Using a record sorfware to promote high school students english listening and speaking skills

1 Vietnam national university, Hanoi University of Languages and international studies Faculty of Post-graduate Studies NGUYỄN THỊ THU THỦY USING A RECORD SOFTWARE TO PROMOTE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS (Sử dụng phần mềm ghi âm để phát triển kỹ nghe nói tiếng Anh học sinh trung học phổ thông) MA MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Trần Thị Thu Hiền, M.A Hanoi, 2010 Vietnam national university, Hanoi University of Languages and international studies Faculty of Post-graduate Studies NGUYỄN THỊ THU THỦY USING A RECORD SOFTWARE TO PROMOTE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS (Sử dụng phần mềm ghi âm để phát triển kỹ nghe nói tiếng Anh học sinh trung học phổ thông) MA MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: Hanoi, 2010 Table of contents DECLARATION Acknowledgement Abstract List of abbreviation PART A: Introduction Rationale Aims of study Scope of the study Hypothesis Methods of the study Organizations of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter Literature Review 1.1 Theoretical background of application technology in language teaching 1.2 Adobe Audition software: A description 1.2.1 Origin and evolution of Adobe Audition software 1.2.2 Available versions of Adobe Audition software 1.2.3 Functions of Adobe Audition 1.3 Benefits of using record software in listening and speaking teaching 1.4 Chapter summary Chapter The Study 2.1 Setting of the study 2.2 Subjects 2.3 Instruments 2.3.1 Test 2.3.1.1 Listening test 2.3.1.2 Speaking test 2.4 Questionnaire 2.5 The Experiment 2.6 Data collection procedure 2.6.1 Listening test 2.6.2 Speaking test 2.6.3 Marking 2.6.4 Questionnaire 2.7 Data analysis procedure 2.8 Chapter summary Chapter 3: Results and Discussion 3.1 Speaking test results 3.1.1 Pre - speaking test 3.1.2 Post - speaking test 3.2 Listening test results 3.2.1 Pre - listening test 3.2.2 Post - listening test 3.3 Students‟ interest in English speaking and listening lessons 3.3.1 Speaking 3.3.2 Listening 3.4 Discussion 3.5 Chapter summary PART C: Conclusion Major findings of the research Concluding Remarks Implications Limitations Recommendations References Appendix A Pre - post survey questions Appendix B Speaking and listening lesson plans Appendix C The five speaking criteria were specified into the marking scales Tables and charts Table 1.1 Table 1.2 Table 3.1 Table 3.2 Table 3.3 Table 3.4 Chart 3.1 Chart 3.2 Chart 3.3 Chart 3.4 Chart 3.5 Chart 3.6 ABSTRACT The main aims of this study are to test the hypothesis on the benefits of applying record software named Adobe Audition in enhancing the high students English speaking and listening as well as in changing their interest in listening and speaking lessons To fulfill this objective, a quasi - experiment research method in which pre-post tests and brief questionnaire survey were used as research tools in this study The results obtained from the study are as follow: both English speaking and listening increased when using record function in Adobe Audition software However, the promotion in students speaking was not as good as that in listening Both students‟ interest in English speaking and listening was raised after using Adobe Audition Hopefully, the results of the study can be used as referential material for teachers and students to enhance the effectiveness of using technology in teaching and learning English speaking and listening skills, and it will be the topic for other further studies in the future in reading and writing skills LIST OF ABBREVIATION CAPT: Computer Assisted Pronunciation Training CLT: Communicative language teaching CMC: Computer mediated communication EFL: English as Foreign Language FL: Foreign language ICT: Information and communication technology OHPs : Overhead projectors PBT: Paper based test TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language V1: Version V2: Version V3: Version 10 PART A: Introduction Rationale English becomes very important in the time of globalization and as a result, communicative ability in English becomes necessary, and in many cases essential, to people of various professions This is true of Vietnam, too, where great efforts have been made to promote the quality of teaching and learning English At this time in Vietnam, the students who can speak English fluently are not many, which may be due to the fact that students are not tested orally Another factor accounting for students‟ low oral proficiency is that they not have adequate opportunities to produce the language In order to address the problem of inadequate exposure to the input of the target language and the opportunities for linguistic output, technology seems to be a workable solution The benefits of using technology in the language classroom have been studied by many researchers in applied linguistics in terms of its benefits to the development of students‟ communicative skills Unfortunately, these benefits have not been researched sufficiently in the context of Vietnamese schools, particularly, the high schools Thus, this study is an attempt to examine the benefits of using computer software to the students‟ speaking and listening proficiency The software which is experimented in this study is the „Adobe Audition‟, which is produced in the United States of America From my practical experience, the Adobe Audition software has a number of advantages when it is used in the classroom Firstly, it allows teachers to record their voice when necessary for different pedagogic purposes, to edit the recordings as they want to improve its quality, to give and check students‟ homework effectively The software also supports teachers and saves their time planning their lessons, presenting their lessons or producing recordings for testing students‟ listening comprehension Teachers feel free to edit the recorded messages easily, for example, by shortening or lengthening sentences, while guaranteeing the voice quality Secondly, the software allows students to record their own utterances as frequently as they wish or to