Using dictation to improve grade-10 students' listening skill at Tan Yen High school No.2 = Sử dụng đọc chính tả nhằm nâng cao kỹ năng nghe cho học sinh lớp 10

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Listening practice task for dictation 1 Table 2: Listening practice task for dictation 2 Table 3: Listening practice task for dictation 3 Table 4: Listening pr

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN VAN NAM

USING DICTATION TO IMPROVE GRADE-10 STUDENTS’

(SỬ DỤNG ĐỌC CHÍNH TẢ NHẰM NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG NGHE CHO HỌC

SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT TÂN YÊN SỐ 2)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

HANOI, 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN VĂN NAM

USING DICTATION TO IMPROVE GRADE-10 STUDENTS’

(SỬ DỤNG ĐỌC CHÍNH TẢ NHẰM NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG NGHE CHO HỌC

SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT TÂN YÊN SỐ 2)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: Nguyễn Minh Cường, M.A

HANOI, 2010

1.1.2 Listening as the final goal of learning a language 6

1.1.4 Evaluation standard of Ministry of Education and Training on listening

skill to grade-10 students

7

1.2.1 History of dictation across second/foreign language methodologies 7

2.1 An overview of the research site 13

3.1 Analysis and discussion of dictations for listening skill improvement 17 3.1.1 Analysis and discussion of dictations with the T/F statement task 17 3.1.2 Analysis and discussion of dictations with gap-filling task 20 3.1.3 Analysis and discussion of dictation with short-answer question 25 3.2 Teachers‟ application of dictation for listening skill improvement 26

Appendix 4: Progress test 2 VIII

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Listening practice task for dictation 1

Table 2: Listening practice task for dictation 2

Table 3: Listening practice task for dictation 3

Table 4: Listening practice task for dictation 4

Table 5: Listening practice task for dictation 5

Table 6: Listening practice task for dictation 6

Table 7: Listening practice task for dictation 7

Table 8: Listening practice task for dictation 8

Table 9: Teachers‟ opinion of dictation as a useful teaching technique Table 10: Teachers‟ frequency of the application of dictation

Table 11: Application of dictation in different stages of a listening lesson Table 12: Teachers‟ attention to the content of dictation

Table 13: Teachers‟ opinion of speech speed of dictation

Table 14: Teachers‟ opinion of accent

Table 15: Result distribution of Pre-tests

Table 16: Result distribution of Progress tests 1

Table 17: Result distribution of Progress tests 2

Table 18: Result distribution of Post-tests

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1: Result description of pre-test

Chart 2: Result description of progress test 1

Chart 3: Result description of progress test 2

Chart 4: Result description of post-test

Chart 5: Result description of all the tests

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Language is the most important thing for people as a means of communication It is basically a means of both spoken and written communication People use language to express their ideas and wishes to other people such as when they need others help so that close relation among members of the group can be carried out (Ramelan, 1993:8) Ramelan

further states that “the use of language enables the members of a social group to cooperate

with one another for their own benefit.” It is important to learn English because it is an

international language which is used in many countries over the world and widely used in many sectors such as information, trade, aviation, science, education, etc In Vietnam, the importance of English has been realized because English is considered to play a crucial role on the path of industrialization and modernization of the country as well as on the way

of regional and international integration Therefore, English is now taught in all levels of schools all over the country in order that the students are familiar with English and can use and communicate in English well

Of all four skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing, listening is always considered to be the most difficult for teachers to teach and for students to improve themselves, which leads to the fact that most learners have low level of proficiency in their listening skill In fact, in the process of teaching and learning English, listening plays an important role since it involves various kinds of learners‟ knowledge and it is closely

related to other skills, especially speaking skill While, G (1998) pointed out that “being a

good listener involves collaborating with speakers and taking an active role in asking for clarification when you do not understand” Later on, the ability to understand the native

speakers in face-to-face communication, on the radio or tape may be important for learners

to further study the language and communicate in it

At Tan Yen High School N02 where I have been working, like at many other high schools in Vietnam, English has been a compulsory subject for many years However, the

teachers of English here are facing the problem of their grade-10 students‟ low level of listening in their classrooms While there has been a variety of techniques used to improve listening skill for these students, most of them have not been really effective One idea of using dictation to improve listening skill for the students has exercised my mind since I had a chance of studying the subject “English language teaching methodology” by Mr Canh During the short course, a lot of time has been spent discussing how to use dictation

to improve listening skill for students Moreover, according to researchers‟ opinion, dictation has a number of advantages For instance, Lightfoot (2004) says that dictation can

