HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH ====o0o==== CODE: 07 GRADUATION THESIS TOPIC: DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILL FOR FRESHMEN AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH, HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY THROUGH NOTE-TAKING Name of student : Nguyễn Thùy Linh Date of birth : 29/10/1993 Class : K18-BPD2 Supervisor : M.A Nguyễn Văn Quang HÀ NỘI - 2015 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this graduation thesis is my own work and effort and that it has not been submitted from any other studies Where other sources of information has been used, they have been acknowledges Hanoi, May 4th 2015 Student Supervisor ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Management Board of English Faculty at Hanoi Open University for giving me a great opportunity to carry out the research on graduation thesis I especially would like to offer my profound gratitude to my supervisor, M.A Nguyễn Văn Quang from whom I received enormous guidance Without his useful and patient instruction, it is impossible for me to complete my thesis Also, my special thanks go to students who willingly took part in answering the survey questionnaire of this thesis Finally, I truly appreciate the encouragement of my parents and my friends during my studies and my research as well TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims and objectives of the study 3 Scope of the study Research questions Methods of the study Design of the study PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of note-taking 1.2 The influence of note-taking on listening 1.3 Process of note-taking and skills required 1.4 Five note-taking methods 11 1.4.1 The Cornell’s method 11 1.4.2 The Outlining method 12 1.4.3 The Mapping method 13 1.4.4 The Charting method 13 1.4.5 The Sentence method 14 CHAPTER II MAIN FACTORS AFFECTING NOTE-TAKING SKILLS AND CURRENT LEARNING NOTE-TAKING SKILL OF ENGLISH MAJOR FRESHMAN AT HOU 15 2.1 Main factors affecting note-taking skills 15 2.1.1 Internal factors 15 2.1.2 External factors 17 2.2 Current learning note-taking skill of English major freshman at Hanoi Open University 18 2.2.1 Data collection - Survey questionnaire 18 2.2.2 Data analysis 19 CHAPTER III SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE NOTE-TAKING EFFECTIVELY FOR ENGLISH MAJOR FRESHMAN AT HOU 28 3.1 Effective strategies for note-taking skills 28 3.1.1 What to note? 29 3.1.2 How to note? 32 3.1.3 When to note? 41 3.2 Enriching background and language knowledge 42 3.3 Providing reliable sources of study’s material 44 3.4 Eliminating psychology problems 46 3.5 Improving teaching and training methods 47 PART C CONCLUSION 50 REFERENCES 51 APPENDIX: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE 54 Graduation Thesis - 2015 PART A INTRODUCTION Rationale In the modern world of international competition today, more and more people have realized the role of learning foreign languages is undeniable so the study of foreign languages is increasingly paid much attention in many recent years It is commonly believed that mastering languages other than helps to experience a new culture easier but creates good opportunities for study and working People’s willingness to learn foreign languages depends on two main things: interest and demand In different cases, people will learn another language because of their hobby Otherwise, they learn a foreign language as an instrument supporting and meeting their demands in life such as: study, working, living, entertaining, etc Anyway, mastering a new language is always a highly appreciated work and needs more encouragement and attention For English, nobody can deny the popularity of this language over the world Undoubtedly, the number of English speakers and learners is increasing rapidly in many countries It is official important transaction language of many world major organizations namely the European Union or the United Nations, etc Additionally, in job recruitment, priority is often given to candidates who have good English proficiency The ease and difficulty of learning English are different from person to person in term of gender, age, nationality, environment, etc However, easy or difficult, studying English always focuses on four main skills which are reading, listening, writing and speaking No one can point out which skill is the most important one because there is a tight relation between them, they always support each other Listening, reading, writing and speaking are all equally important However, listening and reading are often taught or learned at the beginning because they are two major premises that help learners start Nguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 Graduation Thesis - 2015 learning from the root to the higher levels Especially, listening helps learner a lot in develop their first intuitions of a new language Listening makes the brain work more flexible and adjustable with foreign languages The more you listen to the language, the better ability in realizing what sounds correct, what seems wrong like an ability you have in your mother tongue Therefore, after time learners can think and speak with correct grammar and vocabulary naturally In Vietnam, foreign languages, especially English is countrywide learned, many English courses, training centers and practicing activities are being provided widely to everyone Although the importance of learning listening is highly focused in colleges and universities, English listening proficiency of Vietnamese