggested that most listening lessons include pre-listening to activate learners‟ previous knowledge (schema), listening tasks and post-listening exercises which often include speaking activities

Shelagh Rixon (1986) also points out an intensive listening lesson including pre-listening which prepares the students to achieve the most from the passage, while-listening which challenges and guides them to handle the information and messages in the passage, and follow-up getting reflection on the language of the passage such as sound, grammar and vocabulary

In short, there are three stages in teaching listening comprehension in general Each stage has its own aims and goals, thus the teacher should keep in mind these to encourage students to listen actively in classroom

1.2.2 Processes of teaching listening comprehension

Marc Helgesen and Steven Brown, (2009) revised top-down and bottom-up processing as below Firstly, they also made the differences between top-down and bottom-up processing (recited Remelhart, 1977; Flowerdew and Miller, 2005) Bottom-up processing is the process in which teachers try to make sense of what listeners hear by focusing on the different parts such as the vocabulary, the grammar or functional phrases, sounds, etc However, top-down processing begins with listeners‟ background knowledge – schema, which can include content schema (general knowledge based on life experience and previous learning) or textual schema (knowledge of language and content used in a particular situation For example the language which listeners need at a bank is different from what they need when socializing with friends) (p.6) He also includes putting too much focus on either bottom-up or top-down processing leads to misunderstanding Teachers teaching listening skills should balance the

two kinds of processing to get better results

According to Brown (1994), the eight processes of listening comprehension, which comprehension results from a number of different cognitive and affective mechanisms are summarized and adapted from Clark & Clark (1977) and Richards (1983) Firstly, the hearer processes what is called „raw speech‟ and holds an

„image‟ of it in short term memory, which includes the constituents (phrases, clauses, cohesive markers and intonation or stress patterns) of a speech stream Secondly, the hearer determines the type of speech event that is being processed For example, the hearer must ascertain whether this is a conversation, a speech, a radio broadcast … and then appropriately „color‟ the interpretation of the perceived message Thirdly, the hearer infers the objectives of the speaker through consideration of the type of speech event, the context, and content Thus, the hearer determines whether the speaker wishes to persuade, to request, to exchange pleasantries, to affirm, to deny, to inform, and so on Therefore, the hearer infers the function of the message Next, the hearer brings a plausible interpretation to the message by recalling background information (schemata) relevant to the particular

context and subject matter The hearer uses lifetime of experiences and knowledge

to perform cognitive association to bring a plausible interpretation to the message Fifthly, the hearer assigns a literal meaning to the utterance, which involves a set of semantic interpretations of the surface strings that the earrings match Then, the hearer assigns an intended meaning to the utterance A key to human communication is the ability to match perceived meaning with intended meaning Next, the hearer determines whether information should be retained in short term or long-term memory For instance, short-term memory is appropriate in contexts that simply call for a quick oral response from the hearer Long-term memory is more common when, say, the hearer is processing information in a lecture Finally, the hearer deletes the original form of the message received The words, phrases and

sentences themselves are quickly forgotten in 99 percent of speech acts

For Rost (1990), the goals and internal meaning structures of the listener are emphasized The listener does not receive meaning but rather constructs meaning The constructed message is somewhat different from the intended message and is influenced by the context, purpose of listening, and the listener‟s own prior knowledge Thus, the listening is complex and both top-down and bottom-up operations are important Nagle and Sanders (1986) suggest a model of comprehension incorporating the distinction between controlled and automatic processing and the listener‟s active role in attention and monitoring They point that while comprehension is not exactly the same thing as learning, successful comprehension makes material available for learning

To sum up, listening comprehension is an interaction process, so the teacher should keep in mind all these processes when teaching They are all relevant to the learner‟s purposes of listening, to performance factors that may cause difficulties in processing speech, to overall principles of effective listening techniques, and to choices the teacher makes when using techniques in his/her classroom

