DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY THE TENTH GRADERS IN LEARNING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS AT AN UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL IN BIEN HOA CITY

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Nguyễn Minh Trí DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY THE TENTH GRADERS IN LEARNING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS AT AN UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL IN BIEN HOA CITY MA THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE HO CHI MINH, 2021 i VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Nguyễn Minh Trí DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY THE TENTH GRADERS IN LEARNING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS AT AN UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL IN BIEN HOA CITY Field: English Language Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Phạm Hữu Đức HO CHI MINH, 2021 ii DECLARATION BY AUTHOR I hereby claim that the thesis entitled “Difficulties Encountered by the Tenth Graders in Learning English Listening Skills at an Upper Secondary School in Bien Hoa City” was written solely by myself and was not submitted for admission to a degree, diploma or other qualification to this university or any other institution This master thesis has not been published before And if it is eventually proved that I am cheating, I am ready to take responsibility, including the revocation of my academic degree Author’s signature Nguyễn Minh Trí Approved by SUPERVISOR Assoc Prof Dr Phạm Hữu Đức Date:……………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing this dissertation is the final step of a long journey I would have not begun this journey had it not been helped by a lot of people First and foremost, I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude to my supervisor Assoc Prof Dr Phạm Hữu Đức, my supervisor for his tremendous knowledge, guidance, and recommendations which constantly motivated me throughout the research I would like to send my thanks for the useful materials, advice, and enthusiasm for this study to all lectures and staff of the Graduate Academy of Social Sciences, Vietnam Academy of Social Science, in Ho Chi Minh City In addition, my sincere gratitude goes to the teachers and students of the Nguyen Huu Canh Upper Secondary School who have willingly spent their precious time in the interview process Last but not least, I would like to show appreciation for my beloved family and my friends for their encouragement to help me overcome difficulties to finish this study ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DECLARATION BY AUTHOR i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii ABSTRACT vi LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the Study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the Study 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Research methods 1.7 Structure of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Overview of Listening 2.1.1 Definition of Listening and Listening skills 2.1.2 The importance of listening skills 2.1.3 Listening process 2.1.4 Elements of Listening 2.1.5 Types of Listening 10 2.2 Difficulties in Learning Listening skills 13 2.3 Factors affecting listening learning in class 15 2.3.1 Content 15 iii 2.3.2 Learners 19 2.3.3 Speakers 20 2.3.4 Stages of listening 10 2.3.5 Physical setting 23 2.4 Previous related study 25 2.4.1 Previous study overseas 25 2.4.2 In Vietnam 26 2.5 Summary 27 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 28 3.1 Research questions 28 3.3 Participants 29 3.4 Data collection instrument 29 3.4.1 Survey Questionnaires 29 3.4.2 Interviews 30 3.5 Data collection procedures 30 3.6 Data analysis 31 3.7 Summary 31 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 32 4.1 Data analysis of survey questionnaire 32 4.1.1 Data analysis of students’ survey questionnaire 32 4.1.2 Data analysis of teachers’ survey questionnaire 54 4.2 Data analysis of survey interview 64 4.3 Discussions of the findings 66 4.4 Summary 69 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 71 5.1 Recapitulation 71 5.2 Concluding remarks 72 iv 5.3 Implications 72 5.3.1 Implication for the students 72 5.3.2 Implication for the teachers 73 5.3.3 Implication for the school 77 5.4 Recommendations for the problems in learning listening skills Error! Bookmark not defined 5.4.1 Pre-teaching and activating vocabulary Error! Bookmark not defined 5.4.2 Building up learner vocabulary Error! Bookmark not defined 5.4.3 Encouraging learner’s prediction Error! Bookmark not defined 5.4.4 Using visual aids Error! Bookmark not defined 5.5 Limitations of the study 78 5.6 Suggestions for further studies 79 REFERENCES 80 APPENDIX I APPENDIX IV APPENDIX VII APPENDIX X v ABSTRACT Listening skills play an important role in everyday communication and the educational process Despite its importance, the teaching and learning state of listening has long been neglected This study attempts to investigate learning and teaching problems in listening skills at NHCUSS To solve the research problem, the paper used questionnaires and semi-structured interviews as the main research tool for data collection A brief description of the participants, as well as data collection methods, was provided The results of the study show that most hearing difficulties are found in five main groups: content, learners, speakers, physical setting, and stages of listening After exploring the obstacles, several proposed solutions are also introduced by the researcher to contribute to teachers and students in teaching and learning their listening skills vi LIST OF TABLES Table Information about students participating in the survey 32 Table Students’ years of learning English 33 Table Students’ perceived importance of English listening skill 34 Table 4 Learning strategy difficulties perceived by tenth students 50 Table Information about the teachers participated in the survey 54 Table Teachers’ year of teaching English 54 Table