Luận văn thạc sĩ improving 11th form students listening comprehension through modified listening task of the new textbook english 11 at kinh mon high school, haiduong

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* VŨ THỊ THÀNH DINH IMPROVING 11TH FORM STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION THROUGH MODIFIED LISTENING TASKS OF THE NEW TEXTBOOK ENGL

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

VŨ THỊ THÀNH DINH

IMPROVING 11TH FORM STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION THROUGH MODIFIED LISTENING TASKS OF THE NEW TEXTBOOK ENGLISH 11 AT KINH

MON HIGH SCHOOL, HAI DUONG

(NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TRƯỜNG THPT KINH MÔN, HẢI DƯƠNG THÔNG QUA VIỆC THIẾT CHỈNH LẠI MỘT SỐ BÀI TẬP NGHE TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 11)

M.A.MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 601410

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

VŨ THỊ THÀNH DINH

IMPROVING 11TH FORM STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION THROUGH MODIFIED LISTENING TASKS OF THE NEW TEXTBOOK ENGLISH 11 AT KINH

MON HIGH SCHOOL, HAI DUONG

(NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TRƯỜNG THPT KINH MÔN, HẢI DƯƠNG THÔNG QUA VIỆC THIẾT CHỈNH LẠI MỘT SỐ BÀI TẬP NGHE TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 11)

M.A.MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 601410

SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN THỤY PHƯƠNG LAN, M.A

HANOI - 2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Candidate’s statement i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of tables and charts viii

List of abbreviations ix

page PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 1 Rationale……… 1

2 Aims of the study……… 2

3 Research questions……… 2

4 Scope of the study……… 2

5 Design of the study……… 2

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 3 CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW 3 1.1 Theoretical background of listening skill……… 3

