The problem faced by teachers and first year non English major students at Sao Do University in teaching and learning English listening skill and some solutions

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TĂNG THỊ HỒNG MINH THE PROBLEMS FACED BY TEACHERS AND FIRST YEAR NON – ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT SAO DO UNIVERSITY IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL AND SOME SOLUTIONS (NHỮNG VẤN ĐỀ GẶP PHẢI TRONG VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC KỸ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN VÀ SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT KHÔNG CHUYÊN TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SAO ĐỎ VÀ MỘT SỐ GIẢI PHÁP KHẮC PHỤC) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111 HANOI – 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TĂNG THỊ HỒNG MINH THE PROBLEMS FACED BY TEACHERS AND FIRST YEAR NON – ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT SAO DO UNIVERSITY IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL AND SOME SOLUTIONS (NHỮNG VẤN ĐỀ GẶP PHẢI TRONG VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC KỸ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN VÀ SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT KHÔNG CHUYÊN TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SAO ĐỎ VÀ MỘT SỐ GIẢI PHÁP KHẮC PHỤC) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111 Supervisor: Dr Duong Thi Nu HANOI – 2013 DECLARATION I certify that this thesis is the result of my own study and that it has not been submitted to any other university or institution wholly or partially Hanoi, September 2013 Student Tăng Thị Hồng Minh i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Dr Dương Thị Nụ from Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, University of Languages International Studies for her precious advices, insightful comments, patient guidance, criticism, corrections and support throughout my research Without her help, this thesis would not have been accomplished I would also like to thank all the lecturers of the Department of Post Graduate Studies, University of Languages International Studies for their useful lectures and materials which are of great values to my thesis I am also grateful to my colleagues, the non-English freshmen at Sao Do University for their assistance and valuable information during the process of preparing this research Finally, I wish to thank all the support and encouragement of my family in time of difficulty and frustration ii ABSTRACT Listening plays an important role in communication as it is said that, of the total time spent on communicating, listening takes up 40-50%; speaking, 25-30%; reading, 11-16%; and writing, about 9% (Mendelsohn, 1994 This study attempt to present listening comprehension problems encountered by lecturers and first-year students at Sao Do University at the same time pointing out the factors affecting learners‟ difficulties and the listening teaching difficulties The thesis is based on data collected from survey questionnaires One hundred students and fifteen lecturers at Sao Do University have taken part in this study In addition, interviews and class observation were applied as well to enhance the reliability and validity of the study The results showed that learners encountered various kinds of listening problems which were divided into four categories: students‟ linguistic difficulties in learning listening, students‟ listening difficulties related to the listening text, factors related to the speakers, and factors related to the listeners From the findings of the research, some recommendations were presented to help them overcome the difficulties in learning and teaching iii TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the study Research Question Scope of the study Significance of the study Methods of the study .3 Design of the study PART II: THE DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical background of listening .5 1.2 Potential problems in learning and teaching listening 1.3 Previous studies on listening difficulties in Vietnam 12 1.4 Summary .13 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 15 2.1 The setting of the study .15 2.2 Participants 15 2.3 Data collection instruments 16 CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 18 3.1 Survey questionaires 18 3.2 Interview .28 3.3 Class observation 30 iv CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDTATIONS .32 4.1 Findings .32 4.2 Recommendation .35 PART III: CONCLUSION 40 REFERENCE 42 APPENDICES I APPENDIX I APPENDIX IV APPENDIX VI APPENDIX IX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS IX APPENDIX X v TABLE OF CHARTS Chart Learners‟ perceptions of listening difficulties related to listening text Chart 2a Learners‟ perceptions of their linguistic difficulties in learning listening Chart 2b Learners‟ perceptions of learning difficulties related