Applying krashens input hypothesis into teaching listening and speaking for freshmen english majors a case study at the department of english linguistics and literature, university of social sciences

1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE NGUYỄN DIÊN CHÂU GIANG APPLYING KRASHEN’S INPUT HYPOTHESIS INTO TEACHING LISTENING AND SPEAKING FOR FRESHMEN ENGLISH MAJORS: A CASE STUDY AT THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE, UNIVERISITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF TESOL SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN THỊ KIỀU THU, PhD HO CHI MINH CITY 2010 TABLE OF CONTENT TABLE OF CONTENTS i CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY iv RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi ABSTRACT vii LISTS OF CHARTS AND TABLES viii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study 1.2 Rationale of the study 1.3 Problem statement 1.4 Objectives and assumptions 1.5 Scope 1.6 Limitations 1.7 The organization of the study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 10 2.1 Input Hypothesis 10 2.1.1 The Input Hypothesis 10 2.1.2 Stage i+1 12 2.2.3 Interactions and Input 16 2.2 An overview of listening and speaking skills 21 2.2.1 Listening skill overview 21 2.2.2 Speaking skill overview 23 2.3 Material design 25 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 29 3.1 Research question 29 3.2 Research design 29 3.2.1 The subject 29 3.2.1.1 Sampling 29 3.2.1.2 A tentative analysis of subjects 31 3.2.2 The instruments 34 3.2.2.1 Text-book review 34 3.2.2.1.1 A description of the text-book 35 3.2.2.1.2 A tentative analysis of text-book 39 3.2.2.1.2.1 The methodology of the text-book 39 3.2.2.1.2.2 Design and organization 40 3.2.2.1.2.3 Topic 41 3.2.2.1.2.4 Language Content 43 3.2.2.1.2.5 Skills 45 3.2.2.2 Experimental teaching 47 3.2.2.2.1 Syllabus design 47 3.2.2.2.2 Implementation of experiment 50 3.2.2.2.3 Syllabus for 09H – control group 51 3.2.2.2.4 Syllabus for 09D – experimental group 54 3.2.2.3 Pre-test and post-test 57 3.2.2.3.1 The listening tests 57 3.2.2.3.2 The speaking tests 60 3.2.2.3.2.1 Test items and test format 60 3.2.2.3.2.2 Scoring of tests 62 3.2.3 Data processing 65 3.2.4 Summary 66 CHAPTER DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS 68 4.1 Discussion of listening test results 68 4.2 Discussion of speaking test results 78 4.3 Summary 81 CHAPTER CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 83 5.1 Conclusion 83 5.2 Recommendations 87 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Performance analysis of 09H-control group 89 Appendix 2: Performance analysis of 09D-experimental group 104 Appendix 3: Test results - 09H-control group 118 Appendix 4: Test results 09D-experimental group 119 Appendix 5: Assignments used in input-enhanced syllabus 120 Appendix 6: Speaking pre-test 125 Appendix 7: Speaking post-test 127 Appendix 8: Listening pre-test 130 Appendix 9: Listening post-test 133 Appendix 10: Speaking games used 136 Crossed-line 136 Told you so 139 Sound advice 142 Tower block 144 Terribly sorry 153 Would you mind if….? 156 Family budget 158 It wasn’t me, Officer! 164 Christmas swapping 167 BIBLIOGRAPHY 171 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled APPLYING KRASHEN INPUT HYPOTHESIS INTO TEACHING LISTENING AND SPEAKING FOR FRESHMEN ENGLISH MAJORS: A CASE STUDY AT THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE, UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES in terms of the Statement of Requirements for Theses in Master’s Programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee Ho Chi Minh City, May 22nd 2010 Nguyen Dien Chau Giang RETENTION AND USE OF THESIS I hereby state that I, Nguyen Dien Chau Giang, being the candidate for the degree of Master of Tesol, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses Ho Chi Minh City, May 22nd 2010 Nguyen Dien Chau Giang ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to send my special thanks to Dr, Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu for her guidance and consultancy during the time the thesis was being written I am deeply grateful for her devotion and enthusiasm in guiding me through every difficulty I encountered And I really cannot thank her enough for all that she did to help me complete this thesis successfully I also would like to thank my close friend, Mr Pham Tran The Vinh and my colleagues, Ms Pham Ngoc Kim Tuyen and Ms Bui Huynh Thuy Thuong for their valuable and insightful comments during the time the thesis was hatched And I would like to especially thank my special friend, Mr Le Dinh Tien for his great help, support and encouragement, without which I could not have finished the thesis successfully Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to my family, especially my mother, whose constant support and encouragement helped me through all the obstacles I had during my process of studying, as well as writing of the thesis ABSTRACT