Difficulties in learning English listening skills: The case of 10-grade students at Thang Long High School . M.A Thesis Linguistics: 60 14 10

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ QUỲNH TRANG DIFFICULTES IN LEARNING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS: THE CASE OF 10-GRADE STUDENTS AT THANG LONG HIGH SCHOOL (NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC HỌC KỸ NĂNG NGHE: TRƯỜNG HỢP CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT THĂNG LONG) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Language Teaching Methodology Code : 60 14 10 HÀ NỘI- 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ QUỲNH TRANG DIFFICULTES IN LEARNING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS: THE CASE OF 10-GRADE STUDENTS AT THANG LONG HIGH SCHOOL (NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC HỌC KỸ NĂNG NGHE: TRƯỜNG HỢP CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT THĂNG LONG) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Language Teaching Methodology Code : 60 14 10 Supervisor : Kiều Thị Thu Hương, Ph.D HÀ NỘI- 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II ABSTRACT III TABLE OF CONTENTS IV LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS VII ABBREVIATIONS VIII PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Statement of the problem Objectives of the study Research questions Significance of the study Scope of the study Design of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 The nature of listening 1.1.1 Definition of listening 1.1.2 Classification of listening 1.2 Process of listening 1.3 Factors affecting EFL listening 1.3.1 Text Characteristics 1.3.1.1 Length and density of the text 1.3.1.2 Quality of the text 10 1.3.1.3 Conceptual difficulty of the text 10 1.3.1.4 Syntactic complexity of the text 11 1.3.1.5 Complexity of tasks 11 1.3.2 Speaker Characteristics 12 1.3.3 Listener Characteristics 13 iv 1.3.3.1 Background knowledge 13 1.3.3.2 Language proficiency level 15 1.3.3.3 Application of strategies 16 1.3.3.4 Knowledge of vocabulary 16 1.3.4 Listening Environment 16 1.4 Overview of listening section in the English 10 textbook “Tieng Anh 10” 17 1.4.1 Pre-listening stage 18 1.4.2 While-listening stage 18 1.4.3 Post-listening stage 19 1.5 Previous works review 19 CHAPTER II: THE STUDY 21 2.1 Subjects 21 2.2 Data gathering instruments 21 2.3 Procedure 22 2.4 Findings and discussion 23 2.4.1 Students‟ background information 23 2.4.2 Students‟ opinion concerning difficulties they encounter in studying listening skills 26 2.4.2.1 Difficulties related to Text factors 26 2.4.2.2 Difficulties related to Listener factors 29 2.4.2.3 Difficulties related to Speaker factors 34 2.4.2.4 Difficulties related to Listening environment 35 2.4.2.5 Other difficulties 37 2.4.2.6 Summary 37 PART III: CONCLUSION 40 Conclusions 40 1.1 Students’ listening performance and how they perceive the importance of listening skills 40 1.2 Difficulties 10-grade students at TLHS encounter when studying listening skills 40 Implications 41 v 2.1 Solutions to Listener factors 41 2.2 Solutions to Text factors 43 2.3 Solutions to Speaker factors 43 2.4 Solutions to Listening environment 44 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 45 REFERENCES 46 APPENDICES I Appendix 1: Questionnaire (English version) I Appendix 2: Questionnaire (Vietnamese version) V vi LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Table 1: Difficulties related to Listening factors 26 Table 2: Difficulties related to Listener factors 29 Table 2.1: Learners‟ responses related to the difference between written and spoken language 31 Table 2.2: Students‟ responses related to long questions 32 Table 2.3: Students‟ responses related to their anxiety when they fail to understand the text immediately 33 Table 2.4: Students‟ responses related to their inability to spell words 33 Table 3: Difficulties related to Speaker factors 34 Table 4: Difficulties related to Listening environment 35 Table 5: Other difficulties reported by students 37 Table 6: A summary of listening difficulties faced by students 38 Chart 1.1: Students‟ time experience in learning English 23 Chart 1.2: Students‟ average scores in listening skills last semester 24 Chart 1.3: Students‟ responses related the importance of listening skills 24 Chart 1.4: Students‟ responses related to the difficulty level of listening skills in comparison with other skills 25 Chart 2.1: Students‟ responses related to unfamiliar words, difficult grammatical structures, and complex sentences 27 Chart 2.2: Students‟ responses related to