Improving listening skills for third year students at hong duc university through portfolio

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

Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Rationale

In English teaching, the main objective is to prepare students for communication in the realworld and it is very important for a learner to efficiently equip himself with four skills,together with relatively sufficient background knowledge However, obtaining a goodcommand of English communication is not easy for all students; it needs a great effortfrom them which emphasizes much practice, especially self-study

Of the four language skills-Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing-that all languagelearners are supposed to acquire Listening is believed to be the most challenging due to thecomplex and subtle nature of listening comprehension in a second or foreign language.Teaching listening is not an easy job at all when we, the English teachers, face the fact thatlearners have met many difficulties in comprehending the information due to unfamiliaritywith the pronunciation of the target language and a lack of listening skills To overcomethose difficulties, it is necessary for students to keep on practice overtime, and one of theways to make students practice is by using portfolios to learn at home This means of study

is rather effective for students to improve their listening skills as portfolios are systematic,purposeful, and meaningful collections of students' works in one or more subject areas andthey reflect the actual day-to-day learning activities of students

For the third year English major students at Hong Duc University, they can not avoidcommon problems related to listening When dealing with a listening lesson, they oftenexperience a lack of background knowledge and cultural understanding, poor ability tounderstand spoken language, irrelevant teaching materials etc Besides, two periods (45minutes each period) of listening every week is not enough for students to be good listeners

if they do not spend much more time than that on their self-study Clearly, portfolios whichreflect what has been done at home are an important element in language teaching andlearning, which on one hand helps the teachers to assess what their students have done athome and on the other hand keeps students continuously learning Hence, they need a lot ofmodifications for the sake of perfection To enhance students’ listening skill development,it’s the teacher’s job to create more opportunities for the students to learn from their ownstrengths and weaknesses as well as their peers' weaknesses and strengths It is, therefore,necessary to bring them opportunities to overcome those difficulties and among thesuggested solutions, listening portfolios are of great help Good portfolios with carefullyprepared contents are a useful means to help students keep on their self-studies effectively

It is obvious that portfolios can improve students’ listening skills as well as encourage them

to work on their own, which is the useful factor for their success It is undeniable thatexploiting portfolios effectively is challenging for teachers because they have to take manythings into consideration, such as the objectives, the instructional skills, the criteria, thestudents’ needs, etc when giving out the contents of a portfolio However, for the benefitone can gain from them, it is worth doing so

For the above reasons, we decided to choose the thesis entitled Improving listening skills“Improving listening skills

for third-year students at Hong Duc University through portfolio" The study emphasizes

the importance of portfolios to the students' self- study in general and the listening skills in

particular Pedagogically, the findings of the study are believed to be useful for teachers to

be aware of the essential role of portfolios to the students' self- study in the listening skills Moreover, we would like to investigate the effectiveness of the listening portfolioscurrently used and from that finding out the strong and weak points of them in order toestablish the most relevant one in terms of the contents From the results obtained, thesuggestions for portfolio contents, which are based on the theoretical background and thepresent use of them at the Foreign Language Department, HDU, are thoughtfully given,with the hope that they would help students to enhance their listening skills as well as theteachers to improve their teaching methodologies in relation with the process of renovationfor teaching at the Foreign Language Department, HDU currently

1.2 Aims of the study

Our research focuses specifically on the investigation of portfolio contents used by theteachers at Division of Language skills Development and give some suggestions forapplying the portfolios to enhance the students' self - learning for improvements in theirlistening skills The specific aims of the research are as follows:

- To investigate the teachers' and students' attitudes towards the application oflistening portfolios in self-learning

- To find out the most common portfolio contents exploited by the teachers atDivision of Language skills Development

- To examine the students’ preferences for the portfolios

- To give some suggestions for using the portfolios to enhance students' self-listeninglearning

1.3 Research questions

As a basis for my investigation, the following research questions were formulated:

1 What are the teachers and students attitudes towards the application of listening’ ’

portfolios in self-learning?

2 What are the teachers and students opinions of the current portfolio contents?’ ’

3 How can portfolio contents be improved to help students develop their self-listening study?

1.4 Methods of the study

To seek answers to the research questions, the data are analyzed from material collectionand were collected from survey questionnaires

First of all, for the theoretical basis, a lot of reference materials on listening skills andportfolios have been collected, analyzed and synthesized carefully with the dueconsideration for the teachers’ and students’ teaching and learning situations

Secondly, the questionnaires are carried out with the teachers and the students to collect themost reliable data for the study

1.5 Design of the study

The thesis is divided into five chapters: Chapter I: Introduction; Chapter II: Literaturereview; Chapter III: The study; Chapter IV: Major findings and Discussions and Chapter V:Conclusion

