Note-taking strategies employed by level 3 students at International School, Vietnam National University, Hanoi while listening to the book Lecture Ready 2 = C.PDF

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ THU HUYỀN NOTE-TAKING STRATEGIES EMPLOYED BY LE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ THU HUYỀN

NOTE-TAKING STRATEGIES EMPLOYED BY LEVEL 3 STUDENTS AT INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI WHILE LISTENING TO

THE BOOK „LECTURE READY 2‟

(Các thủ thuật ghi chép của sinh viên cấp độ 3 tại khoa quốc tế, đại học

quốc gia Hà Nội khi nghe cuốn “Lecture Ready 2”) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60 14 10

HANOI - 2011

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ THU HUYỀN

NOTE-TAKING STRATEGIES EMPLOYED BY LEVEL 3

STUDENTS AT INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, VIETNAM

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI WHILE LISTENING TO

THE BOOK „LECTURE READY 2‟

(Các thủ thuật ghi chép của sinh viên cấp độ 3 tại khoa quốc tế, đại học

quốc gia Hà Nội khi nghe cuốn “Lecture Ready 2”) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Văn Thị Thanh Bình

HANOI - 2011

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF FIGURES vii

PART : INTRODUCTION 1

I Rationale of the study 1

II Scope, objectives, research questions, significance, method and design of the study 2

II.1 Objectives of the study 2

II.2 Research Questions 2

II.3 Scope of the study 2

II.4 Significance of the study 3

II.5 Method of the study 3

II.6 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1 Overview of listening 5

1.1 Definitions of listening 5

1.2 Types of Listening 6

1.3 Listening techniques 8

2 Notetaking and notetaking strategies 9

2.1 Definitions and importance of notetaking 9

2.1.1 Definition of notetaking 9

2.1.2 Importance of notetaking 10

2.2 Notetaking methods 12

2.2.1 The Cornell Method 12

2.2.2 The Outlining method 13

2.2.3 The Mapping Method 13

2.2.4 The Sentence Method 14

2.2.5 The Charting Method 14

2.2.6 The PARR Method 15

v

2.3 Previous studies on note-taking strategies 16

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 19

2.1 Research questions 19

2.2 Participants and settings of the study 19

2.2.1 Participants 19

2.2.1 Settings of the study 20

2.3 Data collection instruments 20

2.4 Data collection procedure 21

2.5 Data analysis procedure 22

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS 23

3.1 Numbers of note-takers and the reasons for not taking notes 23

3.1.1 Number of note-takers 23

3.1.2 Reasons for not taking notes 24

3.2 Students’ personal information and background knowledge of note-taking 25

3.2.1 Student’s personal information 25

3.2.2 Student’s background knowledge of note-taking 26

3.3 Note-taking strategies employed by Level 3 students at International School 28

3.4 Differences in Listening Proficiency, note-taking experience and note-taking knowledge between note-takers and non-note-takers 30

3.4.1 Differences in Listening proficiency and note-taking experience between note-takers and non-note-takers 31

3.4.2 Differences in knowledge of note-taking between note-takers and non-note-takers 31

CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 33

4.1 Reasons for not taking notes 33

4.2 Note-taking strategies use by Level 3 students at International School 34

4.3 Note- takers vs non note- takers 35

4.3.1 Differences in listening comprehension and previous experience of note-taking 36

4.3.2 Differences in note-taking knowledge 37

PART C: CONCLUSION 39

1 Summary and Implications 39

2 Limitations and suggestions for further study 40

REFERENCES

APPENDIX

1

Summary of the study

The thesis contains 3 main parts Part 1 “Introduction” introduces the rationale and the aims of the study The scope of the study and the significance as well as the design of the thesis will also be presented in this chapter

