Difficulties encountered by the 11th form students at Cẩm Thủy 2 Secondary School when learning the English listening skill Những khó khăn trong việc học kĩ nă

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST–GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** LÊ THỊ SÁU DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY THE 11 th

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST–GRADUATE STUDIES

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

LÊ THỊ SÁU

DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY THE 11 th FORM STUDENTS AT CẨM THỦY II SECONDARY SCHOOL WHEN LEARNING

THE ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL

(Những khó khăn trong việc học kĩ năng nghe của học sinh khối 11

Trường THPT Cẩm Thủy 2)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

HA NOI – 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST–GRADUATE STUDIES

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

LÊ THỊ SÁU

DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY THE 11 th FORM STUDENTS AT CẨM THỦY II SECONDARY SCHOOL WHEN LEARNING

THE ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL

(Những khó khăn trong việc học kĩ năng nghe của học sinh khối 11

Trường THPT Cẩm Thủy 2)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: Lâm Thị Phúc Hân, M.A

HA NOI – 2013

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

L2: The second language

CT2SS: Cẩm Thủy 2 Secondary School

Sts: students

LC: Listening comprehension

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND CHARTS Page

Table 2: Students general self-rating to listening proficiency 22

Table 6: Students‟ expectation from their teachers in helping them better 33 learning English listening skills

Chart 3: Students‟ assessment to difficulty` of listening tasks in the textbook 24 Chart 4: Students‟ Evaluation on Listening Activities in "Tieng Anh 11" 25

1.2.1.2 The importance and purposes of the listening skill 6

1.2.2.2 Phases in teaching the listening skill 10

2.3.2.2 Interviews 19

by the 11 th form Sts at CT2SS

these difficulties

CHAPTER III: FINDING AND DISCUSSION 35

3.2 Suggestions for teachers and the students in teaching and learning 36

the listening skill

3.2.1 For the students 37 3.2.1.1 Positive attitude 37

with the topic they are going to listen

used for each task

3 Suggestions for further research 43

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

Language is a means helping people to communicate with each others Without language, people can not understand each other properly However, to master a language

is not easy at all

Of the four language skills -Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing-that all language learners are supposed to acquire, listening is believed to be the most challenging due to the complex and subtle nature of listening comprehension in L2 or foreign language It takes much time and effort to make progress in this skill

In Vietnam, a lot of students encounter listening problems in foreign language learning, especially for Sts in mountainous areas, listening skill is much more difficult because of both objective and subjective reasons That‟s why I chose this thesis

“Difficulties encountered by the 11 th

form students at Cẩm Thủy 2 Secondary School when learning the English listening skill” I hope this thesis will help both teachers and

Sts to realize the factors obstacling the students in learning the English listening skill, then find out solutions to this problem

1.2 Purpose of the study

The main purpose of the study is to probe difficulties encountered by the 11th form students at Cam Thuy II secondary school (CT2SS), in Thanh Hoa province in learning the listening skill Within this purpose, the three central objectives are:

- Investigating the 11th form Sts‟ attitudes at CT2SS towards listening

- Finding out the difficulties encountered by the Sts in learning the listening skill

- Giving suggestions with the hope of helping the Sts improve their listening

comprehension

In order to achieve the above objectives, the study will be conducted to answer three research questions:

1 How can the 11th grade Sts at CT2SS perceive the importance of studying English listening skill?

2 What listening difficulties do the 11th grade Sts at CT2SS face when learning to listen

in English?

