MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY o0o TRAN THI HOA Motivating Students' Interest in English Listening Lessons at Thai Hoa High School MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION Vinh, 2011 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY o0o TRAN THI HOA Motivating Students' Interest in English Listening Lessons at Thai Hoa High School Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 60.14.10 Master Thesis in Education Supervisor: Dr Ngo Huu Hoang Vinh, 2011 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that the thesis entitled: “Motivating students’ interest in English listening lessons at Thai Hoa High School” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching, Vinh University and that this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution in any other degree or qualification Signature Tran Thi Hoa ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I am deeply grateful to my supervisor, I would like to grateful and respectfully acknowledge my supervisor, Dr Ngo Huu Hoang for his support in doing this thesis Without his help, the thesis would have never finished Additionally, I wish to express my deep gratitude to the teachers in the Foreign Languages Department for advising me a lot of reference books related to my graduation thesis My gratitude also goes to my teachers at the Postgraduate Department, Vinh University It is their precious lectures and instructions as well as valuable suggestions that help me better understand issues related to my study and teaching I am in debt of the authors of the books and studies that are relevant to my study I have read their ideas for reference, writing Literature Review and applying them creatively I am also grateful to my friends and colleagues due to their constructive comments and criticisms Besides, I would like to express my thankfulness to all the students from classes of Grade 10 and English teachers at Thai Hoa high school for their active participation into my study Last but not least, I wish to express my special thanks to my husband and all the members of my family, who always give me their love, care, support and encouragement ABSTRACT It is true that motivation has profound effects on students’ language learning However, the student motivation in learning English listening is rather low at Thai Hoa high school Many students are not interested and not invest enough time and effort in learning it, also their perceived aptitude to learn and ability to use it in the future are low As a result, they feel bored with listening lessons and find it hard to learn this skill With the hope that my study will be useful in finding out the way to motivate students as well as improve their listening learning quality, I have decided to investigate this issue The study was conducted with the participation of 153 grade 10 students from Thai Hoa high school The research data were collected mainly from the survey questionnaires and the follow-up interviews Class observations were also exploited to supplement the above instruments Three major findings emerged from the analysis and discussion: (1) situation of students’ listening learning at Thai Hoa high school, (2) reality of students’ motivation in learning listening skill at Thai Hoa high school, (3) Challenges faced by teachers and students in teaching and learning English listening skill Finally yet importantly, the study gave some suggested activities and recommendations for motivating students to learn English listening skill TABLE OF CONTENT TABLE OF CONTENT LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF CHARTS CHAPTER INTRODUCTION Statement of the Problem Aims of the Study Research Questions .7 Scopes of the Study .7 Methods of the Study Significance of the Study Organization of the Study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Motivation and De-motivation 2.1.1 Motivation 2.1.1.1 Definition of Motivation and its Importance 2.1.1.2 Motivating Students in Learning Second Language 10 2.1.1.3 Factors that Affect Students’ Motivation 15 2.1.2 De-motivation 18 2.1.2.1 Conceptions of De-motivation 18 2.2 Listening Skill 19 2.2.1 Definition of Listening 19 2.2.2 Importance of Listening Skill 20 2.2.3 Types of Listening 21 2.2.3.1 Real-life Listening 21 2.2.3.2 Classroom Listening 23 2.2.4 Sub-skills Involved in Listening 23 2.2.5 Common Methods of Teaching Listening .25 2.2.6 Stages of a Listening Lesson 26 2.2.6.1 Pre-listening .26 2.2.6.2 While-listening 27 2.2.6.3 Post-listening 28 2.3 Listening Activities at Thai Hoa High School in the Author’s View .29 CHAPTER 32 METHODOLOGY AND FINDINGS 32 3.1 Subjects 32 3.2 Data Collection Instruments 33 3.2.1 Questionnaires 33 3.2.2 Interviews 33 3.2.3 Classroom Observations 34 3.3 Data Collection Procedures 34 3.4 Data Analysis and Results 35 3.4.1 Questions for Students 35 3.4.2 Questions for Teachers 52 3.5 Discussion from the Findings 56 3.5.1 Situation of Students’ Listening Learning at Thai Hoa High School 56 3.5.2 Reality of Students’ Motivation in Learning Listening Skill at Thai Hoa High School .57 3.5.3 Challenges Faced by Teachers and Students in Teaching and Learning English Listening Skill .59 CHAPTER 65 IMPLICATIONS 65 4.1 Some Suggested Activities to Motivate Students’ Interest in Listening Lessons 65 4.1.1 Suggested Activities for Pre-listening Stage 65 4.1.2 Suggested Activities for While-listening Stage .66 4.1.3 Suggested Activities for Post-listening Stage 67 4.1.4 Suggested Extra Activities 70 4.2 Suggestions for Students to Learn English Listening Skill Effectively 70 4.3 Recommendations 72 CHAPTER 80 CONCLUSION 80 5.1 Summary .80 5.2 Limitations of the Study 82 5.3 Suggestions for Further Study 83 REFERENCES 84 APPENDIX LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS Q1: Questionnaire number one Q2: Questionnaire number two … Q14: Questionnaire number fourteen %: per cent LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Students’ Motivation of Learning English Listening Skill Table 3.2: Students’ Difficulties in Learn English Listening Skill Table 3.3: Times of Listening Given by Teachers in Students’ Opinions Table 3.4: Times of Listening in Students’ Need Table 3.5: Teachers’ Frequency of Correcting Mistakes in Listening Tasks in Students’ Opinions Table 3.6: Teachers’ Frequency of Providing Extra Listening Activities in Students’ Opinions Table 3.7: Students’ Opinions about the Quality of Listening Support Equipment LIST OF CHARTS Chart 3.1: Students’ Interest in Learning English Chart 3.2: Students’ Focuses in Learning English Chart 3.3: Pre-listening Activities Given by Teachers in Students’ Opinions Chart 3.4: Students’ Focuses in Listening Learning Chart 3.5: Students’ Interest in Listening Topics and Tasks in the Textbook Chart 3.6: Students’ Interest in Type of Listening Tasks in the Textbook Chart 3.7: Factors that can Motivate Students’ Interest in Learning English Listening Skill ... for motivating students’ interest in English listening lessons and improving in teaching and learning English listening skills at Thai Hoa high school Research Questions • Why the students at Thai. ..MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY o0o TRAN THI HOA Motivating Students'' Interest in English Listening Lessons at Thai Hoa High School Field: Theory... real situation of teaching and learning English listening skill of 10th grade at Thai Hoa high school, on how to find out solutions to motivate students’ interest in English listening lessons