HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES a
HO CHI MINH CITY VIET NAM
LISTENING EFFECTIVELY FOR ENGLISH LEARNERS AT INTERMEDIATE LEVEL
A paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Bachelor of Arts in English
Submitted by TRAN THANH TOAN Supervised by PHAN THI LE HOA
Ho Chi Minh City, October 2005
Trang 2ABSTRACT
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This thesis examines the influence of English listening of students 4 the intermediate levels For a very long time, people neglected listening or even excluded it from study program; people thought listening could develop by itself Yet it has the reputation of being very important for the enhancement of effective communication This study investigates the listening abilities and practices among the second year students of Faculty of Foreign Languages of the Ho Chi Minh City Open University This study also suggests a way in which student may listen to English for better results
This thesis consists of five main parts: the role of listening in our daily life, the review of literature, the common problems as well as the solutions, and a survey questionnaire of 82
students Moreover, the results revealed that (1) the effects of listening on our studies in
particular as well as the role of listening skills in daily activities in general; and (2) although a few of the students had good listening attitudes and strategies, the majority of them remained poor listening habits and did have improvement methods for study listening skills; and (3) the description of listening problems as well as the effective solutions have been proved partly The study also gives some recommendation for better learning listening skills
Trang 3TABLE OF CONTENTS
wat Page
Title Page: Listening Effectively for English Learners at Intermediate Leve Ỉ HH rihg 1 "ni 1n — GUt EGG G Te eet 224 ii
Acknowledgement .sssccesssssssessseseescsesssersnecersntsneercasenensancanenssenensins 1H
i10 00 ch .naẽnẽaẽaẽaẽẽnẽe.aauaan — iv
List Of tables TT n -ïnaaanaa vi
I.INTRODUCTTION 7-5 s teen trttrrtrtrtrnnttrntrtrrrrrr 1 1.1 The importance of listening in đaily le s - 1 1.2 The reasons for listening - sec cnnrnnhrtrntrrrrrtrrrrirrerdrrdrrtterttrrtrrrttrtrrrtrrrre 2 IL REVIEW OE LITERA TURE - - cà snenttttrrdtrdtrrrrdrrdrdetrrtrrrdrnnrrer 3 2.1 Problems in learning to listen in a foreign language teeter tetris 3 2.1.1 Slow speed of listening -.‹ ecreeerrerrrrrrrrrrrre À NT ky 1181251111 1k tre E 3
91.2 Lack of vocabulafÿ -csc+csttrttthhhtH tr rrrtrrreirrrrrtrrtrtrttrtrtdrrttttttrntftttt 4
2.1.3 Misunderstood g€§(UF€S ccrseerhrrhrhrrdrrrrrtdrtrrrrrirrrrriidttrtrrtdtrttreldrrtrndrrr 4 2.14 Lack of concentratiOn ‹ccesrrnnhhnthhớtHtrrrưtrrrtrrrrrdrrrdtrrttrnttrtrtrtrrrdrntree 5 2.1.5 Passive manner of listening -‹ -r+-cereerrreitrtrrrtrrerrrrtrttrrtrtrrnrtrrrrrdrrtrrntrre 5 2.1.6 SUmIHAFY cccc752ScSc22tzhhttthhhtt122221m11011n1n0ntnnrrrrrrrrrrrrirrrrir 6 2.2 Solutions to perfect our listening skillS -cr-eererrretrerrtdtrtrrtrrtrrrrrrrntrrrier 6 2.2.1 Fasten our speed of listening -. rseererrerrrrrerrdrrrrtrrdrdrtrterttrtrrdttftrntrroe 7 2.22 Enrich our vocabularY - -cccrscerneerrtrrrtrrttrrtrrtdtrrrtdtrttttrdtrdrtrrrerrrertrer 7
4.2.3 Undersiand gestUr€S -cccccsstnnhrnthrrrrttrrrrrirttritirtrrrrrrrdrrrrlimrndtrtrerret eed
224 Avoid distractiOn . cerrrrrrrrrtrrrrrrerdirrrtrdrtdtrdtrddrrritrrrre ghEn tre 8
9.2.5 Keep our mỉnd op€n . ecssterrerrtrrrtrttrrtrdtrrtrrtrdtrrrrrrdtrrrrdrrtrrrtnrrrrerntrrer 9 2.2.6 SummaArY cọc ccnertrttrrtetrrerirttttrtmtrrrrrrttrrtrltrdtrtrrrrtrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrer 10 IIL RESEARCH DESCRIPTIONS -. -cceenenrrrtrrrrrrtrtrrtrtrtrrtrrtrrrdtre 10 3,1 Research qu€stÏOnS -ccc+znsecrrtrrrtertrrirtdrrtrttrrrtrrrdttrrtiriltrrdtrrrrttrrrrrrtrrtrrrtrrrrrir 10
Trang 43.2 Description of participans -cerhrirredrrrrirreeireirierdtdrrrrdrdtrdtrrttrrrretire 10 3.3 Instrument: questionnair€S -ccnhưrrHrrrrdrrtrrrrrrrrrrrrrererdre tờ tư 11 3.4 Data collection prOC€dUT€§ - net ritnhnrrrrererertererrrrire se 4 " 12
3.5 Summary — ceeceeehrerrhhrehrtrrrrrrdrrrdirrrrdrrrieiriiidirrritirntritltrrtrrt 13
