Designing listening tasks using authentic materials on websites as supplementary materials for the teaching of listening skills

thạc sỹ, luận văn, ngoại ngữ, tiếng anh, khóa luận, chuyên đề

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

In the light of communicative approach, “communicative competence” is theultimate aim of foreign language teaching and learning or in other words, it is the “goal” ofthe teaching and learning process (Richards & Rodgers, 1995:67) In order to obtain thecommunicative competence, foreign language learners are supposed to focus on all thefour skills, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing Among these four skills,listening is often considered to be the most important skill to be acquired as “in the foreignlanguage environment, the ability to make sense of these messages is often crucial forsurvival” (Hood, 1994:65) As a result, listening has been paid much attention to bylanguage researchers and teachers Many researches have been conducted on how to teachand learn listening skills effectively For instance, on the website: www.abax.co.jp/listen,

an article named “Teaching Listening Better: is listening being taught as well as it couldbe?” provides readers with a thorough overview of how listening should be taught; PennyUrr (1992) dedicated a nearly-two-hundred-page book on “Teaching ListeningComprehension” and Gillian Brown (1984) also wrote “Listening to spoken English” Allthese contributions are very useful for enhancing the listening skills However, as far as thewriter has investigated, most of the researches focus largely on methods of teaching andlearning rather than on exploring new sources of authentic materials for teachers to makeuse of Nowadays, together with the already diversified published materials for teachinglistening, there co-exists a new abundant source of listening materials on the World WideWeb The use of the Internet has changed the world dramatically Yet in Vietnam, wherethe Internet had not been known until 1997, it is still new to many teachers of English whoare hesitant to use it even when it is accessible For the time being, several teachers at theEnglish Department, Tay Bac University are employing available materials to teachlistening skills to their students However, the use of authentic materials in designinglistening tasks is done spontaneously without any formal guidelines Thus, a study ondesigning listening tasks with authentic materials would be of value It is hoped that thethesis would bring about some benefits to EFL teachers who teach listening skills

2 Objectives

This study is intended to address the following issues:

 Theoretically, it aims at providing a literature review that should be taken intoconsideration when listening skills are taught with CLT orientation.

 It places focus on investigating how listening skills are taught to the 2nd – year EFLstudents at the English Department – Tay Bac University with what supplementarymaterials are used

 Practically, it outlines possible prospects to use authentic materials on websites assupplementary materials to teach listening skills to the 2nd –year students at theEnglish Department- Tay Bac University Also, it suggests some techniques fordesigning listening tasks using authentic materials to teach listening skills, rangingfrom how to choose authentic materials to what listening activities to design andhow to design them

3 Scope of the study

It should be made clear that this study aims at neither a discovery of the wholeprocess of teaching listening skills nor that of conducting listening tasks in class It wouldfocus on the ways to develop the use of online supplementary listening materials for the 2nd–year students

4 Methods of the study

First of all, intensive and extensive reading helps equip the author with sufficientbackground knowledge and also obtain data for the literature review Secondly, survey,questionnaires, observation as well as interview would be made among the 2nd-yearstudents and their teachers at the English Department- Tay Bac University Collected data,then, would be processed and analyzed

5 Design of the study

The study is composed of 4 main chapters, each of which focuses on a particularissue:

Chapter 1 is the introduction to the study

Chapter 2 deals with theoretical background concerning CLT approaches, authenticmaterials, listening and listening task design

Chapter 3 studies on the use of authentic materials in teaching listening skills to the 2nd –year students at the English Department, Tay Bac University

Chapter 4 introduces some ways to exploit online materials for teaching listening Also,from the information in chapter 3, implications for listening task design will be presented.Chapter 5 is the conclusion

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 COMMUNICATIVE VIEW ON TEACHING LISTENING

2.1.1 The importance of listening

The importance of listening skills in foreign language teaching and learning hasbeen reflected in a 30-year shift towards interaction-based acquisition (Krashen, 1981; Pica

et al , 1987; Swain, 1985), rather than learning through the translation of written texts andthrough formal grammar learning Though regarded as a receptive skill, listening actuallyrequires an active process in which listeners have to activate all their knowledge ofdifferent fields such as phonology, vocabulary, culture and their life experience in selectingand interpreting information (Richards, 1983; Rubin, 1995 quoted from Duzer,http://www.cal.org)