1.1.1 Definitions of listening……… 3

1.1.2 Definitions of listening comprehension……… 3

1.1.3 The significance of listening comprehension……… 4

1.1.4 Factors affect students’ listening comprehension……… 5

1.2 Listening tasks……… 6

1.2.1 Definitions of task ……… 6

1.2.2 Criteria of a good listening task……… 6

1.2.3 Types of listening tasks……… 7

1.3 Material adaptation……… 9

1.3.1 Definition of material adaptation……… 9

1.3.2 Reasons for adapting materials……… 10

1.3.3 Principles for adapting materials……… 11

1.3.4 Techniques for adapting materials……… 11

1.3.5 Levels of material adaptation……… 12

1.3.5.1 Macro adaptation……… 12

1.3.5.2 Adapting a unit……… 13

1.3.5.3 Adaptation of specific activities……… 13

CHAPTER TWO: THE METHODOLOGY 14 2.1 Research method of the study……… 14

2.1.1 An overview of action research……… 14

2.1.2 Action research models……… 14

2.1.3 Action research cycle and procedure for this research……… 15

2.2 Data collection instruments……… 17

2.2.1 Pre and post tests……… 17

2.2.2 Survey questionnaires……… 18

2.2.3 Classroom observations……… 19

2.2.4 Teaching diary……… 19

2.2.5 Textbook analysis……… 20

2.3 Participants……… 20

2.3.1 The teacher/ researcher……… 20

2.3.2 The non- participate observer……… 20

2.3.3 The students……… 20

2.4 Summary……… 21

CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 22 3.1 Initial data……… 22

3.1.1 Results from pre-listening test……… 22

3.1.2 Results from pre-action stage observations……… 22

3.1.3 Results from students’ questionnaire 1……… 24

3.1.3.1 Students’ evaluation about listening skill and their own listening

competence……… 24

3.1.3.2 Students’ opinions about listening tasks in English 11……… 24

3.1.3.3 Students’ feelings when doing listening tasks in English 11 ……… 25

3.1.3.4 Students’ evaluation about the effectiveness of listening tasks to their listening competence……… 25

3.1.3.5 Students’ preferences for listening tasks……… 26

3.1.3.6 Students’ opinions about the way their teachers treat listening tasks……… 26

3.1.4 Results from document analysis……… 27

3.1.4.1 English 11……… 27

3.1.4.2 Listening tasks in listening sections of English 11……… 27

3.1.5 Conclusion……… 29

3.2 The hypothesis……… 29

3.3 Planning action steps……… 30

3.3.1 Replacing……… 30

3.3.2 Omitting……… 31

3.3.3 Changing……… 31

3.4 Data collected in the action stage……… 32

3.4.1 Results from action stage observations……… 32

3.4.2 Results from Questionnaire 2 ……… 32

3.4.3 Results from teaching diaries……… 33

3.4.4 Results from post-test……… 34

3.5 Action research evaluation……… 35

3.5.1 Students’ involvement in tasks before and after action plan……… 35

3.5.2 Students’ progress reflected through tests……… 36

3.5.3 Summary of major findings and discussions……… 36

3.5.3.1 The unsuitability of listening tasks in the textbook affects students’ listening comprehension……… 36

3.5.3.2 Students’ preferences for listening tasks……… 37

3.5.3.3 Modified listening tasks could help improve students’ listening comprehension……… 37

PART III: CONCLUSION……… 39

1 Conclusions……… 39

2 Recommendations……… 39

3 Limitations of the study……… 40

4 Suggestions for further study……… 40

REFERENCES……… 41

APPENDICES

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Page

List of tables

Table 1: Results from pre-listening test……… 22

Table 2: Students’ involvement in the tasks……… 23

Table 3: Frequency of listening tasks in listening lessons……… 24

Table 4: Students’ feelings when doing listening tasks in English 11…… 25

Table 5: Students’ evaluation about the effectiveness of listening tasks … 25 Table 6: Students’ preferences for listening tasks……… 26

Table 7: Students’ opinions about the ways their teachers treat listening tasks 26

Table 8: Topic in English 11……… 27

Table 9: Types of listening tasks in English 11……… 28

Table 10: Students’ involvement in the tasks……… 32

Table 11: Students’ evaluation about modified listening tasks ………… 33

Table 12: Results of post-test……… 34

List of charts………

Chart 1: Students’ involvement in tasks before and after action plan…… 35

Chart 2: Students’ progress reflected through tests ……… 36

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

- MOET: The Ministry of Education and Training

- EFL: English as a foreign language

- AR: Action research

- TESOL : Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

The years 2006, 2007 and 2008 marked a milestone in the ways of teaching and learning English when the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) introduced the new sets of English textbook English 10, English 11 and English 12 to school curriculum The aim of MOET is to develop students‟ communicative competence so as to meet the demand of integration and globalization That is the reason why in the new textbooks, four skills including reading, speaking, listening and writing are put in priority and integrated

Of the four skills mentioned above, listening is considered to be the most challenging one Most students find it hard to master this skill and soon feel bored with listening periods The reasons for this are various, such as uninteresting topics, fast speed, students' poor pronunciation or lack of background knowledge and cultural understanding Eleven graders at Kinh Mon High School have encountered such a lot of difficulties when dealing with listening lessons However, after five years of teaching English 11,

I also discover that the listening tasks themselves are also a factor affecting students‟ listening comprehension

It is obvious that suitable tasks make students more interested in the listening passages and then help them develop their listening skills Inappropriate tasks, on the contrary, can demotivate students In listening sections of English11, some tasks are too difficult or too long and some are boring In this case, it is necessary for teachers to modify listening tasks to make the tasks more suitable and interesting for learners, even though it

is not an easy job for the teacher as modifying tasks means having to take many things into accounts such as the objectives, the criteria or the student‟s needs However, for the benefit

of students, it is worth doing so

For the above reasons, especially for the researcher‟s desire to help her students better

at listening, the choice of the study entitled “Improving 11 th form students’ listening comprehension through modified listening tasks of the new textbook English 11 at Kinh Mon High School, Hai Duong” is not accidental

2 Aims of the study

The main purpose of this research is to study the effects of modified listening tasks

of English 11 on improving 11th form students‟ listening comprehension at Kinh Mon Upper-Secondary School The specific objectives of the study are:

 To investigate students‟ attitudes towards listening tasks in English 11 and the difficulties they face

 To study whether the modified listening tasks could help students improve their listening comprehension

3 Research questions

As a basis for my investigation, the following research questions were formulated:

1 What makes students uninterested in listening lessons?

2 How can the modified listening tasks help improve students‟ listening comprehension?

4 Scope of the study

Due to the limited knowledge, energy and time, the researcher was unable to carry out the investigation on a large scale This action research was only conducted for only 8 weeks with the four listening lessons and in the context of 50 eleventh-grade students at Kinh Mon High School in the academic year 2011-2012 only Hence, the results of the study is only limited to the above teaching context and participants

5 Design of the study

This study consists of three parts:

Part I: The introduction: provides the basis information such as rationale for the study,

aims of the study, research questions, methods of the study, scope of the study and the design of the study

Part II: The development: consists of three chapters The first chapter is literature

review which discussed theoretical background relevant to the purposes of the study The next one is the methodology which gives a detailed description of how the study was conducted The last chapter is to report the data analysis as well as the results of the study

Part III: The conclusion: summarizes the action research Then some

recommendations are proposed, some limitations of the study are pointed out as well as some suggestions for further research are given out

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter involves different issues in the theories of the listening in a foreign language, listening tasks and material adaptation

1.1 Theoretical background of listening skill

1.1.1 Definitions of listening

In our daily life, outside the classroom, listening is used twice as often as speaking, which in turn is used twice as much as reading and writing (River, 1981) Inside classroom, the two often used skills are listening and speaking (Brown, 1994) Therefore, listening plays an important role in the processes of learning and communication essential to productive participation in life

What is listening? Through years, various definitions of listening have been proposed Listening is more than merely hearing words It is considered to be an active process by which students receive, construct meaning from, and respond to spoken and or nonverbal messages (Emmert, 1994)

Brown (1994) argues that listening is a skill in which to identify and understand what is being said, listeners must comprehend “a speaker‟s accent or pronunciation, his grammar and his vocabulary”

Sharing similar ideas, Barker (1971) defines listening as “the selective process of attending

to, hearing, understanding and remembering aural symbols”

In short, no matter how variously listening is defined, it is obvious that listening is the most important skill for learning to speak a language It provides a foundation for all aspects of language and cognitive development

1.1.2 Definitions of listening comprehension

Regarding listening comprehension, Boyle (1981) suggests that listening comprehension refers to the process of understanding speech in a second or foreign language It is a perceptive skill through which listeners can identify and retain information they get from the speech

Woven and Coakley (1985) define listening comprehension as "the process of receiving,

attending to and assigning meaning to aural stimuli" This definition shows that listening

comprehension is not only a process of perception of sound but it also requires comprehension of meaning

Rixon (1986) divides listening comprehension into two types: extensive and intensive listening Extensive listening involves listening to a recording to get a general understanding, for example, watching a film, understanding and enjoying the story; or listening and carrying out instructions Intensive listening, on the other hand, involves more detailed analysis of the language used or listening for specific information Listening for specific information involves finding the answers to specific questions “What is the speaker‟s favorite kind of music?” would involve listening for specific information because the students listen for that particular response

To sum up, listening comprehension is a demanding and involved process One must

be able to deal with different accents or pronunciation, unfamiliar lexical items and syntactic structures, competing background noise and also make a conscious effort to not 'switch off' or become distracted while listening All of this must be achieved and dealt with more or less simultaneously in order to identify and understand the meaning in any given message

1.1.3 The significance of listening comprehension

Listening comprehension is very important in the process of learning a language According to Rost (1994: 141), listening comprehension is “vital in the language classroom because it provides input for the learner Without understanding input at the right level, any learner simply can‟t begin” He also argues that “Spoken language including listening provides a mean of interaction for the learners Because learners must interact to achieve understanding access to speaker of the language is essential Moreover, learner‟s failure to understand the language they hear is an impetus, not an obstacle, to interaction and learning” Obviously, listening comprehension is an essential skill for almost interaction It is therefore the most primary medium for input in language learning process and by speeding up the students' ability to perceive speech, the amount of input they get will increase and thus aid students' language acquisition

To conclude, given the importance of listening in language learning and teaching, it

is essential for language teachers to help students become effective listeners

1.1.4 Factors affect students’ listening comprehension

It can not be denied that listening comprehension is a crucial skill that all learners should acquire when learning a language However, it is not easy to grasp In fact, many learners complain that it is the most difficult skill in comparison with reading, speaking and writing Why is listening comprehension so difficult and what factors affect learners‟ listening ability?

