Some applications to teaching listening skill for the 12th form students

PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale The more our society develops, the more quickly the process of integration and globalization takes place It can’t be denied that today English is the most widely used language in the world It has been used in all spheres such as external activities, world trade, and science, etc In 2007 Vietnam became the 150 th member of Workld Trade Organization (WTO), it creates both good opportunities and challenges to our country English plays an important role in developing economy, politics, science and technology, etc It is therefore necessary to learn English language However, to master a language is not easy at all Of the four language skills -Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing-that all language learners are supposed to acquire, listening is believed to be the most challenging due to the complex and subtle nature of listening comprehension in L2 or foreign language It takes much time and effort to make progress in this skill At my school, Yen Dinh upper- secondary school, students are often afraid of learning listening lessons for some reasons such as the dull lectures, the unsuitable level lessons, irrelevant strategy listening, unclear sounds in tapes…This leads to their nervousness during listening lessons and they can hardly listen to anything which causes the bad result in learning the listening skill From my experience in teaching English at Yen Dinh school I realized that the well – prepared lesson plans in which teacher simplify the tasks and use strategies helps the students have better results in listening lessons For above-mentioned reasons, I have decided to choose the topic “Some applications to teaching listening skill for the 12 th form students” I hope this will help both teachers and Sts to realize the factors obstacling the students in learning the English listening skill, then find out solutions to this problem Aims and objectives of the study The objectives of this research is to simplify the tasks and use activites in listening lessons in English textbook 12 to have effective lectures, more interested in learning them and develop student’s listening skills The scope of the study In this paper, beacause of our limited time and knowledge, I mention to the theoretical background of listening skill and suggest some applications to teaching listening skills for upper- secondary school students This study is conducted among the 12th form students at Yen Dinh high school during the school year 2018- 2019 Method of the study I use a combination of different methods - Collecting materials: Data are taken from various reference books, which related to listening skill Information sources are also accessed from Internet - Analyzing and synthesizing: Data are analyzed to choose important information about listening skill After that, synthesize them - Consulting our supervisor and other experienced teachers Significance of the study This study may provide insights into the process of learning the listening skill for the students It motivates the students’ desire for learning English, and make them more confident and active in listening activities It also gives some suggestions for other teachers for teaching listening lessons PART B: CONTENTS Chapter I Theoretical background of the listening skill 1.1 What is the listening skill? So far, there have been a number of definitions of listening by different linguists such as Howatt and Dakin (1974); Wolvin and Coakley (1982); Pearson (1983); Howatt and Dakin (1974) defined listening as the ability to identify and understand what others are saying This involves understanding a speaker's accent or pronunciation, his grammar and his vocabulary, and grasping his meaning Wolvin and Coakley (1982) regarded listening "the process of receiving, attending to and assigning meaning to aural stimuli" Pearson (1983) stated “Listening involves the simultaneous organization and combination of skills in Phonology, Syntax, Semantics, and knowledge of the text structure, all of which seem to be controlled by the cognitive process Thus it can be said that though not fully realized, the listening skill is essential in acquiring language proficiency” 1.2 The importance of listening Language skills are often integrated with each other in language use This is true with listening and speaking, so in conversations, two or more people alternate speaking and listening Like reading, listening is a receptive skill where the purpose is to comprehend or understand what someone might be saying or writing It is an important, active skill of spoken language as it involves various kinds of the listener's knowledge: knowledge of phonology, vocabulary, semantics of the language in use, culture of its people, his life, experience in the topic, his ability to predict and respond, etc It decides his comprehension, content and attitude in response to the speaker's speech as well In learning English as a foreign language, students cannot develop speaking listening skills unless they develop listening skills To have a successful conversation, they must understand what is said to them Later on, the ability to understand the native speaker in direct conversations, on the radio or tape may be very important for them to further study the language and communicate in it