Listening skills are obviously important since first of all, a good speaker needs to

be a good listener Although listening is described as the most difficult of the four skills thebeginner of a foreign language has to develop (Eastman, 1987 quoted inhttp://www.melta.org.), it has traditionally been considered secondary to speaking skills(G.H Bower and R.K Cirlio, 1985; G Brown and G Yule, 1983, quoted inhttp://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu) in that listening task tends to be viewed as supplementary toreinforce grammar learning David Nunan, a famous linguist, in his featured speech at the

4th Pan-Asian Conference in Taiwan in November, 2002 remarked that listening is “theCinderella skill in second language learning” (http://www.nunan.info) What is meant inNunan’s comment is shared by Belasco (1965) that listening comprehension has also beencalled the “most underestimated and least understood aspect of foreign languagelearning”(quoted in http://www.melta.org.my) Despite of the fact that listening is a criticalelement in the competent language performance of second language learners, this skill hasnot been paid enough attention to in comparison with other skills namely speaking, readingand writing A classic study of listening conducted by Rankin (1930) suggests that adultsspend 42.1% of their communication time listening in contrast with 39.1% speaking, 15%reading and 11% writing Moreover, real communication in the classroom should be based

on effective input through listening or reading According to Lewis, “almost all the world’snatural language output is spoken rather than written” (1993:32, quoted inhttp://www.developingteachers.com) Therefore, listening takes up a major proportion incommunication time as Sam Smith noticed, that is at least 90% of his interaction time

(http://www.developingteachers.com) Listening is, in fact, the most crucial medium forinput in learning a foreign language and by increasing students’ ability to perceive speechand thus aiding language acquisition (Lewis, 1993 quoted inhttp://www.developingteachers.com) In fact, listening provides a “foundation” for allaspects of “language and cognitive development” (http://ericdigest.org) It plays a life-longrole on the process of learning and communication essential to productive participation inlife.

2.1.2 Characteristics of listening

Most linguists and educators share the similar opinion of the characteristics oflistening According to Winkinson, Stratta, Dudley (1974) ans Brubridge (1986) and PennyUrr (1996), they all agree upon the common characteristics of listening as follows:

First of all, looking at the characteristics of listening is actually looking at those ofspoken language Spoken language is normally disorganized due to the fact that it isspontaneous The speaker talks impulsively rather than reading aloud something writtenbeforehand As a result, the speech is full of incomplete sentences, paraphrases, hesitation,repetition and interruptions This is also the explanation to the fact that the students whoare good at listening tasks with artificial dialogues are not necessarily good at real - lifelistening situations

The understanding of spoken language could be facilitated a great deal by verbal clues It is said that people listen more effectively when they can see the speaker’sfacial expression, gestures or especially be directly involved in the context in which thespeech is happening In turn speakers may rely on such hints to interpret listeners’implication so that they can adapt their speech accordingly to attain a successfulcommunication These non-verbal cues could reveal what the speaker means better thanjust listening to the speech alone because both listeners and speakers are put in a certaincontext

non-In real-life listening, listeners often know in advance some information to aid theirunderstanding such as to whom they are listening, what they are going to listen and whythey are listening Therefore, teachers of listening should always bear in mind thischaracteristic so that they can have suitable pre-listening activities to prepare students forwhat they are to listen Penny Urr additionally thinks that listening is an interactiveprocess Listeners do not passively just listen to what speakers say They take turns tospeak Both sides actively involve in the communication because they do it for a purpose

2.1.3 Types of listening and listening tasks

2.1.3.1 Types of listening

Much as research has pointed out, adults spend almost half of their communicationtime listening and for EFL students the figure mounts up to 90% Listening is the mostwidely used skill though it is also “the least understood aspect of language of foreignlanguage learning” (Belasco, 1964, quoted from http://www.melta.org.my) There is nofixed set of criteria for different types of listening It is categorized from various views