3 How can the teacher help the Sts overcome these listening comprehension difficulties?

1.3 Scope of the study

This minor thesis is conducted at CT2SS in order to perceive difficulties in learning listening skills of the 11th form Sts The study focuses on describing the problems and factors causing such challenges, for instance, facilities, students‟ English listening proficiency To go ahead, the thesis also offers some appropriate suggestions to better the current context

1.4 Methodology of the study

To seek the answers to the research questions, both qualitative and quantitative

methods are used

First of all, for the theoretical basis, a lot of reference materials on listening skills have been collected, analyzed and synthesized carefully with the due consideration for

the students‟ learning situations

Secondly, a survey questionnaire has been conducted with the students to collect the data Then, follow-up interviews have been carried out with students to gather the most reliable data for analysis to find the answers to the research questions mentioned above

1.5 Significance of the study

This study may provide insights into the process of learning the listening skill for the students It can help students understand why they have difficulties in the listening

skill It also gives some suggestions to help students overcome the difficulties It may play a crucial role in enhancing the listening skill to the students

1.6 Organization of the study

The thesis is divided into 3 parts:

PART A: INTRODUCTION This part refers to the rationale, aims, scope, methods,

research questions and organization of the stud

PART B: DEVELOPMENT This consists of three chapters

CHAPTER I – LITERARUTE REVIEW conceptualizes the definition of the listening skill,

the importance and purposes of listening, nature of listening, the process of listening, teaching the listening skill, phases in teaching the listening skill and potential problems in learning to listen to English

CHAPTER II: THE STUDY presents the methodology used in the study including the

setting, sample, data collection instrument, data collection procedure and data analysis

CHAPTER III: MAJOR FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION shows some major findings and

suggestions for learning listening skills

PART C: CONCLUSION It is comprised of CONCLUSION, which revisits the main

points discussed in the study, some limitations of the study and recommendations for future researches will be presented

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Introduction

This chapter discusses a variety of issues in the theories of listening skill The following main points will be presented: definitions, the importance and purposes of the listening skill; the nature, the process of listening, and phases in teaching the listening skill and potential problems in learning to listen in English

1.2 Theoretical background of the listening skill

1.2.1 What is the listening skill?

1.2.1.1 Definitions

Listening is considered as one of the most important skills in acquiring both a native language and a second or foreign language; It is being paid more and more attention to So far, there have been a number of definitions of listening by different linguists such as Howatt and Dakin (1974); Wolvin and Coakley (1982); Pearson (1983); Hirsch (1986); Feyten (1991); Scarcella and Oxford (1992); Bentley & Bacon (1996) Howatt and Dakin (1974) defined listening as the ability to identify and understand what others are saying This involves understanding a speaker's accent or pronunciation, his grammar and his vocabulary, and grasping his meaning

Wolvin and Coakley (1982) regarded listening "the process of receiving, attending

to and assigning meaning to aural stimuli"

Pearson (1983) stated “Listening involves the simultaneous organization and combination of skills in Phonology, Syntax, Semantics, and knowledge of the text structure, all of which seem to be controlled by the cognitive process Thus it can be said that though not fully realized, the listening skill is essential in acquiring language proficiency”

Hirsch (1986) gave another definition “Listening as an aspect of skills: involves neurological response and interpretations of sounds to understand and to give meaning by reacting, selecting meaning, remembering, attending, analyzing and including previous experience.”

Bentley & Bacon (1996) stated that listening, an important part of the second language learning process has also been defined as an active process during which the listener constructs meaning from oral input

To sum up, all of definitions are given with a view to clarifying the nature of the listening skill which is necessary in the process of acquiring a native language or a foreign one

1.2.1.2 The importance and purposes of the listening skill in the language learning process

It can‟t be denied that listening plays a vital role in our daily lives People listen for different purposes such as entertainment,

information

People are believed to use more time

listening in comparison with other skills

According to Adler, R et al (2001), adults spend

an average of 70% of their time engaged in some

sort of communication, of this an average of 45%

is spent listening compared to 30% speaking, 16% reading and 9% writing

Rivers (1981) stated that listening is a critical element in the competent language performance of adult second language learners, whether they are communicating at school, at work, or in the community Through the normal course of a day, listening is used nearly twice as much as speaking and four to five times as much as reading and

writing In a recent study of Fortune 500 Corporations, Wolvin and Coakley (1991) found that listening was perceived to be crucial for communication at work with regards to entry-level employment, job success, general career competence, managerial competency, and effectiveness of relationships between supervisors and subordinates

