Applying the “questioning” technique at the pre listening stage to motivate the 11th form students at nong cong 3 high school

TABLE OF CONTENTS I INTRODUCTION I.1 Rationale I.2 Aims of the study I.3 Scope of the study I.4 Methodology I.4.1 Participants of the study I.4.2 Methods of the study II LITERATURE REVIEW II.1.Theoretical background II.1.1 Theory on listening II.1.2 Types of listening process II.1.3 Stages of a listening lesson II.1.4 Pre-listening phase and the role of pre-listening techniques II 1.4.1 Pre-listening phase II.1.4.2 The role of pre-listening techniques II.1.5 The “Questioning” technique II.1.6 Textbook adaptation II.1.6.1 Definitions of textbook adaptation II.1.6.2 Why and how to adapt textbooks II.1.6.3 Reasons for textbook adaptation II.1.6.4 Methods of adapting II.2 Practical background: Factors that hinder students’ performance in listening lessons and teachers’ task at Nong Cong School II.2.1 The teachers’ and students’ problems II.2.2 Some limitations of the Tieng Anh 11 text book II.3 Solutions to the problems II.4 An overview of listening sections in the book “Tieng Anh 11” II.5 Application of “Questioning” technique in some listening sections in the textbook “Tieng Anh II.6 Results III CONCLUSION III.1 Summary of the study III.2 Limitations and Recommendations for further study REFERENCES PAGE 2 3 3 4 4 5 7 7 8 9 10 10 13 21 22 22 22 24 I INTRODUCTION I.1 Rationale The acquisition of listening skills in a foreign language is a priority for millions of learners in Vietnam This is understandable as teaching English in Vietnam aims to provide the students with the abilities to understand written materials What is more, English is taught and learned in a non- native environment so listening is not only an important means to gain knowledge but also a means by which further study takes place According to Carrell (1984) [1], for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four macro skills, particularly in English as a second or a foreign language This is also true to the 11th form non- English majors at Nong Cong high school because the listening skill offers them a wide range of interesting information as well as a variety of language expressions and structures, which are of great usefulness for developing other skills Among the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, listening is the most difficult There are various reasons for this: students’ background knowledge, their limited reservoir of vocabulary and structures, their lack of preparations for the task, etc (Boyle, 1984) [5] Many students have associated listening courses with pain and boredom and usually complain that they benefit little from listening lessons Therefore, it is necessary for teachers of English language to realize the importance of how to make listening classes more interesting and know how to motivate students so that they can make progress and feel interested in listening comprehension In teaching and learning of listening skill, motivation is of great usefulness and importance It is easy to assume that if students are enhanced, especially from the first minutes of the listening lesson, their listening tasks can be completed more successfully However, creating a motivated learning environment for students in a students’ needs, interests, feelings, teachers’ listening techniques, the topic of the text, the text type For the teachers at Nong Cong gifted school, they also have to take such things into consideration to increase the students’ motivation for listening with the hope of helping them to improve their listening skills It stands to reason that a good pre-listening stage can arouse the students’ interests in reading as well as can provide them some language preparation, which can be helpful clues to their listening comprehension It is also evident that exploiting pre-listening techniques effectively for this stage is challenging for teachers because they have to take things into account such as the objectives of the lesson, the settings, the students’ needs, etc when delivering the techniques For the 11th form non- English majors at Nong Cong school, the listening with the ultimate goal is to help them to increase the listening skills In spite of the teachers’ effort, the students’ motivation is sometimes low and the listening lesson is said to be boring This issue has brought the author a desire to conduct a research study named “Applying the “questioning” technique at the pre-listening stage to motivate the 11 th form students at Nong Cong High School” In this study, I would like to introduce the “questioning technique” to encourage students’ interest in listening lessons and assist them in performing the listening tasks in the next stage more easily I.2 Aims of the study The study aims at: - facilitate students’ process of learning listening skill - giving some suggestions for implementing “questioning” techniques to motivate the 11th students at the first stage in some listening sections of the book ‘Tieng Anh 11’ I.3 Scope of the study The study only focuses on introducing the technique of “questioning” through linguistic data given in the pre-listening stage and based on listening contents in the textbook Tieng Anh 11 of the 11th form 11th students at Nong Cong school From that, some models are given for teachers to improve teaching listening skills and to motivate their students in and beyond the selected context I.4 Methodology I.4.1 Participants of the Study The study was carried out with the participation of 125 11 th form students from three classes 11A3, 11A4, 11A6 which are mainly specialized in mathematics, physics and chemistry respectively The students under investigation are in the second term of grade 11 Their ages are between 16 or 17 They come from many communes of Nong