1.2.3 Techniques ofteaching listening comprehension

There have been many techniques in language teaching summed up so far Firstly, the teachers do not overlook the importance of techniques that specifically

develop listening comprehension competence Teachers sometimes incorrectly assume that the inputs provided in the classroom will always be converted into intake because aural comprehension itself cannot be overtly „observed‟ Secondly, techniques should be intrinsically motivating to appeal to listener‟s personal interests and goals Because background information (schemata) is an important factors in listening and students‟ cultural background can be both facilitating and interfering in the process of listening, teachers should take into full account the students‟ experiences, goals and abilities as designing lessons They also should try

to construct their cultural background in such way that students are caught up in the activity and feel self-propelled toward its final objective Thirdly, techniques should utilize authentic language and contexts, which enable students to see the relevance

of classroom activity to their long-term communicative goals Introducing natural texts will help students more readily dive into the activity Fourthly, teachers should carefully consider the form of listeners‟ responses Comprehension itself is not externally observable We can only infer that certain things have been comprehended through students‟ overt verbal or non-verbal responses to speech Thus, designing techniques in such a way that students‟ responses indicate whether

or not their comprehension is very important Lund (1990) suggested nine different ways to check listeners‟ comprehension:

- doing – the listener responds physically to a command

- choosing – the listener selects from alternatives such as pictures, objects, texts

- transferring – the listener draws a picture of what is heard

- answering – the listener answers questions about the message

- condensing – the listener outlines or takes notes on a lecture

- extending – the listener provides an ending to a story heard

- duplicating – listener translates the message into the native language or repeats

it verbatim

- modeling – the listener orders a meal after listening a model order

- conversing – the listener engages in a conversation that indicates appropriate processing of information

Fifth, the teacher should encourage the developing of listening strategies – teaching learners how to learn extending well beyond classroom by looking for keywords and nonverbal cues to meaning, predicting a speaker‟s purpose by the context of the spoken discourse Learners should be guided to associate information with one‟s existing cognitive structure – activating schemata, guess at meanings, seek clarification, and listen for general gist and test of listening comprehension, various test-taking strategies

These strategies help students to develop their overall strategic competence, so strategies for effective listening can become a highly significant part of their chances for successful learning

Last, both bottom-up and top-down listening techniques should be included Bottom-up techniques typically focus on sounds, words, intonation, grammatical structures and other components of spoken language while top-down techniques are more concerned with the activation of schemata, with deriving meaning, with global understanding and with the interpretation of the text Both bottom-up and top-down techniques can offer students keys to determining the meaning of spoken discourse

1.2.4 Principles of teaching listening comprehension

Heinle & Heinle (2001:89) suggested six principles for teaching listening comprehension First of all, the amount of listening time in the second language class should be increased Input must be interesting, comprehensible, supported by extra-linguistic materials and keyed to the language lesson Secondly, listening before other activities should be used If students‟ levels are beginning and low, teacher should get students to listen material before speaking, reading, or writing about it Thirdly, both global encouraging students to get gist, main idea, topic, situation or setting and selective listening pointing student‟s attention to details of form and encouraging accuracy should be included Fourthly, top-level skills by giving advance organizers, script activators, or discussion calling up students‟ background knowledge should be activated before students listen and encouraging top-down processing at every proficiency level Next, working towards automaticity

in processing is very essential Exercises, which build both recognition and

retention of the material, should be included Teacher should use familiar material

in novel combinations and encourage overlearning through focus on selected formal features and get students practice bottom-up processing at every proficiency level Lastly, conscious listening strategies must be developed Teacher should raise students‟ awareness of text features and of their own comprehension process; encourage them to notice how their processing operations interact with the text; promote flexibility in many strategies they can use to understand the language; and practice interactive listening, so that they can use their bottom-up and top-down processes to check one against the other

1.3 Learning listening comprehension

1.3.1 Motivation in learning listening comprehension

Motivation is very important to learning because without 'wanting to learn'

learning is hardly successful (Cottrell, 2001) Motivated learners are often more active

in learning, but unmotivated students learners are more likely to make noise and disturbance in classroom In particular, many unmotivated students attend listening comprehension lessons with boredom, sleepiness and pain and are not attentive to the listening lessons since they are bored with recorded tapes repeatedly without understanding Thus, it is very important to make and adapt listening lessons more interesting and attractive to motivate the students so that they can develop listening comprehension The way of teaching listening, listening to the recorded tape repeatedly and then giving correct answers, still remains As for Anderson and Lynch (1998), this teaching approach seems to be like „testing‟ listening than „teaching‟ listening because listeners are simply exposed to the succession of listening texts on a tape rather than being taught how to listen and how to cope with their listening problems in the class Without interest and variation in teaching and learning in general and in teaching and learning listening comprehension in particular, students will certainly feel bored with learning listening To increase students‟ motivation, the following solutions for teachers suggested by Cottrell (2001) are focusing on individual motivation, making subject matter relevant to the students own lives, increase interest in the subject and helping students to feel about their study

