VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -o0o ĐÀO THỊ HẢI YẾN AN INVESTIGATION INTO CONTEXTUALLY APPROPRIATE STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS TO STUDENTS AT NINH BINH CENTER OF INFORMATICS AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES Nghiên cứu chiến lược dạy nghe phù hợp với điều kiện thực tế cho sinh viên Trung tâm Tin học Ngoại ngữ Ninh Bình M.A MAJOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60140111 Hanoi, 2015 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -o0o ĐÀO THỊ HẢI YẾN AN INVESTIGATION INTO CONTEXTUALLY APPROPRIATE STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS TO STUDENTS AT NINH BINH CENTER OF INFORMATICS AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES Nghiên cứu chiến lược dạy nghe phù hợp với điều kiện thực tế cho sinh viên Trung tâm Tin học Ngoại ngữ Ninh Bình M.A MAJOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60140111 SUPERVISOR : Assoc Prof Dr LÊ VĂN CANH Hanoi, 2015 DECLARATION I, Dao Thi Hai Yen, hereby certify that the thesis entitled “An investigation into contextually appropriate strategies for teaching listening skills to students at Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages” is the result of my own research in the fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies – University of Languages and International Studies, VNU, Hanoi I have provided fully documented references to the work of others The material in this research has not been submitted for assessment in any other formal course of study i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor Le Van Canh, PhD for his generous assistance, enthusiastic guidance and constructive supervision throughout my research Mr Le Van Canh’s enlightening suggestions and comments have shaped to a very large extent Without his help, this study would not have been completed I would also like to send my sincere thanks to all teachers at Post - graduate Studies Department, ULIS – VNU who gave me interesting lessons and comprehensive knowledge I am most thankful to learners of Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages in Ninh Binh province for their enthusiastic participation in the study I am grateful to colleagues at Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages for their continued help and encouragement Last but not least, I would like to thank my husband, my parents who always encourage me while the work was in process Ha Noi, September 2014 Dao Thi Hai Yen ii ABSTRACT Listening plays a significant role in daily communication and educational process This study tries to find the factors influencing English listening comprehension and the contextually appropriate strategies for teaching listening skills to students Participants were 60 learners and three English teachers at English Department of Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages Three questions which were examined are (1) What strategies teachers use to develop students’ listening comprehension?; (2) What teaching strategies students prefer their teachers to use in teaching listening? And (3) To what extent teachers’ teaching strategies match student’s preferences? To find out the answers to the above questions, a survey questionnaire, combining with class observation were conducted First, questionnaires were delivered to students of three different classes to find out what they thought of listening skills, what were their difficulties in listening comprehension; and what were their opinions on the teachers’ ways of teaching listening tasks; what strategies the students preferred their teachers to use in teaching listening Second, the questionnaire was delivered to teachers to find out what they thought of listening skills, what were their difficulties in teaching listening In addition, in each class, the researcher observed listening lessons to find out what strategies the teacher used to teach listening skills and how the learners performed in listening lessons Then, the data was collected and prepared for the next step of the analysis The results showed that the informants all realize the importance of listening skills in their learning English Most of the learners satisfied with the ways their teachers teaching listening skills In each stage of listening lessons teachers used different iii strategies to motivate learners and help them finish listening tasks effectively Besides, teachers taught learners how to combine direct and indirect learning strategies to better learners’ comprehension of listening texts and listening tasks effectively In addition, techniques for development of listening materials and for improvement of teachers’ activities in listening lessons were suggested Key words: listening comprehension, strategies, listening skills iv contextually appropriate TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ix PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the thesis Research questions Scope of the thesis Methods of the thesis The structure of the thesis PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical background of listening 1.1.1 Definition of listening and listening comprehension 1.1.2 The importance of listening comprehension in foreign language learning 1.1.3 Listening comprehension process 1.2 Stages of carrying out a listening lesson 11 1.2.1 Pre-listening stage 11 1.2.2 While-listening stage 12 1.2.3 Post-listening stage 13 1.3 The Shift to the Context-Based Pedagogy 14 1.3.1 Definition of “context” 14 1.3.2 Contextual factors that affect listening comprehension in English language learning 15 v 1.3.3 Contextually appropriate pedagogy 19 1.4 Previous research on contextually appropriate pedagogy in ELT 20 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 22 2.1 The setting of the study 22 2.2 Research participants 23 2.3 Data Collection Instruments 24 2.4 Data collection procedures 25 