Attitudes towards listening of non english majors at an giang university

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES - ϑ - ATTITUDES TOWARDS LISTENING OF NON- ENGLISH MAJORS AT AN GIANG UNIVERSITY SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF TESOL SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN HOÀNG LINH, M.A STUDENT: BÙI THỊ THÙY TRANG HO CHI MINH CITY- 2008 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION Background Social psychologists are interested in the impact that social environment and interaction has on attitudes and behaviors because according to psychologist Gordon Allport (1985), social psychology is a discipline that uses scientific methods "to understand and explain how the thought, feeling and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings" In addition, much language attitudes research finds the important role of language attitudes to education which has been the factor contributing language loss and language retention Gardner (1985) is an example who finds the favorable language attitudes relating to less attrition in a learnt language Where learners had positive attitudes to a language they were less likely to lose competence that language Being an English teacher in An Giang University- a rather young university which is situated right in the heart of the rural region of the Mekong Delta, I cannot deny the central role of learners Therefore, they can bring their own beliefs, goals, attitudes and decisions to their learning and these influence how they approach their learning And their attitude is one of the very biggest influences on language learning success or failure according to the comment of Oxford (1996) A point worth mentioning is that only few of non-English majors really like learning English Listening but most of them not like learning this skill through my general observation during the process of teaching English in An Giang University The teachers of English Department also realize that Listening is more difficult to teach non-English majors because a great number of students live in rural area and English Listening is not taught in high school so most of them not like this skill Therefore, they can understand English written materials but they face with a difficulty because of their unfamiliarity to listen to spoken English so -1- they often obtain bad scores on listening tests Due to this reason, teaching Listening to non-English majors requires the teachers not only much time and effort to investigate in their lesson plans but also their patience in teaching Listening Teachers should also control their emotion and pay more attention to their learners’ attitudes to avoid frustrated feeling and bad behavior in class of the learners in learning Listening Another thing worth noting is that listening well requires positive attitude, attention, thought, interpretation, and imagination as in the remark of Saricoban (1999) In reality, some teachers seemed to ignore the importance of such factors as attitude, anxiety, high self-esteem and the relevance of a conducive environment, which could contribute to the success of language learning In most cases, teachers are worried about how to drill the students to pass the test on the English paper in the examination so the problem for many English teachers, especially the nonspecialists, is to find out different attitudes among students and the factors that affect these attitudes in order to help learners have an awareness about the role of their attitudes contributing to the success in learning Listening Naiman et al (1975) also state that good language learners are often those who know how to control their emotions and attitudes about learning I often wonder whether different types of attitudes affect the process of learning Listening of learners and which factors would affect these attitudes after I recognize the role of attitudes in learning, the weakness of non-English majors, and the ignorance of some English teacher at An Giang University With the strongly desire to understand more about learners’ attitudes as well as to satisfy the curiosity about the relationship between attitudes and achievement in leaning Listening, I spend time to research and survey about the social psychological attitudes towards Listening of non-English majors Hopefully, this study will contribute to the more understanding about learners’ attitudes to increase the quality in learning and teaching Listening to non-English majors at An Giang University -2- Statement of Purpose This thesis investigates firstly into different social psychological attitudes towards Listening of non-English majors at An Giang University to find out the relationship between types of attitudes and achievement in learning Listening Secondly, it aims to carry out the factors affecting their attitudes through the correlation with their attitudes to see why non-English majors are not good in Listening And thirdly, it suggests some recommendations to help teachers and nonEnglish majors recognize the importance of attitude that relates to the achievement of learning Listening so that teachers can motivate their students in learning this skill far more effectively and enjoyably and learners-themselves can control their emotion to get a positive attitude in learning Listening Research questions Two questions guide this study: What are the learners’ social psychological attitudes towards Listening of non- English majors at An Giang