The importance of the listening skill can not be denied, however, different scholars give their own views about how it is important

Some practitioners believe that language learning is a linear process, starting with the spoken language medium (listening and speaking) and then moving to the written medium (reading and writing) Listening is the means to initiate oral production, which tends to be an imitation of spoken texts The second view places listening along with the other three language modalities (speaking, reading and writing) in an intersectative mode All four modalities should be thought simultaneously, so that practice in one area can reinforce and develop the other forms of communication (Rivers, 1987)

A third view emphasizes listening as the primary source of linguistic input, which

activates the language learning process Rost (1994:141-142) claimed that 'Listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides input for the learners Without understanding input at the right level, any learning simply cannot begin” According to this scholar, without understanding input appropriately, learning simply can not get any

improvement In addition, without listening skill, no communication can be achieved

Though different linguists give a number of views about the importance of listening, they all claim that listening play a vital role in communication and in learning a language Listening is essential not only as receptive skill but also to the development of spoken language prophecy

1.2.1.3 Nature of the listening skill

When we talk about listening, we tend to assume it as hearing However, as stated above, listening involves a more complex process than hearing (Burley- Alen, 1982) Hearing is the process in which sound waves are received and modified by the ear while listening refers to a process of being aware of sound sequences In listening to speech, the

person first identifies the component sounds and then recognizes sound sequences as known words through the avenues of auditory analysis, mental reorganization and association of meaning It can be said that listening is a skill characterized as a highly-complex problem –solving activity

In the past, listening comprehension was usually characterized as a passive activity (Bacon, 1989) However, many theorists realized that listening is not a passive but an active process of constructing meaning from a stream of sounds (McDonough, 1999; Rivers & Temperly, 1978; Thompson & Rubin, 1996; Vandergrift, 1998; Weissenrieder, 1987; Wing, 1986)

As Anderson and Lynch(1988) described, there are two principal sources of information we should consult in the process of comprehension: Schematic information and systematic knowledge Schematic information involves background knowledge, and systematic knowledge refers to knowledge of the language such as semantic, syntactic and phonological knowledge

Cognitive psychology defines comprehension as information processing Schemata are the guiding structures in the comprehension process The schema is described by Rumelhart (1980, p 34) as ―a data structure for representing the generic concepts stored in memory It can be used to represent our knowledge about all concepts: those underlying objects, situations, events, sequences of events, actions and sequences

of actions According to the cognitive comprehension theory, ―schema means an abstract textual structure that the listener uses to make sense of the given text The listener makes use of linguistic and situational cues and also the expectations he/she has about the new input to evoke schemata When a schema has been evoked, it will become

a guiding structure in comprehension If the incoming information is matched with the schema, then the listeners have succeeded in comprehending the text; if they are not compatible, either the information or the schema will be discarded or modified

1.2.1.4 The process involved in the listening skill

Specific listening activities can be approached in terms of two distinct processes involved

in listening skill: bottom-up and top-down processing (Chaudron & Richards, 1986)

Bottom-up processing

Bottom-up processing refers to deriving the meaning of the message based on the incoming language data, from sounds, to words, to grammatical relationships, to meaning Stress, rhythm, and intonation also play a role in bottom-up processing Bottom-up processing would be activated as the learner is signaled to verify comprehension by the trainer/teacher asking a question using the declarative form with rising intonation ("You see that switch there?") Practice in recognizing statements and questions that differ only in intonation help the learner develop bottom-up processing skills

Top-down processing

Top-down processing: is explained as employing background knowledge in

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

Besides, although the listener can trigger a schema, he might not have the suitable schema expected by the speaker

Thus, only relying on top-down processing may result in the failure of comprehension The interactive processing (the third type) overcomes the disadvantages

of bottom-up processing and top-down processing to augment the comprehension In the early 1980s, it was the tendency that only top -down processing was acknowledged to improve L2 listening comprehension However it is now more generally accepted that both top-down and bottom-up listening processing should be combined to enhance LC Complex and simultaneous processing of background knowledge information, contextual information and linguistic information make comprehension an interpretation become easy When the content of the material is familiar to the listener, he will employ his background knowledge at the same time to make predictions which will be proved by the new input

