VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ************** VŨ THỊ THANH HƯƠNG A STUDY ON THE PROBLEMS IN TEACHING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS TO THE 10TH FORM STUDENTS AT PHU LY B HIGH SCHOOL, HA NAM AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS (Tìm hiểu khó khăn giáo viên việc dạy kĩ nghe hiểu cho học sinh lớp 10 Trường THPT B Phủ Lý, Hà Nam số giải pháp khắc phục) MINOR PROGRAM THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 Hanoi – 2012 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ************** VŨ THỊ THANH HƯƠNG A STUDY ON THE PROBLEMS IN TEACHING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS TO THE 10TH FORM STUDENTS AT PHU LY B HIGH SCHOOL, HA NAM AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS (Tìm hiểu khó khăn giáo viên việc dạy kĩ nghe hiểu cho học sinh lớp 10 Trường THPT B Phủ Lý, Hà Nam số giải pháp khắc phục) MINOR PROGRAM THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR: KIM VĂN TẤT, M.A Hanoi - 2012 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of abbreviations viii List of tables and charts viii PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Aims and objectives of the study Scope of the study Methods of the study Significance of the study Design of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definitions of listening 1.2 Common methods of teaching ELS 1.3 Stages of a listening lesson 1.3.1 Pre-listening stage 1.3.2 While-listening stage 1.3.3 Post-listening stage v 1.4 Strategies of listening comprehension 10 1.5 Problems with listening activities 11 1.5.1 Situational problems 11 1.5.2 Problems from the listening materials 12 1.5.2.1 Unfamiliar topics 12 1.5.2.2 Different accents 12 1.5.2.3 Speed of speech 12 1.5.2.4 Strange sounds 13 1.5.3 Problems from student factors………………………………………… 13 1.5.3.1 Students’ low motivation 13 1.5.3.2 Students’ low level of proficiency 14 1.5.3.3 Students’ anxiety 14 1.5.3.4 Students’ limited vocabulary and structures 14 1.5.3.5 Students’ lack of background knowledge 15 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 16 2.1 Introduction of language teaching and learning conditions in PB school 16 2.1.1 Students 16 2.1.2 Teachers 16 2.1.3 Teaching and learning conditions 16 2.1.3.1 Teaching aids 16 2.1.3.2 Teaching hours 17 2.1.3.3 Class size 17 2.2 The new “Tieng Anh 10” textbook 17 vi 2.2.1 Form 10 listening objectives 17 2.2.2 Listening lessons 18 2.3 Research questions 18 2.4 Data collection instruments 18 2.4.1 Instrument one: Questionnaires 19 2.4.2 Instrument two: Interviews 19 2.5 Summary 19 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 20 3.1 Questionnaires 20 3.1.1 Questionnaires for students 20 3.1.2 Questionnaires for teachers 25 3.2 Results of the interviews 30 3.3 Summary 31 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND SUGGESTED SOLUSIONS 32 4.1 Findings 32 4.1.1 Teachers’ attitudes towards teaching ELS 32 4.1.2 Students’ attitudes towards learning ELS 32 4.1.3 Students’ difficulties in learning ELS 32 4.1.4 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching ELS to grade 10 students 33 4.2 Suggested solutions 33 4.2.1 Doing pre-listening activities effectively 34 4.2.2 Encouraging students to practice ELS outside the class 35 4.2.3 Giving support and encouragement 36 vii 4.2.4 Upgrading teaching aids 36 4.2.5 Adapting and re-designing the tasks 37 4.2.6 Equipping students with listening strategies 38 4.3 Summary 39 PART III: CONCLUSIONS 40 Summary of the study 40 Limitations of the study 40 Recommendations for further study 40 REFERENCES 42 APPENDICES I Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students I Appendix 2: Questionnaire for teachers III Appendix 3: Interview questions for teachers V Appendix 4: Four teachers’ answering interview questions VI Appendix 5: Topics of the listening texts in English textbook 10 VIII Appendix 6: Contents of some listening lessons .IX viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS PB school Phuly B high school ELS English Listening Skills LIST OF TABLES Tables Titles Pages Table Students’ attitudes towards the importance of listening skills 20 Table Teachers’ techniques of encouraging students 23 Table Factors affecting students in learning ELS 24 Table Students’ suggested techniques to better teaching ELS 25 Table Teachers’ assessment of listening tasks in “Tieng Anh 10” textbook 25 Table Teachers’ opinion of students’ attitudes towards listening lessons 26 Table Difficulties encountered by the teachers 27 Table The frequency of teachers’ using techniques in a listening lesson 28 Table Teachers’ suggested solutions to improve listening teaching 29 LIST OF CHARTS Charts Titles Pages Chart Students’ assessment of tasks in the “Tieng Anh 10” textbook 21 Chart Students’ attitudes towards the time for learning ELS 22 Chart Students' frequency of listening to English outside the class 22 PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study In Vietnam, in the recent years, the teaching and learning of English have been gaining significance firstly because it is an international language; secondly it is also seen as a means