VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -  - ĐỖ KIM THUỲ A STUDY ON THE REALITY OF TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS TO SECOND-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY: RELEVANT PROBLEMS AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS Nghiên cứu thực trạng dạy kỹ nghe cho sinh viên không chuyên năm thứ trường Đại học Công nghiệp Hà Nội: Khó khăn số giải pháp đề xuất M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HA NOI – 2015 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -  - ĐỖ KIM THUỲ A STUDY ON THE REALITY OF TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS TO SECOND-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY: RELEVANT PROBLEMS AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS Nghiên cứu thực trạng dạy kỹ nghe cho sinh viên không chuyên năm thứ trường Đại học Cơng nghiệp Hà Nội: Khó khăn số giải pháp đề xuất M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: PhD Mai Thi Loan HA NOI – 2015 DECLARATION I certify that the minor thesis entitled “A study on the reality of teaching listening skills to second-year non-English major students at Hanoi University of Industry: Relevant problems and some suggested solutions” is my own work and has not been submitted in any form for another degree to any other university or institution Hanoi, November 2015 Do Kim Thuy ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In the completion of this thesis, I have received valuable supports from many individuals and groups First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs Mai Thi Loan, PhD for providing careful guidance, thorough encouragement, valuable comments and constructive supervision throughout my study Without her deliberate help, my thesis would not have been completed I would like to show my sincere thanks to all the lecturers who have been engaged in teaching K22 M.A course for their precious lectures My special thanks also go to my colleagues and students at Hanoi University of Industry for willingly participating in the study Furthermore, I owe my great acknowledgment to my parents, my husband, my son and my friends who unceasingly gave me encouragement and support throughout the study Eventually, this research has been fulfilled to the best of my knowledge; however, mistakes and shortcomings are unavoidable Therefore, I exceedingly appreciate comments and suggestions from any readers for the perfection of this work Hanoi, November 2015 Do Kim Thuy ABSTRACT This study was conducted to investigate the reality of teaching listening skills at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) To collect relatively objective information, a combination of both qualitative and quantitative approaches was used Data collection instruments consisted of questionnaires- one for teachers and one for students, and class observations The findings pointed out that teachers and secondyear non-English major students at HaUI were encountering many difficulties in teaching and learning listening such as students’ low listening competency, students’ limited vocabulary and students’ poor background knowledge Some suggestions were made by the teachers and the students to improve the current situation of teaching listening skills at HaUI including using different motivating activities to motivate students; having students work in pairs/groups and different tasks and guiding students what and how to without understanding all the text At last, the researcher gave some recommendations for effective listening lessons LIST OF ABBRIVIATION EFL: English as foreign language HaUI: Hanoi university of Industry PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Listening plays an important role in everyday communication and educational process In our daily lives, we spend far more time listening than speaking, reading or writing (Morley, 1991) However, in many language classrooms, listening is somehow seen as a lesser skill We must admit that speaking does not of itself constitute communication unless what is said is comprehended by another person This shows the importance of listening comprehension, and implies that teachers need to distribute a considerable amount of classroom time to teaching and practicing it In reality, in many universities in Vietnam in general and in HaUI in particular, teaching English listening skills has not been paid much attention to As a result, the qualities and effectiveness of teaching and learning these skills are not really as good and high as expected In teaching listening, I encounter several difficulties such as large classes, learners with lots of different learning styles and diverse needs, etc Besides, my colleagues also complain a lot about their problems Hence, it is necessary to find out the effective ways for the teachers at HaUI to improve their teaching bringing better result in learning for students The above situations has inspired me to the research entitled “A study on the reality of teaching listening skills to the second-year non-English major students at Hanoi University of Industry: Relevant problems and some suggested solutions” with the hope of making some contributions to improving the teaching and learning of English listening skills at HaUI Aims of the study The study aims to investigate:  The current situation of teaching English listening skills to the second-year non-English major students at HaUI;  Teachers’ and students’ difficulties in teaching and learning listening skills;  Suggested solutions for improving teaching listening skills for second-year non-English major students at HaUI Research questions To achieve the aims of the study, we tend to seek answers for these questions: What is the reality of teaching listening skills for the second-year non-English major students at HaUI? What difficulties EFL teachers and students encounter in teaching and learning listening skills? What are the solutions for improving the quality of teaching listening to the second-year non-English major students at HaUI? Scope of the study This study is limited to the reality of teaching listening skills to second-year non-English major students at HaUI Any investigation into other skills such as reading, writing or speaking is out of the scope of this study This study is conducted to a specific object at HaUI; therefore, it is not expected to be generalized to other school contexts However, it may be a useful reference material for those who encounter the same problems in teaching listening skills Methods of the study This study was designed to use both quantitative and qualitative methods Firstly, the quantitative method was applied with the use of questionnaires delivered to teachers and students to find out the reality of teaching listening skills at HaUI, the difficulties of the teachers and the students in teaching and learning listening skills and their solutions for better teaching and learning this skill Together with this, qualitative method was conducted with classroom observations This was a necessary step for the researcher to double-check what was actually happening in listening lessons Besides, the researcher also reviewed related documents for the establishment of the theoretical background for the study REFERENCES Abbas, P.G (2011) A study of factors affecting EFL learners' English listening comprehension and the strategies for improvement Journal of language teaching and research, Volume 2, Issue 5, p.977-988 Academy publisher manufactured in Finland Arono, A (2014) Improving students listening skill through interactive multimedia in Indonesia Journal of language teaching and research, Volume 5, Issue 1, p.63-69 Barker, L., Edwards, R., Gaines, C., Gladney, K., & Holley, F (1980) An investigation of proportional time spent in various communication activities by college students Journal of applied communication research, 8, p.101-110 Brown, S (2006) Teaching listening Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Buck, G (2001) Assessing listening Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Celce-Murcia & Marianne (2001) Teaching English as a second or foreign language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Christine, C M G., & Vahid, A (2015) Examining the notion of listening subskill divisibility and its implications for second language listening International journal of listening, Volume 29, Issue 3, p.109-133 Coakley, C., & Wolvin, A (1997) Listening in the educational environment In M Purdy & D Borisoff (Eds.) 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