students is not high as expected The level of proficiency between English majors and other majors is very different For the majority of English major students at HOU, especially freshman, listening is supposed the hardest skill for them to study In addition, some seniors at HOU who will face the upcoming English proficiency tests like IELTS or TOEIC for their graduation assessment also acknowledge the difficulty of listening The main reason is that students not apply the effective methods to listening in order to activate them with motivation and interest and become active learners One crucial skill in listening is “note-taking”, a helpful assistance material It is important to English major students for its advantages to facilitate listening Effective note-taking is an important practice that can be applied in all aspects of life, socially, at work and during study At university, note-taking helps students deal with information they received by comprehending and processing it in order to serve later study purposes For the above mentioned roles of note-taking, developing this skill for English major freshman at HOU is a concerned issue, pressing for effective Nguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 Graduation Thesis - 2015 methods and a lot of learner’s attempt This study is implemented to find out current learning note-taking skill of first year students at HOU and introduce some effective strategies to develop note-taking skills Aims and objectives of the study The thesis aims at: - Discovering current learning note-taking skills of English major freshman at Hanoi Open University - Exploring internal and external factors that affect note-taking skills - Providing some suggestions methods to develop note-taking skills Scope of the study Scope of this thesis is mainly about how to improve listening through note-taking skill for first year student at English Faculty, HOU With the research about current leaning of students, the paper promotes some suggestions and recommendations to develop note-taking skill effectively Research questions The main question of the thesis is: how to improve listening for freshman at English Faculty, Hanoi Open University through note-taking skill To answer this question, I indicate the following supporting questions: Do note-taking skills help improving listening? What are skills required in note-taking process and their roles? How does English major freshman at HOU learn note-taking? What are main factors affecting note-taking skills? What are suggestions to improve note-taking effectively for freshman? Methods of the study The following methods are used in this graduation thesis include: Nguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 Graduation Thesis - 2015 • Collecting available information, statistics and figures from related material and sources • Reviewing and sorting the data to form logical orders for each chapter • Survey questionnaire • Data analysis Design of the study This thesis is divided into three parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion Part A Introduction This part includes six small parts: Rationale Aims and objectives of the study Scope of the study Research questions Methods of the study Design of the study Part B Development This part consists of three main chapters: Chapter I Literature Review Chapter II Findings and discussion about current learning note-taking skill of freshman at Faculty of English, HOU Chapter III Suggestions to improve listening skill for freshman at Faculty of English, HOU through note-taking Part C Conclusion References Nguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 Graduation Thesis - 2015 PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of note-taking Taking note is a very common process which is widely seen in many activities in daily life In teaching – studying, note-taking becomes an essential part because it is considered as a helpful assistance material Notetaking is an important part of the research process Notes taken on class lectures or discussions may serve as study aids Notes taken during an interview may provide material for an essay, article, or book Note-taking is a technique used by listener to assist their memory McPherson (2012, p.5) highlights “note-taking is properly the most common study strategy” During listening process, memory is the key to listen successfully while a good note can be a useful supporting material McPherson (2012, p.11) writes “Notetaking is primary a tool to encode information effectively in your memory.” Linguists have their own different view of note-taking’s definition Paulk and J.Q.Owens (2013) states “Taking notes doesn't simply mean scribbling down or marking up the things that strike your fancy It means using a proven system and then effectively recording information before tying everything together." O’Hara (2005) describes note-taking skill is the combination of several stages , that is "Taking notes involves active listening, as well as connecting and relating information to ideas you already know It also involves seeking answers to questions that arise from the material." Besides listening, note-taking plays a major role in interpretation Its value is widely recognized Gillies (2005) writes that “It is important to analyse the source text before taking down any notes Learning the notetaking technique is learning to analyse the source text.” Analyzing the source Nguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 Graduation Thesis - 2015 Well organized, neat, clean and nice