Cong district and were selected after an entrance exam in Mathematics, Literature and English The reason why I chose these students is that these classes have been assigned with a relatively equal proportion of good, average and poor English proficiency students and these classes are at different levels of English Moreover, it is convenient for me to observe these students who completed the questionnaires in their classes Hopefully, the students selected in this study could be representatives for the 11th form non - English majors at Nong Cong high school I.4.2 Method of the Study In order to achieve the goal of the study, which was to encourage students’ interest in listening through the “questioning” technique, a questionnaire survey and small interviews are chosen for this research II LITERATURE REVIEW II.1.Theoretical background II.1.1 Theory on listening There are different points of view on the definition of listening: Listening is an invisible mental process, making it difficult to describe Listeners must discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, interpret stress and intention, retain and interpret this within the immediate as well as the larger socio-cultural context of the utterance (Field, 1998, p.38) Anderson and Lynch (1988,p.21) defines listening in a simpler way: Listening comprehension means to understand what a speaker says: the listener has a crucial part to play in the process by activating various types of knowledge, by applying what he knows to what he hears and trying to understand what the speaker means [2] All in all, listening involves a multiplicity of skills It is a complex, active process of interpretation in which listeners match what they hear with what they already know II 1.2 Types of listening process Researchers agree that in listening, there are two simultaneous and complementary ways of processing a text: top-down processing and bottom-up processing In bottom-up processing, learners rely on their linguistic knowledge to recognize linguistic elements- vowels, consonants, words, sentences to the construction of meaning They build meaning from lower level sounds to words, from grammatical relationships to lexical meanings in order to arrive at the final message In top-down processing, learners use their prior knowledge to make predictions about the text Listening comprehension is not either top-down or bottom-up processing, but an interactive, interpretive process where listeners use both prior knowledge and linguistic knowledge in understanding messages The degree to which listeners use the one process or the other will depend on their knowledge of the language, familiarity with the topic or the purpose for listening Therefore, teachers need to help students organize their thoughts, to activate appropriate background knowledge for understanding and to make predictions, to prepare for listening This significantly reduces the burden of comprehension for the listener II.1.3 Stages of a listening lesson It is a common knowledge that a listening consists of three important stages: pre-listening, white-listening and post-listening Obviously, each stage has its own characteristics and tim allocation  Pre-listening stage The stage is carried out before the students begin listening to the texts Obviously, it plays an essential part in the whole process of a listening lesson The purposes of the pre-listening stage are: - To introduce and arouse interest in the topic - To motivate learners by giving a reason for listening - To provide some language preparation for the text Normally, pre-listening phase often lasts from two to ten minutes depending on each lesson Before delivering activities for this stage, the teacher needs to take the objectives of the lesson, the situation of teaching and learning, the students’ needs into account  While- listening stage While-listening stage is the main part of a listening lesson with the following specific aims: - To help understanding of the writer’s purpose - To help understanding of the listening structure - To clarify listening contents The teacher, at the while- listening stage, needs to help their students comprehend the text thoroughly while the students have to apply to the best their listening skills to understand the text as well as the writer’ purposes conveyed through the listening text Apparently, time allocation for this is nearly two thirds of the whole lesson  Post-listening stage It is the last step of a listening lesson so it is the time for students’ production What they produce will reflect how well they comprehend the text The post-listening stage is aimed at consolidating or reflecting upon what has been read and relating the text to the learners’ own knowledge, interests or views’ Normally, it takes ten or fifteen minutes to complete all activities at this stage To conclude, these above-mentioned stages are essential for a listening lesson Additionally, it is not necessary to carry out all these stages mechanically on every occasion However, being aware of the benefits of the pre-listening stage the researcher intends to explore more about it II.1.4 Pre-listening phase and the role of pre-listening techniques II 1.4.1 Pre-listening phase This phase is carried before students begin listening A “before – listening” activity needs to be short - five or ten minutes However, it depends on each lesson Before doing activities for this phase, the teacher needs to take into account the objectives of the lesson, the situation of teaching and learning and the student’s needs The purposes of the pre-listening phase are: - To introduce and arouse interest in the topic - To promote an active and flexible learning environment - To help increase learners’ motivation for learning - To motivate learners by giving a reason for listening - To provide some language preparation for the text II.1.4.2 The role of pre-listening techniques In fact, it is difficult to ask students to listen to the tape straight away Without doing any activities before listening, students will certainly feel discouraged As a result, the passive attitude will keep students from making progress in listening comprehension These activities play an important role in the whole process of teaching listening Broughter (1978) [6] emphasizes that pre-listening techniques keep students’ interest in learning and therefore, improve their language competence The pre-listening phase is considered to be good if: - The students are provided with language items necessary to understand the listening text - The students are interested in the topic and eager to explore it Actually, the teacher can employ various techniques to organize the prelistening stage such as: - giving a brief introduction of the listening text - giving pre-listening questions - predicting the content of the listening text - explaining the instructions of the text - using a brainstorming web However, from my experience, pre-listening questions or guiding questions are the most necessary and easily-used because they give the students “a reason to listen and to arise their desire for listening” However, guiding questions should be concerned with the general meaning or with the most important points of the listening text More importantly, pre-listening questions should be fairly easy to answer and not too long II.1.5 The “Questioning” technique Pre- questions help students understand the text by focusing attention on key words and ideas They are also intended to indicate the basic structure of the text, and help students’ anticipation Actually, asking students questions will make them think about the topic before they listen By doing so, students can build on their prior knowledge and at the same time, use vocabulary and structures that are connected with a particular function Questioning activity can much in listening classes such as creating a relaxing atmosphere between the teacher and the students, building the students’ confidence and having the thrill of something spontaneous Above all, it makes students feel interested and gets them involved in the coming listening activities II.1.6 Textbook adaptation II.1.6.1 Definitions of textbook adaptation There are many ways to definite “textbook adaptation” According to Ellis,M (1986:47) [3] “Adaptation is the process of retaining, rejecting, reordering and modification” Meanwhile, Tomlinson (1998:58) [7] considered adaptation as the process of reducing, adding, omitting, modifying and supplementing All in all, adapting textbook activities is not just something teachers should as the need arises but also to arouse the interest from students of different levels II.1.6.2 Why and how to adapt textbooks II.1.6.2.1 Reasons for textbook adaptation Once teachers have accepted the idea that they can make changes to the text, the decision to change has to be made based on the content of each activity While the objective of an activity may be important for students, its presentation might be too simple or uninteresting for them Of course, care is required before making major changes to textbooks, since doing so could undermine the studentteacher relationship Students might, for example, question the teachers’ judgment or resent paying for a textbook that is not fully used Thus, deciding wisely whether to use an activity (and if so, to use it as is or to modify it) or not to use it (and then whether to simply omit the activity or replace it with another) is the key to good textbook adaptation Furthermore, if a decision has been made to adapt an activity to better meet the needs of a particular classroom, the teacher must have and be able to articulate a clear idea why the material in the text needs to be made better Among the reasons McGrath (2002) [8] offers teachers to consider when they are contemplating adaptation of material are the following: 1• To localize it, by replacing a Western setting or context with local or regional ones that let students focus more on language objectives, rather than on the culture (e.g., preview a lesson on city life by showing and discussing with students a photo of a local police officer before they read a text centered on a British one) 2• To personalize it, by devising examples and activities that relate directly to students, ones that reflect their academic or professional interests and let them use their life experience and learned knowledge (e.g., help students create menus in English featuring their favorite local dishes before they read a text focusing on a Western restaurant menu) 3• To modernize it, by updating language or cultural settings that seem out of date (e.g., read aloud or have students read a recent article in English on a work-related issue, such as the use of mobile phones in the workplace, from an online news source or local newspaper before they listen to a dialogue set in a conventional office) 4• To simplify it, by streamlining procedures to make activities more accessible (e.g., edit texts to reduce linguistic difficulty or break down complex tasks into more manageable pieces) II.1.6.2.2 Methods of adapting Any of the above aims can be useful in determining why to customize textbook lessons; however, a teacher must also decide how to adapt an activity, which can be especially difficult when time and resources are scarce Followings are the techniques to adapt textbook: 1• Re-ordering parts of a lesson or lessons within a unit Example: If many students in the class find the reading exercises difficult, start with the lesson’s listening activity to introduce key ideas and vocabulary before they begin the reading 1• Reducing by cutting