(Luận văn thạc sĩ) an exploratory study on the teaching and learning at post listening stage by international standard program students, ULIS VNU

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES BÙI THỊ HẰNG AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE TEACHING AND LEARNING AT POST-LISTENING STAGE BY INTERNATIONAL STANDARD PROGRAM STUDENTS, ULIS-VNU (NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG DẠY VÀ HỌC Ở GIAI ĐOẠN SAU KHI NGHE CHO SINH VIÊN NHIỆM VỤ CHIẾN LƯỢC TRƯỜNG ĐHNN, ĐHQGHN) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Hanoi- 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDY BÙI THỊ HẰNG AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE TEACHING AND LEARNING AT POST-LISTENING STAGE BY INTERNATIONAL STANDARD PROGRAM STUDENTS, ULIS-VNU ((NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG DẠY VÀ HỌC Ở GIAI ĐOẠN SAU KHI NGHE CHO SINH VIÊN NHIỆM VỤ CHIẾN LƯỢC TRƯỜNG ĐHNN, ĐHQGHN) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Supervisor: Dr Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Quỳnh Hanoi- 2013 DECLARATION I certify that this thesis entitled: “An exploratory study on the teaching and learning at post-listening stage by International Standard Program students, ULIS-VNU” which is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, is the result of my own work I have provided fully documented references to the work of others The material in this thesis has not been submitted for any other formal course Bui Thi Hang Hanoi,2013 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My words of thanks go to all the people who have contributed to the accomplishment of this graduation paper First of all, it is with affection and appreciation that I would love to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor Dr Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, without whose valuable advice and enthusiastic guidance, this research would not have become a reality Secondly, I would be honestly grateful to Mrs Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, M.A my old teacher as well as my beloved colleague, who was very busy with her work but still spent precious time discussing and sharing her teaching experiences relating to my research field Also, I owe a great debt to my family, teachers and friends for their continuous support, advice and encouragement whenever I was in need of Last but not least, my sincere thanks are warmly sent to the teachers of ISP division and ISP students who enthusiastically and patiently helped me collect significant data for the study ii ABSTRACT The recent education reform, most obviously in ELT has brought a new identity to the teaching procedure of language skills, comprising three stages: Pre, While and Post stage However, the importance of the post stage tends to be lowered as the optional part of an English lesson and poorly or even ineffectively carried out due to a number of factors Post-listening stage is not excluded In response to this depressing fact, “An exploratory study on the teaching and learning at postlistening stage by International Standard Program students, ULIS-VNU” was initiated, carried out and completed Taking into consideration the importance of post-listening stage as well as the research gap in this field, the paper focuses primarily on the current situation of teaching and learning at this phase, especially the utilization of follow-up activities, students‟ preferences and their perceived benefits of these activities In an attempt to realize aforementioned objectives, this graduation paper is conducted by means of class observation, teachers‟ interview and survey questionnaire which are described in detail in chapter after the theoretical background knowledge of the subject matter has been provided in chapter The findings presented in chapter reveal that post-listening activities have been widely conducted but not as effectively as expected mostly due to the lack of time and students‟ enthusiasm The most preferable follow-up activities were reflection and creative tasks Also, there was a mismatch between teachers‟ objectives for postlistening stage and students‟ perceived benefits of the activities carried out during this stage It is the great ambition of the researcher that this study will function as a useful reference for teachers of English who take interest in the subject matter iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TABLES CLT: Communicative Language Teaching ELT: English Language Teaching ISP: International Standard Program ULIS: University of Language and International Studies VNU: Vietnam National University Table 1: Post-listening form and activities in accordance with ISP teachers‟ objectives Table 2: Types of post-listening activities exploited in observed classes Table 3: Frequency of the utilization of post-listening activities Table 4: Students‟ preferences for post-listening activities iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the study Methods of the study Significance of the study .4 Scope of the study Organization of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW The nature of listening 1.1 What is listening? 