Using internet-assisted learning method to developlistening skills for business English studentsat national Economics University

Useful as it is, the application of internetassisted learning (IAL) in teaching English in Vietnam as a whole and at Business English Department (BED), Faculty of Foreign Languages, National Economics University (NEU) in particular is still limited and needs more thorough studies. Being a lecturer and leader of the Listening Group in BED, contributing to the growth of this course from initial steps, the researcher of the study has been aware of the advantages as well as disadvantages that IAL have brought to the development of English language skills in general, and in listening skills in particular.

Ti u ban 5: ng d ng công ngh thi t b gi ng d y nghiên c u v ngo i ng PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC SỬ DỤNG INTERNET NHẰM PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CHO SINH VIÊN TIẾNG ANH THƯƠNG MẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KINH TẾ QUỐC DÂN Lê Th Thu Mai, Ph m Th Tuy t H
ơng Trường Đại học Kinh tế Quốc dân Tóm t t: Việc ứng dụng phương pháp dạy tiếng tham gia hoạt ñộng giảng học kỹ nghe hiểu Anh có trợ giúp internet (IAL) Việt Nam tiếng Anh có trợ giúp internet phịng máy, Bộ mơn (BM) Tiếng Anh thương mại (TATM), SV cung cấp ñủ liệu giúp ñánh giá hiệu Trường Đại học Kinh tế Quốc dân (ĐHKTQD) phương pháp giảng dạy học tập này, ñồng thời nhiều hạn chế cần nghiên cứu chun sâu nêu lên số ñề xuất giúp việc ứng dụng Là giảng viên, đồng thời trưởng nhóm Kỹ phương pháp dạy học hoàn thiện nghe hiểu BM, tác giả ñã nhận thức ñược lợi ích bất cập phương pháp giảng dạy IAL ñối với việc phát triển kỹ tiếng Anh nói chung, kỹ nghe hiểu tiếng Anh nói riêng Abstract: Useful as it is, the application of internetassisted learning (IAL) in teaching English in Vietnam as a whole and at Business English Department (BED), Faculty of Foreign Languages, National Economics Nhìn chung, hầu hết sinh viên (SV) BM TATM University (NEU) in particular is still limited and needs ĐHKTQD gặp nhiều khó khăn thời gian more thorough studies Being a lecturer and leader of ñầu học BM, họ nắm từ vựng ngữ pháp the Listening Group in BED, contributing to the growth tốt Do đó, chương trình học Kỹ nghe hiểu of this course from initial steps, the researcher of the chủ yếu ñược thiết kế dành cho SV ñã theo học tiếng study has been aware of the advantages as well as Anh hệ năm năm phổ thông, chưa disadvantages quen với hoạt ñộng rèn luyện kỹ nghe hiểu Khóa development of English language skills in general, and học nhằm bước mục đích giúp SV luyện tập in listening skills in particular nâng cao kỹ nghe hiểu tiếng Anh that IAL have brought to the Generally, most students at BED, NEU (herein d ng referred to as BED students) have difficulties in nghe hi u cho listening comprehension on their first days at a sinh viên ti ng Anh th
ơng m i, Tr
ng Đ i h c university specializing in English, while they have quite Qu c dân“ nhằm mục tiêu: (i) tìm hiểu a good command of vocabulary and grammar nhận thức SV TATM lợi ích phương pháp Accordingly, the listening courses are mainly designed học có trợ giúp mạng internet ñối với việc phát for students who have learnt English at high school (in triển kỹ nghe hiểu tiếng Anh; (ii) tìm hiểu bất either the 3-year or 7-year program) and who haven't cập, khó khăn ứng dụng phương pháp dạy học got used to listening skills These courses aim at này; (iii) nêu số ñề xuất giúp giảng viên equipping students with practical skills to improve their (GV) cán quản lý tổ chức thực phương pháp listening skills step by step Nghiên cứu "Ph
ơng pháp d y h c có s internet nh m phát tri n k Kinh t dạy học hiệu The ultimate purpose of the study of “Using Nghiên cứu ñược tiến hành với tham gia 87 internet-assisted learning method to develop BED SV TATM Khóa 54 GV giảng kỹ nghe students’ listening skills” is to: (i) explore BED hiểu tiếng Anh BM kỳ 2, năm thứ (năm students’ perceptions of benefits of internet-assisted học 2012-2013) Tại thời điểm này, SV có thời gian learning làm quen với máy tính mạng Internet Sau kỳ development; (ii) investigate obstacles to the use of IAL 708 (IAL) to their English listening skills Chi n l
c ngo i ng xu th h i nh p Tháng 11/2014 activities in learning English listening skills at BED, had enough time to be familiar with the college life and NEU; and (iii) propose some recommendations to to gain some knowledge about using computers and relevant teachers and administrators for better the Internet After a semester taking part in the organization of IAL activities for BED students to application of teaching and learning listening in the improve their English listening skills laboratory with the assistance of internet websites, The participants were 87 first year English majored students of BED, NEU The time to conduct the research was during the second semester of the students’ first year (2012-2013), when the students had these students were supposed to provide enough data to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching listening skill in the internet-assisted laboratory as well as provide ground for suggestions to be made USING INTERNET-ASSISTED LEARNING METHOD TO DEVELOPLISTENING SKILLS FOR BUSINESS ENGLISH STUDENTSAT NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY Background students were randomly chosen from 144 first year BED students They belong to three classes Useful as it is, the application of internetInstead of randomly selecting the individuals, the assisted learning (IAL) in teaching English in investigator randomly selects the groups or classes Vietnam as a whole and at Business English for investigation