VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THÙY TRANG A STUDY ON THE USE OF PORTFOLIOS IN IMPROVING LISTENING SKILL OF SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG HỒ SƠ BÀI TẬP TRONG VIỆC CẢI THIỆN KỸ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐH CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI – 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THÙY TRANG A STUDY ON THE USE OF PORTFOLIOS IN IMPROVING LISTENING SKILL OF SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG HỒ SƠ BÀI TẬP TRONG VIỆC CẢI THIỆN KỸ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐH CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr Ngơ Hữu Hồng HANOI – 2014 DECLARATION I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct I also certify that all material and results which are not original to this work have been fully cited and referenced March 2014 Signature Nguyễn Thùy Trang i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Ngo Huu Hoang for his helpful guidance, critical comments, ongoing support and invaluable contributions during all the stages of this study I owe my special thanks to Dr Nguyen Thi Minh Tam, who has made insightful suggestions for improving my thesis I am grateful to all lectures and staff members of the Faculty of Post - Graduate Studies for their valuable lessons and help I am thankful to the students who took part in this study for their cooperation and contribution Lastly, I am deeply indebted to my family and colleagues whose encouragement has been extremely important to the success of this study ii ABSTRACT This study was conducted to explore the efficiency of the application of portfolios in the listening skill of second-year non English major students at Hanoi University of Industries, HAUI It took into consideration the listening progress of target students in order to generalize this method at the university The participants included 52 second-year non English major students at HAUI A designed listening portfolio given to students and collected at the end of the process, questionnaires and task performance measurement were employed to investigate the efficiency of listening portfolios and then, find out some suggestions on teaching and learning listening skill Qualitative method was used to analyze data obtained from the aforementioned data collection instruments This is a piece of action research and the findings of the research provided insight into the efficiency of portfolios in improving listening skill The mid-term test results also showed that progresses were made after the process of portfolios Based on the findings, some recommendations, limitations and suggestions were given out iii ABBREVIATIONS AOF Academy of Finance EFL English as a foreign language ESL English as a second language ESP English for specific purposes HAUI Hanoi University of Industry iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION OF AUTHORITY …………………… ……… ……………………….I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS …………………………………………….…………… … …II ABSTRACT………………………………………………… ………………….………… III ABBREVIATIONS.……………………… ………………………… ……………………IV TABLE OF CONTENTS V PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale…………………………………………………………………………………….1 Aims and research questions of the study……………….…………… ………………….1 Scope of the study…………………………………………………………….…….……….2 Structure of the study……………………………………………………………………….2 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical background of listening comprehension……………………… …………… 1.1.1 Listening comprehension……………………………………………….……………….4 1.1.1.1 Definitions………………………………………………………….………….4 1.1.1.2 The process of Listening Comprehension……………………….…… …… 1.1.2 The importance of listening……………………………………………….……… … 1.1.3 Teaching and learning listening skill…………………………………….……… ….6 1.1.3.1 The role of teacher in teaching listening skill……………… ………….…….6 1.1.3.2 The importance of students‟ autonomy…………………………….………… 1.2 Theoretical background of portfolios……………………………………………….…….8 1.2.1 Definitions of portfolios……………………………………………………….……… 1.2.2 The required elements of portfolios………… ………………………………………….9 1.2.3 Steps to develop a portfolio……………………………………………… …….…….10 1.2.4 Strengths and weaknesses of using portfolios in learning listening…………… ……11 1.3 Previous studies………………………………………………………………… ………12 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………….… ….14 v 2.2 Context of the study…………………………………………………………………… 14 2.2.1 The setting of the study……………………………………………………….…….….14 2.2.2 Course book………………………………………………………………….…………15 2.3 Methodology……………………………………………………………………….…… 15 2.3.1 Participants……………………………………………………………………….…… 15 2.3.2 Instrumentation……………………………………………………………… … ……15 2.3.2.1 Questionnaires for students………………………………………….…… …16 2.3.2.2 Designed content of the listening portfolio…………………………….…… 17 2.3.3 Data collection procedure……………………………………………………….… ….18 CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 3.1 Data analysis………………………………………………………………………… ….19 3.1.1 Data analysis of the students' survey questionnaire before the portfolio process… ….19 3.1.1.1 Students‟ motivation in study listening skill……………………… … ……19 3.1.1.2 Students‟ learning experience………………………………………… … 20 3.1.1.3 Student‟s knowledge of listening portfolios………….