Activating efl college students’ background knowledge by using visual aids in the pre listening stage

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN KIM PHƯỢNG ACTIVATING EFL COLLEGE STUDENTS’ BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE BY USING VISUAL AIDS IN THE PRELISTENING STAGE MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Vinh,August 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN KIM PHƯỢNG ACTIVATING EFL COLLEGE STUDENTS’ BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE BY USING VISUAL AIDS IN THE PRELISTENING STAGE Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Code: 8.14.01.11 MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Supervisor.Dr NGUYỄN TH KIM ANH Student code :1660140111840059 Vinh,August 2018 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to all those who have encouraged and supported me to complete this thesis First, I am highly grateful to my supervisor, Dr Nguy n Th Kim Anh, Vice Dean of Foreign Languages Department at Vinh University for her boundlessly enthusiastic support I really learnt a lot from her serious and thorough attitude towards working and her great mind I would like to thank all lecturers at Foreign Languages Department, Vinh University for their valuable teaching and big suport that have enlightened my study pathway They also provided me with necessary references for the study I also send my special thanks to all faculty and staffs of Ca Mau Technical and Economic College and Dr Nguyen Huu Huan in Can Tho University In addition, I also would like to give my special thanks to the students at Ca Mau Technical and Economic College who have provided the indispensable with me I am grateful to my family whose support has been especially important to the success of my educational endeavors; especially my husband, who also encourages and shares the hardship with me Finally, warm appreciation is reserved for my classmates at the Master Course class 24 at Long An University for their friendliness, generous assistance which contributed significantly to the completnio of the study These people deserve all the credit, I highly appreciate all their support and contribution ABSTRACT Listening is considered to be the most difficult and necessary skill in the language learning to communicate in the real life and how to improve this skill is a big question to students who learn a foreign language The research entitled “Activating EFL college students’ background knowledge by using visual aids in the pre-listening stage” was conducted in an attempt to provide teachers with a deep, comprehensible attitude towards listening skills This study aims at investigating and applying language knowledge to motivate students to learn listening In this thesis, I discuss the background information about students using visual aids to learn listening, especially at prelistening stage Their application of language learning listening skill is performed The definition of listening stages, their background information and visual technical for pre-listening are also dealt with According to the results of data analysis of the survey questionnaire and interview, I found using visual aids in the pre-listening stage activating EFL college students‟ background knowledge by motivates students to learn easily listening better Besides, the background information is also activated in all stages of listening process Basing on the documentary, the literature review and the results of data analysis of the survey questionnaire and interviews, I present some suggestions on improvements of teaching and learning the pre-listening stage in listening skill Nguyen Kim Phuong page ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L1: first language L2: second language EFL: English as a foreign language ELT: English language teaching CLT: Communicative Language Teaching FGD: Focused group discussion CALL: Computer Assisted Language Learning Nguyen Kim Phuong page iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTENTS Pages ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS vii LIST OF CHARTS vii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 The scope of the study 1.4 The method of the study 1.5 The organization of the study Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 11 2.1.1 Definition of listening skill 11 2.1.2 Importance of listening skill 12 2.1.3 Listening Types 13 2.1.4 Sub- skills in listening 14 2.1.5 Principles for teaching listening 16 2.1.6.1 Pre-Listening 17 2.1.6.2 While-listening 18 2.1.6.3 Post- listening 20 2.2.1 Detail