IV DATA ANALYSIS AND EINDINGS nee "` 13 4.1 Responses fO survey quâstẽOnnair ô-ôccecererererrrrrrerrrrererdid ơ 13 4.2 Dafa analySÌS cccceeceehhhhhhhhhdHt21 lndtrterrrrrdrttdtrrdtrrddrrrrrrer 13 4.3 Findings .«cceeeerrrrrrireerrrrrtrdrrriiirirtratirdtrdrrrrrrdrdirirhrerrir 20 4.4Summary .ằe mm : — 21 V.IMPLICA TION AND RECOMMENDATIONS -. -cằeneerrrertrrrrre 21 5,1 Implication§ .:crxccenherrhertrrrrdtrdrrrttdtrdtrdrrrdrrrrirrirrrdedrtdtrrrttrtrirdire 21 5.2 RecommendatiOTIS - - nh 2E22411411722 T2 th tt 1211121 n10120 E911 22 5.2.1 Radio 22 5.2.2 TV, vid€O, CẦ-TOOIN + ng 11211 tr 7211221110101 11081110 23 5.2.3 Cassetf€ pÏaY€T c che nnntrrnrr 25 5.2.4 Conversations with native speak€TS . -c -snhhrerhddrerrdrrrrrenirrirrrdirrrrrdrir 25
5.3 SUmIHAFY 55 S+tntt tt t2 tr t1 nes 27
VILCONCLUSION - 5Á 5-5 nàn 1222221212, e1 27
:40)33:3301 027 ốố.ố aa nan 28
APPENDIX 1: Questionnaire in English -ccsnstenhrrnhhdtrrreeddrrrrrrdrrdtrrrterr 30
Trang 5LIST OF TABLES
; +” er Page
Table 4.1: Studying English nowadays is diffiCult ác s Là He, 13 Table 4.2: Listening skills are very ImpOFEATIE Án HH cư tin 14
Table 4.3: Your listening skills are excel]eri + s+s<<xs2 — 14
Table 4.4: The regular of having listening problems -.- sec  KH HH ngư 15 Table 4.5: Students like to listened lectures in English for all the time -++- 15 Table 4.6: Practice with foreigners the best way to deV€ÏOD che 15 Table 4.7: The regularity of having conversation with foreigners TT HH HH ng kh ve 16 Table 4.8: Programs students use to practice listening English - sex 16 Table 4.9: By means students practice their listening English . . - c2 c2 16
Table 4.10: While listening to English lectures students used tO O - so sec 18
Table 4.14: Which factor is the most importance for listening skills? . - se 19 Table 4.17: The perception which techniques to improve your listening skills 19
Table 5.1: News in English on Vietnamese TV schedule cty ryn 24
Table 5.2: English Clubs / English Language School in HCM City <.-<c.e 26
Trang 6I INTRODUCTION
In the recent years, English is considered a very useful tool in most parts of the world such as business, culture, science, technology, and so on Although the amount of people using Chinese is more than using English, English seems to be the most wopular international language in the world However, the target to achieve the perfection of using English is not easy at all There are many difficulties in four main skills of using English: writing, reading, speaking, and listening, and listening skill seems to be the most difficult for people learning English as a second language Some people believe that good listening skill is easy to learn and it is a part of everybody’s natural abilities This is not the truth I am going to prove
listening skills have to be learned and developed by ourselves instead of leaving it to develop
by itself
1.1 The importance of listening in daily life
Several years ago, Matilda Bailey (1961, p.329) made a study to determine how much time adults spend in their learning skills including: reading: writing, speaking and listening In which of these skills would you guess that the average person spend most of time? Would you like to guess the percentage of time we spend in each skill in an order? According to a study by Matilda Bailey, the total amount of time we spend in the four skills of communication is divided as follow:
“Writing 9% Reading 16% Speaking 30% Listening 45%”
From this statistics, we know exactly that most of the time we spend on listening and speaking The ability to speak and listen well is very important Once Mr William H.Armstrong, an author of the internet report “How to Listen Better, * said, “Listening is one of the most important skills you can develop to do better in school It is the second most
difficult skill Reading is the most difficult.” I totally disagree with Mr William, reading is
not the most difficult because it takes only 16% of our time in school, but at the same time,
Trang 7listening in studying and activity life, we may presume listening is indispensable to everybody for effective communication
1.2 The reasons for listening
First, listening is the first thing we have to be accustomed to sineé we were born We
start learning to listen very soon not until we go to school because according to Jami Ferrer
Handreddy and Elizabeth Whally (1996, p.256), “Speaking and listening are considered primary skills because a child learns to speak and listen several years before he goes to school to study how to read and write.” When a child grows up, he will go to school to study,
and Mr William H.Armstrong stated, “The classroom is the place to lear, and the classroom
is the place to listen.”