2.1.3.1.1 Top-down listening process vs Bottom-up listening process

Top-down listening Bottom-up listening

It is listener-based The listener privies to

background knowledge of the topic, the situation

or context, the type of text, and the language

(Richards, 1990) This background knowledge

activates a set of expectations that help the

listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate

what will come next

According to David Nunan, the top-down view

suggests that the listener actively constructs the

original meaning of the speaker using incoming

sounds as clue (http://nunan.info)

It is text-based The listener relies onthe language in the message, that is, thecombination of sounds, words, andgrammar that creates meaning(Richards, 1990)

The bottom-up processing modelassumes that listening is a process ofdecoding the sounds that one hears on alinear fashion, from the smallestmeaningful units (phonemes) tocomplete texts

The distinction between Top-down and Bottom-up listening process is visualized

vividly by Helgesen and Brown as they employ the metaphor of a brick wall, “if you are standing at the bottom looking at the wall brick by brick, you can easily see details It is difficult, however, to get an overall view of the wall And if you come to a missing brick (e.g: an unknown word or unfamiliar structure), you get stuck If, on the other hand, you are sitting on the top of the wall, you can easily see the landscape Of course, because of distance, you will miss some details” (Helgesen and Brown, 1994:xii).

2.1.3.1.2 Real-life listening vs Classroom listening

Additionally, listening can be realized according to the space where it occurs Ingeneral, listening may be divided into real-life listening and classroom listening

 Real-life listening

This is what we have to do in our daily life We hear music, radio, the noise and peopletalking, etc Sometimes, people just listen without paying much attention to People may

listen and do something else at the same time This kind of listening is called Casual

listening (cited in Bang Nguyen, Ngoc Nguyen, 2002) On the other hand, people listen

with a certain purpose in mind, hence, they really concentrate on getting the content of

what is said, which constitutes another type if real-life listening, called Focused listening

(cited in Bang Nguyen, Ngoc Nguyen, 2002)

 Classroom listening

Penny Urr argues that classroom listening should be addressed accurately as real-lifelistening in the classroom Though a paradox can be sensed in this way of addressing, it isnot only true that classroom listening is not real-life listening; but a clear envision of thenotion “classroom listening” is also created All the listening activities in the classroomaim at equipping students with skills to deal with real-life listening Even in classroomlistening, it can be subdivided into intensive and extensive listening as collected andclassified by Bang Nguyen, Ngoc Nguyen (2002)

According to Broughton et al (1987) extensive listening is concerned with the moregeneral listening to natural English It serves the function of letting the students hear thevocabulary items and structures which are unfamiliar to them Rixon (1986) added thatextensive listening is listening for pleasure and interest without having to pay a lot ofattention to content and language

Extensive listening keeps students’ motivation and interest high, as well as givesvaluable contact with English in its spoken form

In contrast, intensive listening is much more controlled, with one or two specificpoints Intensive listening can be primarily for language items as part of the languageteaching program or it can be for general comprehension and understanding (Broughton et

al 1978) Rixon (1986) also stated that intensive listening is the more widely used form inthe classroom In intensive listening, students have to collect or organize information Thelistening passages used usually contain more concrete information and may be quitedensely packed

On Allen’s stand, listening is categorized as follows (1976):

 Simple listening – hearing sounds without any particular meaning to the sounds

 Discriminative listening - listening to hear and identify the likenesses anddifferences in sounds

 Listening for specific information

 Listening for organizing ideas

 Listening for main points

 Listening for varied points of view

 Critical listening

 Creative listening

Meanwhile, Burn and Lowe (1966) categorized listening into three types:

 Appreciational listening (enjoying the development of s story; listening for pleasingrhythm; reacting to the mood set by the author)

 Informational listening (listening for the answer to a specific question; listening tofollow directions; following sequence; listening for main ideas)

 Critical listening (discriminating between fact and opinion; detecting prejudice andbias; sensing the speaker’s purpose)

According to Burn and Lowe (1966) some authors have also suggested levels oflistening such as little conscious listening, half listening, listening passively, listening andexpressing some reaction and listening with a real meeting of the minds However, Burnand Lowe (1966) pointed out that there is no research evidence to indicate such levels