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS 27 3.1 Introduction 27 3.2 Findings of the students’ responses 27 3.2.1 Students’ attitudes towards listening skills 27 3.2.2 Students’ self-reported difficulties in learning listening skills and possible sources of difficulties 28 3.2.3 Students’ opinion on teachers’ ways of teaching listening tasks 31 3.3 Findings of the Teachers’ responses 36 3.3.2 Teachers’ attitude towards listening skills 37 3.3.3 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching listening skills 37 3.3.4 Teachers’ teaching strategies 37 3.4 Discussion 42 3.5 Summary 44 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS 47 4.1 Suggestions for the students 47 4.1.1 Having a positive motivation and active participation 47 4.1.2 Having an appropriate learning strategies 47 4.2 Suggestions for the teachers 58 4.2.1 Helping students build up a positive attitude, motivation and confidence 58 4.2.2 Teaching listening strategies to learners in a systematical way 59 4.2.3 Techniques for improvement of teachers’ activities in listening lessons 60 4.2.4 Techniques for development of listening materials 64 vi CHAPTER C: CONCLUSION 66 A brief summary of the thesis and the main conclusion 66 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research 67 REFERENCES 68 APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE (For Students) I APPENDIX 2: CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT VII APPENDIX 3: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE (For Teachers) XII APPENDIX 4: OBSERVATION SHEET XV APPENDIX XVIII APPENDIX XXII vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ED: English Department EFL: English as a Foreign Language ESL: English as a Second Language ESP English for Specific Purposes L2: Second Language LLS: Language Learning Strategies LS: Learning Strategies NEF: New English File NCIFL Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages SILL: Strategies for Inventory Language Learning ULIS University of Language and International Studies VNU Vietnam National University viii G Sử dụng dụng cụ trực quan để giới thiệu chủ đề nghe H Các việc khác mà bạn muốn giáo viên bạn làm (hãy liệt kê)……………………………………… I Chẳng làm Bạn thích giáo viên bạn làm giai đoạn nghe? A Yêu cầu bạn nghe tìm ý để giải nghe tìm ý B Yêu cầu bạn nghe tìm thông tin cụ thể C Yêu cầu bạn nghe tìm thông tin chi tiết D Cho bạn nghe lần bạn muốn E Thỉnh thoảng dừng nghe để giải thích từ F Thỉnh thoảng dừng nghe để yêu cầu bạn nhắc lại câu G Thỉnh thoảng dừng nghe để yêu cầu bạn dịch tiếng Việt H Thỉnh thoảng dừng nghe để giải thích cấu trúc ngữ pháp I Các việc khác mà bạn muốn giáo viên bạn làm (hãy liệt kê)……………………………………… J Chẳng làm 10 Bạn thích giáo viên bạn làm giai đoạn sau nghe? X A Yêu cầu bạn thảo luận ý đề cập đến nghe B Cung cấp cho bạn ngữ cảnh tương tự để bạn đóng vai C Yêu cầu bạn thành lập câu sử dụng cấu trúc ngữ pháp nghe D Yêu cầu bạn dịch nghe sang tiếng Việt E Yêu cầu bạn trả lời câu hỏi giáo viên F Yêu cầu bạn tóm tắt lại nội dung nghe G Giao tập nhà cho bạn H Các việc khác mà bạn muốn giáo viên bạn làm (hãy liệt kê)……………………………………… I Chẳng làm 11 Bạn nghĩ cách mà giáo viên bạn tổ chức hoạt động nghe hiểu lớp A: buồn tẻ B: mềm dẻo C: Không thúc đẩy người học D: áp lực E: thúc đẩy người học F: thú vị G: ý kiến khác (hãy liệt kê) …………………………………………………… Cảm ơn hợp tác bạn! XI APPENDIX 3: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE (For Teachers) This survey questionnaire is designed to collect data for my study titled “An investigation into contextually appropriate strategies for teaching listening skills to students at Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages” Your assistance in completing the survey is highly appreciated All the information provided by you is solely for the aims of the study, not for any other purposes Thank you very much for your cooperation! - Please CIRCE your choice - For Questions 3, 4, 5, you can choose MORE THAN ONE option  Sex: Male ……… // Female:………  Age: ………………  Teaching years: ……………………… …………… (i) Teachers’ attitude towards listening skills (A: Strongly disagree, B: Disagree, C: neutral, D: agree, E: Strongly agree) XII No Statements A B C D E 5 The role of listening comprehension to second language learning is very important Listening skill is the most difficult compared with reading, writing and speaking (ii) Teachers’ difficulties in teaching listening skills No Questions Your answers A: the class size B: learners’ ages C: the difficulty of the level of listening text D: time pressure What problems you often meet in teaching listening skills? E: lack of teaching facilities F: noise G: learners’ experience H: learners’ background I: Others (please specify) …………………… What you think of the materials used teaching listening skills at your Department? A interesting B normal C boring XIII D appropriate E inappropriate F varied G not varied A authentic listening source from TV/radio in English From what sources have you exploited materials for teaching listening skills? B materials from Internet C you have organized listening tasks with additional published listening materials Thank you very much for your cooperation! XIV APPENDIX 4: OBSERVATION SHEET Date: …………………………… Class: …………………………… Lesson: …………………………… …………………………… Time: Teacher: …………………………… …………………………… Observer: CRITERIA I Teacher’s preparation Using textbook, chalk, board, lesson plan Handout or sub-board Visual aids (real objects, pictures, mining, gestures, facial expression) Computer aid, speakers, CD Games II Teacher’s presentation Language of instructions is clear and concise and students are able to carry them on Clarity, tone and audibility of voice Pronunciation, intonation, fluency are in appropriate and acceptable use of language Teacher’s writing on the board is clear enough for students to carry on Most of the lessons are smooth, sequent and logical III Teacher’s methods XV YES NO