VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES  PHẠM TUYẾT LINH DESIGNING A LISTENING SYLLABUS FOR GRADE 10 ENGLISH GIFTED STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN SPECIALIZING UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH NGHE CHO HỌC SINH CHUYÊN ANH 10 TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN THÁI NGUYÊN M.A. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 SUPERVISOR: MAI THỊ LOAN, M. A HA NOI - 2010 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES vi PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rationale of the study 1 2. Aims of the study 2 3. Research questions of the study 2 4. Significance of the study 2 5. Methods of the study 2 6. Scope of the study 3 7. Design of the study 3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT 4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4 1.1. Syllabus design 4 1.1.1. Definition of syllabus 4 1.1.2. Types of syllabus 5 1.1.3. Steps in designing a syllabus 6 1.2. Needs analysis 7 1.2.1. Definitions of needs analysis 7 1.2.2. Reasons for choosing need analysis 7 1.2.3. Components of need analysis 7 1.2.3.1. Target needs 7 1.2.3.2. Learning needs 8 1.3. An overview of listening comprehension 8 1.3.1. Definitions of listening comprehension 8 1.3.2. Listening strategies 9 1.3.3. Listening process 10 CHAPTER 2: FINDINGS AND DATA ANALYSIS 12 2.1. Questionnaire 12 2.1.1. Aims of the questionnaire 12 2.1.2. Participants 12 2.1.3. Findings and data analysis 12 2.1.3.1. Learning situation 12 2.1.3.2. Student’s needs 15 2.2. Listening test 18 2.2.1. Aims of the listening test 18 2.2.2. Participants 18 2.2.3. Findings and data analysis 18 2.3. Interview 19 iv 2.3.1. Aims of the interview 19 2.3.2. Participants 19 2.3.3. Findings and data analysis 19 2.3.3.1. Teaching situation 19 2.3.3.2. Teachers’ needs 20 2.3.3.3. Currently used materials 22 2.4. Summary 25 CHAPTER 3: A PROPOSED SYLLABUS 26 3.1. Introduction 26 3.2. The proposed syllabus 26 3.2.1. The descriptions of the syllabus 26 3.2.2. Goals and objectives of the syllabus 26 3.2.2.1. Goals of the syllabus 26 3.2.2.2. Objectives of the syllabus 27 3.2.3. Time frame 27 3.2.4. The content of the syllabus 28 3.2.4.1. The topics of the syllabus 28 3.2.4.2. The listening skill 28 3.2.4.3. The listening tasks 29 3.2.4.4. Grammar 29 3.2.4.5. Vocabulary area 29 3.3. The proposed syllabus 30 3.4. A sample unit 34 3.5. Suggestions 34 3.5.1. Suggestions for teaching methods 34 3.5.2. Suggestions for assessment of students 34 3.6. Summary 35 PART III: CONCLUSION 36 1. Summary of the study 36 2. Limitations and suggestions for further research 37 REFERENCES 38 APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS I APPENDIX 2: THE INTERVIEW FOR TEACHERS OF ENGLISH V APPENDIX 3: LISTENING TEST VI APPENDIX 4: RESPONSES TO THE QUESTIONNAIRE VIII APPENDIX 5: RESPONSES TO THE QUESTIONAIRE IX APPENDIX 6: RESULTS OF THE LISTENING TEST X APPENDIX 7: RESPONSES TO THE INTERVIEW XI APPENDIX 8: A SAMPLE LISTENING UNIT XII v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS TNSUSS: Thai Nguyen Specializing Upper Secondary School IELTS: The International English Language Testing System MOET: Ministry of Education and Training EFL: English as a Foreign Language vi LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Charts Chart 1: Students' self evaluation on their English ability Chart 2: Students’ responses regarding their attitudes forwards listening skill Chart 3: Students’ responses referring to difficulties in listening Chart 4: Students’ perception of listening comprehension Chart 5: Students' responses concerning their perception of the teacher's role Chart 6: Distribution of students’ responses referring to listening tasks they expect to improve Chart 7: Distribution of students’ responses referring to listening skill they expect to learn Tables Table 1: Students’ learning places Table 2: Students’ background of learning English Table 3: Perceived English skills important to study Table 4: Students’ expectations of the topics in listening class Table 5: Results of listening test Table 6: Teachers’ perceptions of their students’ difficulties in listening Table 7: The tasks relevant to English 10 gifted students Table 8: Teachers’ perceptions of topics and situations Table 9: Teachers’ perception of listening skills needed by their students Table 10: Distribution of students’ responses and teachers’ responses referring to listening syllabus 1 PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study TNSUSS was founded in 1988 with the mission to select and train gifted students for Thai Nguyen province. Every year, the English gifted students in grade 11 and 12 of the school have to take the national exam for gifted students. To help the students gain the best results, the teachers of English specializing classes have to work very hard to prepare the materials for their teaching. This work takes them a lot of time and money, and they always feel tired of preparing the materials as they have to select the materials themselves from different