Thus, when the content and subject are interesting and relevant to students‟ age and level of ability; and goals are challengeable but manageable and clear; and the atmosphere is supportive and non-threating, students will be motivated to learning

1.3.2 Strategies of learning listening comprehension

Hedge, T (2000:230) argues about bottom-up strategies and top-down strategies The bottom-up strategies are text-based in which the listeners rely on the message language (i.e the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates meaning) including listening for specific details, recognizing cognates, and recognizing word-order patterns Top-down strategies are listener-based in which the listeners tap into background knowledge of the topic, the situation or context, the context type and the language to activate a set of expectations helping them to interpret what is heard and anticipate what will come next and includes listening for the main idea, predicting, drawing inferences and summarizing

O‟Malley and Chamot (1989) categorize strategies into two groups: cognitive, metacognitive and the third category - socio-affective was added to describe the learning taking place when learners interact with classmates, ask the teacher for clarification, or use specific techniques to lower their anxiety

According to Heinle & Heinle (2001), strategies specific to listening comprehension include the categories of metacognitive, cognitive, and socio-affective strategies Metacognitive strategies involve planning monitoring and evaluating comprehension As for Rubin, 1987, metacognitive strategies are management techniques employed by learners to have control over their learning through planning, monitoring, evaluating, and modifying (cited from Fouad Abdalhamid‟s thesis, 2012) For instance, listeners would clarify the objectives of

an anticipated listening activity and attend to particular aspects of the aural language inputs or situational details that facilitate the comprehension of aural inputs But some listeners focus on pronunciation and accents as a way to understand the spoken language with different accents Focusing too much on accents, however, can have negative impact on comprehension since it can be a distracter, lading to misunderstanding

Cognitive strategies such as rehearsal, organization, summarization, and elaboration are used to manipulate information Cognitive strategy is guessing the meaning by relying on any clues either contextual or linguistic Listeners use this strategy when they do not know all the words, or not understand the overall meaning of the sentence Both native and non-native speakers use this strategy either when they have not listened well enough or when the meaning is not clear (cited from Fouad Abdalhamid‟s thesis, 2012) He summarizes Baker and Brown‟s (1984) identification of two types of metacognitive ability: knowledge of cognition (i.e., knowing what) and regulation of cognition (i.e., knowing how)

For Murphy (1985), the listening strategies are identified from the students‟ responses, which he categorizes into six broad categories such as recalling, speculating, probing, introspecting, then delaying, and recording

Henner Stanchina (1987) brings attention to the important roles that metacognitive strategies play in listening comprehension, the integral role of monitoring in the process in particular She explains that the way in which syntactic, semantic, and schematic knowledge is utilized is a matter of effective or ineffective strategy use She states that proficient listeners can constantly elaborate and transform what they hear by using their background knowledge and predictions

to generate hypotheses on the text; integrating new information with their ongoing predictions; making inferences to fill gaps; evaluating their predictions; and revising their hypotheses as necessary

She concludes that proficient listeners can recognize failure in comprehension and activate appropriate knowledge to recover comprehension

To sum up, although listening strategies have been categorized in different points of view, they can be concluded metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies and socio-affective strategies in general The viewpoints of Hedge (2000), O‟Malley and Chamot (1989) and Henner Stanchina (1987) should be combined and balanced flexibly

1.3.3 Classroom interaction in learning listening comprehension

According to Runmei Yu (2008), classroom interaction can be seen as offering

language practice, learning opportunities and actually constructing the language development process itself Teacher-centered activity that the teacher controls the group consists of lecturing, explaining a new grammar concept on the board, having

a whole-class discussion, choral drilling or asking individual students questions Alternatively, students can work individually, in pairs or in groups The teacher can even have the entire class working together on a project or game In addition, teacher can get a student to be in charge of running a game, and sit with the class and be a participant Mixing up the types of classroom interaction used in classroom can help students stay attentive and interested