to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between Viet Nam and other countries There have been an increasing number of people desiring to know English with the hope of keeping up with the latest modern technology in the world English has now been taught not only at all universities and colleges, but also at almost every senior high school and it is considered as a compulsory subject at secondary schools At PB school, where the author studies, English is a compulsory subject in the curriculum and it is considered as a major subject for the high school examination It is taught with the purpose that students have some basic knowledge of English in order to communicate and to use it as a key to science and technology However, there still exist many difficulties facing English language teachers at PB school, especially in teaching listening skills to students The teachers of English at PB school find it difficult to teach listening lessons successfully Listening has long been considered a difficult and boring subject by many second language learners It takes much time and energy to make progress in this skill For listening teachers, it is a difficult task to get students involved in listening lessons At my school, teaching listening is really a problem In addition to the lack of well-equipped facilities, teaching listening methods are not satisfactory Another problem is students’ low level of proficiency in terms of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, skills and so forth It is the reason why students find it difficult and tough to listen to and they are not confident enough to listening tasks successfully Moreover, learning habits not help much to improve their listening in classroom All of the above reasons have inspired the author to the research “A Study on the Problems in Teaching English Listening Skills to the 10th form Students at Phu Ly B High School and some Suggested Solutions” with the hope to make a small contribution to the quality of teaching and learning listening skills at PB school 2 Aims and objectives of the study Within the framework of a minor thesis, the study is aimed at: - Clarifying the practices of teaching and learning ELS in 10th form in PB school - Finding out the difficulties teachers and students in 10th form in PB school have had to undergo - Suggesting some feasible solutions to the teaching of ELS for 10th form students It may appear contradictory that in the first two concentrations, the study attempts to investigate both teaching and learning of ELS whereas the main topic raised in the title of the study is only about the teaching However, according to Brown (2007), it is not a contradiction “if we look at the teaching process as the facilitation of learning.” Scope of the study Learning a second language as a scholar once said “is a long and complex undertaking” Therefore, teachers of a second language certainly have many problems during their teaching In the scope of this research, however, the researcher only has ambition to investigate the difficulties that teachers in PB school have been facing when teaching listening skill for 10th graders Hopefully, they will have more smooth and successful listening lessons Also, it is not expected that the study can bring solutions to the ELS teaching for students of all levels Methods of the study The study is designed to use both qualitative and quantitative methods Besides, many resources such as books, magazines, articles, newspapers and some sources on the Internet have been read by the researcher In order to gain the most reliable results, the quantitative data will be collected through two survey questionnaires One survey questionnaire is for 180 students from four different groups in grade 10 in PB school and the other survey is for teachers The data, then, will be processed and analyzed to yield conclusions for the study Along with the quantitative method, the qualitative data has been obtained by informal interviews with some teachers to collect further information about the real situations of teaching and learning ESL in grade 10 at PB school Significance of the study This research provides an insight into the problems that are often met by teachers teaching English for 10th form students in PB school In addition, this research also points out some feasible solutions which are beneficial for both teachers and students Hopefully, the findings and recommendations of this study will be of some help to the improvement of the teaching and learning ELS of Vietnamese students in general and of PB school students in particular The study also gives some guidelines for teachers to help their students overcome their listening comprehension problems The results of this study may also be useful for those who are interested in this field Design of the study The study is divided into three parts: the Introduction, the Development and the Conclusion Part I: INTRODUCTION- deals with the rationales, aims, methods, scope, significance and design of the study Part II: DEVELOPMENT – consists of three chapters Chapter 1: Literature review – provides some theoretical background about listening comprehension, teaching