According to Brown and Yule (1983: 74), there are four main factors:

-The speaker: including the number of speakers, the speaker‟s speech speed and the speaker‟s accents

-The listeners: involving the role of the listener, the level of response required and the listener‟s interest in the subject

-The content: consisting of grammar, vocabulary, information structure and background knowledge

-Support: pictures, diagrams, visual aids, e.t.c…

Anderson and Lynch (1988) suggest five factors which make listening difficult as follows: -The organization of information

-The familiarity of the topic

-The explicitness and sufficiency of the information

-The type of referring expressions used

-Whether the text describes a „static‟ or „dynamic‟ relationship

Similarly, Joseph P Boyle believes that the difficulties in listening comprehension come from three factors as follows:

- Listener factors: including experience in listening to the target language, general intelligence and background knowledge as well as physical, educational and especially psychological factors

- Speaker factors: referring to language ability of the speaker, speaker‟s pronunciation, accent or voice, speaker‟s speed of delivery and prestige and personality of the speaker

- Materials and medium: referring to the language used in the listening passage such as stress, intonation, strong or weak forms…, the difficulty of the content and concepts and distractors like noise or interference

Shortly, there are a variety of factors which influence students‟ listening

of difficulties in listening comprehension resulting from topic familiarity, language speech, pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, difficulties of the oral texts as well as their own psychology

Whatever task is defined, it is undeniable that in teaching and learning, tasks play a vital role With tasks, teachers and learners can measure the improvements

1.2.2 Criteria of a good listening task

A good listening task in CLT approach has several features:

Goal: Establish a clear purpose for listening: to use language to accomplish a goal,

not to use language merely as language itself

Input: Require listening to an authentic, connected piece of discourse

Activities: Activities must

- Reflect a subject or topic that will interest students

- Provide a topic that is broad enough for every listener to approach from some angle

or understand

- Involve in solving a true problem or relate to learners‟ own life

- Allow enough time for listeners to respond to the listening task (written or oral) in some meaningful way

Learner role: A good listening task

- Motivates listeners to consider their knowledge of the topic

- Allows Ls to use all of the language skills they have, rather than specific forms or vocabulary, and tend to self-correct when they realize they need to

- Allows listeners to make use of contextual and nonverbal cues

In order to develop students‟ listening comprehension, understanding about kinds of listening tasks is very important Listening tasks are very diversified However, according

to Ur P (1996), listening tasks can be classified by the natures of students‟ response

 No overt response

With no overt response, listening tasks can be categorized as follows:

Following a written text: Students listen to and read it at the same time

Listening to a familiar text: Students listen to an already known text This kind of task

requires not much listening comprehension skills but simply gives pleasant experience in listening to meaningful English sounds

Listening aided by visuals (e.g pictures, diagrams…): Students look at visual materials

while simultaneously following a spoken description of it

Listening to an informal talk: Students can listen to their teacher or any good speakers of

English

Listening to something entertaining (e.g stories, songs, films, and television programs):

this kind of task provides students with useful interludes to put in before or after more demanding exercises, or when students‟ concentration is at low ebb

 Short response

Some kinds of task students can do in the form of simple and short answers are

Following instructions: Students listen to commands; they will show their

comprehension by complying with the commands Responses can be physical movement (e.g stand up, sit down…), building models and picture dictation (draw as you are told to)

Ticking off items: Learners tick beside the items: Learners tick beside the items that they

hear in the listening

True/False: Identify whether the statement is true or false based on the listening Detecting mistakes: Some fact is mentioned with intentional mistakes for students to point

out

Cloze: students make a guess of what can be fill in the blanks in the listening text

Guessing definitions: this is synonymous with guessing games Sts listen to a definition or

description of something and guess what it is For example, a number of pictures which have some similarities are not given Sts have to listen and choose the right choice

Skimming and scanning: learners have to make out some general ideas (skimming) and

details (scanning) of the listening

Pictures: one picture or a series of pictures may be used Sts are then asked to identify

pictures or components as they are referred to, either naming or ordering them in the order

in which they are mentioned

Maps: Using a map, students are asked to name a specific place as they listen Besides

that, changes can be made Sts have to listen and mark these changes

Ground-plans: ground-plans are a kind of maps but single sketch can be interpreted in

many different ways relating to various listening tasks Its advantages lies in its simplicity:

it can be very easy to trace

Grids: a grid is simply a rectangle marked off into squares and used to display data Sts

may be presented with an inadequately or inaccurately filled-in grid, fill in or correct the information on the grid as they listen

