VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDY BÙI THÚY HÀ “PROBLEMS FACED BY VIETNAMESE LEARNERS IN LEARNING IELTS LISTENING” “NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA HỌC VIÊN VIỆT NAM KHI HỌC KỸ NĂNG NGHE CỦA BÀI THI IELTS” MA MINOR THESIS Field: METHODOLOGY Code: 60.14.10 HA NOI – 2009 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDY BÙI THÚY HÀ “PROBLEMS FACED BY VIETNAMESE LEARNERS IN LEARNING IELTS LISTENING” “NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA HỌC VIÊN VIỆT NAM KHI HỌC KỸ NĂNG NGHE CỦA BÀI THI IELTS” MA MINOR THESIS Field: METHODOLOGY Code: 60.14.10 Supervisor: DR DƯƠNG THỊ NỤ HA NOI – 2009 v TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii List of tables and charts iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Significance of the study 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Method of the study 1.6 Design of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Listening 2.1.1 What is listening? 2.1.2 What is listening comprehension? 2.1.3.The importance of listening 2.1.3.1 Listening as the final goal of learning a language 2.1.3.2 Listening as a means of acquiring a language 2.1.4 What make listening difficult? 2.1.4.1 The linguistic factors 2.1.4.2 The non-linguistic factors 2.1.5 Potential problems in learning to listen to English 2.1.5.1 Lack of control over the speed at which speakers speak 2.1.5.2 Not being able to get things repeated 2.1.5.3 The listener’s limited vocabulary 2.1.5.4 Failure to recognise the ‘signals’ 10 2.1.5.5 Problems of interpretation 10 2.1.5.6 Inability to concentrate 10 2.1.5.7 Established learning habits 10 vi 2.2 Listening in IELTS tests 10 2.2.1 What is IELTS? 10 2.2.2 Listening in IELTS tests 11 2.2.3 Situation of teaching and learning IELTS listening of Vietnamese learners in some foreign language centres in Hanoi 12 CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 13 3.1 Data collection 13 3.1.1 Participants 13 3.1.2 Instrument 13 3.1.3 Data collection procedures 13 3.2 Data analysis and discussion 14 3.2.1 The questionnaire report - Part 1: General information about learners 14 3.2.2 The questionnaire report - Part 2: The learning and difficulties of IELTS listening 16 3.2.3 Data analysis of the class observation and discussion 26 3.3 Findings and conclusion 27 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE LISTENING SCORES IN IELTS TESTS 30 4.1 To the IELTS learners 30 4.1.1 Learning to become efficient listeners 30 4.1.2 Practicing listening skill regularly and developing learning autonomy 31 4.2 To the IELTS teachers 31 4.2.1 Providing learners with necessary listening strategies 31 4.2.2 Developing listening materials and improving teaching techniques 32 4.2.3 Designing an intensive IELTS listening course for Vietnamese learners 32 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 34 5.1 Conclusion 34 5.2 Limitation and suggestions for further study 35 REFERENCES I APPENDIX II iv LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS TABLES Table 1: Learners by age, gender and occupation Table 2: Learners’ purposes of taking IELTS preparation course Table 3: Learners’ feelings when listening Table 4: Learners’ self- practice of listening skill Table 5: How learners practiced listening skill themselves Table 6: Factors caused difficulties for learners to learn listening Table 7: Learners’ views on suggested topics Table 8: Learners’ attitude towards IELTS listening activities Table 9: Learners’ activities in listening lessons Table 10: What learners while learning to listen Table 11: Learners’ expectation in learning to listen Table 12: Teacher’s activities to help learners listen better CHARTS Pie chart 1: Learners’ experience of learning English in years Pie chart 2: Learners’ opinion of learning listening skill Pie chart 3: Learners’ opinion of the IELTS listening sub-test CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale In recent years with the sound of economic growth and the global integration, there have been a growing number of English learners wishing to study at a tertiary level or to work in English speaking countries However, one of the prerequisites for their entrance is that they have to sit for either the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) or the Test of English as Foreign Language (TOEFL) IELTS, which has now been adopted by many English-medium universities all over the world, mainly in the United Kingdom and Australia, especially in Australia, is administered by the British Council or IDP Education Australia in Hanoi The test consists of four sections designed to test candidates‟ four skills: listening, reading, speaking and writing As a matter of fact, those who want to get high score to be admitted to the target universities all try to take part in some preparation courses before taking the test and obviously, there are a great number of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Centres in Hanoi who run IELTS preparation courses in order to meet these demands In second and foreign language learning, listening skill is always considered the most essential as well as the most difficult skill for both teachers to teach effectively and for learners to improve themselves Therefore, listening in IELTS test is not an exception because it comprises different task types with various topics and it requires not only learners‟ proficiency in English but also their wide knowledge of the language, culture and country as well Being both an IELTS learner and teacher, the author realises that listening skill is really the most difficult skill to most English learners and the IELTS learners often encounter a lot of difficulties with the IELTS listening subtest This fact has encouraged the author to investigate the real “Problems faced by Vietnamese learners in learning IELTS listening” and to give some recommendations to help learners inprove their listening skill as well as listening scores in IELTS test 1.2 Aims of the study The purpose of this study is to investigate real situation of learning IELTS especially IELTS listening skill and the difficulties encountered by the IELTS learners in IELTS preparation courses Therefore, the study will aim to answer the following research questions: How is listening skill learnt by Vietnamese learners? What problems the IELTS learners face in learning IELTS listening? What are IELTS learners‟ needs and expectation in learning listening skill? 