Thus, the students chosen in this Department (BED), Faculty of Foreign Languages, study could be representatives for the whole group National Economics University (NEU) in of freshmen at BED particular is still limited and needs more thorough The time to conduct the research was during studies Being a lecturer who has contributed to the growth of this course from initial steps, the the second semester of the students’ first year researcher has been aware of the advantages as (2012-2013), when the students had had enough well as disadvantages that IAL has brought to the time to be familiar with the college life and to gain development of English language skills in general, some knowledge about using computers and the Internet After a semester taking part in the and in listening skills in particular application of teaching and learning listening in Purposes of the study the language laboratory with the use of websites, The ultimate purpose of the study “Using these students were supposed to provide enough internet-assisted learning method to develop data to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching listening skill in the internet-assisted language Listening skills for Business English students at laboratory as well as provide ground for National Economics University” is to: (i) explore suggestions to be made students’ perceptions of benefits of internet4 BED students’ perceptions of IAL in assisted learning (IAL) to their English listening skills development; (ii) investigate obstacles to the listening skill development use of IAL activities in learning English listening 4.1 Students’ perceptions towards IAL in skills at BED, NEU; and (iii) propose some English listening skill in the multimedia recommendations to relevant teachers and classroom administrators for better organization of IAL The first question in the survey questionnaire activities for BED students to improve their deals with the perceptions of learning English English listening skills listening skill through Internet-assisted activities Selection of participants in the listening multimedia classrooms Their The participants of this study were 74 first year attitudes towards this new approach of teaching English major students of BED, NEU These and learning are revealed in Chart 709 Ti u ban 5: ng d ng công ngh thi t b gi ng d y nghiên c u v ngo i ng Cha rt 1: S tude nts ' a ttitud es to wards inte rne t-as s is te d le ar ni ng Englis h lis te ning sk ill in the multime dia cla ss room 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 36 28 v er y effec tive e ffe ctiv e not ve ry effec ti ve not effec ti ve a t all Generally speaking, the students were positive about internet-assisted learning English listening skill in the multimedia classroom (Chart 1) Although almost all of them indicated their satisfaction with this new approach of learning English listening skill (64 out of 74 students), some still have doubts This could be explained as the term "effective" might not have been the best word to use in the questionnaire since it is vague It is also difficult for students to judge the effectiveness of a new technology after only being familiar with it for a semester These students also gave reasons for their dissatisfaction, which would be referred to in the next part of the study 4.2 Students' attitudes towards the appropriateness of the listening course in the new teaching approach Overall, the students were positive towards the appropriateness of IAL activities (Table 1), especially its function in supplementing in-class learning (84%) However, they did not show as much agreement when asked whether the program was suited for their English proficiency level (55%) This is probably due to the fact that students in these classes have varied English proficiency levels to start with Moreover, over two thirds agreed that the materials on the selected websites were related to their current English lessons (68%) More interestingly, a high proportion of the respondents (80%) expressed their pleasure with this listening course in the new teaching approach explaining that the course provided them with further listening skill Table 1: Students’ attitudes towards the appropriateness of the listening course with the Internet assistance Number of students Percentage (%) The course was an appropriate supplement to in-class instruction 62 84% The course was appropriate for the skill level of the students 46 55% The course was appropriately related to the current listening lessons 50 68% The course provided us with further listening skills 59 80% Options 710 Chi n l
c ngo i ng xu th h i nh p 4.3 The effectiveness of IAL in improving their English listening skill a Concentration Two students said that internet-assisted learning English skill in the self-study period gave them a great chance to be concentrated when they can occupy their own cabin in the multimedia classroom This made their listening more effectively b Interest Four of the respondents felt that this learning activity is very interesting and can attract their attention throughout the lesson They provided lots of their satisfaction as well as leisure throughout their practice sessions c Updated material One more benefits that nearly half of the students interviewed recognized is that the listening activity gets them updated They all seemed eager to discover current things happening around them d Authentic English language Surprisingly, many students enjoyed the authenticity of the materials on the recommended websites They felt quite interested in the way native speakers pronounced Their intonation, accent and voice seemed attractive to students Some of the students find it best to study