listening skill and problems with listening activities Chapter 2: Methodology – presents the current situation of teaching and learning listening at PB school This chapter also deals with the introduction of the research methods which cover research questions, the participants and data collection instruments 43 11 O’Malley, J.M, Chamot, A.U & Kupper, L (1989), Listening Comprehension Strategies in Second Language Acquisition, Applied Linguistics 10(4),418-437 12 Rixon, S (1986), Developing Listening Skills, Macmillan Publisher Ltd, London 13 Underwood, M (1989), Teaching Listening - Longman handbooks for language teachers, Longman, London 14 Ur, P (1984), Teaching Listening Comprehension, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 15 Ur, P (1991), A Course in Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 16 Vandergrift (1997a) Listening: Theory and Practice in Modern Foreign Language Competence, http://www.lang.ltsn.ac.uk/resources/ref6#ref6 17 White, G (1998), Listening, Oxford University Press, Oxford 18 http:// www.mtv.com/ 19 http:// www.songsforteaching.com/ 20 http:// www.music.yahoo.com/ I APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS (Vietnamese version) Mục đích câu hỏi điều tra thiết kế nhằm tìm hiểu khó khăn việc học kĩ nghe học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT B Phủ Lý Câu trả lời em đóng góp to lớn nghiên cứu Xin chân thành cảm ơn hợp tác em! Hãy điền thêm thơng tin khoanh trịn trước lựa chọn I Thơng tin cá nhân Giới tính: ………… (Nam/Nữ) Lớp: 10……… Em học tiếng Anh năm? II Việc học kĩ nghe tiếng Anh Học kĩ nghe hiểu tiếng Anh có quan trọng với em khơng? A Rất quan trọng B Quan trọng C Hơi quan trọng D Không quan trọng Em đánh tập nghe sách giáo khoa tiếng Anh 10? A Rất khó B Khó C Bình thường D Dễ Em có đồng ý 45 phút đủ để học kĩ nghe hiểu tiếng Anh không? A Đủ B Thừa C Thiếu Ngồi học tiếng Anh lớp em có thường luyện nghe thêm kĩ không? A Luôn B Thường xuyên C Thỉnh thoảng D Không Thầy (cơ) giáo em làm để khuyến khích em nghe? A Khen gợi B Cho điểm cao C Tặng quà Theo em học kĩ nghe tiếng Anh lại khó? A Giáo viên chưa có phương pháp dạy phù hợp với học sinh B Các chủ điểm nghe hoạt động nghe nhàm chán C Học sinh thiếu động học tập D Khả tiếng Anh học sinh thấp E Học sinh thiếu kiến thức liên quan đến nội dung nghe D Khơng làm II F Lớp học q đơng G Tốc độ người nói nhanh H Thời gian nghe hạn chế 10 Theo em, thầy giáo nên làm để tiết học nghe hay hiệu hơn? A Dành nhiều thời gian soạn dạy nghe cẩn thận B Giúp học sinh cải thiện kiến thức ngôn ngữ xã hội C Hướng dẫn học sinh cách nghe nhà D Hướng dẫn học sinh cách làm nghe hiệu E Trao đổi kinh nghiệm phương pháp dạy nghe với F Có nhiều cách khuyến khích học sinh nghe (như khen thưởng, cho điểm cao) G Cho học sinh nghe nhiều hát tiếng Anh CẢM ƠN SỰ HỢP TÁC CỦA CÁC EM RẤT NHIỀU! III APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS (English version) The purpose of the research is to clarify difficulties that teachers and students of 10th form at Phu Ly B High School have in teaching and learning listening skill Please complete the questions below PERSONAL INFORMATION - Your gender: Male □ Female □ - Your age: ……… - Years of teaching: ………………………………………… * Please circle the appropriate choice(s) in answering each of the following questions What you think about listening tasks in “Tieng Anh 10” textbook? A very interesting B interesting C appropriate D boring What is your students’ attitude towards listening comprehension skills? A Very interested B Interested C Not very interested D Totally ignorant What are your difficulties when teaching English listening skills? (Rank them in order of the most difficult one: 1- 6) A Students’ low motivation B Students’ low background knowledge relating listening topics C Students’ low level of English proficiency D Large class problems (noise, mixed ability, class management) E Lack of necessary facilities (cassette tapes, VCD, CD, projector) F Time limitation Please put a tick () in the techniques you in your listening lessons IV Activities Very often Often Sometimes Never - use pair or group work - use English games and songs - use different pre-listening activities to warm up - encourage students to listen in English outside the classroom - equip students with necessary strategies in listening comprehension - re-design listening tasks to be more suitable to students’ listening levels and interests What should teachers to overcome the difficulties? (Please circle your choice(s)) A help students improve their knowledge of the language and knowledge of the world B spend more time preparing the listening lessons more carefully C encourage student to listen to English outside the classroom D ask for improvement of the teaching and learning conditions E equip students more listening strategies F exchange experiences in teaching among the English staffs G encourage students to listen by giving evaluation (comments, feedback and marks) THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR COOPERATION! V APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS (English version) Do you like teaching listening skill? Why (not)? - Do you have enough time