A study on factors affecting listening comprehension of the eleventh grade students at a high school in bac ninh province

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  NGUYỄN THỊ HẢI A STUDY ON FACTORS AFFECTING LISTENING COMPREHENSION OF THE ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCE (NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG YẾU TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG TỚI KHẢ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG THPT TẠI TỈNH BẮC NINH) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Hanoi - 2018 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  NGUYỄN THỊ HẢI A STUDY ON FACTORS AFFECTING LISTENING COMPREHENSION OF THE ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCE (Nghiên cứu yếu tố ảnh hưởng tới khả nghe hiểu học sinh lớp 11 trường THPT tỉnh Bắc Ninh) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Supervisor: Mai Thị Loan, PhD Hanoi - 2018 DECLARATION I certify that the minor thesis entitled “A study on factors affecting listening comprehension of the eleventh grade students at a high school in Bac Ninh province” is the result of my own work and has not been submitted in any form for another degree or diploma at any universities or other institutions Hanoi, 2018 Student Nguyễn Thị Hải i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge my truthful gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Mai Thi Loan for her thorough reading, critical comments, invaluable guidance and precious corrections of the thesis It was her acute guidance that has enabled me to find the right way to complete this study I also would like to express my sincere thanks to my colleagues at the school, who have been willing to answer my interviews I appreciate the assistance and cooperation of the students in classes from the eleventh grade at the chosen school My special words of thanks are sent to my family, especially my husband who has given me constant encouragement and support throughout my research work Hanoi, 2018 ii ABSTRACT The study is concerned with factors affecting listening comprehension encountered by the eleventh students at a high school in Bac Ninh province The main purposes of the study are to find out the factors affecting students‟ listening comprehension and to offer some solutions to help students overcome their affective factors The instruments used in the study were questionnaire and interviews The questionnaire was designed for 100 students and the interviews were carried out with both three teachers and 10 out of the 100 students at the chosen school The results showed that learners encountered various kinds of affective factors on listening problems which were divided into four categories: factors related to the listening text, factors related to the speakers, factors related to the listener, and factors related to physical settings From the findings of the research, some suggestions were proposed for teachers to help their students overcome those affective factors such as designing suitable listening materials, encouraging students to use top- down strategies and encouraging prediction iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLE viii ABBREVIATIONS ix PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Aims and objectives of the study Research questions Scope of the study Method of the study Significance of the study Organization of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Listening skill 1.1.1 Definition of listening 1.1.2 Importance of listening 1.2 Listening comprehension 1.2.1Definitions of listening comprehension 1.2.2 Process of listening comprehension 1.3 Listening strategies 10 1.3.1 Definition of listening strategies 10 1.3.2 Classification of listening strategies 11 1.4 Potential affective factors on listening comprehension 12 1.5 Solutions to overcome affective factors on listening comprehension 14 1.5.1 Helping students with vocabulary 14 1.5.2 Helping students get familiar with different accents 15 iv 1.5.3 Using visuals 15 1.5.4 Using the tapes and radios with good quality 15 1.5.5 Activating background knowledge 16 1.5.6 Combining “intensive listening” with “extensive listening”; focusing on listening 16 1.5.7 Combining listening with other skills 16 1.5.8 Evaluate listening effectiveness regularly and further improve listening approaches 17 1.6 Review of previous related studies 17 1.6.1 Previous studies overseas 17 1.6.2 Previous studies in Viet Nam 19 1.7 Summary 21 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 22 2.1 Restatement of research questions 22 2.2 The setting of the study 22 2.3 Participants 23 2.3.1 Students 23 2.3.2 Teachers 23 2.4 Data collection instruments 24 2.4.1 Questionnaire 24 2.4.2 Interviews 25 2.5 Data collection procedures 26 2.6 Analysis of data 26 2.7 Summary 27 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 28 3.1 Data analysis 28 3.1.1 Questionnaire for the students 28 3.1.1.1 Learners’ perceptions of factors related to listening text 28 3.1.1.2 Learners’ perceptions of factors related to listeners 30 v 3.1.1.3 Learners’ perceptions of factors related to speakers 31 3.1.1.4 Learners’ perceptions of factors related to physical settings 32 3.1.1.5 Learners’ opinions of solutions to overcome those factors 33 3.1.2 Interview with the students 34 3.1.2.1 Students’ answers about factors on the students’ listening