While many researches have been done to explore the influence of input in the acquisition of a specific grammatical item, few have been done to observe the general development of language skills, specifically listening and speaking skills, through exposure to comprehensible input And this study aims to re-investigate Krashen’s input hypothesis to find out the extent to which input contributes to the development of listening and speaking skills of EFL learners of intermediate level or above To conduct this study, two groups of students were chosen, one of which received more input than the other A careful investigation of the text-book and the subjects was done to justify the design of the syllabus for each group After that, a pre-test and post-test in listening and speaking were administered in both groups The listening test used was the standardized PET which fits the level and the objectives of the course The speaking tests were designed basing on main communicative goals categorized in stages by Krashen To ensure the validity and consistency of the scoring of speaking test, students’ performances were recorded and marked twice: 1) holistic live marking and 2) marking of recorded performances basing on analysis of performances The result shows that Krashen’s input hypothesis works, proven by the fact that much more students in the experimental group improved at the end of the course Even though the improvement was mostly from a low score range to a middle score range, the fact that there was such improvement in only weeks could be considered sufficient to confirm the hypothesis However, the same thing did not happen with students of a higher score range In fact, they either did worse or the same in the post-tests Besides there are more students in the control group got to the highest score range The main reason for this deviation from the normal statistical behavior might be the not-large-enough “net of input” to cover stage i+1 for students of higher level in the class LISTS OF CHARTS AND TABLES CHARTS Chart 4.1 Pre-test results (listening) 68 Chart 4.2 Post-test results (listening) 68 Chart 4.3 Percentage of those who scored better/worse/the same in the post-test 71 Chart 4.4 Score range among those who scored better in the post-test (listening) 71 Chart 4.5 Score range of those who scored below in the pre-test (listening) 74 Chart 4.6 Score range of those who scored below in the post-test (listening) 75 Chart 4.7 Score range of those who scored and above in the pre-test (listening) 76 Chart 4.8 Score range of those who scored and above in the post-test(listening) 76 Chart 4.9 Pre-test results (speaking) 79 Chart 4.10 Post-test results (speaking) 79 TABLES Table 4.1 70 Table 4.2 73 Table 4.3 77 160 WOULD YOU MIND IF …? 161 WOULD YOU MIND IF …? 162 WOULD YOU MIND IF …? 163 FAMILY BUDGET Type of activity: small group/role play Function practised: argument: stating and justifying opinion, stating needs and wants, agreeing and disagreeing How to use the game: Divide the class into groups of three or four Copy one set of role cards and one set of picture cards for each group For groups of three, leave out Tim or Samantha Give out a role card to each member of the groups The picture cards should be placed face down in a pile in the middle Tell the students that they belong to a family of four (or three) and they have a total of 500 pounds to spend They may spend this money as they like, but they must come to an agreement as to how is to be spent Each member of the family has a role card showing how he/she would like to spend all or part of the money: they should think of good reasons for buying these things and argue the case with the rest of the family They should begin the game by turning up the first picture card and arguing against the case for buying or not buying it If the family agree to buy it, the member of the family who wanted it should keep the card If they decide not to buy it, the card should be discarded The object of the game is to acquire as many cards as possible The family member with the most cards at the end of the game is the winner 164 FAMILY BUDGET MUM You want: A washing machine (225$) A new carpet for the living room ($200) A second car ($500) A family holiday in Spain ($500) DAD You want: A lawnmower ($85) A video recorder ($300) A greenhouse ($250) A power drill ($65) TIM You want: A stereo ($300) A leather jacket ($85) A computer ($200) A ten-speed bike ($120) SAMANTHA You want A doll’s house ($50) A bike ($55) A rocking horse ($100) A camera ($25) 165 FAMILY BUDGET 166 IT WASN’T ME OFFICER! Type of activity: whole class/ information search role play How to use the game: Copy one role card for every member of the class, ensuring that as far as possible, every “thief” card had a corresponding “police” card Give out the cards Don’t mention the word thief or police to the students, but simply tell them that they are all at a party, where they know very few people and they