2.1.3.2 Types of Listening Tasks

Having investigated into the characteristics of listening as well as the types oflistening, I now move on to review different listening tasks that reputable educators havesuggested in order to develop students’ listening skills These listening tasks are various,though sorted respective to the way listening is viewed from different perspectives, theyconsist of a rather fixed set of tasks As held by Penny Ur, the kinds of the listening tasksare classified by the natures of students’ response

No overt response

- Following a written text: sts listen to and read it at the same time

- Listening to a familiar text: sts listen to an already known text This kind of task requires

not much listening comprehension skills but simply gives pleasant experience in listening

to meaningful English sounds

- Listening aided by visuals (e.g pictures, diagrams ): sts look at visual materials while

simultaneously following a spoken description of it

- Listening to an informal talk: teacher or any good speakers of English can be excellent

material Some general topics may be used (e.g your family, your childhood, yourhobby…) This activity may well serve as relaxing break from more intensive work

- Listening to something entertaining (e.g stories, songs, films, and television programs):

Such kind of activities provides useful interludes to put in before or after more demandingexercises, or when sts’ concentration is at low ebb

Short response

Students are asked to do some tasks in the form of simple and short answers For example:

- Following instructions: sts listen to commands; they will show their comprehension by

complying with the commands Responses can be physical movement (e.g stand up, sitdown…), building models and picture dictation (draw as you are told to)

- Ticking off items: Learners tick beside the items: Learners tick beside the items that they

hear in the listening

- True/False: Identify whether the statement is true or false based on the listening.

- Detecting mistakes: Some fact is mentioned with intentional mistakes for students to

point out

- Cloze: students make a guess of what can be fill in the blanks in the listening text.

- Guessing definitions: this is synonymous with guessing games Sts listen to a definition

or description of something and guess what it is For example, a number of pictures whichhave some similarities are not given Sts have to listen and choose the right choice

- Skimming and scanning: learners have to make out some general ideas (skimming) and

details (scanning) of the listening

- Pictures: one picture or a series of pictures may be used Sts are then asked to identify

pictures or components as they are referred to, either naming or ordering them in the order

in which they are mentioned

- Maps: Using a map, sts are asked to name a specific place as they listen Besides that,

changes can be made Sts have to listen and mark these changes

- Ground-plans: ground-plans are a kind of maps but single sketch can be interpreted in

many different ways relating to various listening tasks Its advantages lies in its simplicity:

it can be very easy to trace

-Grids: a grid is simply a rectangle marked off into squares and used to display data Sts

may be presented with an inadequately or inaccurately filled-in grid, fill in or correct theinformation on the grid as they listen

- Family trees: family tree is a kind diagram Sts listen to stories or descriptions of

families, then identify family member relationship

- Graphs: sts are given a graph with some missing details While listening to the

information, they fill in the missing details

Moreover, “multiple choice items” is also introduced by Bang, Nguyen and Ngoc,

Nguyen To do this task, learners listen and choose the suitable option from the list ofalternatives given in advance

Longer response

- Answering questions: based on the content of the listening, students are required to give

longer and full answer to the questions

- Note-taking: students take notes of the talk.

- Paraphrasing and translating: students use their own words to rewrite or retell the

listening texts either in the same language or in their mother tongue

- Summarizing: learners write a summary of the content of what they have just listened.

- Long gap-filling: similar to a cloze exercise, the only difference is that the information to

be filled in the gap is longer

- Dictation is also a recommended kind of task which can boost learners’ listening skills a

lot

- Predictions: after hearing the first part of an utterance or passage, sts make a guess at the

possible continuation Prediction can be effectively practiced when integrated with otherskills in the exercises based on passages of discourse

Extended response

Tasks of this kind are on the whole more demanding than those of other kinds.Listening serves as basis and starting point for other activities Sts are expected not only tounderstand the listening material but also to be able to compare or collate its different parts

of aspects, analyze, interpret, evaluate and reason from it In some ways, these may becalled communicative tasks as they involve sts’ feelings, attitudes, tastes and values as well

as their intellectual abilities

- Problem solving: sts listen to all the information relevant to a particular problem and

then set themselves to solve it, either individually or through group discussion

- Jigsaw listening: this activity is used very much like jigsaw grouping for discussion In

jigsaw listening, different groups of sts listen to a different but connected passage, each ofwhich supplies some parts of what they need to know They, then, come together toexchange information and possibly to discuss or evaluate that information