pre-listening task 22 2.2.1.1 Definition of pre-listening task 22 2.2.1.2 Pre-Listening types 23 2.2.1.3 Importance of pre-listening 25 2.2.1.4 The role of pre-listening task 28 2.2.1.5 The aims of pre-listening task 28 2.3.1 Visual techniques 29 2.3.1.1 Use of technology in language teaching 30 2.3.1.2 Use of Visual aids in the direct Method 31 2.3.1.3 Audio-visual aids in making the class dynamic 32 2.3.1.4 Using video as audio-visual aids 32 2.3.1.5 PowerPoint as a visual material 33 2.4 Listening with visual aids 34 2.4.1 Use of audio and video in teaching listening 35 2.5 Planning for teaching listening 38 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 41 3.1 Context of the study 41 3.2 Research Questions 42 Nguyen Kim Phuong page iv 3.2.1 The institution 42 3.2.2 The teachers 42 3.2.3 The students 43 3.3 Participants 43 3.4 Data collection instruments 44 3.5 Classroom observations 45 3.6 Interviews 45 3.7 Data collection procedures 45 3.8 An introduction to the current Textbook First Choice 46 3.8.1 The objectives of the curriculum and the current Textbook First Choice 47 3.8.2 The contents of the current Textbook First Choice 48 3.8.3 The structure of the current Textbook First Choice 49 3.8.4 The project part in the current Textbook First Choice 50 3.9 Summary 50 Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 51 4.1 Overview of the survey 51 4.2 Analysis of questionnaires 52 4.2.1 Questionnaires for students 52 4.2.1.1 Students‟ profile 53 4.2.1.2 The students‟ attitude toward learning English listening skill 53 4.2.1.3 The objective factors affecting to learning listening skill 55 4.2.1.4 The students‟ motivation and goals in learning English 57 4.2.2 Questionnaires for teacher 62 4.3 Analysis of classroom observation 64 4.4 Analysis of interviews 67 4.4.1 Problems are you facing when adopting using visual aids in teaching listening English 67 4.4.2 Teachers‟ selection audio visual aids for language class 68 4.4.3 Challenges of teachers while using audio-visual aids 68 4.4.4 Teachers‟ dealing with unexpected situations while using audio-visual aids 69 4.5 Discussion 69 4.5.1 Factors making students unwilling to listening English in class 69 4.5.2 Difficulties teachers have encountered in teaching listening 70 4.5.3 Techniques and visual aids used by teachers 71 4.6 Result 71 Chapter 5: CONCLUSION 72 5.1 Conclusion 72 5.2 Implications 75 5.3 Limitations of the study 76 5.4 Further study 77 REFERENCES 78 CHƢƠNG TRÌNH CHI TIẾT MÔN HỌC 80 Useful websites 90 Appendix-1 92 Nguyen Kim Phuong page v Appendix-2 95 Appendix-3 97 Appendix-4 99 Appendix – 100 Nguyen Kim Phuong page vi LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS List of tables Pages Table 4.1: summary of the results of questions to 53 Table 4.2: The objective factors affecting to learning listening skill 55 Table 4.3: Students‟ developing listening skill 57 Table 4.4: Teachers‟ opinions for the frequency of using visual aids in prelistening 58 Table 4.5: Students‟ activities enjoy listening lesson 59 Table 4.6: Students‟ problems often face in listening 60 Table 4.7: Students‟ doing activities before listening 61 Table 4.8: Using visual aids technique in the pre-listening activities in listening process 61 Table 4.9: Frequency task in pre-listening 63 Table 4.10: Using visual aids can develop students‟ listening skill 63 Table 4.11: Thinking of visual aids help developing listening skill .64 Table 4.12: Result of class observations (Note: A: Agree; NA: not agree) 66 LIST OF CHARTS List of charts Pages Chart 4.1: students‟ attitudes towards learning English listening skill .54 Chart 4.2: Students‟ developing listening skill .58 Chart 4.3: Students‟ thinking about the lessons using visual aid in pre-listening 59 Chart 4.4: Important of visual aids technique in the pre-listening activities in listening process 62 Nguyen Kim Phuong page vii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Recently the participation into the WHO (World Trade Organization) has brought Viet Nam to a global society The globalization and the need to keep one nation‟s identity are the most striking missions To this successfully, English is said to play an important role not only in helping the nation to join the economic activities but also in training the country‟s labor force Thus English learning and teaching gains more and more attention Listening skill is important among the four skills in English for language acquisition The review of early theories and research revealed that listening instruction and listening strategy training has received