Presentation – practice – product Grammar – translation method Communicative approach Integrated Time amount is distributed appropriately to the stages of the lesson IV Teacher’s respond characteristics Patience in eliciting students’ responses Careful Demanding and strict V Teacher – Student interaction Teacher is a facilitator Students are attentive and involved Students are active Effective individual, pair, and group work Teacher’s controlling Stages Teacher’s Students’ activities activities Pre-listening XVI Notes Whilelistening Post-listening XVII APPENDIX A SAMPLE LISTENING STRATEGY INSTRUCTION LESSON Focus listening strategies: Prediction, Using background knowledge (Elaboration) Language objective: Understand a long listening text and answer comprehension questions Review listening strategies: Meta-cognitive strategies (e.g., planning, monitoring and evaluation) Strategy objective: Use strategies of prediction and using background knowledge to prepare for and check understanding of a listening text Materials: Copies of two listening texts and comprehension questions, handout of strategy tips Procedures: Strategic-awareness raising Review the strategies that have been introduced in the previous lessons Brainstorming: Ask students to brainstorm what they can to help themselves understand before, during, and after listening Then write students’ responses on the board by making a chart, so that students can review and reinforce what strategies they’ve learned to deal with listening tasks Before listening During listening XVIII After listening - quickly look at the title/pictures/ questions - keep up with speed - - give very quick - prepare my mind to concentrate the text questions to check my comprehension response - answer check my -… comprehension fits in -… with the situation or not - think about my problems in understating this passage - … - … - … Most students may encounter many problems when they need to answer several comprehension questions right after listening to a long conversation or passage Ask students what problems they have and what they usually to deal with this situation Make a list of students’ ideas on the board Review and discuss on students’ list Demonstration: Present the focus two strategies – predication and using background knowledge by defining the strategies, giving examples and explaining why and when these two strategies are useful Write the key information on the board Model the two strategies by thinking aloud Write some key ideas by using mind-mapping on the board Ask students to comment on the teacher’s think-aloud of using strategy of prediction and using background knowledge XIX Ask students to recall the steps for answering the comprehension questions Elicit the strategies and make a small handout to each student Before listening  Predicting by looking at the title or picture  Using the question words to build background information and knowledge Find the question word in the given questions (who, what, where, when, why, or how) Identify what type of information you will need to find to answer the question (person, place, event, time, reason, or procedure) While listening  Selectively attending to the text for the answer  Predicting what is going to mention in the next part  Relating personal experience to the listening text  Checking the answer against what you know to determine if the answer makes sense After listening  Evaluate your comprehension and strategy use Practice: Have students practice another listening task with several comprehension questions and remind them to use the process the teacher demonstrated XX Have students work in pairs, allow them to listen the listening task again Then they can review their work on the comprehension questions and revise any answers that are incorrect After that, ask students to verbalize their thinking processes during the task with each other and how they get the answer (either correct or incorrect) At this point, students have chances to discuss, either finding out their problems of getting wrong answer, or sharing their processes of successful comprehension Evaluation: Have the class discuss the focus strategies and evaluate their effectiveness Ask students if and how the strategies of prediction and using background knowledge helped them and if they would use them again Ask them to discuss difficulties they had using the strategies or suggestions for using it Self-directed practice: For homework, assign students a longer text to listen Students need to complete the reflective journal to self-observe and self-reflect on their listening strategies during the listening task This aims to expand and orchestrate their strategy repertoires to deal with listening tasks more effectively (Adapted from Chen, 2009:81) XXI APPENDIX PERFORMANCE CHECKLIST FOR LISTENING STRATEGIES What listening strategies have you used for the listening task that you just completed? Check the strategy that you have just used Before listening Yes I check that I understand the task I have to I look carefully at the title and any pictures to see if I can guess what it will be about I try to predict the words I am likely to hear or what it is likely to be said in this passage I decide on the key words or what I must pay attention to in advance I am ready to concentrate on what I am about to hear I encourage myself While listening: Yes I listen for the information needed to accomplish the task I focus harder on the text when I have trouble understanding XXII I use key words, cognates or word families to understand the text I use my knowledge of the context and of text structure to understand the text I try to get the main idea first and then details I listen out for specific details like the name of people, place, time and event I attempt to verify my predictions and then revise them accordingly I make picture of what is said or the spellings of words in my mind I use background