Using guiding questions at the pre listening stage to increase listening comprehension among 11th graders

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING IU VINH UNIVERSITY TRẦN THỊ THUYẾT USING GUIDING QUESTIONS AT THE PRE-LISTENING STAGE TO INCREASE LISTENING COMPREHENSION AMONG 11TH GRADERS MASTER'S THESIS IN EDUCATION Nghệ An, 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINHUNIVERSITY TRẦN THỊ THUYẾT STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine The date and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates and have not USING GUIDING been published elsewhere QUESTIONS AT THE PRE-LISTENING STAGE TO INCREASE LISTENING Author: COMPREHENSION AMONG 11TH GRADERS Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Tran Languages Thi Thuyet (TESOL) Code: 8140111 MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR: Nguyễn Thị Quyết, Ph.D Nghệ An, 2018 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP The work provided in this thesis, unless otherwise referenced, is the researcher‟ own work, and has not been submitted elsewhere for any other degree or qualification Author: Tran Thi Thuyet i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Thi Quyet, for the generous encouragement, sympathetic patience and helpful guidance she gave to me throughout the entire development of this research Without her help, this thesis would not be finished I am grateful to my all instructors in MA course, who gave me much knowledge and valuable materials in the lectures during the course Those are the valuable resources of knowledge for me to start my thesis I also gave many thanks to the teachers and the students at Nguyen Van Troi high school, who carefully completed the questionnaires and sincerely provided me with valuable information for this research in the interviews to help me deal with the procedure of the thesis I would also like to show the warm gratitude to the lovely friends, the friendly colleagues at the school that faithfully gave me the valuable comments, the contributive adjustments and the useful suggestions in my thesis Finally, I am happy to acknowledge my family members, who always supported and encouraged me to help me overcome all difficulties during the time I conducted this study ii ABSTRACT This study was conducted with a view to examine the effects of guiding question technique at the pre-listening stage in improving the English listening comprehension of 11th graders at high school The participants in this study were 72 eleventh graders at Nguyen Van Troi high school in Ha Tinh province They were selected and assigned into two groups: the control group with 36 students and the experimental group with 36 students Each group studied the same lessons The experimental group was taught listening with guiding question technique at prelistening phase designed by the researcher Based on the content of the English textbooks taught in the 11th grade in high schools and required tasks in listening sessons, a listening comprehension test was designed and used as a pre-post test Before the treatment, the first questionnaire was made to find out the problems students encounter in learning listening as well as their expectations from the teachers to help them increase their listening comprehension The treatment was performed by the researcher to improve the listening comprehension skills of the experimental group The treatment was taught for one period a week over eight weeks At the end of the treatment, a post-test was delivered to each group to examine the effect of the treatment on developing the students' listening comprehension skills And the second questionnaire was made to find out students‟ evaluation about guiding question applied by the teacher The main statistical results of the study showed that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental group in the posttest in comparison with that of the control group It was concluded that the proposed guiding questions at the pre-listening stage were very effective in improving the listening comprehension skills of 11th graders at Nguyen Van Troi high school in Ha Tinh iii TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale .1 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Research Questions 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 The organization of the study .3 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Teaching English listening skills 2.1.1 Definition of listening .5 2.1.2 Definition of listening comprehension 2.1.3 Listening comprehension sub-skills 2.1.4 Teacher‟s role in listening activities 2.1.5 Potential problems in learning listening skill 2.1.6 Strategies to teach listening skill .11 2.1.7 Principles of teaching English listening skills 12 2.1.8 Stages of teaching listening skills 13 2.2 Pre-listening stage and the role of pre-listening techniques 14 2.2.1 Pre-listening stage 14 2.2.2 The role of pre-listening techniques 15 2.3 Guiding question