have to introduce themselves and make polite conversation about their hobbies, interests, and so on The object of the game is for the police to identify their suspects When they have all had a good chance to mingle, stop the game suddenly Ask the police to come forward and identify their suspects, giving reasons If a suspect is correctly identify, he/she must confess 167 IT WASN’T ME OFFICER! (Thief cards) You are a thief You specialize in jeweler’s shops Last week you did a big jeweller’s in Paris and got away with $50,000 Don’t let anyone know you’ve been to Paris, though it’s safe to mention other countries Portugal for example – you went there two weeks ago, but that was for pleasure, not work Talk about your hobbies: opera, old cars… You’re an art thief Last week you stole two paintings from a museum in Amsterdam Don’t let anyone know you’ve been to Holland, or know anything about art Talk about your interests: jazz, travel – you’ve been on the Trans-Siberian railway and you’ve seen the Pyramids You are a bank robber Last week you did a bank in South London and got away with $60,000 Don’t let anyone know you were in Madrid to see the match against Real Madrid – that’s true as it happens, but you did the robbery when you got back You are a burglar Last week you got into a house in New York, and got away with a quarter of a millions pounds’ worth of antiques Don’t let anyone know you’ve ever been to New York You can talk about other places you’ve visited: Greece, Turkey, but not the States Or you can talk about your interests: you love animals – you used to keep a lion cub and a koala bear, but you had to sell them, because your work involves so much travel You are a gold smuggler Last week you brought $300,000 worth of gold from Hong Kong to Britain Be careful! Don’t let any one know you’ve ever been to Hong Kong (although you go there once a month on “business” Talk about other places you’ve been to – Japan, Thailand – if you like, or about your hobby: bird watching You are a car thief Last week you were in Rome where you stole Alfa Romeos, Lamborghinis and 10 Ferraris But be careful! Don’t let anyone know you’ve been to Italy, although you go there quite often on “business” (you’re crazy about Italian cars) Talk about other countries you’ve been to – Switzerland, Norway – or about your hobbies – skiing and mountain walking 168 IT WASN’T ME OFFICER! (Police cards) You are a police officer and you are looking for a jewellery thief Don’t let anyone know this though! The person you are looking for robbed a jewellery shop in Paris last week and stole $50,000 of jewellery They found some clues at the scene of the crime: a wallet containing an opera ticket, some Portuguese stamps and an entrance ticket to the Transport Museum in London Talk to people about their hobbies and travels, and see if you can find anyone who could be the thief If you suspect someone, don’t say anything, act naturally and wait till the end of the game You are a police officer, and you are looking for an art thief Don’t let anyone ! know this though! The person you are looking for robbed an art gallery in Amsterdam last week and stole two paintings They found some clues at the scene of the crime: a wallet containing a ticket to a jazz concert, a postcard of he Pyramids and an old ticket from the Trans-Siberian railway Talk to people about their hobbies and travels, and see if you can find anyone who could the thief If you suspect someone, don’t say anything, act naturally and wait till the end of the game You are a police officer and you are looking for a bank robber Don’t let anyone know this though The person you are looking for robbed a bank in London last week and stole $60,000 There was a clue at the scene of the crime: the robber dropped an old airline ticket to Madrid and a ticket stub from a football match there Talk to people about their hobbies and travels, and see if you can find anyone who could be the thief If you suspect someone, don’t say anything, act naturally and wait till the end of the game You are a police office and you are looking for a burglar – a very successful one Don’t let anyone know this though! The person you are looking for burgled a house in New York last week and stole $250,000 of antiques They found some clues at the scene of the crime: the burglar had dropped a wallet containing some Greek and Turkish money and some photos of a lion cub and a koala bear Talk to people about their hobbies and travels, and see if you can find anyone who could be the thief If you suspect someone, don’t say anything, act naturally and wait till the end of the game You are a police officer and you are looking for a gold smuggler Don’t let anyone know this though! The person you are looking for smuggled $300,000 worth of gold from Hong Kong last week There are some clues though: a bag containing an incriminating letter, a guide book to Japan and a book on bird watching were found on the plane Talk to people about