comprehension 35 3.1.2.2 The students’ suggested solutions to overcome those factors 36 3.1.3 Interview with the teachers 37 3.1.3.1Teachers’ answers about factors on the students’ listening comprehension 37 3.1.3.2 Teachers’ suggested solutions to overcome those factors 38 3.2 Findings and discussion 39 3.3 Implications 42 3.3.1 Designing suitable listening materials 42 3.3.2 Arousing interest and motivating students to attend to the spoken message 42 3.3.3 Using pictures and visual aids 42 3.3.4 Encouraging students to use top-down strategies 42 3.3.5 Encouraging cooperative listening 42 3.3.6 Encouraging students’ accurate pronunciation 43 3.3.7 Encouraging prediction 43 3.4 Summary 43 PART C: CONCLUSION 44 Recapitulation 44 Concluding remarks 44 Limitations of the study 46 Suggestions for the further research 46 REFERENCES 47 APPENDIX I vi APPENDIX III APPENDIX V APPENDIX VI APPENDIX VII APPENDIX VIII vii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLE Figure 1: Learners‟ perceptions of affective factors related to listening text 27 Figure 2: Learners‟ perceptions of affective factors related to listeners 29 Figure 3: Learners‟ perceptions of affective factors related to speakers 30 Figure 4: Learners‟ perceptions of affective factors from physical settings 31 Table: Learners‟ opinions about solutions to overcome those affective factors 32 viii PART C: CONCLUSION This part recapitulates the study and the main findings focusing on the two research questions The limitations of the study as well as the suggestions for further research will also be presented in this chapter Recapitulation The study has investigated the factors affecting listening comprehension of the eleventh grade students at a high school in Bac Ninh province The survey research was employed, using questionnaire for students and interviews with both students and teachers After reviewing literature related to affective factors on listening comprehension, the researcher designed a survey questionnaire for the students The questionnaire was employed to recognize the factors affecting listening comprehension experienced by the eleventh grade students Then, the questionnaire was delivered to 100 students from three classes at the chosen school to collect data After completing the analysis of the data from the questionnaire, the researcher made a list of interview questions for both the students and the teachers The interviews with three teachers and ten students were carried out to triangulate the information that was obtained through the questionnaire They aimed to obtain data on how the factors which had been identified through the questionnaire affected the learners‟ listening comprehension, and to find out if there were any other factors that affected the learners‟ listening comprehension The collected data showed affective factors on listening comprehension Furthermore, suggested solutions were proposed for better listening learning and teaching Concluding remarks It is obvious that listening comprehension is vital in language learning in that it provides input for the learners Without understanding inputs, students can not learn anything Findings discussed above assisted the researcher to give significant conclusions to the two research questions in the current study The findings from questionnaire and interviews indicate a number of factors that influence students‟ listening comprehension The level of influence of each 44 factors on students is different; however, they all cause difficulties for students in listening comprehension The factors are categorized into four sub-categories: affective factors from listeners, affective factors from listening materials, affective factors from speakers and affective factors from physical settings In terms of affective factors from listeners, the researcher finds out that students had to face with difficulties in making prediction about what speaker is going to talk about, not having much cultural knowledge about several fields of life and society, failing to recognize the main points in listening message, lacking necessary vocabulary, not using listening strategies effectively and systematically In terms of affective factors from listening materials, it can be seen clearly that students found difficulties when they met unfamiliar topics, difficult grammar structures, complex sentences, long listening text and uninteresting information In terms of affective factors from speakers, the finding revealed that the students found listening difficult when they encountered quick speech rate, different speakers‟ accents and a lot of speakers in one listening In terms of affective factors from physical settings, students mentioned that noises and poor quality equipments make them difficult to understand the listening text The suggested solutions for these problems are also the answers for the second research question The second research question is aimed at suggested solutions to help students overcome the factors that affect their listening comprehension For affective factors from listeners, several solutions are suggested to help students such as concentrating on photos, maps, charts, text-types or anything that was provided before listening to predict what speaker is going to talk about, spending more time to broaden their knowledge in as many sorts of information as possible to get background