Listening to an English lecture has long been a difficult task to Vietnamese university students who hardly had any chances to practice listening skills at lower- level schools Note-taking has long been considered an integral part of effective listening Note-Note-taking while listening is considered one of the most important skills which language learners should master, particularly as it helps to develop a sense of listening, allowing the reader to recognize main ideas and to understand the organization of the material Note-taking is believed to be an important part of all of our learning interactions, from the most traditional, structured experiences to highly informal, unstructured situations.‟ This is extremely significant for Vietnamese learners who have been studying English listening skills traditionally in non - native environment, and have just started to learn listening in communicative way

But acquiring and mastering note-taking is likely to become a big hindrance to many learners while they often find it difficult to exploit this skill in their learning experience It is especially true for General English students at International School, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, whose English level are not very high There are many reasons behind this phenomenon Students can be neither paying attention, nor write quickly enough It can be due

to the fact that their spelling is not good enough or they cannot understand the teachers Sometimes, the lectures are in a too high level for their capabilities However, the most common reason may be students‟ shortage of note-taking strategies to use flexibly in listening

to different lectures

Therefore, the question of how to equip students with note-taking strategies so that they can use the skill to support foreign language listening in any situation has become a matter of teachers of English in general and teachers of English at International School in particular

2

In Vietnam, there has so far been some research on note-taking strategies However, researchon note-taking strategies employed by students at International School, VNU has not been done yet

As a teacher of English, I have dealt with many questions relating to note-taking which are raised by my students or among my colleagues For example, what are the effective ways

of taking notes? How to note down important information? Personally I found it necessary to provide to them successful note-taking strategies to listen to the lecture This is the major reason why this topic interests me

The objectives of the study are as follows:

- To indicate whether all the participants take notes while listening to the book „Lecture Ready 2‟, and if not what the reasons are

- To explore the strategies of note-taking used by Level 3 students at International School

- To find out whether there are differences in listening proficiency, experience and knowledge

of note-taking between note-takers and non-note-takers or not

The study is concerned with finding the students‟ note-taking strategies in listening to the book “Lecture Ready 2”

As note-taking strategies pointed out by individuals, institutions, and scholars are of a variety, the present study only focuses on those which are considered to be popular and the most easily-used by International School students

This study plays an important role in the identification of note-taking comprehension strategies employed by Level 3 students at International School Also, non-note-takers‟ reasons for not taking notes are identified Based on the findings, the study will have many important implications for training Level 3 students of English at International School in taking notes

3

In order to achieve the aims of the study mentioned above, the descriptive method is

the main tool for analyzing the data, which is collected from the questionnaire

After the data is analyzed and discussed, the findings will be showed and some conclusions will be drawn and some suggestions will be raised in the thesis

The second part is development This part consists of four chapters Chapter 1 deals with

a theoretical background It starts with listening in general including definitions, types and techniques “Listening comprehension is not a skill which can be mastered once and for all and than ignored while other skills are developed There must be regular practice with increasingly difficult materials” (Wilga, 1986, p.157) There are many different types of listening We can classify these according to a number of variables, including listening purposes, the role of the listener and the types of text being listened to However, ther are two main types: Real-life listening and Classroom listening, the later itself includes two main types: Intensive listening and Extensive listening

As for Listening techniques, Southern Nazarene University (1999) introduced effective listening techniques, which are regarded as top five ways to listen to a lecture They clarified their points by making comparison between poor listeners and effective listeners

The first and foremost technique is to choose to find the subject useful They explained

that poor listeners dismiss most lectures as dull and irrelevant Meanwhile, effective listeners choose to listen to discover new knowledge

Their second advice is to concentrate on the words and message, not on the professor's

looks, clothes or delivery In their opinion, poor listeners notice faults in a lecturer's appearance or delivery, but effective listeners strive to pick every professor's brain for self-gain

Thirdly, the University stated that when students hear something they are not sure to agree with, they should react slowly and thoughtfully They gave explanation that in such

4 situation, poor listeners stop listening to the speaker and start listening to themselves They either passively reject what is being said or launch into impassioned rebuttals (to themselves) However, in such case, effective listeners do not jump to conclusions and then disengage Instead, they keep conclusions tentative while getting more information