notes always attract and motivate students to keep the habit of note-taking and review them for later purposes Therefore, decorate nice notes is also essential to create interest and creativity in student’s note-taking Note-taker should remember to use ink to take note, never use pencil because the note will be smear and hard to read after time In the case you take some notes in the same sheet, you should decide to use different ink colors or different types of pen to take note in order to separate each note clearly 3.1.3 When to note? As stated in chapter I, the process of note-taking is a complex set which involves several stages like preparing, listening and processing, taking note and reviewing stages Every stage is equally important to the whole notetaking process Without any stage, the note-taking process may not go well as expected When taking note in listening, students may sometimes confuse with decision of when to take note The first thing is time in note-taking is precious for every note-taker so value every single second is a wise choice Therefore, strategy here is that students should notice to start the note as soon as possible when each sentence in the listening input begins without having to wait for a complete meaning If students take too much time to listen and wait for complete meaning of an idea, they may forget and misplace ideas and are not able to write down sufficiently what they listened, as a result In addition to the shortage of time when listening, short-term human’s memory is one reason that students should quickly take note immediately when the listening input begins In fact, in listening comprehension, almost all students claim that when taking note there is not enough time for them to be able to all the stages like listening, understanding, analyzing and writing at once For learners, the time for listening is often short so there may be one Nguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 41 Graduation Thesis - 2015 problem is that students may be able to recognize words in the listening input but they not have enough time to understand or analyze to comprehend and write them down in their note before the input disappears In other words, in note-taking in listening comprehension, due to the term of memory, students always find it hard to hold lengthy ideas in mind long enough to write them exactly, correctly in their note For the reasons, it is a proper and wise strategy for students to quickly take note immediately when the listening input starts without waiting for complete meaning of the sentence When they can sense the meaning of a sentence by only some words listened in the listening input, it is right time for them to write it down in their note When listening, not worry about missing points, leave space and not take time to try to work out your memory to recall it and note it but immediately skip this point and catch another new one Time and memory have the vital influence on your ability of note-taking so try to value and balance your time and memory to make proper and wise decision is note-taking 3.2 Enriching background and language knowledge Self-practice to enrich background and language knowledge is the best way for students to fix their improper learning habit and wrong language concepts Background knowledge shows anything students have and know about the topic they are going listen Besides that, language proficiency like vocabularies, grammar knowledge concerns to the ability of expressing language In note-taking process, all stages require student must have certain knowledge about the topic and vocabulary and grammar to understand, analyze and express ideas they will listen in their notes Having a large understanding about many things is the best interest and passion that motivate students studying well and help them feel confident and comfortable when studying as well Nguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 42 Graduation Thesis - 2015 Background knowledge is important in observing stage in the notetaking process as it helps them have better preparation before listening and taking note In addition, it is also really necessary for predicting and inferring skills because it provides sufficient comprehension for listener to match the topic, the context, and help them to take note effectively with reliable knowledge In listening comprehension, the impact of background and language knowledge is huge To comprehend the meaning of what we are listening to requires first to have the vocabulary and also all the rules of grammar and syntax by which we can understand Obtaining the lexicon of words, grammar and syntax is like using the brain to think, analyze and remember so as to understand is main role of comprehensive listening When listening for comprehension, determine the context and purpose of what are being spoken is important to organize the brain, to activate appropriate background knowledge for understanding and to make predictions, inferences to prepare for listening Byrnes (1984) highlighted that when listeners know the context of a text or an utterance, the process is facilitated considerably because listeners can activate prior knowledge and make the appropriate inferences essential to comprehending the message Vocabulary and grammar are fundamental things in a language Poor vocabulary reduces student’s ability of expressing ideas in English as they will accidentally come across some unfamiliar words or phrases when listening and taking note Lacking grammar knowledge leads to misunderstanding