Current situation in teaching and learning English listening at Tay Ho High School in Hanoi and solutions = Thực trạng dạy và học kỹ năng nghe ở trường THPT Tây

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Students’ opinion on the listening skill in general and listening lesson on the new textbook ‚Tieng Anh 10‛ in particular Table 2: Students’ opinion about the qua

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

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

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG QUỲNH

CURRENT SITUATION IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH LISTENING AT TAY HO HIGH SCHOOL IN

HANOI AND SOLUTIONS

(Thực trạng dạy và học kỹ năng nghe ở trường THPT Tây Hồ - Hà Nội:

Thực trạng và giải pháp)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Major: English Teaching Methodology Code : 60 14 10

Hanoi – 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

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

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG QUỲNH

CURRENT SITUATION IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH LISTENING AT TAY HO HIGH SCHOOL IN

HANOI AND SOLUTIONS (Thực trạng dạy và học kỹ năng nghe ở trường THPT Tây Hồ - Hà Nội:

2.1.2 The Importance of Listening in Learning Foreign

Language

6

2.1.3.2 Potential Problems in Learning to Listen to English 8

2.1.3.2.1 Lack of control over the speech at which the

2.1.3.2.2 Limited vocabulary / grammar structures 9

CHAPTER 3: AN OVERVIEW OF THE NEW ENGLISH

TEXTBOOK “TIENG ANH 10” AND THE CURRENT

SITUATION OF TECHING THE TEXTBOOK AT TAY HO

HIGH SCHOOL

13

3.1.2 Content of the textbook 13 3.2 Characteristics of listening lessons and listening tasks in the

3.3 The current situation of teaching the textbook at Tay Ho high

3.3.1 Introduction of Tay Ho high school and its students 15

5.1.1 Discussion of the results collected by means of

5.1.1.1 Students’ opinion on the listening skill in general and

listening lesson on the new textbook ‚Tieng Anh 10‛ in particular

5.1.1.6 The role of listening in final assessment at Tay Ho

5.1.2 Discussion of the data collected by means of the informal

interview with teachers of English and classroom observation 27 5.1.2.1 Teachers’ opinion on the listening part in the textbook

5.1.2.2 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching listening skill to the

5.1.2.3 Teachers’ solution to overcome difficulties in teaching

listening

29 5.1.2.4 Students’ attitude toward listening skill 29

6.2 Suggestions 32

6.2.1 Changing the method of teaching listening 33

6.2.2 Training students to become active and effective learners 34

6.2.3 Improving teachers’ classroom techniques 35

6.2.4 Making advantage of teaching facilities 37

Appendix 1: Survey Questionnaire for Students (Original) I

Appendix 2: Survey Questionnaire for Students (English

Translation)

IV

Appendix 3: Questions for informal interview with teachers VII

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Students’ opinion on the listening skill in general and listening lesson on the new textbook ‚Tieng Anh 10‛ in particular

Table 2: Students’ opinion about the quality of the cassette player

Table 3: Students’ opinion about the content of the listening

Table 4: Difficulties faced by students

Table 5: Students’ expectation from their teachers in teaching listening

Table 6: The role of listening in final assessment at Tay Ho High School

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the Study

With Vietnam’s entry into the WTO and opening its markets to the outside world, the demand for English speaking proficiency among people is rising In recent years, the communicative approach has become more and more widely used

in teaching and learning English at tertiary education and therefore, students’ communicative competence has been stressed The needs of communication make listening teaching a priority all over the country The need for competence in listening in English learners is increasingly recognized, so listening teaching has recently attracted considerable attention

However, careful observation of High School teaching practice has found that the teaching of listening skills is still the weak link in the language teaching process Despite students having mastered the basic elements of English grammar and vocabulary, their listening comprehension is often weak Through systematic study

of basic English teaching stages at High School it has been recognized that while students’ integrated skills in reading, writing, translating have been improving, their listening and speaking capabilities have been left behind The key factor that has been recognized in the preliminary studies is students’ limited listening comprehension Both teachers and students recognized that the listening levels of each learner are different, particularly because English listening is affected by an array of factors Important among these factors is the necessity to emphasize to teachers and students the importance of listening, to encourage the study of listening teaching theory and to explore listening teaching methods by using the most advanced teaching methods