Family trees: family tree is a kind diagram Students listen to stories or descriptions of

families, then identify family member relationship

Graphs: Students are given a graph with some missing details While listening to the

information, they fill in the missing details

 Longer response

With longer response, listening tasks can be:

Answering questions: based on the content of the listening, students are required to give

longer and full answer to the questions

Note-taking: students take notes of the talk

Paraphrasing and translating: students use their own words to rewrite or retell the

listening texts either in the same language or in their mother tongue

Summarizing: learners write a summary of the content of what they have just listened Long gap-filling: similar to a cloze exercise, the only difference is that the information to

be filled in the gap is longer

Dictation is also a recommended kind of task which can boost learners‟ listening skills a

lot

Predictions: after hearing the first part of an utterance or passage, students make a guess at

the possible continuation Prediction can be effectively practiced when integrated with other skills in the exercises based on passages of discourse

 Extended response

Tasks of this kind are on the whole more demanding than those of other kinds Listening serves as a basis and starting point for other activities Students are expected not only to understand the listening material but also to be able to compare or collate its different parts of aspects, analyze, interpret, evaluate and reason from it In some ways, these may be called communicative tasks as they involve students‟ feelings, attitudes, tastes and values as well as their intellectual abilities

Problem solving: students listen to all the information relevant to a particular problem and

then set themselves to solve it, either individually or through group discussions

Jigsaw listening: this activity is used very much like jigsaw grouping for discussion In

jigsaw listening, different groups of students listen to a different but connected passage, each of which supplies some parts of what they need to know After that, they come

together to exchange information and possibly to discuss or evaluate that information Interpretative listening: students listen to somebody‟s speech The meaning of what he

says is not the only thing students absorb Students may also take into account many other things, such as what kind of person the speaker is, the way he speaks, his mood, his attitude, etc The ability to make such interpretations is one of the communicative abilities

Evaluative and stylistic analysis: recordings used for this type of tasks can be interviews,

comedy, drama, advertising, rhetoric and poetry When students are able to understand the information explicitly conveyed in the listening text as well as appreciate some of the implicit “message”, they may try to analyze its style and assess its impact Obviously, to do these kinds of task, students have to be highly proficient in spoken English

1.3 Material adaptation

1.3.1 Definition of material adaptation

Madsen and Bowen (1978: ix) argues that adaptation is an action of employing „one

or more of a number of techniques: supplementing, expanding, personalizing, simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or modifying cultural/ situational content‟ Similarly, Tomlinson

(1998) believes that adaptation means “reducing, adding, omitting, modifying and

supplementing.”

It is also quite necessary to differentiate the terms “adapting” and “adopting” Adaptation is a process subsequent to, and dependent on adaptation In addition, while adoption deals with the whole course book, adaptation is only concerned with the parts that make up the whole Last but not least, adoption is related to evaluation, but adaptation is related to changing or adjusting various parts

In short, adaptation matches internal to external factors It involves changing some

of the internal characteristics of a course book to better suit a particular circumstance

1.3.2 Reasons for adapting materials

Cunningham (1995) has pointed out that “Materials are not always clear regarding the methodology they use in terms of „what‟ and „how‟ to teach There are also cases of inconsistency between stated and actual methodology Moreover, course book cannot relevant to all teaching/ learning contexts” Hence, adapting materials is badly in need Teachers should adapt published materials according to their students‟ needs and proficiency

Besides that, it will be useful to compare our own reasons with those in the following list (Proposed by McDonough and Shaw, 1993: 86).This list indicates some of the possible areas of mismatch which can be dealt with by adapting in this study

- Not enough grammar coverage in general

- Not enough guidance on pronunciation

- Not enough practice of grammar points of particular difficulty to these learners

- Subject- matter inappropriate for learners of this age and intellectual level

- The communicative focus means that grammar is presented unsystematically

- Amount of material too great/ too little to cover in the time allocated to lessons

- Too much/ too little variety in the activities

- Dialogues too formal, and not really representative of everyday speech

- Vocabulary list and a key to the exercises would be helpful

- Accompanying tests needed

In this study, the theories of material adaptation as well as the list of reasons presented above will be certainly helpful for modifying some listening tasks in listening sections of English 11