structures and ineffective ability of analyze Consequently, they may misunderstand the ideas and make mistake when taking note Therefore, students, especially freshman should actively improve their English background and language knowledge First of all, self-studying and self-practicing are further homework that active learners should frequently apply to enrich their background and language knowledge One good method to enrich knowledge is reading so try to approach English as much as possible Nguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 43 Graduation Thesis - 2015 by reading English newspapers, magazines, books which contain a lot of information about English culture Besides that, there are amazing benefits of English music, movies and TV programs so students should make full use of them when listening and watching to gain background knowledge that serves studying purposes Self-studying and self-practicing with English related sources are valuable things that they cannot frequently at school It is obvious that aboard studying students improve their English ability very fast after only one to two years living there Daily English sound and English speaking environment has a great influence to student’s language ability Last but not least, for English learners, try to create and design a daily creative, effective and competitive English environment at school and at home in order to be familiar, connected with English It is not an unusual suggestion that you should practice note-taking skill when watching TV, for example, a cooking program Take your pen and paper and start noting down a recipe instructed by a native English speaker It is such an interesting but no less challenging task to self-practice your note-taking skill at home Practice makes perfect so try to practice as much as possible Create interest, motivation and confidence in learning inspires students to study and practice Attitude and enthusiasm of students will change from year to year, freshman, junior, sophomore and senior are not the same From personal experience and practice observation, first year is the time when students have interest and motivation to study the most as many things are new for them Therefore, having real purposes in studying with persistency and hardworking, as well as effective study and practice strategies, students’ ability will definitely be improved 3.3 Providing reliable sources of study’s material Students should find different kinds of listening sources to practice listening and note-taking Learning from the standard and reliable sources of Nguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 44 Graduation Thesis - 2015 materials will help students to get familiar with native listening input with variety of speaker’s speed and content It is helpful for them in order to eliminate some external factors affecting their note-taking process There are two kinds of listening sources, authentic and non-authentic At school, for most of the time, students, especially first year students approach non-authentic listening input like textbook’s exercises, tests These materials have some disadvantages of being unvaried and they not attract student’s attention For some students, especially students lose their taste in studying and weak listening ability, studying and doing tasks in non-authentic materials force them to study passively and ineffectively On the other hand, authentic listening materials have many benefits Guariento & Morley (2001, p 347) state “Authentic materials is significant since it increases students' motivation for learning, makes the learner be exposed to the 'real' language.” The main advantages of authentic materials are: • They have a positive effect on learner motivation • They provide authentic cultural information • They provide exposure to real language • They relate more closely to learners ' needs • They support a more creative approach to teaching Authentic materials provide students with culture reality, a variety of language input which are significant to their knowledge and language background In fact, authentic materials refer to materials designed for native speakers Authentic listening materials include English radio programs like VOA, BBC, CNN; movies; TV programs such as daily news, weather forecast, talk shows, interviews, etc Because of its feature, authentic materials can be too complicated and difficult for learners to use Richards (2001, p 253) points out that alongside with these advantages, authentic materials often contain difficult language, unneeded vocabulary items and complex language structures, which causes a burden for the teacher in lowerNguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 45 Graduation Thesis - 2015 level classes Guariento and Morley (2001) claim that students at postintermediate level should use authentic materials For the mentioned drawbacks, one question here is that is authentic really necessary with freshman? Some linguists suggest that authentic materials should be used for first year students to help them build authentic background knowledge by exposing to new ideas and content from real-life and create motivation, interaction and confidence in learners when they facing real native situations Martinez (2002) suggests that teachers may use authentic materials for the learners to listen for the gist of the information presented and listen for pleasure especially some topics of their interest Therefore, for note-taking skill, authentic materials are helpful to provide students a variety of unregulated