partial attention There has been little research attempting to determine the listening strategies and how they affect on listening performance Very little research of such kind has been conducted in Vietnamese learning context This may lead to the result that ESL/EFL learners‟ listening performance is not as high as it is expected The English subject was conducted in 45 periods in a course Students must study in courses; they have to develop four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing If you not understand when you listen, you can not speak So being a teacher of English, I realize that prelistening is the most important It helps students to understand and analyze easily general situations with visual aids such as pictures, posters, maps, PowerPoint, videos With all above reasons, I would like to conduct the research entitled “Activating EFL college students’ background knowledge by using visual aids in the pre-listening stage” 1.2 Aims of the study The thesis aims to: -Find out factors visual aids affecting EFL students‟ pre-listening Nguyen Kim Phuong page 26 JenniferESL: https://www.youtube.com/user/JenniferESL 27 Learn English with Let‟s talk: https://www.youtube.com/u…/learnexmumbai 28 English lessons 4U: https://www.youtube.com/…/EnglishLesson… 29 Học tiếng Anh Langmaster: https://www.youtube.com/…/tienganhlangm… 30 Tiếng Anh giao tiếp Langmaster: https://www.facebook.com/Tienganhgiaoti… 31 http// onlinelibrary.wiley.com 32 http://www.youtube.com/user/TheChuChuTV ChuChu TV Kids song http://www.gogolovesenglish.com/ http://kitten.bethongminh.vn/ http://kitten.bethongminh.vn/games/five-little-ducks http://kitten.bethongminh.vn/games/im-a-little-teapot http://kitten.bethongminh.vn/games/t -vao-cho-trong http://kitten.bethongminh.vn/games/the-abc-song http://kitten.bethongminh.vn/games/bat-lay-dong-tu 33 http://www.youtube.com/user/tienganh123 34 http://www.tienganh123.com/ 35 http://www.starfall.com 36 http// www.ebook.edu.vn Nguyen Kim Phuong page 91 Appendix-1 Questionnaire for students’ review I have some questions about the teaching and learning English in school Please answer the questions according to your own thought and experience Thank you! I PERSONAL INFORMATION: Name …………………………………………age:……  Gender: female Class: Part-time  male  full-time    Marital: married Job:……………………………………………………………… Years of learning English at secondary and high school None  single  7years years II YOU’RE THOUGHT AND EXPERIENCE ABOUT ENGLISH LEARNING: Question 1: Do you agree with these? (Put a tick () to the columns that is the most appropriate to you) Items Strong agree Agree Disagree Strong disagree I am more aware of the perceived importance of English listening skill I find that listening comprehension is difficult I find that listening comprehension is boring and not interesting I find that listening comprehension is exciting I find it difficult to understand listening texts when the topic is unfamiliar Question 2: Which of the following elements affect your learning listening skill ?( tick () on the case you choose) Teaching method :  Nguyen Kim Phuong good  OK  bad page 92 noises around:  formal  noisy  too noisy Equipment (CDs, CD players, TV, Speakers, projectors): curriculum:  poor quality  OK   suitable  not suitable  OK modern number of learners in each class:  too crowded  too few Question 3: You want to develop your listening skill because: (Number your options from the most to the least important reasons)  A English is the most popular language nowadays  B You want to listen English to communicate (see foreign movie on; to listen and sing English song; chat on the internet; etc.)  C To enhance my future prospects  D You want to pass the exam Question 4: How you feel when you listen to the tape after doing pre-listening activities ?  A Self- confident  B Interested  C Normal  D Both (a) and ( b) Question 5: What you think about the lessons using visual aid in pre-listening?  A too difficult to listen  B interesting and easy to understand  C normal  D too easy Question 6: Which activities you enjoy in listening lessons? Listening activities Nguyen Kim Phuong Your teacher you enjoy page 93 often uses Role-play Interviews Games/ Shows Pair-work/Group-work and problem solving Picture description Visual aids (picture, map, music, PowerPoint, computers) Question 7: Which problems you often face to when you listening tasks?  A You not know what type of information you are listening tasks?  B You have limited vocabulary  C You not know what you have to with your listening to  D You can not read the instruction carefully in given time  E Linking sound Question 8: What you often before listening to an exercise or a test ?(more than one answers are possible)  A Read the instruction carefully  B Underline key words  C Predict the answer  D Look at the questions for the answer Question 9: How often you want using visual aid technique the pre-listening activities are used in teaching listening process?  A always  B usually  C sometimes  D rarely  E never Nguyen Kim Phuong page 94 Appendix-2 Questionnaire for teachers’ interview I have some questions about the teaching and learning English in high-schools Please answer the questions according to your own thought and experience Thank you! I PERSONAL INFORMATION: Name:………………………………… Institution …………………………… Gender:  male  female You have been teaching English for: ……… years Question 1: According to you, how important is the use visual aid in pre-listening stage in teaching listening?  A Very important  B Important  C Less important  D Not important at all Question 2: Which pre-listening tasks you often use?  A True/False statement prediction  B Open prediction  C Ordering  D Pre-questions Question 3: Do you think using visual aids can develop students’ listening skill?  A Yes, very much  B Yes, but not much Nguyen Kim Phuong Page 95  C Not really  D Not at all Question 4: What you think of visual aids in listening skill?  A Help students enjoys learning English  B Improve students‟ listening skill  C Motivate students‟ interesting listening skill  D Enhance students‟ self-confidence in listening lesson Question What problems are you facing when adopting using visual aids in teaching listening English? Question How you select audio visual aids for your class? Question Do you face any challenges while using audio-visual aids? If yes, what are those? Question How you overcome those problems? Nguyen Kim Phuong Page 96 Appendix-3 Results (%) Categories Criteria A NA (agree) (not agree) Preparation Well-prepared and well-organized in class Apparently and appropriately prepared objectives of the lesson Presentation Language of instructions is clear and concise and the students are able to carry them on The lesson is smooth, sequenced and logical Authentic materials are added Materials are presented at the students‟ level of comprehension The teacher shows an interest in, enthusiasm for the subject taught Implementation/ methods The teacher move around the class and be ready to help more for the students There are balance and variety of activities during the lesson 10 Examples and illustrations are used effectively 11 Instructional aids or resource materials are used effectively 12 Drills are used and presented effectively 13 Teachers explores genuine situations in the class 14 Structures and vocabulary are taken out of students‟ presentation and applied to the real contexts of students‟ culture and personal experience Nguyen Kim Phuong Page 97 Student’s presentation 15 Students listen and complete task well 16 25 Students are encouraged to listening frequency 17 The students are able to draw the attention with their presentation and give out comments Teacher/Student interaction 18 Teacher is a facilitator 19 The students are receivers 20 Teacher encourages and assures full student participation 21 The students are attentive and involved 22 Teacher organizes effectively individual, pair work, and group work to the project 23 Teacher controls and directs the class Teacher’s feedback 24 Teacher gives out a clearly typescript 25 Teacher‟s feedback helps students improve their listening skills Nguyen Kim Phuong Page 98 Appendix-4 https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=mozart+music+videos&&view=detail&mid=9 CE4CD6672211CC656309CE4CD6672211CC65630&rvsmid=315FEFF70BF0B9E6 3317315FEFF70BF0B9E63317&FORM=VDRVRV Pop music my heart will go on :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz3lwXEGWIM Elvis Presley - Jailhouse Rock (Music Video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj0RzuP4Mk Hip Hop music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WORirbXAI8A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyI_eJNSGQs Dance Music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSF2i03JM-A Jazz music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99OKJaGSaYQ Latin, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrQYqhWr3GA Classical https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= LU8E6dUsI Electronical music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj6Y6JCu-l4 Country