sources such as: internet, different textbooks, magazines etc. As a result, the selected topics are monotonous, and the content is illogical and unsystematic. The teachers cannot only use the current textbook for their teaching because it is designed for only normal students, not for gifted students. Up to now, MOET has not edited a standard syllabus to meet the current requirements and difficulty level of the national exams for gifted students at specializing upper secondary schools. Thus, if the English gifted only learn this type of the documents, they will not get high scores in national exam, especially in listening part. According to Anh (2006:14) the objectives of the new textbook for listening part are: “After the course, students can understand and identify main ideas, specific details of the conversations, monologue or spoken texts with 150 words to 200 words at low speed”. Whereas, the format of the listening test in national exam is based on the format of IELTS tests. It means that students have to listen to the spoken text with from 250 to 350 words at rather high speed. Thus, it is necessary to design a listening supplementary for teachers and gifted students at TNSUSS to reduce the teachers’ workload in finding and selecting materials. Moreover, as mentioned above, the students find it challenging in listening skill, not only because of the materials but also due to their neglect. The students who want to enter TNSUSS have to take an entrance exam. But in the format of the English paper, there are only grammar, vocabulary, and reading parts and there is no listening part. Besides, MOET has not integrated this skill in the periodical exam for secondary schools. Hence, the students only learn what are involved in the English papers and listening skill is completely neglected. A lot of the students have command of grammar, reading skill, vocabulary but their listening level is not high. To improve their listening abilities, they need to practice more with a supplementary logical 2 and systematic syllabus. For these reasons, I decided to design a listening syllabus for grade 10 English gifted students at TNSUSS. 2. Aims of the study The aims of the study are: - to investigate learning situation and students’ needs - to identify students’ listening proficiency level - to find out teaching situation and teachers’ needs - to propose an appropriate listening syllabus for grade 10 English gifted students. 3. Research questions of the study 1- What are learning situation and students’ needs? 2- What is students’ proficiency listening level? 3- What are the teaching situation and the teachers’ needs? 4- How to design the listening syllabus for the grade 10 English gifted students at TNSUSS? 4. Significance of the study The study is carried out in response to the urgent demand of TNSUSS, gifted students in grade 10 and teachers in teaching and studying listening and improves students’ listening skill. Moreover, the ultimate outcome of the study will be an appropriate syllabus for gifted students in grade 10. The proposed syllabus is to give substantial assistance to designing supplementary syllabi for grade 11 and 12 English gifted students, especially for gifted students of national team. 5. Methods of the study To find the answers for the research questions above, the researcher used both quantitative research method and qualitative method. Data were collected through three data collection instruments. A survey questionnaire was distributed to 37 grade 10 English gifted students to find out learning situation and students’ need. Besides, a listening test was designed to evaluate students’ listening proficiency level. And an informal interview was conducted among 5 teachers of English specializing classes to investigate teaching situation and teachers’ needs. To analyze data, the researcher followed statistical procedure, from reporting, counting data to coding questionnaire data and data of listening test, classifying, and summarizing data. Besides, the recorded interviews and stimulated recalls were transcribed, analyzed and synthesized in order to provide a deeper insight into the matter of concern. 3 6. Scope of the study The focus of the study is on designing a listening syllabus for grade 10 English gifted students at TNSUSS. Since, to design a series of supplementary syllabi for English gifted students in grade 10, 11 and 12 would require a lot of time and effort from the designers. Therefore, the researcher concentrated on designing a listening syllabus for only gifted students in grade 10. 