1.3 Significance of the study This study analyzes and finds out the real difficulties that Vietnamese learners face while learning IELTS listening skill By doing this study, the researcher would like to help IELTS learners foresee the problems and overcome them in order to improve their listening scores The study is also done to help IELTS teachers adopt appropriate teaching method to teaching this skill 1.4 Scope of the study The focus of the study is on the learning of IELTS listening skill of Vietnamese learners who are taking part in IELTS Preparation Courses in some Foreign Language Centres in Hanoi such as Language Link, Equest and private classes etc The study was conducted under the scope of a case-study research with a small number of participants who were chosen at random and of different ages, occupations and locations Therefore, the investigation into the learning of other IELTS skills or the teaching of IELTS is beyond the scope 1.5 Method of the study Both quantitative and qualitative approaches, including a survey questionnaire and class observation, are employed to collect data for the study and the major method used is the quantitative one First of all, the survey questionnaire, which is conducted with those learners who are taking part in the IELTS Preparation Courses, is to find out the difficulties in learning IELTS listening as well as the current situation of learning this skill Then, the data for the study is also collected through class observation, informal interviews and discussions with other IELTS teachers and learners 1.6 Design of the study Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter is to present the rationale, the aims, the scope, the significance, the methodology and the design of the study Chapter 2: Literature review This chapter deals with the theoretical background of the study relating to listening skill and IELTS listening Chapter 3: The study This chapter presents data collection, data analysis, the findings and discussion as well as the conclusion drawn from the study Chapter 4: Recommendations to improve listening scores in IELTS tests This chapter is to give some recommendations to both learners and teachers in order to improve the learning and teaching of IELTS listening Chapter 5: Conclusion This chapter presents summary of the major findings, the conclusions and limitations of the study; implications as well as suggestions for further research CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter provides the theoretical background to the study composed of two sections The first section presents different views on the definition of listening and listening comprehension; the importance of listening skill in foreign language learning; the factors that make listening difficult and potential problems in learning listening skill The second section is to provide general information about IELTS, IELTS listening as well as the current situation of teaching and learning IELTS of Vietnamese learners in Hanoi 2.1 Listening 2.1.1 What is listening? There are different definitions about listening, they come from different views of the linguists It is believed that listening is a significant and essential element of communication and interaction in a native language and in second language as well Bentley and Bacon (1996), defines listening as „an active process during which the listener constructs meaning from oral input’ From this definition, a learner can express himself orally but he will never be able to communicate with an English speaker if he is unable to understand what is said to him Similarly, Grant also states that listening skill includes everything from learning particular sounds to comprehending complicated message Without this skill, communication can break down Steil and Watson (1983:22) also view listening as a major communication activity On the website http://www.ccsf.edu, listening is considered to be “the absorption of the meanings of words and sentences by the brain Listening leads to the understanding of facts and ideas” Following is another view about listening : Listening is an invisible mental process, making it difficult to describe Listeners must discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammar structures, interpret stress and intention, retain and interpret this within the immediate as well as the large socio-cultural context of the utterance.(Field, 1998:38) The above definition presents a quite full overview of the nature of listening and the difficulties that might face in communication or interaction 2.1.2 What is listening comprehension? Different definitions of listening comprehension focused on different aspects of this skill Rost (2002) defined listening comprehension as “a process of receiving what the speaker actually says, constructing and representing meaning, negotiating meaning with the speaker and responding, and creating meaning through involvement, imagination and empathy” To put it in another way, Wolvin and Coakley (1985) view listening as “the process of receiving, attending to and assigning meaning to aural stimuli” The definitions suggest that listening is really a complex skill, the task of listening is more than the perception of sound, it also requires comprehension of meaning Buck (2001:31) also points out that listening comprehension is “an active process of constructing meaning and this is done by applying knowledge to the incoming sound” in which “number of different types of knowledge are involved: both linguistic and nonlinguistic knowledge” Therefore, when doing listening, listeners are expected to hear attentively in order to process, comprehend, interpret, evaluate and respond to the incoming data 2.1.3 The importance of listening Obviously, listening plays important and active role in communication and interaction as it involves various kinds of the listeners‟ knowledge The importance of listening in second and foreign language learning is summarised in a recent publication by Rost (1994:141) as follows: - Listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides input for the learners Without understanding input at the right level, any learning simply cannot begin - Spoken language including listening provides a means of interaction for the learners Because learners must interact to achieve understanding, access to speakers of the language is essential Moreover, learner’s failure to understand the language they hear is an impetus, not an obstacle, to interaction and learning - Authentic spoken language presents a challenge for the learner to attempt to understand language as it is actually used by native speakers - Listening exercises provide teachers with a means for drawing learners’ attention to new forms (vocabulary, grammar, interaction patterns)in the language ... answer the following research questions: How is listening skill learnt by Vietnamese learners? 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