Chapter I: Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of the study such as the rationale, the scope, the aims,research questions, significance and methods of the study

Chapter II: Literature review

This chapter conceptualizes the nature of the listening comprehension, the importance oflistening and the importance of students' self-access listening, definitions of the portfolio,portfolio based learning, the content of portfolio, principles in using portfolio, portfolioassessment, stages of portfolio implementation and the importance of portfolio in learninglistening

Chapter III: The study

The chapter presents the methodology used in the study including the setting, sample,instrumentation, data collection and data analysis It also points out the detailed results ofthe surveys and covers a comprehensive analysis on the data collected from thequestionnaires

Chapter IV: Major findings and Discussions

The chapter shows some major findings, suggestions for using the portfolios

2.2 Theoretical background of listening skills

2.2.1 What is Listening Comprehension?

it oral), "it is of vital importance that our pupils be taught to listen effectively and

critically" he says.

Bentley & Bacon (1996) state that listening, an important part of the second languagelearning process has also been defined as an active process during which the listenerconstructs meaning from oral input

Grey Buck (2001: 31) shares the idea that " listening comprehension is an active process of

constructing meaning and this is done by applying knowledge to the incoming sounds" in

which " number of different types of knowledge are involved: both linguistic knowledgeand non-linguistic knowledge" In another expression, Grey Buck (2001: 31) points out

"comprehension is affected by a wide range of variables, and that potentially any characteristic of the speaker, the situation or the listener can affect the comprehension of the message."

Scarcely and Oxford (1992) also point out that comprehension of a spoken message caneither through isolated word recognition within the sound stream, phrase or formulaerecognition, clause or sentence, and extended speech comprehension

Woven and Coakley (1985) hold the different idea They see listening as "the process of

receiving, attending to and assigning meaning to aural stimuli" This definition indicates

that listening is a complex process which students have to deal with The task of listening isnot only perception of sound, but it also requires comprehension of meaning Thisdefinition is the same with second language theory which regards listening to spokenlanguage as an active and complex process in which listeners pay much attention to aspects

of aural input, generate meaning, and link what they hear to existing knowledge (O'Malley

& Chabot, 1989; Byrnes, 1984; Richards, 1985; Howard, 1983)

Scott Shelton (2008) thinks that listening effectively is a demanding and involved process.One must be able to deal with different accents or pronunciation, unfamiliar lexical itemsand syntactic structures, competing background noise, and also make a conscious effort tonot 'switch off' or become distracted while listening All of this must be achieved and dealtwith more or less simultaneously in order to identify and understand the meaning in anygiven message

To sum up, the issue of whether which view is the best is controversial However, in thefinal analysis, the definition of Wolvin and Coakley (1985) which considers listening as theprocess of receiving, attending to and assigning meaning to aural stimuli; that is, messagetransmitted through the medium of sound is highly appreciated

2.2.1.2 The listening Comprehension process

It can't be denied that listening is the least explicit of the four language skills, namely,listening, speaking, reading and writing, making it the hardest skill for English learners Itinvolves physiological and cognitive processes at different levels (Field, 2002; Lynch,2002; Rost, 2002) along with the attention to contextual and "socially coded acousticclues" (Swaffar & Bacon, 1993)

Listening comprehension is a primary process in understanding the words of the speaker It

is a complex communication process which requires instant thought and individual ability

to construct the meaning The development of listening comprehension varies depending

on the personal, social, and cultural experiences of the student Effective listeners are able

to recognize the speaker’s main points or ideas and identify the supporting details andexamples Comprehensive listening is the ability to identify and understand what othersare saying This involves understanding a speaker’s accent, pronunciation, grammar,vocabulary and meaning (Howatt and Dakin 1974) Listening comprehension is influenced

by the listener’s world knowledge, linguistic knowledge, text structure knowledge, and metcognitive knowledge

The following figure shows that the listening comprehension process is established throughthe relationship between the two main sources of information which Widowson (1983)refers to as (1) systematic or linguistic knowledge (knowledge of phonological, syntactic,and semantic components of the language system) and (2) schematic or non-linguisticinformation In fact, it is hard to differentiate between what was actually said and what wehave constructed by integrating the spoken words with students' own knowledge andexperience

Background knowledge Systematic

- physical setting, participants, etc

- what has been/ will be said (written)

Knowledge of the language system

- semantic

- syntactic

systematic knowledge

- phonological

Figure 1 Information sources in comprehension

(Adapted from Anne Anderson & Tony Lynch, 1988, p.13)

According to Mendelson (1994: 94, cited by Vandergrift, 1999: 176), the performancechecklist for listening comprehension process is to be used during learner's listeningprocess:

Name: _ Date:

COMPREHENSION

Question: After first listening Before second

listeningGuess? Reason(s) V Other possibilities?

