How to improve listening skills for second year english majors at HPU

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DÂN LẬP HẢI PHÒNG - ISO 9001 : 2015 KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP NGÀNH: NGÔN NGỮ ANH Sinh viên : ĐÀO THỊ MAI Giảng viên hướng dẫn : ThS BÙI THỊ MAI ANH HẢI PHÒNG - 2019 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DÂN LẬP HẢI PHÒNG - HOW TO IMPROVE LISTENING SKILLS FOR SECOND - YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT HPU KHĨA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP ĐẠI HỌC HỆ CHÍNH QUY NGÀNH: NGÔN NGỮ ANH Sinh viên : ĐÀO THỊ MAI Giảng viên hướng dẫn : ThS BÙI THỊ MAI ANH HẢI PHÒNG – 2019 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DÂN LẬP HẢI PHÒNG NHIỆM VỤ ĐỀ TÀI TỐT NGHIỆP Sinh viên: Đào Thị Mai Mã SV: 1412401122 Lớp: NA1802 Ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Tên đề tài: How to improve listening skills for second - year english majors at HPU NHIỆM VỤ ĐỀ TÀI Nội dung yêu cầu cần giải nhiệm vụ đề tài tốt nghiệp (về lý luận, thực tiễn, số liệu cần tính tốn vẽ) …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… Các số liệu cần thiết để thiết kế, tính tốn …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… Địa điểm thực tập tốt nghiệp …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… CÁN BỘ HƯỚNG DẪN ĐỀ TÀI TỐT NGHIỆP Người hướng dẫn thứ nhất: Họ tên: Bùi Thị Mai Anh Học hàm, học vị: Thạc sĩ Cơ quan công tác: Trường Đại học Dân Lập Hải Phòng Nội dung hướng dẫn: How to improve listening skills for second - year english majors at HPU Người hướng dẫn thứ hai: Họ tên: Học hàm, học vị: Cơ quan công tác: Nội dung hướng dẫn: Đề tài tốt nghiệp giao ngày … tháng … năm … Yêu cầu phải hoàn thành xong trước ngày … tháng … năm …… Đã nhận nhiệm vụ ĐTTN Đã giao nhiệm vụ ĐTTN Sinh viên Người hướng dẫn Đào Thị Mai ThS Bùi Thị Mai Anh Hải Phòng, ngày tháng năm 2019 Hiệu trưởng GS.TS.NGƯT Trần Hữu Nghị CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM Độc lập - Tự - Hạnh phúc PHIẾU NHẬN XÉT CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN HƯỚNG DẪN TỐT NGHIỆP Họ tên giảng viên: BÙI THỊ MAI ANH Đơn vị công tác: KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ Họ tên sinh viên: ĐÀO THỊ MAI Chuyên ngành: Tiếng Anh Nội dung hướng dẫn: How to improve listening skills for second - year english majors at HPU Tinh thần thái độ sinh viên trình làm đề tài tốt nghiệp Đánh giá chất lượng đồ án/khóa luận (so với nội dung yêu cầu đề nhiệm vụ Đ.T T.N mặt lý luận, thực tiễn, tính tốn số liệu…) Ý kiến giảng viên hướng dẫn tốt nghiệp Được bảo vệ Không bảo vệ Điểm hướng dẫn Hải Phòng, ngày … tháng … năm Giảng viên hướng dẫn (Ký ghi rõ họ tên) QC20-18 CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM Độc lập - Tự - Hạnh phúc PHIẾU NHẬN XÉT CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN CHẤM PHẢN BIỆN Họ tên giảng viên: Đơn vị công tác: Họ tên sinh viên: ĐÀO THỊ MAI Chuyên ngành: Tiếng Anh Nội dung hướng dẫn: How to improve listening skills for second - year english majors at HPU Phần nhận xét giáo viên chấm phản biện Những mặt hạn chế Ý kiến giảng viên chấm phản biện Được bảo vệ Khơng bảo vệ Điểm hướng dẫn Hải Phịng, ngày … tháng … năm Giảng viên chấm phản biện (Ký ghi rõ họ tên) QC20-19 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT To fulfill this assignment, I have received a lot of help from supervisors, family and friends First of all, I would like to show my sincere thank to my supervisor Mrs Bui Thi Mai Anh, M.A who supports me with useful advice, valuable guide to finish this study Second, my thanks also go to other teachers of Foreign Laguage Department, HaiPhong Private University for their valuable lectures and instructions during the four years, which help me much in completing my research Next, special thanks send to all the second year students of English majors at HPU for their enthusiasm in finishing the survey questionnaires and interview questions Finally, I am grateful for my family and friends who have always been beside and encourage me during the time I carried out this study i ABSTRACT Listening skill is one of the most necessary skills to communicate in the real life In learning a foreign language, it is more and more important to learn this skill Everybody knows that to listen to a message is not as simple as hearing it, so the listener has to understand the message and respond in the right manner The thesis will study how to improve Listening Skills for second year English Majors Therefore, I applied the qualitative and quantitative methods to the research So the collecting data instruments like questionnaires, interviews were used to the study The results of the research will help improve listening skills for English Majors More importantly, the study helps me find out the causes of those difficulties so that I can work out the right solutions to the problems With