7. Design of the study The study was organized in three parts: Part I- Introduction- provided the rationale, aims, research questions, significance, methods and design of the study. Part II- Development- included three chapters: Chapter 1 presented an overview of related literature on syllabus design, need analysis and listening comprehension. Chapter 2 was concerned with finding and data analysis. From the results of the questionnaire, the learning situation, as well as, students’ needs was analyzed. The students’ listening proficiency level also is revealed in listening test. Besides, the teaching situation, teachers’ needs, together with strong points and drawbacks of currently used materials were also discussed based on the finding of the interview. Chapter 3 proposed a listening syllabus for grade 10 English gifted students. It also suggested some suggestions for the implementation of the syllabus including suggestions for assessment and teaching methods. Part III- Conclusion- summarized the study and made some suggestions for further research. 4 PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter aimed at revising: The first part presented the definitions of syllabus, types of syllabus and steps in designing a syllabus. The second part mentioned a need analysis as a point of departure for the process of syllabus design, components of need analysis: target needs and learning needs. In the third part, listening theories were reviewed. They included the definitions of listening comprehension, the strategies of listening comprehension, and listening processes. These discussions would lay the foundation for the design of the listening syllabus presented in the next chapter. 1.1. Syllabus design 1.1.1. Definition of syllabus The term “syllabus” is not new in language teaching, but it is rather difficult in defining what a syllabus is, according to Nunan (1988:5): “there is some different disagreement about the nature of “the syllabus”. And he points out the roof of the problem is that the syllabus design is defined based on two views: the broad and the narrow approach. Some language specialists, who back up the narrow view, such as Widdowson (1984 cited in Nunan 1988:5), and Nunan (1988:5) indicate that syllabus and methodology should be kept separate. In narrow view, Nunan (1988: 5) states “ syllabus design is seen as being concerned essentially with the selection and grading content, while methodology is concerned with the selection of learning tasks and activities”. Allen (1984: 61 cited in Nunan 1988:5) advocates by defining: “Syllabus is concerned with a specification of what units will be taught as distinct from how they will be taught, which a matter for methodology is”. According to Widdowson (1984: 26 cited in Nunan 1988:5): “the syllabus is simply a framework within which activities can be carried out: a teaching device to facilitate learning”. Hutchinson & Waters (1987:80) point out: “A syllabus is a document which says what will (or at least what should) be learnt”. In contrast to the narrow view, some other scholars adopt a “broader view”, which argues that with the advent of communicative language teaching, the distinction between content and task is difficult to sustain. One of the authors who advocate broad view, Dave (1990:1) defines: “The syllabus specifies what is to be learned and the methodology tells us how to be learned”. He also states that “there need be no conflict between the two. We can specify a syllabus in whatever way seems sensible; and can then use whatever methodology we 5 want in order to transmit our syllabus content”. More specifically, Yalden (1984:14, cited in Nunan, 1988:5) states: “The syllabus replaces the concept of method, and syllabus is now seen as an instrument by which the teacher, with the help of the syllabus designer, can achieve a degree of fit between the needs and aims of the learner (as social being and as individual and the activities which will take place in the classroom)”. Obviously, Dave and Yalden support the view that the selection and gradation of content are combined with the methodology in so-called ‘syllabus”. To sum up, there have been a number of definitions of “syllabus” from the narrow to broad approach. The issue is that in designing a syllabus for a certain group of learners, the designer must decide which view to follow. The researcher of this thesis backed up the broad view that the selection of content, the selection of learning tasks and activities were combined with methodology in the syllabus. Thus, the teacher, with the help of the designer, could easily use the syllabus to obtain the fit between the needs and the aims of the students. Besides the definition of syllabus, to be aware of syllabus types is also necessary for any syllabus designer. It has a contribution to make the design of a fully realized, integrated syllabus and the discussion on the syllabus types is being presented in the next part. 1.1.2. Types of syllabus This section presents several different kinds of syllabus, along with their advantages and disadvantages. It will then be the foundation for the researcher of this study comes to a decision of which syllabus to choose. According to Dubin & Olshtain (1986:37), syllabi can be classified into some major types such as the structural-grammatical syllabus, the semantic-notional syllabus, the functional syllabus, and the situational syllabus. Ur (1996: 177-178) divides syllabuses into smaller types: grammatical, lexical, grammatical-lexical, situational, topic-based, notional, functional, notional, and mixed or ‘multi-strand’ procedural and process syllabus. It is clear that in Ur’s view about types of syllabus, there are some differences from Dubin’s. As for Ur, mixed or ‘multi-strand’ syllabus is the one that is combining different aspects in order to be maximally comprehensive and helpful to teachers and learners. [...]