The attitudes of teachers and 11th form students towards the application of podcasts to listening lessons at dong quan high school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER THE ATTITUDES OF TEACHERS AND 11TH FORM STUDENTS TOWARDS THE APPLICATION OF PODCASTS TO LISTENING LESSONS AT DONG QUAN HIGH SCHOOL Supervisor: Nguyễn Thụy Phương Lan M.A Student: Nguyễn Thị Bích Thập Course: QH2012.F1.E8 HÀ NỘI – 2016 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP THÁI ĐỘ CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH LỚP 11 VỚI VIỆC ÁP DỤNG PODCASTS TRONG CÁC TIẾT HỌC NGHE Ở TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG ĐỒNG QUAN Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Nguyễn Thụy Phương Lan, M.A Sinh viên: Nguyễn Thị Bích Thập Khóa: QH2012.F1.E8 HÀ NỘI – 2016 DECLEATION I hereby state that I: Nguyễn Thị Bích Thập, a student of QH2012.F1.E8, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature Nguyễn Thị Bích Thập Date: 7th June, 2016 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs Nguyễn Thụy Phương Lan for her constant support and all-around supervision Both her knowledge and encouragement made me inspired and motivated to overcome difficulties Without her, the thesis could not be completed In addition, I appreciate all tremendous help and support from ten teachers and one hundred and twenty students of grade 11 at Dong Quan high school They whole-heartedly participated in survey questionnaires and interviews, which offered me a lot of useful information Without their cooperation, the thesis could not be possible either Last but not least, I owe my parents because of their emotional support They have been always by my side and encouraged me to try my best All these people play integral roles in this research I once more say my most sincere thanks to all of them ii ABSTRACT The enhancement of listening skills has drawn much attention in the teaching and learning process and podcasts have been applied at Dong Quan high school for the improvement This research is carried out to find out techniques employed by teachers to help students learn listening with podcasts At the same time, the research is aimed at investigating the attitudes of teachers and 11th form students at Dong Quan high school towards the application of podcasts to their listening lessons To reach the research aims, survey questionnaires were administered to teachers and students and semi-structured interviews were designed and carried out with four teachers Participants were 10 English teachers and 120 students of grade 11 at Dong Quan high school Findings show that various techniques were fully employed to help students learn listening with podcasts Secondly, most of teachers and students agreed that podcasts were extremely helpful to improve listening skills Thirdly, teachers used podcasts with low frequency because designing a lesson plan with podcasts required a great deal of time and effort Moreover, it was the lack of training in designing listening tasks and the variety of students‟ levels that limited the use of podcasts to teaching listening comprehension Based on the findings of the research, more techniques would be suggested in the study in order to improve the quality of listening lessons with podcasts iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements…………………………………………………… i Abstract………………………………………………………………… ii List of tables, figures and abbreviations…………………………………… v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 ……………………………………… PROBLEM STATEMENTS AND RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY SCOPE OF THE STUDY ORGANIZATION CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW …………………………………4 2.1 LISTENING 2.1.1 Definition of listening 2.1.2 TYPES OF LISTENING 2.1.3 Significance of listening 2.2 TEACHING AND LEARNING LISTENING IN CLT 2.2.1 Goals for listening teaching and learning process 2.2.2 Listening strategies for second language learners 2.2.3 Listening comprehension tasks for L2 learners 2.2.4 Techniques in teaching and learning listening skills 10 2.3 PODCASTS 12 2.3.1 Definitions of podcasts 12 2.3.2 Types of podcasts 12 2.3.3 Advantages and Disadvantages of podcasts 14 2.3.4 Criteria for the selection of podcasts 15 2.3.5 Related studies 17 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ………………………………………20 3.1 A QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE STUDY 20 3.2 SELECTION OF PARTICIPANTS 21 3.3 RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS 23 3.3.1 Questionnaire 23 3.3.2 Semi-structured interview 23 3.4 PROCEDURES OF DATA COLLECTION 24 3.5 PROCEDURES OF DATA ANALYSIS 25 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ……………………… 26 4.1 FINDINGS 26 4.1.1 Research question 1: 26 iv 4.1.2 Research question 30 4.1.3 Research question 34 4.2 DISCUSSION 37 4.2.1 Techniques have been employed by teachers to facilitate students’ listening comprehension with podcasts 37 4.2.2 Attitudes of teachers towards the application of podcasts to teaching listening 38 4.2.3 