VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES --- --- ĐỖ KIM THUỲ A STUDY ON THE REALITY OF TEACHING LIST
Trang 1VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
- -
ĐỖ KIM THUỲ
A STUDY ON THE REALITY OF TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS
TO SECOND-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY: RELEVANT PROBLEMS
AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS
Nghiên cứu thực trạng dạy kỹ năng nghe cho sinh viên không chuyên năm thứ 2 trường Đại học Công nghiệp Hà Nội: Khó khăn
và một số giải pháp đề xuất
M.A Minor Programme Thesis
Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111
HA NOI – 2015
Trang 2VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
- -
ĐỖ KIM THUỲ
A STUDY ON THE REALITY OF TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS
TO SECOND-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY: RELEVANT PROBLEMS
AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS
Nghiên cứu thực trạng dạy kỹ năng nghe cho sinh viên không chuyên năm thứ 2 trường Đại học Công nghiệp Hà Nội: Khó khăn
và một số giải pháp đề xuất
M.A Minor Programme Thesis
Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111
Supervisor: PhD Mai Thi Loan
HA NOI – 2015
Trang 31
DECLARATION
I certify that the minor thesis entitled “A study on the reality of teaching listening skills to second-year non-English major students at Hanoi University of Industry: Relevant problems and some suggested solutions” is my own work and
has not been submitted in any form for another degree to any other university or institution
Trang 42
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In the completion of this thesis, I have received valuable supports from many individuals and groups
First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs Mai Thi Loan, PhD for providing careful guidance, thorough encouragement, valuable comments and constructive supervision throughout my study Without her deliberate help, my thesis would not have been completed
I would like to show my sincere thanks to all the lecturers who have been engaged in teaching K22 M.A course for their precious lectures
My special thanks also go to my colleagues and students at Hanoi University
of Industry for willingly participating in the study
Furthermore, I owe my great acknowledgment to my parents, my husband, my son and my friends who unceasingly gave me encouragement and support throughout the study
Eventually, this research has been fulfilled to the best of my knowledge; however, mistakes and shortcomings are unavoidable Therefore, I exceedingly appreciate comments and suggestions from any readers for the perfection of this work
Trang 5
3
ABSTRACT
This study was conducted to investigate the reality of teaching listening skills
at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) To collect relatively objective information,
a combination of both qualitative and quantitative approaches was used Data collection instruments consisted of questionnaires- one for teachers and one for students, and class observations The findings pointed out that teachers and second-year non-English major students at HaUI were encountering many difficulties in teaching and learning listening such as students’ low listening competency, students’ limited vocabulary and students’ poor background knowledge Some suggestions were made by the teachers and the students to improve the current situation of teaching listening skills at HaUI including using different motivating activities to motivate students; having students work in pairs/groups and do different tasks and guiding students what and how to do without understanding all the text At last, the researcher gave some recommendations for effective listening lessons
Trang 64
LIST OF ABBRIVIATION
EFL: English as foreign language
HaUI: Hanoi university of Industry
Trang 75
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1 Rationale of the study
Listening plays an important role in everyday communication and educational process In our daily lives, we spend far more time listening than speaking, reading
or writing (Morley, 1991) However, in many language classrooms, listening is somehow seen as a lesser skill We must admit that speaking does not of itself constitute communication unless what is said is comprehended by another person This shows the importance of listening comprehension, and implies that teachers need to distribute a considerable amount of classroom time to teaching and practicing it
In reality, in many universities in Vietnam in general and in HaUI in particular, teaching English listening skills has not been paid much attention to As
a result, the qualities and effectiveness of teaching and learning these skills are not really as good and high as expected
In teaching listening, I encounter several difficulties such as large classes, learners with lots of different learning styles and diverse needs, etc Besides, my colleagues also complain a lot about their problems Hence, it is necessary to find out the effective ways for the teachers at HaUI to improve their teaching bringing better result in learning for students
The above situations has inspired me to do the research entitled “A study on the reality of teaching listening skills to the second-year non-English major students
at Hanoi University of Industry: Relevant problems and some suggested solutions” with the hope of making some contributions to improving the teaching and learning
of English listening skills at HaUI
2 Aims of the study
The study aims to investigate:
non-English major students at HaUI;
Trang 86
non-English major students at HaUI
3 Research questions
To achieve the aims of the study, we tend to seek answers for these questions:
1 What is the reality of teaching listening skills for the second-year non-English major students at HaUI?
2 What difficulties do EFL teachers and students encounter in teaching and learning listening skills?
3 What are the solutions for improving the quality of teaching listening to the second-year non-English major students at HaUI?