………………… … 21 3.1.2 Data analysis of the students' survey questionnaire after the portfolio process… ……22 3.1.2.1 Students‟ attitude towards the portfolios……………………………… …22 3.1.2.2 Students‟ preferences for working arrangement on the portfolios……… … 25 3.1.2.3 Students‟ preferences for task requirements on the portfolios………… ……26 3.1.2.4 Students‟ difficulties in listening portfolio process…………………… … 27 3.1.2.5 Students‟ suggestions to improve the listening portfolio contents……… …28 3.1.3 Data analysis of students‟ testing results………………………………………….……29 3.2 Major findings and discussions………………………………………….………… ……31 3.2.1 Summary of the study stages…………………………………………………… ……31 3.2.1.1 Initiation………………………………………………………………………31 3.2.1.2 Preliminary investigation…………………………………………………… 31 3.2.1.3 Hypothesis………………………………………………………….…………31 3.2.1.4 Intervention…………………………………………………………………32 3.2.1.5 Evaluation………………………………………………………… ………33 vi 3.2.1.6 Dissemination……………………………………………………… ………33 3.2.1.7 Follow-up………………………………………………………….………….33 3.2.2 Major findings and discussions…………………………………………………………33 3.2.2.1 The habit of students‟ learning listening skill outside class………………….33 3.2.2.2 Students‟ opinion of listening portfolio contents………………….………….34 3.2.2.3 Students‟ opinion of working arrangement………………………… ….….34 3.2.2.4 Students‟ opinion of task type on portfolios………………………… …… 35 3.2.2.5 Students‟ difficulties in the process of listening portfolios…………………36 3.2.2.6 Students‟ learning progresses……………………………………… ………37 3.3 Summary………………………………………………………………………………….37 PART C: CONCLUSION Recapitulation……………………………………………………………………… …….38 The answers to the Research questions……………………………………………….…….38 2.1 Research question 1………………………………………………………………………38 2.2 Research question 2……………………………………………………….………….… 39 Implications for the application of portfolios in the listening skill………………… …….40 3.1 Specifying the concept of the portfolio and its contents…………………… …….… 41 3.2 Designing a more suitable portfolio contents………………………………… … … 41 3.3 Encouraging students‟ autonomy………………………………………… ………… 41 Limitations of the study……………………………………………………… ………….42 Recommendations for further study…………………………………………….…… ……42 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………… 43 APPENDICES I vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Of the four language skills, it is surprising the listening skill is often ignored even in the modern methods of foreign language teaching Interestingly did the way Nunan (1997: 42) comment on the listening skill: “Listening is the Cinderella skill in second language learning All too often, it has been overlooked by its elder sister: speaking.” Listening is an important skill and probably the most challenging skill in learning English on account of learners‟ unfamiliarity with different intonation pattern and use of stress, etc For the second-year non English major students at Hanoi University of Industries, most of them agree that they encounter a lot of difficulties in learning the listening skill such as social setting, background knowledge, cultures, similar pronunciation or inferred information Because the level of English language proficiency of the students is not very high, the motivation of learning listening is affected Additionally, limited time duration of listening lesson every week is conducive to the slow learning progress of students Obviously, students should spend more time practicing outside class As a solution, listening portfolios which reflect what students have done at home are a useful additional learning tool For years, in ESL field, employing portfolios to learn at home has been a good way for learners to obtain the listening skill for its purposefulness, systematization and above all, actual reflection of learning activities It not only helps teachers assess students‟ work, but also keep students continuously learning Although the teacher may deal with considerable challenges to the exploitation of portfolios, it is still worthy to carry out because of the benefits it offers Now, this method of practicing is firstly introduced at HAUI as a piloting solution for improving the listening skill For the above reasons, the choice of the study entitled “A study on the use of portfolios in improving the listening skill of second-year students at Hanoi University of Industry, HAUI” is not accidental Aims of the study The specific aims of the research are as follows: - To investigate the influence of portfolios on students‟ the listening skill (through the exploration of students‟ preferences towards the application of portfolio in the listening skill and the measurement of their improvement in the listening skill after the listening portfolio) ... the efficiency of the application of portfolios in the listening skill of second-year non English major students at Hanoi University of Industries, HAUI It took into consideration the listening. .. on teaching and learning listening skill Qualitative method was used to analyze data obtained from the aforementioned data collection instruments This is a piece of action research and the findings...VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THÙY TRANG A STUDY ON THE USE OF PORTFOLIOS IN IMPROVING LISTENING