- Interpretative listening: sts listen to somebody’s speech The meaning of what he says is

not the only thing sts absorb Sts may also take into account many other things, such aswhat kind of person the speaker is, the way he speaks, his mood, his attitude, etc Theability to make such interpretations is one of the communicative abilities

- Evaluative and stylistic analysis: recordings used for this type of tasks can be interviews,

comedy, drama, advertising, rhetoric and poetry When sts are able to understand theinformation explicitly conveyed in the listening text as well as appreciate some of theimplicit “message”, they may try to analyze its style and assess its impact Obviously, to dothis, sts have to be highly proficient in spoken English

2.2 AUTHENTIC MATERIALS

2.2.1 Definition of authentic materials

The term “authentic materials” has been defined in a number of ways.

The most common definition is that authentic materials are texts which are

taken from ordinary radio or television programs, etc (Richards, et al 1992:27).

Nunan (1989:54) describes authentic materials as any materials which are not

specifically produced for the purposes of language teaching Also, authentic materials

can be understood as anything a native speaker of English would hear or read or use.

Authentic materials can be theater programs, newspapers, magazines, poems, songs,brochures, information leaflets, menus, new broadcasts, films, or videos and so on (Bang,Nguyen & Ngoc, Nguyen, 2002)

Generally speaking, authentic language is used by native speakers communicating inspoken form or in written form

2.2.2 How authentic materials have been used in language teaching

The use of authentic materials in EFL classroom is what teachers are involved inforeign language teaching, which has discussed in recent years

While some hold the view that authentic materials are only for advanced learners(Ls), most teachers (Ts) agree that authentic listening materials can and should be used forall learners from elementary to advanced learners Moreover, teachers should exploit moreauthentic texts with native accents and intonation in order to involve students in activitiesthat reflect real-life listening

Studies show that Ls working with authentic materials will gain valuable practice inthe specific skill of making sense of natural speech without necessarily understandingevery word in the text; then, an increase in listening comprehension is a naturalconsequence of this practice The challenge for Ts, therefore, is to identify authenticmaterials of potential interest to Ls and to prepare Ls for dealing with these texts in ameaningful way

In general, there has been a trend towards bringing classroom listening practice asclose to real world listening as possible However, the question of when and how authenticmaterials should be introduced to an EFL classroom is still in conflict and will bediscussed later in this study.

2.2.3 Reasons for using authentic materials in teaching listening skills

The need for and the usefulness of authentic materials have been increasinglyacknowledged Martinez (2002) suggests a list of advantages of authentic materials used inlanguage teaching in general and listening skills in particular

 Students are exposed to real discourse, as in videos of interviews withfamous people where intermediate students listen for gist

 Authentic materials keep students informed about what is happening in theworld, so they have an intrinsic educational value As teachers, we areeducators working within the school system, so education and generaldevelopment are part of our responsibilities

 Authentic materials provide Ls with a wide selection of everydayvocabulary which textbooks do not often include

 The same piece of material can be used under different circumstances if thetask is different

 Language change is reflected in the materials so that students and teacherscan keep abreast of such changes

 Reading texts are ideal to teach/practice mini-skills such as scanning, eg.students are given a new article and asked to look for specific information(amounts, percentages, etc) Students listen to news reports and they areasked to identify the names of countries, famous people, etc (ability todetect key words)

 Books, articles, newspapers, and so on contain a wide variety of text types,language styles not easily found in conventional teaching materials

 They can encourage reading or listening for pleasure because they are likely

to contain topics of interest to Ls, especially if students are given the chance

to have a talk about the topics or kinds of authentic materials to be used inclass

2.2.4 Possible shortcomings of authentic materials and solutions

It should be expected that there are certainly some difficulties that users may comeacross Here are some possible shortcomings and suggested solutions to them:

i They may be too culturally biased and required good knowledge of culturalbackground Choose suitable topics which are not very demanding Also, provide

