ABTRACT I wrote the research of “Improving Listening skill for grade 9 at The Asian High School, Cao Thang Campus”.. Everyone can read my research, especially new teachers and students w
INTRODUCTION
Statement of the problem
1.1 Nowadays, English becomes the main language in around the world when you communicate Listening is one of the most important skills that people can use for communiate each other and listen something they want However, some Vietnamese students in secondary school still get some difficulties in listening when they participate in the exam,test in class and listening homeworks
1.2 Since this problem happens to most Vietnamese students I decided to choose this topic:”Improving the Listening skill for the grade 9 at Asian High School (AHS)”.
Purpose of the study
This research is aimed to find out the mistakes students at Asian High School (AHS) usually have while they have a Listening test Since their faults happen quite a lot when they build an academic essay, this research also gives students best methods to improve their listening skills Because of serious misunderstanding between vocabularies, grammars and styles of person speaking and the accent, this research points out types of person speaking, accent, and style which are demonstrated in this study as well.
Significance of the research
This research bases on my recent survey It illustrates how an academic essay is Listen Common mistake of Listening in English will be shown in this research It is very important for first year students who are non – English majored to work on their writing mistakes.
Research questions
What problems do Asian High School grade 9 students get with Listening skill? Why do they get into problems with Listening?
How do they improve their Listening skills?
Limitation
This study is applied to the secondary students who are not good at Listening in The Asian High School (AHS).
Scope
The object of this research is the secondary students about Listening skills
I have to teach and enjoy time at The Asian High School This is my research about
“How to improving the listening skill for grade 9 students at The Asian High School”
LITERATURE REVIEW
Definitions of key terms
1.1 What is the Listening skill:
Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process
Listening is key to all effective communication Without the ability to listen effectively, messages are easily misunderstood As a result, communication breaks down and the sender of the message can easily become frustrated or irritated
If there is one communication skill you should aim to master, then listening is it
Secondary students have some problems when they join in the exam with some reasons they cannot hear the speaking-file clearly and they misunderstanding
The evidence that shows why listening is difficult comes mainly from four sources: the message to be listened to, the speaker, the listener, and the physical setting (Yagang,n.d) Listening is the weakest skill for many leaners To improve your listening, you first need to know what your learning problem are (Ruth,2018)
1.3.1 - There are too many new words : This is what I was referring to above The real problem is not necessarily your listening ability Either you need to increase your vocabulary or choose easier listening materials
1.3.2 - People speak too fast: Here I'm getting at the changes that happen in fast, natural speech In English, we use a lot of connected speech and miss out a lot of sounds
1.3.3 - They cannot hear what people say: This is one of two things - the extreme version is where it's just a stream of sounds and you can barely pick anything out
Another problem might be that you're unable to hear familiar words This could again be because of changes we make words when we say them in fast, natural speech
1.3.4 - They can hear but they do not understand: This is where you can hear a lot words but you're not getting the overall message, or you're missing key words and so not understanding It might also be because you're focusing too much on trying to hear and understand every words, instead or using listening strategies to compensate when you do not hear anything (just like we do in our native language)
In today's high-tech, high-speed, high-stress world, communication is more important then ever, yet we seem to devote less and less time to really listening to one another Genuine listening has become a rare gift—the gift of time It helps build relationships, solve problems, ensure understanding, resolve conflicts, and improve accuracy At work, effective listening means fewer errors and less wasted time At home, it helps develop resourceful, self-reliant kids who can solve their own problems Listening builds friendships and careers It saves money and marriages (Schilling,2012)
They have ten steps solutions for this problem (Schilling,2012)
Face the speaker and maintain eye contact
Talking to someone you need to look at them when you talk, it is call “eyes contact” How much of the person’s divided attention you are actually getting? If the person who were your child or your friends you might demand “Look at me when I’m talking to you”, But that is not the sort of thing we say to a lover or colleague (Schilling,2012)
Now that you have made eye contact, you need to relax when you were talking with them You do not have to look at their face during your story or your conversation You can look at around and keep talk like a normal person But the most important thing is to be attentive during talking
Enough the background and sounds around you In addition, try not to focus on the speaker’s accent or speech because this was the reason why you lost attention Finally, do not be distracted by your thought, feelings or biases (Schilling,2012)
“Listen without judging the other person or mentally criticizing the things she tells you” When everything, which she talked to you, made you feel uncomfortable or made you
6 confused, do not say to yourself “Well, that was a stupid move” If you indulge in judgmental bemusements, that was you not a listener
Listen without jumping to the conclusions Remember that the speaker when they talked to you, they said what they thought and they feelings inside their brain You do not know what they thought and their feelings are and the best way for you to be a good listener (Schilling,2012)
Listen to the words and try to picture what the speaker is saying
Allow your mind to create a new thing from the information being communicated Whether a black picture, or an arrangement of abstract concepts, your brain will do the necessary work when you stay focus with the fully senses
When you listen from the speaker talk to you, you do not spend time for planning what to say next You cannot prepare and listen at the same time Think only about what the speaker is talking
At the end, stay focus on what is being said, even it bores you If your thoughts start not focus, immediately force yourself to refocus (Schilling,2012)
Don't interrupt and don't impose your "solutions."
Children used to be taught that it is rude to interrupt Certainly, the majority of tv shows, where loud, aggressive, in your face behavior is condoned, if not encouraged
Interrupting messages were send a variety:
You less important than me
Anything I have to say is more interesting, accurate or relevant
What you think, I do not care
I do not have time for you
If you are absolutely have a bright solution, at least you need to ask the speaker first
“would you like to hear my ideas?” This is the way to make the speaker pay attention to your idea and feel polite (Schilling,2012)
Wait for the speaker to pause to ask clarifying questions
In the conversation, when you do not understand what they talk to you, of course you should ask the speaker to explain, but you cannot jump in wait until the speaker pauses Then say something like “I do not understand what you just say about… / Can you explain? I do not understand…” (Schilling,2012)
Try to feel what the speaker is feeling
When you listen the story from the speaker, if you feel sad and the person with whom you are talking expresses sadness, happiness when she expresses happy, fearful when she describes her fears – those feelings through your facial expressions and words Empathy with the speaker by heart and soul, you are a good listener (Schilling,2012)
On the other hand, Harvey Deutschendorf said we tend to pay a great deal of attention to our ability to speak From Toastmasters to an unlimited amount of course, workshops, and training available we see that speaking, especially public speaking, is a highly desirable, sought-after skill.(Deutschendorf,2014)
Put yourself in their shoes
Reviews previous works
Ur (1984:7) points out that “in ordinary conversation or even in much extempore speech- making or lecturing we actually say a good deal more than would appear to be necessary in order to convey our message Redundant utterances may take the form of repetitions, false starts, re-phrasings, self-corrections, elaborations, tautologies, and apparently meaningless additions such as I mean or you know.” This redundancy is a natural feature of speech and may be either a help or a hindrance, depending on the students’ level It may make it more difficult for beginners to understand what the speaker is saying; on the other hand, it may give advanced students more time to “tune in” to the speaker’s voice and speech style
Learners tend to be used to their teacher’s accent or to the standard variety of British or American English They find it hard to understand speakers with other accents
Spoken prose, as in news broadcasting and reading aloud written texts, is characterized by an even pace, volume, pitch, and intonation Natural dialogues, on the other hand, are full of hesitations, pauses, and uneven intonation Students used to the former kinds of listening material may sometimes find the latter difficult to understand
Foreign-language students are not familiar enough with clichés and collocations in
English to predict a missing word or phrase They cannot, for example, be expected to know that rosy often collocates with cheeks nor to predict the last word will be something like rage when they hear the phrase he was in a towering… This is a major problem for students
Lack of sociocultural, factual, and contextual knowledge of the target language can present an obstacle to comprehension because language is used to express its culture (Anderson and Lynch 1988)
Foreign-language learners usually devote more time to reading than to listening, and so lack exposure to different kinds of listening materials Even our college students majoring in English have no more than four hours’ regular training per week
Both psychological and physical factors may have a negative effect on perception and interpretation of listening material It is tiring for students to concentrate on interpreting unfamiliar sounds, words, and sentences for long periods
Noise, including both background noises on the recording and environmental noises, can take the listener’s mind off the content of the listening passage
Listening material on tape or radio lacks visual and aural environmental clues Not seeing the speaker’s body language and facial expressions makes it more difficult for the listener to understand the speaker’s meaning
Listening material on tape or radio lacks visual and aural environmental clues Not seeing the speaker’s body language and facial expressions makes it more difficult for the listener to understand the speaker’s meaning
Unclear sounds resulting from poor-quality equipment can interfere with the listener’s comprehension
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
To search about the mistakes which is the most Vietnamese student high school students often get when they are listening in English This research uses both methods: qualitative and quantitative to do “Improving listening in English of Vietnamese high school students (AHS)” Qualitative conceptual about the concerned with understanding human behavior from the informant’s perspective – Assumes a dynamic and negotiated reality Qualitative methodological about data are collected through participant observation and interviews Data are analysed by themes from decriptions by infomants Data are reported in the language of the informant Quantitative conceptual about the concerned with discovering facts about social phenomena – Assumes a fixed and measurable reality Quantitative methodological about data are collected through measuring things Data are analysed through numerical comparisons and statistical inferences Data are reported through statistical analyses (Minchiello et al,1990, p.5) In my research, I chose quantitative to did my research.
Procedures
To begin with, I would like to make a question “what problem do Asian High School grade 9 students encounter when they study?” Most students still get some basic mistakes in listening in English, although they are a good leaner There are certain mistakes that they usually have are vocabulary, word form, grammar, plural form, they cannot focus on the record The second question is “How do they improve their problems?” I show them some website and books to improve listening skill For example: TED, students can listen every topic and try to listen, take note and after that remember come to class and talk about their video
Participants
Students in grade 9 at The Asian High School to support my survey They are love playing soccer in break-time and almost students at The Asian High School support Korean music (K-Pop) For example: they support Black Pink, BTS, Big Bang, T-ara…
Sample Selection
I chose 20 students I teach in grade 9 at The Asian High School to support my research And they happy to did my survey They were all 15 years old and study at AHS.
Material Techniques
During my study, I used Google form to support my survey, Excel and Microsoft Word to support my survey It is a web application where people can create a question table to collect people ideas or responses It is very convenient because people can do and collect answers from anywhere and anytime Users’ question form will be sent shortly to other people so that users can collect number of responses quickly In addition, this web application can automatically show my charts about people’s responses which help you understand trends or phenomena Also, I used Google search service to find sourses which helped me have a comparison with my results.
Data Collection
I started my survey by making a question form from Google Form I printed these questions into A4 papers so that it was easy for students to answer I printed twenty copies for twenty students in class 9/25 at the Asian High School Next, I went to school and gave them to answered my questions Then, they spent twenty minutes to answered six questions in my questions form which will be demonstrated below
Reliability and Validity
My research is definitely reliable because my survey was conducted through strictly and carefully stages which were listed at procedures In addition, my twenty participants did not have any barrier in understanding English Therefore, they could answer my questions exactly
In addition, I believe that my study is valuable due to some reasons Firstly, my research is based on reliable response from students Secondly, my survey was conducted to collect exact numbers Finally, it provides me difficulties and mistakes when students write English
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
This is my survey information I had done with my students at The Asian High School The charts will show the data I collected when I teach at school
4.1 Amount of time to study English
This pie chart shows the percentage how long students have study English Almost students at The Asian High School study in English more than 5 years They have enough knowledge and vocabulary to understand my questions and answered it carefully
This bar chart shows the number of students feel the skill was difficult Listening had the highest percentage, 11 students and 50% The next was Writing which was difficult for students to learn, 5 students and 25%
4.3 Time spending to practice Listening at school
This pie chart shows the percentage of time they spend to practicing Listening at school Fifty-percent chose they have enough time to practice Listening at school That time for them go to school and enjoy their listening lesson
4.4 Practice Listening skill at home
This pie chart shows more than seventy-percent students say No in this question They did not have homework about Listening when they finished at school On the other hand, twenty-five-percent students thought they have several times a week they did the
4.5 Problems when they have listened the record
Vocabulary was the biggest problem when they listened the record that was the reason why fifty-percent students they voted it In some case, they cannot hear the record clearly, the record runs so fast
4.6 Part they want to improve
Vocabulary was one of the most important part in the Listening skill When they participated in the semester exam or test in class If they understood words in the record they easy to did the test This was the big thing for them to improve and learn more
Solution to improve listening skill
In two months I observed and teach students at The Saigon International School (AHS) Then, I gave them my survey the number and the charts would shows their problems and part they want to improve more
First of all, they need to prepared to listen For example: when they receive the test paper, they need to underline the keywords and focus on wh-questions or yes/no questions to answer the question In the test they always have twice to listen the record and when they communicate to each other if they do not catch everything the first time, they can ask them to repeat
Secondly, they must to listen for specific information, when teacher play the record they need to focus on the main idea and keywords they have to underline it already in the question sentences
Thirdly, they have to listen for pleasure For instance, my students can listening to
US/UK music to improve their listen skill or watching TV show in English without subtitle and then watch it again and check how many percent they can understand Finally, carefully observe the people you listen to, watching people can also help you listen When you have talk with your friend or another people try to look and hear their tone of voice, hand gestures or how they stand Body languages is one of the most things when people talk they always use it
Once you have begun to listen on a regular basis, you might still be frustrated by your limited understanding Here are a few courses of action you can take:
Accept the fact that you are not going to understand everything
Stay relaxed when you do not understand even if you continue to have trouble understanding for a while
Do not translate into your native language
Listen for the gist (or general idea) of the conversation Don't concentrate on detail until you have understood the main idea(s)
First, translating creates a barrier between the listener and the speaker Second, most people repeat themselves constantly By remaining calm, you can usually understand what the speaker had said (Beare,2019)
Translating Creates a Barrier Between Yourself and the Person Who Is Speaking
While you are listening to another person speaking a foreign language (English in this case), the temptation is to immediately translate into your native language This temptation becomes much stronger when you hear a word you don't understand This is only natural as we want to understand everything that is said However, when you translate into your native language, you are taking the focus of your attention away from the speaker and concentrating on the translation process taking place in your brain This would be fine if you could put the speaker on hold In real life, however, the person continues talking while you translate This situation obviously leads to less not more understanding Translation leads to a mental block in your brain, which sometimes doesn't allow you to understand anything at all (Beare,2019)
Think for a moment about your friends, family, and colleagues When they speak in your native tongue, do they repeat themselves? If they are like most people, they probably do
That means that whenever you listen to someone speaking, it is very likely that they will repeat the information, giving you a second, third or even fourth chance to understand what has been said
By remaining calm, allowing yourself to not understand, and not translating while listening, your brain is free to concentrate on the most important thing: understanding English in English
Probably the greatest advantage of using the Internet to improve your listening skills is that you can choose what you would like to listen to and how many and times you would like to listen to it By listening to something you enjoy, you are also likely to know a lot more of the vocabulary required.(Beare,2019)
Use keywords or key phrases to help you understand the general ideas If you understand
"New York", "business trip", "last year" you can assume that the person is speaking about a business trip to New York last year This may seem obvious to you, but remember that understanding the main idea will help you to understand the detail as the person continues to speak (Beare,2019)
Let's imagine that your English speaking friend says, "I bought this great tuner at JR's It was really cheap and now I can finally listen to National Public Radio broadcasts." You don't understand what a tuner is, and if you focus on the word tuner you might become frustrated
CONCLUSION
Nowadays, English is still popular in around the world It is used for communicate, listening, showing your thinking by writing, and obtaining information by reading All skills of English are very important for the leaners Specially for students in my research they are all grade 9 at The Asian High School, I focused on the listening skill because most of students think that skill is difficult with them Since the limit of time, I only conducted my research on grand 9 students in class 9/24 at The Asian High School
In my research, I also looked up other people’s research for understanding more problems that my students have when they cannot hear the record, vocabulary problem, record runs so fast or do not understand the record In order make my research stronger, I applied quantitative method to conduct my research, I chose the grand 9 students at The Asian High School as place for my study
In addition, I created a question table by Google Form where students answer by multiple choices After I collected paper from them, I started to analysis and evaluation by charts According to my survey, most students felt hard to learn listening The big problem with them was the vocabulary, because the test in class or semester exam which were the general topic, they did not have enough vocabulary to understand and make them confused about the answer keys However, I provided solutions for these issues in chapter four, which can work well them and other students at The Asian High School
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1/ How long you study English?
2/ Which skills do you find the most difficult to learn?
3/ Do you think that you spend much time practicing Listening at school?
4/ Does your teacher give you homework of listening?
5/ What problems when you listen the record?
Do not understand the record
6/ What parts do you want to improve?