Adapting listening tasks in the new english texbook tieng anh 10 for effective use at tan hung high school, tan chau district, tay ninh province

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY — HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE ADAPTING LISTENING TASKS IN THE NEW ENGLISH TEXTBOOK ‘TIENG ANH 10’ FOR EFFECTIVE USE AT TAN HUNG HIGH SCHOOL, TAN CHAU DISTRICT, TAY NINH PROVINCE Submitted to the Department of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By NGUYỄN ANH THƯ Supervised by TÔ MINH THANH, PHD HO CHI MINH CITY, AUGUST 2011 i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: ADAPTING LISTENING TASKS IN THE NEW ENGLISH TEXTBOOK ‘TIENG ANH 10’ FOR EFFECTIVE USE AT TAN HUNG HIGH SCHOOL, TAN CHAU DISTRICT, TAY NINH PROVINCE in terms of the statement of the Requirements for Theses in Master’s Programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee Ho Chi Minh City, 2011 Nguyễn Anh Thư ii RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, NGUYỄN ANH THƯ, 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 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, 2011 Nguyễn Anh Thư iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost I am extremely grateful to my thesis supervisor, Doctor Tô Minh Thanh, for her constant enthusiastic guidance, enormously helpful advice, careful proof-reading on my writing and valuable criticism without which this thesis could not have been completed I would also like to thank all of my professors and lecturers for their dedication and helpful instruction during the course Special thanks are due to the teaching staff of Tan Hung High School in Tan Chau District, Tay Ninh Province for providing me with valuable help and support during the time my research is carried out I also owe sincere thanks to my students, who are an inspiration to me, for their enquiries into listening learning problems and participation in the study; without which my thesis would never have been accomplished Finally, I am greatly indebted to my beloved family and close friends for their encouragement and unending support iv ABSTRACT The study done for this M.A thesis examines the reactions of tenth grade students at Tan Hung High School on the adapted listening tasks which replace those in the tenth grade English textbook that are too difficult for them It then investigates whether such adaptation can help the student subjects improve their listening proficiency In order to achieve the study’s investigation purposes, approximately 16 observations were done in two different tenth classes In addition, two sets of questionnaires were delivered to 135 tenth graders at Tan Hung High School to elicit data on students’ background information and their evaluation of the adapted listening tasks respectively The final set of instruments employed in the experimentation was pre-test and post-test to determine whether there was a difference in student performance as a result of listening task adaptation versus traditional modes of teaching The outcomes of the study indicate that the student subjects expressed their positive attitudes towards the listening task adaptation and showed their high appreciation for its effects in terms of motivation, stimulation and facilitation of listening learning In addition, the experimental group gained the significant improvement in the post-test results due to the treatment of such adaptation, but not due to chance In regard to the research questions in light of the findings, this thesis suggests that the utility of task adaptation is vital to be employed at Tan Hung High School v TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii ABSTRACT iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF TABLES ix LIST OF FIGURES x ABBREVIATIONS xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 1.1.1 Teaching and learning listening at Tan Hung High School in Tay Ninh Province 1.1.2 Description of the syllabus of listening at Tan Hung High School in Tay Ninh Province 1.2 RATIONALE FOR ADAPTING LISTENING TASKS IN THE NEW ENGLISH TEXTBOOK ‘TIENG ANH 10’ 1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY 1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 1.5 LIMITATION AND DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY 1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 SYLLABUS DESIGN AND TYPES OF SYLLABUSES 2.2 NEEDS ANALYSIS IN TEXTBOOK DESIGN 11 2.3 COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT) 12 2.4 THEME-BASED INSTRUCTION 14 2.5 TASK-BASED TEACHING 15 2.6 TEXTBOOK EVALUATION 16 2.6.1 Definition of evaluation 16 2.6.2 Purposes of material evaluation 