Second, one more time Jami Ferrer Handreddy and Elizabeth Whally (1996, p.256) said, “Communication can fail even when two people have the same native language.” Moreover, certainly, if the listeners do not have enough ability to receive the information from the speakers, that communication will fail Most people are poor listeners in everyday, everywhere from school activities to office activities While a speaker asks someone to concentrate on him, someone is busy thinking about his or her answers They tend to listen and think about another thing at the same time, and this happens frequently when the listeners conflict themselves When the listeners could not catch some ideas from the speaker’s message, they do not often confirm the meaning again and it frequently leads to misunderstanding
The last point, nobody wants to be misunderstood with other people while we communicate, so we must know how to deal with our important senses for a perfect communication in our life We are learning English as a second language and of course, we certainly face off with many obstacles not only in English but also in many other languages
such as Chinese, France, Japanese, Germany We had better deal with these troubles,
recognize them exactly, solve them and perfect ourselves
Actually, listening skill is not easy to attain With the desire to help English learners perfect their listening skills I chose the topic: Listening Effectively for English Learners at Intermediate Level In addition, what is the significiance of this topic? I presume this topic not only helps English learners recognize their common problems but also helps them solve
Trang 8-2-problems effectively Moreover, I chose this topic because there has been a few researches on listening, according to Professor Lindsay Miller who works as an associate professor at English Department at University of Hong Kong; he claimed that there has been a lack of research interest into listening Some of the reasons for this lack of redearch interest come from the fact that speaking was always considered such a "valuable" skill to focus in the classroom, and that researchers and teachers have often believed that listening was something to be improved itself and as researchers and teachers had not been taught listening themselves, they saw little need for developing a specific research agenda or approaches to teaching listening Furthermore, I chose this topic not because I am good at listening but it is related to the role of listening in daily life and the reasons why listening is important to us
II REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Part of the great challenge of our complex world is how to understand others and to
make ourselves understood Sometimes, we do this succéssfully and sometimes not In this
chapter, we will have a review of some former authors and researchers in the English listening skill All information they give us about the basic problems that we certainly encounter while we are listening and the solutions to solve it
2.1 Problems in learning to listen in a foreign language
We have many troubles in listening English but the first common trouble is the
difficulty of the speed of our listening 2.1.1 Slow speed of listening
Trang 9they miss the next part Therefore, Kerr Gwendolyn (1984, p.83) also confirms, “English
language learners believe that the greatest difficulty with listening comprehension is that the
listener can not control how quickly a speaker speaks” (1984 p.93) Unless we have a tape
«
recorder, speakers always give a speech with fast intonation - a
2.1.2 Lack of vocabulary
One of the popular difficulties of foreign language learners (in every language) is lack of vocabulary It is evident that no one knows all the words in English, even the native English speakers New words are created in many fields of life day after day such as Informatics Technology, Marketing, and Astronomy Most of us have a limited vocabulary It will be a big trouble if we do not have enough vocabulary in this life “When students read
social studies, math, and science texts, they often confront the language of historians,
mathematicians, and scientists for the times The vocabulary is unfamiliar because so many words are unique to certain subject areas,” said Richard Vacca (2004) an author of a report on internet “Real World Vocabulary.” +
Richard Vacca also stated if our vocabulary was limited, we would miss the
experience of connecting words with the concept, and if we did not have enough vocabulary to understand the text, how could we comprehend the message in listening and expressed our ideas? Remember that we do not have change to listen for times English, like other languages, a word has several meanings in each field and factor, using and situation The next part is the relationship between speakers and movement that listeners often do not understand They are gestures
2.1.3 Misunderstanding gestures
When we ate watching TV, we not only listen to the voices but also watch the
movement of actors and the movement of speakers Someone does not pay much attention to
it, so he/she does not get full of the information the speaker means Most of the time, while
speaking the speakers’ hands must move a little at least, and their movements explain more about what they mean Furthermore, Professor Goldin Meadow (2004) believes that “comprehension of speech appears to depend on the gestures company it keeps” In addition, you know that according to the researchers, on average teachers produced 37 explanations, containing gestures during each of the session, which is only 12 minutes The teachers used in
Trang 10-4-60 percent of their instructions with one-third of time their gestures conflict with their speech Moreover, in many cases gestures and speech of speakers are mismatched Gestures with speakers are very important It adds valuable information to their speech and when we listen to them we will often misunderstand if the movement of their- handstdo" not fit with the speech, and how can we understand exactly the meaning at that time? Moreover, not only we encounter with the unfamiliar words and the rapid speed they usually speak but the effects of
environment also raise difficulties for us In addition, the difficulties from outside make us
lack of concentration 2.1.4 Lack of concentration
Thomas Sherma (May 2002) had defined concentration as “the ability to direct one’s
thinking in whatever direction one would intend” We all have the ability to concentrate
some of the time However, at sometimes our thoughts wander and Thomas reckoned that
“losing concentration is probably the second greatest reason for poor listening”
Not only we lose our concentration by ourselves but also we are “being distracted by the speaker’s appearance of delivery,” said by Thomas Sherma We do not listen to what a speaker is saying because we are focusing on his/her accent, speech pattern, postures, or their
clothing
In addition, Jack and David (1985, p.85) believed that we pretend to listen but our
thoughts are wandering somewhere else, we might look directly to the speaker and our heads nod many times to show the agreement while we are actually day-dreaming At that time, we think about our troubles, about what we are going to do at the weekend, or what we are going to respond The speaker at that time believes we are polite and interested in what he is saying, but we are not paying any attention to his speech Furthermore, the surrounding usually distracts us We often look out of the window, look at another classmate, playing with our pencil or hair clip, or get mad with the narrow seat, hot environment, or uncomfortable position in class etc For all of that, we could pay less attention on our lectures and the information we get will certainly not enough
2.1.5 Passive listening manner
Trang 11and stress counselor believes that listening is not a passive activity In contrary with Orman
(1995), most of English learners often express their passive listening manner by doing nothing or not asking question Conformable to Larry Alan Nadig (1999), a clinical psychologist, he believes that not asking for clarification what Engh” learners do not
understand thoroughly is one of the common sources of difficulties from the listeners
Listeners often do not ask why or how it is like that they usually nod or turn their head away when lecturers look at them Moreover, we pretend to listen what we want to listen “The concentration on the lecture will be stopped if it is not our desires or there are many touchy
subjects ” said G Buck (2000) Buck also believes that when a lecturer uses inflammatory
words or phrases that cause an emotion eruption at that time listeners are likely to harbor evil thought or negative feelings, and it takes their concentration away Those words include abortion, feminist, sexual, pro-life, free-market, virgin, plagiarize etc As soon as we hear