In conclusion, learners need to be aware that both of these processes affect their listening comprehension, and they need to be given opportunities to practice employing each of them The best way is to combine both of these processing Because each of them has their own disadvantages and advantages Using the interactive process ( both of them) helps us overcomes the disadvantages of bottom-up processing and top-down processing to augment the comprehension

1.2.2 Teaching the listening skill

1.2.2.1 The listening skill

Listening skill is one of the most difficult and challenge to a learner so it is not easy to be a successful listener An able listener, as Willis (1981:134)pointed out, can do these things simultaneously: (1) predicting what people are going to talk about, (2) guessing at unknown words or phrases without panic, (3) using one's own knowledge of the subject to help one understand, (4) identifying relevant points; rejecting irrelevant information, (5) retaining relevant points (note-taking, summarizing), (6) recognizing

discourse markers, (7) recognizing cohesive devices, including linking words, pronouns, references, etc, (8) understanding different intonation patterns and uses of stress, etc., which give clues to meaning and social setting, (9) understanding inferred information, e

g , speakers' attitude or intentions

1.2.2.2 Phases in teaching the listening skill

A well-designed listening activity should be broken down into carefully sequenced

"phases" that build on each other They are pre-listening phase, while listening phase, and post-listening phase

Pre listening: The initial phase is called pre-listening phase or activities Pre-listening

activities that precede the listening passage should prepare the students for the comprehension task by activating the students' vocabulary and background knowledge or

by providing the students with the information needed to comprehend the content of the listening text (Dunkel, 1986; Rogers & Medley, 1988; Vandergrift, 1997)

According to Rost (1990:232), the pre-listening phase is a kind of preparatory work which: “( ) ought to make the context explicit, clarify purposes and establish roles, procedures and goals for listening” The pre-listening stage helps learners to find out the aim of listening and provides the necessary background information Jones and Kimborough (1987:2) suggest introducing some preliminary discussion in which students can talk together about their expectations and make predictions about what they are going

to hear

While- listening activities should help the students develop the skill of extracting

meaning from the speech stream While-listening activities can be shortly defined as all tasks that students are asked to do during the time of listening to the text The nature of these activities is to help learners to listen for meaning, that is to elicit a message from spoken language Rixon (1986) points out that, at the while-listening stage students should not worry about interpreting long questions or giving full answers, but they should

concentrate on comprehension, whether they have understood important information from the passage That means that students can focus their attention on listening itself, rather than on worrying about reading, writing, grammar or spelling The aim of the while-listening stage for students is to understand the message of the text not catching every word, they need to understand enough to collect the necessary information

Post- listening activities are activities that follow the listening passage, on the other

hand, consist of extensions and developments of the listening task (Underwood, 1989); they may emphasize cultural themes and socio-linguistic aspects related to the materials

The post-listening stage comprises all the exercises which are done after listening to the text Some of these activities may be the extensions of those carried out at pre- and while-listening work but some may not be related to them at all and present a totally independent part of the listening session Post-listening activities allow the learners to

„reflect‟ on the language from the passage; on sound, grammar and vocabulary as they last longer than while-listening activities so the students have time to think, discuss or write (Rixon 1986:64,97 and Underwood 1989: 78)

1.2 3 Potential problems in learning to the English listening skill

There are a lot of potential problems in learning a language skill For the listening skill, Underwood (1989) offers seven conceivable causes of obstacles to efficient listening comprehension

1.2.3.1 Speed of delivery

Sometimes, listeners cannot control the speed of delivery, especially for beginners Learners often feel that the utterances disappear before they can sort them out or they can get the message Underwood says ,“Many English language learners believe that the greatest difficulty with listening comprehension, as opposed to reading comprehension, is that the learners cannot control how quickly a speaker speaks” (Underwood, 1989, p.16)

The reason is that speakers speak too fast, learners can not keep up with the speed They can not hear what is being spoken