the hope of improving students’ listening competence, I have tried my best to this thesis by my own experiences and knowledge in English teaching methodology ii TABLES OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i ABSTRACT ii TABLES OF CONTENTS iii PART I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Methods of the study 1.6 The organization of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: Literature review 1.1 Listening skill: An overview 1.1.1 Definition of listening 1.1.2 Nature of listening comprehension 1.1.3 Significance of listening 1.1.4 Types of listening 1.2 Difficulties in learning the listening skill 1.2.1 What problems students have with listening ? .10 1.2.1.1 The class atmosphere 10 1.2.1.2 Studens have problems with different accents 11 1.2.1.3 Quality of Recorded Material 11 Chapter II: The Study 13 2.1 Participants 13 2.1.1 The students 13 2.1.2 Teachers 13 iii 2.3.6 Ways to Improve Listening Skills for students English Majors(Q7) How to improve listening skill English has raised a difficult question for us Until now, many researchers found other ways as well as methods which could help learn English best The chart below will suggest students ways to improve listening skills 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 44% 20% 15% 10% 20% 16% 18% 5% 0% Learn how to pronounce Learning online Communicate Practice listening English with to English daily native speakers Chart 6: Ways to Improve Listening Skills for students English Majors The survey chart shows that most students choose to learn online listening skills (44%) It seems to be that learning online can bring many benefits for our English learning As can be seen, the introduction of computer and internet has apparently changed our life Now, computers have assisted learning via Internet has become increasing indispensable components of education There are other skills such as practicing pronunciation one of the first important skills very few students choose (20%) Next, practice English everyday (16%) because students not practice regularly so Your listening skills are limited Moreover, daily listening practice can help us improve our speaking and writing skills 25 Finally, communicating with native speakers (18%), students often hesitate to communicate with foreigners because their vocabulary is poor and their listening and speaking skills are limited so they cannot hear foreigner to speaking To sum up, in the Chart 6, I have just given some ways to learn English listening effectively I hope that through this chart, students can understand more about learning listening method and I especially expect they will apply in their studying process 2.3.7 The kinds of listening text which students expect to practice more(Q8) The question of questionnaire for students mentioned to the kinds of listening text which students expect to practice more The collected data has shown in the below chart: 66% 70% 60% 46% 50% 38% 40% 34% 34% 30% 26% 30% 24% 20% 20% 16% 14% 18% 14% 10% 10% 6% 4% 0% Songs Fimls or stories Most favorites Favourite News, speeches or lectures Normal Dialogues: conversations, interviews Uninterested Chart 7: Students’ interest in extra listening activities 26 As it can be seen from the above bar chart, most of the students liked listening to the dialogues Listening to the dialogues are the most favorite activities of 66% of the students Only 6% of them are not interested in this kind In contrast to the dialogues, listening to the news, speeches or lectures bored the most students (46%) As a consequence, 4% of them find interested in these kinds of monologue Besides, listening to the songs seems interesting But, it is surprising when only 16% of the learners love them Moreover, one third of them (34%) are not excited about the songs Watching films or listening to the stories is accepted because 38% of them suppose those are their favorite activities and 14% affirm those are their most favorite activities Additionally, 34% of them think those activities normal In conclusion, most of the students like listening to the dialogues, conversations and interview 2.3.8 The activities students should before and while listening class (Q9) A Should pre-taught some related new word B.Should predict the content of the listening text by the activities that the teacher give C Both A and B D nothing 68% 16% 12% A Should pre-taught B.Should predict the some related new word content of the listening text by the activities that the teacher give 4% C Both A and B D nothing Chart 8: What students should before listening 27 The chart shows that most students (68%) in listening classes are taught the new words relating to the listening texts and they often predict the contents of the listening text base on the activities given by the teacher But some of them only learn the new words (16%) and the other learners (12%) guess the content