17 2.6.3 Process of evaluation 18 vi 2.7 TEXTBOOK ADAPTATION 20 2.8 LISTENING AND LISTENING TASKS 21 2.8.1 Importance of listening 21 2.8.2 Listening skills 21 2.8.3 Listening process 24 2.8.4 Listening tasks 25 2.8.4.1 Definitions of listening tasks 25 2.8.4.2 Task validity 25 2.8.4.3 Kinds of listening tasks 26 2.8.4.4 Task simplifying 31 2.9 SUMMARY 33 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 34 3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 34 3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN 34 3.2.1 Subjects 35 3.2.1.1 Teacher subjects 35 3.2.1.2 Student subjects 35 3.2.2 Treatment 41 3.2.3 Instruments 42 3.2.3.1 Tests 42 3.2.3.2 Questionnaires 43 3.2.3.3 Class observations 45 3.2.3.4 Interviews 46 3.2.4 Data analysis procedures 47 3.3 SUMMARY 48 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS OF FINDINGS 49 4.1 DATA ANALYSIS 49 4.1.1 Data collected from the post-questionnaire 49 4.1.1.1 Responses to the open-ended questions 49 4.1.1.2 Responses to the closed questions 53 4.1.1.2.1 Students’ evaluation of the adapted listening tasks used vii in the first semester 53 4.1.1.2.2 Students’ self-evaluation of their own listening study 58 4.1.2 Data collected from post-test listening scores 62 4.1.2.1 Post-test listening scores 62 4.1.2.2 Classification of the pre-test and post-tests listening scores 63 4.1.3 Data collected from class observations 65 4.1.3.1 Weaknesses of the adapted listening tasks 66 4.1.3.2 Strengths of the adapted listening tasks 67 4.1.4 Data collected from semi-structured interviews on teachers 69 4.2 DISCUSSIONS OF THE FINDINGS 72 4.3 SUMMARY 74 CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION 75 5.1 RECOMMENDATIONS 75 5.1.1 Recommendations for teachers 75 5.1.2 Recommendations for ten graders 76 5.1.3 Recommendations for the adaptation mode of teaching 77 5.1.3.1 Students’ needs analysis 77 5.1.3.2 The standards the adapting process needs to be based on 78 5.1.3.3 Some recommendations on using the listening additional materials 80 5.2 CONCLUSION 81 BIBLIOGRAPHY 83 Appendix Pre-questionnaire (English version) 87 Appendix Pre-questionnaire (Vietnamese version) 89 Appendix Post-questionnaire (English version) 91 Appendix Post-questionnaire (Vietnamese version) 95 Appendix Pre-test 99 Appendix Post-test 101 Appendix Semi-structured interview to the teachers (English version) 103 Appendix Semi-structured interview to the teachers (Vietnamese version) 104 Appendix Classroom observation checklist 105 Appendix 10 Adapted listening tasks 123 viii Appendix 11 The second term syllabus of the English course for tenth graders 135 ix LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: The first term syllabus of the English course for tenth graders at Tan Hung High School Table 3.1: Year of birth 36 Table 3.2: Gender distribution 37 Table 3.3: Ethnic group distribution 37 Table 3.4: Students’ time to start learning English 38 Table 3.5: Students’ time to start learning English listening 38 Table 3.6: Students’ perception of their listening proficiency 39 Table 3.7: Students’ opinions of the importance of listening skills 39 Table 3.8: Students’ levels of interest in studying listening 40 Table 3.9: Descriptive statistics for the pre-test listening scores 40 Table 3.10: Schedule for the in-class application of adapted listening tasks 41 Table 4.1: What the students liked about the way of teaching and learning 50 Table 4.2: Students’ assessment of the interestingness of the adapted listening tasks 53 Table 4.3: Students’ opinions of their involvement in the adapted listening tasks 55 Table 4.4: Students’ evaluation of their contribution to the listening classes 59 Table 4.5: Students’ assessment of their increased interest in listening learning 61 Table 4.6: Descriptive statistics for the post-test listening scores 62 Table 4.7: Comparison of the two groups’ post-test listening scores 63 Table 4.8: Classification of the two groups’ pre-test and post-test scores 64 Table 4.9: Weaknesses and suggestions for the eight observations 67 ... Description of the syllabus of listening at Tan Hung High School in Tay Ninh Province 1.2 RATIONALE FOR ADAPTING LISTENING TASKS IN THE NEW ENGLISH TEXTBOOK ? ?TIENG ANH 10? ?? ... of the syllabus of listening at Tan Hung High School in Tay Ninh Province Stated right in the front page of the English textbook ? ?Tieng Anh 10? ?? is the introduction of listening teaching that... of the adaptation of listening tasks in ? ?Tieng Anh 10? ?? on use at Tan Hung High School? The hypothesis of this study is: - The adaptation of listening tasks in ? ?Tieng Anh 10? ?? can be effective for