technique 16 2.3.1 Definition 16 2.3.2 The characteristic of guiding question 16 2.3.3 The advantages of using guiding question technique .17 iv 2.3.4 Criteria for effective guiding question 17 2.3.5 Ways of exploiting guiding question technique in English teaching 18 CHAPTER 3: METHDOLOGY .21 3.1 Research design 21 3.2 Time and Location of the research .21 3.3 Subjects of the research 22 3.4 Research instruments 23 3.4.1 Questionnaire 23 3.4.2 Test 23 3.4.3 Materials 24 3.4.4 Applying guiding questions at pre-listening stage 26 3.5 Procedure 27 3.6 Data analysis 29 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 30 4.1 Introduction 30 4.2 Problems encountered by 11th graders in learning listening skills .30 4.2.1 Problems from the students .30 4.2.2 Problems from the listening material 31 4.2.3 Problems result from physical settings 34 4.2.4 Problems result from teacher‟ teaching 36 4.3 Students‟ expectations in term of teachers‟ methodology to help them increase their listening comprehension 37 4.4 Effects of guiding question at the pre-listening stage on students‟ listening skills 39 4.5 Suggestions to make guiding questions effective 45 4.6 Particular Examples of Using guiding questions in pre-listening stage 46 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 57 5.1 Summary of the key findings .57 5.2 Implications 58 5.2.1 For Teachers 58 v 5.2.2 For students .59 5.2.3 For Textbook Designers 60 5.2.4 For school administrators 60 5.3 Limitations of the study .61 5.4 Suggestions for further research .61 REFERENCES 63 APPENDICES vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Research type 21 Table 3.2: Demographic information of participants .22 Table 3.3: Band scores of Listening comprehension test 24 Table 3.4: The listening topics of 16 units and listening sections 24 Table 4.1: Problems from the students 30 Table 4.2: Problems from the listening material 31 Table 4.3: Problems result from physical settings 34 Table 4.4: Problems result from teacher‟ teaching 36 Table 4.5: Students‟ expectations in term of teachers‟ methodology to help them increase their listening comprehension 37 Table 4.6: The control and experimental groups‟ pretest and posttest results 40 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.4.A: Pretest and Posttest results by band scores of control group 44 Figure 4.4.B: Pretest and Posttest results by band scores of experimental group .44 vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale English has been considered as a global language It is widely used in all aspects in life It has become one of the most important and compulsory subjects at all levels of learning and teaching For various learners in Vietnam, the acquisition of listening skills in a foreign language is a priority because it is not only an important way to gain knowledge but also a way by which further study takes place According to Carrell (1994:1), listening is by far the most important of the four macro skills because the listening skill offers learners a great deal of interesting information as well as a wide range of language expressions and structures, which are of great usefulness for developing other skills However, in many years of learning English, the author has realized the fact that most of the teachers and students at high schools pay more attention to grammar and reading skills than to listening skill As a result, students not usually concentrate in listening lessons Listening is regarded as the most difficult skill among four basic language skills There is a variety of reasons for this: students‟ background knowledge, their limited reservoir of vocabulary and structures, their lack of preparations for the task (Boyle, 1978) A large number of students have expressed their boredom in listening courses and complained that they benefit little from listening lessons Therefore, it is necessary for English teachers to realize the importance of how to make listening classes more interesting and know how to make students active in listening lessons Furthermore, good pre-listening stage can stimulate the students‟ interests in listening as well as can provide them some language preparation, which can be helpful clues to their listening comprehension It is obvious that exploiting prelistening techniques effectively for this stage is challenging for teachers because they have to take things into account such as the objectives of the lesson, the settings, the students‟ needs, etc when choosing a technique CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION This chapter first briefly summarizes the major findings from the research Then it offers some implications to the problems of teaching listening Finally, the limitations of this study as well as suggestions for further research are also taken into account 5.1 Summary of the key findings As indicated in Chapter 3, a listening comprehension pretest and posttest, two questionnaires are mainly utilized for data