knowledge on variety of materials, focusing on discourse markers and words or phrases repeated many times to get the main points of listening passage, enriching the vocabulary and make full use of listening strategies To solve affective factors from the listening materials, students should practice listening in a variety of topics, strengthen their grammar, try to expose to different kinds of accents, concentrate completely when listening, and use symbols to get better note-taking 45 In conclusion, it is common knowledge that listening is an active skill requiring learners to deal with a variety of complicated tasks such as discriminating between the sounds and interpreting stress and intonation It is also known that students used several mental processes to catch the meaning of the information they listen to These mental processes that students used to understand the spoken language can be broadly described as listening comprehension strategies This study helped them identify the factors affecting their listening comprehension and suggested several solutions to help students overcome these factors Furthermore, it is very necessary for the students to spend more time on self-studying listening at home and learn the way to use the listening strategies appropriately and effectively Limitations of the study Although the study was carefully designed, there are some unavoidable limitations Firstly, this study investigated the affective factors on the listening comprehension of the eleventh students at the chosen school However, with the limited number of participants, the results of the study may not be generalized to all students from both the chosen school and other high schools In fact, it only serves as reference information for the high school with the students and teachers of similar characteristics as those in this study Secondly, there are still several other factors related to students‟ other sources which have not been explored in this study such as affective factors from students‟ psychology and affective factors from tasks Thirdly, the study did not show that how affective factors were different between male and female students Suggestions for the further research It is hoped that people who are interested in this topic will widen the scale of the study with more participants, in other schools because many other aspects about affective factors on listening comprehension have not been deeply discussed In addition, in further researches, data should be gathered from other sources like class observation to get accurate information Last but not least, further investigations should also be conducted on whether their age or male and female students is a source of affective factors 46 REFERENCES Anderson, J R (1983) The Architecture of Cognition MA: Harvard University Press Babie, E (1989) The Practice of Social Research California: Wadesworth Publishing Company Berman, M (2003) Listening Strategy Guide Dyed International Inc Bouchareb, N (2010) The Role of Foreign Language learners’ Self-Esteem in Enhancing Their oral Performance Constantine: Constantine University Buck, G (2001) Assessing listening Cambridge University Press Bulletin, M (1952) Listening Comprehension: Construct 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Dubuque: Brown & Benchmark 49 Wolvin, A., Coakley, C (1991) A Survey of the Status of Listening Training in Some Fortune 500 Corporations Communication Education, USA 50 Yagang, F (1994) Listening: Problems and Solutions Washington, DC: English Language Programs Divisions, USA 51 Yao, C K (1995) Needs Analysis of Freshman English Listening Curriculum Papers from the Twelfth Conferences on English Learning and teaching in the Republic of China (p 80-96) Taipei, Taiwan: The Crane Publishing Co., Ltd 52 Young, D (1997) An investigation of students‟ perspectives on anxiety and listening Foreign Language Annals 50 APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS Dear 11-grade students, The purpose of this questionnaire is to gather information about factors affecting listening comprehension of the eleventh grade students at a high school in Bac Ninh province 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’ opinion concerning affective factors on their listening comprehension Direction: Below is the list of statements that help you to identify the factors affecting your listening comprehension Read each statement and provide your responses basing on the listening factors you have experienced according to the following scale Circle if you always encounter the affective factor Circle if you often encounter the affective factor Circle if you sometimes encounter the affective factor Circle if you seldom encounter the affective factor Circle if you never encounter the affective factor No FACTORS 10 11 Never Seldom Sometimes Often Always Factors related to listening materials Unfamiliar words Difficult grammar structures Complex sentences Long listening text Uninteresting information Unfamiliar topics Factors related to listeners Prediction of what speaker talks about Lack of background knowledge Failure to recognize main points Lack of vocabulary Lack of listening strategies I 12 13 14 15 16 Factors related to speakers Variety of accents Speed of delivery Numbers of speakers Factors related to physical settings Disturbing noises Poor-quality tape-recorders 4 5 4 5 Part 2: Solutions to overcome those affective factors on learning listening Direction: In the following section I would like you to put a tick in any boxes indicating your opinion You can choose more than one options What you think teachers can to help students overcome the affective factors on learning listening skills in English?  