How? (tone? mood?)

What? (what is it about?)

Why? (goal? particular

circumstances?)

Figure 2 Performance Checklist for Listening Comprehension (Adapted from Mendelson (1994: 94, cited by Vandergrift, 1999: 176)

V= Verification (check in this column when your guess has been verified)

What I found easy: What I found difficult: What I will do the next time:

A number of researches in L2 listening instruction have been done by different authorssuch as Rost (2002); Lynch (1988, 2002); Rubin (1994); Mendelsohn (1988); Richards(1990) All focus on the critical role of both bottom-up and top-down processes incomprehension Listeners use top-down process when they use context and priorknowledge (topic, genre, background knowledge, and other schema knowledge in long-term memory) to construct framework for comprehension Listeners use bottom-up processwhen they build meaning by accretion, gradually combining increasingly larger units ofmeaning from the phoneme-level up to discourse-level features

Richards (1990:50) breaks down the process used in listening comprehension into twodistinct types, referring to them as 'bottom-up' and 'top-down' processing The former is

described in Cook's Discourse (1989) as: 'Interpreting the lowest-level units first, and then

proceeding to an interpretation of the rank above, and so on upwards.' In other words, we

sometimes need to rely on our knowledge of grammar, syntax, and lexis, and apply thatknowledge when confronted with an incoming message in order to achieve comprehension

On the other hand, we might apply a top-down approach to aid comprehension This isdefined as:

'Interpreting discourse by hypothesizing about the most general units first, then moving downwards through the ranks below.' This means applying our background knowledge to

aid in understanding the meaning of a message

Richards (1990:51) explains that:" This may be previous knowledge about the topic ofdiscourse, it may be situational or contextual knowledge, or it may be knowledge stored inlong-term memory in the form of 'schemata' and 'scripts' - plans about the overall structure

of events and the relationships between them."

Anderson and Lynch (1988:22) argue that research has shown that the assumptions in the'bottom-up' model are incorrect They state that: "Listeners would not be able to perceive

speech as successfully as they do if they were in fact engaged in a process of building upthe recognition of words solely by attempting to identify their constituent phonemes."

In teaching listening skills, we need to be aware of how these processes work and guide ourstudents, through the use of different tasks if we are to aid them in improving their listeningcomprehension I believe we can help advanced learners by drawing attention to thesestrategies and overtly practicing these listening skills in the classroom

2.2.2 The importance of Listening

Listening is getting more and more important in many foreign language contexts, whichhave until relatively recently focused their efforts on the development of other languageskills such as writing skills This growing importance is reflected in the proliferation ofcommercial listening courses The importance of listening in second and foreign languagelearning is admirably summarized in a recent publication by Rost (1994):

'Listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides input for the learners Without understanding input at the right level, any learning simply cannot begin'.

Brett (1997: 39) also states that "listening is a key language skill It has a vital role in thelanguage acquisition process" In comparison with other language skills, some researches

on listening suggests that on average people can expect to listen "twice as much as wespeak, four times more than what we read and five times more than we usually write"(Morley, 2001) More importantly, there are more and more studies indicating the sheerimportance of listening in communication and language learning (Anderson and Lynch,1988; Dunkel, 1991) What's more, Michael Lewis (1993: 32) highlights "Almost all theworld's natural language output is spoken rather written"

Being an essential skill for almost interaction, listening is therefore the most primarymedium for input in language learning process and by speeding up the students' ability toperceive speech, the amount of input they get will increase and thus aid students' languageacquisition

It is obvious that we listen for many different purposes in and out of the classroom; this has

an effect on the way we listen Yule and Brown (1983) make a useful distinction betweeninteractional and transactional communication McCarthy, (1991) in Discourse, definestransactional talk (and listening) as communication for getting business done Interactionalcommunication, on the other hand, has to do with lubricating the social wheels In listening(1988) Anderson and Lynch describe them as (transactional) listening when the mainpurpose is to achieve a successful transfer of information, while interactional listening isdefined as listening for social reasons, and to establish or maintain friendly relationsbetween interlocutors

In short, listening is essential not only as receptive skill but also to the development ofspoken language prophecy

2.2.3 Teaching listening skills

2.2.3.1 Listening Skills

Listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying This involvesunderstanding a speaker's accent or pronunciation, his grammar and his vocabulary, andgrasping his meaning (Howatt and Dakin) An able listener is capable of doing these fourthings simultaneously Willis (1981:134) lists a series of micro-skills of listening, which

she calls enabling skills They are: (1) predicting what people are going to talk about, (2)

guessing at unknown words or phrases without panic, (3) using one's own knowledge of thesubject to help one understand, (4) identifying relevant points; rejecting irrelevantinformation, (5) retaining relevant points (note-taking, summarizing), (6) recognizingdiscourse markers, e g., Well; Oh, another thing is; Now, finally; etc, (7) recognizing

cohesive devices, e.g., such as and which, including linking words, pronouns, references,

etc, (8) understanding different intonation patterns and uses of stress, etc., which give clues

to meaning and social setting, (9) understanding inferred information, e g , speakers'attitude or intentions