University? What factors affect these attitudes? Hypothesis The study was based on the following hypotheses concerning teaching and learning Listening to non– English majors at An Giang University: There are different social psychological attitudes of non-English majors that cause differences in language learners in terms of their difficulties or success in learning Listening School, major, age, genders, language background, ability, language culture, and anxiety are the factors that affect their attitudes in learning Listening at An Giang University -3- The significance of the study The quality of teaching and learning English and maximizing the learning results of our non-English majors are being taken more attention at An Giang University so there is a need for many studies about this field Until now there have been some studies which research about teaching and learning English at An Giang University However, this study will be the first to investigate the social psychological attitudes to the study of Listening as well as factors that affect the attitudes of non- English majors at An Giang University Therefore, this study looks into the affective factor: attitude in social psychology that may have greatly hindered the effect of learning Listening on the part of students at An Giang University because teaching a second language to students in rural areas remains a great challenge because performance in exams is considered more important than for other purposes It requires not only creative and innovative teaching techniques but also courageous, well-determined, and committed teachers Teachers have to pay more attention about the role of attitude in learning Listening as well as other skills With the findings of the study, the researcher believes that the teachers at An Giang University will have a link between attitude and achievement in learning Listening and try to motivate the students to learn and appreciate the language in the language learning process, especially in learning Listening Limitation Discovering learners’ attitudes in listening skill is a difficult and complex topic Due to the small –scaled population of the subject in the study, the findings only covered only in social psychology of attitudes and some typical factors affecting the attitude of non -English majors not for English majors when dealing with Listening at An Giang University And the findings of the study will be -4- applied only at An Giang University- a new and young university Therefore, the study will not be generalizable to other universities Besides, this study only invested for the situation in the first semester of the school year 2007-2008 Most of students in An Giang University are from rural areas Great part of them did not study English Listening in high school and some of them have studied English for three years so learners face with a lot of difficulties because they are not familiar with the new conditions The results of the study may be different in the next year or the following year because of different learners and different background The Organization of the Study This study contains five chapters in sequence as follows: Chapter I: Introduction- contains the background of the problem, the purposes of the study, the research questions, hypothesis of the study, the significance of the study, the limitation, and the organization of the study Chapter II: Literature Review- presents the theoretical background of the study The body of literature is established in social psychology on attitude theory and attitude research Chapter III: Research Methodology- describes the methodology of choosing the population, the data collection instruments and the procedure of the study Chapter IV: Findings and Discussion- discusses and analyses the research findings Chapter V: Conclusion and Recommendation- deals with conclusions of the study with recommendations and further research -5- CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW In the final hypothesis of Krashen’s theory (1985) is called the affective filter hypothesis It simply states that a student’s acquisition of a second language is directly related to his attitude toward acquiring it This outlook may be influenced by several factors – societal opinion of the language and its students, positive or negative classroom experience, nervousness, sense of self-esteem – but in the end, the sum of positive versus negative attitudinal factors will strongly correlate with the student’s success with the language Second language attitude refers to acquirers' orientations toward speakers of the target language, as well as personality factors 2.1 Attitude 2.1.1 Definition of Attitude Eagly and Chaiken (1993) identify an attitude as an implicit state that allows psychologists to understand why a person reacts in a particular way to particular stimuli Attitudes, themselves, are not directly observable, but can be inferred through behavior and are recognized by a core notion: evaluation More specifically, Ajzen (2001, p 28) summarizes the definition of an attitude as a “summary evaluation of a psychological object captured in such attribute dimensions as good-bad, harmful-beneficial, pleasant-unpleasant, and likeabledislikeable” According to Baker (1988), attitudes are learned predispositions, and are not inherited They are relatively stable and are affected by experiences Psychological theory on attitudes of Zimbardo & Lieppe (1991) refers to an evaluative, emotional reaction (i.e the degree of like or dislike associated with the attitudinal object) -6- In brief, attitude is a natural part of the language in everyday expression It is the evaluation about an object, person, situation, experience…etc through the attitudinal level such as: good-bad, harmful-beneficial, pleasant-unpleasant, and likeable-dislikeable, which is a factor leading to a positive or negative action towards the objects Therefore, attitude is really an accumulation of information about an object, person, situation or experience…a predisposition to act in a positive or negative way towards some objects Moreover, attitudes are complex constructs because we cannot observe directly Therefore, self description or self perceptions may be one way to observe the attitudes For example, students observe themselves in English Listening so that they can infer that they have a favorable attitude to this skill or not 2.1.2 The important role of attitude Baker (1992, p 10) gives out three reasons for the importance of attitude: “its close connection to individual construct systems, its value as an indicator of viewpoints in the community and its centrality in psychology theory and research for over sixty years attest to attitude as a central topic” He also indicates that attitude is considered both as input and output (Baker, 1992) That means a favorable attitude to language learning may be a vital input in language achievement and after a language learning course, the teacher may hope for a favorable attitude to the language learnt so sometimes attitude may be as important an outcome as achievement if further development or interest in a subject is sought Thus attitude serves a double function: it provides a presage and a product variable, a predisposer and an outcome We can see that aattitude is an important notion in the study of second language acquisition so the problem of what are the attitudes of non-majors that foreign language teachers need to keep in mind always And what factors affect these attitudes when English is not seen as important for their immediate needs other than to pass the examinations? It is the researcher’s belief that a better understanding of language learners can have a beneficial effect on the -7- process of attempting to help language learners in learning English as a foreign or second language 2.2 Language Attitude 2.2.1 The Nature of Language Attitudes Richards, Platt & Platt (1992, p 199) define learners’ attitudes as “the attitudes which speakers of different languages or language varieties have towards each other’s languages or to their own language Expressions of positive or negative feelings toward a language may reflect impressions of linguistic difficulty or simplicity, ease or difficulty of learning, degree of importance, elegance, social status, etc” They emphasize that language attitudes may have an effect on second language or foreign language learning and the measurement of language attitudes provides information which is useful in language teaching and language planning Nunan & Lamb (1996, p 215) also state that “the attitude of learners toward the target language, the learning situation and the roles that they are expected to play within that learning situation will have an important effect on the learning process” Fasold (1984) suggests that the attitude towards a language is often the reflection of the attitudes towards the members of that speech community People's reaction towards a language variety reveals their perception regarding the speakers of that variety their social, political and economic backdrop Attitudes to learning and the perceptions (and beliefs) which determine them, may have "a profound influence on learning behaviour" in Cotterall’s point of view (Cotteral, 1995, p 195) since successful learners develop insightful beliefs about language learning processes, their own abilities and the use of effective learning strategies, which have a facilitative effect on learning Mantle-Bromley (1995) emphasizes that these students tend to develop a more active and autonomous attitude that allows them to take charge of their learning Teachers must therefore acknowledge and respect students' attitudes, beliefs, and expectations and help them overcome any harmful perceptions and blocks -8- Bakers (1992, p 29) says language attitude is a broad term, under which consists a variety of specific attitudes “For example, research has variously focused on: - attitude to language variation, dialect and speech style - attitude to learning a new language - attitude to a specific minority language (e.g Irish) - attitude to language groups, communities and minorities - attitude to language lessons - attitude to the uses of a specific language - attitude to parents to language learning - attitude to language preference” In short, language attitudes are the attitudes of learners towards a language and the learning situation of that language, which express the positive or negative feelings through the difficulty or ease of learning, degree of importance, social status, beliefs about language learning processes, their own abilities and the use of effective learning strategies And, one major area with attitude to learning a specific skill-Listening of English is also focused Yet, the attitudes towards the members of that speech community as Fasold’s suggestion (1984) are not mentioned in this paper We cannot deny that knowing learners’ language attitudes is very important because