VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRUONG THI THANH HUYEN CHALLENGES PERCEIVED BY TEACHERS IN HOW TO TEACH AND MOTIVATE ETHNIC MINORITY STUDENTS TO LEARN LISTENING COMPREHENSION SKILL AT LANG SON TEACHERS’ TRAINING COLLEGE AND SOLUTIONS (NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA GIÁO VIÊN TRONG VIỆC GIẢNG DẠY VÀ KHÍCH LỆ SINH VIÊN NGƯỜI DÂN TỘC THIỂU SỐ HỌC KỸ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU TẠI TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG SƯ PHẠM LẠNG SƠN VÀ MỘT SỐ GIẢI PHÁP) MA MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR: LE THE NGHIEP, M.A LANGSON, 2010 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i DECLARATION ii PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims and significance of the study Scope of the study .2 Methods of the study Organization of the thesis PART II: THE DEVELOPMENT .4 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW I.1 Theoretical background of listening comprehension .4 I.1.1.What is listening? .4 I.1.2 Nature of listening .5 I.1.3 Significance of listening I.2 Teaching listening skills .5 I.2.1.The process of listening .5 I.2.2 Strategies of listening I.2.3 Stages of a listening lesson I.2.3.1 Pre-listening stage I.2.3.2 While-listening stage I.2.3.4 Post-listening stage I.2.4 Potential problems in teaching and learning to listen to English I.2.5 Teacher’s roles in teaching listening comprehension I.3 Motivation 10 I.3.1.What is motivation? 10 I.3.2.The importance of motivation in listening classes 10 I.4 Current challenges in teaching and learning listening comprehension 11 1.4.1 Students’ psychological obstacles influence their listening capacity 11 1.4.2 Grammar knowledge affects listening comprehension 12 1.4.3 Cultural background knowledge and thinking affect listening comprehension 12 iv CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 14 II.1 General description of the current course-book and participants’ background information 14 II.1.1 General description of the current course-book .14 II.1.2 Participants’ background information 14 II.1.2.1 English Major Students 14 II.1.2.2 The teachers 15 II.2 Methods of data collection .16 II.2.1 Questionnaires 16 II.2.2 Class observation 16 CHAPTER III: DICUSSIONS AND FINDINGS 18 III.1 Questionnaires 18 III.1.1 Questionnaire for the Teachers .18 III.1.2 Questionnaire for the Students .24 III Class observations 28 III.3 Findings…………………………………………………………………….30 III.3.1 Teachers’ challenges when dealing with listening techniques and some suggested solutions to those techniques………………………………………………… 30 III.3.2.Students’ preferences for listening techniques…….…………………………….33 III.3.3 Teachers’ and students opinions about listening activities in the course-book ‘Listen in 1’ by David Nunan they are using……………………………………………34 CHAPTER IV: SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS TO THE TEACHING PROCEDURES 35 IV.1 For the teachers .35 IV.2 Some useful activities used for students during the class -time .38 PART III: CONCLUSION 41 I Summary of the study 41 II Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study 42 REFERENCES 43 APPENDIXE I I v APPENDIXE II VII APPENDIXE III X APPENDIX IV XVI vi LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS - LSTTC: Langson Teachers’ Training College - DFL: Department of Foreign Languages - CFL: College of Foreign Languages - VNU: Vietnam National University - T: Teacher - Ss: Students vii LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Page Table 1: Teachers’ pre-listening techniques………………………………………… … 21 Table 2: Teachers’ while- listening techniques………………………………… ………22 Table 3: Teachers’ post-listening techniques………………………………………….….24 Table 4: Teachers’ difficulties in pre-listening techniques…………………………….…25 Table 5: Teachers’ difficulties in while- listening techniques………………………… 26 Table 6: Teachers’ difficulties in post-listening techniques…………………………… 27 Table 7: Students’ preferences for pre-listening techniques…………………………… 30 Table 8: Students’ preferences for while-listening techniques………………………… 31 Chart 1: Teachers’ comments on the listening activities in the coursebook…………… 27 Chart 2: Causes that make students uninterested in listening…………………………… 28 Chart 3: Students’ preferences for post-listening techniques…………………………… 32 Chart 4: Students’ comments on the listening activities in the coursebook………………33 PART I INTRODUCTION Rationale English is, nowadays, needed in every field of our lives and for a long time it has been not only a compulsory subject in schools in Vietnam but one of three major subjects in the entrance exam to some Universities and Colleges as well Among the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, listening is always considered to be the most difficult for teachers to teach and for students to learn This leads to the fact that learners are afraid of learning listening skills There are various reasons for this: students‟ poor background knowledge, their limited reservoir of vocabulary and structures, their lack of motivation and preparations for the task, etc.