The traditional grammar-translation method of teaching English in Vietnam has been found inadequate to the demands for producing efficient English speakers and listeners The old approach has been shown to be ineffectual Research has stimulated an entirely new conception of teaching English as a foreign language Central to the new approach is the understanding that there must be a rigorous

application of the communicative approach in English classrooms English must be taught as a tool for communication It is now widely accepted that students’ listening ability must be at the core of teaching practice, and it is the area in which teachers need to concentrate their own efforts to improve their teaching This is a significant challenge for teachers of English in Vietnam; however it is crucial in the development of English language competence

Fully aware of this, new English teaching syllabus and new textbooks have arrived at high school since 2006 in which the grammar and vocabulary focus were changed into a skill focus: listening, writing, speaking and reading among these listening play a very important role on language teaching and learning However, not many researchers study on the listening difficulties perceived by high school teachers and students in using the new ‚Tieng Anh 10‛ textbook Hence, it is in urgent need of taking a serious look at this issue

1.2 Aims of the study

The specific aims of this study are:

- To investigate the areas of difficulty that the teachers at Tay Ho High School are coping with in their daily teaching listening comprehension to the 10th form students with the textbook ‚Tieng Anh 10‛

- To suggest some solutions to overcome these difficulties

This study is carried out in the hope that the findings from the study will be of some benefits to the teachers at Tay Ho High School in their teaching listening

3 What are the solutions to improve listening skill for students of grade 10?

1.4 Scope of the study

This study is limited to:

- The 10th form students at Tay Ho High School

- The teachers of English at Tay Ho High School

- Listening comprehension in the new English textbook ‚Tieng Anh 10‛

1.5 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 one survey questionnaires This survey questionnaire is for 200 students from 10th form graders at TH high school 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 classroom observation and informal interviews with teachers of English to collect further information about the real situations of teaching and learning listening skill

in grades 10 at TH high school

1.6 Significance of the study

The piloted syllabus for grade 10th of high school level was designed with hopes that students could have a chance to practice listening skill as English teaching nowadays follows the communicative approach learning However, there has not been much investigation into the fact that whether lessons of listening are suitable and comprehensible for students; or whether the teaching of listening for students of grade 10 is easy- undertaken This research provides an insight into the problems that are often met by teachers teaching English for grades 10 at TH High

school In addition, this research also points out some feasible solutions which are, hopefully, beneficial for both teachers and students

1.7 Design of the study

The study is divided into three parts

The first part ‚Introduction‛ (chapter 1) presents the rationale, the aim and objectives, the scope, the methods, significance and the design of the study

The second part, ‚Development‛, consists of four chapters:

Chapter 2 provides a thorough literature review relevant to the study It presents the theoretical background: the concepts relating to listening skill, its importance to language learners and listening teaching as a second language Potential Problems

in Learning to Listen to English are also mentioned in this chapter

Chapter 3 is an overview of the new English textbook ‚Tieng Anh 10‛ and the current situation of teaching the textbook at TH high school

Chapter 4 deals with the introduction of the research methods which are: research questions, subject, questionnaire, class observation and informal interview

Chapter 5 is for analyzing the data collected from survey questionnaires, interview

as well as classroom observation

Chapter 6 concludes the findings the researcher has from the study and proposes some solutions to the teaching of listening skill for grade 10 at TH high school The last part of the study ‚Conclusion‛ gives a brief description of the study and states the limitations as well as recommendations for further research

CHARPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Theoretical Background of Listening Skills

2.1.1 What is listening comprehension?

Listening is more than merely hearing words Listening is an active process

by which students receive, construct meaning from, and respond to spoken and or nonverbal messages (Emmert, 1994) As such, it forms an integral part of the communication process and should not be separated from the other language arts

Listening is the most fundamental language skill and plays an important role

in our daily communication A survey conducted in the USA suggested that an average person spent about 30% of time in speaking, while 42% of time in listening (Cooper, 1988) It is the medium through which people gain a large portion of their education, information, and understanding of the world and of human affairs, their ideas, sense of values, and their appreciation

There are different controversies on the nature of LC According to Howatt

and Dakin (1974), listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying This process involves understanding a speaker's accent or pronunciation, the

speaker’s grammar and vocabulary, and comprehension of meaning An able listener is capable of doing these four things simultaneously Thomlison's (1984)

definition of listening includes "active listening," which goes beyond comprehending

as understanding the message content, to comprehension as an act of empathetic

understanding of the speaker Ronald and Roskelly (1985) define listening as an active process requiring the same skills of prediction, hypothesizing, checking, revising, and these authors present specific exercises to "inner voice" one hears when writing

