Title of the subject some useful methods to motivate students in listening skill

With this in mind,I decide to conduct a study on effective tecniques to improve listening skill for students of Le Hoan High School.I do hope that this study can help students better the

Table of contents Page

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1. Reason for choosing the study 2

1.2 The aim of study 2

1.3 The scope of the study 3

1.4. Methods of the study 3

1.5. Design the study 3

2 DEVELOPMENT 3

2.1 Reasons for motivating students in listening lessons 3

2.1.1 Students’ anxiety in listening lessons 2.1.2 Motivation 2.2 The reality of the taching and learning the listening skill 7

2.2.1 An overview of listening 2.2.2 Learner problems in listening comprehension 2.2.3 Stages of listening lesson 2.3 Some effective techniques to motivate students to listen to EEnglish 11 2.3.1 Improving the teaching process 2.3.2 Designing suitable tasks 2.3.3 Developing listening materials 2.3.4 Suggestion for adapting listening activities in the textbook of English 10 2.4 The effectiveness of the research on education activties, with oneself, colleagues and schools 17

3 CONCLUSION 18

4 REFERENCES 19

1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Reason for choosing the study

The ability to communicate in a foreign language is the greatest desire of the language learners and it is admitted that to be a language competent comunicator,the students need to master all the four language skills: listening,speaking,reading ,writing

At high school level,it can be conceded that most of the class time is spent

on learning grammar and vocabulary which are believed to be more important than the mastery of the four skills.Both the teachers and the students pay more attention

to exam-oriented language so not enough attention has been paid to skills especially listening skill.However,it is time for teachers to realize that improving leaners’communicating skills is crucial as we should prepare them for era of globalization and integration.Also,when chances for overseas study are open for all learners,the requirement for learning language for communication is higher than before

From informal interviews and short questionnaire,we have found out that most students at Le Hoan High School level have not enough time for language skills acquisition.More obviously,they have not paid due attention to and do not like listening skill because this skill was so challenging that the students often feel tired when learning.However,students also admit that language skill are very important to them and they study listening skill in order to communicate more effectively

It is students’desire that drives me to find out the best ways to help students

to master listening skill and I believe that the acquisition of this receptive skill can performance of others

With this in mind,I decide to conduct a study on effective tecniques to improve listening skill for students of Le Hoan High School.I do hope that this study can help students better their English learning and especially the learning of listening skill

1.2 The aim of study.

The study aim at:

- Finding out the students’ perception about listening

- Investigating major difficulties faced by the tenth form English major students of Le Hoan High School

-Giving solutions to the encountered problems

1.3 The scope of the study

The study limits itself of finding out the difficulties in learning listening skill

of Le Hoan students.The criteria for the writers to compile the supplementary listening materials are largely based on the objectives set in the book designed for the 10th form students of Nha Xuat Ban Giao Duc

1.4 Methods of the study.

The following methods are employed to collect data for the study:

- Improving the teaching process

- Designing suitable tasks

- Developing listening materials

1.5 Design the study

The study is divided into three parts:

*Introduction presents the rationale,aims,scope,methods,significance and design of the study

* Development consists of

-Reasons for motivating students in listening lessons

-Teaching and learning the listening skill

- Some effectives techniques to motivate students to listen to English

* Conclusion summarizes all the the obtained results and includes suggestions for further study

2 DEVELOPMENT 2.1 Reasons for motivating students in listening lessons

2.1.1 Students’ anxiety in listening lessons.

It is widely accepted that listening comprehension is not only an essential skill but a requirement for oral proficiency as well Most learners of English as a foreign language experience considerable difficulties in listening comprehension,and these difficulties appearto be main causes of anxiety which should be taken into consideration.In order not to make students motivated in listening lessons,

Until recently,many foreign language studies have been conducted to find out the specific factors which can help motivate or distract students during the listening lesson

According to Underwood (1989) ,seven problems learners may encounter when learning to listen : fast speed ;unrepeated thing; the learners’ limited vocabulary ; failure to recognise the “ signals” ;interpretation ; concentrate ; and learning habit Underwood (1989) sees these prrolems as being related to learners’ different background such as their culture and education