their hobbies and travels, and see if you can find anyone who could be the thief If you suspect someone, don’t say anything, act naturally and wait till the end of the game You are a police officer and you are looking for a car thief Don’t let anyone know this though! The person you are looking for stole a large number of Italian cars in Rome last week There are some clues though: one the stolen Alfa Romeos was found and in the boot were a Swiss ski pass, a pair of walking boots and guide to Norway Talk to people about their hobbies and travels, and see if you can find anyone who could be the thief If you suspect someone, don’t say anything, act naturally and wait till the end of the game 169 CHRISTMAS SWAPPING Type of activity: whole class/ matching Function practised: talking about likes and dislikes How to use the game: Copy as many role cards as there are students in the class, ensuring that as far as possible, each card has its “partner” Give out the role card to each person in the group and explain that in a few minutes, they are due to meet people at a New Year party, where they will discuss Christmas and presents they received They should impart the information on their role card and their opinions about it to as many people as possible Perhaps they will find someone who can help them When they have found the person who can help them, they can sit down together The object of the game (though don’t tell the students that) is to find someone with whom they can swap presents 170 CHRISTMAS SWAPPING This Christmas you were given three pairs of hiking socks and a flower arranging book What a waste! You hate hiking and loathe flower arranging What you really like is ballet and pottering about in the house doing a spot of DIY You’re not an outdoor type at all Your hobby is flower arranging and your passion is hiking in the mountains You go off every holiday and most weekends if you can But what did you get for Christmas? Two tickets for the ballet and a book on DIY! You really dislike ballet and DIY is your pet hate! Someone should send Father Christmas for re-training This Christmas you got a classical music cassette – dreary stuff, Borg, Buck, Buch or something You can’t stand classical music and never listen to it What you like is jazz The other present you got was equally dreary – a boring book – some modern novel Reading never was your strong point – can’t seem to find time for it anyway these days If people can’t think what to send, why don’t they send something to eat – that always goes down well! This Christmas you got a jazz cassette and a box of chocolate Very nice too, except you like classical music, and you’re trying to slim! What you really want for Christmas was books This Christmas you got a tennis racquet and two tickets to the opera What’s wrong with Santa these days? Wrong sport for a start You play golf, and you’ve always hated opera – pop music is what you like This Christmas you got a pop record and a set of golf balls Santa must have got the wrong file out when he was making that decision! You like opera, not pop, and tennis is your sport, not golf! This Christmas, Santa awarded you a set of saucepans and an apron! What a mistake! You’re not a feminist, but you don’t really see why women always get the boring saucepans and household stuff That you’d like is something frilly, glamorous and totally frivolous Saucepans you can buy for yourself! This Christmas you got not one but two sets of frilly French underwear! What a waste! How can people spend their money on something so frivolous? You’ve just moved into a new house and money is really tight What you need is something practical for the house Knickers to underwear! This Christmas, Santa sent you a set of gardening tools and book on houseplant care Santa needs his head examined! You hate gardening – it’s just like outdoor housework to you And every houseplant you’ve ever been given has died a very nasty death In fact you’re not interested in plants or the outdoor life, or anything remotely green What you like is games – board games, 171 card games – you name it! This Christmas, for some unknown reason, a misguided Father Christmas brought you a chess book and computer bridge You’ve never played either game in your life and you don’t intend to start now! In fact you don’t like being indoors at all what you love is gardening and plants This Christmas Santa gave you a bottle of Chanel No perfume Very nice, and probably very expensive, but the problem is you don’t like Chanel No.5 you like Dior The other present you got was an English- Turkish dictionary Very strange, you thought, until you realised that you’d told everyone where you were going for our holiday They thought you’d said Turkey – but actually you said Torquay This Christmas Santa gave you a bottle of Dior perfume Very nice too – but what a waste Your perfume is Chanel No.5 you never wear any other And you also got a guide to Torquay This mystified you until you