collection in order to examine the efficiency of using guiding questions at the pre-listening stage on 11th graders‟ listening comprehension skills Based on the results of the questionnaire, it can be indicated that the students face with considerable difficulties in all five aspects of language The foremost difficulties are in terms of vocabulary and subject background knowledge The grammatical aspect seems to be the least difficult of all The sound, stress, intonation and discourse are considered as equally difficult areas Being aware of their problems in learning listening skills, the students revealed their expectations in terms of their teachers‟ methodology to help them develop listening comprehension skills and especially allow more communicative activities in listening lessons The data from the posttest delivered after two months experimenting with the use of guiding questions gave us much more information than expected Overall, the posttest results of the control group increased slightly when compared with those of the pretest In contrast, the experimental group witnessed a considerable increase for all of band scores Nevertheless, as not expected, there were some cases of both groups whose results remained the same and a few students whose posttest results were even worse than their pretest ones From the data of the questionnaire after the treatment which was delivered only to the students of the experimental group, the researcher realized that the 57 majority of students highly appreciated use of guiding questions at the pre-litening phase in helping them resolve their problems More importantly, the use of this technique created a supportive learning environment where a weak student can be assisted by a more capable one Thus, guiding questions stimulated students in the learning process This study was implemented to find out students‟ problems in listening as well as their listening proficiency These factors were the essential conditions for the researcher to experiment some ways to apply guiding questions with the aim of helping non English major students increase their listening comprehension It is hoped that some guiding questions suggested in the pre-listening stage can make a modest contribution to develop and improve the teaching and learning of English listening skills at Nguyen Van Troi high school 5.2 Implications 5.2.1 For Teachers Developing listening skills of foreign language learners is not a simple task It requires great and continuous effort from language teachers In order to help students become effective and active listeners, the teachers‟ role is important Below are some suggestions for language teachers in applying guiding question technique into listening class First of all, the teacher should need to take into careful consideration such things as students‟ needs, feelings, interests, background knowledge and their levels of English proficiency Besides, teachers should apply the “guiding questions” in a variety of ways such as: using pictures, organizing games, giving hands-out in which many kinds of questions are presented, interviewing, showing a video, providing an unexpected model and setting the scene Thanks to the various methods mentioned above, a flexible and creative teacher can frequently apply and change As a result of this, tediousness during the lesson can be remarkably reduced 58 Self- study is necessary in learning a second language It is advisable, thus, for teachers, to encourage students to practice listening at home with supplementary material suitable to students‟ level For example, providing more listening tasks with the same topic as the one studied at class is a good idea From the researcher‟s point of view, listen carefully course book, let‟s listen pre-intermediate course books, Cambridge Key English books, and some traininglistening skills websites,listen to English song and News which are at the same level as their level However, importantly, teachers should provide clear feedback in order for students to monitor their own progress Testing is also an integral factor in the process of teaching listening After units in the curriculum, teachers should have students sit a listening test In this way, teacher can help students assess at what level their listening abilities are so they can set up their goals for the next test time What is more, testing is one of the effective ways to arouse students‟ motivation to make progress in the learning of listening Well-prepared lesson plans are important in teaching process As Visual Aids such as photo, posters, diagram, charts are often used, it is better for teacher to teach listening skills using computer software such as Power Point Presentation for lively, vivid, and better lesson plans 5.2.2 For students To become an active and effective listener, students need to carry out the basic steps as follow: Firstly, they should tell teachers about their needs, their expectations of the teacher, as