1.2 The process of listening 1.3 The importance of listening skill in language teaching and learning 1.4 The relationship between listening and other language skills .9 The teaching of listening in Communicative Language Teaching Approach 10 Teaching listening procedure .11 3.1 Pre-listening 12 3.2 While-listening 12 3.3 Post-listening .12 An in-depth overview of post-listening activities 13 4.1 Purposes of post-listening activities 13 4.2 Factors affecting the choice of post-listening activities 14 4.3 Forms of post-listening activities 15 v 4.4 Integration in post-listening activities 15 Related studies 15 Summary 17 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 18 Setting 18 1.1 Introduction of International Standard Program (ISP) 18 1.2 Listening materials 18 Participants .19 2.1 ISP Teachers 19 2.2 ISP students 19 Data collection instruments .19 3.1 Classroom observation 20 3.2 Interview 20 3.3 Questionnaires .21 Data Collection Procedures .21 Data Analysis Procedure 22 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 23 Research question 1- The general situation of teaching and learning at postlistening stage for ISP students in ULIS, VNU 23 1.1 Teachers‟ objectives for conducting post-listening stage 23 1.2 Duration of post-listening stage 24 1.3 Types of exploited post-listening activities 25 1.4 Students‟ participation during post-listening stage .30 1.5 Teacher‟s perceived difficulties in conducting post-listening stage 30 Research question 2- Students‟ preferences for post-listening activities 31 vi Research Question 3- Students‟ perceived benefits of post-listening activities 34 Summary 35 PART C: CONCLUSION .37 Conclusions 37 Recommendations for overcoming difficulties .39 Limitations of the study .41 Suggestions for further studies 41 REFERENCES 43 APPENDICES I vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale The ultimate goal of teaching and learning English for International Standard Program students is learners‟ ability to use English for communicative purposes In an attempt to obtain this aim, together with learning English grammar and pronunciation, students have chances to practice the four fundamental skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, among which listening makes a significant contribution to the process of language acquisition In fact, the listening score of ISP students has always been disappointing and alarming The theory, which was initiated by Rixon (1981) as a result of Task-based Language Teaching and later supported by Underwood (1989), is that every listening section is subdivided into three main parts: pre-, while-, post-listening Nevertheless, in reality, the problem is that the teaching and learning of listening skill for ISP students appear not to be effective as not all the teachers cover the three stages of a listening class, most notably the post-listening stage The main focus of almost all listening lessons is to make students listen to the text with exercises to be completed during the while-listening stage Noticeably, the postlistening stage is said to be ineffective and irrelevant to what students have listened to or even ignored in some listening classes notwithstanding that this stage is as important as all other stages In addition, most of the activities at this stage are initiated and controlled by the teachers and listening skill is frequently isolated from other language skills In terms of pedagogical view, there has been a lack of proper research interests and investigations into the post-listening stage even though studies on pre-listening and while-listening strategies as well as activities have been constantly carried out This stems partially from the inherent conception that the post-listening stage merely deals with checking listening comprehension exercises conducted, the follow-up task which requires students‟ response is thought to be ineffective in provoking their critical thinking and creativity Recommendations for overcoming difficulties that teachers encounter during post-listening stage Based on the results and suggestions from ISP teachers, the researcher would like to propose some possible solutions to tackle with aforementioned challenges hindering the effectiveness of post-listening stage  Limited time class As highlighted earlier, having trouble with time allocation for each stage was incontrovertibly the most stumbling block that all the teachers experienced To deal with this problem, there emerged different remedies To begin with, it is widely held that well-prepared lesson plans can effectively eliminate dead time since all the activities are designed, ordered in a reasonable way Additionally, on drafting the lesson plan, teachers may anticipate possible problems arising in the class and prepare several back-up plans Therefore, the class time can be reasonably allocated to various activities held in each stage In addition, there is a must to emphasize the significance of exercise adaptation as a good way to save class time In fact, the teachers‟ problem of being under time pressure is rooted from their misunderstanding that the textbook is knowledgebased rather than skilled-based Moreover, the ultimate goal of a listening lesson is not to assess how well students can listening comprehension exercises but to communicatively transfer listening skill to the world beyond the classroom Hence, adaptation seems to be the best strategy to cope with class time restriction As every lesson has many tasks, teachers should make decision and focus on the more important one The other can be omitted and combined to save time 39 Last but not least, teachers‟ talk should be reduced, giving the chance for students‟ work Also, instruction must be brief, easy to understand and are made clear to all the students  Lack of students’ enthusiastic participation It is understandable that students‟ lack of enthusiasm at post-listening stage results from their tiredness caused during the two previous stages Therefore, it exerts a big challenge for the teachers to evoke students‟ interests and then promote their active participation A number of solutions are listed out as follows First, teachers should get to know their students‟ backgrounds, needs, interests and levels, based on which certain adaptations can be made to meet specific demands for each class Second, before introducing a post-listening activity, teachers should make its objectives and connection with the listening text explicit to the students by raising such questions like: “You are going to this because it will help you how to express the agreement and disagreement with your friend‟s argument” or “it is useful to retain a number of points presented in the text by doing this task” Via this technique, teacher can raise students‟ awareness