out activities that are not necessary for learners to achieve the lesson’s objectives For example: When doing in-class exercises on what is usually considered a difficult grammar point, such as using relative clauses as modifiers, move on before completing all of the exercises if the class already “gets it” and doesn’t need further practice 1• Adding more practice or other activities For example: If, unlike in the situation above, students are struggling with relative clauses, create simple activities (e.g., have students work in groups to use relative clauses to write and share descriptions of important people or places in the community) 1• Re-writing or replacing material with Internet-based or “home-grown” resources For example: After students skim a textbook reading on transport that describes subway systems around the world, help them use the format of the article to write their own articles on the use of motor taxis, and trucks as means of public transport II.2 Practical background: Factors that hinder students’ performance in listening lessons and teachers’ task at Nong Cong school II.2.1 The teachers’ and students’ problems Most of the teachers are willing and enthusiastic towards their teaching However, they all meet some difficulties when teaching at the school First, the teachers not have enough materials, which are very necessary for both the teachers and students at a specialized school where the requirement and the demand is bigger than at any other school The second difficulty is that the teachers not have chances to contact with native speakers or specialists who can give very precious help and advice Therefore, the teachers may become less active and to some extent, the students are bored with their way of teaching It’s very necessary to find out how far the students’ are satisfied with their lessons and then give some recommendations and suggestions on the teachers’ way of teaching The school has about 1000 students who range from fifteen to eighteen They have three periods of English per week and each period lasts only 45 minutes which is rather short The problem is that most of the students don’t have a good command of English and this number of students is the majority Meanwhile some other students are very excellent at English Therefore, it’s very difficult for the teachers to make a balance in teaching these classes As a result, some of the students are not satisfied with their lessons There are also many other reasons why students find listening difficult Students not have large enough vocabulary nor sufficient grasp of the structures of English for the materials they are listening to Another trouble that influences students’ motivation is their background knowledge What’s more, one of the most common fear students have is that not understanding a word will keep them from understanding the meaning of a sentence Finally, exercises in the listening classroom may also increase students’ anxiety They may feel a pressure, whether internal or external, to get the right answer immediately For students, especially the students in a rural school with a low level of proficiency, their main problem in learning listening is that they cannot fulfill a listening task themselves without the help of the teachers Their lack of background knowledge prevents them from finding suitable ideas and forms for different types of listening Furthermore, they are confused in understanding vocabulary and grammatical structures during listening lessons They also lack the skill of listening These causes make many of the students feel bored with learning listening skill and consider it a very difficult skill to master II.2.2 Some limitations of the Tieng Anh 11 text book [1] The Tieng Anh 11 textbook consists of 16 units organized broad topic: friendship, personal experiences, a party, volunteer work, illiteracy, competitions, world population, celebrations, the post office, nature in danger, sources of energy, the Asian Games, hobbies, recreation, space conquest, the wonders of the world Each unit is divided into parts: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language Focus The teacher only covers one of the above five parts in each period After every three units, there is a TEST YOURSELF, which provides some exercises for the students to in order to test how good they are at English The listening texts in TIENG ANH 11 are various Many of them are not very difficult at all and the topics are very interesting (Unit Friendship, Unit Personal experiences, Unit A party, Unit Competitions, Unit Celebrations, Unit 12 The Asian Games, Unit 13 Hobbies, Unit 14 Recreation) However, some listening texts are difficult and have too many new words, which can sometimes not be covered within a period of only 45 minutes They are unit 4, 5, 10, 11 and 12 focusing on such topics as volunteer work, illiteracy, nature in danger, sources of energy and the Asian Games respectively All listening lessons are designed with pre-listening activities, while- listening activities and post- listening activities Most pre-listening activities are “using pictures and questionnaires to introduce the topic” or combining two of these However, some questions are either difficult or unsuitable to the topic of the listening lessons Regardless of the fact that questions given in the textbook are in such few number that students find it difficult to take an interest in the lesson Therefore, it is necessary for all the teachers to organize, arrange and apply some new activities to avoid boredom in the classroom In one word, it is obvious that there still exist the problems originated from the teaching and learning process in reality mentioned above However, these problems can be solved to make the listening sections easier for both teachers and students by applying the techniques of adaptation made by the teachers’ flexibility II.3 Solutions to the problems In this part, I would like to suggest the adaptation of pre-listening activities in some sections by raising useful and topic-focused questions from which such items as vocabulary, grammatical structures, the contents of the listening text can be exploited and employed for the main listening task Instructing students how to listen, providing them with everything necessary for their listening after questioning makes the listening task much easier for students to carry out From my practical teaching experience, applying the technique of questioning is one of suitable, easily-used and convenient solutions to reduce the difficulties encountered in teaching listening to students in a mixed- level class In addition, this technique can be used during all three stages of teaching and normally teachers can reuse these effective pre- questions in the post-listening 10 phase as a key tool in guiding their students to summarize their lesson Last but not least, it doesn’t take much time to design and to deliver as well as it is not difficult to handle Therefore, despite its popularity and somewhat boredom, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages II.4.1 An overview of listening sections in the book “Tieng Anh 11” Table 4.1 Check list of writing tasks in the Textbook “Tieng Anh 11”[1] Units Required tasks Questions in prelistening stage Unit Monologue: Available, suitable Friendship - Deciding on True or False statements - Listening and taking notes Unit Dialogue: No questions Personal experiences - Deciding on True or False statements - Gap-filling Unit A party Monologue: Available but not - Deciding on True or False enough statements - Comprehension questions Unit Monologue: Volunteer work - Gap-filling No questions - Comprehension questions Unit Monologue: Illiteracy - Extensive listening: multiplechoice questions Available - Comprehension questions Unit Competitions Monologue: Available but not - Deciding on True or False enough statements - Comprehension questions Unit World population Monologue: Available but not - Extensive listening: multiple- enough choice questions 11 - Comprehension questions - Summarizing main ideas Unit Dialogue: Celebrations - Selective listening No questions - Comprehension questions Unit Monologue: The post office - Extensive listening: multiplechoice questions Available, OK - Comprehension questions Unit 10 Monologue: Nature in danger - Deciding on True or False statements No questions - Comprehension questions Unit 11 Monologue: Sources of energy - Extensive listening: multiplechoice questions No questions - Gap-filling Unit 12 Monologue: The Asian Games - Extensive listening: multiplechoice questions Available, OK - Comprehension questions Unit 13 Monologue: Hobbies - Deciding on True or False statements No questions - Gap-filling Unit 14 Monologue: Recreation - Deciding on True or False statements No questions - Comprehension questions Unit 15 Monologue: Space conquest - Deciding on True or False statements No questions - Comprehension questions 12 Unit 16 - Gap-filling Available, OK The wonders of the - Comprehension questions world II.5 Application of “Questioning” technique in some listening sections in the textbook “Tieng Anh 11” In my opinion, each technique has its own upside and downside and we can not apply one technique in all lessons nor should we use too many tips in one lesson In listening sections of the textbook “English 11”, questions are mostly given in the pre-listening stage However, I sometimes find it unsuitable and not much related to the main topic Besides, although some of them are relatively good but to make the lessons more effective and exciting, I would like to change some of them to avoid the boredom among classes We can using the “questioning technique” in many ways such as : - using pictures - organizing games - giving hands-out in which many kinds of questions are presented - interviewing - showing a video - providing an unexpected model - setting the scene - ……………………………… Thanks to the variety of methods mentioned above, a flexible and creative teacher can frequently apply and change As a result of this, tediousness during the lesson can be remarkably reduced Moreover, questions are often used during the whole lesson With over ten-years’ practical teaching experience, I would rather suggest some ways I employed in the textbook “Tieng Anh 11” I find these, to some extent, effective and especially applicable in mixed-level classes in general and in those at Nong Cong School in particular Followings are my procedure in the pre-listening stage: Unit Personal Experiences Applying questioning techniques by using and exploiting the picture given in the textbook at the same time a Aims: By the end of this phase, students will be able to listen for specific information about the fire and understand the whole passage after listening 13 b Time suggested to apply this technique: minutes c Procedure: The listening lesson focuses on the fire which is one of the most unforgettable experiences that Christina has met in her life The fire took place at her house In the pre-listening stage, the textbook provides a useful picture which helps teachers teach some new words easily such as firemen (fire fighter), fire truck or to put out,… However, to make the lesson more-centered and organizational, the teacher should combine the picture and asking the questions at the same time to exploit the listening content Questions should be arranged in time order of the fire: - What is it? - When did the fire happen? - Where did the fire happen? - What are the mothers and the girls doing? → they are getting away or they are trying to escape from the fire - How did they feel at that time? → they felt terrified - What were they doing when the fire happened? - Why did it happen? → Her mother forgot to turn off the gas store - Did the fire take many things from her? - How did the girl feel after the fire? -> She appreciated things more (The underlined words are new ones that students need to be taught) By doing so, teachers have naturally guided students to gasp the overall idea of the listening lesson They can imagine the situation when, where and how the fire took place…As a result, students feel more confident and excited to learn Unit A party The studied method is used basing on students’ memory about their previous birthday party or their plan about the coming one a Aims: After being questioned, students are ready to decide on True or False statements of the text and can answer the questions related to the party b Time suggested: minutes c Procedure: In this lesson, some questions are available but I’d rather add some more to assist students to bear in their mind what is going to be listened 14 The questions in the textbook are: - When you like to organize your birthday, during the day or evening? - What foods and drinks are often served at your birthday party? - What activities you often have at your birthday party? Some of my additional questions: - Where you like to hold a party? Why? - How many people you plan to invite and who are they? - How you feel after the party? One reason for my extra questions above is that listening text is about Mai’s birthday party in which the place and people invited to the party are mentioned, which helps students think about and find the answer easily when doing task Another reason is that this assists students much in remembering and summarizing the listening content after doing the two tasks required Accordingly, they can tell about the plans on their next birthday party in front of the class Unit World population a Aims: Pre-questions here assist students in developing extensive listening skills for specific information Also, students can predict the listening content b Time suggested: minutes c Procedure: The questioning technique used in this lesson is based on the teacher’s knowledge about the world population The outstanding point of this listening lesson is two meaningful questions given in the textbook With these two questions, teachers are successful at introducing about the input material: overpopulation They are: - Do you think that our world is overpopulated? - What continent has the largest population? However, these are only a small part of the listening text Therefore, the following questions are suggested with the aim of helping students narrow down the topic and concentrate on listening: - How many people are there in the world today? - What are the main reasons for population explosion? - And what should we to solve this problem? 15 Teachers can write down the answers in brief on the board so that students can easily follow, remember and can use them in the post-listening stage as well While asking the above questions, new words (which are underlined) are taught as follows: - Questions: “How many people are there in the world today?”; “What continent has the largest population?” -> Latin American ranks first ; Experts calculated that the population of the world could be over billion by the year 2010 - Question: “What are the main reasons for population explosion?” -> introducing the word “illiteracy” - Question: “What should we to solve this problem?” -> make people aware of ………; provide inexpensive birth-control methods; implement a family planning policy … In my view, students are well –prepared for the listening text thanks to these questions Unit Celebrations a Aims: Students can imagine what the New Year in Japan might like and are able to listen and pick up specific details b Time suggested:8 minutes c Procedure: In this unit, I’d like to apply the “questioning” technique through the mining game This can be carried out as follows: At home I will prepare some cards on which some activities the Japanese often on their New Year’s Days have already been written They are: Card 1: wearing special clothes Card 2: preparing special food, fruits preparation ( a pine tree) … (some peaches) or special Card 3: going to the shrine (picture) Card 4: people praying Card 5: drinking rice wine Card 6: watching television On teaching in the classroom, I am going to divide the students in two groups Students from each group will go to the board and some actions written on the cards prepare by me Questions are asked while and after the students the miming Accordingly, some necessary new words are introduced as follows: Card 1: Making a sentence: Japanese people often put on kimonos 16 Card 2: - Showing a picture: a pine tree -Asking students: What does a pine tree represent for? (“represent” means “to symbolize”) - Making a sentence: It represents longevity and constancy (On board: longevity: long life; constancy: kiên định) (The underlined words are new words needed to teach for students) The rest cards (card 3, 4, 5, 6) are aimed at warming up the atmosphere in the classroom and arousing students’ interest in the lesson They may be made fun of by mining actions their friends and therefore, are excited about the lesson In one word, by questioning, students can envisage what the Japanese before and during the New Year and learn some more new words simultaneously Unit 10 Nature in danger (Using questioning technique by giving handsout with some multiple-choice questions) a Aims: Students will be able to predict what they are going to listen They can understand the general ideal and pick up the specific ones b Time suggested: minutes c Procedure: This listening section provides neither questions nor pictures Therefore, it is essential for teachers