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 POSTGRADUATE 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 POSTGRADUATE 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 Rationale Aims of the study Research Question Scope of the study Significance of the study Methods of the study Design of the study PART II: THE DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical background of listeni 1.2 Potential problems in learning and teaching listening 1.3 Previous studies on listening diff 1.4 Summary CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.1 The setting of the study 2.2 Participants 2.3 Data collection instruments CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 3.1 Survey questionaires 3.2 Interview 3.3 Class observation 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 I No Khó khăn gặp phải 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 không 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) …………………………… …………………………… …………………………… …………………………… …………………………… …………………………… …………………………… 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: No Statement There were a lot of new words in listenin text The listening topic was unfamiliar There were many complex grammatica structures in listening text It was a so long spoken text VI No Statement 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 s poor You found it difficult to recognize the words you know because of the way of 1 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 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 - No Rea stud bad lear habi Can – lis you - No alwa - As stud a 3 W afra X - Po voca and gram stru Wha liste - Gi mar com to enco stud How - Pr them liste strat XI ... research on the topic: ? ?The Problems faced by teachers and first year non- English major students at Sao Do University in teaching and learning English listening skills and some solutions? ?? with the hope... problems faced by teachers and first year non – English major students of Sao Do University in teaching and learning listening skills” and “What factors cause these difficulties to students and teachers? ”... for students The purpose of this study was to identify the listening problems faced by teachers and first year non – English major students of Sao Do University in teaching and learning listening