1.2.3.2 Inability to get things repeated

Secondly, listeners cannot always have words repeated This is a serious problem

in learning situations In the classroom, students often listen to their listening text on radio controlled by teachers Therefore, the decision as to whether or not to replay a recording or a section of a recording is in hands of teachers, not in hands of students This problem can be solved only when learners are given the opportunity to control their own machines and proceed in whatever way they wish This problem happens not only in the classroom, but outside it as well Outside the classroom, listeners are not always able to ask the speaker to repeat his utterance This can lead their failure in listening

1.2.3.3 Limited vocabulary

When listening, there are words or phrases that the listeners do not know In other words, listeners have a limited vocabulary The speakers may choose words related to topics the listeners do not know which obstacles the listeners in getting the message of the passage The listeners may wonder about the meaning of new words, so they can not concentrate on listening the next part of the listening Teachers, therefore, should help the learners to know that there is not equal importance for every word and there is no need for learners to understand all the new words when listening They should orient students

to the topic they are going to hear so that they can find out vocabulary related to the topic

in advance

1.2.3.4 Unrecognizing the signals

Fourthly, listeners may fail to recognize the signals, which indicate that the speaker is moving from one point to another, giving an example, or repeating a point With regard to the functional effect of discourse signals on listeners‟ comprehension of

the discourse, Chaudron and Rechards (1986) empirically demonstrated that a speaker‟s use of discourse markers facilitates comprehension of the incoming information Discourse markers used in formal situations or lectures such as “secondly”, or “then” are comparatively evident to listeners In informal situations or spontaneous conversations, signals are more vague as in pauses, gestures, increased loudness….These signals are not easy to be recognized at all

1.2.3.5 Listeners’ lack of contextual knowledge or background knowledge

Another problem is that listeners may lack contextual knowledge In other words, they don‟t have enough essential background knowledge That is the knowledge that we possess previously about the context or passage (Ur, 1985) Many researcher agree that prior knowledge can affect listening comprehension (Bacon, 1989; Carrell, 1983; Connor, 1984; Chiang& Dunkel, 1992) It helps listeners interpret the speaker‟ utterances and remove the difficulties in comprehending the text as the listeners lack the familiarity with the target language Bacon(1989) reported that successful listeners tend

to use their personal , world and discourse knowledge effectively When EFL listeners lack familiarity with the cultural element in the discourse, communication could break down

1.2.3.6 Inability to concentrate

Sixthly, it can be difficult for listeners to concentrate in a foreign language This can be caused by a number of things such as : the bad quality of machines, the poor quality of listening materials Other reason for loss of concentration is that the topic is not interesting or not familiar and learners find it difficult to understand In listening comprehension, even the shortest breaks in attention can serious impair comprehension Concentration is easier when the students find the topic of the listening passage interesting; however, students may feel listening is tiring because they must use an enormous amount of effort to follow the meaning

1.2.3.7 Learning habits

The last is students may have established some learning habits such as a wish to understand every word By tradition, teachers want their Sts to understand every word they hear by repeating and pronouncing words carefully, by grading the language to suit their level, by speaking slowly….Therefore, Sts often feel nervous when they can not hear some words This leads to their lack of confidence in listening According to Scarcella and Oxford (1992), Sts' anxiety about not understanding everything can lead them to "discouragement, fatigue, and a general sense of failure"

CHAPTER II: THE STUDY 2.1 Introduction

There are three parts in this chapter: The first part of the chapter is the setting of the study which refers to English teaching and learning situations at CT2SS, the students‟ background, their English levels and the listening materials that are being used at school The second part is devoted to the presentation of data collection, which consists of selecting the subjects, the data collection instrument and the procedure to collect data The final part, which is the most important one, presents the comprehensive analysis of the data gathered from the survey questionnaire and informal interviews

2.2 The setting of the study

2.2.1 English teaching and learning situation at CT2SS

The study was conducted at CT2SS which was established in 1984 in Cam Thuy district, Thanh Hoa province