Edurne Scott (2008) also points out that the sub-skills that can be emphasized in a listeninglesson include: (1) listening for specific information, (2) following topic shifts, (3)predicting, (4) recognizing transitions and sequence markers, (5) recognizing wordboundaries, (6) identifying key words, (7) and taking notes

According to Austin Shrope (1970), it is listening on the fourth level that primarilyconcerns us in our teaching Such listening may add an emotional and dramatic quality.Radio and recordings highlight the importance of listening Listening is as active asspeaking (the other productive skill), and in some ways even more difficult It well requiresattention, thought, interpretation, and imagination To improve our learners' listening skills,they should be allowed to: (1) adopt a positive attitude, (2) be responsive, (3) shut outdistractions, (4) listen for the speaker's purpose, (5) look for the signals of what is to come,(6) look for summaries of what has gone before, (7) evaluate the supporting materials, (8)and look for non-verbal clues

Richards, J C (2005) also provides such skills taxonomy for developing students'listening skills as presented in Appendix P.xix

To sum up, as the focus of language teaching and learning has moved from centered approaches to more learner-centered ones, the focus of listening teaching andlearning has also changed a lot That's why listening is now recognized as an activereceptive skill (Anderson and Lynch: 1988) in which the listener activates previous orexisting knowledge to integrate new knowledge

teacher-2.2.3.2 Running a listening lesson

It is common knowledge that using interesting passages and doing the right sort ofexercises in a coherent sequence are necessary to a successful lesson, but they are only part

of the issue The overall conduct and organization of the lesson are equally important.Shelagh Rixon (1986: 74-80) suggests the following guidelines which the listening teacherscan follow when running a listening lesson:

 Variety of exercises and passages

Shelagh Rixon warns that the teachers should not overuse any one type of exercise If thestudents know, for example, that they will always start the lesson by having to listen to atape played to them by the teachers, answer multiple-choice questions and then move intopairs to compare their answers, this will become too much of a routine, and they willbecome bored and stale Another important point is that not every listening passage issuitable for the same treatment, and the teachers should vary their activities and exercises

to suit the potential of the passage

A mixture of live and recorded listening materials is preferable on most courses because ofthe different listening skills they can help to develop Exposure to different types of thepassage and to the possibilities of interaction with the speaker is very important inincreasing students' experience of handling the spoken word

 Helping students to see the reasons behind exercises

It is obvious that if students see the point of what they are doing, this will encourage them

to see the approaches to listening that teachers are trying to promote, even when they findthemselves in real situations Explaining the point of exercises needs to be done with greatcare, however Teachers should try to be concrete rather than technical or abstract

 Observing students' reactions

Even if teachers are careful in choosing their passages and activities to suit the idea ofstudents' needs, they cannot guarantee that all students' difficulties and interests will be met

by teachers' lesson as planned The most unexpected things can cause problems On theother hand, difficulties that teachers anticipate can produce no trouble at all Teachers must

be prepared to interrupt their planned sequence to cover points that are causing difficulty,

or that students themselves bring up, rather than working mechanically from step one to theend of their lesson plan, with no deviations for student needs

 Allowing students time to reconsider

We all know that a lesson is not a test but a training session It is therefore not cheating tolet students hear a passage several times, in small sections, with pauses, or in any other waythat is helpful to them They should not be expected to find the answers immediately,either Students often need time to think about their initial answers and reconsider them It

is very useful to give the students the chance to get some of the answers, and then to listenagain The next time they listen they will already be altered to those parts when they need

to pay more attention This really works in a listening lesson

 Preventing panic

The feeling of anxiety at impending failure often totally incapacitates a student This can bealleviated in several ways:

- The idea of a lesson as a training session, not a test, should be stressed at all costs

- Recorded materials can offer their own sense of security while the students are learning tolisten better, provided that they or the teachers are able to use the controls of the playbackmachine in a way that lets them hear that parts that bother or interest them as often asnecessary

- Face to face listening offers the chance to interrupt and ask for clarification or repetition,and students should be trained not to be shy about this.

- It gives the students a sense of autonomy and self-reliance if teachers teach them ways ofwriting down words or phrases that they do not understand So they can read them backlater

- The teachers should always try to use listening experiences to illustrate 'reasons to behopeful about making sense of spoken English

2.2.3.3 Teacher's roles

According to Austin Shrope (1970), a teacher's roles in a listening lesson are to createinterest, reasons for listening, and the confidence to listen For each listening lesson theteacher must bear in mind:

- What kind of listening process is appropriate to the text?