to use pre-listening techniques to provide necessary language items and encourage students to listen For a start, teachers can ask students some relating questions such as: - Why have any national parks in the United States been founded? - Can you tell me some danger these national parks can face with? For these two questions above, answers are not important My purpose here is to help students narrow down the topic of listening Next, I distribute some hands-out with multiple choice questions This is intended to help students prepare for listening to specific information in the lesson Here is the hands-out: How many national parks are there in the US? A 50 B 52 C 53 D 55 Do national parks protect and preserve the natural beauty of the land? A Yes B No 17 Which of the followings are the problems that national parks are currently facing? A Having animals are killed or hunted for fur, skin or other parks B Trees are cut down for food C Devastating fires are caused by careless people D All the correct What should be done to protect national parks? A Increase the numbers of visitors to earn more money for the parks B These problems should be solved gradually C Money should be raised for the park’s staff and maintenance of their resources D If there is not enough money, some national parks should be destroyed After finishing the hands-out, it is certain that students can envisage the listening content Unit 11: Sources of energy a Aims: Students can remember sources of energy, some new words and are ready to listen to the tape for specific and general information b Time suggested: minutes c Procedure: In this lesson, I plan to use the questioning technique by organizing a competition game “Word Search” Questions are raised simply to guide the students to take part in the game I divide the class into small groups of 3-4 students Then I distribute the following puzzle handout for students to in their groups Which group finishes first and has all the correct answers will be the winner Find the words hidden in this puzzle The words go across, up, down, backward and diagonally SOURCES OF ENERGY R E C O L O G I S T E E A S C V B E O L N O S A E U O N H A E N E O C E A N E N W R A S U N F U N D A L I N G R A S S T 18 B O O S A I C E I H L Q O U E N H E M E E A I S F G H I S I U N L I M I T E D W After finding, some words are revealed including resources, renewable, unlimited, ecologist, ocean, land, sun, grass They are shown in bold as follows: R E C O L O G I S T E E A S C V B E O L N O S A E U O N H A E N E O C E A N E N W R A S U N F U N D A L I N G R A S S T B O O S A I C E I H L Q O U E N H E M E E A I S F G H I S I U N L I M I T E D W Some of the words are new ones (renewable, ecologist, resources) Only some excellent can find these or even none of them can identify them However, this is of no importance because it is the teacher’s duty to help students find these and understand the meaning of the words After organizing the game, I intend to raise another question: “What sources of energy are renewable or nonrenewable ?” This question is for students to predict what they are going to listen Teachers can check the answers during the while-listening or post-listening stage Unit 12 The Asian Games (Adapting the question technique by showing a video clip) a Aims: Students can listen to specific information about the 22 nd Sea Game sports b Time suggested: minutes c Procedure: 19 In this listening lesson, I intend to show a short clip on the 22 nd Sea Game in which some sports are played such as gymnastics, running, swimming and bar-jumping and points and records set by the participants After students watch the clip, I ask them questions that are similar to the content of the listening lesson and introduce new words as well For example, for swimming performance, I introduce the phrase “to set a record time of….” and “win a medal” In the gymnastics event, the phrase “get an average of………” is also introduced Questions can be asked after using the clip: - What are the names of the sports shown? - How many gold medals have been won in swimming event? - What points did she get in her gymnastics event? - How did the participants feel after finishing their performance? By using the above questions, students are encouraged to listen to information in detail in the listening lessons like the time, the point and the numbers of medals recorded Therefore, they may find it easier to remember the content Unit 13 Hobbies a Aims: After pre-listening stage, students will feel more curious and eager to listen Besides, they are well-prepared for listening to both specific and general ideas b Time suggested: minutes c Procedure: In this unit, I am going to use questions through brainstorming activities What future plan? How useful Reading as a hobby Why collected How to classify Questions are specifically raised as follows: How to collect How to keep an classify When started - Name: what is the name of your collection? - How to collect: how you collect books? 