be done with any level, depending on the text carefully designed and applied and it can be graded for a multi-level class And Montalvan (2006) points out that dictation involves the whole class, no matter how large it is During and after the dictation, all students prove very active The dictation passage can be completely prepared in advance and administered quite effectively by an inexperienced teacher Likewise, Pappas (1977) considers dictation

as a good means of developing learners‟ listening skill

For grade-10 students‟ problems of low listening competence and as one of the teachers of English of this school, I would like to improve my students‟ listening skill, and hope to be able to apply in the high schools where most of the students have low listening

competence All considered, I chose to conduct a study on “Using dictation to improve

grade-10 students’ listening skill at Tan Yen High School N 0 2.”

2 Aims of the study

The purposes of this study are to find out an effective teaching technique to improve listening skill for grade-10 students at Tan Yen High School N02 Therefore, the study is conducted to aim at finding the answers to the following questions:

1 How is dictation designed to improve listening skill for the students?

2 How is dictation used to improve listening skill for the students?

3 How much are the students‟ listening skills improved after the application of dictation?

3 Scope of the study

Due to the limited time and financial constraint, I am unable to carry the investigation on a large scale Therefore, within an M.A minor thesis, my intention is only

to investigate the effectiveness of dictation to enhance listening skill for grade-10 students (about 80 students in total) at Tan Yen High School N02 For the aims of convenience, I have chosen 2 classes of grade-10 students who I have been teaching to be my research site Also, it is my intention to conduct a survey on three teachers of English of the school who have been teaching grade-10 students

4 Methods of the study

To achieve the aims of the study, I am going to use both quantitative and qualitative methods including survey questionnaires for teachers and listening tests for students

+ Survey questionnaires are designed for teachers with the hope to find out their attitudes towards dictation as well as their comments and suggestions for using dictation in the English lessons

+ Four listening tests are designed for students with an aim to measure the effect of

using dictation on students‟ listening skill improvement The first listening test (pre-test) is given to students with an aim to measure their overall listening competence before dictation is applied in the listening lessons The result of this test helps the researcher to design appropriate activities of dictation in the listening lessons on the purpose of bettering the students‟ listening skill The next two tests (progress tests) are given to students to check their progress when dictation is applied in the listening lessons The last test (post-test) is given to find out how much the students‟ listening skill has improved after the experiment has been terminated

5 Design of the study

This minor thesis is divided into five chapters:

Chapter I is an introduction to the whole minor thesis It includes the rationale of the study, aims of the study, scope of the study, methods of the study and design of the study

Chapter II, Review of Literature, presents various concepts most relevant to the research topic such as definition of listening, listening as the final goal of learning a language, listening as a means of acquiring language, and evaluation standard on listening skill Furthermore, the followings are also included in this chapter: history of dictation, definition of dictation, characteristics of dictation, types of dictation, and so on

Chapter III describes the method of investigation which consists of research site, research questions, participants, instruments, methods of data collection and analysis

Chapter IV, Data analysis and Discussion, gives a detailed presentation of data and

a detailed description of data analysis Some explanations and interpretations of the findings of the study are also presented

Chapter V presents conclusions of the research, limitations and suggestions for further researches

In the last part of the study, to assure that the study is really valid, the researcher gives references and appendices

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Any study should have theories as its background In this minor thesis, the researcher bases the study on the theories which are the views by the famous linguists and methodologists on concepts concerning language and methodology

1.1 General concepts of listening

1.1.1 Definition of listening

There are different points of views on the definition of listening Listening is an essential element of communication and it is also essential for interaction A learner can express himself orally he/she is never able to communicate with speakers of English if he/she is unable to understand what is said to him As Rivers (1981) observes speaking does not in itself constitute communication unless what is said is comprehended by another person

Listening is an invisible mental process, making it difficult to describe Learners must discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, interpret stress and intention, retain and interpret this within the immediate as well as the large social-cultural context of utterance (Field, 1989:38)

While listening is also defined by Rost as follows:

Listening is vital in the classroom because it provides the input for students Without understanding the input at the right level, any learning simply can’t begin (Rost, 1990:141)