Finally, listening to spoken language is an important way of acquiring the language or "picking up" vocabulary and structures 1.3 Phases in the listening learning process A listening text may be a short story, dialogue, piece of news, etc Teaching a listening text can be divided into three main stages: pre-listening, while listening, and post-listening Each stage has its own aims and activities 1.3.1 Pre-listening This stage is aimed at preparing students with everything necessary for listening and understanding the listening text Some activities are: Warming up the class: The teacher may motivate the class, gradually setting up a context for the listening text to be presented by asking questions to elicit students' experience, or ideas concerning the coming text or by using some sort of visual aids or their imagination Introducing the topic of the listening text Tile teacher briefly introduces the topic of the listening text so that the students may get their mind ready for it Presenting key words The teacher only presents any word that is necessary for students to understand the text Giving guiding questions: These guiding questions will help focus the students' attention on the main points of the text They will guide the students to the better understanding of the text Students should be allowed to make guesses at the answer to the questions before listening 1.3.2 While-listening The aim of this stage is to facilitate students' listening and check their comprehension While the students are listening to the text for the first time, they can check their guess at and give the correct answer to the guiding questions The teacher then gives the students some tasks to while they are listening for the second time They can some of the activities such as: gap-filling, true or false statements, answering comprehension questions, matching, multiple choice, reordering, etc The students may need to listen to the text more than once so that they can finish their while-listening activities After checking the students' answers, the teacher should emphasize the key points of the text and explain the difficulties in vocabulary or structures that the students encounter while listening Be sure while listening, students are not allowed to look at the tape script of the listening text 1.3.3 Post-listening At this stage, students can have opportunities to practise using what they have got from the listening text Students can such activities as: '  Summarizing the text orally or in written form  Re-telling the content of the listening text  Role play: Students play the roles of the characters in the text  Discussion: Students can discuss the points in the listening text or giving their comments about the information in the text The teacher should make up and vary the activities for students to at this stage depending on their level of English Chapter II Applications to teaching listening skill for the 12th form students Listening skills play an important role in using English to communicate Listening skilss are one of the most difficult skills that an EST/EFT teacher will have to deal with Moreover, the studying of these skills is not of learner’s interests In this chapter, I suggest some activities to make teaching and learning Listening skills more attractive I mention to the use of pictures, games in teaching and learning Listening skills 2.1 Pictures Pictures are illustrations that are cut from magazines, newspapers or other sources They’re mostly photographs, but drawings, collages, maps, or other illustrations can be used for certain activities We can use pictures in three stages of the lesson: presentation, practice, and production They make the lesson more meaningful and interesting When students learn with pictures, they are more creative 2.2 Games Games are highly motivating and competitive because they are amusing and interesting They can be used to give practice in all language skills and be used to practice many types of communication 2.3 Applying suggestions in teaching for 12th form sts I myself have applied these suggestions in teaching Below is one of my lessons in which I have applied some ways to improve the listening ability In the English 12 textbook, most of the listening lessons have pictures to exploit the related contents, some tasks in“ While you listen” are quite relevant, however, there are some lessons have no pictures but have quite difficult tasks, For the limit of my theme I only focus on unit 6, unit as examples and give some suggestions which I find them effective 2.3.1 WARM UP ( minutes) Besides using the pictures, handouts, I prepare some games for this parts (Hangman, brainstorming, who am I …) to save time to lead students to new lessons easily from the start - For example: Unit 6: FUTURE JOBS PERIOD 33: LESSON – LISTENING The purposes of this lesson is to provide listening comprehension about the American work force, the distribution and change of chosen jobs from the past to the future, the topic of this lesson is not easy because the vocabulary is difficult So I “Warm up” as following Game: Puzzles -T divides the class into two groups -T sticks leaves (prepared in advance) on the board -Ss from each group take turns to pick a leaf on the board at random There is a puzzle at the back of each leaf -T lets Ss read out the puzzle to their groups and they have to guess what the job is If the group can’t give the