The fourth advice is to identify the "big ideas," those fundamental concepts to which

everything else in the lecture is related The university pointed out that poor listeners listen only for facts only They may retain a few of those facts, but the information is usually garbled Whereas, effective listeners look for foundational concepts; they grab key ideas and use them as anchor points for the entire lecture

Last but not least, in order to listen effectively, students have to adjust their note taking system to the lecturer's pattern According to Southern Nazarene University, some poor listeners attempt to outline everything, believing an outline and notes are the same thing They

get frustrated when they cannot see the main points Meanwhile, effective listeners adjust their

note-taking to the organizational pattern used by the lecturer

The next issue in this chpater is note-taking and its importance in language teaching, then an overview of some note-taking methods - their advantages and disadvantages in applying in the classroom According to Dunkel (1985), notetaking during the lectures is the

„instinctive, even ritualistic reaction of college students to a lecture presentation‟ It is the action which “summarizes what said” Thus, each individual with his own experience and knowledge can make notes in any way that he likes From Wikipedia, note taking is defined as

„the practice of recording information captured from a transient source, such as an oral discussion at a meeting, or a lecture.‟ Castallo (1976) defined notetaking as a "two step process in which the student must listen for the important information and then write it in some organized way."

Obviously, note-taking is defined in different words but the main goals of it are remembering and recording, and note-taking basically is: analytical, organisational and creative

5 Notetaking is important because it improves the listening ability by increasing the listener's attentiveness and prevents sidetracking Notetaking also increases the listener's chances of reviewing what he has heard, therefore remedying weaknesses in listening In addition, notetaking improves the learner's ability to learn from the spoken word as well as improves memory of what is heard

Six methods of taking notes were introduced in this chapter First, The Cornell Method

is one of the most favorite methods which are widely used in classroom The Cornell Method provides a systematic format for condensing and organizing notes without laborious recopying After writing the notes in the main space, use the left- hand space to label each idea

and detail with a key word or „cue‟ Second, in The Outlining Method dashed or intended

outlining is used best except some science classes No numbers, letters, or Roman numerals are intended in this method

Note-takers who follow this method have to listen, think, and then write in points in an organized pattern based on space indentation They put major points farthest to the left of the paper; indent each more specific point to the right Level of importance will be indicated by distance away from the major points The relationships between the different parts are come out through indenting

Mapping method is the method that maximizes active participation, affords in mediate knowledge as to its understanding and emphasizes critical thinking

Note-takers have to use comprehension skills to create note taking form which relates each fact or idea to every other fact or idea Mapping is the graphic representation of the content of a lecture

This method is of great use when the lecture content is heavy and well- organized

In the Sentence method, the note-taker writes every new thought, fact or topic on a separate line, numbering as you make progress

6

If the lecture format is distinct (such as chronological), note-takers may set up their paper by drawing columns and labeling appropriate headings in a table-this is Charting

Method The last method is PARR Method This method is quite difficult from the four above-

mentioned as it is recently been studied This method involves four steps: Prepare- Abbreviation – Revise and Review – students can remember the word PARR as the redolence

of the method‟s name

The last thing mentioned in the chapter is the previous studies on note-taking strategies and training

In chapter two “Methodology‟, an overview of note-taking definition and importance, methods of note-taking, and a theoretical framework for the investigation were presented

This chapter will present the issues of methodology used in this study It begins with the research questions It then describes the participants and settings of the study, instruments data collection, and analytic procedures

The aim of the present study is to investigate the note-taking strategies employed by level 3 students at International School The study tried to answer the following questions:

♦ Do Level 3 students at International school take notes while listening to the book

„Lecture Ready 2‟? If not, what are the reasons?

♦ What are note-taking strategies employed by Level 3 students at International School?

♦ Are there any differences in listening proficiency, experience and knowledge of note-taking between note-takers and non-note-takers?

A total of 50 students from four Level 3 classes at International School participated in the study Twenty eight were female and twenty two were male The age of the students was from 18 to 19 They come from different places of the country and their overall English proficiency was roughly at the level of intermediate The participants have been studying English