- How the learner will "tune in" to the context, express attitudes towards the topic, andemphasize schematic knowledge

- Pictures that could be used to contextualize the talk

- And the forming of the learner's opinion on the topic (i.e making explicit opinions in aclass discussion, and then comparing them to the opinions of the listening material)

2.2.3.4 Importance of students' self-listening

Obviously, the purpose of effective teaching is to enable students to develop to a pointwhere they are independent of the teacher's assistance This is really true with the listening.According to Shelagh Rison (1986), self-listening is one of the main ways in which alearner can "tune in" by himself to a foreign society when he visits or goes to live in it It isalso the most private and least tangible of the four language skills We can do research on alearner's writing or speaking difficulties to some extent, and observe how he reads, butwhat goes on inside each student's head is more of a mystery Each student is on his own inthe final analysis, and materials and techniques which can promote his autonomy ratherthan his loneliness are needed

* Students ' self-access work

Many a teaching institution is providing learners with more freedom - a choice of materials

to work with and space and time to work in instead of the teacher's instructions ShelaghRison (1986) points out that the students should be given the chance to decide forthemselves what will be interesting or useful and to work by themselves These are bothvaluable steps towards increased autonomy and away from the traditional dominance of theteacher in the learning process

However, the author also shows some advantages, for instance, providing a facility requiresfinance, efficient organization, and a wealth of materials to choose from The timetable alsoneeds to be planned to allow students time to use the facilities, either within or outsideofficial school hours

It is clear that classroom listening activities tend to be controlled by the teacher Even whenstudents listen privately for part of the time, this is only because the teacher has planned itthat way In self-access listening, the teacher uses no such control, but he does still have aresponsibility to enable students to finds ways of working that suit them.

* Autonomy for the students

Is it possible for all students to work well by themselves from the very beginning? Theanswer is 'No' because autonomy is often developed from having the right amount ofsupport at the right time, with the support being gradually lessened as students becomemore confident According to Shelagh Rison (1986), a good catalogue, usable worksheetsand your guidance will all contribute as follows:

 The teacher's role changes in self-access work He becomes more of a manager and

a counselor than an informant All the students need the teacher to be available as a source

of advice, or just as someone to boast to about an achievement

 Having the right equipment also counts Cassettes are much more convenient andtangle-free than reel-to-reel tape for use in a self-access library

 It's necessary that when a listening task involves searching for certain information,there is an answer sheet that the students can find easily for themselves Another loose-leafbinder, with all the answer keys in it, can be kept next to the main catalogue Students willthen need to consult the teacher only in cases where they don't understand why a certainanswer is wrong or right, and will be independent as far as checking routine answers areconcerned

* Listening outside the classroom

Most of the English teachers hope that students will be able to use English learnt atschools, universities or other institutions in real life at some point It's because that noteveryone will have the chance to go abroad, or even to use the language often within hisown country, but opportunities do exist to listen to English in a pleasurable or useful way.For teachers working with students within the United Kingdom, or other English speakingcountries, the opportunities to use English outside school are huge, but those workingabroad need not despair either There are two ways in which you can encourage students tolisten to outside the school The first is to get students to exercise their listening outsideschool and the second is about finding opportunities for listening for pleasure Two kinds

of listening outside the school have been suggested as follows:

 Listening assignments outside the classroom

Self-access listening has been discussed as a stepping stone between listening guided by theteacher and greater independence Students who have met certain types of listeningexperiences in the listening library may feel prepared to try them in their own time Radioprograms are an obvious example

 Listening for pleasure outside the classroom

According to the author, opportunities for making contact with the language outside theschool will vary, as will the amount of enthusiasm shown by students about non-obligatory,

extra-mural listening Students have a perfect right not to be keen, but they should beequipped with good information on what is available should they relent.

2.2.4 Summary

In conclusion, the section has so far conceptualized the discussion of relevant issuesrelating to the topic of the study The concepts and ideas concerning the definitions oflistening comprehension, the models of listening process, importance of listening andteaching listening skills have been analyzed and discussed

2.3 Theoretical background of Portfolio

2.3.1 Introduction

When thinking about best practices, authentic assessment ranks very highly This is thecase with listening portfolio First of all, the definitions of portfolio are presented Then thecontents of portfolios, principles in using portfolios, portfolio assessment, and stages ofportfolio implementation are introduced and analyzed Last but not least, the importance ofportfolios in learning the listening skills is dealt with