those words, our feeling turn into “fire”, and we would not follow the lecture actively
Effective communication exists between two people When the listener interprets and understands the speaker’s message To become a proficient listener, we not only recognize our listening problems that we encounter but also we find out the effective solutions for ourselves
2 1.6 Summary
Listening is a difficult and complicated task For second language learners, listening often occur many problems restate them The section 2.1 has described the common problems that often happen including six matters Moreover, the next part is the solution to perfect our
listening skills
2.2 Solutions to perfect our listening skills
“Listening ability can only be developed by practicing listéning, to get all the necessary skill,” said D Mendelson (1995, p.46) We have known already about problems
Trang 122.2.1 Fasten our speed of listening
Eugene A Nida (1983) confirmed there were many methods to fasten our speed of listening First, we must know the basic sounds systems It is so hard to understand a speech if we do not know it The sounds of a word always change in fast- speakifg Or saying speed Nida added words were not spoken correctly as the original Furthermore, according the unknown author of the page “Theory to Practice” of website Englishlistening.com, “Fast pronunciation is very different from the dictionary form of the word” and it is said that the English sound system varies from place to place, from person to person Speakers decide how fast they will speak and most speakers speak very fast for many reasons (skillful, nervous,
low-tone, high-tone or speak to the end) Therefore, listeners have to listen fast, when
reading we can choose a suitable reading speed but listening Listeners must listen as fast as the speaker’s speed
The speed of the speech is called the “speech rate” It is very an important for second language listeners: usually, as the speech rate increases, comprehension decreases If the speech rate is too fast, comprehension stops
(Extracted from “Theory to Practice”, http://www.Englishlistening.com Available)
Eugene A Nida also states that speech is usually fast, we must get the main ideas quickly and correctly as soon as possible, There is no time to stop and wonder about language used, part of speech and grammar used That means listening must be flexible When having a conversation with a native speaker, do not blame for their “speech rate” just because we are non-native English speakers After listening or having conversation with foreigners for times, we will be familiar with that rate and our listening speed will be enhanced rapidly as
we did not recognize it
2.2.2 Enrich our vocabulary
According with Watkins Floyde and Dilingham (1995, p.41), the authors of “A Speaking and Listening Skill” book, they believes that the listeners use their own vocabulary to understand the meaning and they should use vocabulary more actively and flexibly Having enough vocabulary is so very important in all of languages including English Moreover, having a good reading habit will enlarge our vocabulary and knowledge By reading English books everyday, our vocabulary will increase rapidly and that words are
Trang 13an important role in our English progress A well-built English vocabulary will effectively help us understand what people are saying and more comfortable to express our ideas Watkins Floyde and Dilingham (1995, p.41) also believes that a rich vocabulary could not develop instantly; it grows over a long period spent reading widely anf iganing new words, After reading English books everyday, we have to learn new words in “groups” For
example, the words which describe a kitchen like: a cooker, a span, a knife, a gas cooker,
electric stove, a pot, a pressure cooker, boxes of spices etc, then with another group 2.2.3 Understand gestures
“Gestures add valuable information to teacher’s lessons,” said Susan Goldin Medow (Chicago, 2000) According to Medow, she believes that we need to learn more about how
teachers make gestures and how students comprehend what to see Gestures are always
adding valuable information to teacher’s lessons For example, with their hands movement we will understand easily what a rectangular box, a cross, the quality, the size of some things etc and hands could express anything Remember that always keep an eye on the
speaker’s hand movement, we will find a little bit information in his lectures Indeed, Susan
Goldin Medow (2000, p.11) added gesture’s power comes from the fact that its strengths are
different from and complementary to speech 2.2.4 Avoid distraction
“A good listener must make a conscious effort to concentrate on what is being said, whenever possible, to eliminate instruction” (extracted from “Talk Yourself into Learning
Good Listening”, http://www.ptreuer@edu.com) The tendency focuses on what we will listen next rather than on what the speaker saying In addition, Kevin J Murphy (1987, p.220)
confirmed, “Concentration does not mean thinking only one thought: Concentration means
holding a central issue in mind while you accept or reject ideas that are related to that issue.”
Moreover, to help you pay more attention herein the three suggested methods which extracted from “Listening Skill”, http://.www.google/wesminter.edu.com:
First, when we notice our thoughts wandering, say to ourselves “stop” this sounds very
Trang 14Second, do not look for distraction For example, if someone is front of us moving or
coughing ignore them; do not look at them, and just only the link between us and the lecturer
Third, ensure that our environment aids concentration, reduce distractions, and do not
be so comfortable to nod off so many times To concentrate you must simtiear the front of the
class where you can see easily and clearly hearing the speaker If you are assigned a seat and
you could not hear well, for this matter just ask the teacher to move you right away “Sitting near the teacher allows you to focus more closely Briefly we must eye contact with the speaker, be quiet ourselves, focus on what speaker say or delivery Moreover, the coming next is the most important solution for most of English learner
2.2.5 Keep our mind open
Businessman and author Kevin J Murphy says in Effective Listening (1987, p28) “Minds are like parachutes; they only function when open.” He adds listening is an active, not passive activity, to listen we must be thinking We all act and respond based on our understanding With active listening, if a misunderstanding has occurred, it will be known immediately, and the communication can be clarified before any further misunderstanding occurred The best way to let the lecturer know when we do not understand is “ask question”
and clarify unclear matters as much as possible Next, always go to class with a positive
attitude; pay attention; adjust to the lecturer’s speed and topic We can hear something but we usually: ‘In one ear and out the other’ and to remember for a long time we had better not repeat it exactly every word or enough all sentences in a message We have to only remember its main ideas and relate it to what we have known and then keep moving with the next sentence of the message That best way is to avoid repetition; it could happen in few
seconds, but it works and we need a lot of practice regularly The last point, dealing with
Trang 152.2.6 Summary
The abilities to listen and to express one clearly and-effecttely contribute to a student’s success in school and in life Section 2.2 has described the main six solutions to perfect the weaknesses of section 2.1 However, even the most reliability, validity methods should be used appropriate to any purposes Most of these studies of listening either focused on just one or two aspects of listening in general, without the carefully investigating into the
listening habits and obstacles of the students
Therefore, a further research about the habits and problems of listening is needed Using research descriptions that allows us having a carefully investigation of the listening
habits of students and utilize the data to analyze with an easy way I RESEARCH DESCRIPTIONS
In the previous part, not only the common problems that often happen to second language learners were described but also the suggested solutions to solve it Moreover, using the research descriptions will reveal a clear and accurate information about student that learn English as a foreign language of Ho Chi Minh City Open University
3.1 Research questions
This study was designed to examine the weaknesses, the strengths, and the listening habits of students in Ho Chi Minh City Open University (HOU) Three questions guide to this study:
(1) What are the listening habits of HOU students?
(2) How far do HOU students recognize their listening weaknesses and strength?
(3) How can HOU students improve their listening skills?
3.2 Description of participants
The main subjects of this study are the second year students’ age 18 - 22 from two different classes of Faculty of Foreign Languages of Ho Chi Minh city Open University Moreover, almost of the subjects was learning for the first degree of university to ensure that
Trang 16-10-other did not distract them Delivering 100 papers of a quiz test, the fulfilled responses were 82 Therefore, 18 students did not fill the paper quiz for many purposes Answering why the subjects were chosen for the study, the researcher thinks the second yeaystadents satisfy two
conditions
(1) Second-year students have learned all subjects and necessary skills of foreign language learners
(2) Second-year students have enough listening experienced by them
A summary of the characteristics of the total sample in terms of the following personal
attributes: age, gender, the length of learning English
Summary of sample characteristics Age 18 - 20 = 72 (87.9%) 21-22 = 4 (4.8%) Other = 6 (7.3%) Gender Female =67 (81.7%) Male = 15 (18.3%) Length of learning English 7-10 =45 (54.9%) ` More than 10 = 37 (45.1%)
The majority of the subjects were 22 - 23 years old (87.9%) Almost students in the
Faculty of Foreign Language were female (81.7%) In addition, 54.9% of students have 7 - 10
years experience with English l
3.3 Instrument: questionnaires
The survey was carried out by means of questionnaire, due to its flexibility, legible and easy to understand, The questionnaire was specifically built for collecting data on the
students’ listening habits, both in classroom and out of school The questionnaire was written
Trang 17questionnaires, one in Vietnamese, and one in English translation that appeared in Appendices The questionnaire had 17 items separated in three parts
The first part was the about the personal information, in which the students were requested to give information about their age, gender and length of 4 ning English By
using these background information, we could build profiles of description of participants and we could give appropriate recommendations for them
The main section to the questionnaire consisted of two parts, Part I and Part III, each
of which served a different purpose Part II contained four items concerning about the general information about student’s listening levels
(1) The recognition of study English (Question 1) `
(2) The importance of listening skills in daily life Question 2 consisted of 1.1 the
importance of listening in daily life and 1.2 the reasons for listening (3) Student’s listening levels (Question 3)
(4) Troubles when students listening English Question 4 consisted of the 2.1 problem in learning to listen in a foreign language
Part III of the questionnaire was designed to elicit information about the students’
habits of listening English as a foreign language only This part elicited information not only
how often students practice their listening skills but also the ways they practice
(1) The preference of listening English or Vietnamese of HOU students (Question 5) (2) The importance of practice with foreigners and native - speakers regularly, the
best way to develop our listening skills (Question 6 and 7)
(3) The frequency of practice listening skills of HOU students (Question 8,9 and 10)
(4) By means HOU students practice their listening skills (Question 11,12 and 13)
(5) Factors that help students improve their listening skills (Question 14,15,17) (6) Factors causing difficulties for students in listening English (16)
3.4 Data collection procedures
The administration of the survey by questionnaire was carried out for two different classes in their regular classrooms
The participation of students in the study was voluntary, which was made possible with the help of the teacher in charge The teachers and their students had been informed
Trang 18-12-about the study of listening skills, the purpose of the study and its importance It took
approximately 15 minutes to finish the questionnaire
3.5 Summary
This section has presented the research description that consisted four parts: research questions, description of participants, instrument, and data collection procedures The investigation of this survey was based on: (1) questions asking about students’ listening skills and (2) questions asking the students’ listening habits
IV DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
The preceding section has described the research descriptions used in the study In this section, all the student’s responses to the questionnaire were analyzed and discussed The data analysis was intended to identify what the attitudes and habits of listening
4.1 Responses to survey questionnaires
The main target of the data analysis was to get information about the listening experience of students majoring in English as well as their perception of the importance of
this survey
Examining the students’ responses, one student might have more than one check However, not all students answered all the questions The final total checks for one question
might more than the questionnaires collected, which were 82 In addition, though the
questionnaire collected 82, the number of certain responses was below the number 4.2 Data analysis
Question 1 was designed to deal with the students’ perception of studying English More than three - fourth of the students (74.4%) believed that studying English nowadays is
difficult whereas only 21 of 82 students (accounting 25.6%) disagree with the statement Table 4,1: Studying English nowadays is difficult
Strongly 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Total
disagree agree responses
0 3 18 50 11 82
Trang 19The figures revealed that most of the student agreed the studying English nowadays is
not easy at all
The responses to question two showed that almost students (89%) confirmed that listening skills were very important whereas nine of 82 students disagree
Table 4.2: Listening skills are very important
Strongly 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Total
disagree agree responses
9 0 0 16 37 82
(11%) (0%) (0%) (19.5%) (69.5%) : (100%)
Table 4.2 revealed that almost students recognized listening skills are very important for their study and daily life
Question 3 was designed to examine the listening levels of students, from this : §nformation could figure out what caused their listening problems and how to cure it
Table 4.3: Your listening skills are excellent Very bad 1 2 3 4 5 excellent Total responses 25 38 17 0 2 82 (30.5%) (46.4%) (20.7%) (0%) (2.4%) (100%)
The result showed that three - fourth of the students (76.9%) confirmed their listening
abilities were not very good whereas one - fourth of the students were average and only two
students were excellent listening skills
Question 4 was designed to figure out the regular students’ problems with their
listening skills This question not only examined the listening ability of students but also figured out the problems
Trang 20-14-Table 4.4: The regularity of having listening problems never 1 2 3 4 5 often Total responses 3 4 1 18 56 82 (3.6%) (4.9%) (1.2%) (22%) (68.3%) (100%)
The statistics showed that almost students often had problems while were listening English (90.3%) However, seven of 82 students rarely have problems with listening English
This statistics were not fine enough to assure that students were good at listening skills
Part II consisted of 13 questions focus on the listening habit of the students; question 5 _ was designed to elicit the reference of which languages that was spoken in HOU
| Table 4.5: Students like to listened to lectures in English for all the time
Strongly 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Total '| disagree agree responses
0 4 10 7 61 82
(0%) (4.9%) (12.2%) (8.5%) (74.4%) (100%)
These figures showed a good result Most students preferred listening to English (82.9%) rather than Vietnamese (17.1%) No one liked to listen to lectures in Vietnamese
Question 6 and 7 focused on the recognition of students, in study any foreign language, the fastest way to develop our skills was practicing with foreigners as much as possible Table 4.6: Practice with foreigners is the best way to develop
Strongly 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Total
disagree agree responses
0 0 0 34 48 82
Trang 21The result described that almost students (100%) agree that practice English with foreigners is the best way to comprehended English
Table 4.7; The regularity of having conversation with foreigners never 1 2 3 4 5 often Total responses 14 29 27 5 7 82 (17%) (35.4%) (33%) (6.1%) (8.5%) (100%)
The statistics from table 4.7 were not a good result, the 82 students are second year in English department, but almost of them (85.4%) seldom having conversation with foreigners whereas 14 students had never spoken to foreigners before
Table 4.8: Programs students use to practice listening English Total News in English MTV Film others Responses 82 32 26 29 VOA,VOH, CDs, FM, (100%) (48.6%) (24.3%) (27.1%) internet, VOVS
This information showed that almost students love listening to News in English such as one of the best ways to practice listening skills In additions, they used to listen with such
channels: VOA, VOH, CDs, and VOV5
Question 12 was designed to figure out by what means students used to practice their listening Table 4.9: By means students practice their listening English
By Answers Checks Percents
Trang 22C Watching TV in English O Yes 29 35.4% ONo 53 64.6% D Practicing with foreigners 0 Yes 22 26.8% DNo 60 73.2% E Utilizing the internet 0 Yes 34 41.5% ONo 48 58.5% F Utilizing the English soft wares 0 Yes 25 30.5% ONo 57 69.5% G All of these above O Yes 6 1.3% ONo 76 92.4% H Others 0%
The statistics above showed that listening to the radio (90.2%) and English tapes ( 62.2%) seemed to be the most popular way to practice However, if we listen only without watching the gestures of the speakers we certainly not get enough the message Students did not use the TV (35.4%) to practice both listening and watching speakers’ gestures In
addition, practice with foreigners (26.8%); use the internet (41.5%) and computer softwares
Trang 23Table 4.10: While listening to English lectures students used to do never | rarely | sometimes | usually | always A Concentrate on lecture O L] Oo ñ Oo totally 25 37 (30.5%) | (69.5%) B Catch the main 0 L R Oo go words/ideas only 0 3 5 16 58 (3.6%) (6.1%) (19.5%) | (70.8%) C Listen only and do 0 0 L] [ QO nothing 36 12 2 32 0 (43.9%) | (14.6%) (2.4%) (39%) D Focus on the speaker’s Oo ñ L] Oo L] gestures 14 3 31 11 23 (17.1%) | @.6%) (37.8%) | (13.4%) | (28%)
According to these figures, while listening to English lectures, students usually
concentrated totally (30.5%) and (70.8%) students always caught the main ideas of the
lessons whereas (3.6%) students ignored the main ideas which useful for them In addition, the gestures of the speaker were always interested in and focused (41.4%) However, the number of students did not know what to do while listening to the lesson was very high
(58.6%)
Question 14 was designed to lead the students know which factor was the most important (the fact that almost of them are importance) to perfect listening skills the mains factors they had to comprehended
Trang 24-18-Table 4.14: Which factor is the most importance for listening skills? Number Total Factors of Checks Responses (82) (100%) a Vocabulary 21 25.6% b Grammar Structures 4 4.9% c Listening Speed 25 30.5% d The Concentration 32 39%
The table 4.14 has described that the concentration was the most important factor for listening skills With a little useful of concentration we can comprehended all the lesson from easy to difficult, from short to long lectures Two - third of students confirmed that they could get along with the speed of the native speakers In addition, listening skills did not require much about grammar structures because the grammar of reading and writing were different from the grammar of a conversation
Question 16 and 17 were the main targets of part the questionnaire, they were
designed to examine the feasibility of the section one the common problems with listening
skills and section two the listening suggested solutions
Trang 25F Practice with modern equipment 46
regularly (internet, English soft-wares (56%) radio, cassette player etc)
G others
The table above has described that 100% students confirmed that concentration when listening lectures; keep up with the listening speed and practice with are feasible techniques to improve listening skills However, a half of 82 students (43.8%) confirmed that a comprehending gesture was good for them and the rest (68.2%) did not agree gestures were important to focus when listening to English In addition, only two - thirds of the students (56%) used modern equipment to practice and develop their listening skills whereas the rest (34%) did not agree using modern equipment to upgrade their listening skills
4.3 Findings
This section serves as a summary of the finding reported in the previous sections The
findings follow these main points:
1 The findings of part II of the questionnaire have described the recognition of students about studying English in general and the importance of studying listening skill in particular More than 60% of students confirmed that studying English nowadays is difficult and almost 100% of students agreed that the importance role of listening skill in our life However, more than 80% of students do not good at listening skills and nearly 90% of students often have problems when listening to lectures or in any circumstances In contrary, only 2% - 3% of students are very good at listening skills and rarely having problems with listening English, but this number is not a fine statistics, for almost students are second year majoring in English Faculty
2 The finding of part III of the questionnaire shows that 80% of the students like to listen to lectures in English, whereas 4% like to listen to lectures in their mother tongue In addition, 100% of the students acknowledged that practicing with foreigners and native- speakers is the best way to upgrade listening skills It is all very good but only 14.6% of the
students usually have conversations with foreigners, meanwhile, 17% of second year English
students have never spoken to foreigners before However, almost students know how to
Trang 26-20-upgrade their listening skills with : practice with foreigners, radio, TV, internet, English soft-
wares
Part III of the questionnaire has also revealed that 100% of the students totally
concentrate on the lectures; 90% of the students catch the main ideas, but 10% ignore it Sometimes, 39% of the students pretend to concentration and do nothing, whereas 20% of the
students underestimate the gestures of the speakers Furthermore, their perception that the concentration is the most important factor of listening skills; the second is listening speed and the third is vocabulary
4.4 Summary
This section has reported and discussed the data‘analysis and finding from the
information collected from the survey Many findings have been revealed which let us know the students listening attitudes and their listening habits also Thus, these findings need new
approaches that help students fulfill themselves through listening skills V IMPLICATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This section consists of the implication of the study and gives recommendations focus on teaching listening skills at HOU
5.1 Implications
The findings of the survey have revealed some important implications for learning
listening skills for students who learn English as a foreign language
Students have to acknowledge that listening is important for our lives and it is difficult to
Trang 275.2 Recommendations
A good listener not only knows what to listen but also how to listen According Rost
Masette (1995), “The presence of technology and new means of using it entail the development of new models This is no reason to start completely afresh.” The world we live in is a communication and information one Many of audio - visual means that can help us improve not only our listening skills but also many technical fields in this life We can list
some of them such as cable TV, Video CDs, cassette player, radio and the most extreme
powerful in recent years is computer (PC) and CDs-room etc
5.2.1 The radio
Listening to the radio is one of the most important parts in learning English Radio is
not very expensive for a student to afford one and it offers English learners many
advantages Many of broadcasting companies that present programs in English such as: BBC, VOA, and News in English of Viet Nam 99.9 MHz Dictionary of English Language Culture defined that VOA is an US radio station that broadcasts news and other programs to other countries In addition, “VOA plays an important role in helping English learners to improve their listening” (extracted from “Active Listening” http:// www.colorado.Edu.com)
Following the methods described above, we can get better in listening to VOA as BBC We can choose preferable topics within the variety of programs of broadcast Listening to VOA,
we can enrich our knowledge through different subjects VOA always runs with a slow speed
of voices When we practice on this channel for hours, we will become familiar with the
name of places, organizations, people, and the names of world leaders, sounds connections, and intonation of various English native speakers However, we still have some avoidance troubles with VOA channel that because there are many programs or topics unfamiliar or uninteresting or too long Listening to VOA has certain unavoidable problems and in order to
solve the problems we need to learn well characteristics of American accents, choose the
popular topics or programs that are interesting and suitable in length The last channel is Viet Nam EM 99.9 MHz at 13:00 PM and 23:20 PM everyday with the duration of the news at 10- 25 minutes each report It is so good to fasten our speed of listening with clear Vietnamese voices
Trang 28-22-The second English Channel is BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is another important broadcast company that helps English learners improve listening skills a lot It also has advantages and disadvantages like VOA We could take advantages of English program on BBC at the beginning stage The speakers speak at slow speed so we can recognize clearly sounds connections, intonations and the meaning of utterances According to William Drost author of “Helping Adults Learning Listening English”, he believed that for years that speakers on BBC used English standard form of pronunciation for British English speed Affirmative with a short period we will familiar with BBC and VOA they will become normal We have known the means using listening sense “radio” Now we will use means with looking sense and listening together
5.2.2 TV, video, and cd-rom
These modern audiovisual means have opened a new way to practice listening skills With them, we will hear and watch together verbal and nonverbal messages simultaneously In recent years, it is not very expensive to install a cable TV in Ho Chi Minh City in particularly or in Viet Nam in general With normally 42 channels content more than 8 different languages and at least 15 English channels such as MTV, National Geographic,
Discovery, HBO, CNN, ESPN, Star Sport, Start World, ABC Asia, Animal Planet etc We
can choose suitable channels for us to practice not only the interesting programs but also any time we desire With these English channels not including more than 10 Vietnamese channels
such as HTV9, HTV7, VTV1, VTV2, BTV1, BTV2, LA34, DN2 etc we will have an extreme
of English listening sources from news around the world to national matter, for pleasure, for
fun or for upgrading our knowledge Almost Vietnamese channel have news in English in the
Trang 29Table 5,1: News in English on Vietnamese TV schedule 3800: 58g81 TIME Number Channel Duration 1 — HTVT 11:45AM 11:20 PM 15’- 20’ 2 HTV9 01:20 PM 11:20PM 15”- 30” 3 BIVI 01:15 PM 11:00 PM 20'-25' 4 — VTVI "02:00 PM 15' 5 07:30 AM VTV4 02 :20 PM 20’- 30° 03 :30 PM 11:25 PM 6 BTV2 11:02 AM 15’-25° 7 PN1 11:50 PM 7-10” 8 DN2 11:00 PM T- 10°
(Notice: The Vietnam TV Center updated this information table on Friday 09/07/2005; this News in English programs could be on eventually 5 to 10 minutes or be changed without
announcement)
Moreover, watching Video CDs is very good for our listening practice In some
special films while reading the subtitle, we can check up our hearing ability Nevertheless,
William Krost also believed that the mixture of images and sounds will not much benefit us improve our listening skills We will mix up and chaos of sounds and pictures and can not
focus on our senses of listening if we become used to reading the subtitle of English movies
However, a DVD player will help us practice well First, we watch the film without subtitles to check out how many percent of understanding, and then write down percent number on a paper Second, we watch that film again with subtitle and see how much percent we comprehended that film For couples of time practicing like that our listening skill will be better together with our reading and speaking Moreover, using television or videos allow us
to access to more information when listening English learners can now see what is
Trang 30happening as well as listen to the text Non-verbal behavior or paralinguistic features of the spoken text and speech are now available for English learners to develop their listening skill in a richer language context Furthermore, the latest machine that everybody wants to have to practice with a personal computer (PC) This virtual reality machine will take’a great role in ameliorate, not only in practicing listening English but also in improving all of our ability in learning everything With thousands English CDs programs such as Study English version 4.0 (1 CD), Study English version 4.1 (1 CD), Learn to speak English version 8.0 (five CDs) etc they are not expensive and rare for us to afford to perfect ourselves
5.2.3 Cassette player
We usually use a cassette player in learning pronunciation, vocabulary, and structures
Using a cassette player we can hear different native speaker’s phonemes, words,
phrases times after times we will capture how can imitate correctly the same native accent Nevertheless, while listening to a cassette player, we merely listen to form limited, fixed subjects, we can control the length and the time; we must completely understand We can use a cassette player at anywhere, anytime we want to practice A cassette player is easy to use, handle and comfortable for listening English
5.2.4 Making conversations with native speakers
In every language, practice speaking is always the best method to comprehend in a very short time Speaking English with native speakers not only good for English language but also for others languages It is the effective way to improve quickly the speaking and the
listening Do not be shy with errors of our accent, sentence structures, grammar, or
Trang 31give us a lot change to improve our listening skill Herein the table of common reliable English Club and English School in Ho Chi Minh City
Table 5.2: English Clubs / English Language School in HCM City enc: ements cms, ø _ a Number Name of School/ Club Address
1 ¬ Sun Club of HCM Open University 02 Mai Thi Luu st, Tan Binh dist, 2 English Club of Cultural Youth ) 04 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai st, dist
House : 03
3 Sunflower Club of Dongnai 103 Ngo Gia Tu st, dist 10 Publishing House
4 “Special English Club of An Hoa : ~ 120 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai st,
Book Publishing Company / dist 03
5 Outer Space Language school 140 Tran Quang Khai st, dist 01
6 ILA - 402 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, dist
03
§ VUS Í 215 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia st, dist
03
9 TWEP = 349 Hoang Van Thu st, ward 2,
Trang 32-5.3 Summary
This section has presented the implication of the study of learning listening skills as well as recommendations focus on the feasibility means and methods that help students’ upgrading their skills The recommendations that mentioned above partly can help students perfect their skill as much as possible
VI CONCLUSION
The study has described many issues that totally concerning on exploitation the
common mistakes and listening habits of students as well as provided some recommendation
for learning listening skills in particular and learning English in general
Trang 33REFERENCE
Buck, G (2000) Assessing Listening, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Floyde, W and Dilingham (1995), A Speaking and Listening Skill England Gwendolyn, K (1984) Skill for School Listening, USA Harout Janonovich, Inc
Handreddy, F J and Whally, E (1996) Mosaic one: Active listening/Speaking Skill Book, San Francisco State University Monotype Composition Company, Inc
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Trang 34-Tanka, J and Most, P (1996), Interactions one: A Listening/Speaking Skills Book, University
of California, Los Angeles INTERNET REFERENCE Armstrong,W.H “How to Listen Better”, hittp://www.how-to-study.com/how-to-listen- better.htm ) Beare K, “The challenge of teaching listening skills” http://els.about.com.es.teachinglisteninghtml Krost, William “Helping Adults Learning Listening English”, http://www colorado.Edu.com available Meadow,G “Gestures Add Valuable Information to Teacher’s Math Lessons”, http://www google/English.com available 2, 2004 Sherma, Thomas.M “ElectricDesk & StudySmart”, http://PinkMonkey.com Available May- 2-2004 Vacca, R “Real World Vocabulary”, http://www/google/how-to-enrich-vocabulary.com available Jan-Feb, 2004 INTERNET ADDRESS
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http://www.ssu.missouri.edu/faculty/Rcampbell//Leadership/chapter6.htm “Listening Skill”, http://www.google/wesminter.edu.com May 13/04 ° “Talk Yourself into Learning Good Listening”, http://ptreuer @ d.umn.edu.com