Teachers’ opinions in pre-listening stage 60 Table Teachers’ opinions in while-listening stage 62 Table Teachers’ opinions in post-listening stage 63 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Students’ attitude before every listening lesson 35 Figure Listening problems related to the content 36 Figure The difficulties of students with unfamiliar words 37 Figure 4 The difficulties of students about the length of the text 38 Figure The listening texts are too difficult for the students 40 Figure Connected speech 41 Figure My background knowledge of listening topics is limited 42 Figure I not have any social knowledge about the topics 43 Figure Concentration of the students in the class 44 Figure 10 Concentration of the students on recording 45 Figure 11 Strange accent and pronunciation 46 Figure 12 Speed of the speaker 47 Figure 13 Facilities of the class are in good conditions 52 Figure 14 Classroom atmosphere 53 Figure 15 Time allowance 55 Figure 16 Lesson plan preparation 56 Figure 17 Lack of facilities in the classroom 57 Figure 18 Teaching methods affect students in learning listening skills 58 viii Lựa chọn em: ……………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………… PHẦN B: Dựa vào bảng đây, em cho biết quan điểm nhận định khó khăn học kĩ nghe tiếng Anh trường Đánh dấu ( ) vào ô tương ứng với câu trả lời em (1) Hồn tồn khơng đồng ý (2) Khơng đồng ý (3) Khơng có ý kiến (4) Đồng ý (5) Hồn tồn đồng ý NO Statement Section 1: Pre-listening Em thấy thoải mái trước buổi học môn nghe Em không giúp làm quen trước chủ đề nghe Em khơng có hoạt động liên quan đến chủ đề trước nghe Em không nhận hướng dẫn rõ ràng ghi âm tập từ giáo viên Em thường im lặng để nghe lời dẫn giáo viên Em thường ý đến giảng Em thường chưa chuẩn bị kĩ trước nghe Em tìm phân tích từ khóa từ quan trọng tập trước nghe V Em hiểu từ tập giáo viên không gợi ý giải thích Section 2: While-listening 10 Em khơng thể nghe hết từ quan trọng dài 11 Kiến thức em chủ đề nghe hạn chế 12 Em không thường để ý đến ngữ điệu người nói để hiểu cảm xúc hay thái độ họ 13 Em không hiểu cách phát âm ngữ điệu lạ người nói 14 Em nắm bắt thông tin nghe nghe tốc độ nhanh 15 Bài nghe khó em 16 Em chưa luyện kỹ nghe trước học 17 Em bị tập trung nghe 18 Em khơng có kiến thức xã hội chủ đề sách giáo khoa 19 Em phân biệt từ quan trọng nghe có âm nối 20 Em nghe phát âm quen thuộc nhận diện từ 21 Thiết bị học nghe lớp tốt Section 3: Post-listening 22 Em trả lời câu hỏi kiểm tra giáo viên mức độ hiểu sau nghe VI 23 Em kiểm tra sửa tập cẩn thận sau nghe 24 Tôi hoạt động sau lắng nghe thảo luận, tranh luận đóng vai 25 Em có hội đưa ý kiến quan điểm học nghe APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS Dear teachers, VII I am Nguyen Minh Tri, I am researching the main difficulties in learning listening skills encountered by the tenth graders in learning English listening skills at an upper secondary school in Bien Hoa city The purpose of this questionnaire is to investigate the issues facing most students while listening Please select the answer when completing these questions by circling the letter next to your answer, ticking off the items in a checklist, or explaining your idea in the blanks Everything your personal details will be kept private and not used for other purposes, as well as your answers In advance, thank you so much for your help and cooperation A PERSONAL INFORMATION Full name: ………………… Gender: □ Male □ Female How long have you been teaching English? …… year(s) B QUESTIONNAIRE ITEMS Part 1: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching English listening skills of students from secondary school Please rate how much you think these statements are true about you by ticking ( ) (1) Strongly disagree (2) Disagree NO (3) Neutral (4) Agree Statement (5) Strongly agree Section 1: Pre-listening I introduce new words and structures related to topics before listening I have pre-activities related to topics before listening I help the students review keywords related to the listening text I present new words and phrases which appear in the listening text VIII 5 I make the students read through the comprehension questions before they listen to the listening text I set purposes for each listening tasks I make the instructions clear to the students I engage the students in pairs/groups discussion I have no time to ask the students to anything else after listening section 10 I have carefully lesson plans for the lesson before going to class 11 I have enough teaching equipment for teaching listening skills 12 I use variety of activities to motivate my students 13 I provide the students with different listening strategies for different listening tasks Section 2: While-listening 14 I make the students listen for the gist of the listening text 15 I make the students listen for detailed information to elicit specific information 16 I ask the students to check the accuracy of their prediction in the pre-listening stage 17 I read the listening text/play the tape and make students listen and write the answers to the comprehension questions IX 18 I encourage the students to guess the meanings of new words from the context 19 I make the students take meaningful notes while listening to write summaries or reports later 20 I ask the students to work in pairs groups to discuss the issues related to the listening text 21 I give immediate feedback if possible Section 3: Post-listening 22 23 I ask the students to work in pairs/groups to discuss the issues related to the listening text I ask the students to provide their personal opinion on the issues related to the listening text 24 I give the students the transcripts of the listening text and let them listen to the text again and shadow read the text 25 I let the students listen for entertainment (e.g music, film, movie,…) 26 I engage the students in writing summaries or reports on the listening text APPENDIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS X What teaching activities you use to teach your students? What teaching materials you prepare for