well as difficulties they encounter in English in general and in listening skill in particular This will give the teachers opportunity to design lesson plans, learning activities that are suitable to their needs, expectations and level Secondly, it is advisable for students to participate actively into pair work and group work such as peer correction after each listening time where they can receive the support from their partner and their group members to solve their 59 problems The researcher‟s teaching experience shows that it seems much easier for students to tell their classmates about their difficulties In addition, by exchange ideas among group members, students will be less likely to get frustrated and afraid of failure Finally, students need to have a continuous self- study which will help them to revise and improve their own listening ability However, it is necessary that they are oriented and consulted in choosing supplementary to practice listening at home 5.2.3 For Textbook Designers Listening materials play a significant role in stimulating students' interests and making the lessons more effective Hence, it is very important for the textbook designers to provide a wide range of listening topics and tasks which are familiar with students' daily life as well as appropriate to students' levels of proficiency Moreover, the recorded tapes should be read by native speakers in real life such as in the street, at home, at school, in a hotel, at a restaurant or in shops and so on in order to make the listening materials more authentic to students 5.2.4 For school administrators It is clear that school administrators play a necessary part in the improvement of the quality of teaching and learning Some suggestions for school administrators are suggested as the following: First and foremost, school administrators should renew class model Each class should be reduced to 25 students instead of from 40 to 45 students at present In fact, big-sized classrooms with mixed ability in Vietnamese setting normally make it difficult for teachers to control and teach foreign languages in general and listening skills in particular This will lead to poor quality in the listening teaching and learning Moreover, school administrators need to be aware of the placement test‟s importance because this test results will be served as standard for teachers to determine students‟ level The placement test, thus, must be well and strictly 60 organized to give exact results Besides, school administrators had better to establish English classes basing on students‟ level, which will result in effective learning and teaching Last but not least, school administrators need to support facilities and finance for teachers More precisely, administrators should allow teachers to comfortably use photocopier, printer, materials and so on in order to encourage teachers' teaching process In addition, school administrators should equip more facilities for teachers of English to use frequently 5.3 Limitations of the study This study is carried out with the aims that its output will provide teachers of English with information related to 11th graders‟ difficulties in listening as well as some effective ways of using guiding questions at pre-listening stage to help them improve their teaching of listening skill Consequently, the listening ability of 11th graders is also hoped to be enhanced The study usefully demonstrates scope, time, and knowledge; however, it is impossible to avoid shortcomings that may affect the quality of the research First of all, the study was only able to be conducted with a quite small sample of seventy-two 11th graders‟ at Nguyen Van Troi high school This may limit the requirement of objectivity and generalizations Therefore, the wider reliability and application of the research results may be partly influenced Secondly, due to limited time and knowledge, my study only focuses on using the guiding questions to increase students‟ listening comprehension at the first stage of listening The researcher has not yet discussed the while- and post-listening stage Finally, because of the researcher‟s limited research experience and skill, this study cannot avoid some shortcomings 5.4 Suggestions for further research The present study has been completed to the researcher‟s satisfaction in spite of unavoidable limitations However, the researcher believes it will pave the way 61 for other research of those who wish to bring out the skills needed for learning and teaching listening effectively Several suggestions for further studies are mentioned briefly below In the future, further research for this topic can be developed in more depth if it is extended to a large scale with a large sample number of the students and teachers at Nguyen Van Troi high school In this way, the findings of the study may be more conclusive In addition, it is suggested that further research should be done to relate not only to listening skill, but