He also pointed out that the teacher can use silence to encourage reflection in the interaction motivated by teacher-initiated questions The teacher should resist the temptation to fill the silence or answer the question for them There are also some other techniques to simulate interaction in the classroom, for example, arrange and use classroom space to encourage interaction by moving chairs and having students face to each other During lesson, the teacher can move to different parts of classroom, or teach from the back and have students write on the board Consequently, involving the entire classroom into interaction in a creative and friendly atmosphere will motivate the learners‟ interest, motive and comprehensible inputs

To conclude, there have been many interactions so far The teacher must be flexible to choose suitable and alternative interactions to keep their students‟ motivations and interests in language learning in general and in learning listening comprehension in particular

1.3.4 Difficulties in learning listening comprehension

There are some factors influencing listeners‟ comprehension which have been studied

According to Dunkel, (1991), Richards, (1983), Ur, (1984), some factors highly influencing the processing of speech and often blocking listening comprehension are summarized

The first factor is clustering because in written language, listeners are

conditioned to attend to the sentences as the basic unit of organization However, in spoken language, because of memory limitations and our predisposition for

„chunking‟ or clustering, they break down speech into smaller groups of words Clauses are common constituents, but phrases with clauses are even more easily retained for comprehension In teaching listening comprehension, teacher needs to help students to pick out manageable clusters of words; sometimes second language learners will try to retain overly long constituents – a whole sentence or even a several sentences Or they will err in the direction in trying to attend to every word

in an utterance

The second one is redundancy because spoken language has a good deal of redundancy The following time, the hearer in a conversation, notices the re-phrasings, repetitions, elaborations, and little insertion of „I mean‟ and „you know‟ here and there Such redundancy helps the hearer to process meaning by offering more time and extra information Learners can train themselves to profit from such redundancy by first becoming aware that not every new sentence or phrase will necessarily contain new information and by looking for signals of redundancy Therefore, learners sometimes get confused by excerpt of conversation, but with some training they can learn to take advantage of redundancies and other makers providing more processing time The third factor is reduced forms because while spoken language does indeed contain a good deal of redundancy, it also has many reduced forms such as phonological, morphological, syntactic, and pragmatic reductions These reductions pose significant difficulties especially to classroom learners who may have initially been exposed to the full forms of the English language

Fourthly, performance variables are hesitations, false starts, pauses and corrections which are common Native listeners are conditioned from very young ages to „weed out‟ such performance variables but they can easily interfere with comprehension in second language learners

The fifth one is colloquial language since learners exposed to standard written English or „textbook‟ language sometimes find it surprising and difficult to deal

with colloquial language Idioms, slang, reduced forms, shared cultural knowledge are all manifested at some point in conversations Colloquialisms appear in both monologues and dialogues

Rate of delivery is considered as the sixth factor, in which virtually every language learner thinks that the native speakers speak too fast! As Richards (1983) points out, the number and length of pauses used by a speaker is more crucial to comprehension than sheer speed Nevertheless, learners will eventually need to be able to comprehend language delivered at varying rates of speech and delivered with few pauses In listening, the hearer may not always have the opportunity to stop the speaker like reading Instead of stopping and going back to reread something, the stream of speech will continue to follow!

Stress, rhythm, and intonation are the seventh factor which causes students‟ difficulties in listening As a tress-timed language, English speech can be a terror for some learners as mouthful of syllables come spilling out between stress points Intonation patterns are also very significant not just for interpreting such straightforward elements as questions and statements and emphasis but more subtle messages like sarcasm, endearment, insult, solicitation, and praise

The last one is interaction that will play a large role in listening comprehension Conversation is especially a subject to all the rules of interaction: negotiation, clarification, attending signals, turn taking and topic nomination, maintenance, and termination Therefore, to learn to listen is also to learn to respond and to continue a chain of listening and responding Classroom techniques including listening components must include instruction in the two-way nature of listening at some point Students need to understand that good listeners in conversation are good responders They know how to negotiate meaning, to give feedback, to ask for clarification, to maintain a topic, so that the process of comprehending can be complete rather than being aborted by insufficient interaction