2.3.2 Definitions of Portfolio

There is a variety of definitions of portfolio which have been presented by various scholarswith different points of view Some definitions limit and see the portfolio as a summary of astudent's accomplishments; others talk about their purposes and characteristics, includingthe merits of the strategy (Wiener and Cohen, 1997; Richter, 1997; Karoly, 1996; SniderLima and Devito, 1994); their contents and their implementation For instance, Patricia L

Rieman and Jeanne Okrasinski (2000) state that " a portfolio is an assessment tool that

allows creator to put his or her best foot forward and document the knowledge and skills mastered through the learning process" Other authors share the same idea that the

portfolio is a part of an alternative assessment program Arter and Spandell (1996: 210)

consider portfolio as "a purposeful collection of student work that tells the story of the

student's efforts, progress or achievement" Also Freeman and Lewis (1998: 271) state

portfolio as "a collection of materials assembled by students to demonstrate achievement".

The portfolio definition given by Murray (1995) is that the teacher should decide how theportfolio is to be used before deciding on the content If the portfolio is to be used forsummary evaluation, such as tenure decisions, then it should probably only contain the best

of a student's work

Our working definition for our students' listening portfolio is a collection of materials

related to our class interactions and readings You may put them in any sized binder or folder' In other words, the students' self-listening portfolio is 'an organized collection of their work in listening skills that indicates the products of their own learning process' The collection is made up of listening portfolio cover sheet, declaration and

appropriately-statement of authorship, index of listening files, listening portfolio - File identification, text

outline, team work - collaboration peer assessment, portfolio assessment checklist This

working definition is regarded as a good foundation for the researcher to deal with theportfolio contents as mentioned in the following section

2.3.3 The contents of Portfolios

Each kind of portfolio contents serves its own purpose For instance, showcase portfoliosare made up of the best work that illustrates outcomes; evaluation portfolios include formaland best work samples while most of the portfolio types focus on student self-assessment.The contents of portfolios are also constructed from class assignments It is the teacher whoknows his students best initiates the portfolio contents The development of portfolios mayfocus on a single area such as reading, writing, literature and science or other portfolioprograms that cover two or more fields such as reading and writing

Subject area and ownership are the main factors to determine the content of portfolios.Vizyak (1995), for example, evaluates two kinds of portfolios, a student-managed and ateacher-student portfolio, and lets students choose a meaningful piece from the teacher-student portfolio, twice a month, attaching a statement specifying students reasons for theirchoice The choice may include a test, work sample, project or even parent input from asurvey

Freeman and Lewis (1998) discuss a generic portfolio that includes completedassignments, copies of learning contracts, notes, drawings, diaries, charts, certificates andstudent self - assessment in their list of assembled materials However, Bailey and Guskey(2001) state that the contents of portfolios should be in relation to involving students in theselection of its contents and student self - reflection Also, Arter and Spandell (1992)provide students with questions designed to facilitate the self-reflection process Their aim

is to help students find out the strengths and weaknesses of their own work, to discover theprocess they experienced, recognize the feedback they received, identify the distinctivequalities of their work

As mentioned before, contents of portfolios depend on its intended use because of theextent of student engagement, like the nature of the contents of portfolios informed by theperception of portfolio purpose There are many sources which offer a variety ofsuggestions and categories for building the portfolio

Crockett (1998) in Nunes (2004) divides portfolio contents into five categories as follows:

 Found samples, which refer to pieces done to fulfill the class assignment;

 Processed samples, or the students' analyses and self-samples of students' work of a

works already graded by the teacher;

 Revisions or samples of student work that have been graded and then revised, edited

and rewritten;

 Reflections, which are related to the processed samples but are applied to the

portfolio as a whole, providing a chance for students to think about who they are,what their strengths and weaknesses are;

 And portfolio projects, which cover work designed for the sole purpose of inclusion

in the student portfolios, and that can be arise from a review of portfolios that show

a particular interest or challenge to overcome

For each item, a brief rationale for choosing the item should be covered This may relate tostudents' performance, to their feelings considering their progress and themselves aslearners.

According to Nguyen Thi Huong et al (2007: 11-13), Listening portfolio entails teamwork,exposure to a variety of listening resources, and listening practice Thus, apart fromlistening skill building, the task also aims at students’ development of information literacyand collaboration skills The contents of portfolios are presented as follows:

A Cover Sheet (See Appendix 3, p.viii)

B Declaration and Statement of Authorship (See Appendix 4 , p ix)

C Index of Listening Files (See Appendix 5 , p x)

D Listening Files

1 File identification (See Appendix 6, p xi)

2 Full script

E Reflection checklist

Students are to write only one reflection for the whole portfolio, and this should not exceed

600 words (two pages) The reflection should contain the following components:

1 Reflection on strategies used

- The steps students went through when doing the portfolio

- The strategies students used while transcribing the files, especially how they coped withwords that are hard to identify