native-speaker language so they can get familiar with the speed of native speakers as well as gain a lot of vocabulary, grammar structures and linguistic patterns from them In addition, because authentic materials can be applied for listening for pleasure as students not have to burden themselves with gloomy results Therefore, using authentic materials is one way to help students get used to feeling relaxed, comfortable and confident when they encounter easy or difficult listening situations 3.4 Eliminating psychology problems Psychology factors such as memory, attention, habit, or anxiety, etc are more or less affect student’s learning capacity One basic way to reduce the influence of psychology problems in note-taking process is to focus on the purpose of note-taking Paying attention to what you are doing is the best method to prevent your brain wandering about irrelevant things Therefore, when taking note, students should only focus on what they are listening to receive and process the information Other practical ways to eliminate psychology problems is becoming confident and having motivation and interest Once students improve their Nguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 46 Graduation Thesis - 2015 linguistic knowledge such as enlarge vocabulary, strengthen grammar as well as enrich background knowledge, they will naturally be confident and interested in their learning Practice is obviously a best way to master one’s language proficiency 3.5 Improving teaching and training methods With the important role of aiding and encouraging students develop their listening through note-taking, teachers at Faculty of English, HOU are being weighed down by great responsibilities First of all, students should be encouraged to reject the traditional and passive methods of studying Note-taking is one of the most crucial skills in listening comprehension but in fact, it has not been taught widely for first year students yet This technique is actually focused on teaching seniors who belong to translating and interpreting major For the majority of freshman at HOU, they have passive note-taking techniques like trying to write everything they hear but not focus on meaning, paraphrase them into their own words They tend to stick to words so when taking note, they are not selective and decisive, they not analyze information, actively predict and infer ideas and skip missing ideas and waste the time for note-taking process nonsense This type of passive note-taking should be eliminated Secondly, students at HOU should be taught note-taking with effective methods from the very first year to activate them with motivation, interest and passion Students should try to make their notes more comprehensive, creative and friendly by doing several effective tips like: • Make brief and selective notes • Leave many space to edit and add more details later if necessary • Choose the most convenient note-taking system and use it • Determine the categories to be covered with main points, sub points Nguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 47 Graduation Thesis - 2015 • Use your own words to take note • Use as many as possible catchy signals to indicate important points • Arrange the paper neat and logically Besides tips for note-taking skills, providing reliable sources of learning materials, combining authentic and non-authentic materials and setting up many note-taking practices are also important in building students’ motivation and interest Those activities can be promoting the practicing of listening and note-taking through English radio, programs, shows or speeches, etc Last but not least, teachers should help students raise their awareness of the importance of note-taking skills in listening As practical observation, a part of first year students still ignore the influence of note-taking skills in their study One obvious proof is that many students not have a prepared handbook for note-taking During the listening activity, when being asked to take note, some students use a small old out of shape papers, some use the last sheets of their notebooks and some even take note right in the textbook or the task papers It is a sad fact which is still happening among first year students at HOU In addition to that, students not have a habit of reviewing notes they had taken which is a very useful method to reflect what they studied at school Therefore, in order to have interest, motivation in study and improve background and language knowledge, the very basic and fundamental initial thing is that student should know the importance, the purpose of the subject they are studying Summary In short, note-taking skills support to improve listening because it simply helps students enhance their brain capacity such as attention, memory, and analyze Learning and practicing note-taking frequently like building a good habit, enrich student’s vocabulary, get familiar with short hand writing techniques by using abbreviation and symbol Also, it encourages students to Nguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 48 Graduation Thesis - 2015 be more creative and active in learning by using their own strategies to improve their own learning Chapter III of the thesis mainly aims to provide English major students at HOU with effective solutions and suggestions in order to improve their listening through note-taking skills All the recommendations of the chapter particularly emphasize the effectiveness of using note-taking’s strategies like focusing on main ideas, main verbs; using