Attitudes of students towards the application of podcasts to listening lessons 38 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ………………………………………………40 5.1 SUMMARY 40 5.2 IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 41 5.2.1 For the teachers 41 5.2.2 For the students 43 5.3 CONTRIBUTION OF THE RESEARCH 43 5.4 LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH 44 5.5 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 44 REFERENCES …………………………………………………………… 46 APPENDIX 1: …………………………………………………………… 51 APPENDIX 2: …………………………………………………………… 56 APPENDIX 3: …………………………………………………………… 60 APPENDIX 4: …………………………………………………………… 61 APPENDIX 5: …………………………………………………………… 70 v LIST OF TABLES Table Goals for listening Table Listener response categories 10 Table General information of the selected teachers 22 Table 4.General information of the selected students 22 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Types of exercises designed and their levels of frequency 29 Figure 2: Teachers‟ assistance to help students overcome difficulties 26 Figure 3: Teachers‟ assisstance to facilitate students‟ competence 27 Figure 4: Frequency of using podcasts in a listening lesson by teachers 32 Figure 5: Difficulties teachers encountered when teaching listening with podcasts 33 Figure 6: Students‟ attitudes towards the application of podcasts in listening lessons 35 Figure 7: Reasons for students‟ participation in listening lessons with podcasts 36 Figure 8: Difficulties students have when dealing with podcasts listening 37 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching ELT: English Language Teaching ICT: Information and Communications Technology IT: Information Technology BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation CNN: Cable News Network RSS: Rapid Simple Syndication viii What has your teacher done to help you improve your listening skills through podcasts? (you can choose more than one choice) A Teaching specific listening techniques B Providing new words and background knowledge C Designing easy tasks to guide students to listen D Choosing familiar topics with students E Letting students work in pairs and groups F Explaining difficult structures G Other (please specify) ……………………… What are your attitudes towards the use of podcasts in your listening lessons? A I like it and find it useful B I not like it very much C I hate it because it is useless for me How you feel about listening through podcasts? A Excited and motivated B No idea C Diffident and unwilling D Others (please specify)…………………………………………… Why you take part in podcast activities in your listening lessons? A I want to improve my English listening competence B I like updating news happening around the world C The teacher asks me to that 10 What you find the topics of podcast activities given by your teacher? A Interesting and useful B Interesting but irrelevant (to your background knowledge) C Boring D Others (please specify)…………………………………………… 58 If you need additional information concerning the research or assistance in responding to the questionnaire, please contact me via my cell phone 01667477871 or through my email nguyenthibichthap@gmail.com THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR COOPERATION! 59 APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS What kinds of listening materials you often use in teaching listening comprehension in your listening lessons? In a listening lesson with podcasts, what techniques you often employ to facilitate your students‟ listening competence? In your opinion, how important are podcasts in the development of students‟ listening competence? In the future, what are your plans for listening materials? 60 APPENDIX 4: A SAMPLE LESSON PLAN Transcript: World Heritage sites at risk from industry (9th April, 2016) The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has issued a stark warning about the future of the world's natural World Heritage sites It says half of the sites are at risk from different industries The WWF warned that harmful industrial activities such as mining, dredging or drilling for oil are endangering the future of 114 of 229 sites Other factors adding to the risk include illegal logging and unsustainable water use All of these are in addition to the damage being done by climate change The WWF says the sites affected include Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the Grand Canyon National Park in the USA, and China's Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries, which are home to more than 30 per cent of the world's endangered pandas The director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre said it was up to everyone to protect these sites She said: "World Heritage is humankind's common heritage, and the responsibility for its conservation is shared by everyone." She welcomed government efforts at reducing what they take from the Earth, saying: "The WWF's report comes at a time when governments and the private sector around the world are stepping up their action against