As defined by Oxford (1993:206), ‚Listening is a complex, problem solving skill‛ and it is ‚more than just perception of the sounds Listening includes comprehension

of meaning bearing words, phrases, clauses, sentences and connected discourses‛ She also points out that listening is usually a hard skill to master in one’s own language, let alone in another language

Like reading, listening is an internal process that cannot be directly observed It’s rather difficult to say what happens when we listen and understand others Ommagio

(1986 in Persulessy 1986: 3) say that

Listening and reading are both highly complex process that draw on the knowledge of the linguistic code (language form), cognitive processing skill (the

person who incorporates listening with concentration is actively listening to details

at anytime (20090714034217308.html)

http://www.pinoyhenyo.com/what_is_the_definition_of-In short, the issue of whether view is the best is controversial However, in

the final analysis, the definition of Howatt and Dakin (1974), listening is the ability

to identify and understand what others are saying That is, this process involves

understanding a speaker's accent or pronunciation, the speaker’s grammar and vocabulary, and comprehension of meaning is highly appreciated

2.1.2 The importance of listening in foreign language learning

Language learning depends on listening since it provides the aural input that serves as the basis for language acquisition and enables learners to interact in spoken communication Listening is the first language mode that children acquire It provides the foundation for all aspects of language and cognitive development, and

it plays a life-long role in the processes of communication A study by Wilt (1950), found that people listen 45 % of the time they spend communicating This study is still widely cited (e.g., Martin, 1987; Strother, 1987) Wilt found that 30 % of communication time was spent speaking, 16 % reading, and 9 % writing That finding confirmed what Rankin discovered in 1928, that people spent 70 % of their waking time communicating and that three-fourths of this time was spent listening and speaking

According to Bulletin (1952), listening is the fundamental language skill It is the medium through which people gain a large portion of their education, their information, their understanding of the world and of human affairs, their ideals, sense of values, and their appreciation

The importance of listening in communication is enormous People often focus on their speaking ability believing that good speaking equals good communication The ability to speak well is a necessary component to successful

communication The ability to listen is equally important

The importance of listening in communication is something worthwhile to consider Good listeners are often some of the best speakers because they have taken the time to find out what people are truly interested in If you understand what

is important to people that you understand how to reach them

Listening is an important part of foreign language learning process, and it has also been defined as an active process during which listeners construct meaning from oral input (Bentley & Bacon, 1996) Listening skill developed faster than the other three skills and could affect reading and writing abilities in learning a new language (Scarcella & Oxford, 1992; Vandergrift, 1997)

For high school students nowadays, listening skill is becoming more and more important If students have a good competence of listening, they also have much confidence when communicating with other people, especially with foreigners As a result, it is of vital importance that students are taught to listen effectively and critically It is also the aim of foreign language teaching

2.1.3 Teaching listening skills

listening depends on the listener’s decision The listener must make these kinds of decisions:

What kind of situation is this?

What is my plan for listening?

What are the important words and units of meaning?

Does the message make sense?

Successful listening requires making effective “real time” decision about these questions In this sense listening is primarily a thinking process, think about meaning as they listen The way in which the listener makes these decisions is what we will call a listening strategy

2.1.3.2 Potential Problems in Learning to Listen to English

Listening is always regarded as the most difficult skills compared with Reading, Writing and Speaking for High School students Therefore, when students learn to listen to English, they meet a number of problems that challenge them if

they want to master listening skill well

2.1.3.2.1 Lack of control over the speed at which the speakers speak

First of all, the main problem with listening seems to be the fact that in real

life situations the listeners have no control over the speed of what they are hearing or

they cannot hear the pronunciation clearly and they cannot go back or ‚rewind‛ to listen again, unlike reading In order to understand what is being heard, listeners need to make out the sound and put them into group to form certain words that they can recognize Although in class the listening materials are recorded and can be played again for students to listen again, it is usually under the control of the teacher

who declares ‚Let’s listen again‛ - Underwood (1989:17) Also, because of the

speed at which native speakers usually speak, students feel that they cannot keep up with the speakers’ speed and they are lost Therefore, when the teacher asks the students to listen to the overall message and forget about what they could not catch, which probably mean what they did not understand, the teacher has no idea that

sometimes what they do not really understand can ‚add up to 75% of what is heard‛

Rixon (1986:37)