Grant (1987:19) states that the listening skill includes everything from learning particular sound to comprehending complicated message Without this skill, communication can break down Therefore, successful communication really depends on listeners or receivers of messages Steil & Watson (1982:22) also suggested that listening

is a major communication activity

1.1.2 Listening as the final goal of learning a language

According to Donoghue (1975:76), listening occupies the basic portion in the context of the language arts and progress in reading, speaking and writing is directly governed by listening ability It is the most important of the four arts since nearly half of the adult working day and more than half of the child‟s classroom activity time is spent on listening Moreover, the students can gain a lot of experiences of listening to a wide variety

of samples of spoken English, like watching films and plays or listening to the radio or songs It also helps the students know different varieties of language such as standard or regional, formal or informal language and different text types like conversation, narrative

or informative types Furthermore, students, day by day, can practice and sharpen their listening skill and they can flexibly listen to everything Therefore, listening is regarded to

be among the most important educational goals It provides students with a stimulus for other activities such as discussion, reading and writing, which are the main language skills

1.1.3 Listening as a mean of acquiring language

“Listening to spoken language is an important way of acquiring the language of picking up structures and vocabularies”, Adrian Doff (1995:199) It is obvious that

developing the ability to understand the spoken foreign language is along continuous process and listening is a skill that must be taught and that does not happen automatically

If the students learn to listen effectively, they are able to understand, to interpret, to evaluate and to respond to what they hear Thus, it is important for students to develop the ability to understand spoken language In daily life, they can watch English programs on T.V, listen to the radio or have face-to-face conversations with native speakers Thus the more frequent learners are exposed to the language, the faster and more easily they can acquire it

1.1.4 Evaluation standard of Ministry of Education and Training on listening skill to grade-10 students

English curriculum at secondary school is designed based on communicative approach driving at developing and consolidating communicative skills like speaking, listening, reading and writing Of which, phonetics, vocabulary and grammatical structures are the essential instruments Also, the combination of textbook, reference books and teaching facility (tapes and recorders, CDs computer, projector, and so on) play an important and oriented role in language teaching and learning

The objectives of the new “Tieng Anh 10” are specified as follows:

General objectives to all skills:

 Using English as a communicative tool to speak, listen, write and read in target contexts at basic level

 Acquiring fundamental and systematic target English knowledge

 Getting an overview of English-speaking countries, people and cultures, conserving and developing our national traditions and cultural identity

Specific objectives to listening skill: At the end of grade 10, students will be able to use English knowledge in the scope of the curriculum to:

 Listen to a monologue or a dialogue of 120-150 words for general or specific information

 Understand the English texts at relatively slow speed

 Identify and distinguish sounds, words and intonation

1.2 General concepts of dictation

1.2.1 History of dictation across second/foreign language methodologies

Dictation is a type of exercise that was introduced in the Middle Age, at a time when pedagogical resources were limited to the teacher‟s voice and writing In fact, it did not much matter how well students wrote as long as they grasped the meaning It was used

to teach the structure (morphology and syntax) of the language in the Grammar/translation method and for teaching sounds and spellings in the traditional direct method It

disappeared with audio-lingual and audio-visual methods but recently when methodologists have been advocating more integrative methods, there‟s been an attempt at reviving the exercise and introducing different types of dictations Moreover, dictation has also been getting much support from methodologists and linguistics when it is used as language teaching device

1.2.2 Definition of dictation

Dictation is a widely researched device of language teaching It is useful when well integrated with the teaching activities It is a teaching technique which has proved extremely effective at all levels of instruction It ensures attentive listening, trains students

to distinguish sounds, enables students to learn to transfer oral sounds to written symbols, helps to develop aural comprehension and assists in self-evaluation

Several experts gave their statements about dictation that are very useful for

teachers For example, Oller (1979: 39) states that: “Dictation is a task which requires the

processing of temporally constrained sequences of material in the language, divided up the stream of speech and then refers down what is heard requires understanding the meaning

of the material”

According to Richards, Platt and Weber as quoted by Fachrurrazy (1989),

“Dictation is a technique used in both language teaching and language testing in which a

passage is read aloud to students, with pauses during which they must try to write down what they heard as accurately as possible.”

Another definition of dictation which is given by Taylor as quoted by Fachrurrazy

(1989) says that dictation means “(1) reading a passage aloud, (2) dividing the passage

into phrases suitable for committal to short-term memory and re-reading phrase with phrase with gaps long enough for subjects to record the preceding phrase in writing, (3) optionally re-reading each phrase as it is being written, and (4) re-reading the whole passage as in (1).”

According to Hornby (1995: 190), dictation means “being dictated to; passage that

is dictated” And Paul David and Mario Rinvolucri (1998) state that “In many cases, the teacher probably read you the text, dictated it, and then read it a third time so you could check through To many people this, and nothing else, is dictation.”

From the definitions above, it can be said that dictation is an activity where a student transcribes a word, phrase, sentence or passage he hears

1.2.3 Characteristics of dictation

According to Zhiqian (1989) dictation serves the teacher and the students efficiently It has several characteristics as follows:

(1) Dictation can be used with a class of any size When the dictation is given, all

of the students are working, even in a very large class

(2) Dictation ensures attentive listening When the students are doing a dictation, their attention will totally be focused on the exercises

(3) Dictation gives the students a chance to get practice in the sort of note taking that many courses require This is a very important part of the students‟ needs in using language

(4) Dictation requires the students to make the transfer from the spoken to written language The written record proves their ability to reproduce spoken language in a correct visual form

(5) Dictation, if properly varied, can provide practice in listening comprehension, vocabulary building, increasing reading speed and comprehension, as well as elementary aspects of hand-writing, punctuation, spelling, and composition formation Certain types of dictation also lend themselves to the grammar class, and train the students to distinguish sounds and grammatical elements

1.2.4 Types of dictation

As a language teaching and learning technique, dictation may be given in various types There are several types of dictation According to Sawyer and Silver (1961), they are as follows:

The first, the phonemic item dictation, consists of the teacher presenting the

individual sounds of a language (i.e., their IPA coordinates) to students for transcription The phonemic item dictation is useful in that it increases the students' ability to recognize the sounds of a language and their contrasts, thereby facilitating their accurate production This dictation is an excellent way to teach beginners to stop imposing the sound system of their native language upon the sound system of English

The second, the phonemic text dictation, is an extension of the phonemic item

dictation It consists of the teacher reciting a passage which students phonetically transcribe The phonemic item dictation is valuable as a way to understand how English sounds change in connected speech

The orthographic item dictation is the dictating of individual words in isolation for

transcription, similar to the traditional spelling test It is useful for reinforcing the correlation between the spelling system and sound system of a language In English this correlation is more complex than it is in other languages (e.g., Spanish and many Slavic languages), and so it is a worthwhile ESL/EFL exercise

The dictation with the broadest learning and teaching possibilities is

the orthographic text dictation, in which students transcribe a unified passage This is the

classic dictation exercise all foreign language teachers are familiar with Besides reinforcing the spelling/sound correlation of English, the orthographic text dictation uncovers comprehension and grammatical weaknesses in learners which the teacher can analyze and address in future lessons

1.2.5 Advantages of dictation

Dictation has been used in language teaching and learning for several hundred years, and methodologists have often made pedagogical claims for its value Lado says that dictation is favoured by many teachers and students both as a teaching and testing device

Davis and Rinvolucri write that "Decoding the sounds of English and recoding them in

writing is a major learning task" (1988) and Frodesen writes that dictation can be "an effective way to address grammatical errors in writing that may be the result of erroneous aural perception of English Dictation can help students to diagnose and correct these kinds of errors as well as others." (1991)

According to Montalvan‟s opinion (2006), dictation has several following advantages:

(1) Dictation can help develop all four language skills in an integrative way

(2) Dictation helps to develop short-term memory Students practice retaining meaningful phrases or whole sentences before writing them down

(3) Dictation can serve as an excellent review exercise

(4) Dictation is psychologically powerful and challenging

(5) Dictation fosters unconscious thinking in the new language

(6) Dictation involves the whole class, no matter how large it is

(7) During and after the dictation, all students are active

(8) Correction can be done by the students

(9) Dictation can be prepared for any level

(10) Dictation can be administered quite effectively by an inexperienced teacher (11) While dictating, the teacher can (in fact should) move about, giving individual attention

(12) Dictation exercises can pull the class together during the valuable first minutes

of class

(13) Dictation can provide access to interesting texts

(14) Correcting dictation can lead to oral communication

(15) Practice in careful listening to dictation will be useful later on in note taking exercises In other words, dictation gives students valuable practice in note-taking

(16) If the students do well, dictation is motivating

(17) Dictation can be prepared for mixed ability groups

(18) The students, as well as the teacher, can get instant feedback if the exercise is corrected immediately

(19) The dictation passage can (and should) be completely prepared in advance (it also can be taped)

(20) As students develop their aural comprehension of meaning also of the relationship among segments of language, they are learning grammar

(21) Research has shown that the learning to write down what you hear can encourage the development of literacy

1.2.6 Disadvantages of dictation

Traditional dictation is not a great oral comprehension exercise since it has little to

do with authentic communication Dictations are in fact written passages that are read out loud so they do not help students to understand the difference between the oral and the written language

Furthermore, they are read at a slower pace than people speak normally and are therefore of little value to help students understand the language spoken by natives

(1) Listening A lot of beginners in English do not perceive the difference between „u‟ and „u:‟ or the nasal sounds

(2) Memorizing, the short term memory can be “overwhelmed” if there is too much that the student does not understand

(3) Writing respecting the relation between sounds and letters is next to impossible if the student did not understand and guessing does not always work

There is a great deal of emphasis put on spelling mistakes in a dictation yet there is very little work done to help the students to perceive the basic sound-spelling correspondences revealed by their dictation errors

Generally, students do not master the time factor If they understand they cannot go faster in order to take more time on something that they find more difficult (even though this can be done)

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 An overview of the research site

Tan Yen High School N02, the research site, situated in the west of Tan Yen district, Bac Giang province, was established in 1975 Although the school was established and developed in the very difficult conditions (bad infrastructure, lack of teachers, teaching materials and equipment), it has for many years been the reliable address for students and parents of the district

The school has 39 classes with approximately 1695 students ranging from grade 10

to grade 12 and over 80 teachers of different subjects English has been taught here as a compulsory subject by eight teachers aged from 22 to 40 The teaching and learning of English at school is based on the national curriculum set by the Ministry of Education and Training Therefore, all the students in the whole school use the same sets of nationwide standardized textbooks of English (Tieng Anh 10, Tieng Anh 11, Tieng Anh 12) None of the classes are taught with sets of advanced textbooks of English

2.2 Research questions

As stated in chapter I, within this minor thesis, I would like to enhance listening skill for grade-10 students at Tan Yen High School N02 in Bac Giang province Therefore, the study is conducted in an attempt to seek the answers to the following questions:

1 How is dictation designed to improve listening skill for the students?

2 How is dictation used to improve listening skill for the students?

3 How much are the students‟ listening skills improved after the application of dictation?

2.3 The participants

The participants in this study are drawn from two sources: from 560 grade-10

students and eight teachers of English

560 grade-10 students are divided into 14 classes Therefore, it is difficult for me to select a random sample of individuals The solution to this case is that instead of randomly selecting the individuals, I randomly select classes for investigation This method has two advantages: First, it is convenient for me to collect the data done by the students in their class Second, these classes have students with the same level of listening competence as determined by their results of the previous academic year Two classes chosen for the study are 10A2 and 10A4, which include 80 students (about 14.2% of grade-10 students)

Of these eighty students, there are only 24 males and the rest are females They all come from villages in the district and most of them are at the age of 16, so they belong to the same family background and psychological age group Their time length of learning English is also the same That is, they all have been learning English since grade 6

The three teachers (about 37.5% of the teachers of English) who were invited to join the study are all full-time teachers of the school One of them has been at work for fifteen years, another for eight years, and the third for two years One has taught grade 10 for two years, and the two others for four years Two of them are female, and they all graduated from English Department of Colleges of Foreign Languages The researcher has been teaching English for five years, and he is the only person who is doing an MA course

on methodology Without doubt, all the teachers at Tan Yen High School N02 are experienced and enthusiastic about teaching They are willing to help students their students overcome the difficulties in leaning English

2.4 The instruments

There is a variety of methods that can be employed to collect data such as questionnaires, interviews, meeting, tests, observation and so on Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages I chose questionnaires because it is one of the most popular instruments It is quite easy to prepare and it can be used with a large number of subjects

What is more, the information collected is not very difficult to tabulate and to analyze (Brown, 1995) Hence, survey questionnaire was chosen to collect teachers‟ opinions and attitudes towards dictation as well as their comments and suggestions for using dictation in the English lessons This set of questionnaire with both close-ended and open-ended questions are written in English and only used for teachers

In addition to the survey questionnaire, I collected data by using four listening tests which are designed for students with an aim to measure the effect of using dictation on students‟ listening skill improvement The first listening test (pre-test) is given to students with an aim to measure their overall listening competence before dictation is applied in the listening lessons The next two tests (progress tests) are given to students to check their progress when dictation is applied in the listening lessons The last test (post-test) is given

to find out how much the students‟ listening skill has improved after the experiment has been terminated

2.5 Data collection procedures

I conducted my study in a period of 18 weeks of the first term of the school year in the class 10A2 and 10A4 at Tan Yen High School N02 where I have been teaching for more than four years Firstly, I designed survey questionnaires and collected all ideas from three teachers of English who have been teaching grade-10 students Secondly, I gave the listening tests to the students and collected them after students had finished The first test (pre-test) was administered to the students at the beginning of the academic year In other words, it was given to the students at the first session of English class This test is aimed at measuring students‟ overall listening competence before dictation is applied in the listening lessons The second test (progress test 1) was administered to the students after they had finished three units (unit 1, unit 2 and unit 3) of English textbook 10 The third test (progress test 2) was given to the students after they had finished three next units (unit