According to Mary Underwood (1989), potential problems in learning to listen

to English are 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; and established learning habits

In conclusion, there are many difficulties in students‟ learning listening comprehension They block students‟ understanding, thus students should be equipped listening strategies to overcome the listening problems above

1.4 Needs analysis and expectations

1.4.1 Need analysis

For Amie N Casper, (2003), needs analysis in language learning is defined as all the activities used to collect information about your students' learning needs, wants, wishes, desires, etc The information from a needs analysis can be used to define program goals stated as specific teaching objectives being foundation to develop lesson plans, materials, tests, assignments and activities Basically, a needs analysis helps to clarify the purposes of language teaching From initial needs analyses, needs analysis through informal assessment over the semester to our lesson planning can be implemented, and teachers became more flexible and better

at figuring out their students‟ needs and how best to meet them

West (1994) pointed out that there have been several survey approaches to needs analysis in foreign language teaching so far such as James (1974), Jordan (1977), Chambers (1980), Cunningsworth (1983), Brindley (1989), Riddell (1991), Robinson (1991) Rajni Kaushal Chand (2007) also summarized the ideas of Hutchinson and Waters, (1987), Brindley (1989), Richterich and Chancerel (1977) about needs analysis According to Hutchinson and Waters, (1987), needs analysis has also been used as a method to differentiate the target needs from learners‟ needs, and needs from necessities, and lacks and wants Brindley (1989) considers information about the learners‟ language proficiency, language difficulties, use of language in real life to be objective needs Cognitive and affective needs of the learners in language learning, such as confidence, attitude, and expectations, are considered subjective needs Brindley (1989) also discusses the need for a negotiation between teachers and learners in terms of the learners‟ needs According

to (Brown, 1995), need analysis should be the first step in curriculum development,

followed by five other components: goals and objectives, language testing, material development, language teaching, and programme evaluation in the field of language learning In some extents, the teachers and learners frequently have different expectations of learning, which can lead to mismatches in the objective and subjective needs Richterich and Chancerel (1977) state that generally learners have little awareness of their needs and are usually unable to express the needs they recognise except in very vague terms It is of importance in general language courses Richards (1983) also discusses taxonomy of listening sub-skills According

to Richards, a learner‟s need for listening skills depends on the situations, activities, and tasks for which they use second language A needs assessment using either interview, questionnaire, participant observation, target discourse analysis or literature survey can provide details of the learners‟ needs It can be used to create a profile of their listening needs Kikuchi (2004) discusses needs analysis conducted

at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo for an integrated English programme The research findings suggested that there was a difference in perception of learners‟ needs among programme coordinators, teachers and learners Therefore, multiple information sources in designing needs analysis were considered important when undertaking needs analysis surveys

West (1994:12) concluded with the statements made by Richterich (1983, p 12) and Nunan (1988:44) that needs analysis has been widely criticised However, critics have ignored the importance of needs analysis in the education process According to West, needs analysis is radical for determining the objectives, contents, and the curriculum Needs analysis is equally useful for finding information on the learners, particularly for finding their preferred ways of learning

1.4.2 Expectations

Feldman, Robert S and Theiss, Andrew J (1980) suggest that both teacher expectations and student expectations can affect the individuals' own attitudes and behavior, and the behavior of those with whom they are interacting The joint effects of teachers' expectations about students and students' expectations about teachers on the performance and attitudes of both participants were examined

Results of the research showed that student performance was a function of the teachers' expectation Teachers' attitudes and rated competence in turn were affected

by their expectations regarding the student, and students' attitudes were affected by their expectations about the teacher Results also indicated that both teachers and students can concurrently hold expectations about their partner, and that such expectations affect their attitudes about themselves, the partner, and the entire teaching situation