Ls with more background knowledge

ii Too many structures are mixed so lower level learners have a hard time to decodethe texts  Pre-teach the structures or choose less challenging texts

iii Aural texts may have too many different accents  Select suitable aural texts fromeasy level to difficult level

iv The materials can become outdated easily, eg news The vocabulary might beirrelevant to Ls’ immediate needs  Pay attention to some burning issues as well

as Ls’ current needs and likes

Additionally, in order to apply authentic materials in language teachingappropriately, say, creating listening tasks for a certain learner level, Buck (2001:150)suggests some features affecting the difficulty level of the task:

1 Linguistic characteristics

 Texts with slower speech rates tend to be easier than texts with faster speech rates

 Texts with longer pauses between idea units tend to be easier than texts with shorterpauses between idea units, or no pauses at all

 Texts with more familiar pronunciation tend to be easier than texts with lessfamiliar pronunciation

 Texts with natural intonation patterns tend to be easier than texts with unnatural orunusual intonation patterns

 Texts with more high-frequency vocabulary (i.e common words) tend to be easierthan texts with more low-frequency vocabulary

 Texts with less complex grammar tend to be easier than texts with more complexgrammar

 Texts with ideas units or clauses strung together tend to be easier than texts withideas units or clauses embedded within other clause

 Texts with simple pronoun referring tend to be easier than texts with more complexpronouns

2 Explicitness

Texts in which the ideas are explicitly started tend to be easier than texts with less explicitideas

Texts with more redundancy tend to be easier than texts with less redundancy (but not ifthe listeners fail to realize that the information is redundant).

Texts in which the important protagonists or objects are more easily distinguished tend to

be easier than texts where they are harder to distinguish

Texts where relationships between the elements are fixed tend to be easier than texts whererelationships are changed

The term “task” receives various definitions and interpretations In teaching, a task

is an activity which is designed to help achieve a particular learning goal (Dictionary ofLanguage Teaching and Applied Linguistic, 373) Johnson (2003) proposes an idea that atask is anything that learners are given to do (or choose to do) in the language classroom tofurther the process of language learning

For a long time, tasks have been used in language teaching Thus, there is no doubtabout the indispensability of tasks in language teaching and learning With reference to the

position of tasks, Bang, Nguyen & Ngoc, Nguyen (2002a:73) see tasks as “pivotal in the interaction between teachers and learners They provide one of many routes through which teachers and learners convey attitudes and messages about the learning process to each other, as well as providing a vehicle within which learning takes place”.

Finally, it should be noted that learning cannot occur without tasks By completingmeaningful and authentic tasks learners can improve their language proficiency.

Setting

intentions behind any

given learning task in

answer to the

question: “why did

you get learners

engaged in task X?”

The data thatform thepoint ofdeparture forthe task

Whatlearnerswillactually dowith theinput

The part that learnersand teachers areexpected to play incarrying out learningtasks as well as thesocial and interpersonalrelationship between theparticipants

Theclassroomarrangements

specified

or implied

in thetask

Table 1 : six components of a task (proposed by Nunan (1989))

In addition, Estaire and Zanon (1994: 13-14) analyze task components to include 4components:

i a specified working procedure

ii appropriate material (if necessary)

iii a concrete language learning purpose

iv a concrete learning outcome

Wright (1989, cited by Nunan, 1989:47) holds the view that tasks need minimallycontain just two elements These are input data which can be provided by materials, Ts orLs; and initiating questions which instruct Ls what to do with the data (activities) Herejects the notion that objectives or outcome are obligatory as with certain tasks, a variety

of outcomes might be possible and they might be quite different from those anticipated bythe teacher

It should be clear that in this study only important components in designing eachtype of tasks are considered Thus, Nunan’s six elements are used as a referenceframework

2.2.5.3 Criteria of a good listening task

A good listening task in CLT approach has several features:

- Reflect a subject or topic that will interest students

- Provide a topic that is broad enough for every listener to approach from some angle orunderstand

- Involve in solving a true problem or relate to Ls’ own life

- Allow enough time for listeners to respond to the listening task (written or oral) in somemeaningful way

Learner role

- Motivate listeners to consider their knowledge of the topic

- Allow Ls to use all of the language skills they have, rather than specific forms orvocabulary, and tend to self-correct when they realize they need to

- Allow listeners to make use of contextual and nonverbal cues

2.2.5.4 Guidelines for designing listening tasks

Notably, different language Ls have different language proficiency Apart from all whichare already mentioned, task designers should pay attention to some characteristics of a taskthat may affect the appropriate difficulty level

 Tasks that require processing less information tend to be easier than tasks whichrequire processing more information

 Tasks that require processing information from just one location in the text tend to

be easier than tasks which require integrating information scattered throughout thetext

 Tasks that require recalling exact content tend to be easier than tasks which requireextracting the gist or making a summary

 Tasks that require simply selecting information tend to be easier than tasks whichrequire separating fact from opinion

 Tasks that require information relevant to the main theme tend to be easier thantasks which ask for irrelevant details.