long spoken text 28 Chart 2.3: Students‟ responses related to uninteresting information and unfamiliar topics 28 Chart 2.4: Students‟ responses related to the skills of predicting and getting a general idea of a text 30 Chart 2.5: Students‟ responses related to speakers‟ pronunciation 31 Chart 2.6: Students‟ responses related to the speaker‟ fast speech and unfamiliar accent 34 Chart 2.7: Students‟ responses related to the visibility of the speaker, time allowed for listening tasks 35 Chart 2.8: Students‟ responses related to disturbing noise and poor-quality tape-recorders/ cassette-players 36 vii ABBREVIATIONS No Number & and EFL English as a foreign language TLHS Thang Long High School GCSE General Certificate of Secondary Education viii PART I INTRODUCTION Statement of the Problem Recently, listening has gained more and more attention in foreign language learning In learning English as a foreign language (EFL), it is suggested that the most important step should begin with an effort to listen Rubin & Thompson state: Listening, quite possibly, is the most important of the language skills, since people spend approximately 60% of their time listening… In addition, listening will give you an opportunity to get a “feel” for the language and will have you improve your overall ability in it If you don‟t learn to listen effectively, you will not be able to participate in conservations in the foreign language Rubin & Thompson (1994: 85) Rost (1994:141) emphasizes that listening can be regarded as a necessary skill in the preparation of foreign language students and can even be considered as a good predictor of language achievement Consequently, listening plays a vital role in foreign language learning Quite recently, listening is incorporated in any English syllabuses used in primary, secondary and high schools of the Vietnamese education system There are more and more students who set themselves ambitious goals like studying abroad, taking college entrance exams or at least getting good marks at school Therefore, they hope to develop their language abilities To enter Thang Long High School (TLHS from now on), students must get at least 53,5/ 60 points in the General Certificate of Secondary Education examination (GCSE), thus they are expected to have good performance in all subjects including English However, most of the students who enroll in TLHS this year seem to have low levels in listening skills This is especially observable when they take listening classes with the textbook “Tieng Anh10” Many students perform poorly and some of them seem uninterested in listening lessons and unwilling to listen to the recordings The question arises here is what difficulties the students face while they study listening skills The purpose of this study is, therefore, to find out the specific listening difficulties 10-grade students at TLHS encounter in listening skills in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” and suggest some pedagogical implications Objectives of the Study The objectives of the study are: - To identify common difficulties 10-grade students of TLHS encounter when studying listening skills in “Tieng Anh 10” - To suggest some solutions to help students overcome their difficulties and recommendations for teachers at TLHS to have possible measures that could contribute to planning a lesson taking the learners‟ problems into consideration Research questions The study aims at finding out answers to the following questions: What difficulties 10-grade students at TLHS encounter in studying listening skills? What solutions are suggested to overcome these difficulties? Significance of the Study Awareness of the difficulties that students encounter in listening skills would benefit both students and teachers Hopefully, the findings of this study will provide teachers knowledge of the problematic areas of listening skills, so that they can take necessary treatment measures, which are suggested as an implication of the study Understanding their students‟ listening difficulties will permit teachers to modify their teaching approaches, methods and techniques The study will also help students to identify their difficulties of listening skills and find suitable and effective learning strategies When listeners know about their own problems, they will be able to improve their listening practices and become better listeners Scope of the study There are two kinds of English textbooks suggested to10-grade students in Vietnam The first one entitled “English 10” is for students specializing in English and the second one - “Tieng Anh 10” is