Kathleen Cotton (1989) presents in the research on schoolwide and teacher expectations One of those is that expectations can and do affect student achievement and attitudes Teacher expectations and accompanying behaviors have

a very real effect on student performance Additionally, that communicating low expectations has more power to limit student achievement than communicating high expectations has to raise student performance was indicated Most teachers form expectations on the basis of appropriate information, such as cumulative folder data and change their expectations as student performance changes A minority of teachers form expectations based on irrelevant factors such as students' socioeconomic status, racial or ethnic background, or gender It also showed that a minority of teachers treat low-expectation students in ways likely to inhibit their growth, e.g., by exposing them

to less learning material and material that is less interesting, giving them less time to respond to questions, and communicating less warmth and affection to them Teachers who form expectations based on inappropriate data, are rigid and unchanging in their expectations, and treat low-expectation students in inhibiting ways are generally not aware of their harmful thinking and behaviors When teachers engage in differential treatment of high and low expectation students, students are aware of these differences Low-expectation students have better attitudes in classrooms where differential treatment is low than in classrooms where it is high

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Introduction

This chapter shows the main points regarding the methodology applied in the study such as the participants, the data collection instruments and dada collection and analysis procedure It also provides justifications for the research method selection at the same time and verifies specific steps conducted to gain reliable and valid data

2.2 Participants

The subjects of the study are two groups of participants who are 10th, 11th, and

12th form students and all five English teachers at Yenthuy C high school While the former was involved in the observation and questionnaires, the later was observed, asked questionnaires and then interviewed for deeper information

Students’ background information Number of

students

Percentage (%)

Table 1: Students’ background information

2.2.2 The English teachers

All the English teachers at the school eagerly participated in the research and were available to answer the interview questions They are quite young and at the age of 25 to 29 and not much experienced in teaching English Of five English teachers, one teacher has been teaching English for 6 years, one has 5 years and others have less than 4-year experience in teaching English

2.3 The data collection instrument

2.3.1 Classroom Observation

The researcher attended six listening comprehension periods to find out students‟ interaction in learning listening comprehension and English teachers‟ stages, processes and techniques in teaching listening comprehension in classroom

2.3.2 Questionnaires

Two survey questionnaires for teachers and students were conducted to collect data for this study

2.3.2.1 Questionnaire for students

The questionnaire completed by 166 students who were selected randomly includes six questions The questionnaire aims at finding out student‟s needs (question 1), students‟ expectations (question 2), students‟ motivation (question 3), students‟ strategies (question 4), students‟ interactions (question 5) and students‟ difficulties (question 6) in learning listening comprehension

2.3.2.1 Questionnaire for students

Another questionnaire for all five teachers aims to find out their stages (question 1), process (question 2), techniques (question 3, 4) and principles (question 5) in teaching listening comprehension at the school

2.3.3 Informal Interview

The researcher conducted an informal interview with four teachers to find out more specific information about teaching listening comprehension and fill the gaps between students‟ learning listening comprehension with how listening comprehension is taught at this school

2.4 Data collection and analysis

Firstly, two questionnaires of the study were filled in by teachers and students The students were asked to complete the questionnaire in twenty minutes in the classroom 166 students from grade 10, 11 and 12 were selected randomly The researcher asked the form teachers of the classes for permission to explain the purpose, importance of the study and clarify some questions if they came up

Secondly, the researcher attended six listening periods in six classes to observe how teachers taught and how students learned in listening periods

Thirdly, an informal interview was created by the teachers to find out more specific information and some suggestions of filling the gaps between students‟ needs and expectations with how listening comprehension is taught

The data from the survey were read through and then analyzed The information was shown in forms of tables and figures while qualitative data from the open-ended questions were presented by quoting relevant responses from the subjects

2.5 Conclusion

This chapter presented the research methodology, which consists of the participants including the students and the English teachers, the data collection instrument by classroom observation, questionnaires and interview and data collection and analysis By employing these techniques, the researcher hopes to gain more reliable and valid data

CHAPTER 3: REAL SITUATION OF TEACHING LISTENING

COMPREHENSION AT YENTHUY C HIGH SCHOOL

In this chapter, the researcher would like to investigate how teachers teach listening comprehension at Yenthuy C high school Firstly, the results of questionnaire were presented Then, class observations during the second term of the school year were also indicated Six periods, in which listening comprehension was taught by five teachers, were observed and noted down randomly among six classes The observations were announced at the beginning of each period