Brown and Yule (1983) propose four main groups of factors including the speaker (speech rate,varied accent), the listener, the content (vocabulary, grammar, background and knowledge), and support (whether there are the pictures,diagrams visual aids, etc.) can cause difficulty in listening comprehension Yagang (1994) attributes the difficulty of listening comprehension to four sources : the message, the speaker, the listener and the physical setting (or listening environment)

I also believe that these four sources could make my students more and more nervous and anxious while listening to the target language.It is necessary to help them to reduce their stress while listening

2.1.2 Motivation

a The importance of the students’motivation

Because motivation is not only a vital but also a highly complex factor determining more or less successful language learning,it is necessary to examine approaches to motivation in learning in order to bring about better insights into it Over the years there have been in number able studies on motivation in foreign and second language learning.In these studies,researchers have attempted

to explain what is meant by moivation

Keller (1984) (quoted in Ellis,1994) sees ‘interest’ is one of the major

components of mtivation,defining it as “ a possitive reponse a stimuli based on

existing cognitive structures in such a way that learners’curiosity is aroused and sustained”.

However most of the studies on motivation in foregn and second language

learning have been influenced by the worker of Gardner (1985) (quoted in Spolsky,1998),who defines motivation as consisting of effort,plus desire to achieve the goal of learning,plus favourable attitude towards learning the language

Another theory on motivation can be seen from Littlewood’s respective

(1998) that “in second language learning as in every other field of human

learning,motivation is a crucial force which determines whether a learner embarks

on a task at all,how much energy he devotes to it,and how long he perseveres.It is

a complex phenomenon and includes many components:the individual’s drive,need for achievement and success,curiosity,desire for stimulation and new experience,and so on”.

Apparently,Littlewood, not only highlighting the important role of

motivation in the second language learnning but emphasizing the “highly complex

construct” of motivation claimed that if a learner is motivated she will probably

decide to undertake a particular task with a curtain amount of energy and time needed for it

Furthermore,McKay and Tom (1992) point out that the need to communicate with other in new language provide strong motivation for most learners

Leaners’ motivation can change overtime and effect on their language learning Variuos studies have found that motivation in strongly related to success

in language learning

Gardner (1985) (qouted in Spolsky,1998) sums up “……it seems clear

that achievement in a second language learning is influenced by motivational characteristics.Postulating that achievement in a second language learning is promoted by an integrative motive is not tantamount to saying that this is only cause or predictor”.

However, many researcher findings shows that successful learning can enhance motivation, and the relationship between learning achievement and motivation is an interactive one

b Classification of motivation

In general,according to Lewis (2007),motivation can be categorized into two main kinds:Extrinsic motivation and Intrinsic motivation

Extrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from outside an individual.The motivation factors are external,or outside,such as rewards.These rewards provide satisfaction and pleasure

Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from insides an individual rather than fro any external or outside reward.The motivation comes from the pleasure one gets from the task itself or from the sense of satisfaction in completing or even working on a task.Learners who are intrinsically motivated want to learn for the sake of learning

It is obvious that intrinsic motivation is more important and teachers should try to include it in their teaching process

In particular, according to Scrivener (1994) ,learners’motivation can be identified as follows:

Exams and grades Class goals

Parents Amount of control on lesson content/activities

Peer pressure “Face”(how they are perceived by others)

Relationships Self-esteem

Gender/gender ratio Age(younger and older teens)

Class contract Time of day

Exams and grades: certain school,parents and teachers,as well as cultures,can

place a lot of emphasis on the results of tests.As such,these can have a large role to play in learner motivation or can place a lot of stress on learners who may think certain activities are not useful to do in class because they are not in exam format-why waste time in “game –style” activities when test are near

Parents: learners can be assisted by parents and encouraged ormalternatively,their

parents may think language are not important,and may provide little support at home with homework and building confidence

Peer presure: dependent on cultures as well as the age of leaner.If placed next to

“funny” or “ talkative” leaners,others may also become distracted-equally this can also assist when other leaners are motivated and keen,it can used to create a more productive atmosphere –madels or goals to aim for( to be as good as person A)

“Face” : (how they are perceived in the classroom by others) –If leaners are keen

and motivated they may be teased by other learners.Correcting learners in front of their peers can be embarrassing and care should be taken over how and when this

is done.This can also be affected by age and gender-as they become more self-aware and self-aware of the opposite sex