2 Reflection on the contents of the files

- What (background) knowledge students have gained through flowing the issues

- What contents students like and dislike most or any information that makes a deepimpression on them

F Glossary (See Appendix 7, p xii)

G Work distribution (See Appendix 8 , p xiii)

H Collaboration peer assessment sheets (See Appendix 9 , p xiv)

I Portfolio assessment sheet (See Appendix 10 , p xvi)

Do not fill in this page

J Final grades report form (See Appendix 11 , p xviii)

Fill in the team members' names Leave others blank

K Attached disc or/ and tape

To sum up, the portfolio contents play a very important role in very study However, acertain design of the portfolio contents should be based on the purpose of the course in thereal context and condition

2.3.4 Principles in Using Portfolios

It is obvious that portfolios are very important in every study, especially in learning foreignlanguages This is really true in cases of Kemp and Toperoff (1998) and Nuns (2004) Kemp and Toperoff (1998) conclude that when applying portfolios to foreign languagelearning and teaching, the teacher should take the following principles into consideration:

 Principle 1: a portfolio is a form of assessment that students do together with their

teachers

 Principle 2: a portfolio is not just a collection of students' work, but a selection - the

student must be involved in choosing and justifying the pieces to be included

 Principle 3: a portfolio provides samples of students' work that shows grow over

time By self-assessing, students start identifying the strengths and weaknesses fromtheir work As a result, these weaknesses become improvement goals

 Principle 4: the criteria for choosing and evaluating the portfolio contents must be

clear to the teacher and the students at the beginning of the process The entries in

an English as a foreign language classroom can demonstrate learning andimprovement in all language skills, or can focus on a specific skill such as listening.Nunes's study (2004) indicates that portfolios in English as a foreign language classroomcan be a useful tool for speeding up students' active participation Nevertheless, the twofollowing principles should be carefully considered so as to apply its full advantages topractice

Principle 1: a portfolio should be dialogic, and facilitate ongoing interactions

between the teacher and the students To put it in another way, it must be developedinteraction in order to facilitate focused intervention, decision-making or joint problem-solving in due time

Principle 2: a portfolio should document the reflective thought of the learner.

2.3.5 Stages of Portfolio implementation

There are various authors whose recommendations for portfolio implementation emerge inthe literature (Wiener and Cohen, 1977; Hill, Kamber and Norwich, 1994; Valencia andPlace, 1994) and include criteria to be observed for effective implementation andprocedures to be done For instance, Hill et al (1994) recommend a range of stepsincluding defining the portfolio purpose, teaching students self-reflection, structuringportfolio reviews, making time for peer evaluation, and sharing portfolios with parents.Also, Wiener and Cohen (1979) support a process relating to a succession of self-reflectionand dialogue among students, teachers and parents

According to Mattew and Shimo (2002), there are five basic stages that must exist in theimplementation of portfolios They are: collection, selection, reflection, evaluation andcelebration These steps make portfolio implementation better and more thoughtfullearning

Stage 1: Collection

In this stage, teachers and students work together to save artifacts that represent successesand opportunities for growth.

In short, each author applies different stages in carrying portfolios Thus, the researchershould take his or her own context and learning and teaching situation into account beforedeciding the stages of portfolio implementation

2.3.6 The importance of Portfolios in learning the Listening skill

It can’t be denied that portfolio plays a very important role in teaching and learning the L2

as it may affect the students’ success in learning Consequently, it is essential to find outhow important it is to learn the listening skills It can not only help the teachers diagnosethe students' skills and competences, but also make them more aware of the students'preferences, styles and learning strategies As the benefits of this, more teachers have latelystarted applying in their teaching because portfolios are regarded as a useful support to thenew instructional approaches that highlight the students' role in building understanding andthe teacher's role in speeding up mutual understanding

More importantly, portfolios are seen as the ideal exemplification of the trends Theydemonstrate students' achievements through work samples with attached outcomes therebysupplying tangible proofs for the teachers and students They also concentrate on real workand actual performance in classrooms

Brookfield (1995) lists some benefits of learner reflection in portfolios as follows:

There are many other authors who suggest using portfolios in teaching and learning foreignlanguages in general and English in particular For instance, Abrami and Sclater (2005);Nunes (2004); Banfi (2003); Matthew and Shimo (2002); Rea (2001); Fenwick and Parsons(1999) and et al point out that portfolios can be a useful tool for evaluating students'

outcomes; and that using portfolios in listening courses improves students' autonomy,reflection, teamwork, and self-learning.