harmful extractive uses." However, the WWF said that more than 11 million people worldwide rely on World Heritage sites for food, water, shelter, jobs and medicine, and that non-stop development could harm livelihoods as well as the environment Source: http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1604/160409-world-heritagesites-a.html 61 This podcast is chosen when teaching unit 16- The wonders of the world in the English 11 textbook This lesson plan is designed for a 45 minute lesson One might notice that in practice, the amount of time spent practicing listening skill in the class is often more limited Teachers need to be flexible to adapt this lesson plan according to the particular level of students and the class time available for practicing listening skill I Group: 11- Unit 16: The wonders of the world II Level: Elementary- 45 minutes III Objectives: After this lesson, students are able to: - Name some natural world heritage sites such as Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the Grand Canyon National Park and China's Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries - List some new words related to the topic For example: issue a warning about something, stark, be at risk= be in danger of, dredging, unsustainable - Improve listening skills: listening for main ideas, listening for specific information IV Assumed knowledge - Ss have known new words related to the topic in the previous lesson V Anticipated problems - Ss may be afraid of listening so T should give hints as soon as possible VI Teaching aids: Handouts, projector, pictures 62 VII Procedure: Stage Teacher (T) Students (Ss) Pre- - Show Ss a video clip about the - Look at the video clip listening damage of beautiful sites caused by carefully (8‟) people - Ask Ss to guess the topic of the - Guess the topic lesson today - Check the answer, introduce the topic of the podcast today: world - Listen attentively heritage sites are at risk from industry - Before listening, ask Ss to exercise individually to learn new - Do exercise individually words in the podcast - Call Ss randomly to check their answer - Listen attentively and - Correct the answer and explain more write down the new words about the new words - Answer the question Elicit question: In what ways does the industry destroy world heritage sites? While- The first part of the podcast listening 63 (29‟) Activity 1: Give Ss the handout with exercise - Guess the answers - Guessing - Listen carefully and - Play the first part of the podcast the check the guess first time, ask Ss to listen attentively and check their guess - Ask them to exchange their answer - Work in pairs and exchange - Call Ss randomly to give their - Answer answers - Play the tape the second time for - Check the answers together them to listen and check again Activity 2: - Divide Ss into small groups - Ask Ss to listen to the tape for them to write down all the new words they can hear and exchange in groups to - Take note individually have the most complete note and exchange in groups - A representative of each group will summarize the first part of the podcast based on the note 64 The last part of the recording Activity 1: - Listen attentively - Give Ss the handout with exercise - Ask them to look through the questions before listening and - Look and underline the underline the keywords keywords - Play the second part of the podcast - Listen carefully and and ask them to exercise exercise - Instruct them to exchange their - Answer answers with their partners - Call Ss randomly to check - Play the tape, let Ss have chance to - Listen listen again to compare with their answers - Correct the answers Activity 2: - Give Ss the handout with exercise - Guess - Before listening, ask them to guess the form of words and the words (if possible) which are needed to be 65 filled - Call some Ss to present their ideas - Present the ideas - Play the tape again for them to listen - Ask Ss to exchange their answer - Exchange the answers - Check and give them the right - Correct answer Post - Ask Ss to work in groups to discuss - Discuss listening the solutions to protect the world (8‟) heritage sites from destruction (4 mins) - Ask each group to share their ideas - Listen and vote and vote for the best ones (4 mins) Homework - Ask Ss to write a paragraph about - Write down the (1‟) the damage of the world heritage sites homework caused by industry and give their own solutions 66 WORKSHEET Exercise 1: Matching the words in column A with the underlined words in column B: A B Issue Tigers are in danger of extinction Stark I am pleased to announce that the Board has agreed to create 500 new jobs in our sales division Be at risk Refugees fought their hiding place in ThaiLand Sanctuary Most of the villagers rely on farming for income Livelihood Confusion is the inevitable consequence of all these changes in policy Exercise 2: Listen to the first part of the podcast and choosing the correct answer: What kind of warning did the WWF issue? a) a stark one b) one for