20 - How to keep: how you keep books? On the book shelf or on the table in a separated room? - When started: when did you begin to collect books? - How classified: you classify books or not? And how? According to the initial letter of the book’s name or basing on the different subjects the books focus on - Why collected: why you like collecting books? - What future plans: what are you going to with your collection in the future? II.6 Results After employing the questioning technique in listening periods, some encouraging results have been shown For students, I realized that pre-questions are among the most useful methods which help the students understand the basic listening content The students can develop naturally and actively to receive the knowledge In addition, most of my students have made considerable progress in practicing the listening skill in class because they felt more motivated and ready before listening to the text Needless to say, the students could concentrate on their lesson They found it easy to perceive, practice and use the new language item with confidence and creativity Thanks to these, the atmosphere in the classroom was more exciting and interesting Since then our students have been fond of listening lessons For teachers, I could save a lot of time from trying to present or explaining a new language item and exploit the lessons effectively as well More importantly, I found this technique easy to handle especially in such mixed-level classes as those at Nong Cong school In general, all the students showed their pleasure in the lessons with new and different listening activities from those in the textbook The new in my methods and techniques of teaching has aroused students’ curiosity Some of the students interviewed affirmed that they felt more excited and were looking forward to the listening lessons than ever before They loved games, pictures and questions the teacher applied in the lessons Thus, with my practical teaching experience and the students’ positive attitude towards from the interview and my observation in the classroom while teaching, I am certain to conclude that adaption is of great essential and usefulness to encourage the students’ involvement in listening activities 21 III CONCLUSION III.1 Summary of the study The teachers as well as the students at Nong Cong School often face with difficulties in teaching and learning listening skills One of the most typical problems is the lack of motivation for listening Being a teacher for some years, I as well as my colleagues am fully aware of the necessary role of pre-listening techniques All of us, teachers, try to use different techniques to encourage our students to learn, especially at the very first stage of the lesson that may exert influence on the students’ motivation for listening, meanwhile, the students are not always actively involved in exerting their listening activities Pre-listening techniques play an essential role in motivating students for listening However, pre-listening activities used by the teachers are not always effective in arousing the students’ interest What pre-listening techniques the teachers apply somewhat differ from the students’ preferences To better the situation, the teachers need to take into careful consideration such things as students’ needs, feelings, interests, background knowledge and their levels of English proficiency More specifically, the teachers should make efforts to adopt various techniques flexibly and appropriately when any kinds of techniques are applied at the first stage of a listening lesson Of all the techniques, I only concentrate on investigating and using the questioning one, which I try to make use of adopting in many listening lessons in the textbook “English 11” Although teachers can come up with more excellent ideas and apply a variety of useful methods, questioning, to some extent, in my opinion, is the most convenient and available one Even in a minute can we ask a mass of questions without any preparation at home before As a result, it helps us save time and energy Finally, it is hoped that some questions suggested in the pre-listening stage can make a modest contribution to develop and improve the teaching and learning of English listening skills at Nong Cong School III.2 Limitations and Recommendations for further study In most research projects, limitations are inevitable, and this study is of no exception Firstly, due to limited time and knowledge, my study only focuses on using the questioning technique to motivate students at the first stage of listening I have not yet discussed about the while - and post - listening techniques Secondly, on account of the scope of the study and with certain ability, the research is only on teachers’ techniques at the “before” listening phase, not focus on other factors that may impact students’ motivation such as students’ language aptitude, students’ interests and feelings, etc 22 Last but not least, I haven’t covered all the methods of adjustment as amended, removed or reduced…, which are also very effective if used in stages of listening This technique is only written for grade 11 students, other methods for students at lower or higher level, therefore, may be a good subject for further research CONFIRM OF THE HEAD OF THE UNIT Thanh Hoa, May 15th, 2019 COMMITMENTS DO NOT COPY Vũ Ngọc Văn 23 REFERENCES Textbook “English 11” (2007), Education Press Anderson A & Lynch T (1988), “Listening”, Oxford, Oxford University Press Ellis.M (1984) “Factors affecting listening comprehension”, ELT Journal Carrell (1994), “Teaching English as a Foreign Language”, London, Longman Boyle G (1978), “Teaching by principles”, Pren Hall Regents Broughter (1989), “Towards a new methodology for listening”, Oxford, Oxford University Press Tomlinson.D (1972) “Attitude and motivation in Second Language Learning”, Mass-Newsbury House Mc Grath (2002) “Listening Activities for effective top-down processing”, Oxford University Press 24 ... “questioning” technique at the pre-listening stage to motivate the 11 th form students at Nong Cong High School? ?? In this study, I would like to introduce the “questioning technique? ?? to encourage students? ??... delivering the techniques For the 11th form non- English majors at Nong Cong school, the listening with the ultimate goal is to help them to increase the listening skills In spite of the teachers’... implementing “questioning” techniques to motivate the 11th students at the first stage in some listening sections of the book ‘Tieng Anh 11’ I .3 Scope of the study The study only focuses on introducing the