2.1.3.2.2 Limited vocabulary or grammar structures

Another problem concerns the learners’ limited vocabulary in the new language They can sometimes hear the words clearly, but the problem may occur in the understanding the meaning of the words that they do not know Sometimes the listeners have to guess the meaning of a word or a phrase Working out the meaning with the help of its context is common in the mother tongue However, when people listening to a foreign language, an unknown word or structure can be like a barrier causing them to stop and work out the meaning As a result, it makes them miss the next part of speech

2.1.3.2.3 Learners learning habit

Moreover, Underwood (1989) mentions some other kinds of problems that are directly related to the students themselves One of the problems, she points out,

has to do with the idea that the learners have ‚established learning habits‛ in the

sense that they were encouraged to understand everything by listening carefully to teachers who probably speak slowly and clearly Hence, when they fail to understand every word while listening, they stop listening and lose the ‚thread‛, which seems to be the reason for the state of ‚panic‛ and worrying they usually show before and during listening

2.1.3.2.4 Lack of concentration

Listening is regarded a difficult skill in language learning Many learners say that they sometimes cannot concentrate on listening If the topic of the listening is interesting and easy to listen, it will be easier for them to concentrate But sometimes, even the topic is interesting, learners find listening a tiring work because they must make a great effort to follow what they heard word by word, if

not, they may lose some parts of the listening lesson Consequently, they may fail to understand the listening and they cannot fulfill their listening tasks

2.1.3.2.5 The size of the class

The size of the class in Vietnam nowadays (usually from 45 to over 50 students in a class) is becoming a hot problem not only for listening but also other skills in learning a foreign language The radio cannot display a good sound with high quality if the class is too large

In short, learners need some kinds of ‚tools‛, not only help them cope with

the difficulties and problem that they encounter when listening to the target language, but also to promote their overall language development in that particular skill

2.2 Teacher’s roles

Many language teachers are (sometimes painfully) aware that knowing the target language does not make you a good teacher of it There are numerous other factors involved in being good at the job, many of which are related to how well we play the roles mentioned above In this part, we will look specifically at the roles of the English teacher while conducting a listening lesson

2.2.1 A tailor

The listening text must ‘fit’ the class just as a dress must fit its wearer There are a number of factors which make a recording appropriate These include the language level If a passage is too simple, it may induce boredom; too difficult and the students will probably ‘switch off’ Difficulties may lie in the speed at which the speakers talk, vocabulary, grammar structures, density, or the number of voices on the recording Subject matter is another factor Will the students be interested in the topic? Will they be motivated to listen? Is the topic culturally accessible?

2.2.2 A stand-up comedian or a storyteller

The teacher is often the best source of input Teachers know their students better than any materials writer They can grade their language appropriately and react in real time to the students’ responses A teacher’s anecdotes, stories, advice, and even classroom instructions can all form the basis of excellent roughly-tuned input (input that is not precisely targeted at the students’ level but can be ‘roughly’ understood by them) For the more extended genres such as anecdotes, teachers who can ‘hold’ an audience have a valuable skill Just remember the public speaker’s maxim: make sure you’ve stopped speaking before the audience has stopped listening!

2.2.3 A sleuth

Before class, teachers need to be able to analyze the language in a recording

as closely as Sherlock Holmes analyzed clues These are the type of questions to ask: will my students understand this idiom? Can they deal with the variety of verb tenses here? Will they be able to decode all the contractions in this passage? Do they need to? Will they get the joke? A further aspect of this sleuthing includes actually listening to the passage before class Do not rely on reading a transcript; transcripts tell us nothing of speed, accent or clarity

2.2.4 An engineer

When using recordings, the teacher needs a basic knowledge of the way in which the equipment works, and more pertinently, the way in which the equipment sometimes doesn’t work And if your engineering skills aren’t great, and suddenly you find that the CD jumps, the cassette erupts in an explosion of mangled ribbon, or there’s a power cut, be prepared to stay cool and read the transcript or improvise (by candlelight if necessary!) Low-tech solutions are sometimes the simplest

2.2.5 A spy

While the students are listening, the teacher should be watching their hands and faces Are the students writing the answers? Do they look confused? Who is nodding intelligently? Why is this student looking at the wrong page? Listening is an internal process but, except with the most poker-faced of students, there are usually

outward manifestations By paying attention to these, teachers can become more sensitive to the students’ moment-by-moment needs

2.2.6 A doctor

Teachers need to be experts at diagnosis Where the students are having problems in listening, the teacher needs to ask, what is going wrong? Why? Is it the speed, the vocabulary, the accent, the topic, or the fact that it’s Friday evening and the heating is on too high?