to listeners Chart 3: Learners‟ perceptions of their listening difficulties related to the speakers Chart Learners‟ perceptions of their listening difficulties related to the listening environment Chart Teachers‟ assessment of listening task in the textbook Chart Teachers‟ perception of students‟ attitudes towards listening lessons Chart Learners‟ expectations towards their teachers and teachers‟ opinions about how can help their students vi PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale It cannot be denied that learning and teaching English in Vietnam has gained a considerable improvement recently especially after Vietnam„s participation into WTO The demand for English communicative proficiency is rising compared to that in the past While learning grammar and vocabulary were prioritized in the past, it is not the case at present In recent years, communicational skills such as listening and speaking skills have been paid more attentions since they are the major key to international communication Therefore, students‟ communicative competence has been stressed At Sao Do University (SDU), as most other universities in Vietnam, communicative approach has been more and more applied in teaching and learning English; However, despite the teachers‟ and students‟ efforts, the students especially the non-English major freshmen often have a lot of difficulties in learning listening comprehension Most of students find listening so challenging for them to learn well while teachers find it so difficult to motivate students, make them eager and interested in listening lessons After careful observation and practical teaching, I realized that the reasons for this situation seem to be popular to Vietnamese students such as lack of vocabulary, anxiety during listening, accents of speakers, etc These problems make students demotivated in learning listening Moreover, a certain number of researches have been conducted to investigate the problems in learning and teaching at SDU; none of them is about listening skills As a teacher of English, therefore, it is essential and motivating for me to conduct a research on the topic: “The Problems faced by teachers and first year nonEnglish major students at Sao Do University in teaching and learning English listening skills and some solutions” with the hope to make a small contribution towards improving the quality of teaching and learning listening skill at SDU Aims of the study Within the framework of minor thesis, the study is aimed: - To investigate the problems that first year non - English major students of SDU encountered in learning listening skills - To identify factors causing the students‟ problems in learning listening skills - To investigate the areas of difficulties faced by teachers at Sao Do University in teaching listening skills - To provide some suggested solutions to help students and teachers overcome these difficulties, improve the quality of teaching and learning listening comprehension at SDU Research Question In order to achieve these aims, the study has three research questions as follows: What are the problems faced by teachers and first year non – English major students of Sao Do University in teaching and learning listening skills? What factors cause these difficulties to students and teachers? What are suggested solutions to improve teaching and learning listening skill? The study; therefore, focuses on seeking the answers for aforementioned questions Scope of the study As a Ukrainian scholar once said “learning a second language is a long and complex undertaking” Thus, problems in learning and teaching a second language are unavoidable In the scope of this study, the writer„s typical purpose is to investigate the difficulties in learning and teaching to non - English major freshmen of SDU The study also offers some pedagogical recommendations to improve the current situation Significance of the study The study provides an insight into problems in teaching and learning listening comprehension at SDU Its findings may benefit both learners and instructors For learners, they can perceive of their own listening difficulties; then, ascertain what should be the best learning strategies in the future Gradually, with the help of PART III: CONCLUSION Recapitulation of the study Like the majority of Vietnamese students, students of SDU have a number of problems in learning listening comprehension These problems also challenge the teaching listening process of teachers at SDU The results showed that learners encountered various kinds of listening problems which were divided into four categories: students‟ linguistic difficulties in learning listening, students‟ listening difficulties related to the listening text, factors related to the speakers, and factors related to the listeners There are a variety of causes and the main factors are students‟ lack of vocabulary, students‟ poor pronunciation, and students‟ lack of background knowledge of spoken language Basing on these findings, some suggestions are proposed as well such as: Doing pre-listening activities effectively in order to draw out students‟ attention to the lesson, activate their schemata and get all the relevant words predicted by students for the effective listening later on or helping students with vocabulary by introducing the useful self - practice books for them At the same time, teacher should give students clear instructions to make sure that students fully understand what they have to before playing the tapes Besides, teachers also can adapt and re – design the tasks as no textbook is perfect; the most perfect textbook has its own limitation “No course book will be totally suited to particular teaching situation The teacher will have to find his own way of using it and adapting it if necessary, So we should not be looking for the perfect course book which meet all our requirement but rather for the best possible fit between what the course book offers and what we as teacher and student needs” Cunnings worth (1984:89) Another useful way for teachers is helping students get familiar with different accents We can‟t deny the fact that different accent is another cause of difficulties for language learners so teachers can give them a familiarity with the two most useful English accents – the British and American standard varieties – and then let 40 them have a taste of some others simply to open their eyes to the possibilities and give them some practice to cope with them From the actual practice of teaching listening, the writer realizes that students should be encouraged to listen for general ideas (listen to key words not every single word).In other words, we should equip students with listening strategies instruct them how to employ it effectively in listening To this end, teachers should instruct students to figure out the purpose for listening, activate background knowledge of the topic in order to predict or anticipate content and identify appropriate listening strategies In addition, teachers can help students to deal with strange sounds or apply compliments and encouragement method, and vary the listening texts and topics, Limitations and suggestions for further study Limitations are unavoidable in any research papers Although the writer has made a big effort to conduct this study, there undoubtedly are some limitations Firstly, data are collected from a small number of participants, so to some extent, the result may not be generalized for all non – English major students of other universities Furthermore, such a small number of participants may not be insufficient to ensure the reliability of the findings Further research should overcome this shortcoming There should be a research conducted to evaluate and adapt the listening part in the text book “Know – how 1” Hopefully, this study will be of some help to students at SDU to minimize their problems in listening acquisition and help teachers overcome their teaching difficulties 41 REFERENCE Anderson, A & Lynch, T (1988) Listening London: Oxford University Press Baker, A (2006) Ship or Sheep? (Third Edition) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Barker, C (2001) Boost your vocabulary United States: Pearson Education Brown, H D (2001) Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy, second edition New York: Longman Buck, G (2001) Assessing listening Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Davies, P (2000) Success in English teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press Helgesen, M & Brown, S (2007) Practical English Language Teaching: Listening New York: McGraw Hill Lougheed, L (2004) Learning to listen United Kingdom: Macmillan Marks, J (2007) English pronunciation in use Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 10 McCarthy, M & O‟Dell, F (2003) English vocabulary in use Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 11 Mendelsohn, D J (1994) Learning to listen: A strategy-based approach for the second language learner San Diego: Dominie Press 12 Nunan, D (2003) Listen in Hong Kong: Cengage Heinle 13 Richards, J C (1990) Listen carefully Oxford: Oxford University Press 14 Rixon, S (1986) Developing listening skills London: Modern English Publications 42 15 Rubin, J (1995) A guide for the teaching of second language listening San Diego, CA: Dominie Press 16 Underwood, M (1989) Teaching listening London: Longman 17 Ur, P (1984) Teaching listening comprehension Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 18 Vandergrift, L (1999) Facilitating second language listening comprehension: Acquiring successful strategies ELT Journal Volume 53/3 Oxford University Press 19 White, G (1998) Listening London: Oxford University Press 20 Yagang, F (1994) Listening: Problems and solutions In Thomas Karal (ed.) Teacher development: Making the Right Moves Washington, DC: English language programs