4, unit 5 and unit 6) of English textbook 10 These two tests are aimed at checking their progress when dictation is applied in the listening lessons The last test (post-test) was given to the students at the end of the first term It is used to find out how much the students‟ listening skill has improved after the experiment has been terminated

2.6 Data analysis

The data collected from the two sources were first read through to obtain a sense of the overall data They were then analyzed both descriptively and interpretatively The information from the survey questionnaires and listening tests was then displayed in the forms of tables and charts while qualitative data from the open-ended questionnaire items

were used as reflective notes and quotations

2.7 Summary

The third chapter has presented the research site whose notable contextual feature is that learning English is compulsory but most grade-10 students have low listening competence Besides, the research questions, participants, instruments, and procedures of data collection and analysis have also been discussed in this chapter In a best attempt to build a scientific methodology, the researcher hopes to achieve a reliable and valid data for the study The next chapter, chapter IV, is the presentation of the data analysis and discussion

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Analysis and discussion of dictations for listening skill improvement

To improve listening skills for grade-10 students, I applied dictation as a teaching technique in English sessions of listening for a period of 18 weeks of the first term of the academic year Dictations have the same topics as the ones of each unit and were applied

in the stage “Post-listening” which took place in about 10 minutes It means that they were applied after all the tasks of the textbook had been finished Dictations aim at consolidating the knowledge as well as enhancing listening skills for students, so they are relatively simply designed for the English learners of beginning level and have nearly the same practice tasks as the ones of the textbook In my design of dictations, I chose such listening practice tasks as T/F statement, gap-filling and short answer question For that choice, analysis and discussion of dictations are following the types of practice tasks, not the order

of units of the textbook

3.1.1 Analysis and discussion of dictations with the T/F statement task

With the T/F practice task students have to listen to the dictation carefully, analyze

it and compare the given information (T/F statements) with the one presented in the dictation This task helps students not only hear the general information of the whole dictation but also select the specific information to complete the sentences This task is designed to practise listening skill for general and specific information It is used in the practice task of dictation 1, dictation 2 and dictation 3 It aims at consolidating the knowledge and enhancing students‟ listening skill in unit 1, unit 4 and unit 8 of English-10 textbook Here are dictations and practice tasks for T/F statements

Dictation 1 for unit 1

“I‟m Peter Every day I get up at 6 o‟clock I brush my teeth, wash my face and have breakfast at 6.30 After breakfast, I get dressed and go to school at 6.45 My classes start at 7 o‟clock and finish at 11 o‟clock After school, I go home and have lunch at half past eleven In the afternoon I do my homework from 2 o‟clock to 5 o‟clock After that I

help my mother cook dinner In the evening, I watch TV from 7 o‟clock to 8 o‟clock I read books at 9 o‟clock and go to bed at 10 o‟clock.”

The topic of dictation 1 is similar to the one of unit 1 It is about “a day in the life

of …” or someone‟s daily life In particular, this dictation describes the activities which Peter does from the early morning to the late evening Thus, students can widen their knowledge of vocabulary related to daily activities Besides, they revise the usage of the present simple tense used to express day-by-day repeated activities with its adverbs of frequency Moreover, the questions of practice task focuses on bettering students‟ listening skill for specific information In other words, it helps to improve the listening skill for deciding on True or False statements This is the listening practice task for dictation 1

You will hear Peter talk about his daily activities Listen to his talk and decide whether the statements are true (T) of false (F) One example has been done for you T F

0 Peter gets up at 6 o’clock every day

1 He has breakfast at half past six

2 He gets dressed before breakfast

3 His classes finish at a quarter to eleven

4 He has lunch at home at 11.30

5 He helps his mother do the gardening from 2 to 5 o‟clock

6 He watches TV from 7 o‟clock to 8 o‟clock

Table 1: Listening practice task for dictation 1

Dictation 2 for unit 4

“Louis Braille was born in 1809 in Coupvray He was a French teacher of the blind

He himself was blind from the age of three, and in 1818 he went to the National Institute for the Young Blind in Paris Soon showing marked ability in both science and music, he became famous in Paris as an organist In 1826 Braille began teaching the blind in the institute Braille is known for his idea of modifying the Barbier “pointing writing” system, used for coded army messages, to enable the blind to read.”