of the importance of post-listening activities and therefore, motivate their involvement in these activities Also, the teachers can mention at the beginning that active participation at the post-listening stage is highly evaluated and it is worth a certain percentage of the final course assessment Teachers should also make attempt to randomly call nonvolunteers so that all the students are forced to speak and join the activity  Lack of appropriate post-listening activities As a matter of fact, it is a real challenge to maintain students‟ interest by means of various interesting activities which not only suit students‟ level but also directly relate to the listening content Therefore, teachers should bear in mind that different activities can vary from lesson to lesson, depending on the listening materials and 40 students‟ English competence Ideas from teachers‟ interview shows that the listening topic and content determine the kind of post-listening activities conducted during the last stage For example, it is advisable to organize reflection and creative task to wrap up the lessons which tackle with familiar, practical topics and real-life situations However, language focus and comprehension review appear to be take effect for lessons with academic topics and chronological order One more important thing is that the level of difficulty of these activities may increase with students‟ proficiency to create a challenging motivation for students in learning listening skill Limitations of the study Notwithstanding the researcher‟s considerable effort, the study inevitably exposes certain shortcomings due to the limited number of participants and the time constraint One of the most obvious drawbacks of the study is the limited number of participants The quantity of research participants, including 10 surveyed teachers and 70 surveyed students remained comparatively modest Besides, observations in only ten ISP classes were not adequate enough to evaluate the current situation of teaching and learning at post-listening stage The second limitation of this research was time constraint leading to the fact that the study fails to have a deeper insight into problems encountered by teachers in implementing post-listening stage for ISP students Therefore, all comments and suggestions are highly appreciated Suggestions for further studies On the whole, all the issues relating to listening procedure cannot be covered in this study Due to aforementioned limitations, the paper only sets the first step in the research on post-listening stage which has not been adequately investigated so far Inevitably, further studies with broad scope of topic and population as well as thorough data analysis are highly recommended To be more specific, the scope of 41 other studies may touch upon the remained stage of a listening lesson, namely prelistening and while-listening stage Integration of listening and other skills demonstrated at post-listening stage can be a good source of research Besides, since the paper focuses on the real exploitation of post-listening activities among non-specializing students of English, other researchers may investigate different objects in other teaching contexts 42 REFERENCES Brown, H D (2007) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching NY: Pearson Longman Brown, H D (1994) Teaching by principles: An interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy: Pearson Hall Regents Brown, G & Yule, G., (1983), Teaching the Spoken Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Brownell, J (1996) Listening: Attitudes, principles, and skills Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon Brumfit, C J & Johnson K (1979) The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching: Oxford University Press Burns, A (1999) Collaborative action research for English language teachers Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Byrnes H (1984) The role of listening comprehension: A theoretical base Foreign Language Annals, 17: 317-329 Dunkel, P (1986) Developing Listening Fluency in Language Learning The Theoretical Principles and Pedagogical considerations The Morden Language Journal, 70(2), 99-106 Gass, S M (1988) Integrating research areas: A framework for second language studies Applied Linguistics 9:198-217 Harmer, J (2001) The practice of language teaching, Third ed Harlow: Longman 43 Janset, M A & Pekin, A (1985) The Process of Listening Applied Linguistics Retrieved October 24, 2013 from http://www.ingilish.com/listeningactivities.htm Mendelsohn, D J & Rubin, J (1995) A guide for the teaching of second language listening San Diego, CA: Dominie Press Mowbray, G & George, J (1992) Objectives set for after-listening Regina, SK Saskatchewan Education Retrieved March 27, 2013 from http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/listening/liindex.htm Nguyen, T.T.V (1999) Integrating of listening and speaking in listening lessons at non-professional universities Hanoi: Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, University of Languages and International StudiesVietnam National Univerisity Nunan, D & Miller, L (Eds.) (1995) New ways in teaching listening Alexandria, VA: TESOL Peterson, P W (1991) A synthesis of methods for interactive listening In M Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language Boston MA: Heinle & Miller Rixon, S (1981).The design of materials to foster particular linguistic skills The teaching of listening comprehension London: The British council Rost, M (1990) Listening in Language Learning London: Longman Saricoban, J L (1999) The Teaching of Listening Hacettepe University, Beytepe-Ankara, Turkey Retrieved June 15, 2013 from http://iteslj.org/Articles/Saricoban-Listening.html Tchudi, S & Mitchell, D (1989) The interaction of Listening and Speaking in Language Learning, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc Retrieved September 8, 2013 from http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/mla/speak.html 