your students? Which difficulties you often encounter when teaching listening skills? What should you to help your students improve their listening skills? XI APPENDIX TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEWS Transcript of Interview with Respondent 1 What teaching activities you use to teach your students? Respondent 1: During class, I usually use the activities in the textbook In my opinion, the activities are quite consistent with the content of the lesson and I not need to prepare much to prepare the lesson In addition, the activities in the textbook always follow the curriculum What teaching materials you prepare for your students? Respondent 1: Because using textbook activities, the preparation of teaching aids is often quite simple Mostly some clips or some pictures related to the topic of that day Which difficulties you often encounter when teaching listening skills? Respondent 1: During listening hours I often have difficulty with the school facilities Most cassettes are quite old and have problems with the sound The quality of the CD is also not good, negatively affecting the students' learning to listen In addition, some of the neighboring classrooms are quite noisy, making hearing also affected What should you to help your students improve their listening skills? XII Respondent 1: I think the school should improve its facilities as well as equip listening devices other than cassettes I think we should also suggest having a soundproof room for students to hear without being disturbed by the noise outside of the classroom Transcript of Interview with Respondent What teaching activities you use to teach your students? Respondent 2: During class time, in addition to using the activities in the textbook, I also explore and design some activities outside to help students better understand the topic of the lesson The activities in the textbook always follow the curriculum, but sometimes it is not enough to provide a comprehensive background of the topic of the lesson What teaching materials you prepare for your students? Respondent 2: I often hold warm-ups to stimulate my students' hearing I usually prepare role-playing activities or telling a story so the students can guess the topic of the lesson In addition, some small games such as guessing words, arranging ideas, and listening to sounds are sometimes used depending on the content of the lesson The preparation is very important and takes a lot of time to work on the idea and implementation Which difficulties you often encounter when teaching listening skills? Respondent 2: The large number of students is one of the difficulties when I teach listening The number of students affects the hearing process when they are noisy in XIII the classroom as well as it is difficult to keep track of each student Furthermore, the listening equipment in the classroom is also outdated and should be upgraded What should you to help your students improve their listening skills? Respondent 2: I thought to adjust the number of students in each class as well as improve the school facilities The school's English department should also organize more workshops for teachers in the school to create an environment for mutual learning in teaching English Transcript of Interview with Respondent What teaching activities you use to teach your students? Respondent 3: I use the activities in the textbook Textbook activities stick to the curriculum and we can apply them in most lessons The tasks in lessons proved quite effective for students to apply what they heard to solve the task In addition, at the end of each class, there is a homework section in the book that reinforces students' knowledge What teaching materials you prepare for your students? Respondent 3: I often use pictures related to the topic of the text as well as ask students to prepare a small passage related to the topic of the listening lesson in advance When it comes to listening class, I invite a few students to present to the class This activity helps children prepare for listening and better understand the topic they are about to hear Which difficulties you often encounter when teaching listening skills? XIV Respondent 3: For me, the uneven student allocation is a big challenge in the listening teaching of the teacher and the listening learning of the students Some of the weaker students could not keep up with the better students The lack of time in class also affects the ability of lower-level students to keep up in class What should you to help your students improve their listening skills? Respondent 3: I think in the future I will propose to the school the appropriate class arrangements for students This will help teachers more easily organize their teaching In addition, the listening section should also be spent more time so that the teacher can tutor the weak students as well as organize activities other than the textbook Transcript of Interview with Respondent What teaching activities you use to teach your students? Respondent 4: The activities in the textbook are quite suitable for teaching the listening part I often use the activity in the book and combine it with external content such as pictures and videos At the end of class I usually find a short 4-minute audio file about that day's topic and have students use paper to summarize them It could be a story or an open-ended situation Based on that, I suggest having students guess what will happen next What teaching materials you prepare for your students? Respondent 4: I often use situations and stories related to the lesson that day to help students better understand the topic In addition, video is also quite helpful when it comes to providing students with images and content that make learning to listen more enjoyable Thanks to the video, I can organize some activities such as question and answer, predict action, set a title for the clips XV Which difficulties you often encounter when teaching listening skills? Respondent 4: Organizing interesting activities for listening is quite difficult