to teach “After you listen” in the textbook? - If not, you assign this part to your students to at home? Do you guide students to listen to English outside the classroom? Why (not)? Do you re-design the tasks in “While you listen”? Why few students pay attention to learning listening skills? What is the best way to encourage students to listen to English? Do you conduct tests on listening? Why (not)? VI APPENDIX 4: FOUR TEACHERS’ ANSWERING INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Questions Mrs Hien Mrs Huong Mrs Thu Mrs Uyen Do you like teaching listening skill? Why (not)? + No + No + No + No + Reasons: Ss’ low + Reason: Ss + Reason: There + Reason: There level and bad are not eager to are not listening are not listening listening ability listen and they skills in the skills in the final catch nothing final exam exam from the tape - Do you have enough time to teach “After you listen” in the textbook? - If not, you assign this part to your students at home? Yes No No No No Yes Yes Yes Do you guide students to listen to English outside the classroom? Why (not)? + Ss’ low motivation + Ss’ limited + Most Ss + Limited time listening ability not like English, + Lack of + Limited especially ELS listening sources vocabulary + No excitement Do you re-design the tasks in “While you listen”? Yes Yes Yes (Change (Sometimes “Answering because of questions” into limited time) True/False) Why few students pay attention to learning ELS? Yes VII + Limited + Limited + Limited + They are bored vocabulary vocabulary vocabulary because they catch + Limited + Don’t be nothing from the listening ability familiar with tape + Lack of native speaker’s + Don’t have background accent interesting knowledge + Lack of listening lessons background knowledge What is the best way to encourage students to listen to English? + Set the aims of the + Re-design the + Give many lesson suitable to Ss’ prepared lesson tasks to interest comments and level plan students high marks to Ss + Re-design the + Re-design tasks + Have well- difficult parts Do you conduct tests on listening? Why (not)? + No + No + No + No + Reason: It is + Reason: It is + Reasons: It is + Reasons: difficult to carry out too difficult for too difficult for Teachers lack of the test students to students and time to prepare there is no listening tests and listening test in find the sources the final exam VIII APPENDIX 5: TOPICS OF THE LISTENING TEXTS IN ENGLISH BOOK 10 Units Topics A day in the life of A cyclo driver talks about his morning activities School talks Four conversations about school talks People’s background A conversation about Sally, an Olympic Champion Special education The story about the Vang Trang Khuyet Photography Club Technology and you An old company director talks about his experience of learning how to use a computer An excursion A talk about the weekend picnic The mass media Two radio news stories: - Heavy rain causes floods all over the country - 90-year-old American woman climbs Mount Whitney The story of my A talk about the changes in his hometown village Undersea world A talk about whales 10 Conservation A talk about what may cause a forest fire 11 National parks A talk about Cuc Phuong National Park 12 Music A conversation about the musician, Van Cao 13 Films and cinema A conversation between Lan and Huong about their next week’s plans 14 The world cup A talk about Pele’, a famous football player 15 Cities A talk about the Statue of Liberty 16 Historical places A talk about the ancient town of Hoi An IX APPENDIX 6: CONTENTS OF SOME LISTENING LESSONS UNIT 7: THE MASS MEDIA Before you listen Work in pairs Ask and answer the questions How often you listen to the radio? How many hours per week you listen to it? What program you like listening to and why? While you listen Task 1: Listen to the two radio news stories and tick the words you hear in the right column under News story and News story News story News story healthy strong young cloudy highest wonderful Task 2: Listen to the two radio news stories again and fill in the missing word(s) Heavy rain causes floods all over the country Heavy rain during the night (1) _ all over the country today Many people (2) _ because rivers (3) _ Some roads in the north-west are under (4) _ of water The rain (5) _ at the moment, but it’s still (6) _ and there’s a (7) _ Because of the bad weather, people can’t go out to work 90-year-old American woman climbs Mount Whitney A ninety-year-old woman has climbed Mount Whitney in California for the (1) _ time At (2) _ meters, Mount Whitney is the highest mountain in (3) _ The woman says the view from the top is (4) _ , so she tries to climb it often She also says that the mountain has kept her (5) _ In spite of her old age, the woman tries to climb the mountain very often Task Listen again and answer the following questions X What has happened during the night? Why have people left their home? How many times has the old woman climbed Mount Whitney? Why does she climb it so often? After you listen Work in groups Choose one of the news stories and tell your classmates about it UNIT 9: UNDERSEA WORLD Before you listen  Work in pairs Discuss the following questions Do you think whales are fish? Why (not)? Why people keep hunting whales?  