before they start listening There are just 4% students not anything In conclusion, students should prepare things that relate to the text before listening So while listening, what students should do? The next chart will show this question 4% 16% A Listening and take notes B Listening and answer the question C Listening only 20% 60% D Other Chart 9: What students should while listening The chart shows that the majority of the learners (60%) know to take notes while listening It is a positive activity which helps students a lot in training the listening skill both in the English class as well as other real life situations 20% of them often try to answer the questions while they are listening The other 16% of them only listen These results reflect the method of teaching and learning the listening skill 28 2.4 Findings and discussion of findings 2.4.1 Opinions of students about English listening skill Generally, it is very clear from above the data analysis that both teachers and students have plenty of difficulties in teaching and learning listening Most of second-year students at HPU and their teachers say that English listening is difficult (68% of students) and very difficult (50% of teachers) Although, English listening skill is a difficult subject, most of students (48%) still like it Besides,students always have problems in English listening In class, listening to the dialogues were the most favorite activities of 66% of the students 2.4.2 Current situation in teaching and learning English listening skill According to the second-year students and teachers at HPU, there are some main reasons (Poor –quality CDs and CD players, unfamiliar content listening text, limited practice time at class) affecting students a lot while they learn English listening skill In addition, the subjective factor affecting the students’ learning English listening skill is that students try to listen to every words so they can not catch up the speed of the speech (40% of students say that) The most activities that students want to in class are ticking off the items they hear (33%) and choosing the correct answers (27%) Most of students also agree that there are some activities to improve English listening skill, such as: before listening, students should pre-taught some related new words and predict the content of the listening texts by the activities that the teacher gives; while listening, students should listen and take note In conclusion, in order to get the maximum benefits of offered technique, some recommendations are proposed to the major second-year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages 29 2.4.3 Suggestions for improving English listening skill “Getting the right answer is not our only goal The main goal is the listening itself” (Lafi, 2001) How much listening that learners can understand all depends on how well- prepared teachers are and the use they can make of the listening texts? So activities are indeed crucial The writer would like to classify the suggested activities into three stages Pre-listening activities The pre-listening stage is very important because it is the base for the listening process Pre-listening activities are the things to before the students hear the passage to help them get the most out of what they are going to hear In order to understand a piece of spoken discourse, the listener has to have not only knowledge of the language but also some background knowledge of the world Pre-listening activities make it possible for all students to share common background knowledge before listening because it is impossible to expect all students to have the same level of knowledge about a particular world event While-listening activities While-listening stage is the time for students to listen to the text and understand it It is not necessary for students to understand all about the listening text They not need to memorize the exact words or sentences that are said They just need to catch the major ideas There are various kinds of techniques which can be used to lead the students to focus on the general idea and the subject matter of the text they are listening to Directed listening helps the students to extract the relevant information from the spoken discourse Thus, teacher should ask more global rather than partial comprehension questions Specific questions are asked only after the students have recognized the major ideas of the listening texts Moreover, the teacher should prepare beforehand some forms or worksheets for the learners to fill in when they listen 30 Post-listening activities As it has been introduced in the background, in this stage, students take the information they have gained from the listening text and use it for another purpose Some following activities can be applied for this stage Summarizing: learners write up the information that they have in their listening They reconstruct