make their own recordings for further practice at home The third benefit of the software is that, with this software, students can make video clips with their own scripts so that they can listen again to their own voice at home by means of a mobile phone or a computer As a result, students can reduce their 11 anxiety in practicing speaking English This is extremely important given the fact that students‟ anxiety is a common classroom problem in many Vietnamese high schools Fourthly, the software is instrumental to promoting learner autonomy because they can learn English according to their own time and interest outside the school where teachers‟ direct supervision is absent All the benefits mentioned above have been experienced by the researcher of this study herself However, those benefits are just what the researcher felt intuitively, rather than being tested empirically It is the absence of empirical evidence of the benefits of the Adobe Audition in the context of a Vietnamese high school that motivated the research to conduct this study, which was set out to test the benefits of Adobe Audition to the enhancement of high school students‟ speaking and listening profiency as well as their interest in the speaking and listening lessons The study was conducted in a school in Hanoi where the researcher herself was teaching Aims of the study The study aims to reach the following targets:  To examine the benefits of using Adobe Audition in teaching listening and speaking English for high school students  To find out whether, and to what extent, Adobe Audition enhances the students‟ interest in speaking and listening lessons Scope of the study The study limits itself to the testing of the effectiveness of Adobe Audition on grade 12 students‟ two communicative skills, i.e., listening and speaking only The reasons for limiting the study to these two language skills are more practical than pedagogical Firstly, these skills are most important to students‟ English communicative ability because students cannot communicate well in English unless they are sufficiently good at speaking and listening Moreover, Adobe Audition is designed for teaching listening and speaking in the language classroom, not for other language skills such as reading and writing 12 The language input used for this study is mostly based on the textbook and some other supplementary materials, which were selected from authentic sources such as English newspapers or self - making video clips Hypothesis In this study, the following hypothesis was tested:  The use of Adobe Audition enhances students‟ interest in listening and speaking English, thereby helping to improve their listening and speaking proficiency Methods of the study Since the purpose of the study is to test the impact of Adobe Audition on students‟ interest in listening and speaking English as well as their listening and speaking 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Do you find listening lessons interesting? Appendix B: In speaking lessons: Stage Warm up ms Presentation 10 ms 55 Practice 15ms Production 15ms 56 Homework ms In listening lessons: Stage Warm up ms 57 Presentation 10 ms Practice 20ms 58 Production 10ms Homework ms 59 60 Appendix C: Criteria for Assessment of Students’ Speaking Competence Five assessment criteria were specified into the following marking scales : Fluency Score Virtually native- speaker and rhythm in everyday contexts though there may be some Speech with minimal hesitation in everyday contexts Hesitation when discussing abstract topics does not demand unreasonable patience of the listener No unreasonable hesitation in everyday contexts though may experience some difficulty with abstract topics Unacceptable hesitation even in everyday contexts Speech very disconnected Incapable of connected speech Interactive communication Score Wholly effective interaction at communicative in everyday contexts Largely effective interaction in communication on more abstract topics Effective communication in everyday contexts but laps sometimes when dealing with more abstract topics Adequate communication in everyday contexts but experiences some difficulty in discussing more abstract topic Difficulty in communicating even in everyday contexts 61 Race capability of communicating even at basic level No communication Intonation Score Performan Near- native stress-timing, rhythm and p range of pitch with sentence, natural link Good stress-timing, rhythm, spacing of sounding foreign, speech is easily under Stress-timing, rhythm, spacing of stress mostly be understood Unacceptable foreign speech patterns pr impeding interpretation Often difficulty Stress and intonation so foreign that littl No intelligibility, through faulty stress a Pronunciation Score All individual sounds virtually as native – speaker Individual sounds sufficiently well pronounced for clear and easy understanding 62 Sounds sufficiently correct for broad understanding Poor pronunciation of individual sounds Pronunciation so poor that it represents only a crude approximation to English sounds Unintelligibility Vocabulary resource Score Wide and appropriate range of vocabulary for everyday tasks and rarely searching for vocabulary when discussing more abstract topics Few gaps in vocabulary for everyday tasks though more abstract topics reveal weaknesses Vocabulary adequate for everyday tasks though may experience difficulty when discussing more abstract topics Vocabulary often insufficient to accomplish even tasks Poor vocabulary No vocabulary ... Clean up audio for a movie  Compile and edit a soundtrack or a video  and more … 25 1.3 Benefits of using record software in listening and speaking teaching Many language learners regard speaking. .. Students have at least three English lessons per week and class time allocated to reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus equally As time goes by, a fact reveals that Truong Dinh students. .. following targets:  To examine the benefits of using Adobe Audition in teaching listening and speaking English for high school students  To find out whether, and to what extent, Adobe Audition enhances