abbreviations and symbols; applying listening sub-skills and organizing note systematically In addition, it also proves that students should focus on own improvement such as selfstudying and self-practicing, enrich background and language knowledge as well as combine them with school’s training However, no method can be able to promote its full effects unless students employ it correctly and effectively Therefore, putting the methods into practice needs a wise choice depending on students Nguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 49 Graduation Thesis - 2015 PART C CONCLUSION With practice observation, the role of note-taking skills in every aspect of our life is undeniable It is a fundamental but essential skill which everyone uses from daily activity, working as well as learning In English learning, particularly listening, note-taking is an effective strategy to improve listening proficiency For English major students, with every activity involving listening ability such as attending English lecture, listening classes or doing English proficiency tests, the role of note-taking skills is significant Among English major freshman, there are still improper and unsuitable learning habits and methods of learning note-taking being applied Besides that, there are also many factors affecting note-taking process severely As a basic and important skill, note-taking needs to be developed at the very first year for English major students From the fact of student’s current learning note-taking skills, applying effective, advantageous and practical methods to improve note-taking skills for freshman is pressing issue at HOU Although note-taking is a complex process, it is believed that if appropriate strategies are employed along with students and teachers’ attempt in teaching and learning, improving note-taking skills is not far beyond imagination Nguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 50 Graduation Thesis - 2015 REFERENCES Anderson, A and Lynch, T (1988) Listening (Language Teaching: A Scheme for Teacher Education Oxford University Press USA Baddeley, A.D (1986) Working memory Oxford University Press Boyle, J.P (1984) Factors affecting listening comprehension English Language Teaching Journal 38.1 Byrnes, H (1984) The Role of Listening Comprehension: A Theoretical Base Foreign Language Annals Coady, J (1979) A psycholinguistic model of the ESL reader In R.Mackay, B Barkman, and R Jordan (Eds.), Reading in a second language Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House Downs, L (2008) Listening Skills Training ASTD; 1st edition Dillon, A (2007) Get Connected: Study Skills Cengage Learning Ellis, D (2014) Becoming a Master Student Chapter Notes – The note-taking process flows Cengage Learning Gillie and Andrew (2005) Note-taking for Consecutive Interpreting: a Short Course Manchester/Northampton: St Jerome 10 Glenn, E C (1989) A Content Analysis of Fifty Definitions of Listening Journal of the International Listening Association 11 Guariento, W and Morley, J (2001) Text and task authenticity in the EFL classroom English Language Teaching Journal 12 Hatim, Basil and Mason, Ian (1990) Discourse and the Translator London Longman 13 Hartley, J and Davis, K (1978) Note-taking: A critical review Programmed Learning and Educational Technology Nguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 51 Graduation Thesis - 2015 14 Jones, R (2002) Conference Interpreting Explained, St Jerome Publishing 15 Lundsteen, S (1979) Listening: Its Impact on Reading and the Other Language Arts Urbana, IL:ERIC Clearing House on Reading and Communication Skills 16 McPherson, F (2012) Effective Notetaking Wayz Press 17 Martinez, A (2002) Authentic materials: An overview Karen's Linguistic Issues 18 Nichols, R G., & Lewis, T R (1954) Listening and Speaking: A guide to Effective Oral Communication Dubuque, Iowa 19 O’Hara, S (2005) Improving Your Study Skills: Study Smart, Study Less Wiley 20 Pauk, W and Owens J.Q (2013), How to Study in College Cengage Learning 21 Purdy, M and Borisoff, D (1996) Listening in Everyday Life: A Personal and Professional Approach UPA; 2nd Edition 22 P.k.manoharan (2008) Education and Personality Development, APH Publishing Corporation New Delhi India 23 Richards, J.C (2002) Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice Cambridge University Press 24 Richards, J.C (2001) Curriculum development in language teaching Cambridge University Press 25 Rost, M and Candlin, C.N (1990) Listening in Language Learning (Applied Linguistics and Language Study) Routledge 26 Schacter, D.L (2011) Psychology Worth Publishers 27 SOAR Program (1996) Sharpen your note–taking skills Mayland Community College Nguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 52 Graduation Thesis - 2015 28 Titsworth, B S & Kiewra, K A (2004) Spoken organizational lecture cues and student note-taking as facilitators of student learning Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 William F E (2009) 21st Century Communication: A Reference Handbook, Volume SAGE Publications Inc Websites http://www.sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/notetakingsystems.html https://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/studyadvice/StudyResources/ Reading/sta-effective.aspx http://abbreviations.yourdictionary.com/articles/list-ofcommonly-used-abbreviations.html http://www.connexin.net/internet-acronyms.html http://www.medicinenet.com/list_of_common_medical_abbreviati ons_and_terminology/views.htm http://techterms.com/category/acronyms