Listen and repeat: mammal blue whale Atlantic Pacific krill whaling migrate conservation While you listen Task Listen to some information about whales and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F) T The whale is the third largest animal that has ever lived on Earth Whales are said to be the most intelligent animals in the ocean Some whales are known to move into warm waters to give birth Whales are in danger because of increase in population of other sea animals Some people are still killing whales for food Task Listen again and then answer the following questions What is the length and weight of the blue whale? Why whales like to feed in the cold ocean? What are the good feeding grounds for whales? What is the main reason for the decrease in whale populations? F XI What have conservation group asked the International Whaling Commission to do? What would happen if we didn’t take any measures to protect whales? After you listen Work in groups Talk about whales, using the following cues  Their length and weight  Their feeding grounds and food  their reasons for protecting whales UNIT 11: NATIONAL PARKS Before you listen  Work in groups Ask and answer the following questions Where is Cuc Phuong National Park? What is the area of the rain forest in Cuc Phuong National Park? When is the best time to visit Cuc Phuong National Park? What can be seen in Cuc Phuong National Park?  Listen and repeat threatened and endangered species flora attack ethnic minority fauna anemy While you listen Task Listen and fill in the missing information Cuc Phuong National Park was officially opened in _ Cuc Phuong is located _ Hanoi In 2002, nearly _ visited Cuc Phuong There are _ different species of flora and _ species of fauna Nguyen Hue’s army was stationed in Quen Voi before it made its on Thang Long Task 2: Listen again and then answer the following questions How many provinces does Cuc Phuong National Park belong to? How far is it from Hanoi to Cuc Phuong? What many people come to Cuc Phuong for? XII When did Nguyen Hue defeat the Quing invaders? What the Muong ethnic minority in Cuc Phuong live mainly on? After you listen Work in groups Talk about the special features of Cuc Phuong National Park UNIT 13: FILMS AND CINEMA Before you listen How often you each of the following? Put a tick in the right column Then compare your answer with the partner’s often sometimes never go to the cinema watch TV listen to the radio go dancing chat on the net listen to music  Listen and repeat Titanic cinema instead suppose guess picnic While you listen Task Listen to the dialogue What are Lan and Huong planning to together? Task Listen again Write their plans for the next week on the calendar Lan Huong Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun work and go to the singing club XIII Task Compare your answer with a partner’s On what day can they meet? UNIT 16 HISTORICAL PLACES Before you listen  Work in pairs Look at the pictures, then answer the following questions What are the names of the places? Which of the places have you been to? Which one would you like to visit most? Why?  Listen and repeat merchant pillar carved destination vessel ornamental heritage certified While you listen Task Listen and choose A, B or C that best completes the sentence Hoi An is located _ kilometres south of Da Nang A 13 B 30 C 16 Hoi An used to be an important trading centre _ A in Southeast Asia B in the 19th century C in the Far East Hoi An is well-known for its old houses which are _ A small and thatch-roofed B narrow and carved C small and tile-roofed The Japanese Covered Bridge was built _ A in 1855 B in the 18th century C in the 16th century Tan Ky House was built as a _ XIV A house for a Chinese merchant B meeting hall for the Cantonese Chinese C house for a Vietnamese merchant Task Listen again and then answer the following questions Where is the ancient town of Hoi An situated? What was Hoi An known as between the 16th and 17th century? What is it now famous for? What are the old house in Hoi An like? How old is the Assembly Hall of Cantonese Chinese Congregation? When was Tan Ky House built? What is special about this house? When was Hoi An recognized by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage Site? After you listen Work in groups Talk about the ancient town of Hoi An, using the following cues  its location and roles in the past  its attractive characteristics at present  its main tourist attractions and their features ... Data collection instruments In order to obtain in- depth, rich data and information for investigating the situation and the problems that teachers and students encountered in teaching and learning... teachers focus mostly on teaching vocabulary, grammar and reading skills rather than on other skills such as speaking, listening and writing Also, the main purpose of teaching and learning English. .. students will concentrate on listening what they should listen to without paying attention to other information And then they can the task easily We can say that what teachers are not only making