This dictation is about education for disabled students who may be deaf, dumb, blind or mentally retarded In particular, it is about Louis Braille and his development of

“pointing writing” system which enables the blind to read This dictation is intended to consolidate the knowledge of vocabulary students have learnt in the Reading and revise the usage of the past simple tense The practice task is designed to enhance students‟ listening competence for specific information Here is the listening practice task for dictation 2

You will hear some information about Louis Braille Listen and decide whether the statements are true (T) of false (F) One example has been done for you T F (0) Louis Braille was born in Coupvray

1 Louis Braille was born in 1809

2 He was a French teacher of the dumb

3 He was blind from the age of thirteen

4 He became famous in Paris as an organist

5 He began teaching the blind in the institute in 1826

6 He is known for his richness

Table 2: Listening practice task for dictation 2

Dictation 3 for unit 8

“My village is about 50 kilometers from the city center It is a very beautiful and peaceful place where people grow flowers and vegetables only It‟s very famous for its pretty roses and picturesque scenery The air is quite fresh; however, the smell of the roses makes people feel cool In spring, my village looks like a carpet with plenty of colors Tourists come to visit it so often Nowadays, with electricity, it doesn‟t take the villagers much time to water the roses And even at night, people can walk along the path and enjoy the fresh smell of the flowers.”

This dictation is the description of Ha‟s village It is intended to consolidate the knowledge relating the topic “village” that students have learnt in unit 8 It also helps

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students revise how to describe a place The dictation with its practice task gives students a chance to improve their listening competence to analyze and compare the given information with the dictated one The practice task for dictation 3 is provided below

You will hear Ha talk about her village Listen to her talk and decide whether the statements are true (T) of false (F) One example has been done for you T F (0) Ha’s village is about 50 km from the city center

1 The village is beautiful but noisy

2 People grow a lot of rice there

3 The village is famous for its pretty roses and picturesque scenery

4 In spring, the village looks like a forest

5 Tourists never come to visit it

6 People can walk along the path at night

Table 3: Listening practice task for dictation 3

3.1.2 Analysis and discussion of dictations with gap-filling task

Gap-filling task requires students‟ attentive listening and note-taking That is, students are required to listen to what is dictated carefully and write down the words that they have heard to fill in the blanks This task is applied for the practice tasks in dictations

4, dictation 5 and dictation 6 It aims at not only widening students‟ knowledge of the unit topic but also improving their ability to listen and take notes Here are dictations and practice tasks for gap-filling

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Dictation 4 for unit 2

“Lily: (0) What do you want to do tonight?

Tom: Well, there‟s a good film that I want to see

Lily: What is it called?

Tom: Les Enfants Terribles

Lily: A French film? Why do you want to see a French film?

Tom: Because people say it‟s good

Lily: How much French do you understand?

Tom: Quite a lot, actually What about you? How many years did you study

French at school?

Lily: I did it for four years, so I understand quite a bit

Tom: Do you want to come?

Lily: Ok Which cinema is it at?

Tom: The Odeon

Lily: The Odeon? Where is that?

Tom: It‟s opposite the supermarket

Lily: Ah! How do you want to get there?

Tom: There‟s a bus that goes there

Lily: Fine When does it start?

Tom: At 7.30

Lily: Who is in it? Do you know?

Tom: Catherine Deneuve

Lily: She‟s great! I can‟t wait!”

The topic of dictation 4 is similar to the one of unit 2 It is about students‟ school talks In particular, this dictation is the conversation between Lily and Tom inviting each other to go to the cinema The dictation with its practice task is aimed at widening students‟ knowledge of vocabulary about related topics Moreover, students can review the use of wh-question words such as who, when, what, which, why and so on and the way

how to make questions with them The practice task for dictation 4 is as follows

Listen to the conversation between Lily and Tom Then fill in the blanks with the exact words you hear One example has been done for you

Lily: (0) What do you want to do tonight?

Tom: Well, there‟s a good film that I want to see

Lily: (1) is it called?

Tom: “Les Enfants Terribles.”

Lily: A French film? (2) do you want to see a French film?

Tom: Because people say it‟s good

Lily: (3) much French do you understand?

Tom: Quite a lot, actually What about you? (4) many years did you study

(5) at school?

Lily: I did it for four years, so I understand quite a bit

Tom: Do you want to come?

Lily: Ok (6) _ cinema is it at?

Tom: The Odeon

Lily: The Odeon? (7) is that?

Tom: It‟s opposite the supermarket

Lily: Ah! (8) do you want to get there?