for students of common classes In spite of the similarities in the organization of topics and skills in both textbooks, “English 10” involves more advanced knowledge and language practices Both textbooks are officially used in almost all schools in Hanoi However, due to limited time and the scope of a minor thesis, the research has focused her study on 10-grade students‟ difficulties in learning listening skills in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10”, which is used in common classes nationwide The researcher looks for a better understanding of listening difficulties 10-grade students in TLHS encounter Although it is not suggested that students of other high schools in Hanoi face exactly the same listening difficulties, the research believe that they may share some common difficulties It is hoped that future extensive investigations into listening problems can be conducted in different contexts in further studies will provide more exact and reliable answers encouraged to self-develop independent listening outside class English songs, movies, videos, and other English language broadcasts provide learners with opportunities to listen to English effectively in a relaxing way Inability to spell words may be due to student‟s weaknesses in English pronunciation or their limited vocabulary Learning English pronunciation carefully and widening vocabulary are also important in leaning listening skills Teachers can provide students with suitable exercises and leaning materials In class, it is advisable for teachers to pre-teach vocabulary, not only the meanings but the precise pronunciation of words In while-listening stage, teachers can apply different techniques like pausing the tape, replaying, giving suggestions when necessary to help students finish the given task Teachers can design task-oriented exercises which can engage the students‟ interest and help them learn listening skills subconsciously Ur (2005) has suggested some tasks: expressing agreement or disagreement, taking notes, marking a picture or diagram according to instructions, and answering questions Compared with traditional multiple-choice questions, task- based exercises have an obvious advantage: they not only test students‟ listening comprehension but also encourage them to use different kinds of listening skills and strategies to reach their destination in an active way The next ranked problems faced by many students are related to their lack of listening strategies, which makes them unable to get general understanding and become nervous Listening strategies are very important to achieve success in listening skill Teachers should instruct students listening steps for different kinds of tasks before letting them listen and the task When unfamiliar topic becomes a problem, background knowledge should be concerned In the classroom, before students actually start listening, they should be given some information about the content, situation, and speaker(s) of the listening text This arouses expectation and helps to familiarize the topic 42 2.2 Solutions to Text factors Rubin and Thompson (1994: 90) suggest that when students face unfamiliar words or phrase they have to “concentrate on familiar elements” and “keep listening” Besides, teachers should provide background knowledge and linguistic knowledge, such as complex sentence structures and colloquial words and expressions Material adaptation should be done to reduce the problems of long questions, long and uninteresting text Since our purpose of teaching listening is to improve learners‟ listening skill, instructors should concentrate on aural comprehension itself, and listening tasks should demand predominantly listening and rather than reading, speaking and writing Tasks which include too long questions should be adapted Further exercises can be added in the form of competition game to attract students‟ attention When the text is not interesting, “a little drama or humour can a great deal” (Ur 2005: 27) Teachers can also adapt the listening text, make it shortened or cut parts of the recording by using suitable software 2.3 Solutions to Speaker factors It is impossible to control the speed of “the speaker” here because it is voice recorded (non-interactive listening) When students find listening difficult because of the speaker‟s fast speech, teacher can offer students chance to listen again and give them strategies for effective listening Rubin and Thompson (1994: 88) suggest some strategies for students in this case: (1) Ask for repetition, (2) seek clarification, (3) pay attention to intonation