Self-esteem: this can also be affected by correction techniques,as well as how

much praise is given when they contribute in class and take part in activities and book work – no one like to be continuously told they are not as good at something.You must also remember to give the praise for the small things as well-interaction with others,sharing,taking turns,etc as this has an effect on classroom dynamics and group/pair work

Relationships: (between learners as well as the teachers)-Team or pair work could

be difficult to set up between opposite genders and between groups of

“friends”.Leaners may also be less inclined to speak if the teacher is listening – they need to be familiar with the teacher monitoring regularly and closely and therefore become more accustomed to it

Gender/gender ratio: as leaners develop,both genders go through a lot of

hormanal and physical changes.Awareness of their body and how they look,awareness of the opposite sex,how they interact with adults-are a few areas that can affect how they act in class.Gender ratio may also affect class motivation.A higher ratio of one gender may be more difficult due to socializing and the minority gender may feel more self-concious or isolated

Age: younger and older teens,young teens being similar to kids and old teens like

adults-younger learners may be less self –conscience and teaching may need to be more game-like and activities changed regularly to keep interest,while with other learners the opposite may be true.More in depth analysis of language is possible with older teens-may be not so with younger learners,who have difficulty with abstract concepts

Amount of control on lesson content/activities: if given the opportunity to

choose topics and activity types ,motivation can change for the better Learners are more likely to talk about things they are interested in,and have more to say.They may also be more inclined to ask about,extend and try to remember vocabulary related to such topic

Class goals : especially if the whole class is held accountable for not completing

tasks/taking part fully in lessons or homework-with punishments given to the whole class for class goals not met! Care should be taken that peer pressure does not turn into bullying.These can be agreed and set up with contribution from the whole class and teacher-so it comes from al members and is not just teacher controlled

Class contracts: similar to class goals,cotracts can be agreed upon in the first few

lessons.Leaners are aware of what is expected of them and they can also have input into what is expected of the teacher,e.g.If all learners complete tasks to a high standard they will be rewarded with “game” activities they like.It can be displayed

on the wall of the classroom so it can be referred to when needed

Time of day: If the lesson is at the end of the day,they may be less likely to

concentate due to tiredness.If is just before lunch,they may have low motivation due to hunger.After lunch or sports,they may be more excited and have more energy.In the morning,they may be difficult to motivate,again,due to tiredness

2.2 Teaching and learning the listening skill.

2.2.1 An overview of listening

a Definition

It seems to be difficult to define what listening is.Through years, variuos definitions of listening have been proposed.Listening is more than merely hearing words.It is claimrd to be a complex and active process

Howatt and Dakin (1974) define listening as the ability to identify and

understand what others are saying This involves understanding a speaker’s accent

or pronounciation,his grammar and vocabulary,and grasping his meaning.An able listener is capable of doing these four things stimultanously

b Classificationof listening.

According to Ur (1996) listening can be divided into real – life listening and classroom listening Many learners of English find themselves in variety of situations where they need or want to listen to English being used in real – life for different purposes.There is, however, a big gap between listening activities in the classroom and actual listening situation in real life This is because listening materials which learners ussually listen to (dialogues or conversation for example)

are very grammatically and controlled in so many ways as the speakers often speak

at perfectly controlled speed,with perfect voice tone,accent and correct grammar.Whereas, in real-life conversations,different people speak with different accents, speed and voice tones without or less paying attention to grammar

 Real – life listening

In real – life ,there are two ways in which we often listen:

- Casual listening

Sometimes,we listening with no particular purpose in mind,often without much concentration.Usually,we do not listen very closely,unless we hear something that particularly interests us,and afterwards,we may not remember much

of what we hear,for example,listen to the radio while chatting to a friend

- Focused listening

Someties, we listen for a particular purpose to find out information we need

to know or to study the language In this situation,we listen much more closely,trying to get the content as much as we can,for example,listening to your friend explaining how to use a new cassette player

 Classroom listening

Listening on the classroom may be divided into intensive listening and extensive listening

* Intensive listening

Intensive listening is the careful,focused listening to a short passage for full,detailed comprehension,for example,listening to a dialogue on the tape to study its structures,intonation patterns in an English class

In the classroom context,there are two possible types of intensive listening exercises:

a)Exercises focusing on detailed comprehension of meaning

This can be done through

+ Comprehension quetionss which may be :

-Factual ( where the answer is clearly stated somewhere in the passage) -Inferential (where the learner has to make some sort of connection for himself)

-Personal (where the question is related to the learner’s own experience or opinion)

+Summary questions(where the learner listens to a passage and has to summarize it)

+ Logical problems

b)Intensive listening for language

Teacher often do more detailed work on language once the learners can understand what they are listening to

* Extensive listening

Extensive listening is the freer,more general listening to natural language for

a general idea,not for a particular detail and not necessarily under the teacher’s direct guidance.With this type of listening,the learner is not reinforcing a structure

or practicing a grammar point linked to the rest of the course.Extensive exercises are those where the learner is primarily concerned with following a story ,or finding something out from the passage he is listening to

In summary ,to a large text ,however, the division between intensive and extensive listening is somewhat artificial Listening does not lend itself neatly to this type of classification in the way that reading does.It is perfectly easy to use the same listening passage for both extensive and intensive listening

c The importance of listening

As mentioned before ,listening 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 foreign language,the learner can not develop speaking skill unless he develops listening skill.To have a successful conversation,He must understand what is said to him.Later on,the ability to understand the native speaker in direct conversations,on the radio or tape may be very important for him to further study the language and communicate in it

Besides ,listening to spoken language is an important way of acwuiring the language –of “picking up” structures ,vocabulary.In the Vietnamese situation where the learners do not have a chance to hear English spoken around them every day and can not acquire it easily the teachers need to give them as much opportunity to listen to spoken English on the as possible

To conclude ,listening provides a foundation for all aspects of language and cognitive development.It can be said to be not only the end but also the means of teaching,learning languages in general and English in particular

2.2.2 Learner problems in listening comprehension

It can’t be denied that listening is considered to be the most difficult among the four skills Many learners have difficulties with different aspects of listening comprehension These difficulties are closely associated with the characteristics of spoken language

Underwood (1990) identifies seven potential problems learners often encounter in their learning listening

 Inability to control the speed of the speakers : Many students of English can

not keep up with the speed at which a speaker speaks They often try to understand everything they hear When they fail in sorting out the meaning

of one part, the following will be missed This can lead to the ignorance of the whole chunk of discourse Obviously they fail to listen

 Inability to get things repeated: Another difficulty connected with

controlling the “input” (what the speaker says ) is that the learner os not always in a position to get the speaker to repeat an utterance

 Vocabulary limitation: Listeners have to try their best to follow the speakers

and sometimes to guess the meaning of a word or phrase from its contents Native listeners can guess the meaning with the help of context clues,but for foreign learners,a new word can be a barrier which makes them stop and think about the meaning of the word and thus makes them miss the next part of speech

 Problems of interpretation: Problems of interpretation can also hinder

communication.Students who are unfamiliar with the context may have difficulty in interpreting the words they hear.And the listeners from other cultures can easily misinterpret the meaning of non-verbal clues – facial expression ,nods,gestures,tone of voice…

 Inability to concentrate: Even the shortest break in listening can seriously

effect comprehension.Therefore,lack of concentration is a major problem.Students will concentrate easily if they find the topic interesting or familiar.If they make enormous effort to follow what they hear word by word,the listening work will be tiring.Such factors as equipment,poor recording,unacoustically suitable rooms for the use of recorded material can also make concentration difficult

 Establish learning habits : Teachers often teach student to understand

everything in the English lesson by repeating and pronoucing words carefully Students can form the habit of listening word by word from this teaching method of teachers So when they fail to understand a particular word or phase,they will be worried and become discouraged by their lack of success.This habit will cause a lot of difficulties when the learners deal with real-life listening situations

2.2.3 Stages of listening lesson

Normally language teachers often facilitate the development of listening skill by creating listening lessons that guide learners through three stages : pre-listening ,while-pre-listening and post-pre-listening

a Pre –listening stage

It is widely accepted that this stage is conducted before learners listen to the text “The pre-listening phase is a kind of preparatory work which ought to make the context explicit,clarify purposes and establish roles ,procedures and goals for listening”( Rost,1991:232).Thus it main aim is to contextualize the listening text,providing any information needed to help learners appreciate the setting and the role relationships between participants

b While-listening stage

While – listening stage activities can be shortly defined as all tasks that students are asked to do during the time of listening to the text The nature of these activites is to help learners to listen for meaning that is to elicit a message from spoken language