some of the colloquial and spoken language from listening to the authentic material in their listening lessons They can not only be able to approach updated with news and information in the target language but also learn a lot from pronunciation and intonation of English native speakers e Time saving Moreover, two students said that internetassisted listening activity saved a lot of their time They explained that time was very precious in their learning responsibilities as they needed to study many other language skills and other courses in the curriculum But now this learning Tháng 11/2014 approach helped them to practise listening skills in an effective way without having to spend so much time f Convenience Two respondents thought that it was quite convenient when they learn English listening skill through internet-assisted activities just by sitting in front of the computer screen as well as enjoying the totally free resources online g Independence More than half of the students interviewed agreed that this learning activity helps them to build their independence They thought that it gave them a very clear purpose and goal at the beginning of the lesson They can find their own needs and expectations They actually realized the importance of persistent practice The reasons they gave are quite understandable These are two of the main reasons given by the respondents, namely practicing a lot at home and choosing their favorite activities for self-practice h Motivation Interestingly, most of the students are really motivated by this new learning approach They felt more eager in the lesson, especially in the selfstudy period Through her class observation, the researcher could see the difference in the students’ classroom behavior and performance when they were in the multimedia classroom compared to that in traditional ones First, class attendance was higher compared with that in the traditional classrooms In most cases in traditional classrooms, there were one or two students absent and many students were late for class But during listening periods in the multimedia classrooms, fewer students were absent or late for class During the self-study period, nobody dozed off, although the classes were in the afternoon They were active in taking notes, discussing with their partners, and checking their understanding Seeing this attention and conscientiousness on the students’ part, the researcher felt quite rewarded and thought efforts of the group of teachers of listening were not in vain 711 Ti u ban 5: ng d ng công ngh thi t b gi ng d y nghiên c u v ngo i ng On the other hand, students became more enthusiastic about practicing listening In addition to their attentive behavior in the class, the students also did a lot of practice after class as shown from the interview From the informal small questions besides the interview, I could see that all the students finished the tasks as required and about 1/3 of them even listened to the files again at home or in Internet shops where they can get access to the Internet Difficulties encountered by students in the internet-assisted English listening activity Besides the above positive attitudes toward the new learning approach, students also encounter some difficulties, which are detailed as follows a Lack of computer skills The most popular difficulty reported is the unfamiliarity with computer functions As mentioned in the previous part, nearly half of the respondents of the survey not own a computer, this difficulty is understandable Although students attend a training session of how to use the facilities in the multimedia classroom before joining the course, this amount of time is not adequate for them to feel confident when using these modern facilities However, a few students think that using a computer is not that much difficult Most of these students come from cities and have been using computers since they were at high schools b Technical problems The second most frequent problem is technical ones Although the multimedia laboratories are well furnished with modern computers connected to the Internet, they are not periodically maintained Besides, the dense frequency of using these facilities’ qualities may also be worsened Therefore, students sometimes have technical problems with their computer in the laboratories, such as problems with sudden computer crash, outdated software which does not allow the installation of new programs suggested in 712 websites, headphone volumes, slow speed Internet disconnection, and so on c Getting lost Besides the following popular difficulties, three of the student interviewees share the same problem of getting lost when they listening exercises online They explained that, after they finished the listening assignments in the suggested websites, they continued surfing the Internet They were too interested in what they found online and kept glued to the screen Students’ suggestions to improve the effectiveness of the Internet-assisted listening learning 6.1 Suggestions to the administrator a Improving facilities quality As mentioned above, students said that they encountered lots of technical problems while they studied in the lab Therefore, the suggestions they all made to the administrators is to improve the quality of facilities They said that the computers need to be faster They preferred an LCD screen to avoid eye problems Headphones in the lab should be checked to provide the adequate quality to enhance their listening rather than annoying them b Training computer skills Many students come from rural areas and are not familiar with using computers Therefore, it is understandable for them to ask for more thorough computer skill training at the beginning of the course Only one training session is not just enough for them to be comfortable using the computer This suggestion was made by seven out of fifteen student interviewees c Improving classroom layout The students interviewed also made a suggestion related to the interaction among students in the laboratory As the room is equipped with forty computers, its layout is not convenient for them to interact, especially in pair or group activities Chi n l