correct answer, the chance is given to the other group -The group with more points is the winner of the game * Expected puzzles: I play music Who am I (musician) I direct traffic at the crossroads (policeman / traffic warden) I fly a plane (pilot) I protect the country (soldier) I travel a lot and show tourists around interesting places (tour guide) I help people when they are sick (doctor) I advise people about the law (lawyer) I keep or check financial accounts (accountants) Lead-in: -Teacher ask students to list some more Beside these jobs, Can you make a list of some other jobs? - Teacher lead students to group jobs + Manufacturing jobs : tailors/ car makers … + Service jobs : seller/ accounting/ transportation … In your opinion, Which is the most popular job in Vietnam? From the answers of students Teacher lead in the topic ►listening lesson today is about the job market in the US Unit 8: LIFE IN THE FUTURE PERIOD 45: LESSON – LISTENING The purposes of this lesson is to provide the listening comprehension about people’s life expectancy in the future The topic is very popular however, students will have difficulties in listening because the vocabulary is unfamiliar and two voices in tapes are similar So I combine pictures and some open questions to lead to the topic -Teacher ask students to answer the question and show some pictures Which of the following factors you think might help people have a long and healthy life? 1) eat vegetables & fruits 2) drink enough water 3) exercises 4) not drink beer or wine 5) not smoke - From the answers of students, teacher lead in the topic ►listening lesson today is about people’s life expectancy in the future 2.3.2 BEFORE YOU LISTEN ( 10 minutes ) This is an important step so as to provide students with some vocabulary and related background and I as follow Unit 6: FUTURE JOBS PERIOD 33: LESSON – LISTENING - From “Warm up” part I have introduced: + Manufacturing jobs : tailors/ car makers … + Service jobs : seller/ accounting/ transportation … I lead students to understanding that manufacturing and service jobs make “ workforce” - I provide the vocabulary vendor/ seller (n) from here I lead students to the words “wholesale” and “retail” Unit 8: LIFE IN THE FUTURE PERIOD 45: LESSON – LISTENING - Activity 1: Pre-teaching vocabulary -T elicits some new words that Ss will hear in the listening exercise + incredible (a) (synonym): fantastic, unbelievable, surprising +centenarian (n) (definition) + fatal (a) (context) Many cures for fatal diseases have been found + eradicate (v) (synonym): eliminate, get rid of + life expectancy (n) (synonym): life span + eternal (a) (synonym): everlasting, never-ending + mushroom (v): (translation) - Activity 2: Checking – Matching -T asks Ss to match the words/phrases with their Vietnamese meaning 2.3.3 WHILE YOU LISTEN ( 25 minutes ) Unit 6: FUTURE JOBS PERIOD 33: LESSON – LISTENING Task in textbook Simplify the task Task 2: Listen again and decide Task 2: Listen again and choose the best whether the statements are true (T) answer or false (F) Statements American workers have T F American worker have changed A from manufacturing jobs to service 10 changed from jobs manufacturing jobs to B from service jobs to manufacturing service jobs jobs Manufacturing jobs are C Into manufacturing jobs jobs in which workers make are jobs in which people something make something or produce things Personal services are one A Service jobs of the five service jobs B Manufacturing jobs 70% of workers produced C personal services goods one hundred years Generally, service jobs are grouped into ago categories 80% of workers will A four work in the service sector One hundred years ago, _ of by the year 2020 workers produced goods A 18 % B three C five B 80% C 30% By the year 2020, workers will work in service jobs A Five out of every ten B Eight out of every ten C Nine out of every ten Expected answers: 1A 2B 3C 4B 5D Unit 8: LIFE IN THE FUTURE PERIOD 45: LESSON – LISTENING Task in textbook Simplify the task Task - Listen again answer the Task - Listen again and choose the best 11 questions answer for the following questions What are factors that help people What are factors that help people have have longer life according to Dr Davis? expectancy longer life expectancy according to Dr Davis? What are factors that help people A eating more meat and vegetables have longer life according to Dr Davis? expectancy B eating more healthily, cutting down on things like butter, alcohol, and cigarettes What does Dr Davis mean when C doing exercise regularly he says the development in medical Which factor is the most important one? science is the most important factor A the development in medical science of all? B the development in technology C the development in food production What does Dr Davis mean when he says the development in medical science is the most important factor of all? A nobody dies from old age B nobody dies from disease C a and b are correct What will we have been able to about AIDS in ten years’ time? A eradicate AIDS B cure AIDS patients C bring AIDS under control AIDS: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome HIV: Human Immunodeficiency Virus Expected answers: 12 1.B A C C 2.3.4 AFTER YOU LISTEN ( minutes) The aim of this part is to check students’ listening comprehension via the speaking skill or writing skill It depends on the lessons and the learners