the text in their own words using the notes or drawings as cues They can practice writing in groups, in pairs or individually Recalling the story: it is another form of summarizing the story but in oral way Learners re-tell the story in the listening text in their own words They practice speaking in groups or in pairs Role play: learners dramatize the listening text, taking the roles of the characters in the story they have just heard 2.5 Recommendations techniques and tips to learn English listening effectively The students want to learn the listening better, they themselves ought to try their best to change their bad habits of listening and to improve their background knowledge Today there are many ways to learn English, to improve your listening skills, every day you should spend to 10 minutes or more to listen to a short English news According to the survey, most students had habits of listening to every word in the recording so they soon got tired and frustrated of listening As a consequence, they answered the listening tasks mainly by guessing but not by understanding the text It is not necessary for learners to understand every word in order to understand the information they need from the recording Therefore, learners should learn to focus on the message When listening, the learners should summarize the ideas they listen to and take notes They had better not translate the listening text into the mother tongue, but try to understand it in the target language Moreover, outside the listening class, students have to practice regularly such as listening to English songs, listening 31 in VOA, watching foreign channels (such as: HBO, CINEMAX, you can watch the American films to improve your English listening comprehension) so as to get acquainted with the native accent in normal speech In addition, they must enrich themselves with general knowledge of the English speaking countries, English language, and social and cultural knowledge 32 PART III: CONCLUSION This chapter will deal with a summary of the major findings, limitations of the study and some suggestions for further studies 1.1 Conclusion 1.1.1 Summary of the study To reach what the author aimed at this study; the study was divided into three part with their own purpose The first Part briefly covers the theories related to the study The second Part presented the overview on situation of learning English listening skill at HPU, the research methodology and author’s findings of the approach to listening at HPU through the questionnaires and interview This chapter also helps the author find the answers for three research questions that stated in the introduction The last chapter is some recommendations and suggestions to improve English listening skills for second year students at HPU 1.1.2 Limitation of the study Although the study has certain strong points such as collection methods, namely interviews, survey questionnaires for students, due to limited time, lack of sources, the researcher’s ability and other unexpected factors, it is obvious that the study has got a number of short-comings First of all, due to the limited of time, experience to some extent, the researcher could not conduct other methods such as classroom observation which can make the obtained results more reliable Secondly, due to the limitation of scope of the study, the researcher only focus on the second-year students in Faculty of Foreign Language which account for a small number of students at HPU Therefore, the result of the study 33 can’t be generalized Besides, the researcher could not cover all the aspects of solutions In addition, the techniques suggested in this research are selected from different reliable but limited sources In spite of the mentioned limitations, I hope that this exploratory research will contribute to improves to better English listening skill at HPU 1.1.3 Suggestions for the further study Because of the limitation, this study could not cover all of aspects of the study Besides, the study only focuses on difficulties and solutions for only second-year students at HPU in order to help them improve their listening skill Moreover, for the further studies, to get better results, the researcher should invite more participants and the data collection method Together with using survey questionnaires and interviews, observation is also necessary to get more persuasive conclusions All in all, although the study cannot avoid to the limitation, the research has been completed under the guiding of the supervisor and self-effort Any comments and criticism will be highly appreciated for better further study 34 1.2 Appendices Appendix1:The survey questionnaires “For the second year students” This survey questionnaire aims at finding out your attitude and your expectations toward listening English.Your answers will be used for researching purpose of my graduation paper