3.1 Teachers’ stages in teaching listening comprehension

3.1.1 Results of the teachers’ stages through questionnaire

To find out teachers‟ stages in teaching listening comprehension, in the first place, question 1 was conducted with the results 100% of the subjects carried out all the listening stages In the second place, another way to see the stages in teaching listening periods was that listening observation in six listening comprehension periods in the classroom was carried out The results of all six – listening – period – observation shown that all five teachers have strictly followed all stages of teaching listening skills which include warm-up, pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening However, four teachers teaching the observed periods could not complete all the listening stages Frequently, the post-listening stage was cut off and the teachers asked their students to complete at home After that, an informal interview was conducted to get specific ideas As asking them some questions, the researcher found that all five teachers seldom completed all four stages of the listening lessons within 45 minutes Thus, they had to get their students to do the post-listening tasks

at home Another choice was that they frequently had to cut off either warm-up activities or post-listening activities, but post-listening was often cut because of time limitation It is obvious that all the stages are very important but it is not necessary for them to stick strictly due to time limitation At that time, the teachers must be flexible to choose which stages are more important to their students and which ones can less develop their listening comprehension to be moved out Post-

listening stage is essential for students to complete because this stage shows their comprehension and teachers can check their comprehension through this stage

3.1.2 The results of teachers’ stages through classroom observation

Generally, all the teachers followed the similar procedures by starting with some warm-up activities, which were mainly in form of asking and answering the questions or using pictures The stages were clearly noted down in the board with presenting vocabulary and new structures, then asking students to listen and repeat

in chorus and individually; introducing instructions and tasks, checking and correcting students‟ answers after twice or three time playing the tapes Finally, summarize or asking for discussions relating to the text

3.1.3 The results of teachers’ stages through interviews

All four teachers eagerly taking part in the interview responded that they followed three stages including pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening in teaching listening comprehension, one of who said that sometimes she did not follow because it relied on each lesson and each class All of them cannot always complete all the stages They sometimes have to omit some tasks in while-listening and post-listening The reasons for this are that some listening lessons are too long

or they are too difficult for weak students to complete all the stages

3.2 Teachers’ processes in teaching listening comprehension

3.2.1 The results of teachers’ processes through questionnaire

Based on the results presented in table 2, the processes, which were applied by the teachers in teaching listening comprehension at the school, were various

Questionnaire items

Strongly agree Agree

Partially agree Disagree

Strongly disagree

different parts such as

the vocabulary, the

grammar or functional

phrases, sounds, etc

when teaching listening

grammar and functional

phrases, sounds, etc

Table 2: The results of teachers’ processes in teaching listening comprehension

From Table 2, regarding the degrees of agreement with the processes in teaching listening comprehension, the results indicated that 80% of the subjects (40% total agreement and 40% agreement to item 1) used bottom-up processing by focusing on different parts such as the vocabulary, the grammar or functional

phrases, sounds, etc Top-down processing was also carried out by 80% of them with background knowledge 80% of the listening teachers totally balanced the two kinds of processing while only 20% of them partially balanced the two processes 100% of the subjects responded positively to item 4 which meant they maximize their students‟ intention to learn listening skills 80% of them with positive answers kept up their students‟ attention to the listening language inputs To sum up, almost all English teachers set clear processes in teaching listening comprehension

3.2.2 The results of teachers’ processes through classroom observations

The results of all six listening periods pointed out that all the teachers started a listening lesson with bottom-up processing that they tried to focus on the vocabulary, functional phrases and sounds by giving new words and their meanings

in Vietnamese and asking them to repeat in chorus and then individually Moreover, the teachers also used top-down processing by asking their students general knowledge based on life experience and previous learning such as: problems facing students when studying in a foreign country (observation 1), names of sports (observation 3), some questions related to the UN (observation 4), songs sung on Monday morning (observation 6) Five of six listening periods (83%) were balanced between students‟ vocabulary, grammar and functional phrases, sounds, etc and their background knowledge

3.2.3 The results of teachers’ processes through informal interview

The teachers have some certain ways to equip input to their students They very often provided students with certain amount of needed words for listening activities in pre-listening stage Teachers often input then words by giving the meaning of the words, by illustrating pictures and real objects, by writing them on the board and then giving the meanings of the words, asking them to listen and repeat words given in the textbook, giving them new words through pictures, games, animals