also to speaking, writing and reading with guiding question technique 62 REFERENCES Anderson, A., & Lynch, T (2003) Listening 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Oxford: Oxford University Press Broughter (1989) Towards a new methodology for listening Oxford: Oxford University Press Carrell, P L (1994) Teaching English as a Foreign Language London: Longman Davies, P and Pearse, E (2000) Success in Teaching English Oxford: Oxford University Press Duzer, C (1997) Improving ESL Learners' Listening Skills: At the Workplace and Beyond Center for Applied Linguistics, Project in Adult Immigrant Education (PAIE), Washington: Department of Education (ED), Office of Educational Research and Improvement Forseth, R & C., Tạ Tiến Hùng & Nguyễn Văn Đỗ (1996) Methodology Handbook for English Teachers in Vietnam English Language Institute America Freeman, D L (2004) Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching New Delhi: OUP Gall, M D., Ward, B., Berliner, D C., Cahen, L., Crown, K., Elashoff, J., Stanton and Winne, P (1975) The Effects of Teacher Use of Questioning Techniques on Student Achievement and Attitudes San Francisco: Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development Gillham, B (2000) Developing a questionnaire British library cataloguing-inpublication Data Hamouda, A (2013) An Investigation of Listening Comprehension Problems Encountered by Saudi Students in the EL Listening Classroom International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 2(2), 113-155 Harmer, J (1991) The Practice of English Language Teaching New York: Longman 63 Harmer, J (1994) The Practice of English Language Teaching London and New York: Longman Hasan, A (2000) Learners‟ Perceptions of Listening Comprehension Problems Language, Culture and Curriculum, 13(2), 137-153 Hoàng Văn Vân et al (2006) Tiếng Anh 11 Nxb Giao Duc Hyman, R T (1979) Strategic Questioning Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall King, M (1984) Language and School Success: Access to Meaning, Theory into Practice, 23 (3), Summer Kissock, C & Iyortsuun, P (1984) A guide to questioning: classroom procedures for teachers Hong Kong: Macmillan Kutlu, O., et al (2009) Factors Affecting the Listening Skill Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences I, 2013-2022 Lin, M (2006) The effects of note-taking, memory and rate of presentation on EFL learners' listening comprehension Unpublished doctoral dissertation, La Sierra University, California Macháčková, E (2009) Teaching Listening Bachelor Thesis, Pedagogical Faculty Department of English language and literature: Masaryk University Brno Nanda, K (1989) Developing English Comprehension New Delhi, India: Sterling publishers private LTD Nation, L (1990) Teaching and learning vocabulary New York, U.S.A: New bury house publishers Pourhosein Gilakjani, A., & Ahmadi, M R (2011) A Study of Factors Affecting EFL Learners' English Listening Comprehension and the Strategies for Improvement Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 2(5), 977988 Pourhosein Gilakjani, A., & Sabouri, N B (2016) Learners‟ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review English Language Teaching, 9(6), 123-133 64 Rost, M (2002), Teaching and Researching Listening London: Longman Traver (1998) Educational Leadership Retreived November 08, 2015 from http://pypchat.wikispaces.com Underwood, M (1989) Teaching Listening, London and New York: Longman Ur P (1998) Teaching Listening Comprehension Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Vogely, A J (1994) Listening comprehension anxiety: Students‟ reported sources and solutions Foreign Language Annals, 31, 67-80 Wilhelm, Jeffrey D (2007) Engaging Readers and Writers with Inquiry New York: Scholastic Yagang, F (1993) Listening: problems and solutions English Teaching Forum In Kral, Th (Ed), Teacher Development, Making the Right Movies (pp 189196), English Language Programs Division, United States Information Agency, Washington, D.C 65 APPENDIX 1A QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS This questionnaire is designed to collect information for the research “Using guiding questions at the pre-listening stage to increase listening comprehension among 11th graders” Your assistance in completing the survey is appreciated All the information provided by you is solely for the study purpose, and you can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Thank you very much for your cooperation! I PERSONAL INFORMATION Full name: (optional)…………………………………………………………… Age:……………………………………………………………………………… □ Male Gender: □ Female How long have you been learning English? ………………………………… What is your mark of English in the placement test? :………………………… II QUESTIONS Here are some problems you may face with when learning listening comprehension skills Please tick in the appropriate box Problems from the students Problems Making prediction what the speaker talk about Guessing unfamiliar words Recognizing