4 Scope of the study
This study is limited to the reality of teaching listening skills to second-year non-English major students at HaUI Any investigation into other skills such as reading, writing or speaking is out of the scope of this study
This study is conducted to a specific object at HaUI; therefore, it is not expected to be generalized to other school contexts However, it may be a useful reference material for those who encounter the same problems in teaching listening skills
5 Methods of the study
This study was designed to use both quantitative and qualitative methods Firstly, the quantitative method was applied with the use of questionnaires delivered to teachers and students to find out the reality of teaching listening skills
at HaUI, the difficulties of the teachers and the students in teaching and learning listening skills and their solutions for better teaching and learning this skill Together with this, qualitative method was conducted with classroom observations This was a necessary step for the researcher to double-check what was actually happening in listening lessons Besides, the researcher also reviewed related documents for the establishment of the theoretical background for the study
Trang 97
REFERENCES
1 Abbas, P.G (2011) A study of factors affecting EFL learners' English listening
comprehension and the strategies for improvement Journal of language teaching and research, Volume 2, Issue 5, p.977-988 Academy publisher
manufactured in Finland
2 Arono, A (2014) Improving students listening skill through interactive
multimedia in Indonesia Journal of language teaching and research, Volume
5, Issue 1, p.63-69
3 Barker, L., Edwards, R., Gaines, C., Gladney, K., & Holley, F (1980) An investigation of proportional time spent in various communication activities by
college students Journal of applied communication research, 8, p.101-110
4 Brown, S (2006) Teaching listening Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5 Buck, G (2001) Assessing listening Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6 Celce-Murcia & Marianne (2001) Teaching English as a second or foreign language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7 Christine, C M G., & Vahid, A (2015) Examining the notion of listening subskill divisibility and its implications for second language listening
International journal of listening, Volume 29, Issue 3, p.109-133
8 Coakley, C., & Wolvin, A (1997) Listening in the educational environment In
M Purdy & D Borisoff (Eds.) Listening in everyday life: A personal and professional approach (2nd ed.) (p.179-212) Lanham, MD: University Press of
America
9 Đào Thị Ngân (2012) The reality of teaching and learning English listening skills in grade 10 at Yen Mo B High School, Ninh Binh province Unpublished
MA Thesis, ULIS, VNU
10 Franca, F B., Rosanne, V., & Barbara, L (2015) Fostering and assessing
critical listening skills in the speech course International journal of listening,
Volume 5, Issue 3, p.161-169 Oxford Press
Trang 108
11 Gilbert, M B (1988) Listening in school: I know you can hear me- but
are you listening? Journal of the international listening association.2
p.121-132
12 Hasan, A.S (1993) Methodology of teaching English Damascus: Damacus
University
13 Hedge, T (2000) Teaching and learning in the language classroom Oxford:
Oxford University Press
14 Hoàng Thị Thanh Minh (2013) The problems faced by teachers and first year non-English major students at Sao Do University in teaching and learning English listening skill and some solutions Unpublished MA Thesis, ULIS, VNU
15 Howatt, A., & J Dakin (1974) Language laboratory materials Oxford
University Press
16 Jan, H (2015) Connectionist model of language processing and the training of
listening skills with the aid of multimedia software International journal of listening, Volume 16, Issue 5, p.413-425
17 John, F (2015) Skills and strategies: towards a new methodology for listening
Oxford journals, Volume 52, Issue 2, p.110-118
18 Karl, L S., & Richard, F (2013) Developing effective interpersonal
communication and discussion skills International journal of listening, Volume
69, p.276-283
19 Kaufmann, T., Sterkens, J., & Woodgate, J M (2015) Hearing loops, the
preferred assistive listening technology Journal of the AES, Volume 63, Issue
4, p.298-302
20 Liz, Soars, J., & Wheeldon, S (2000) New-headway series, third edition
Oxford University Press
21 Magnus, W (2015) Discovery listening - Improving perceptual processing
ELT journal, Volume 57, Issue 4, p.335-343
Trang 119
22 Morley, J (1999) Current perspectives on improving aural comprehension
23 Mulvany, S (2015) Improving listening skills Journal of property
management, Volume 23, Issue 11, p.7-11
24 Nguyễn Thị Hyền (2014) Using movies to increase motivation and listening
comprehension of Third year EFL students at Academy of Finance: An action
research study Unpublished MA Thesis, ULIS, VNU
25 Peter, C., Fontana, Steven, D., Cohen, Andrew D., & Wolvin (2015)
Understanding listening competency: A systematic review of research scales
International journal of listening, Volume 29, Issue 3, p.148-176
26 Seliger, H.W., & Shohamy, E (1995) Second language research methods (3rd
ed) Oxford: OUP
27 Shao-Wen Su &Chung-Hsiang Liu (2014) Teaching listening comprehension
skills: A test-orientated approach Journal of language teaching and research,
Vol 3, Issue 3, p.458-465
28 Underwood, M (1989) Teaching listening New York: Longman
29 Ur, P (1984) Teaching of English as a second or foreign language
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
30 Vandergrift, L (1999) Facilitating second language listening comprehension:
Acquiring successful strategies ELT journal, Volume 53, Issue 3, p.168-176
Oxford Press
31 Wolvin, A D., & Coakley, C G (1988) Listening (3rd ed.) Dubuque, IA:
Wm C Brown
32 Yagang, F (1993) Listening: problems and solutions Forum, 31/1 Retrieved
Trang 12I