Tom: There‟s a bus that goes there

Lily: Fine (9) _ does it start?

Tom: At 7.30

Lily: (10) is in it? Do you know?

Tom: Catherine Deneuve

Lily: She‟s great! I can‟t wait!

Table 4: Listening practice task for dictation 4

Dictation 5 for unit 3

“Stephany Hardy was born in 1950 in Lincolnshire, England She started school at the age of 5 In 1956 she wrote short stories about animals On September 16, 1961 her mother died Four years later, she wrote her first novel but it was not published She went

to Cambridge University in 1968 She met her husband in 1969 and got married in 1970 She graduated on June 20, 1971, and had her daughter on June 14, 1972.”

This dictation is about Stephany Hardy‟s background It describes the important milestones in her life and career It helps students to revise the usage of the past simple tense as well as to understand what context the past perfect tense is used in Students are required to listen to some information about Stephany Hardy and try to fill in each blank with the events with reference to the time provided The following is the practice task

You will hear some information about Stephany Hardy, a famous writer Listen and complete the form below One example has been done for you

Name: (0) Stephany Hardy Year of birth: (1) _

Place of birth: Lincolnshire, England

Important events in life:

1970: (5)

June 14, 1972: (6) _

Table 5: Listening practice task for dictation 5

Dictation 6 for unit 5

“Technology can be wonderful, but I worry that we‟re losing something because of

it There are examples of this everywhere Imagine this: I want to go somewhere interesting I don‟t talk to anyone about where to go I check the internet When I find an interesting hotel, I don‟t call the hotel, I send an e-mail Two days go by, nobody answer

my e-mail, so I call and leave a voice mail message for someone at the hotel Something is really wrong- we never talk to people Is this really good for us?”

The topic of this dictation is nearly similar to the one of unit 5 It is about technology Through the dictation, students will know much about the advantages and disadvantages of technology The practice task is used to consolidating and enhancing students‟ listening skill and note-taking Here is the practice task for dictation 6

Listen to Minh talk about the technology and fill in the missing information One example has been done for you

Technology can (0) be wonderful, but I worry that we‟re losing something

because (1) it There are examples of this everywhere Imagine this: I want

to (2) _ somewhere interesting I don‟t talk to (3) about where to go I check the internet When I (4) _ an interesting hotel, I don‟t call the (5) ,

I (6) _ an e-mail Two days go by, nobody answer my e-mail, so I call and leave a voice mail (7) for someone at the hotel Something is really wrong-

we never talk to people Is this really (8) for us?

Table 6: Listening practice task for dictation 6

Dictation 7 for unit 7

“These days, the internet has become an essential tool for students Using the

internet, students are able to get up-to-date information from a variety of sources including books, magazines, reference libraries, newspapers, and photo libraries Also, students can join on-line discussion groups to talk to experts about subjects they are interested in Students shouldn‟t have to go to a special library or computer lab to use the internet It

should be available to all students at all times.”

The topic of this dictation is similar to the one of unit 7 This dictation provides students with the advantages of the internet, so students will have more knowledge of the

mass media This is the practice task

Listen to Mary talk about the internet and fill in the missing information One example has been done for you

“These days, the internet has (0) become an essential tool for students Using

the internet, students are able to get up-to-date (1) _ from a variety of sources including books, magazines, reference libraries, (2) , and photo libraries Also, students can join (3) discussion groups to talk to experts about subjects they are interested in (4) _ shouldn‟t have to go to a special library

or computer lab to use the (5) _ It should be (6) to all students at all times.”

Table 7: Listening practice task for dictation 7

3.1.3 Analysis and discussion of dictation with short-answer question

Students are required to use many skills to complete listening comprehension questions They have to listen carefully, analyze and take note of the information needed to

answer the questions This task is applied for the practice task in dictation 8 It aims at not

only widening students‟ knowledge of the unit topic but also improving many other listening skills

Dictation 8 for unit 6

“Last year I decided to go on a beach holiday I wanted to lie in the sun and swim

in the sea for a change I went on my own, so I called a hotel and booked a single room

My flight was very early in the morning While I was waiting in the departure lounge after checking in, I bought myself a guidebook so that I could read about the area I was going to

I put it in my hand luggage so that I could look at it on the plane Actually, I finished reading it before take-off- we had to wait two hours before we could leave because the pilot was ill.”

This dictation is about Ann‟s holiday which has nearly the same topic as the one of unit 6 It is intended to help students understand more about excursions/holidays and related activities Students can also talk about an excursion/holiday that they participated