2.2.7 A firefighter

If everything goes wrong and the listening passage is too difficult, the teacher needs to get everyone out of trouble, just as a firefighter might lead the way to safety How? Here are some options: if using a course-book, the class may be able to read the transcript while listening This often clears up ambiguities Another way is to break the passage down into smaller chunks, pausing after each sentence or two, and checking understanding A third option is to encourage collaboration: get the students

to share what they understood, write this on the board, and as a whole class, piece together the content before listening again

2.2.8 A tour guide

It sometimes pays to think of a piece of spoken language as an art-efact for investigation Teachers can point out what is interesting about it (a piece of spoken grammar, a bit of slang, a metaphor that also occurs in the students’ mother tongue), and ignore everything that isn’t And, like good tour guides, we should make sure everybody is with us before moving on

In short, which of these roles have you played while teaching listening? It is likely that, at one stage or another, language teachers will find themselves playing most – if not all – of them Our mastery in the roles depends on how well-prepared

we are As the writer Denis Waitley once said, ‘Expect the best, plan for the worst and prepare to be surprised’ And leave the big stick at home

(adapted from an extract from Chapter 4 of How to Teach Listening, the new book in

Pearson Longman’s How to … series)

CHARPTER 3: AN OVERVIEW OF THE NEW ENGLISH TEXTBOOK

“TIENG ANH 10” AND THE CURRENT SITUATION OF TECHING THE

TEXTBOOK AT TAY HO HIGH SCHOOL 3.1 An overview of the new textbook “Tieng Anh 10”

3.1.1 Objectives

The new English textbook ‚Tieng Anh 10‛ was written by a group of lecturers of

the University of Languages and International Studies (Vietnam National

University, Hanoi) and published in 2006 The syllabus of the textbook ‚Tieng Anh 10‛ is the continuation of that of the textbook at the secondary school Therefore, the objectives for the 10th form students to achieve would be higher According to the Ministry of Education and Training, with listening skill, by the end of the 10thform students should be able to:

- Listen for the main ideas or specific information of a monologue or a dialogue with the length of 120-150 words of the topics they have learnt in reading lessons

- Exchange information in English at a simple level about the situation relating

to the topics they have learnt

- Comprehend passages of appropriately 180-240 words about the topics they have learnt Understand the main ideas of the text or understand the text in detail Develop vocabulary comprehension: gap filling, matching, true or false, etc

- Write paragraphs (about 80 – 120 words) relating to the topics they have learnt with some cues

3.1.2 Content of the textbook

The new English textbook ‚Tieng Anh 10‛ is designed under theme-based

approach with 16 units Each unit is about one theme The units are arranged in the

following order:

- Unit 1: A day in the life of …

- Unit 2: School talks

- Unit 9: Undersea world

- Unit 10: Conservation

- Unit 3: People’s background

- Unit 4: Special education

- Unit 5: Technology and you

- Unit 6: An excursion

- Unit 7: The mass media

- Unit 8: The story of my village

- Unit 11: National parks

- Unit 12: Music

- Unit 13: Films and cinema

- Unit 14: The world cup

- Unit 15: Cities

- Unit 16: Historical places

These units cover six topics required:

- You and me (Units 1,2,3)

- Education (Units 4,5,6)

- Community (Units 7,8)

- Nature and Environment (Units 9,10,11)

- Recreation (Units 12,13,14)

- People and Places (Units 15,16)

There are five parts in each unit arranging as follows: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language focus Each part is carried out in a period of 45 minutes The aim of the arrangement is to help students to practise four macro-skills

as much as possible

In addition, there exits a ‚Test youself‛ after every two or three units The objectives of the ‚Test yourself‛ is to examine how well students have achieved in the previous units and reinforce students’ grammar

Listening is the third part of each unit after Reading and Speaking The aims

of this is that after Reading and Speaking lessons, students can achieve some vocabularies and grammar structures as well as knowledge about the topic of the unit Now, they can use these to listen better because they already have something

in their mind about what they are going to be listening

3.2 Characteristics of listening lessons and listening tasks in the textbook

3.2.1 Characteristics of listening lessons

Each listening lesson in the new English textbook ‚Tieng Anh 10‛ is the revision of the topic that students had already learnt in reading and speaking ones According to many students and English teachers at Tay Ho high school, the listening contents, in general are rather simple and easy for students to listen and fulfill all the tasks Some listening lessons also have pictures to illustrate for the listening This makes it easier and more interesting for students However, the foreigners who speak in the tape, sometimes make students confused because of their accent It takes time to replay the tape, or pause many times so that students can recognize the sound they need to hear

3.2.2 Characteristics of listening tasks

There are usually 2 tasks in each listening lesson If any listening lesson has

3 tasks, task 1 always relates to picture matching or re-arranging (This helps students get familiar with the listening tasks below and also help them to become more motivated and interested in the listening lesson

- Task 1 helps students have general idea about the listening lesson Therefore, the following exercises are usually included: True or False, Matching with Pictures, Gap-Filling

- Task 2 helps students have deep and detailed understanding about the listening lesson, so, these kinds of exercises are included: Gap-Filling, Answering the questions

Among these exercises, Gap-Filling exercise appears most because it is suitable and typical for listening

3.3 The current situation of teaching the textbook at Tay Ho high school

3.3.1 Introduction of Tay Ho high school and its students

Tay Ho high school is located at Phu Thuong precinct, Tay Ho district, Hanoi City It was established 8 years ago, in 2002 It is a new high school with 32 classes Like other high schools, its duty is to educate students from the 10th form to the 12thform Every year the school recruits about over 600 students for the 10th form We

have one gifted class which focuses on Maths, Chemistry and Physics and three more classes in which Maths, Chemistry and Physics are three main subjects We also have one gifted class which focuses on English, Literature and Maths and two more classes in which English, Literature and Maths are the main subjects However, Maths, Physics and Chemistry are chosen mainly by most of the students who wish to take the exams to colleges or university English is one of compulsory subjects at high school in the school-leaving exam

The students at Tay Ho high school are approximately from 16 to 18 years old They mostly come from Phu Thuong, Nhat Tan, Tu Lien precincts Some students come from some precincts surrounded such as: Hoan Kiem, Ba Dinh, Nhat Tao, Dong Ngac, Thuy Phuong, etc

Most of their parents are farmers They grow Kumquat and Peach Some of them do not take good care of their children Moreover, the students are of different learning abilities and have different attitudes towards learning English: few of them are learning for the entrance exams to colleges and universities; some are learning only for the school- leaving exam, and others are learning because English is a compulsory subject at school and they have to learn it Hence, the teachers in our school cope with many difficulties when teaching English due to students’ different motivations

What is more, English is a subject that secondary school students don’t take care about because they do not take it as a subject at entrance exam to high schools

So, most of our students have low level of English in general and listening skills in particular They have learnt English for four years at the secondary school, but their English background knowledge has remained poor Some of our teachers are really

surprised that many students have limited vocabulary and grammar structures Even

more, some students have nothing in their mind about English Every thing at the high school with them is new

Another problem of the students is that most of them do not have a habit of learning independently and tend to depend on the textbook or the textbooks with the

available answers (namely ‚De hoc tot Tieng Anh‛) The students become really

passive in English lessons

This fact asks the teachers to find out suitable teaching method to help students get out of this bad situation and become more active in their English learning

3.3.2 English teachers and teaching methods

At Tay Ho high school, we have 10 English teachers aged from 24 to 37 All

of us graduated from University of Languages and International Studies (Vietnam

National University, Hanoi) The oldest teacher has nearly 15 years of teaching experience and the youngest teacher has got 2 years All of us took part in the advanced English course held by Hanoi Ministry of Education which last 6 months

We also have been to some workshops in language teaching and some summer workshops on changes in English textbooks I myself had a chance to join in a workshop (about teaching method renovation) which took place in Singapore with many other teachers who came from some high schools in Hanoi

‚Learner-centered approach‛ is a new trend in teaching nowadays All teachers in my school in general and English teachers in particular are trying to apply this new teaching method in teaching at Tay Ho school – It means that we are trying to give students more chances to present themselves, to help them become more independent and confident However, the 10th graders are so passive in learning (Maybe it is a learning habit that formed when they were in secondary school) As a result, our English teachers find it difficult to follow ‚Learner-centered approach‛ and most of us still apply traditional teaching methods in teaching Especially, in listening skill, the teachers keep the key role in the class The teachers explain new and difficult words or structures to students Then, we ask students to listen to the tape, sometimes again and again to find out the answers

Even, we must pause many times so that our students can recognize the answer by themselves