There are currently 57 teachers in the school, most of whom are young (from the age of 23 to 35) with 1-13 years of teaching experiences Among them, there are 6 English teachers, graduating from different universities in the country, and being well- trained and qualified; however, they still lack teaching experience, particularly teaching English skills These teachers of English are in charge of 24 classes with 3 periods of English per week in each class Every year, they often attend summer training courses organized by Thanh Hoa education and training bureau to learn new English teaching methods as well as new English textbooks or how to raise the quality of teaching English

Classes at the school are very crowded with from 35 to 50 students in each class

In addition, the desks are often arranged traditionally with rows of four desks with a narrow isle in the middle and two narrower on the sides There is no other empty space left where teachers and students can move to and from if they conduct different

interaction activities Also, unavoidable noise in a big class usually has bad effects on students‟ concentration and sound quality

Though the school has a library, a laboratory, and two computer rooms, not many teachers make full use of them

Like in other schools, students at CT2SS are taught all the subjects, one of which is English English is taught in classrooms with five parts: Listening, Speaking, Reading Writing and Grammar within 40 weeks

2.2.2 The students’ background and their English levels

The 11th form students at CT2SS are aged from 16 to 17 They came from different places of Cam Thuy district Most of them have learnt English including listening skill since they were at grade 6 However, because of many different reasons, the students‟ level in English is very low They are basically beginners of English Moreover, they do not have clear determination on English learning goals At the beginning of each school year, they must take an examination to check their knowledge

of all subjects The result points out that they are not good at English at all because most

of them got marks under 5 In addition, Cam Thuy is a remote mountainous area and the living standard is low, students have a lot of difficulties in going to school and pursuing their study They do not have the best conditions to learn For them, English is not a popular subject and they do not pay much attention to it while the most important ones are mathematics, physics and chemistry

2.2.3 Listening text books

At Cam Thuy 2 secondary school, students have 3 years to learn English with six semesters for secondary level Each semester has 20 weeks with 60 periods, each of which lasts 45 minutes Like students at other secondary schools, students at Cam Thuy 2 use English books published by Education publishing house, Grade 10 students use “ Tieng Anh 10”, Grade 11 students use “Tieng anh 11”, and “Tieng anh 12” is used for grade 12 All of students here learn the Basic English level

“Tieng Anh 11” is the sixth volume which continues a series of English textbooks for grade 6 to grade 10 Unlike the old textbooks where language input was presented in terms of linguistic structures which were then mechanically practiced through a series of rule-focused exercises, “Tieng Anh 11” is underpinned by a theme-based approach to the introduction of language input Lessons are arranged according to topics which are true to life

“Tieng Anh 11” consists of sixteen units; each unit presents a theme which is relevant to many aspects of the daily life: friendship, birthday party, hobbies, Tet holiday and so on Those themes are represented via five sections: reading, speaking, writing, listening and language focus respectively Each section can be taught within one or two periods depending on the syllabus A listening lesson often lasts within a forty-five minute period It is comprised of a passage or a conversation about a specific topic Before listening, there are oriented tasks for students to get familiar with the topic and learn new words which are in the listening text The students must do from 3 to 4 tasks such as deciding statements true or false, filling in the gaps and choosing the best answer

by circling A, B, C or D After that, they listen to the text either from a cassette recorder

or from a teacher and do the While-listening activities such as answering the questions

At the end of a listening lesson, there is always the part “After you listen” to give the students a chance to get to know more about the listening topic

Besides “ Tieng Anh 11”, teachers at CT2SS do not use any other listening materials to teach the students

2.3 Data collection

2.3.1 Selecting the subjects

118 students (37 % of the 11th grade students at CT2SS) were selected to participate in the survey questionnaire These students were randomly selected to go in for the research There were 73 female students and 45 male students (62% compared to 38%) In this case, 'Cluster random sampling' was used, which means that instead of

randomly selecting the individuals, the researcher randomly selected groups for investigation Because of limited conditions, the researcher could not take the whole 11 grade students at the school into the study With 118 students, the researcher could observe the participants who completed the questionnaires in their classes so that the result of the study would be exact