(Boyle, 1984) Many students have associated listening courses with pain and boredom and usually complain that they benefit little from listening lessons This is also true to students at Lang Son Teachers‟ Training College Therefore, it is necessary for teachers of English language to realize the importance of how to make listening classes more interesting and know how to motivate students so that they can make progress and feel interested in listening comprehension courses In fact, in the process of teaching and learning English, listening plays an important role since it involves various kinds of the listener‟s knowledge and it is closely related to other skills, especially the speaking skill While, G (1998) pointed out that being a good listener involves collaborating with speakers and taking an active role in asking for clarification when you not understand However, in the process of teaching listening of teachers at LSTTC, the students‟ motivation in learning this skill is sometimes low and the listening lesson is said to be boring despite the teacher‟s much effort in their teaching time Consequently, these students‟ listening skills are poor since they are not interested in the subject, and they find it difficult to focus on listening if there are many distractions They not know much about the tasks of the lesson Thus, creating a motivating learning environment for ethnic minority students in a listening class is a challenging task for teachers This fact has encouraged the author to investigate into the challenges perceived by teachers in how to teach and motivate ethnic minority students to learn Listening Comprehension Skill at LSTTC, to find out more reasons for those problems, and then, to give some suggestions for mostly meeting and solving those challenges Hopefully, the study will be helpful in some way for the author and other teachers to find out most suitable techniques to stimulate their students in listening lessons 2 Aims and significance of the study The purpose of this study is to find out the most suitable teaching techniques and solutions to the challenges perceived by the teachers, in order to teach and motivate ethnic minority students at LSTTC to learn listening comprehension skill effectively To be specific, the major aims of the study are as follows: - to find out current challenges faced by teachers and ethnic minority students at LSTTC in their process of teaching and learning English listening comprehension skill - to study teaching techniques used by these teachers to teach their students listening comprehension skill - to investigate students‟ attitudes and their feedbacks on the teaching techniques used by their teachers - to provide some suggestions and practical recommendations to help in the process of teaching and learning listening comprehension skills of ethnic minority students and teachers at this college The study hopes to give an insight into the ways used and problems faced by teachers in how to teach listening comprehension skill for ethnic minority students at LSTTC The result of the study is also useful for teachers at this college in reviewing their teaching practices, thus paying more attention to the issue of teaching listening skills Scope of the study The scope of this thesis is limited to the teachers‟ challenges in how to teach and motivate ethnic minority students to learn listening comprehension skill and the recommendations to overcome these challenges at Lang Son Teachers‟ Training College The result from this thesis could also be used to inform concerned educational administrators in Lang Son in particular and in various regions throughout the country in general With that intention, this study is designed to cover the following issues: - Description of the course-book used for students in listening and its teaching and learning context - Challenges teachers often face in teaching and motivating their students to learn listening - Recommendations on how to support teachers so that they can teach more effectively Methods of the study The study was carried out on the basis of quantities research method including questionnaire and class observation Questionnaires are designed as a means to make the researcher‟s evaluation more objective The questionnaires are given to first-year ethnic minority students and teachers of English Department at LSTTC with the hope to find out their attitudes towards their current learning and teaching listening comprehension as well as their comments and suggestions for the problems they often face In addition, more information needed for the findings of the study will be gathered from class observation Organization of the thesis The study consists of three parts: the introduction, the development and the conclusion The introduction provides the basis information such as rationale, aims, significance, scope and methods of the study The development consists of chapters Chapter I, Literature Review, conceptualizes the nature of listening and listening comprehension skills, teaching listening skills, motivation, and current challenges in teaching and learning listening comprehension Chapter II presents the general description of the course-book, participants‟ background information, and the methodology used in the study Chapter III shows the detailed results of the surveys and covers a comprehensive analysis on the data collected from the questionnaires and class observations The last chapter offers some suggested solutions to the teaching procedures that can help motivate students to learn the listening comprehension skill The conclusion is a review of the study, future directions for further research and limitations of the study PART II.THE DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1.LITERATURE REVIEW I.1 Theoretical background of listening comprehension In language teaching, the phrase „listening skills‟ is often used to mean „listening and understanding skills‟ or „listening comprehension skills‟ And this is the sense in which „listening skill‟ is used in this thesis, where „listening‟ is taken as meaning trying to understand the oral messages people are conveying I.1.1.What is listening? There are different definitions of listening “Listening is the activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from something we hear To listen successfully to spoken language, we need to be able to work out what speakers mean when they use particular words in particular ways on particular occasions, and not simply to understand the words themselves.” (Mary Underwood, 1989) The quotation above suggests that listening can be done in a narrow and limited way or it can be done in a way that enriches communication Thomlison‟s (1984) definition of listening includes “active listening,” which goes beyond comprehending as understanding the message content, to comprehension as an act of empathetic understanding of the speaker According to Ronald and Roskelly (1985), listening is an active process requiring the same skills of prediction, hypothesizing, checking, revising, and generalizing that writing and reading demand “Listening is an invisible mental process, making it difficult to describe Listeners must discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, interpret stress and intention, retain and interpret this within the immediate as well as the larger socio-cultural context of the utterance ” (Field, 1998:38) All in all, listening involves a multiplicity of skills It is a complex, active process of interpretation, in which listeners match what they hear with what they already know I.1.2 Nature of listening Since listening is, according to Wang Shouyuan (2003), the most important component in the five aspects of overall English competence he suggests as listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation, it deserves particular attention Educators must actively explore the nature and process of listening comprehension and study the theory and methodology of listening comprehension in order to improve listening teaching outcomes and II f Give students time to read and understand the listening tasks g Others (please specify): …………………………………………………………………… Which types of task you often ask your students to in the while-listening stage? a Marking/ checking items in pictures b Storyline picture sets c Putting pictures in order d Completing pictures e Making models/ arranging items in patterns f Completing grids g Form/ chart completion h True/false information i Multiple-choice questions j Text completion (gap-filling) k Spotting mistakes l Seeking specific items of information m Others………………………………………………………………………………… Which of the following activities you often ask your students to in the postlistening stage? Activities You use this a Form/chart completion b Extending notes into written responses c Matching with a reading text d Summarising e Using information from the listening text for problem-solving and decision-making activities f Identify relationships between speakers g Establishing the attitude/ behavior of the speaker h Role play i Dictation j Answer the multiple- choice questions Of the above pre-listening techniques, which ones you find difficult for your students to follow and why? Techniques Why III a Brainstorming words, structures or ideas b Making students discuss in pairs or groups the topic, the title or the pictures about the item they are going to listen c Asking students some questions about the topic before they listen d Pre-teaching new words or difficult key words e Making students predict the content of the text f Give students time to read and understand the listening tasks Of the above tasks of while-listening stage, which ones you find difficult for your students to follow and which ones you consider the most suitable with your students’ competence? Why? (Number means “difficult”, number “suitable”) Task a Marking/ checking items in pictures b Storyline picture sets c Putting pictures in order d Completing pictures e Making models/ arranging items in patterns f Completing grids g Form/ chart completion h True/false information i Multiple-choice questions j Text completion (gap-filling) k Spotting mistakes l Seeking specific items of information Why And, which of the following activities in the post listening stage you consider the most “difficult” and “suitable” ones for your students? Activities a Form/chart completion b Extending notes into written responses c Matching with a reading text d Summarising e Using information from the listening text for problemsolving and decision-making activities f Identify relationships between speakers g Establishing the attitude/ behavior of the speaker h Role play Difficult Suitable IV i Dictation j Answer the multiple- choice questions What problems you come across when applying the above techniques? a Designing them is difficult b Designing them is time-consuming c Handling is sometimes out of control d Sometimes the techniques used are not of students’ interests 10 Which of the following techniques of pre-listening stage you think would help to increase students’ motivation? (You can tick more than one) a Using games to introduce the topic of the text b Using visual aids to introduce the topic of the text c Giving a brief introduction of the text d Explaining the instructions of the text e Pre-teaching new vocabulary in the listening text f Making students brainstorm words, structures, or ideas related to the topic of the text g Using pre-listening questions h Making students predict the content of the text i Using group discussion about the topic of the text j Giving listening tasks to students 11 What you think of the listening tasks in the course-book “Listen in 1” by David Nunan you are teaching? a useful to stimulate students’ motivation and interest b suitable for students’ background and levels c Boring d Other ideas (please specify)……………………………………………………………… SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES (FOR STUDENTS) Các câu hỏi để làm liệu cho đề tài luận văn thạc sỹ: “Những khó khăn giáo viên việc giảng dạy khích lệ sinh viên người dân tộc thiểu số học kỹ nghe hiểu Trường Cao Đẳng Sư Phạm Lạng Sơn số giải pháp” V Rất mong Em bớt chút thời gian trả lời cách trung thực xác câu hỏi Mọi thơng tin Em cung cấp bảo mật Xin chân thành cảm ơn cộng tác Em! Em đánh dấu (√) đưa ý kiến khác chỗ trống Những yếu tố làm cho em không cảm thấy hứng thú nghe? a Thiếu vốn từ vựng cấu trúc ngữ pháp b Thiếu kiến thức c Các chủ đề nghe khác lạ / không quen d Thiếu chuẩn bị trước nghe e Các ý kiến khác:……………………………………………………………………… Trước yêu cầu em nghe băng, đài, khóa…, em có thích tham gia vài hoạt động khơng? Nếu có, sao? Nếu khơng sao? …………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………… Trước nghe, em thích giáo viên em a Giáo viên yêu cầu em nhìn vào tranh chủ đề, tiêu đề nghe, sau em viết tất từ vựng, cấu trúc có liên quan đến chủ đề b Yêu cầu em thảo luận theo nhóm theo cặp trước nghe c Hỏi em vài câu hỏi chủ đề trước nghe d Trước nghe, cô giáo dạy từ cấu trúc ngữ pháp e Yêu cầu em đoán nội dung nghe dựa vào tranh chủ đề, tiêu đề nghe f Cho em đọc qua hiểu yêu cầu nghe trước Những hoạt động em thích trình nghe? Hoạt động a Đánh dấu/ kiểm tra thơng tin tranh b Tập hợp tranh theo tình tiết nội dung nghe c Sắp xếp tranh theo trình tự d Hồn chỉnh tranh thiếu khuyết theo nội dung nghe e Sắp xếp nội dung theo mơ hình mẫu f Hồn chỉnh mạng lưới thơng tin g Hồn chỉnh nội dung sơ đồ thông tin h Thông tin / sai i Câu hói đa lựa chọn j Điền khuyết Em thích VI k Chỉ nội dung sai l Tìm thơng tin cụ thể Em thích thực hành hoạt động sau nghe nhất? Các hoạt động a Hoàn chỉnh nội dung sơ đồ thơng tin b Phát triển nội dung tóm tắt thành câu trả lời dạng viết hoàn chỉnh c Ghép thơng tin phù hợp với đọc d Tóm tắt nội dung nghe e Sử dụng nội dung thông tin nghe để thực hoạt động giải vấn đề đưa định riêng f Nhận diện tìm mối quan hệ người phát ngôn nghe g Xác minh thái độ/ hành vi người phát ngơn h Đóng vai i Viết tả j Trả lời câu hỏi đa lựa chọn Em thích Những lợi ích em có từ hoạt động nói mà giáo viên em sử dụng? a Làm em hứng thú nhiều để nghe b Em học thêm từ vựng cấu trúc ngữ pháp c Biết thêm thông tin nghe d Các ý kiến khác:……………………………………………………………………… Em nghĩ hoạt động nghe sách “Listen in 1” mà em học? a Hữu ích, gây hứng thú cho em học nghe b Phù hợp với trình độ kiến thức sinh viên c Nhàm chán d Các ý kiến khác em: APPENDIX II: CLASS OBSERVATIONS * First class observation Class: K13D3, Room 103 Level: Elementary Date: Monday, December, 21th , 2009 Unit: 7- It’s on the third floor VII Teacher’s activities Students’ involvement and interaction - At 1.00 p.m: T comes in and greets Ss - T writes the topic of the listening text on - Ss look at the board, copy the topic the board and applies brainstorming technique - T asks the whole class to write down as - Ss listen to T’s requirement and write many words and phrases as possible down individually on the topic Most Ss related to the topic show their uninterests in the activity - After minutes, T asks some Ss to give their own work to the whole class - When this activity finishes, T asks Ss to - Some Ss give their own words and phrases they already have listen to the tape and their listening - Ss appear to passively listen to the tape task by answering the questions in the coursebook * Second class observation Class: K13D2, Room 102 Level: Elementary Date: Monday, December, 28th , 2009 Unit: 8- Can you work weekends? Teacher’s activities Students’ involvement and reaction - At 1.00 p.m: T comes in and greets Ss - T asks Ss to with the pre-listening tasks - Ss the pre-listening activities within minutes VIII - At 1.10 p.m: T introduces the tasks of - Ss listen and note down the T’s instruction while-listening stage and asks Ss to listen to the conversations and the tasks of True/false information, putting pictures in order, and multiple-choice questions _ T plays the cassette player for the first - Ss listen to the conversations, the tasks time, then, stops the cassette player and of True/false information, putting asks Ss to give their answers pictures in order, and multiple-choice questions, and are eager to speak out the answers they have with the two former tasks _ T explains some key words and plays the - Ss listen to the T’s explanation, take notes, cassette player for the second time and attentively listen again - T checks the Ss’ answers and plays each - Ss give out their answers and listen to the part of the listening text at the same time T’s correction and the cassette player _ Ss show their passiveness in giving the answers for the task of multiple-choice questions * Third class observation Class: K13D1, Room 101 Level: Elementary Date: Tuesday, January, 12th , 2010 Unit: 10- How does it work? Teacher’s activities Students’ involvement and reaction - At 1.00 p.m: T comes in and greets Ss - T asks Ss to work with pre- and while- - Ss the pre- and while- listening tasks listening tasks within 30 minutes IX - At about 1.32 p.m: T gives her instructions - Ss listen and take notes of the T’s of how to with the tasks of post- instructions listening stage - T explains some key words and grammar - Ss look at the board, copy the key words structures, and asks Ss to work in pairs to and grammar structures, and play roles in play roles pairs - After minutes, T asks some pairs to act - Ss actively act out their roles and they out their roles appear to be motivated in this activity - The class atmostphere is very exciting - When this activity finishes, T gives her - Ss listen to the T’s feedbacks on their feedbacks on the Ss’ pair-work, then, work, and gives assignment to the Ss then, write down the homework APPENDIX III REPORT OF SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES FOR TEACHERS What you often to start a listening lesson? Number of ideas a Ask students to listen to the text at once b Organize some lead-in activities before asking students to listen to the text Do you think it is necessary to some lead-in activities before asking students to listen? X Number of ideas a Necessary b Quite necessary c Not necessary d Other ideas Which of the following pre-listening techniques you use to motivate students to listen? (you can tick more than one) Pre-listening techniques a Brainstorming words, structures or ideas Number of users b Making students discuss in pairs or group the topic, the title or the pictures about the item they are going to listen c Asking students some questions about the topic before they listen d Pre-teaching new words or difficult key words e Making students predict the content of the text f Give students time to read and understand the listening tasks g Others Which types of task you often ask your students to in the while-listening stage? While-listening techniques Number of users a Marking/ checking items in pictures b Storyline picture sets c Putting pictures in order d Completing pictures e Making models/ arranging items in patterns f Completing grids g Form/ chart completion XI h True/false information i Multiple-choice questions j Text completion (gap-filling) k Spotting mistakes l Seeking specific items of information m Others Which of the following activities you often ask your students to in the postlistening stage? Activities Number of users a Form/chart completion b Extending notes into written responses c Matching with a reading text d Summarising e Using information from the listening text for problem-solving and decision-making activities f Identify relationships between speakers g Establishing the attitude/ behavior of the speaker h Role play i Dictation j Answer the multiple- choice questions 6 Of the above pre-listening techniques, which ones you find difficult for your students to follow and why? Pre-listening techniques a Brainstorming words, structures or ideas Number of ideas Why students’ poor background knowledge of English words and phrases XII b Making students discuss in pairs or groups the - Ss’ limited experience of learning a foreign language - It makes the class topic, the title or the pictures about the item they noisy, and it is not easy are going to listen to control the whole class c Asking students some questions about the topic before they listen d Pre-teaching new words or difficult key words e Making students predict the content of the text f Give students time to read and understand the listening tasks Of the above tasks of while-listening stage, which ones you find difficult for your students to follow ? Why? Task a Marking/ checking items in pictures b Storyline picture sets c Putting pictures in order d Completing pictures Number of ideas 0 e Making models/ arranging items in patterns f Completing grids g Form/ chart completion h True/false information i Multiple-choice questions j Text completion (gap-filling) k Spotting mistakes Students’concentration is not good enough l Seeking specific items of information Why 0 0 Students are not vocabulary and structures good at grammar XIII And, which of the following activities in the post-listening stage you consider the most “difficult” ones for your students? Activities a Form/chart completion Number of ideas b Extending notes into written responses c Matching with a reading text d Summarising e Using information from the listening text for problem-solving and decision-making activities f Identify relationships between speakers g Establishing the attitude/ behavior of the speaker h Role play i Dictation j Answer the multiple- choice questions What problems you come across when applying the above techniques? a Designing them is difficult Number of ideas b Designing them is time-consuming c Handling is sometimes out of control d Sometimes the techniques used are not of students’ interests 10 Which of the following techniques of pre-listening stage you think would help to increase students’ motivation? (You can tick more than one) Number Pre-listening techniques of users a Using games to introduce the topic of the text b Using visual aids to introduce the topic of the text c Giving a brief introduction of the text XIV d Explaining the instructions of the text e Pre-teaching new vocabulary in the listening text f Making students brainstorm words, structures, or ideas related to the topic of the text g Using pre-listening questions h Making students predict the content of the text i Using group discussion about the topic of the text j Giving listening tasks to students 11 What you think of the listening tasks in the course-book “Listen in 1” by David Nunan you are teaching? Number of ideas a useful to stimulate students’ motivation and interest b suitable for students’ background and levels c Boring d Other ideas XV APPENDIX IV: TOPICS OF LISTENING TEXTS IN “LISTEN IN 1” COURSE-BOOK UNIT Pleased to meet you UNIT This is my family UNIT He’s the one in the blue shirt UNIT Do you like rock? UNIT It’s a really interesting place REVIEW: UNITS 1-5 UNIT This is where I live UNIT Where is the furniture department? UNIT Can you work weekends? UNIT Where is the ferry terminal? UNIT 10 How does it work? REVIEW: UNITS 6-10 UNIT 11 I usually get up at six UNIT 13 He shoots, he scores UNIT 14 Do you want to see a movie? UNIT 15 What’s the weather like? REVIEW: UNITS 11-15 UNIT 16 How did you meet your wife? UNIT 17 Why don’t we buy a new car? UNIT 18 She’s kind of shy UNIT 19 Are you free on Tuesday? XVI UNIT 20 How you like to learn? ... importantly to be more motivated for other listening activities Moreover, 90% of the students show their strong desire for doing with ordering pictures activity and nearly 80% of them are in favor of working... concentration Finally, when dealing with post-listening techniques, 85 out of 90 students show their strong interest in role-play activity It is true because playing the various roles provides students... spoken one they heard Last but not least, the relationship between listening and speaking is a strong one and people who are generally good at one will usually be good at the other Teachers should