44 Underwood, M (1989) Teaching Listening, NY: Longman Vo, T.A (2002) Research on improving the method of teaching listening skills to 10th form students at the FLSS-CFL-VNU, Hanoi Hanoi: University of Languages and International Studies- Vietnam National Univerisity Wolvin, A D & Coakley, C G 1992 Listening Dubuque, IA: William C Brown 45 APPENDICES INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS I am doing these interview questions in the completion of a research about post-listening stage among ISP listening lessons I would be grateful if you could answer all the questions honestly Thank you very much ******************** Do you often carry out post-listening activities in your listening lessons at ISP division? If not, why? What are your specific purposes for conducting post-listening stage? Are they the same for all listening lessons? By which activities can you achieve these objectives and which ones you frequently apply in reality? In your opinion, what are the factors affecting your objectives and choices of post-listening activities? What are the difficulties that you encounter while conducting post-listening stage for ISP students? What are possible solutions to overcome those difficulties? THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME! I QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS (English version) My name is Bui Thi Hang, a post-graduate student of Vietnam National University, University of Languages and International Studies This survey questionnaire is designed to collect information for my M.A thesis entitled “An exploratory study on the teaching and learning at post-listening stage by International Standard Program students, ULIS-VNU” Your assistance will contribute greatly to the success of my research Thank you very much for your support and cooperation! ************************* Please circle the letters(s) that you choose or fill in the missing information In a listening lesson, does your teacher ask you to further task after checking your listening comprehension? A Yes B No 2&3 What kind of activities you after finishing listening comprehension? After that, put a tick (V) on the activities which you would like to join most (You can circle more than one option Post-listening activities A Vocabulary check B Grammar and pronunciation revision II C Summarizing the main points D Giving personal ideas about the speaker‟s attitude or an issue raised in the listening text E Working in pairs/groups to discuss the related topic F Writing a reflection about an issue raised in the text G Reading related text and give reflection H Role-playing the real-life situation I Problem-solving/Decision making Other activities: _ Do you think these activities have a good influence on your English study? A Yes B No, because……………………………………………………………… If yes, what are the good influences? A Reinforcing the language gained from the text B Fostering students‟ ability to retain the information C Developing students‟ response and creative thinking D Improving other language skills Others………………………………………………………………… THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP! III PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA (SINH VIÊN) Chào em! Cô tên Bùi Thị Hằng, học viên cao học trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ, Đại học Quốc Gia Hà Nội Cô soạn thảo phiếu điều tra nhằm thu thập số liệu cho đề tài khố luận mà tơi nghiên cứu có tên là: “Nghiên cứu thực trạng dạy học giai đoạn sau nghe cho sinh viên thuộc chương trình đào tạo Nhiệm vụ chiến lược Trường Đại Học Ngoại Ngữ- ĐHQGHN” Rất mong em nhiệt tình giúp đỡ hồn thành phiếu điều tra để kết thu xác có giá trị Xin chân thành cảm ơn hợp tác em! ******************** Trong học nghe, thầy có tiến hành hoạt động sau em hoàn thành tập nghe sách hay khơng? A Có B Khơng 2&3 Các hoạt động sau thường xuyên tiến hành sau em hoàn thành tập nghe giáo trình? Sau đó, em đánh dấu hoạt động mà em u thích cột bên cạnh trình bày lí có (Có thể chọn nhiều đáp án) Các hoạt động A Kiểm tra từ vựng xuất nghe B Củng cố ngữ pháp, ngữ âm xuất nghe C Tóm tắt lại ý nghe D Trình bày ý kiến, quan điểm cá nhân nội dung nêu IV lên nghe E Thảo luận chủ đề liên quan theo cặp, nhóm F Viết đoạn/ văn trình bày ý kiến cá nhân G Đọc đọc có liên quan cho ý kiến H Đóng kịch mơ lại nội dung nghe I Nêu cách giải cho vấn đề nêu lên nghe Hoạt động khác (nếu có) Theo em, hoạt động có tác động tích cực việc học kĩ nghe em hay khơng? A Có B Khơng Lí là…………………………………………………… Nếu có, tác động cụ thể hoạt động trên?(Có thể chọn nhiều đáp án) A Giúp em ghi nhớ lâu ngôn ngữ sử dụng nghe B Giúp em ghi nhớ thông tin nghe C Giúp em phát triển tư phản ứng sáng tạo với thông tin nghe D Giúp phát triển kĩ khác, đặc biệt kĩ nói V Các tác động khác (nếu ………………………………………………………………………… XIN CHÂN THÀNH CÁM ƠN SỰ GIÚP ĐỠ CỦA CÁC EM! VI có) OBSERVATION CHECKLIST Date Group Level Lesson Course book Number of students Observed Post-listening stage Options class Language Focus Comprehension Review Type of activity Reflection work Creative Task Other Source of the activity Suggested in the textbook VII Designed by the teacher Individual work Activity interaction Pair work mode Group work Whole class Controller Teacher’s role Guider Students’ Most of the students participation Many students (The activity Some students involves…….) None T’s difficulties Duration Other comments: VIII ... and learning at postlistening stage by International Standard Program students, ULIS- VNU? ?? was initiated, carried out and completed Taking into consideration the importance of post- listening stage. .. conduct a study titled ? ?An exploratory study on the teaching and learning at post- listening stage by International Standard Program students, ULIS- VNU? ?? She desires to take a closer look into the current... NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDY BÙI THỊ HẰNG AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE TEACHING AND LEARNING AT POST- LISTENING STAGE