and tone of voice, (4) focus on question words Teachers should remind students that they are not required to listen to every word of the listening text, instruct them how to listen to key words and where to get the key information Teachers can also pause the tape to make it shorter and clearer to students 43 Besides, students need to practice listening in and outside the class if they want to get acquainted with different English accents and speaking styles There are lots of supplementary listening resources which are helpful and suitable for 10-grade students such as Listen in by David Nunan, Tactics For Listening by Jack C Richards Teachers can make use of the book New Way In Teaching Listening by David Nunan and Lindsay Miller which provides practical ideas for effective teaching listening skills Ur (2005: 20) advises teachers to give students familiarity with not only the British and American accent but other English accents to open them to the possibilities and give them practice to deal with them Last but not least, the problems of unattractive and confusing voice of the speaker should be taken into consideration for future editing the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” 2.4 Solutions to Listening environment Many students also reported disturbing noise inside or outside the class and poorquality tape recorders always interfere with their listening Firstly, an average class size of 45-55 students at TLHS is too big to carry out a language communicative environment This causes difficulties for teachers in class management and activities organization Students sitting at the back find it impossible to get sounds clearly and they also get distracted by the noise inside or outside the class It is advisable that a listening class should have less than 25 students Upgrading facilities for English teaching is also important Ur (2005: 28) suggests that “Students should be given immediate feedback on their performance” It is important for listening-class teachers to give students immediate feedback on their performance This not only promotes error correction but also provides encouragement It can help students develop confidence in their ability to deal with listening problems Feedback can help the teacher judge where the class is going and how it should be guided 44 To solve the problem of lacking the speaker‟ visibility, Ur (2005: 4) suggests “using live speakers, restoring to recordings only to attain specific objectives” However, if it is impossible to have live speakers, teachers can make use of visual materials or can be her own visual aid Limitations and suggestions for further studies The study has obtained some remarkable results in finding 10-grade students‟ common difficulties when learning listening skills However, limitations are inevitable For one thing, as scholars use various terms to describe factors affecting listening skill, the researcher focuses on the factors proposed by Rubin (1994) and Yagang (1994): Text characteristics, Listener characteristics, Speaker characteristics and Listening environment The study would be more reliable and further applicable if it were conducted on the basis of other various factors In addition, the study is limited to difficulties faced by 10-grade students using “Tieng Anh 10” It is hoped that there would be more studies which have larger scales and are processed in longer time in order to discover students‟ difficulties in studying listening skills at high schools in Vietnam It is suggested that the above limitations are suggestions for further studies, which will find out more effective methods to overcome these shortcomings 45 REFERENCES ENGLISH Anderson, A & Lynch (1988) Listening Oxford: Oxford University Press; Bennui P (2005) A Survey on First-Year Students’ Opinions Concerning Causes of Their Low Performance in Listening in the English II Course at Thaksin University, Phatthalung, Unpublished MA thesis, Thaksin University Boyle J P (1984) Factors affecting listening comprehension, ELT journal, Volume 38, 34-38; Duzer Van C (1997) Improving ESL Learners' Listening Skills: At the Workplace and Beyond Center for Applied Linguistics Project in Adult Immigrant Education(PAIE) ; Derrington, C & Groom, B (2004) Different types of listening Dunkel, P (1988).Academic Listening and Lecture Note-taking for L1/SLStudents: The Need to Investigate the Utility of the Aximos of Good Notetaking TESL Canada Journal, 11-26; Harmer J (1983) The practice of English language teaching London , New York : Longman; Helgesen, M, Brown, S (2007) Practical English language teaching: listening NewYork: Mc Graw Hill; Hinkel E (2006) Current perspectives on teaching four skills TESOL QUARTERLY volume 40 (1) Seattle University, Washington; 10 Morley J (1991) Listening comprehension in second/foreign language instruction In M Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language, 81-106 Boston, Heinle & Heinle Heinle Publishers 11 Nunan D and Miller L (1995) New ways in teaching listening: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL); 12 Nunan D (1991) Language teaching methodology : a textbook for teacher Prentice Hall; 13 O'Malley J M, Chamot A (1990) Learning strategies in second language acquisition New York: Cambridge University Press; 46 14 Richards, J C (1983) Listening comprehension: Approach, Design, Procedure TESOL QUARTERLY, Vol 17, No, 2, June 1983; 15 Rost M (1994) Introducing listening London : Penguin; 16 Rubin J, Thompson I (1994) How to be a more successful language learner: toward learner autonomy Boston, Mass : Heinle & Heinle Publishers; 17 Rubin, J (1994) A review of second language listening comprehension research Modern language Journal, 78(2), 199-217; 18 Tesfaye, T (2008) Factors that contribute to the problems EFL learners face in listening skills classroom: Unpublished MA Thesis Addis Ababa University institute of language studies, Ethiopia; 19 Underwood M (1989) Teaching listening London, New York : Longman; 20 Ur, P (2005) Teaching Listening Comprehension Cambridge University Press; 21 Yagang, F (1993), "Listening: problems and solutions", English Teaching Forum In Kral, Th (Ed), Teacher Development, Making the Right Movies (pp 189-196), English Language Programs Division, United States Information Agency, Washington, D.C MA THESIS 22 Lê Thị Xuân Ánh (2001), An Investigation of Listening Strategies Used by Vietnamese Learners of English, Unpublished M.A Thesis, Danang University, Vietnam; 23 Phùng Thị Hoài Thu (2008), Listening Difficulties Perceived by Teachers and Students in Using the New English Textbook for Grade 10 at Que Vo II UpperSecondary School in Bac Ninh, Unpublished M.A Thesis, Hanoi National University, Vietnam; 24 Nguyễn Thị Mai Trang (2011), Students’ perceived difficulties in studying English listening comprehension at Pham Ngu Lao High School, Unpublished M.A Thesis, Hanoi National University, Vietnam; 25 Vũ Việt Phương (2009), A study on difficulties on learning listening skill via the textbook” NewHeadway Pre-intermediate” of the first year students at the 47 Uuniversity of Economic and Technical Industries, Unpublished M.A Thesis, Hanoi National University, Vietnam; 26 Vũ Thị Thanh Hương (2012) A study on the problems in teaching English listening skills to the 10th form students at Phu Ly B High School, Ha Nam and some suggested solutions, Unpublished M.A Thesis, Hanoi National University, Vietnam 48 APPENDICES Appendix Questionnaire (English version) Dear 10-grade students, The purpose of this questionnaire is to gather information about difficulties 10-grade students face while you are learning listening skills in “Tieng Anh 10” at school Your responses are of great importance, so you are kindly requested to provide genuine responses to the questions Thank you very much for your cooperation! Part 1: Students’ background information How long have you been studying English? 1) less than years 3) 5- years 2) 3- years 4) more than years What is your average score in listening skills last semester? 1) less than 5,0 3) 6,5- 7,9 2) 5,0- 6,4 4) 8,0 and above How you evaluate the importance of listening skills? Please choose an appropriate number on the following scale: Not at all important Extremely important How you evaluate the level of difficulty of listening skills in comparison with other skills (reading, speaking, writing) Please choose an appropriate number on the following scale: I 1- Much easier than other skills 2- Not as difficult as other skills 3- As difficult as other skills 4- More difficult than other skills 5- Much more difficult than other skills Part 2: Students’ opinion concerning difficulties they encounter in studying listening skills A Direction: Below is the list of statements that help you to identify the difficulties you encounter while you learn listening skills in the text book, “Tieng Anh 10” Read each statement and provide your responses basing on the listening difficulties you have experienced according to the following scale Circle if you always encounter the difficulty Circle if you often encounter the difficulty Circle if you sometimes encounter the difficulty Circle if you seldom encounter the difficulty Circle if you