3.3 Teachers’ techniques for teaching listening comprehension

3.3.1 The results of teachers’ techniques through questionnaire

The findings of the teachers‟ teaching listening comprehension techniques in

question 3 and 4 were shown in table 3 that the application of these techniques in teaching listening was quite limited

tasks more suitable to your

interests

7 Many listening exercises

are designed two or three

minutes each and require

Table 3: The results of teachers’ techniques for teaching listening comprehension

As can be seen in Table 3, many techniques have usually been applied in teaching listening comprehension which has been used in the school so far, two of

the most popular techniques were often used pair work or group work and activities

to warm-up However, the technique such as using games and songs, teaching students some necessary strategies of listening comprehension were less often or seldom used by the teachers Especially, 60% of the subjects never designed two –

or - three - minute – exercises by very short-taking in reading, speaking, or writing lessons It is unlikely that techniques used at the school could not be intrinsically motivating to appeal to students‟ personal interests and goals The teachers have not paid much attention to encourage the developing of students‟ listening strategies In short, teachers‟ techniques for teaching listening comprehension at the school are not various and interested enough to get students‟ interests in learning listening comprehension

3.3.2 The results of teachers’ techniques through classroom observation

From the six-listening-period observations, using pair work was the most popular in teaching listening comprehension For instance, pair work was applied in observation 1, 2, 5, and 6 However, teaching necessary strategies of listening comprehension in six listening periods was not much In addition, games and songs were not used by the teachers in all six listening periods

3.3.3 The results of teachers’ techniques through interviews

Of four teachers eagerly taking part in the interview, two agreed that their students learn listening skills to improve their integrated skills (question 3) while two others not only improve listening ability but also their integrated skills

According to the responses to question 9 „Do you often use integrated skill

activities?’, it is indicated that most of the teachers frequently applied integrated

skill activities in the post stage of each lesson However, many lessons were not completed in due time, therefore, there is no time left for them to speak and write

It showed that the teachers have good ideas of teaching listening These thoughts affect their teaching listening methods in terms of adapting listening lessons for their students‟ integrated skills

In addition, three interviewees answered „yes‟ to question 7 if they provided their students with necessary strategies in listening comprehension such as guessing

the meaning of the text, guessing the speaker‟s attitudes through their voice They provided their students with some listening strategies so as to help them focus on important information, makes them know what to focus on when listening and makes them find it more easier to listen to the text and focus on what they should hear One applied this technique because most of the students are bad at English and don‟t like listening lessons

Three of the interviewees responded „yes‟ to question 8 that if they adjusted listening tasks because of their students‟ level, ability and interest One of them often followed the tasks in the textbook because she did not have much time to redesign more

To sum up, most of the teachers taking part in the study have certain techniques to make their listening lesson more interesting; however, the degree of

application in teaching in the classroom is not frequently

3.4 Teachers’ applications of techniques to check students’ listening comprehension

To study the teachers‟ applications of techniques to check students‟ comprehension in the classroom, question 4 was conducted by the teacher at school The results of their principles are presented in Table 4 below

Questionnaire items

Strongly agree Agree

A little agree Disagree

Strongly agree

2 Get your students to select from

alternatives such as pictures, objects,

texts

3 Get your students to answer

4 Get your students to outline or

5 Get your students to provide an

6 Get your students to translate the

message into the native language or

repeats it verbatim

7 Get your students to order a meal

8 Get your students to engage in a

information

9 Get your students to draw a

Table 4: The results of teachers’ applications of techniques to check students’

comprehension in the classroom

From table 4, of nine techniques applied to check students‟ comprehension in Table 4, the two techniques which are getting their students to select from alternatives such as pictures, objects, texts (20% total agreement and 40% agreement) and getting them to answer questions about the message (20% total agreement and 40% agreement) were the most popular techniques of all Next, getting students to engage in a conversation that indicates appropriate processing of information (60% agreement) was also used to check their comprehension in teaching listening comprehension In contrast, the techniques „get your students to provide an ending to a story heard‟ was seldom applied in checking students‟ comprehension In addition, 60% of the subjects completely disagreed with the technique „get your students to translate the message into the native language or repeats it verbatim‟ Finally, 80% of the subjects sometimes applied the technique