The reason why the researcher did not choose the 10th grade students as the subjects of the study because the researcher was not in charge of teaching the 10th grade students so that it might be more difficult for her to carry out the study The researcher did not also choose the 12th grade students because the 12th grade students were busy preparing for their graduation and entrance exam to universities, so they could not take part in the study enthusiastically

2.3.2 Data collection instrument

To collect necessary data and information for the study, the researcher used different ways: questionnaires and follow-up interviews

2.3.2.1 The questionnaire for the students

Questionnaire: The main instrument used for the data collection is the questionnaire for

the students (see appendix 1) The questionnaire was used because they are one of the most popular instruments in collecting data The researcher used the questionnaire to tap into opinions, ideas of the students towards listening skills The answers were recorded to

be available for subsequent reflection and analysis Furthermore, by administering a questionnaire to a group of people, the researcher could collect a huge amount of information in a little amount of time Then the author could process the data fast and relatively straight forwards Last but not least, it could be used successfully with a variety

of people in a variety of situations

In this study, the questionnaire was designed with two parts Part one comprises

two items and 3 questions that the author desires to explore basic demographic

information of the participants, including gender, number of years of English study, and

the study of other foreign languages

Part two consists of 25 questions which are aimed at getting data on the response

of students' attitude towards learning English listening skills and their difficulties in learning these skills They are multiple choice questions to which the participants can choose more than one option and if necessary can supply other choices

2.3.2.2 Interviews

The second data gathering instrument which was employed in this study was interviews 50 out of 118 students were randomly chosen for the interviews to get their opinions about learning listening skills The purpose of the interview was to triangulate the information that was obtained through the questionnaire; to obtain data on how the listening difficulties which had been identified through the questionnaire affected the learners‟ listening comprehension; to obtain information about the reasons behind the learners‟ difficulties of listening comprehension; and to find out if there were any other listening difficulties that affected the learners‟ listening comprehension Moreover, by providing opportunities for learners to report in their own words, the researcher might gain some insights into their understanding of and attitude towards some of these difficulties The learner's voice can be very valuable to the understanding of their comprehension difficulties Interviews were carried out after questionnaires had been distributed to the students The questions for the interviews are open-ended ones focusing

on students‟ opinion and attitude towards the learning of listening skill (See Appendix 2)

2.3.3 Procedures to collect data

The researcher conducted the study within 6 weeks at the end of the first term in classes 11C3,11C4, 11C5, 11C6, at Cam Thuy II secondary school, Thanh Hoa province where she has been teaching for nearly two years Firstly, the researcher designed survey questionnaires and collected all ideas from 118 students Luckily, all of the students took part in the study enthusiastically

Secondly, the researcher interviewed nearly a half of the subjects (50 students) randomly to collect more data about listening difficulties, factors causing such problems and how to help to motivate learning listening better in the classroom

2.4 Data analysis

This part of the thesis is the treatment of all the data collected from the survey questionnaires conducted on 118 students of the 11th grade of CT2SS and from informal interviews The results are statically presented in the forms of tables and charts These are used to answer the three research questions:

1 How can the 11th grade students at CT2SS perceive the importance of studying English listening skills?

2 What listening difficulties do the 11th grade students at CT2SS face when learning to listen in English?

3 How can the teacher help the students overcome these listening difficulties?

2.4.1 Students’ attitude towards the importance of studying listening skill

The goal of the first part of the questionnaire is to find out the Sts‟ attitudes towards learning listening skills

As can be seen from table 1, all the students of the 11th grade know only one language which is Vietnamese They have learnt English for 4- 6 years 70% of the students want to learn English because they think it will be necessary for their future education Importantly, 80% are aware of its vital role in getting a job in the future Among these, however, only 30% learn English because they like it There are still 25%

of the learners who learn English because of compulsion from school Some students give other reasons that it is the subject in their entrance exams and they want to learn English because it is an international language However, according to them, of the four skills: Reading comprehension, writing, speaking and listening comprehension, listening comprehension is the most difficult