 Tasks that require immediate responses tend to be easier than tasks which require adelayed response

Thus, this chapter has reviewed theoretical issues relevant to the thesis In order to obtainempirical knowledge of the use of authentic materials in teaching listening skills to second-year students at the English Department – Tay Bac University so that practical suggestionscan be made, a study is conducted Results of the study are presented in the next chapter

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 SELECTION OF PARTICIPANTS

In order to investigate into the situation to see how listening skills are taught to thesecond year EFL students and what materials lecturers are using as supplementary listeningmaterials for their students, the writer conducted a survey with two groups of subjects Thefirst one is the teachers who are teaching listening skills at the English Department and thesecond one is 120 second year EFL students (course 47- at college grade)

The writer chose to carry out the survey among both teachers of listening skills andtheir students in order to have a thorough and objective overview of the teaching listeningsituation and to see whether what teachers think coincides with what their students think

On the part of the teachers, the writer would like to see how they have utilized theavailable supplementary listening materials The questionnaires were also distributedamong 120 second - year students (K47) to see what they think of the practicality andusability of the supplementary listening materials

Additionally, small-scaled interviews were conducted among the teachers who areteaching listening skills at the English Department- Tay Bac University to see if they hadbeen using online listening materials and how they have been developing these materials

3.2 METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION

This thesis used questionnaires and interviews as the main sources for datacollection Firstly, by using questionnaires the researcher can obtain data quantitatively,which later on will assist the study with persuasive figures concerning the investigatedissues

It should be noted that the writer did not do the survey questionnaires with theteachers who are teaching listening skills but merely had informal meetings with thembecause there are only 5 teachers who take charge of teaching listening skills at the EnglishDepartment – Tay Bac University (only one of them is responsible for teaching listening tothe 2nd – year students) By using interviews, the writer could have more in-depthinformation Before the interview, the writer had prepared a set of questions Additionally,some possible follow-up questions were also prepared (for the interview questions, refer toappendices) All the interviews were recorded so that the writer could concentrate onobserving interviewees’ behavior without wasting time taking notes Their facialexpressions sometimes unveiled more information than words could These interviewswere carried out individually in an informal setting Each interview took about 10 - 15minutes and was arranged at the interviewees’ convenience Enough time was spared forthe interviewees to think of proper answers

The steps of the study were as follows:

1 Piloting the questionnaires for students

2 Delivering and gathering back the questionnaires

3 Conducting interviews with the selected teachers

4 Analyzing the collected data and discussing the findings

5 Giving suggestions

3.3 DATA ANALYSIS

3.3.1 Findings from the questionnaire

The questionnaire for students is designed to investigate students’ opinions andattitudes towards the use of online listening materials It is divided into 3 main parts The

1st part helps the surveyees decide whether they should continue with the 2nd part or the 3rdone

Part 2 and part 3 are designed in two different ways Part 2 is for the ones who choose

“NO” in question 2 in part 1, and with the ones who choose “YES” in this question, theywould go to part 3 (For specific questions, see appendix)

3.3.1.1 Supplementary materials in use

Question 1 in part 1 aims at finding out the types of listening materials, which have beenused by the teachers The results are shown in the chart below:

As can be seen from the chart, the most common supplementary listening material

is radio and T.V programs with the percentage of 50 Ranking the second with 40% isbooks on IELTS, and TOEFL remains the least widely used with 36.66% response 50% ofthe respondents say that their teachers use other course books and teacher-developedmaterials

0 10 20 30 40 50

%

Ielts Toefl Radio& TV

program

OthersChart 1: Supplementary materials in use

percent