main points Always Often Sometimes Never Problems from the listening material Problems Always Often Sometimes Never Unfamiliar topics Difficult tasks Different accents Colloquial language Speed of speech Linking sounds and unfamiliar words Ungrammatical sentences Hesitation Long listening Problems result from physical settings Problems Always Noise Poor quality of the sound equipment Big class-size & mixed ability Poor condition classroom Often Sometimes Never Problems result from teacher’ teaching Problems Always Often Sometimes Never Teachers' low interests Rigidity in steps of teaching listening period Your expectations What you expect from the teachers to help you increase your listening comprehension? ( Choose as many as possible) 5.1 I expect the teacher to provide key words along with their pronunciation and guide us to guess unfamiliar words or phrases before listening to the text 5.2 I expect the teacher to give pre-listening questions before listening 5.3 I expect the teacher to provide more background knowledge related to the topic we are going to listen 5.4 I want the teacher to guide to make prediction what the speaker is going to talk 5.5 I want the teacher to allow discussing the topics in groups before listening 5.6 Others (Please indicate here) Yes No APPENDIX 1B QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS This questionnaire is designed to collect information for the research “Using guiding questions at the pre-listening stage to increase listening comprehension among 11th graders” All the data collected in this questionnaire will be kept confidential and used for the purpose of the research only, and you can be confidential that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Your assistance in completing this questionnaire is highly appreciated Thank you very much for your cooperation I PERSONAL INFORMATION 1.Fullname:(optional)………………………………………………………… 2.What is your mark of the pretest? 3.What is your mark of the posttest? II QUESTIONS Do you think guiding questions at pre-listening stage that your teacher used when teaching listening help you solve your problems in listening lessons and improve your listening comprehension? Why? ………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………… Please give your answers here APPENDIX 2A: LISTENING COMPREHENSION PRETEST Time allowed: 15 minutes Task 1: Listen to the dialogue about the Boston Marathon and decide whether the statements are true (T) or false (F) Statements True False (T) (F) The Boston Marathon is held every year in the USA It began in 1897 John McDermott clocked hours 30 minutes and 10 seconds Women were officially allowed to participate in the races in 1976 In 1984, 34 countries took part in the marathon Task 2: Listen again and choose the best answer: John McDermott, who won the first Boston Marathon, came from A New York B London C Japan D China Kuscsik became the first official female champion in _ A 1952 B 1972 C 1962 D in 1992 There are _ women who started and finished the race in 1972 A 18 B 80 C 800 D In 1984, runners from 34 countries ran in the marathon A 6164 B 1464 C 4164 D 4614 According to the race‟s rules, runners have to pass through A 13 towns B the centre of Boston C 23 headquarters D 31 places APPENDIX 2B:LISTENING COMPREHENSION POSTTEST Time allowed: 15 minutes Task Listen to the tape and decide whether the statements are true (T) or false (F): Statements True False (T) (F) Yuko made a new world record time of minute 58 seconds in freestyle Lily, the Chinese gymnast, got an average of 5.9 points Lee Bong-ju won a gold medal for men‟s long jump with 8.9 metres Vichai coming from Thailand was the last long jumper Vichai was very disappointed after finishing his performance Task2: Listen to the tape again and choose the best answer: What was the name of programme at 10.15? A The Asian Games Report C The Asian Games Review B The Asian Games Record D The Asian Games News How many gold medals have the Japanese athletes won in the first three days? A two C six B three D five How many times has Lee Bong-ju competed in the long jump? A four C two B three D one What was the height of the bar which Vichai had to jump over? A 1.3 m C 3.3 m B 2.3 m D 3.2 m Which of the following sports events was NOT mentioned in the report? A freestyle C long and high jumps B gymnastics D shooting ... author to choose the thesis entitled ? ?Using guiding question at the pre- listening stage to increase listening comprehension among 11th graders? ?? This is done with the aim of applying the ? ?guiding. .. learning listening as well as their expectations from the teachers to help them increase their listening comprehension The treatment was performed by the researcher to improve the listening comprehension. .. associates and have not USING GUIDING been published elsewhere QUESTIONS AT THE PRE- LISTENING STAGE TO INCREASE LISTENING Author: COMPREHENSION AMONG 11TH GRADERS Major: Teaching English to Speakers