Provide students with certain amount of words needed for listening activities Equip students with necessary strategies in listening comprehension Design listening tasks being more suitable to students‟ listening levels and interests Explain more clearly about the nature of spoken English Be flexible in organizing listening activities  Recommend other supplementary listening materials beside classroom activities  Give some extra listening activities which are more suitable to the students‟ level ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… Thank you very much for your time! II APPENDIX BẢNG CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT Các em học sinh lớp 11 thân mến, Mục đích điều tra để thu thập thông tin yếu tố ảnh hưởng tới kỹ nghe hiểu mà học sinh lớp 11 gặp phải học nghe 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 1: Ý kiến học sinh yếu tố ảnh hưởng tới kỹ nghe Hướng dẫn: Các vấn đề giúp em nhận yếu tố ảnh hưởng tới kỹ nghe hiểu Hãy đọc câu sau chọn câu trả lời theo mức Chọn em luôn gặp phải yếu tố ảnh hưởng Chọn em thường gặp phải yếu tố ảnh hưởng Chọn em gặp phải yếu tố ảnh hưởng Chọn em gặp phải yếu tố ảnh hưởng Chọn em không gặp phải yếu tố ảnh hưởng Không Luôn Hiếm Thỉnh Yếu tố bao Thường thoảng Yếu tố liên quan đến nghe Từ không quen thuộc Cấu trúc ngữ pháp khó Câu phức tạp Bài nghe dài 5 Thông tin không hay Các chủ đề không quen thuộc Yếu tố liên quan đến người nghe Việc dự đoán điều mà người nói nói Kiến thức Không nắm ý 10 Từ vựng Số TT III 11 12 13 14 15 16 Kỹ nghe hạn chế Yếu tố liên quan đến người nói Nhiều phương ngữ Tốc độ nghe Nhiều người nói nghe Yếu tố liên quan đến môi trường nghe Tiếng ồn (trong lớp) Chất lượng trang thiết bị 4 5 4 5 Phần 2: Một số giải pháp cho yếu tố ảnh hưởng việc học nghe học sinh Dưới số việc giáo viên làm để giúp em học nghe tốt Hãy đánh dấu vào điều với mong muốn em (Em chọn nhiều câu trả lời) Giáo viên cung cấp số từ vựng cấu trúc ngữ pháp quan trọng nghe Giáo viên cung cấp cho học sinh kĩ nghe cần thiết Giáo viên tự thiết kế thêm nghe phù hợp với trình độ sở thích học sinh Giáo viên giới thiệu tài liệu bổ sung bên hoạt động lớp học Giáo viên giải thích rõ tiếng Anh dùng văn nói Giáo viên linh hoạt việc tổ chức hoạt động nghe Ý kiến khác (hãy ghi vào đây) ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… Cảm ơn em dành thời gian trả lời! IV APPENDIX INTERVIEW FOR STUDENTS How these factors affect your listening comprehension? - How are you often taught pronunciation rules? - How can you sometimes guess the meaning of a new word? - How you predict what you are going to listen? - Have you ever been unable to complete listening exercises? Why? - Have you ever been not able to understand your teacher‟s instructions? - How does your poor pronunciation sometimes affect your listening comprehension? - How difficult listening texts and tasks often affect students‟ comprehension in listening lessons? - How you satisfy with your school facilities? In your opinion, what measures should be done to help you solve the affective factors on listening comprehension? Thanks very much for your kind cooperation! V APPENDIX CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN HỌC SINH Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng tới việc nghe hiểu em? - Em thường dạy quy tắc phát âm nào? - Em đoán nghĩa từ nào? - Em thường dự đoán vấn đề nghe trước lúc nghe nào? - Em khơng thể hồn thành tập nghe chưa? Tại sao? - Em không hiểu hướng dẫn thầy cô không? - Em nghĩ phát âm không tốt ảnh hưởng tới khả nghe hiểu nào? - Theo em, nghe tập nghe khó thường ảnh hưởng tới việc nghe hiểu học sinh nào? - Em hài lòng với sở vật chất trường nào? Theo em giải pháp nên thực để giải yếu tố ảnh hưởng trên? Cảm ơn em giành thời gian trả lời vấn VI APPENDIX INTERVIEW FOR TEACHERS What problems your students face in understanding listening passage? In your opinion, what are factors that affect listening comprehension? Mention as many factors as you can In your opinion, what are strategies to overcome those affective factors and improve students‟ listening comprehension? Thanks very much for your kind cooperation! VII APPENDIX CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN GIÁO VIÊN Học sinh anh/ chị thường gặp phải vấn đề học nghe? Theo anh/ chị, yếu tố ảnh hưởng tới việc học nghe học sinh? Theo anh/ chị, chiến thuật sử dụng để vượt qua yếu tố ảnh hưởng cải thiện kỹ nghe học sinh? Cảm ơn anh/ chị giành thời gian trả lời vấn VIII ... those factors Aims and objectives of the study The study aims at investigating the affective factors on listening comprehension among the eleventh students at a high school in Bac Ninh province The. .. The current study aims at investigating affective factors on listening comprehension of the eleventh students at a high school in Bac Ninh province Particularly, the researcher attempts to find... discussion and interpretations of the findings of the study, and then gives suggestions for the teachers and the students in learning listening at the school The implications of the study are also