c ngo i ng xu th h i nh p 6.2 Suggestions to the teachers Besides, students also wanted to make some suggestions to their listening teachers These suggestions will certainly be of great help for teachers to enhance the effectiveness of the Internet-assisted listening learning activities a Creating more activities to motivate students Almost all students interviewed said that the teacher should give more activities to motivate them during the lesson This suggestion is highly appreciated as these activities would help to hold the students’ attention and enthusiasm throughout the lesson b Being skillful in technical issues Three of the interviewees even expressed that the teachers should be more skillful in technical issues In that case, the teacher could help them when they got into trouble with their computers during their listening practice c Choosing appropriate materials Interestingly, about half of the students interviewed said that they are quite satisfied with the types of online listening exercises that their teachers suggested They thought the topic chosen, the language used in the materials, and the levels of difficulty of the materials are quite suitable to their needs and levels However, three students felt that some materials are too hard for them to listen Two of them even commented that the content in some website material is not interesting enough They would like the teacher to choose more appropriate materials This is not difficult to understand because the students not have the same level and interest 6.3 Suggestions to the students themselves Surprisingly, the students also give very interesting suggestions to themselves a Learning to use computers professionally Five students expressed their needs to learn to use the computer professionally This is Tháng 11/2014 reasonable as they have recognized the importance of this new learning approach and wanted to improve their computer skills in order to gain more from learning in this way b Being strict to themselves during the selfstudy period From the interview, the researcher is glad to see that students’ autonomy is quite good About half of the student interviewees said that they need to be stricter to themselves while they are practising their listening skill during the self-study period They explained that if they were stricter, they would find listening more comfortable and could catch more from the listening passages Conclusion In line with the findings, the research implies that: i Internet-assisted learning does have certain benefits to students’ English listening skill development The application of the Internet to the teaching and learning of English listening skill is really necessary ii Students have recognized the vital effectiveness that Internet-assisted learning have on their English listening skill development However, they still encountered some key problems during their learning process in the multimedia classrooms iii Students have provided useful suggestions which would be of great help to enhance the benefits of Internet-assisted learning to students’ English listening skill development Recommendations Based on the major findings or the research, it is of optimistic view of the researcher that multimedia classroom could be beneficially taken advantage to provide great assistance for students to improve their English listening skills This research is hoped to give administrators and teachers of other universities some ideas about how to utilize their multimedia classrooms as well as apply the IAL activities as suggested for this purpose 713 Ti u ban 5: ng d ng công ngh thi t b gi ng d y nghiên c u v ngo i ng APPENDIX 1: Reference materials for self-study session: Internet websites are collected by the teacher and suggested to the students during their self-study session: http://www.esl-lab.com http://www.listenaminute.com http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/listen-and-watch http://www.listen-to-english.com/ http://www.english-listening-world.com/ http://elllo.org/ http://www.englishclub.com/webguide/Listening/ http://www.digischool.nl/oefenen/hennyjellema/engels/tpr/voorbladtpr.htm 10 http://english-trailers.org 11 http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=2 12 http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/ 13 http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/ 14 http://listenandwrite.com/ 15 http://esl.about.com/od/englishlistening/English_Listening_Skills_and_ActivitiesEffective_ Listening_Practice.htm 16 http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/index.shtml 714 ... for suggestions to be made USING INTERNET-ASSISTED LEARNING METHOD TO DEVELOPLISTENING SKILLS FOR BUSINESS ENGLISH STUDENTSAT NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY Background students were randomly chosen... to provide enough internet-assisted learning method to develop data to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching listening skill in the internet-assisted language Listening skills for Business English. .. at Business English for investigation Thus, the students chosen in this Department (BED), Faculty of Foreign Languages, study could be representatives for the whole group National Economics University