... are two progress tests and a final test to assess students progress and achievement 3.2.2 Goals and objectives of the syllabus 3.2.2.1 Goals of the syllabus The goals of the syllabus are set up basing on the target and learning needs as well as the demand of the national exam for gifted students Thus, the syllabus is designed a) To provide preparation and practice for a range of exam tasks in a varied,... to make an appropriate supplementary listening syllabus for grade 10 English gifted students at TNSUSS Details of the syllabus would be described later in chapter 3 26 CHAPTER 3: A PROPOSED SYLLABUS 3.1 Introduction Based on the theoretical background in chapter 1, the findings about target and learning needs, the requirements of listening test in national examination for gifted students in chapter... listening test at pre-intermediate level was to identify the students' listening proficiency level The researcher used listening test to gather wealth information about specific problems that the students may be having with the language That was the foundation for the researcher to ascertain what further teaching is necessary (See appendix 2) 2.2.2 Participants 37 grade 10 English gifted students at TNSUSS... 1.2.2 Reasons for choosing need analysis The researcher thought that need analyzing was an essential stage in designing a syllabus Because if I knew well what my students need, lack and want I would design an appropriate syllabus which can meet the demand of the students The significance of need analysis is stated by Richterich (1987:5) as: “Bearing in mind a wide range of needs, a needs analysis is... needs analysis as a family of producers for gathering information about learners” Munby (1978:58) also states that “need analysis is concerned to find out the learners’ needs in the use of target language (i.e who is communicating with whom, why, how, where, when, at what level, about what, and in what way)” The researcher of the study advocated the view of Munby, as it was more clear and detailed... Currently used materials In this section, an analysis of testing format of national tests and the text book “Tieng Anh 10 nang cao” were taken in order to know the target and learning needs 2.3.3.3.1 Testing format and results of the national tests The English tests for national gifted students always involve with the following parts: listening, lexical and grammar, use of English, reading, and writing The... questionnaire was designed to gather information from students 13 questions in the questionnaire focused on finding out the learning situation, students needs, especially their wants and lacks so that the syllabus can be made appropriate and useful to the students (See appendix 1) 2.1.2 Participants 37 grade 10 English gifted students at TNSUSS were involved in the questionnaire 2.1.3 Findings and data analysis... researcher found that the small number of the students in each class created the advantageous condition for group or pair work, and many other activities in teaching foreign language in general, and in teaching English in particular Besides, the students at TNSUSS were very studious, hard working and always eager for learning, which makes the atmosphere in class warm, and the teachers feel encouraged... this chapter: In the first part, the researcher adapted the mixture of three types of syllabus: contentbased syllabus, skills-based syllabus and tasked- based syllabus to the syllabus because of its suitability and its advantages In the second part, the need analysis approach the researcher chose was one that combined both the learning needs and target needs Hence, the syllabus would satisfy the demands... medals from national examination for school Moreover, lacking syllabi for gifted students also made training gifted students difficult In normal classes there were four periods each week, and they used the text book “Tieng Anh nang cao” But in English specialized classes, there were nine periods for gifted students each week Therefore, the teachers could not only use “Tieng Anh nang cao” for our students; . GRADE 10 ENGLISH GIFTED STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN SPECIALIZING UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH NGHE CHO HỌC SINH CHUYÊN ANH 10 TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN THÁI NGUYÊN M .A. MINOR. situation and teachers’ needs - to propose an appropriate listening syllabus for grade 10 English gifted students. 3. Research questions of the study 1- What are learning situation and students . ultimate outcome of the study will be an appropriate syllabus for gifted students in grade 10. The proposed syllabus is to give substantial assistance to designing supplementary syllabi for grade