Students' perception of effective English listening strategies, a survey at Dong Hu hight school, Thai Nguyen = Nhận thức của học sinh về chiến lược nghe tiếng

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* ĐÀM QUANG VINH STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF EFFECTIVE ENGLISH LISTENING STRATEGIES A SURVEY AT DONG HY HIGH SCHOOL, THAI NGUYEN Nhận thức học sinh chiến lược nghe tiếng Anh hiệu Một nghiên cứu trường THPT Đồng Hỷ, Thái Nguyên M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 Ha Noi, 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* ĐÀM QUANG VINH STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF EFFECTIVE ENGLISH LISTENING STRATEGIES A SURVEY AT DONG HY HIGH SCHOOL, THAI NGUYEN Nhận thức học sinh chiến lược nghe tiếng Anh hiệu Một nghiên cứu trường THPT Đồng Hỷ, Thái Nguyên M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR VÕ ĐẠI QUANG, PhD Ha Noi, 2014 STATEMENT OF THESIS ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled Effective English listening strategies for students at Dong Hy High school, Thai Nguyen submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MA in English Linguistics Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis Ha Noi, 2014 Đàm Quang Vinh i ACKNOWLEDMENTS This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a number of people First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratetude to Assoc Prof Dr Võ Đại Quang , my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulate ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic reseacher A special word of thanks goes to my teachers, lectures, and the staff at the Department of Post-Graduate Studies at Ha Noi University.and many others, without whose support and encouragement it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my colleagues and students at Đồng Hỷ high school for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work ii ABSTRACT This study is aimed at improving listening skill for 10th form students at Dong Hy high school (DHHS) The research is designed as a survey research to find out what listening strategies the students think as effective to them Data were collected from questionaires and experimental lessons The general information and the major factors affecting listening process as well as the listening techniques of students have been uncovered to serve as a basic background foundation assisting the experimental lessons In addition, the comparison of students in the experimental and control experimental groups were examed to see the progress of students At the end of the paper, recommendations for further studies were proposed to facilate achieving a deeper and more convincible result supporting for language learning enhancement Hopefully, the findings will be of some use to those who are in favor of the topic and who intend to for further research in this area iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS DHHS Dong Hy high school Ls Listening skill L1 First language L2 Second language SILL Strategy Inventory for Language Learning ESL English as a second language EFL English as a foreign language iv LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS TABLES Table Listening problems encountered by students at Dong Hy high school 19 Table Activities needed in the three stages of a listening lesson 22 Table Students‟feeling after the listening lesson 26 CHARTS Pie-chart 1: The students‟ experience of English learning 18 Pie-chart 2: The most difficult language skill in students‟ view 18 Pie- chart Students‟ opinions of using pictures in the listening lesson 27 Pie-chart Studens‟ opinions of the effectiveness of using pictures 28 Pie- chart : Students‟ opinions about pair work and group work 28 Pie-chart : Students‟ expectations in pair work and group work 29 v TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement Of Thesis Originality i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Lists of abbreviations iv List of tables and charts v Table Of Contents vi Part A : INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale for the study Aims and Objective of the research Scope of the research Significance of the research Structural organization of the thesis Part B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature Review 1.1 Theoretical background 1.2 Previous studies related to the theme of this research 11 1.3 Summary 13 Chapter : Methodology 14 2.1 Research – governing orientations 14 2.1.1 Research methods 14 2.1.2 Data Collecttion Instruments 15 2.1.3 Questionnaire 15 2 Participants 15 2.2.1 The students 15 2.2.2 Data collection procedures 16 2.3 Questionnaire and test implementations 16 Chapter : Findings & Discussions 18 vi 3.1 The students‟ experience of learning English 18 3.1.1 Amount of time spent on English learning 18 3.1.2 The most difficult language skill in students‟ view 18 3.2 Findings 19 3.2.1 Listening problems encountered by students at Dong Hy high school 19 3.2.2 Activities needed in the three stages of a listening lesson 21 3.2.3 Post–listening questionnaire 23 3.3 Findings obtained from the 1st experimental listening lesson 23 3.3.1 The participants 23 3.3.2 The procedures of the 1st experimental listening lesson ( See appendix 3) 24 3.3.3 Teacher‟s remarks on the lesson 24 3.4 Findings obtained from the 2th experimental listening lesson 25 3.4.1 The participants 25 3.4.2 Students‟ opinions about pair work and group work 28 3.4.3 Students‟ expectations in pair work and group work 29 3.5 Summary 30 3.6 Recommendations for teachers of English 31 3.6.1 Recommendations for students 35 3.6.2 Summary 36 PART C : CONCLUSION 37 Recapitulations 37 Conclusions on each of the thesis objectives 37 2.1 What difficulties the students report they are encoutered with while learning listening skill? 37 2.2 What listening strategies they think are effective to them? 38 2.3 Limitation and suggestion for futher study 38 REFERENCES 40 APPENDICES I APPENDIX I: PRE-LISTENING QUESTIONNAIRE I vii Part A : INTRODUCTION Rationale for the study It is undeniable that English has become the key to success for many people in different fields since it is widely used as an international language Therefore, English learning holds an important position in the process of teaching and learning foreign languages It is clearly that English in general and listening in particular play a vital role in our daily life because the need to communicate with foreigners is increasingly rapidly To keep up with the flow of world economic intergration, the necesity of using English as a second language is emphasized globally In Vietnam, English has become the most popular foreign language and one of the compulsory subjects in most high schools Having studied English for more than years, my students are quite selfconfident in doing grammar exercises, they can deal with them with less difficulty However , their language skills are limited, listening skill seem to be the most difficult and weakest among students‟s four language skills The difficulties which hinder students from developing their listening skill are various Students in most high schools have had listening practice in their classroom, but they have rarely been taught or received guidance on how to listen to listening tasks effectively Students may find themselves bored with listening tasks Therefore, listening skill can easily be neglected in the language classroom while successful listening is acquired over time and with lots of practice Being a teacher of English at Dong Hy high school, I am aware of the teachers‟ important task in increasing students‟ knowledge of English, and improving their listening skills because they have had neither much practice nor experience in listening Moreover, it is essential and urgent to help my students to improve their listening ability The wish to help the students to overcome the obstacles in learning English encouraged the researcher to carry out this study ... processing effectively O‟Malley & Chamot (1990) divides language listening strategies into four categories: management strategies, cognitive strategies, social strategies and affective strategies Each... account of the features of listening teaching and the role of pre -listening stage, it is vital to design and arrange appropriate pre -listening activities in a listening lesson A well-planned pre -listening. .. activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from something we hear” Howatt & Dakin (1974) also shares the same idea that ? ?listening is the ability to identify and understand what