http://www.websemantics.co.uk/resources/common_symbols/ Nguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 53 Graduation Thesis - 2015 APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE Which is the most important skill in listening? A Predicting B Inferring C Summarizing D Skimming, scanning E Note-taking F Remembering How often you practice note-taking? A Always B Often C Sometimes D Rarely E Never What you note when taking note? A Everything you able to hear B Sentences C Keywords D Shortened phrases E Others How to identify important information when taking note? A Relying on speaker’s voice B Relying on rarity of words C Relying on signpost and transition phrases Nguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 54 Graduation Thesis - 2015 D Relying on repeat of words E Other methods What you to take note quickly? A Using abbreviation B Using symbol C Using your own creations D Others Which factors affecting note-taking? A Memory B Vocabulary C Grammar D Pronunciation problems E Background knowledge F Speaker’s speed G Language input’s content H Others (attention, flexibility, habit, etc.) Which source of materials you prefer when taking-note? A English radio (BBC, VOA, CNN) B TV daily news C TV programs (talk show, live show, interview, speech) D Movies without sub title E Textbook’s exercises F English proficiency tests G Others Nguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 55 [...]... points of information Note- taking is the practice of recording information captured from another source It allows note takers to have written records of all the necessary information that are heard, listened, seen or read before to have a chance to recall them 1.2 The influence of note- taking on listening Note- taking is a sub -skill in listening and one of the most effective techniques to listening effectively... factors note takers should keep in their mind is: what to note, how to note and when to note What to note? They are main ideas, main verbs, keywords and relevant information How to note? To increase the speed of note- taking process, note- takers should frequently use abbreviation, symbol When to note? By the skill of sensing the context and meanings of the words that are heard, note- takers should note. .. involved so practice note- taking not only improve listening but also build a good habit of self-practicing, in general 1.3 Process of note- taking and skills required The process of note- taking is actually a complex set of many stages in which note taker is required the several skills First of all, about the notetaking process, Soar (1996) describes that note- taking is a three part process of observing, recording,... importance of note- taking in their major In contrast, the frequency of practicing note- taking of freshman is different 41% of the students admit that they rarely practice note- taking About 24% of them often or sometimes spend time to practice A minority admit that they never use note- taking skills when learning Finally, it is a sad fact that none of first-year students say they always practice note- taking. .. learning note- taking through watching English movies without sub title It indicates that freshman partly show their motivation in self-practicing note- taking as well as other skills like listening, speaking, spelling, etc However, learning note- taking through watching Nguyễn Thùy Linh – K18.BPD2 24 Graduation Thesis - 2015 movies is a wrong concept of practicing note- taking because movies often contain... note- taking for freshman It is particularly developed to meet the needs and interests of English major freshman at Hanoi Open University In this chapter, there are several recommendations and suggestions are pointed out which requires the real effort of both students and educators 3.1 Effective strategies for note- taking skills In certain situations of listening, you will need to take notes to recall... essential sub-skills in listening In listening as well as note- taking, the two sub-skills are really helpful to get information 28% of answers choose remembering is another second important skill in listening It shows that English major freshman at HOU really acknowledge the role of their brain in learning Table 2 Answers of first-year students Question: How often do you practice note- Result taking? A... frequencies of practicing note- taking The numbers of table 3 indicate bright tendency in learning note- taking skills among senior students when nearly a half of the answers (45%) choose “sometimes” practicing this skill About 20 – 35% of hardworking students admit that they “always” or “often” practice note- taking For senior students, especially who are major in translation and interpretation, they... note- taking is necessary for students to have a record of lectures for future study and review Furthermore, it is the best assistant material in leaning listening subject, doing listening tests and also for translation and interpretation A good note does not stop at recording everything listener could hear but the information which is noted must be recorded selectively The data recorded in a good note. .. university student, note- taking is very essential in some specific cases involved listening such as when you attend lecturers, practice listening and speaking subject, do a proficiency test Admittedly, the impact of note- taking on listening is undeniable Summarizing some major roles of note- taking, they are: • When you are listening, taking notes helps you concentrate In order to take notes - to write