noises, tone of voice, and other clues to help me guess at the meaning of words I did not understand I try to use grammatical clues to decide what kind of a word it is – a noun, verb, etc I try to quickly look for familiar content words that show in written questions If I don’t understand, I use my knowledge or experience to guess what I have worked out so far If I don’t understand one part, I listen out for the next parts to fill out that information I break the stream of sounds down into individual words and write them down to see if they are like words I know I quickly jot down key words or important concepts to remember the XXIII whole part I skip over words that I not understand so that I don’t miss what is said next I don’t panic when there is something I don’t understand but I keep on listening After listening: Yes I check back to see if my interpretation were right and made sense I try to remember key points and mentally summarize everything in order I evaluate the logic of what I understood I check how much I could understand this time I reflect my problems encountered during the listening task Adapted from Vandergrift (1999) and Harris (2007) XXIV [...]... English at Ninh Binh Center for Informatics and Foreign Languages 2 Aims of the thesis The author of this paper conducted this theory in order to explore listening strategies that are appropriate with the context of learners at Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages In an attempt to achieve this goal, the study is aimed at identifying the gap between teachers’ teaching strategies and students ... setting of the study The study was conducted at English Department of Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages located in Ninh Binh province Like most of other centers of Foreign Languages in Vietnam, NCIFL has both strong and weak points for teaching and learning The current English teaching staff at Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages consists of 4 teachers whose age ranges... teachers would respond to their local contexts, what factors would affect their pedagogy and how they would teach effectively within that context need to be considered Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages (NCIFL), which is under the management of Ninh Binh Department of Education and Training, is mandated to offer English language courses for those who need to 1 use English in their... opportunity to study the language at universities The learner population is therefore varied in terms of their language learning experience, learning motivation, and other physiological variables Learner variables are really a great challenge to teachers of English at any educational institution in general and at Ninh Binh Center for Informatics and Foreign Language in particular This requires teachers to develop... learn, revise or analyze some linguistic features so that they can use language more accurately and naturally in target situations For teachers, post- 13 listening stage is the time for them to check comprehension of their students to see how successful they have been in doing the task, evaluate listening skills and use of listening strategies, and extend their students knowledge gained to other contexts... design of the study Part B is the Development consisting of three chapters: 3 Chapter 1 – Literature Review – reviews the literature on teaching listening comprehension skills and contextual factors that affect teaching and learning The aim of the literature review is to create a conceptual framework for the discussion of the data in an attempt to recommend a contextually appropriate pedagogy for teaching. .. used in human communication (Anderson & Lynch, 1988; Anderson-Mejras, 1986) There have been a considerable number of studies on listening comprehension and all emphasized its crucial position in language teaching and learning According to Wallace, Stariha and 5 Walberg(2004:13): Listening skills are essential for learning since they enable students to acquire insights and information and to achieve... which places context at the heart of the profession.” Bax also claimes “The first priority is the learning context, and the first step is to identify key aspects of that context before deciding what and how to teach in any given class This will include an understanding of individual students and their learning needs, wants, styles, and strategies – I treat these as key aspect of the context – as well... the teaching and learning of listening comprehension skills 3 Research questions In order to fulfill the above mentioned aims, the study tried to answer three following questions: 2 (1)What strategies do teachers use to develop students listening comprehension? (2) What teaching strategies do students prefer their teachers to use in teaching listening? (3) To what extent do teachers’ teaching strategies. .. particular listening text which is done after the listening is completed Some post -listening activities are extensions of the work done at the pre -listening and while -listening stages and some relate only loosely to the listening text itself.” Post – listening is to encourage learners to use what they have got from the listening text and reinforce their overall command of English through a combination of different ... entitled An investigation into contextually appropriate strategies for teaching listening skills to students at Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages” is the result of my own... Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages in Ninh Binh province for their enthusiastic participation in the study I am grateful to colleagues at Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign. .. appropriate strategies for teaching listening skills to students Participants were 60 learners and three English teachers at English Department of Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages