Graduation paper HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH -CODE: 17 GRADUATION THESIS B.A DEGREE IN ENGLISH STUDIES METHODS TO LEARN LISTENING SKILLS FOR FRESHMEN AT ENGLISH FACULTY, HOU Supervisor: Ngo Thi Thanh Thao, MA Student: Le Phuong Anh Date of birth: 26/11/1993 Courses: K19A2 (2012-2016) Ha Noi – 2016 Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper DECLARATION Title: Methods to learn Listening skills for freshmen at the English Faculty, HOU I certify that no part of the above report has been copied or reproduced by me from any other person’s work without acknowledgement and that the report is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor Hanoi, April 15 2016 Student Supervisor Le Phuong Anh Ngo Thi Thanh Thao Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper CONTENT 1.5 Relations between listening skills and other skills 16 1.6 Summary 17 CHAPTER II: THE STUDY 18 2.1 Research questions 18 2.2 The subject of the study 18 2.3 The method of the study 18 2.4 Freshmen’s current situation of learning listening skills 19 2.5 Summary 30 CHAPTER III 32 SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE LISTENING SKILLS FOR THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF ENGISH, HOU 32 3.1 Solving problem about lacking vocabulary 32 3.1.1 Active and Passive listening 32 3.1.1.1 Gaining new words by listening podcasts and transcribing 34 3.1.1.2 Gaining new words by listening to music 35 3.1.1.3 Gaining new words by learning Slang and Colloquial English 36 Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper 3.2 Solving problem about grammar structure 37 3.2.1 Solving problem about grammar structure by listening for stresses 37 3.3 Solving problem about distraction 38 3.4 Solving problem about different accent of speakers 38 3.4.1 Improving listening speed by practicing with real Native English speakers 39 3.5 Solving problem about listening speed 39 3.5.1 Improving listening speed by watching movie or TV series 40 3.6 Solving problem about pronunciation 41 3.6.1 Improving pronunciation by listening to their own speaking 41 3.7 Solving problem about lacking social background knowledge 41 3.8 Summary 42 PART C: CONCLUSION 43 REFERENCE 44 APPENDIX 46 QUESTIONNAIRE 46 Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I have received great assistances from many people in the preparation of this paper Without their assistance and support, this paper might not have been finished First of all, I would like hereby to extend my profound gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs Ngo Thi Thanh Thao from who I have received enormous kindness and guidance Also, I am deeply indebted to all the teachers at the English Faculty, Hanoi Open University for their interesting and useful lectures which have built in me a firm foundation with immense ideas for the fulfillment of this paper In particular, my special thanks to my dear friends for their support, advice and providing me with comments and materials Last, but not least, I owe my deepest gratitude and thanks family for all my family for their love, great encouragement and support to me to fulfill this paper Hanoi, April 2016 Le Phuong Anh Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale English is considered as the global language With more than 350 million people around the world speaking English as a first language and more than 430 million speaking it as a second language, there are English speakers in most countries around the world Because English is so widely spoken, it has often referred to as a “world language” Besides books, magazine, and newspapers as well as many websites, etc are designed in English language Mastering English at this time will bring to people a lot of advantages (in study, job promotion, etc…) These facts have showed the importance and reason why more and more people learn this language as a second language There are four skills need to be mastered These skills are closely related to each other However, just one or two of the four skills tend to be focused on (often writing and reading), and sometimes the others are not received much attention including Listening skills Ralph Nichols says: “The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood The best way to understand people is to listen to them”, Students need to understand spoken English used in lectures, talk and presentation, etc , which they have to encounter regularly It is also necessary in the language classroom because the lesson’s input is provided to the learner through listening Listening also takes up as much as fifty percent of our every communication time and is the most used language skill at work and at home (Goh, 2002) Moreover, listening is a key to career success In any job recruitments or interviews, English always comes first as the foremost criterion of selecting candidates, and in most job performance reviews or appraisals, English Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper competence is considered one of the most important factors for promotion Although knowing the importance of Listening comprehension in study as well as using it for their later promotion, many students still not pay much attention to Listening skill, and it is no doubt that still many of them have bad results and learn it without effectiveness For this reason, through what has been learnt so far, and the experience gained while studying in HOU, I would like to present my experience of learning English listening skills for freshmen and help them improve listening comprehension skills Therefore, I decided to choose the topic: “Methods to learn Listening skills for freshmen at the English Faculty, HOU” as the subject for my graduation paper Aims and purposes of the study This study aims at finding problems and understanding the current situation of teaching and learning skills of first year students at HOU as well as recommending some suggestions to improve their listening Scope of the study Due to the limited time and knowledge, the study only focuses on issues involved in first year students at Faculty of English, HOU and publicizes some useful methods to improve listening skills Research questions What are the methods to listen English well? Methods of the study A survey is carried out to discover the current situation of teaching and learning listening skills of first year students at Faculty of English so as to introduce some helpful solutions to them overcome this subject Besides, the Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper author refers to many materials related to listening as well as many famous writers’ views on this subject in order to make this study more persuasive and more reasonable Design of the report Part A: Introduction includes its reasons for choosing, aims, scope, methods and design of the study Part B: Development is the most important part of the paper It contains three chapters Chapter I: Theoretical Background introduces theories related to listening Chapter II: Findings is the main part of the study, which discloses the current situation of teaching and learning listening skills for the first year students at FOE and identifies their problems in listening Chapter III: Some methods developing listening skills for the first year students at Faculty of English, HOU: give out some suggestions and solutions to deal with difficulties of students in listening English Part C: Conclusion is the concluding part where the writer gives the conclusions and sum up all the main ideas of the graduation paper Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORITICAL BACKGROUND The first language mode that babies acquire is listening Listening is the foundation for all aspects of language and cognitive development and plays an incredibly important role in the process of learning and communication in life It’s not easy to grasp listening skills in studying English Also, to get excellent listening skills is too difficult This chapter will bring general knowledge and common concept of listening for learners 1.1 Definitions of listening Many academics have researched listening skills and presented a lot of definitions of listening Although how many definitions of listening there are, all of them still points out the same view about listening Listening is the act of hearing intently It is also a process similar to reading which should possess knowledge of phonology, syntax, semantics and text understanding According to Wikipedia, “listening is the conscious processing of the auditory stimuli that have been perceived through hearing.” International Listening Association defines listening as, Listening, the process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken and/ or nonverbal messages Thomlison (1984), “Active listening, which is very important for effective communication” Listening can be also defined as, “More than just hearing and to understand and interpret the meaning of a conversation” Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper Howatt and Dakin (1974), “listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying; this process involves understanding a speaker’s accent or pronunciation, the speaker’s grammar and vocabulary, and comprehension of meaning An able listener is capable of doing these four things simultaneously” Furthermore, Gordon (1985) argues that “empathy is essential to listening and contends that it is more than a polite attempt to identify a speaker’s perspectives Rather more importantly, empathetic understanding expands to egocentric pro-social behavior” Thus, the listener altruistically acknowledges concern for the speaker’s welfare and interests Ronal and Roskelly (1985) define listening as “an active process requiring the same skills of prediction, hypothesizing, checking, revising, and generalizing that writing and reading demand”, and these authors present specific exercises to make students active listeners who are aware of the “inner voice” one hears when writing Listening is usually defined as a receptive skill including both physical process and analytical, explanative process However, this definition is often expanded to comprise crucial listening skills (such as analysis and synthesis) and nonverbal listening (understanding the meaning of tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures, and other nonverbal cues) The expanded definition of listening also emphasizes the relationship between listening and speaking 1.2 Listening strategies Listening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension and recall of listening input Listening strategies can be classified by how the listener processes the input Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper - When possible, repeat some words and phrases after the speaker - If it's a podcast, pause and rewind often That will help students spot the words they haven't noticed before - If possible, find the transcript of the passage, and set aside time to read through it to make sure what you got right and what you'd missed Try retelling the passage If there’s no one to share the passage, students should record themselves or mentally recall the major points of the passage 3.1.1.1 Gaining new words by listening podcasts and transcribing Podcast is not only an interesting way to help students improve vocabulary but also give them updating information and inspiring ideas Almost podcasts are interviews or presentations This is solution to improve social background knowledge and listening speed But listen is not enough Students should take more steps so as to gain the effectiveness The following steps will help: - Choose short podcast and listen the whole - Guess the context and summarize - Listen again, take note important phrases or key words - Pause and rewind the podcast to catch words are not noticed before - Pause and rewind every sentence and write each down - Compare your writing with the origin, check the mistakes and collect new words or phrases then learn them 34 Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper • Suggestion: - BBC Podcasts is easy to use, and includes the world service, children’s shows, learning, drama, entertainment and much more - For more specific information, motivational speeches or talks on special topics, try listening to TED talks All TED talks come in the form of MP3 and are easy to download These talks include famous people such as Harry Potter author J.K Rowling, and also everyday people These talks are inspiring and often students’ll forget that they’re even listening to English because they’re so interesting 3.1.1.2 Gaining new words by listening to music When you listen to music, a part of your brain called the nucleus accumbens activates This triggers the release of the ‘pleasure chemical’ dopamine, that lives in a group of neurons in your brain called the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA): This pathway in the brain is called the Reward System and Dopamine is strongly associated with it Dopamine is the same chemical that gets released when you eat your favorite food or when you get a new follower on Twitter, causing you to want more, more, more This is why Dopamine is also responsible for the saying: ‘Two cheeseburgers equals one orgasm.’ The amount of dopamine that gets released and the feelings of pleasure we get from it are also largely dependent on the element of surprise 35 Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper For instance, when you stumble upon a new song that you love, more dopamine is released and you get even more excited than if you were to listen to one of your favorite songs that you’ve heard multiple times This is an inspiring way to make you more interested in listening And much like listen to podcast, you should write down the lyric However, listening music brings some side effects because grammar is not much considered in the lyric and somehow makes the listeners confused But it’s still an exciting way to learn new words 3.1.1.3 Gaining new words by learning Slang and Colloquial English Just like any language, native English speakers use the language very differently than the way students are taught in school This is nothing against English courses, many of which are doing a great job preparing students with a foundation for fluency The problem is that the colloquial/slang part of the language is nearly impossible to map, study, and teach using traditional methodology Beyond that, a lot of grammar purists and academic minded people don’t even recognize this as a relevant part of the language This is a big limitation for listening A simple example of this is how native speakers EVERYWHERE use: Going to (Future) = GONNA–> I’m gonna go to the movies tomorrow Want to= WANNA–>I wanna learn more English Got to (I’ve got to/I have to) = GOTTA–> I would love to stay, but I gotta go 36 Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper How can students deal with this difficulty? They can search regular slang/ collocation on the Internet and try to get familiar with them 3.2 Solving problem about grammar structure As being represented in Chapter II, syntax of spoken English is different, it’s ungrammatically formed and simplified So that, despite how well students’ grammar being taught, students still confuse about what they hear Solution to this problem is they should listen for stresses 3.2.1 Solving problem about grammar structure by listening for stresses It is essential for Vietnamese people to change their bad habit when listening to English Because as usual, the students try to hear all the words in this sentence but native speakers not They only listen to some key words which were stressed in this sentence And that is called listening for stress But what does listening for stress mean? We not know that there are important and unimportant words on this sentence Meanwhile, native speakers always take notice of sentences stresses when speaking and listening Therefore, sentence stress is a golden key for speaking and understanding English With sentence stress, some words in a sentence are stresses (loud) and other words are weak (quiet) Look at the following sentence: My name is John Do we say every word with the same stress or force? No we make the important words big and the unimportant words small What are the important words in this sentence? Yes, that’s right: NAME and JOHN And with third sentence, it just has two stresses:……’name…….’John When students listen 37 Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper to these two stresses, then grammar structure of the whole sentence will be formed in their mind 3.3 Solving problem about distraction Students can be easily distracted while listening This problem prevents them from getting good marks on exams To fix this problem, before listening, students should highlight or underline the key words in the excercises then concentrate on hearing around these words to catch information Otherwise, when communicating with native speakers, students should consider following steps to interact well: - Step 1: Face the speaker and maintain eye contact - Step 2: Be attentive, but relaxed - Step 3: Listen to the words and try to picture what the speaker is saying - Step 4: Ask questions to ensure understanding - Step 5: Try to feel what the speaker is feeling - Step 6: Give the speaker regular feedback 3.4 Solving problem about different accent of speakers Students’re usually familiar with accent of the standard English or affected by their teachers That’s why they find it hard to listen to “strange” English like Indian English or Malaysian English Luckily for them, in the era of exloding information and technology, students can easily find many different accent of speakers on Internet, especially in Youtube Otherwise, they can speak with foreigners to solve this problem 38 Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper 3.4.1 Improving listening speed by practicing with real Native English speakers Practicing with real native speakers (or teachers) is the best way to improve English listening skills Native English speakers have a specific rhythm and speed to speaking English, which is vastly different from the non natives speak Also, native English speakers pause, stress and break sentences differently from non native speakers The best way to get used to these little nuances is to practice having real conversations with a native English speakers a few times a week Students can approach foreigner by becoming voluntary guide or member at foreign organizations, working at restaurants where foreigners frequently come, make friend with native speaker through Facebook or Skype… This method will help students react quickly to situation and gradually improve both listening and speaking skills Otherwise, it also encourages students, makes them more confident about themselves 3.5 Solving problem about listening speed As mentioned in 3.1.1.1 Gain new words by listening podcasts and transcribing, listening to podcasts also help students to solve problem about listening speed First, they should find listening sources which are suitable with their current level to get familiar with Then, they can enhance listening speed by gradually difficult videos Otherwise, there’s another interesting way for students 39 Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper 3.5.1 Improving listening speed by watching movie or TV series Students are suggested that watching foreign films is an entertaining way to improve their listening speed Yes, it’s true But many students complain that they have watched thousand movies but still cannot improve it much The problem here is that students usually watch them with subtitles and this is the dead point Even if the subtitles are the origin language or target language, watching movies with subtitles doesn’t help The reason is that when you watch movie with subtitle, your brain will choose the easier way to process, which means your eyes will catch the subtitle to understand the movie, not your ears to hear the dialogues or narration So, to improve listening by watching movies, students should follow some tips below: - Choose suitable film with your current level - Watch movie without subtitle The brain will be forced to analyze information by what the ears hear - Try to repeat the dialogues and imitate the rhythms, intonation of characters This tip will help you get familiar with native voice And also, it will help improve your speaking skill - Take note what is considered important parts or interesting quote Then summarize the plot of movie and tell it your way - Read the subtitle to find new words or what you cannot hear clearly 40 Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper With these tips, the students can also widen their vocabulary, correct their pronunciation and also gain some knowledge about foreign culture and society • Suggestion: - TV soap: Friends, how I met you mother… 3.6 Solving problem about pronunciation In section 3.1, author has suggested some ways to improve pronunciation along with learning new words In this section, author will give another solution to help students 3.6.1 Improving pronunciation by listening to their own speaking As mentioned in Chapter I, there’s relation between listening skills and other language skills So it’s no doubt that when students fix their speaking they also fix their listening How does it work? Students should choose a short podcast to listen carefully, imitate for a while then record their own speaking This way can help them check their pronunciation and accent By listening to themselves, students can quickly find problems in how they speak If they continue to listen to themselves over time, they can also track how much they’re improving 3.7 Solving problem about lacking social background knowledge To solve this problem, students should spend more time to read English books and articles This way will help students understand more about target culture, current affairs, art, literature, politics, economics, customs, and geography A 41 Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper recent study indicates that associating newly heard information with prior knowledge is a powerful and very frequently used way to guess the meaning of a listening passage Moreover, several solutions for other problems above also give workarounds for students to overcome this obstacle 3.8 Summary Chaper III has suggested some solutions for the freshmen to solve seven problems about listening which have been found out in Chapter II Solutions for one problem can also solve others or improve other language skills according to the relation between listening skills and other language skills 42 Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper PART C: CONCLUSION Listening is primary process of communication that develops naturally, so we tend to take it for granted In fact, listening skills is not easy to master Therefore, the writer chooses this skill for the graduation paper When carrying out this thesis, the writer firstly wishes to give general literature about listening to students (in chapter 1) After researching the first year students’ situation of studying and developing listening skills as well as the difficulties during listening (on chapter 2),based on the survey’s analysis, the writer gives some strategies to help students overcome their difficulties and improve their listening comprehension (on chapter 3) Although many famous scholars study on listening, the writer hope that methods given will assist the first year students at Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University not only to overcome their obstacles in listening process but also gain the success in communication with the foreigners in real life Finally, the study is hoped useful and effective for whom later to research on this field and those who concern to I would like highly appreciate readers’ tolerance for the shortcoming and deficiencies of the work 43 Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper REFERENCE Books: Anderson, A and Lynch (1998) Listening OUP Brown, D H& Lundsteen, M (1979) The process of listening applied linguistic David, N (2007) Listen in Book 2, Second edition Fang, L (December 1999) An Approach to Improve the Teaching of Listening Fang, L (1999) Listening: Problems and Solution Hossein, B The Relationship between Listening and Other Language Skills in International English Language Testing System Mark, F and Daniel, H (1998) Distinction English Book for Advanced Learner Martin, R (1987) “Oral communication” Nichols, UR (1948) Factors in listening comprehension, Speech Monographs 10 Paul T , R (1928) The Importance of Listening 11 Paulson, C.B and Mary N , B.(1976) Teaching English as a Second Language: Techniques and Procedures, Boston: Little, Brown and Company 12 Richard, J (1981) Communicative Language teaching Cambridge University Press 13 Rost, M (1993) Listening in Language Learning Longman 14 Rost, S (1986) Listening in language learning London Longman 15 Sara W , L (1979) Listening: Its Impact at All Levels on Reading and Other Language Arts (Revised ed) 16 Wilson, A (2003) Listening skills Oxford University Press 44 Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper Websites: 17 http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/kline-listen/b10ch2.htm 18 http://www.bcq.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/52/2/45 19 http://www.neaseno.org/Hearing.htm 20 http://www.listening.org 21 http://www.ccsf.edu 22 http://www.phrasemix.com/blog/how-to-improve-your-english- listening-comprehension 23 http://www.fastcompany.com/3036026/how-to-be-a-success-at- everything/5-ways-to-improve-your-listening-skillss 24 http://www.artofmanliness.com/2012/05/08/listen-up-part-ii-15- techniques-to-improve-our-listening/ 25 http://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/listening-types.html 26 https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/five-essential- listening-skills-english-learners 27 http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/LISTENQA.html 28 http://www.eto-onlinenglish.com/2011/08/difference-between- active-and-passive.html 29 www.mesacc.edu 30 http://www.phrasemix.com/blog/41-unique-ways-to-practice- listening-to-english 31 http://www.ukstudentlife.com/English/Listening.htm 32 http://www.spokenenglishpractice.com/5-strategies-to-improve- english-listening-skills/#sthash.JDKYiC1G.dpuf 33 http://www.spokenenglishpractice.com/5-strategies-to-improve- english-listening-skills/ 45 Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE This questionnaire is designed to identify the current situation of learning English listening of the first year students at HOU, Faculty of English Your will answers be invaluable for the writer towards problems and suggestions developing listening skills Your assistance is highly appreciated You can be sure that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Please, answer the following questions and circle the answer you think is/are appreciate As for you, which factors affect you most in listening tasks? (choose more than one) A New words B Grammar Structures C Unconcentration D Different accent speaker E Listening speech F Pronunciation G Lack of social background knowledge What types of listening exercises you find interesting? (choose more than one) A True/ False B Gap filling C Summarizing D Answer comprehension questions E Dictation and repetition F Prediction 46 Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper Which skills you often use while listening in class? (choose more than one) A Skimming B Scanning C Summarizing D Inferencing E Predicting F Sound discrimination Which you prefer to work in class? A Individual B Pair-group C Group work D The whole class Do your teachers give some techniques/advices to improve your listening sub-skills? A Often B Sometimes C Rarely D Never Which materials you use for listening skills? A Textbook only B Textbooks and supplementary materials C Others 7.Do you usually practice listening skills at home? A Often B Sometimes C Rarely D Never Do you often listen to the news from the CNN, BBC, VOA at 47 Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation paper home? A Yes B No How you find listening skill? A Difficult B Very difficult C A little bit difficult D Not difficult How were your listening results from the first-term test to the second-term test? A Good B Average C Bad Thanks for your co-operation! SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name) 48 Lê Phương Anh – K19A3 – (2012 – 2016) ... listening comprehension skills Therefore, I decided to choose the topic: Methods to learn Listening skills for freshmen at the English Faculty, HOU as the subject for my graduation paper Aims and...Graduation paper DECLARATION Title: Methods to learn Listening skills for freshmen at the English Faculty, HOU I certify that no part of the above report has been... note-taking and listening Note taking is an important study skill helps students better Learners need it to call up important information, to review information, and to store that information so they