music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKpQRjj_WbU&list=RDQMhGYSAmDL8fE&st art_radio=1 Bolero music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWTNbGSBtU0 Nguyen Kim Phuong Page 99 Appendix – Part listening page in First choice book Stage Technique/ activity Aim/strategy Pre- The teacher introduces the topic, focus Activate the background listening attention on the pictures and have students knowledge Predict the describe what they see The teacher may content of the listening want to teach the words places (airplane, college campus, London, Big-Ben, celebrity even) jobs (teacher, businessman, student, tour-guide, ect.) For example: they are on the plane They can talk about the jobs Students predict the answers to the questions Nguyen Kim Phuong Page 100 Who are speaking? Where are they? What are they talking to? Unit 2: What’s your phone number? Part listening page 14 in First choice book Stage Technique/ activity Aim/strategy Pre- The teacher introduces the topic, focus Activate the background listening attention on the pictures what they see The knowledge teacher may teach the words : names( Mike, numbers, Michael, Kyoko Takeda, Dana Owen, Fiona) Names, addresses, email How to read number in telephone and addresses? Read model Notes: Rd (road), Ave (avenue) St (street, Saint ) How to read some symbols in email? @  “at” com  “dot com” edu  “dot e-d-u” Nguyen Kim Phuong Page 101 -  “dash” _  “ underline” The teacher explains to students that they will listen and check the pictures with the correct information Notes: some different news in each task Unit 3: My family Part listening page 20 in First choice book Stage Technique/ activity Aim/strategy Pre- The teacher introduces the topic, focus Activate the background listening attention on the pictures what they see knowledge Predict who Students guess Who are they in pictures? they are Teacher reminds family words ( father, Students know how the mother, parents, sister, brother, son people are related daughter, relationship, names Nisha, Ravi, Deepak, Kavita ) Teacher introduces each picture For example: students guess Picture A talks about Nisha How old is she? What is her job? Nguyen Kim Phuong Page 102 Unit 4: Do you like hip-hop? Part listening page 30 in First choice book Stage Technique/ activity Aim/strategy Pre- The teacher introduces the music topic, Activate the background listening focus attention on the pictures what they knowledge Talk about see some short clips about some kinds of music such as: rock, dance, music Teacher divides class into group 5-7 Latin, classical, pop, jazz depending on the number of students music and hip-hop… Teacher gives each group a kind of music, Students identify the type students to discuss and give kind of musical of music they like through instrument, favorite singer (homework for their clothes prepare listening) Teacher uses PowerPoint with some short videos (in appendix 5) students can talk some favorite singers in each music field and their things and clothes usually wear Students look their clothes to guess their Nguyen Kim Phuong Page 103 favorite kind of music Ask student what kinds of music they like and give them some TV channels or link to listening Unit 5: What you for fun? Part listening page 36 in First choice book Stage Technique/ activity Aim/strategy Pre- The teacher introduces the favorite activities Activate the background listening at the weekend, focus attention on the knowledge Talk about pictures what they see and they complete activities weekend such as: with correct pictures teacher correct and go shopping, morning explain some words: water bottle, morning exercises, plays some exercises, play sports such as tennis, sports, go to the library, volleyball… (Their clothes are worn when rent movies they play sports), DVDs, movies on Youtube, go window shopping or go shopping, high heel, go the library and how to get book Nguyen Kim Phuong Page 104 Nguyen Kim Phuong Page 105 ...MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN KIM PHƯỢNG ACTIVATING EFL COLLEGE STUDENTS’ BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE BY USING VISUAL AIDS IN THE PRELISTENING STAGE Major: Teaching English... knowledge by using visual aids in the pre- listening stage? ?? 1.2 Aims of the study The thesis aims to: -Find out factors visual aids affecting EFL students‟ pre- listening Nguyen Kim Phuong page - Investigate... identifying the characters is not going to be one of the tasks in the listening! ) give them an overview of who‟s who in the listening 2.2.1.3 Importance of pre- listening The pre- listening is the stage