Question 5 in part I of the questionnaire

Why do you want to learn the English language? Number of

respondents

Percentage

G be obliged to learn English because it is a compulsory

subject at my school

Table 1: Sts’ goal to learn English

In the second part of the questionnaire, the Sts were asked to evaluate the importance of English listening skill As can be seen from chart 1, most of the students highly appreciated the importance of English listening skill 58% of the students thought that it was extremely important and 34% said that it is important However, there were

still a number of the students (8%) who did not appreciate the role of listening skills at all

In the interview, the author also asked the students to self-rate their proficiency levels in listening skill Nearly 100% of the students rated themselves as “average, bad”

in listening Only 1,7% of the students thought that their listening skills were „good‟ whereas the other students (98.3%) thought their listening performances were “average”

or “bad” When being interviewed, they said that they were not confident with their listening at all (table 2)

Question 3: How do you evaluate your English listening ability?

Table 2: Students’ general self-rating to listening proficiency

(%)

Average (%)

Bad (%)

Question 2: The importance of listening skill to the Sts

Chart 1: Sts’ attitudes towards English listening skill

Chart 2 below shows that there are only 10% of the students who often listen to English outside classroom whereas 76% sometimes practice listening to English by listening to songs, radio news; watching television programs in English or attending listening activities organized by their school or by different organizations However, according to interviewed students, their main purpose of practicing listening skill at home

is to relax, not to improve it 14% never do anything to practice listening English after school

Question 4: How often do you listen to English outside class?

The researcher also asked the learners about the time for listening inside class A majority of the students stated that 45 minutes for one listening lesson was not enough (60%) Therefore, they needed more time to learn this skill Moreover, students did not seem to have good and close relationship with their teachers When having difficulties in listening comprehension, 62% of them shared with their friends whereas only 12% discussed with their teachers A small number (5%) did not tell anyone else about their listening problems The students said that when they were bad at listening English, they had a lot of troubles in understanding the listening texts and doing the listening tasks,

however, they were too shy to share the problems with their teachers Moreover, there was not the listening part in the tests so that they did not need to try to master it

when learning to listen to English

Factors causing students listening comprehension difficulties are categorized into different types including main problems related to the listening material, the learners themselves, and the listening environment

2.4.2.1 Problems related to the listening materials

The material itself may be one of main sources of listening comprehension problems so the author tries to find out the learners‟ opinion about the material by asking them a number of questions about it

Question 7: As can be seen from chart 3, when asked about the difficulty of the listening tasks in “Tieng Anh 11” textbook, 75% of the learners remarked that they were difficult, 19% thought that they were too difficult 5% found that listening tasks were suitable for them A small number of learners (1%) found that listening tasks were very easy to handle Obviously, the large number of students who were lack of confidence in their own abilities of listening proved their modest level at listening

Question 7: Students’ evaluation about the difficulty of listening tasks in the textbook

Chart 3: Students’ assessment about difficulty of listening tasks in the textbook

It is very significant for the teachers to know what listening activities are the most difficult for the students so that they can adapt the tasks appropriately The following chart shows the students' responses in follow up interviews on types of listening activities

in the textbook "Tieng Anh 11"

Question 3 in interviews

Chart 4 : Students’ Evaluation on Listening Activities in "Tieng Anh 11"

According to the chart, most of the students, accounting for 70%, considered

Questions and Answers the most difficult activity to deal with because they must listen to

the tape carefully, even a lot of the answers must be inferred or expressed in their own words Moreover, they did not have a habit of note taking so this kind of activity was

really a real challenge The second option chosen by 20% of the students was gap-filling They admitted that gap-filling, especially gap-filling without given words was too

demanding for them They stated that it was not easy at all to recognize a word in the tape because of their poor system of sound and vocabulary 5% of the respondents agreed that

multiple-choice activity was the most difficult Although this kind of activities was not

too difficult for the students to do, it sometimes made them confused when the choices