Division, USA 43 APPENDICES APPENDIX Questionnaire for students Mục đích bảng câu hỏi nhằm tìm vấn đề mà sinh viên năm thứ không chuyên trường Đại học Sao Đỏ gặp phải q trình học mơn nghe hiểu Mọi ý kiến đóng góp cách trả lời câu hỏi có giá trị q trình nghiên cứu đánh giá khó khăn việc dạy học kĩ nghe hiểu giáo viên sinh viên năm không chuyên trường Đại học Sao Đỏ Phần Thơng tin cá nhân Giới tính: ………………………………………………… Tuổi: ……………………………………………………… Bạn học tiếng Anh bao lâu……………………… (năm) Phần 2: Những khó khăn q trình học nghe Dưới số khó khăn việc học nghe tiếng Anh Hãy đánh dấu (x) vào đáp án phù hợp với bạn Bạn thấy việc học nghe khó vì: Nội dung đánh giá No Khó khăn gặp phải Khơng Ln ThườngThình Hiếm bao ln xuyên thoảng Bài nghe có nhiều từ Chủ đề nghe không quen thuộc Bài nghe có nhiều cấu trúc ngữ pháp phức tạp Bài nghe q dài Bạn khơng có đủ kiến thức xã hội văn hóa liên quan tới chủ đề nghe I Nội dung đánh giá No Khó khăn gặp phải Khơng Ln ThườngThình Hiếm bao xuyên thoảng 1 1 Bạn thấy căng thẳng, mệt mỏi học nghe Khơng có hứng thú với học nghe Bạn dễ tập trung nghe Bạn không phân biệt từ quan trọng không quan trọng nghe Vốn từ vựng ngữ pháp bạn nghèo nàn Có từ bạn biết nghe bạn khơng nhận Bạn theo kịp tốc độ người nói q nhanh Bạn gặp khó khăn với đoạn hội thoại có tham gia nhiều người Người nói sử dụng giọng địa phương Lớp học q đơng, dễ gây ồn khó tập trung Files nghe thiết bị âm chất lượng Thời gian nghe hạn chế Dưới số việc giáo viên làm để giúp bạn học nghe tốt Hãy đánh dấu vào điều với mong muốn bạn (Bạn chọn nhiều câu trả lời) Giáo viên giới thiệu rõ ràng ngữ cảnh chi tiết yêu cầu nghe II Giáo viên cung cấp số từ vựng cấu trúc ngữ pháp quan trọng nghe, luyện đọc phát âm từ khó Giáo viên cho nghe nhiều lần, nghe câu Giáo viên tự thiết kế thêm nghe phù hợp với trình độ sinh viên Giáo viên cung cấp thêm nghe có chủ đề đa dạng thú vị Giáo viên sử dụng số hoạt động tạo hứng thú cho sinh viên chơi game, nghe hát, xem clip (có phụ đề tiếng Anh) Giáo viên hướng dẫn sinh viên số phương pháp để nghe tốt Giáo viên giới thiệu số trang web / tài liệu học nghe bổ trợ phù hợp với trình độ để sinh viên tự nâng cao kiến thức rèn luyện kĩ nghe nhà Ý kiến khác (hãy ghi vào đây) ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… Cảm ơn giúp đỡ hợp tác bạn! III APPENDIX Questionnaire for teachers The Purpose of this study is to investigate the problems faced by teachers and students of first year non English majors in teaching and learning listening comprehension at Sao Do University Your responses are great of importance to the success of this study Thus, please kindly help to complete all the questions as frankly and accurately as you can Great thanks for your help in advance Part Personal Information Age: …………………………………………………… Year of teaching: …………………………………… Part Please circle the appropriate choice(s) when answering following question What you think about listening task in “Know how 1” text book? A Interesting B Appropriate C Difficult D Boring What is your students‟ attitude toward listening comprehension? A Very excited B Interested C not much interested D Totally disregarded What are your problems/ difficulties in teaching listening skills? (Rank those in order of the most serious o last serious from to 7) …………………………… A Difficult listening task, inappropriate listening materials …………………………… B Time limitation …………………………… C Students‟ low motivation …………………………… D Big size of class …………………………… …………………………… E Students bad learning habit: trying to listen to all words F Students‟ low level of English proficiency IV …………………………… G Lack of teaching facilities In the following section I would like you to mark (x) in any boxes indicating your opinion You can choose more than one options What you think teachers can to help students overcome the difficulties in learning listening skills? Introduce the listening context and listening tasks as clearly as possible  Use a couple of methods to motivate students such as: group work, games and songs…  Provide some key vocabulary and grammatical structures in the prelistening stage Let students listen to the recordings many times as they require Give some extra listening texts with interesting topics Design a variety of listening activities which is suitable with students‟ level and interest Equip students with some effective listening comprehension strategies and encourage students to practise learning at home  Recommend some listening websites or supplementary materials suitable to students‟ level for them to study at home Other ideas (please specify) ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… Thank you very much for your co-operation! V APPENDIX Questionnaire for students (English Original) The purpose of this questionnaire is to find out the listening problems faced by first year, non-English major students of SDU in learning listening All the comments in response to below questions are of great importance to the to