2.4 Summary

In this chapter, the relevant literature which is needed to form the theoretical andconceptual framework for the current study is presented

To begin with, prominent definitions of listening comprehension are introduced according

to some outstanding scholars, and then the listening process is presented so as toinvestigate the nature of listening comprehension

What's more, the presently prominent groups of models of the listening process have beendiscussed as they all have important contributions to the nature of listening comprehensionand the listening process Also, the importance of listening is mentioned including somesmall points relating to the issue

Last but not least, the concepts and ideas relating to the portfolios such as definitions ofportfolio, stages of portfolios, portfolio contents and importance of portfolios in learninglistening are conceptualized, discussed and analyzed as a base for the study

Chapter 3: The study 3.1 Introduction

There are two parts in this chapter: The first part is the analysis of the situation of the studywith the description of the subjects, the materials the teachers use, the listening syllabusand the instruments used to gather data Later on is the comprehensive analysis of the datagathered from the survey and the findings

3.2 Situation analysis

3.2.1 The setting of the study

The study was conducted at the Foreign Language Department, Hong Duc University Theuniversity is a new provincial one; everything is still in the process of innovation anddevelopment We are on the way to look for better things The Department offers a four-year B.A, English program for English major students EFL is taught and learnt officially

as a university major in an academic setting Like many other subjects, English is taught in

a formal setting of the classroom The four-year training program is divided into twophases In the first phase, which lasts for the first two years, the students study the fourlanguage skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing In the second one, when thestudents are at the third and four years, besides the four language skills, they will deal withthe theoretical subjects such as methodology, literature, lexicology, grammar, etc Eachacademic year is divided into two terms, each lasting 15 weeks and finishing with end-of-semester examinations

The third- year students of FLD are studying in their fifth term, aged from 20 to 22, most

of them are female They entered the university from different places of Thanh Hoaprovince Some of them had learnt English for 3 years, and not many of them had learntEnglish for 7 years before entering the university

 The teachers of the Language Skills Division

There are 10 teachers of English in Division of Language Skills Development, four malesand six females They have had at least two years of experience working as Englishteachers They graduated from different universities, some of them have completed MAcourses from Department of Post-graduate Studies, University of Language andInternational Studies, HN National University, the rest have BA degrees, however, they areall experienced and dedicated teachers All of the 10 respondents have had opportunities toteach different subjects in English and specialized in specific language skills They aregood at and interested in such skills as listening, speaking, reading and writing Therefore,they have experience in teaching language skills, especially listening The table belowsummarizes the characteristics of the subjects of the study:

Qualifications/training/teaching No of respondents

Holding M.A in English teaching or language fields 2/10

Having worked as language teachers for over five years 5/10

Table 1: Summary of information about the staff s background’

3.2.3 Listening course books

Actually, all the materials used for teaching and learning listening for the third-yearstudents are chosen and prepared under the tendency of task-based approaches Thecurriculum for each academic year consists of two terms, 15 weeks for each During eachterm, a number of selected topics together with a wide range of different tasks are coveredwith a view to helping the students to enhance their listening skills These selections arebased on the students’ level of English, their interests and the objectives of the term

The third – year students under investigation have just finished their first two years.Students have 2 periods of listening skills per week, equal to 90 minutes every week In-class activities are those which focus on listening skills Students have lessons on listeningskills with P-W-P frame (Pre-listening, While-listening and Post-listening) Teachers playroles like instructors, monitors, facilitators to help students acquire the knowledge of eachlesson learned

3.2.4 Teaching and learning listening skills

It stands to reason that listening teachers are in charge of improving students’ skills tolisten to English In other words, the teachers need to have knowledge of the skillsavailable to listeners for use while listening Generally speaking, students are supposed to

be familiarized with basic listening skills, different kinds of listening exercises, and mostwidely recognized English accents The students are also expected to have been able tounderstand clearly and slowly articulated English speech related to areas of mostimmediate priority (e.g very basic personal and family information, shopping, localgeography, employment, etc.)

In terms of language, to further develop the students’ listening skills, the teachers addressall the three developmental levels of listening (literal, interpretive and critical), providesmore listening practice with input of higher difficulty and trains a wider range of listeningstrategies so that at the completion of the course, students can achieve the objectives

In terms of methodology, the students are expected to be active in self-studying, peer andgroup cooperating They understand the tasks in class and at home as well as in their group-work every week Thus, they can improve their listening skills

3.3 Selecting the population

The subject is carried out from two sources: from 62 third - year students and from 10teachers teaching in the Division of Language Skills Development, Foreign LanguageDepartment, Hong Duc University

Sixty-two students (100% of the third - year students) were selected to participate in thesurvey questionnaire These students were randomly selected to go in for the research Inthis case, 'Cluster random sampling', which means that instead of randomly selecting theindividuals, the researcher randomly selects groups for investigation One advantage of thismethod is that it is convenient for the investigator to observe the participants whocompleted the questionnaires in their classes In this way, hopefully, the participantschosen in the study could be representatives for the rest of the population