entitled “HOW TO IMPROVE LISTENING SKILLS FOR SECOND YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT HPU” Thanks for your help.! Which English skill you like most? A Speaking C Reading B Listening D Writing In your opinion, listening skill is: A Very important C Not very important B Important D Not important What you think about listening skill? A Difficult C Very difficult B Difficult D Not very difficult How often you practice listening English at home? a Never c Usually b Sometimes d Always How much time you spend on listening English a day? A hour C 15 minutes B 30 minutes D Not stable 35 What kinds of listening text you expect to practice more? (Put the tick (√) in your choice) Kinds of listening text Uninterested Normal Favorite Most favorite A Songs B Films or stories C News, speech or lecture D Dialogues: conversations, interviews, etc Which difficulties have you faced when you listen to English? A I am not familiar to listen to the native voice B I am fed up with listening lessons C The lessons are difficult for me D The sound quality from radio is not good E Other difficulties (please notify) What makes you interested in learning English listening skill best? Items Most influential Influential A.Interesting topic B Exciting activities C Adequate modern equipment D.Good teaching methods 36 A bit Not influential influential In listening classes,What you often? A Try to listen to every words so you can’t catch up the speed of the speech B Only listen to stressed words C Need to listen more than three times to understand D Feel tired and unconcentrated when listen more than three times E Other:……………………… 10 What listening activities you like best? A Tick off (phrases/ pictures/items) B Complete the missing words C Choose the correct answers D Answer comprehension questions E Other: …………………………………………… 11 What should you before listening? (more than one choice) A Should learn some related new words B Should predict the content of the listening texts by the activities that the teacher gives C Both a & b D Do nothing E Other:……………………………………………… 12 While listening, you should: A Listen and take notes B Listen and answer the questions C Listen only D Other:……………… Thank you for your cooperation in completing this survey questionnaire! 37 1.3 References Brown, H D (2001) Teaching by principles An interactive approach to language pedagogy White Plains, NY: Pearson Education Bentley, S., & Bacon, S (1996) The all new, state-of-the-art ILA definition of listening: Now that we have it, what we with it? Listening Post, 56(1-5) Feyten, 1991,The Power of Listening Ability: An Overlooked Dimension in Language Acquisition Gary Buck (2001),Assessing Listening (The Cambridge Language Assessment Series) by Gary Buck (2001-04-23) Paperback – 1861 Goh, C (1998) How ESL Learners with Different Listening Abilities Use Comprehension Strategies and Tactics Hirsch (1986) Listening: Are We Teaching It, and If So, How? ERIC Digest Hutchinson T., Carol T., Jenny Q., and Kate E (2007), English for Life – Beginner Teacher’s book Oxford: Oxford University Press Harman, Willis W "Rationale for good choosing." Journal of Humanistic Psychology 21.1 (1981): 5-12 Howatt, A and J Dakin (1974), Language laboratory materials, ed J P B Allen, S P B Allen, and S P Corder 10 Munro and Derwing (1999) English Language Teaching; Vol 9, No 6; 2016 ISSN 1916-4742 E-ISSN Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 11 Martin, Robert “Oral communication,” English Language Arts Concept Paper Number Porland, Oregon: State Department of Education, 1987 9pp.[ ED 284 314] 12 Nord, J.R (1980), Developing listening fluency before speaking: An alternative paradigm, System 13 Pearson (1983) Northstar Listening and Speaking | Pearson ERPI 14 Scarcella & Oxford (1992),Scarcella, R C., & Oxford, R L The tapestry of language 15 Strother, Deborah Burnett “Practical applications of research: on listening” Phi Delta Kappan, 68 (8), April 1987, pp 625-628 16 Scott Shelton (2008) Scott's listening article – developingteachers 38 17 Wolvin & Coakley (1982) English By (author) Andrew D Wolvin , By (author) Carolyn Gwynn Coakley 18 Wang Shouyuan, 2003 The theory and methods on English listening teaching http://www.ew.com.cn/yynl/tlnl/ca7440.htm 39 ... Languages at HPU? What are the difficulties of listening to English at HPU? What are solutions to improve listening skills for the second- year students in Faculty of Foreign Languages at HPU ? 1.4 Scope... my graduation paper entitled ? ?HOW TO IMPROVE LISTENING SKILLS FOR SECOND YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT HPU? ?? Thanks for your help.! Which English skill you like most? A Speaking C Reading B Listening. .. are in the 14 second year at Faculty of Foreign Languages To collect information about the issues of learning English listening skill of second year English majors students at HPU, first of all,8