to give suitable tasks In this part, I often give questions to cover the gist of the lesson or make use of the questions in previous tasks for class’ discussion and presentation in front of class Examples: Unit 6: FUTURE JOBS PERIOD 33: LESSON – LISTENING Questions: Which is the main workforce in America? How many categories are grouped in service jobs? As following the prediction, how many percents of workers will work in service jobs? In the future, what kind of job you want to do, manufacturing or service jobs? Give some reasons? Unit 8: LIFE IN THE FUTURE PERIOD 45: LESSON – LISTENING - Work in groups to answer the question: How long will we be able to live in the 21st century according to scientists? How many percent of cancers are curable within 30 years? Expected answers: 130 years old 13 80% 2.4 Result after applying the research Since I applied this research for my teaching at Yen Dinh high school I have got better results: Students increasingly desire listening lessons, they become creative and active in developing their listening skills In the year 2017-2018, I taught 12A8 I didn’t use these applications The number of students who are good at this skill is very low However, in the year 2018- 2019, when I taught 12A11 after using some applications to improve the listening ability, I asked my sts to a mini – listening test The result is very high The result at the end of school year 2017- 2018 (not applied the research) Number Grad e 12A Mark (from Mark (from of to 10) 6.5 to 7.9) Mark (from Mark (from Mark to 6.4) 3.5 to 4.9) (from to SL TL 22,5 % 3.4) SL TL 12,5 Student SL TL 7,5 % 45 SL TL 11 15 % SL TL 17 42,5 % % The result at the end of school year 2018- 2019 (applied the research) Number Mark (from Mark (from Mark (from Grade of to 10) 6.5 to 7.9) Mark Mark to 6.4) (from 3.5 (from to SL TL to 4.9) SL TL 3.4) SL TL Student SL TL SL TL 14 12A11 43 15 % 13 17.5 16 37.5 % 10 % 7,5 % % Part C: CONCLUSION Being one of the teachers of English at Yen Dinh high school, I can see clearly the current situation of learning English here The listening skill is considered the most difficult to achieve among the four skills Therefore, I have conducted this with a view to finding out difficulties encountered by the 12 th form students and helping them have better listening skills Although I have tried best to offer some insightful findings through the study; however, the limitations are unavoidable because of the limitation of our knowledge, time and materials for my studying I hope that this study will benefit teachers and learners in teaching and learning listening skills I have also received much enthusiastic help and encouragement from other teachers as well as my friends Therefore any comments and suggestions will be highly appreciated so that I can perfect my later study Xác nhận thủ trưởng đơn vị Thanh Hoá, ngày 24 tháng 05 năm 2019 Hiệu trưởng CAM KẾT KHÔNG COPY Người thực Nguyễn Đức Hải Lê Thị Liễu 15 REFERENCES Anderson, A & Lynch, T., Listening, OUP, 1998 Brown, G, & Yule, G., Teaching Spoken English, CUP, 1983a Nunan, D., Language Teaching Methodology, Prentice Hall International (UK) Ltd, 1991 Steil, L et al, Effective Listening, Mc Graw Hill, Inc 1983 Underwood, M., Teaching Listening, Longman, 1989 Wardhaugh, R., An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1986 Adler, R., Rosenfeld, L and Proctor, R.(2001) Interplay: the process of interpersonal communicating Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Anderson, A & Lynch, T (1988) Listening Oxford University Press Wolvin and Coakley (1988) Interpersonal Communication Through the Life Span Wm C Brown Publishers 10 Bacon, S M (1989) Listening for real in the foreign-language classroom Foreign Language Annals, 22, 543-551 11 Bentley, S., & Bacon, S E (1996) The all new, state-of-the-art ILA definition of listening: Now that we have it, what we with it? Listening Post 12 Burley-Allen, M (1982) Listening: The forgotten skill New York, John Wiley and Sons 16 13 Bloomfield, A., Brecht, R., et al (2011) Assessing Regional Proficiency (Report TTO81234 7.1) College Park, MD: University of Maryland Center for Advanced Study of Language 14 Carrell, P L., & Eisterhold, J C (1983) Schema theory and ESL reading TESOL Quarterly, 17, 218–232 WEBSITES http://www.tefl.net/teaching/teaching-tip_09.htm http://esl.fis.edu/learners/advice/vocab.htm http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/listening/stratlisten.htm SGV, SGK Bộ GD - ĐT Sách “ Một số vấn đề đổi phương pháp dạy học bậc THPT môn tiếng Anh Bộ GD-ĐT Tài liệu tập huấn đổi phương pháp môn tiếng Anh 10 Danh mục đề tài SKKN mà tác giả hội đồng cấp Sở GD & ĐT đánh giá loại C: “Modal Verbs in expressing advice, permission and offer and some applications to teaching Modal Verbs” năm học 2016- 2017 17 ... II Applications to teaching listening skill for the 12th form students Listening skills play an important role in using English to communicate Listening skilss are one of the most difficult skills... guess at and give the correct answer to the guiding questions The teacher then gives the students some tasks to while they are listening for the second time They can some of the activities such... points of the text They will guide the students to the better understanding of the text Students should be allowed to make guesses at the answer to the questions before listening 1.3.2 While-listening