storks c) a gentle one d) a long one How many of 229 sites did the WWF say were at risk? a) 112 b) 113 c) 114 67 d) 111 What illegal activity was mentioned in the article? a) hunting b) the rhino horn trade c) human trafficking d) logging What additional factor is damaging the World Heritage sites? a) tourism b) climate change c) money d) a lack of investment What percentage of endangered pandas are in Sichuan? a) more than 30% b) exactly 30% c) around 30% d) less than 30% Exercise 3: Listen to the last part of the podcast and decide whether the following statements are true or false: a The WWF said it was up to everyone to protect the World Heritage sites b Governments are taking action against harmful extractive uses 68 c More than eleven million people need the World Heritage sites for shelter d The weather could harm the livelihoods of people living on or near the sites Exercise 4: Listen again to the second part of the podcast and fill in the blanks: The (1) of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre said it was up to everyone to protect these sites She said: "World Heritage is humankind's (2) _ heritage, and the responsibility for its conservation is shared by everyone." She welcomed government efforts at (3) what they take from the Earth, saying: "The WWF's report comes at a time when governments and the (4) sector around the world are stepping up their action against harmful extractive uses." However, the WWF said that more than 11 million people worldwide rely on World Heritage sites for food, water, shelter, jobs and medicine, and that (5) could harm livelihoods as well as the environment 69 APPENDIX 5: SUGGESTED SITES FOR PODCASTS http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts A wide range of podcasts produced by England for students at different levels to self-study http://www.voanews.com/ Like BBC podcasts, these podcasts from this website provide learners with new information about different aspects http://www.eltpodcast.com/ ELT Podcast is a site that provides a common conversation theme which is useful for developing basic conversations skill of students It presents different topic of conversation in each episode The learning materials are presented in different way, for instance, for the first time, the conversation is presented at a normal speed Then, at the second time it is played in less normal speed www.esl-lab.com Short and long listening activities for learners at different levels Pre, while and post listening tasks, transcripts and cultural video clips will facilitate students‟ learning process http://www.elllo.org/ Ello includes interviews, videos, games, and so on There is News Centre (with animated newscasts), which can help students learn Academic English and develop test taking skills for standardized listening components of tests such as TOEFL, TOEIC, and IELTS http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/multi-speed-listening.html Updated news happening all around the world, together with numerous exercises for three stages of listening make students easier to learn listening 70 Moreover, there are recordings with different speeds in order to suit different levels of students http://legacy.australianetwork.com/studyenglish/se_series1.htm A series of English language program with different topics will provide you the opportunity to learn English skills and grammar and vocabulary The transcripts and activities are available in PDF; hence, students will be easier to self-study at home and teachers can use these videos as supplementary materials to teach English http://eviews.net/ A website provides many listening exercises based on interviews with native speakers http://www.discovery.com/ Discovery Channel-one of the most fascinating sites contains a mass of videos with different areas especially popular science, technology; reality television and pseudo-scientific entertainment An extremely useful website for listening materials but educators will have to design listening activities to support students‟ listening competence This will better suit high-level students 10 http://www.ted.com/talks This website addresses a wide range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture, often through story-telling The speakers who are often experts in many areas are given a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas in the most innovative and engaging ways they can 71 72 ... teachers at Dong Quan high school to help students in the application of podcasts to listening lessons? - What are the attitudes of teachers at Dong Quan high school towards the use of podcasts in listening. .. by teachers of Dong Quan high school to help students in the application of podcasts to listening lessons? - What are the attitudes of teachers of Dong Quan high school towards the use of podcasts. .. help students in the application of podcasts to listening lessons? - What are the attitudes of teachers at Dong Quan high school towards applying podcasts to listening lessons? - What are the attitudes