learners can lose their competence in a learnt language if they possess a negative attitude Through their attitudes, teachers should find the ways to reduce their negative feeling and help them to have a positive feeling with hope, tenacity and academic success 2.2.2 Types of Language Attitudes Baker (40) found that attitude to language containing two main parts: instrumental attitudes and integrative attitudes Besides, there still exists a general attitude -9- Future studies could explore whether sex difference affects anxiety and selfefficacy levels In the present study, the attitude change was also mentioned but did not explore how much change there was from the learners after applying the above recommendation Future studies could explore whether there is a change of attitudes from negative to positive or from more instrumental attitude to more integrative and general attitude of non- English majors - 89 - REFERENCES Ajzen, I (2001) Nature and operation of attitudes Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 27-58 Allport, G W (1985) The historical background of social psychology In G Lindzey, and E Aronson, (Eds.), Handbook of social Psychology, 1, (3), 1-46 Anderson, A & Lynch, T 1991 Listening Oxford Oxford University Press Baker, C (1988) Key Issues in Bilingualism and Bilingual Education Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters Ltd Baker, C (1992) Attitudes and Language Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters Ltd Barnes R (1999) Positive teaching,positive learning Routledge Bell, J (1993) Doing your research project Buckingham- Philadelphia Open University Press Brown, H Douglas (2000) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching Fourth Edition Addison Wesley Longman, Inc Brownell J (1996) Listening Attitudes, Principles, and Skills Allyn and Bacon : Boston Burstall, C., Jamieson, M., Cohen, S and Hargreaves, M (1974), Primary French in the Balance Windsor: NFER/ Nelson Cotterall, S (1995b) Readiness for autonomy: investigating learner beliefs System 23/2, 195-205 Doff, A (1988) Teach English Cambridge Cambdridge University Press - 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91 - Krashen, S D (1985) The input hypothesis: issues and implications Harlow:Longman LeDoux, J (1996) The Emotional Brain New York: Simon & Schuster Lee, J F & VanBattern, B (1995) Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen New York McGraw-Hill, Inc Mantle-Bromley, C (1995) Positive Attitudes and Realistic Beliefs: Links to Proficiency The Modern Language Journal 79/3, 372-386 McGroaty, M (1989) Language attitudes, motivation, and standards in Perspectives Sociolinguistics and TESOL Heinle & Heinle Publishers Morse, J M (1991) Approaches to qualitative-quantitative methodological triangualation Nursing Research Morse, J M (2003) Principles of mixed methods and multimethod research design In A Tashakkori, & C Teddlie (Eds.), Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Naiman, N, Frohlich, M & Todesco, A (1975) The Good Second language learner TESL Talk, Nunan, D & C Lamb (1996) The self-directed teacher Managing the learning process Cambridge Language Education Oxford, R.1996 Language Learning Strategies around the world: cross-cultural perspective Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center, Hawaii at Manoa Piaget, J (1973) The affective unconscious and the cognitive unconscious Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 21, 249-261 Poole, D (1992) Language Socialization in the second language classroom Language learning, Preister, J R., & Petty, R E (1996) The gradual threshold model of ambivalence: Relating the positive and negative bases of attitudes to subjective ambivalence Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 431-449 - 92 - Reichardt, C S and Cook, T D (1979) Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Evaluation Research Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Richards, J C, Platt, J & Platt, H (1992) Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics Longman Richards, J C.1983 “Listening Comprehension: Approach, Design, Procedure”.TESOL Quarterly.Vol.17, No Roberts, C (1985), Teaching and learning commitment in bilingual school Unpublished Ph D thesis, University of Wales Rogers, C.R (1951) On Becoming a Person Boston: Houghton Mifflin Saricoban A (1999), the Teaching of Listening, the Internet TESL Journal, Vol V, No 12, December 199926 b second- year student Location of your high school: a in rural area b in urban area How long did you study English? a From to less than years b From to less than years c.7 years to over Did you ever learn listening to English before entering the University? a Yes b No 10 How go you feel when you begin a listening test? a very nervous b nervous c ordinary d confident 11 How much are you pleased with your listening capacity? a Very much b Much c A little d Not at all 12 Your listening ability is a very good b good c not good d bad e too bad 13 What is your father’s job? _ 14 What is your mother’s job? _ 15 What level of education did your parents acquire? Father Mother a Primary [ ] [ ] b Secondary [ ] [ ] c High school [ ] [ ] d Undergraduate [ ] [ ] e Post- graduate [ ] [ ] f Other (please specify) 16 Your parents pay attention to your ability in listening English a Little b Not much c Very much d Other (please specify) - 96 - 17 According to you, Listening is _ to your major a not necessary b necessary c very necessary d Other opinion (please specify) 18 Which of the following points of view you agree (v) or disagree (x)? a Listening should not be taught as a compulsory skill and exam in school and University b Vietnamese students should learn Listening well c Listening plays an important role in learning English Thanks again for your time! - 97 - APPENDIX BẢN THĂM DÒ Ý KIẾN Bản thăm dò ý kiến nhằm tìm hiểu thái độ yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến thái độ sinh viên không chuyên Anh trường Đại học An Giang Câu trả lời bạn có ích cho công việc nghiên cứu việc thu thập thông tin sử dụng luận văn thạc só Cảm ơn nhiều cho cộng tác giúp đỡ bạn Phần I: Xin vui lòng chọn câu trả lời gần với thái độ bạn viết câu trả lời thích hợp với bạn Khi học tiếng Anh bạn không thích học kó nhất? a Nghe b Nói c Đọc d Viết Đối với kó nghe, bạn _ a ghét b không ghét không thích c thích d hơi thích Tại bạn học kó nghe? (Bạn chọn nhiều câu trả lời) a Vì kó bắt buộc học trường muốn đủ diểm đậu b Vì quan trọng cho công việc tương lai c Vì muốn thưởng thức ca khúc tiếng Anh d Vì trở thành người uyên bác người khác kính trọng e Vì nước dễ dàng f Vì giúp hiểu thêm lối sống văn hoá nước nói tiếng Anh g Vì thích tìm thấy kó nhiều điều thú vị h Vì thoả mãn có nhiều niềm vui i Vì giúp hiểu giao tiếp với nhiều người khác j Ý kiến khác _ - 98 - (xin ghi rõ) Phần II: Xin vui lòng chọn câu trả lời sau viết câu trả lời thích hợp với bạn Độ tuổi bạn: a 18-20 b 21-23 c 24-26 d >26 Giới tính bạn: Bạn là: a Nam b Nữ a Sinh viên năm thứ b Sinh viên năm thứ Trường phổ thông mà bạn học ở: a Thành thị b Thôn quê Bạn học tiếng Anh năm ? a Từ đến gần năm b Từ đến gần năm c.Từ năm trở lên Bạn học Nghe môn tiếng Anh trước vào trường ĐHAG chưa? a Rồi b Chưa 10 Bạn cảm thấy bạn bắt đầu kiểm tra Nghe? a hồi hộp b hồi hộp c bình thường d tự tin 11 Bạn hài lòng với khả nghe tiếng Anh bạn mức độ nào? a Rất hài lòng b Hài lòng c Hài lòng đôi chút d Không hài lòng 12 Bạn tự nhận thấy khả nghe a giỏi 13 Nghề b giỏi nghiệp c không giỏi d dởe tệ hại Cha bạn gì? Mẹ bạn gì? _ 14 Nghề nghiệp _ - 99 - 15 Trình độ học vấn Cha, Mẹ bạn? Cha Mẹ a Cấp [ ] [ ] b Cấp hai [ ] [ ] c Caáp ba [ ] [ ] d Đại học [ ] [ ] e Sau đại học [ ] [ ] f Trình độ khác (xin ghi rõ) 16 Cha, Mẹ bạn ý đến khả nghe tiếng Anh bạn a Rất d b Không quan tâm Ýù kiến khác c Rất quan tâm (xin ghi rõ) _ 17 Theo bạn, kó Nghe cho chuyeân ngành bạn a không cần thiết d Ý b cần thiết kiến khác c cần thiết (xin ghi roõ) _ 18 Bạn đồng ý (v) không đồng ý (x) với quan điểm sau đây? a Nghe không nên kó bị bắt buộc học thi cử trường phổ thông trường đại học b Sinh viên Viêt Nam nên học giỏi kó Nghe c Nghe đóng vai trị quan trọng việc học tiếng Anh bạn Rất cảm ơn bạn trả lời câu hỏi trên! - 100 - APPENDIX CLASSROOM OBSERVATION SHEET Date: ♦Teacher’s name: _ ♦Class: ♦Total students: _ Teacher’s use of English: Above 90% 80-90% 70-80% 60-70% 50-60% Under 50% Above 90% 80-90% 70-80% 60-70% 50-60% Under 50% Students’ participation: Percentage of volunteered information by raising a hand Above 90% 80-90% 70-80% 60-70% 50-60% Under 50% Percentage of asked information by teacher without volunteering Above 90% 80-90% 70-80% 60-70% 50-60% Under 50% Percentage of students who asked questions Percentage of students who received positive feedback from the teacher Percentage of students who received negative feedback from the teacher Level of students’ understanding teacher’s instruction: Above 90% 80-90% 70-80% 60-70% 50-60% Under 50% Level of students’ understanding listening task: Above 90% 80-90% 70-80% 60-70% 50-60% Under 50% 10 Students’ attitudes: 11 Teacher’s attitudes: 12 Classroom atmosphere: _ - 101 - APPENDIX QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS’ SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW ♣♣♣♣ Do you like learning English Listening? Why? Do you think that you have a good ability in Listening or not? Why? Have you ever thought that you must find a good way to improve your listening ability? Why? If yes, what is it? Is Listening necessary to your major? Why? Do you like listening to English from your English teacher(s), tapes or videos? Do you often join in English club? Will you continuously learn English and improve Listening after graduating from An Giang University? How you feel about the way of scoring listening skill at An Giang University? - 102 - APPENDIX QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS’ SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW ♣♣♣♣ Can you give me your opinion about the reality of learning Listening in the classes which you are teaching? According to you, your students like learning Listening or not? Why? How about you? Do you like teaching Listening to non-English majors? According to you, what are the factors that mostly influence learners’ attitudes? Do you think that learners’ attitudes influence to the success in learning Listening or not? Why? - 103 - ... factors that influence these attitudes on the part of nonEnglish majors at An Giang University An investigation into learner’s attitudes is a means by which language teachers, education planners,... psychology of attitudes and some typical factors affecting the attitude of non -English majors not for English majors when dealing with Listening at An Giang University And the findings of the study... social psychological attitudes towards Listening of non- English majors at An Giang University to find out the relationship between types of attitudes and achievement in learning Listening Secondly,