the success of the study on “The problems faced by teachers and first year non – English major students at Sao Do University in teaching and learning listening skills and some solutions” Part Personal Information Sex: ………………………………………………………… Age: ……………………………………………………… Time of English learning……………………………… (year) Part 2: Difficulties in learning listening comprehension Below are some difficulties in learning listening comprehension Please mark (x) in the most accurate answers to you You found it so difficult to learn listening comprehension because: Ranking No Statement Alwa Some Seldo Neve Often ys times m r There were a lot of new words in listening text The listening topic was unfamiliar There were many complex grammatical structures in listening text It was a so long spoken text VI Ranking No Statement Alwa Some Seldo Neve Often ys times m r 1 1 Your listening topic related knowledge is inadequate You felt so nervous and tired in listening lesson You found it easy to be distracted during listening You are low – motivated in learning listening You couldn‟t differentiate the key words in the listening text Your vocabulary and grammar were so poor You found it difficult to recognize the words you know because of the way of pronunciation You couldn‟t keep up with the fast speed of speakers You had listening difficulty with the conversations of many speakers The speaker„s accent made you difficult to recognize common sounds Large size of class made it so easy to be noisy Audio equipment: CDs, speakers or listening files had poor quality Listening time allowance were limited In the following section I would like you to mark (x) in any boxes indicating your opinion You can choose more than one options Q: What you think teachers can to help students (you) overcome the difficulties in learning English listening skills? VII  Introduce the listening context and listening tasks clearly before listening  Provide some key vocabulary and grammatical structures in the listening text, then practise pronunciation of difficult words  Let students listen to the recordings many times as they require, listen one by one sentence  Design more listening exercise which are more suitable to the students‟ level Give some extra listening texts with interesting topics  Use a couple of method to motivate students in listening such as: playing games, listening to the English songs, watching funny English subtitled clips  Equip students with some effective listening strategies  Recommend some listening websites and supplementary listening materials suitable to students‟ level to study at home Other ideas (State here) …………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… Thank you for your co-operation! VIII APPENDIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS Do you like teaching listening skills? Why (not)? Can you complete all three stages of listening: pre – listening, while – listening and post – listening within one lesson? If not, what would you with incomplete parts? What you think is (are) the reason(s) why students seem to be afraid of listening comprehension? What are the effective teaching methods to attract students to the listening lessons in your experience? How can you deal with the inappropriate learning habit of students? IX APPENDIX INTERVIEWING SCRIPT (taken out from recorded video) Question Ms Ha Ms Thu Ms Nga Ms Luong Do you like teaching listening skills? Why (not)? - No - No - No - No - No Reason: Reason: Reason: Reason: No Reason: students‟ Students‟ Students listening bad low not like exam learning motivation listening Longer time for preparation, habit Ms Trang tiring job Can you complete all three stages of listening: pre – listening, while – listening and post – listening within one lesson? If not, what would you with incomplete parts? - Not - No always - Assign - Ask students to homework - Sometimes - No - No - If not - Ask - Ask important, students to student to disregard it finish it at consider it home as the at home Supplement - ary exercise 3 What you think is (are) the reason(s) why students seem to be afraid of listening comprehension? X - Poor - Students‟ - Lack of - They - it is easy vocabulary lack of effective cannot to be and background listening follow the distracted grammar knowledge strategies speech rate in listening structure of speaker What are the effective teaching methods to attract students to the listening lessons in your experience? - Give good - Use games - Redesign - Exploit - Have a mark and as warm – the well- compliment up activities that it match advantage the task so to students‟ of songs encourage level and game prepared lesson plan students How can you deal with the inappropriate learning habit of students? - Provide - Show - Ask them - Provide - Provide them with them how to practice them with them with listening to realize listening listening listening strategies the key outside the strategies strategies word class XI