3.3.3 Teaching facilities

Teaching facilities are really important and it may affect the teaching process positively or negatively Everyone admits that changing teaching methods must be closely related to the changing in teaching facilities Fully aware of this fact, our head-master spent a lot of money on teaching facilities We have one laboratory, one library which consists of many kinds of books and 12 computers (internet connected) We also have 6 projectors, each laptop for each department Our English Department has 8 cassette players and two loud speakers Textbook, chalk and blackboard are available

3.3.4 Time allocation for a listening period

At the moment, the 10th form students are using the new textbooks, published

in 2006 The new English textbook ‚Tieng Anh 10‛ has totally 16 units and 6 test yourself The units and tests are divided into 105 periods Each week we have 3 periods and each one lasts 45 minutes Each unit is taught within 5 periods This is

shown very clearly in the textbook, under the micro-skills: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language focus Frankly speaking, because the test form is

only focused on the grammar, not any listening part is included in the test So, our students do not pay much attention to listening skill

CHAPTER 4: THE STUDY 4.1 Context study

This study is carried out at Tay Ho high school, Ha Noi city and limited to the

10th form students

4.2 Research questions

As I have mentioned above, this study was carried out in order to find out the challenges that the teachers and students of grade 10 (at Tay Ho high school) in teaching and learning listening, it is necessary to answer the following questions:

4 What is the reality of teaching and learning listening in grade 10 at Tay Ho high school with the new English textbook ‚Tieng Anh 10‛ (the set of standard textbook)?

5 What are the challenges that teachers and students in grade 10 have to face?

6 What are the solutions to improve listening skill for students of grade 10? Once the difficulties are found, appropriate solutions to overcome those difficulties will be suggested

4.3 The subjects

In order to achieve the aims of the thesis and answers to the research questions, the subjects of the study include: 7 teachers of English at Tay Ho High School Six of them are female and one is male Four of them are teaching the new English textbook ‚Tieng Anh 10‛, 3 of them taught it in the last school year

4.4 The data collection instruments

In this study, I employed various kinds of instruments in order to get the most exact and valuable information for the thesis

- Survey questionnaire to students

- Informal interview with teachers of English

- Classroom observation

Each instrument has its own purposes:

- Classroom observation is aimed to see how a listening lesson was carried with 10thform students at Tay Ho High School How teachers perform in Pre-Listening, While-Listening and Post-Listening (What the teachers focus most when they teach

a listening lesson?) Which teaching methods they apply (How and When teachers explain new words and grammar structures for students) What difficulties teachers and students often meet when they carry out a listening lesson (What is the typical problems of a listening lesson, how students and teachers solve them)

- 5 Interview questions were carried with 7 teachers of English

+ Question 1: “Do you think the new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” is suitable to

your students in the aspect of the topic, the length of the listening and the tasks given?” is aimed at investigating the teachers’ comment on the textbook they are

teaching with the ability of their students at Tay Ho High School

+ Question 2: ‚What are the typical problems you are facing with in teaching

listening with the textbook at ‚Before you listen‛ stage, ‚While you listen‛ stage and

‚After you listen‛ stage, and question 3 ‚Among these difficulties, what is the most

difficulty you often meet when teaching listening with the text book?‛ are aimed at

investigating difficulties that the teachers are coping with in teaching listening comprehension

+ Question 4: “What have you been doing to overcome these difficulties and motivate

your students in listening lesson?” is aimed at investigating solutions the teachers

are applying to overcome the difficulties

+ Question 5: ‚In general, according to your opinion, what is your students’ attitude

toward listening lesson? is aimed at investigating how students react in listening lesson

- Questionnaire for students was designed to get more information supporting other instruments to find out the problems in listening lesson that teachers and students meet

Question 1 and 2: students’ comment on the listening skill

Question 3 to 8: students’ comment on the qualities of the tape, the topic and the content of the listening comprehension, from that, some problems of listening are estimated

Question 9, 10 and 11: difficulties that students face to when they learn listening skill

Question 11 to 13: students’ expectation from their teachers in teaching listening Question 14: The role of listening in final assessment at Tay Ho High School

4.5 Data collection procedure

As it is stated, various instruments were designed in this study The first instrument is classroom observation This activity was carried out rather simple and natural when the researcher joined in a listening lesson of one of my colleagues The second instrument is interview questions with teachers of English All of the answers to the questions were recorded to analyze