never encounter the difficulty Item no Level of difficulty Some Never Seldom Often Always times Difficulties I find listening difficult because of unfamiliar words in the spoken text I find it difficult because of complex grammatical structures in the spoken text II 5 I find listening difficult because of the length and complexity of sentences The long spoken text makes me tired and anxious when listening 5 5 5 5 5 I don‟t continue listening because the information is not interesting enough to me I find listening difficult because of unfamiliar topics/subjects At the time of listening I find it difficult to predict what will come next I find it difficult to get a general understanding of the spoken text from the first time listening I find it difficult to recognize the words I know because of the way they are pronounced I have difficulties because the speaker‟s 10 pronunciation is different from what is familiar to me There are words that I will normally understand in writing, but when I hear 11 them in a stream of speech, I find it difficult to tell where one word finishes and another begins 12 13 I find it difficult to answer long questions I feel worried and discouraged when I don‟t immediately understand the III spoken text 14 15 I can listen to the sounds but I don‟t know how to spell the words I find listening difficult because the speaker‟s fast speech 5 5 5 I have difficulties because the speaker‟ 16 accent is different from what is familiar to me I find it difficult to understand the meaning of the spoken text without 17 seeing the speaker‟s facial expressions and gestures (e.g frowning face of anger; smiling face of happiness) 18 19 20 I don‟t have enough time to finish the listening tasks I can‟t listen because of disturbing noise (inside or outside the class) I can‟t listen because of poor-quality tape-recorders or cassette-players B Direction: Please write your answer in the space provided Apart from the difficulties listed above, did you face any other difficulties when you study listening skills in “Tieng Anh 10”? Please specify Thank you very much for your time! IV Appendix Questionnaire (Vietnamese version) Các em học sinh khối 10 thân mến, Mục đích điều tra để thu thập thông tin khó khăn mà học sinh lớp 10 gặp phải học kỹ nghe sách giáo khoa “ Tiếng Anh 10” trường Câu trả lời em quan trọng nghiên cứu Rất mong em trả lời chân thực câu hỏi Xin chân thành cảm ơn hợp tác em Phần I: Thông tin cá nhân 1.Em học tiếng Anh rồi? 1) năm 3) 5- năm 2) 3- năm 4) năm Điểm trung bình kỹ nghe em kỳ trước bao nhiêu? 1) 5,0 3) 6,5- 7,9 2) 5,0- 6,4 4) từ 8,0 trở lên Em đánh giá tầm quan trọng việc học kỹ nghe nào? Em chọn số phù hợp mức đây: Không quan trọng tý Cực kỳ quan trọng Em đánh giá độ khó kỹ nghe so với với kỹ khác (đọc, nói, viết) nào? Em chọn số phù hợp mức : 1- Dễ kỹ khác nhiều V 2- Khơng khó kỹ khác 3- Khó kỹ khác 4- Khó kĩ khác 5- Khó kĩ khác nhiều Phần II: Ý kiến học sinh khó khăn họ gặp phải học kỹ nghe A Hướng dẫn: Các vấn đề giúp em nhận khó khăn em gặp phải học kỹ nghe sách giáo khoa “ Tiếng Anh 10” Hãy đọc khó khăn chọn câu trả lời theo mức Chọn em luôn gặp phải khó khăn Chọn em thường gặp phải khó khăn Chọn em gặp phải khó khăn Chọn em gặp phải khó khăn Chọn em khơng gặp phải khó khăn Mức độ khó khăn Số Khó khăn TT Em gặp khó khăn với từ lạ nghe Em gặp khó khăn với cấu trúc ngữ pháp phức tạp nghe Em gặp khó khăn nghe độ dài phức tạp câu nghe Bài nghe dài khiến em mệt mỏi lo lắng VI Không Hiếm Thỉnh Luôn Thường thoảng 5 5 nghe Em khơng nghe tiếp thơng tin khơng hay em Em gặp khó khăn nghe chủ đề lạ, khơng quen thuộc em Lúc nghe em ln gặp khó khăn để đốn thơng tin tới Em gặp khó khăn cần nghe hiểu ý chung của sau lần nghe Em thấy khó khăn để nhận từ em học cách phát âm chúng nghe 5 5 5 5 5 5 Em gặp khó khăn nghe cách phát 10 âm người nói khác với cách phát âm em hay nghe Có từ em biết viết 11 lại nhận chúng nghe với chuỗi từ khác nghe 12 13 14 15 16 Em gặp khó khăn phải trả lời câu hỏi dài Em thấy lo lắng nản em không hiểu nghe Em nghe từ khơng biết cách viết từ Em gặp khó khăn nghe người nói nói q nhanh Em gặp khó khăn nghe khơng quen với giọng điệu người nói 17 Em thấy khó hiểu nghĩa VII không thấy biểu hiện, cử chỉ, nét mặt người nói ( ví dụ nhăn mặt giận dữ, cười vui vẻ, v v ) 18 19 20 Em khơng có đủ thời gian hồn thành tập nghe Em khơng thể nghe tiếng ồn (trong ngồi lớp) Em khơng thể nghe chất lượng băng, đài 5 B Hướng dẫn: Hãy viết câu trả lời em vào chỗ trống Ngồi khó khăn kể trên, em có gặp phải khó khăn khác học kỹ nghe sách giáo khoa “ Tiếng Anh 10” không? Em nêu rõ Cảm ơn em dành thời gian trả lời! VIII