when the topics in the textbook are quite unfamiliar to students Lesson design takes a lot of time to prepare and implement in class What should you to help your students improve their listening skills? Respondent 4: I think the English department should organize more workshops so that teachers can interact and learn new methods of teaching listening In addition, it is advisable to set up an electronic library on various topics to help teachers save time searching for audio files by listening to topics Transcript of Interview with Respondent What teaching activities you use to teach your students? Respondent 5: I usually use the activity out of the textbook I often use selfdesigned activities for my classes Depending on the content of the lesson, classroom activities may vary For example, for places I could have students draw and guess the name of the place, or if on the topic of famous people I could show the students the objects associated with that character and guess the character name Thanks to the above, in addition to the ability to listen, students also build basic knowledge about society What teaching materials you prepare for your students? Respondent 5: As mentioned above, I often use pictures, videos or passages or information related to the lesson XVI Which difficulties you often encounter when teaching listening skills? Respondent 5: Small classes are one of the first difficulties The classroom is not large enough to hold activities that require a lot of space In addition, the school's facilities have not met the teachers' expectations Each class has relatively little time for listening and listening practice is mostly done at home by students What should you to help your students improve their listening skills? Respondent 5: School facilities need to be improved In addition, teachers need to diversify listening activities in class Students also need to be given homework or asked to prepare a listening lesson before coming to class Transcript of Interview with Respondent What teaching activities you use to teach your students? Respondent 6: I usually use listening materials outside of the textbook I feel that the topics covered in the textbook are quite unfamiliar to students So I redesigned the lesson, using more relevant topics and changing the difficulty of the exercises in the book to help students keep up with the lesson What teaching materials you prepare for your students? Respondent 6: I search for external documents on the internet I search and synthesize materials by topic and then deploy based on lessons Depending on the lesson I will use different activities to use the information in the resource These materials are mostly audio files on familiar topics or are partially related to topics studied in textbooks XVII Which difficulties you often encounter when teaching listening skills? Respondent 6: Finding suitable alternative listening materials is a big challenge In addition, the redesign of the lesson sometimes affects the test because students are missing the knowledge in the textbook More listening time in class is essential Students rarely prepare lessons before going to class is also one of the factors affecting listening learning What should you to help your students improve their listening skills? Respondent 6: There should be an electronic library for teachers to search for listening material by topics In addition, it is essential to ask students to prepare lessons before coming to class The school should also increase the number of English lessons per week so that teachers have more time to prepare for other activities for students Transcript of Interview with Respondent What teaching activities you use to teach your students? Respondent 7: I use activities in and out of textbooks to teach students listening I select and use activities that are appropriate for the level of each class I also put a lot of emphasis on warm-up activities and post-listening stage activities What teaching materials you prepare for your students? Respondent 7: I usually use short clips, games for warm-up activities, and songs for post-listening activities Listening to music and filling in the blanks helps students relax and stimulate their love of listening Thanks to that, students can self- XVIII study listening at home through their favorite topic without the need for reminders from the teacher Which difficulties you often encounter when teaching listening skills? Respondent 7: The time for listening is relatively short, so it is difficult for teachers to guarantee the content of the lesson In addition, some of the listening content in the book is quite difficult and not suitable for some students The distraction and easy distraction of students is also one of the difficulties when teachers want to fully convey the lesson content What should you to help your students improve their listening skills? Respondent 7: The school needs to increase the number of English lessons per week so that teachers have more time to prepare for other activities for students In addition, some topics in the textbook should be adjusted to be more suitable for students Teachers also need to prepare many interesting activities to keep students interested and interested in listening activities and students can practice listening at home according to their favorite topics XIX ... aims at:  Exploring the current situation of teaching and learning English listening skills in grade 10 at NHCUSS  Investigating the difficulties in learning listening skills perceived by students... GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Nguyễn Minh Trí DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY THE TENTH GRADERS IN LEARNING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS AT AN UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL IN BIEN HOA CITY Field: English. .. questions What is the current situation of teaching and learning English listening skills in grade 10 at NHCUSS? What difficulties the students encounter in learning English listening skills in grade