realised that people had misunderstood where you’re going on holiday You’re going to Turkey In your Christmas stocking was a cook book and a gift pack of Indian spices Maybe Santa’s dropping a hint but it won’t work You hate cooking, And your pet hate is Indian food In fact you don’t like any indoor hobbies at all Your hobby is water sports You really can’t understand it For Christmas you got a snorkel and a wetsuit You can’t swim In fact you’re aqua-phobic You don’t like sports at all Your favourite hobby is cooking You’ve just started a course in Indian cookery For Christmas you received a print of an Impressionist painting, and a book on astronomy Well, it was nearly tight You like art and you’re fascinated by the stars The only problem is that the Impressionists are your pet hate – you prefer abstract painting, and it’s astrology, not astronomy you’re interested in! For Christmas you received a book on astrology and a Mondrian print Well, it was nearly right You like art and you’re fascinated by the stars The only problem is that you hate abstract painting, and it’s astronomy, not astrology that you’re interested in! This Christmas you had a really original present Socks and handkerchiefs! Boring! You were hoping for some videos – you’ve just bought a video machine This Christmas you got two videos as presents You don’t even have a television! What a waste of time! You wish people would give useful presents – clothes for example 172 This Christmas you got a guitar complete with “Teach Yourself” manual Did no on tell Santa you were tone-deaf? You’re not in the slightest interested in music Your hobby is genealogy You really hoped for this Christmas was a guitar You want to start guitar lessons at the local college this January The problem is, you can’t afford a guitar So what did you get? A book called “Trace your own family history” 173 BIBLIOGRAPHY Brown, G., Malmkjear, K., Pollitt A., and Williams, J., Language and Understanding, OUP, 1994 Brown, J., Testing in Language Programs, The McGraw-Hill company, 2005 Brown, J.D, The Elements of language curriculum – A systematic approach to program development, Heinle and Heinle Publishers, 1995 Brumfit, C., Communicative Methodology in Language Teaching: The Roles of Fluency and Accuracy, CUP, 1992 Bygate, M., Speaking, OUP, 1997 Cambridge University Press Magazine, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Vol 31, March, 2009 Cunningsworth, A., Choosing your course-book, Heinemann, 1995 Dickins, P and Germaine, K., Evaluation, OUP, 1992 Dubin, F & Olshtain, E., Course design – Developing programs and materials for language learning, Cambridge University Press, 2000 Ellis, R., The Study of Second Language Acquisition, CUP, 1994 Ellis, R, Understanding Language Acquisition, OUP, 1985 Ellis, R., Second Language Acquisition, OUP, 1997 Goodluck, H., Language Acquisition: A Linguistic Introduction, Blackwell Publishers, 1992 Graves, K., Designing language courses, Heinle and Heinle Publishers, 2000 Hadfield, J., Advanced Communication Games, Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd, 1987 Hadfield, J., Intermediate Communication Games, Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd,1990 Harley, B., Allen, P, Cummins, J., and Swain, M., The Development of Second Language Proficientcy, CUP, 1990 Hughes, A., Testing for Language Teachers, CUP, 1992 Krashen S and Terrell, T., The Natural Approach, Alemany Press, 1992 174 Lightbrown, P., and Spada, N., How Languages are Learnt, OUP, 1999 Littlewood, W., Foreign and Second Language Learning: Language Acquisition and its implications for the classroom, CUP, 1984 McMillan, J., and Schumacher, S., Research in Education: A Conceptual Introduction, Longman, 2001 Oxford, L.R., Language Learning Strategies, Heinle & Heinle Publishers, 1990 Oxford, L.R., Language Learning Strategies, Heinle & Heinle Publishers, 1990 Rost, M., Listening in language learning, Longman, 1992 Scovel, T., Learning New Languages, Heinle & Heinle, 2001 Seliger, H., and Shohamy, E., Second Language Research Methods, OUP, 1997 Spolsky, B., Condition of Second Language Learning, OUP, 1998 Thornbury, S., How to Teach Speaking, Pearson Longman, 2001 Tomlinson, B., Material development in language teaching, CUP, 1998 Underhill, N., Testing Spoken Language, CUP, 1998 Ur, P., Teaching Listening Comprehension, CUP, 1992 ... submitted today entitled APPLYING KRASHEN INPUT HYPOTHESIS INTO TEACHING LISTENING AND SPEAKING FOR FRESHMEN ENGLISH MAJORS: A CASE STUDY AT THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE, UNIVERSITY. .. Terrell, T., The Natural Approach, p.26, Alemany Press 11 understands input that contains grammatical forms that are at ‘i+1’ (i.e are a little more advanced than the current state of the learner’s... teaching listening and speaking at DELL and possibly those teaching the integrated grammar, reading, and writing courses as well The advantage of an input- orientation syllabus/program is that