In order to have true and valuable information, the researcher designed a survey questionnaire, 200 students of the 10th form were surveyed In stead of randomly selecting the individual, the researcher randomly selected the classes for investigation The questionnaires were delivered to the students at class meeting hour on Saturday afternoon under permission and the help of the head teachers of the classes

CHAPTER 5: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter deals with the results from the questionnaire to the students, from interviews with teachers of English and from classroom observation The findings from those results will help to find out possible solutions to make improvement for teaching Listening Comprehension at Tay Ho High School

5.1 Discuss the result

5.1.1 Discussion of the results collected by means of questionnaire

5.1.1.1 Students’ opinion on the listening skill in general and listening lesson on the new textbook “Tieng Anh 10” in particular (Table 1)

answers (%)

1 In your opinion, what is the role

of listening skill in language

learning?

C As important as other skills

3

2 In general, what do you think

about listening lessons in your

one of the skills that is compulsory at school 5% of the students admit that listening lessons are so boring, they didn’t do anything in listening lessons but sleeping

5.1.1.2 Students’ opinion about the quality of the cassette player (Table 2)

answers (%)

3 According to you, the quality of

the tape used in listening lessons

is …

A Good quality: loud and clear enough

39

According to table 2, 58% of students claimed that the quality of the tape is not good, it is not really clear for them to listen Meanwhile, 39% of students said that the quality of the tape is good It is loud and clear enough for them to fulfill all the tasks This is understandable because the students who are better at listening than the others can hear what is being played on the tape

5.1.1.3 Students’ opinion about the content of the listening (Table 3)

answers (%)

4 In general, the content of the

listening lessons in the new

English textbook ‚Tieng Anh 10‛

is …

A Difficult to understand

2

B Rather easy to understand

87

C Very easy to understand

11

5 In your opinion, the topic of the

listening lesson in the new

textbook ‚Tieng Anh 10‛ is …

familiar, the others are not familiar

6 What do you think about the

length of the listening text in the

new textbook ‚Tieng Anh 10‛

8 What do you think about the way

of pronouncing of the speakers in

the tape?

A Clear, easy to listen 7

C Unclear, difficult to recognize the words

50

As for the characteristics of the listening comprehension of the textbook ‚Tieng Anh 10‛, students have different ideas on all matters

In terms of the content, the percentage of students who think it is rather easy

to understand (63%) is relatively higher than those who think it is difficult (26%) This result shows that the content of the listening texts in the textbook ‚Tieng Anh 10‛ is rather suitable for students It means that teachers of English can design interesting listening lessons for students basing on the listen texts

In terms of the topics, a minority of students (6%) believe that all of them are not familiar, 17% of students find all of them familiar and a majority of students think that some topics are familiar and some of them are not familiar to them This can be explainable if we look back at the reading passages Some topics are very interesting and familiar with students such as: A day in a life of…, school talks, music, films and cinema, the world cup However, some topics are quite strange and difficult for 10th form students such as: People’s Background, Special Education, Undersea World or Conservation And the topic of each unit is used in all skills:

Reading, Speaking and Listening It is the reason why most of the students find some topics are familiar and others not

In term of length of the listening texts, only some students (3%) think that the texts are short Some others (12%) think that they are long And 85% belongs to those who think that most of the texts have medium length However, most of them also share that they rarely finish all the tasks in listening lessons (they rarely do

‚after you listen‛, and it always becomes the homework) This fact shows that although the listening texts are in medium length but the teachers must play the tape again and again for the students to find out the answers As a result, it takes a lot of time to finish the tasks

Question number 7 shows students’ opinion on the speed of the speakers 32% of the students agree that the speed of the speakers is okay for them It means that they can catch what is being spoken No students think that the speed is low It

is not surprising because not many students at Tay Ho high school have chances to talk with foreigners Moreover, they do not practice listening at home as much as other skills The contradictory opinions make up 68% The students said that they always try to listen to every single word It is the reason why they always lose the next word And as a result, they miss the whole meaning of the text One more reason is that they don’t get familiar with the accent of the speakers in the tape because they do not have many chances to talk with foreigners as stated above

Another problem is the way the speakers pronounce in the tape Only 7% of the students agree that the speakers speak clearly and easily for them to understand 43% of the students think that they can recognize the words of the listening Meanwhile, 50% of the students claim that they can not recognize every word in the listening because the speakers always link the previous words with the following ones Moreover, as stated above, students do not have chance to communicate with foreigners, so they do not get used to the foreigners’ accent

5.1.1.4 Difficulties faced by students (Table 4)