1.3.3 Principles for adapting materials

It is obvious that material adaptation is necessary However, this process can not be done casually and arbitrarily It must follow some certain principles According to McDonough and Shaw (1993), adapting materials must ensure three principles, namely

„personalizing‟, „individualizing‟ and „localizing‟

„Personalizing‟ refers to increasing the relevance of content in relation to learners‟

interests and their academy, educational or professional needs

„Individualizing‟ addresses the learning styles both of individuals and of the numbers of a

class working closely together

„Localizing‟ considers the matters of international geography of English language teaching

and recognizes that what may work well in this learning environment may not do so in that environment

In brief, the above principles play a vital role in adapting materials In this study, the author also bases on these principles for modifying listening tasks of English 11

1.3.4 Techniques for adapting materials

To adapt materials, McDonough and Shaw (1993) offer a list of techniques as follows:

 Adding: The term “Addition‟ mainly means that materials are supplemented by adding

more to them “while taking into account the practical effect on time allocation‟ There are two ways of adding, namely extending or expanding Extending means teachers supply more of the same type of materials to make a quantitative change in the material Expanding means adding some things different to the material to make qualitative change

 Deleting or omitting: Like technique of addition, a teacher can delete or omit materials

both quantitatively ( by subtracting ) or qualitatively ( by abridging )

 Modifying: „Modification‟ at one level is a very general term in the language applying to

any kind of change In order to introduce further possibilities for adaptation, we should restrict its meaning here to an internal change in the approach or focus of an exercise or other pieces of materials It is a rather important and frequently used procedure that is like all other techniques; it can be applied to any aspect of „content‟ It can be sub-divided into two kinds: rewriting and restructuring

 Simplifying: When simplifying, teachers can make many elements of a language course

such as the instructions, explanations, exercises or activities become easier and more accessible to learners

 Re-ordering: Re- ordering refers to the possibility of putting parts of a course book in a

different order This may mean adjusting the sequence of presentation within a unit or taking units in a different sequence from that originally intended

Tanner and Green (1998: 122) also propose four different techniques for adapting

materials They are changing, removing, replacing and adding

 Changing: Changing means making small changes to the existing material in the course

book to make the material more appropriate to students

 Removing: Removing means that a course book‟ activity will be removed from the

lesson

 Replacing: Replacing means that one activity in an area not covered sufficiently in the

book will be replaced by a more suitable activity

 Adding: It means that the teacher can add an extra activity in an area not covered

sufficiently in the book

In short, there are a large variety of techniques which can be used to adapt a material However, the most commonly used ones may be modifying, replacing, adding and simplifying As a teacher of English, the researcher thinks that these techniques can be used individually or in combination with others according to learning context as well as students‟ level, needs and interests

1.3.5 Levels of material adaptation

Textbook adaptation can be done at three levels

1.3.5.1 Macro adaptation

Macro adaptation is ideally done before the language program begins The teacher can compare what is covered in a textbook with what is required by the syllabus or examination to find that some certain areas or even whole unit of the textbook can be omitted and certain contents need to be supplemented

Macro adaptation is quite significant in such a way that it helps teachers and students avoid waste of time and energy and especially, helps teachers see in advance what they needs to supplement so that they can keep an eye on materials that could be used

1.3.5.2 Adapting a unit

Adapting a unit could be done through reordering the activities, combining activities, omitting activities, rewriting or supplementing exercise material, etc Unit adaptation is beneficial as it helps to make the classroom teaching more smooth and cohesive and helps the teacher better fulfill the aims of a unit

1.3.5.3 Adaptation of specific activities

The third level is adaptation of specific activities in a unit Occasionally an activity

is regarded as valuable, but it is not well-designed or it is not feasible in a particular class

If the teacher still wants to use the activity, he or she needs to adapt it

CHAPTER TWO: THE METHODOLOGY

2.1 Research method of the study

To carry out the research, action research (AR) was used

2.1.1 An overview of action research

Action research is known by many other names: participatory research, collaborative inquiry, emancipatory research, action learning or contextual action research There are a number of definitions of AR

Action research is a form of collective self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own social or educational practices, as well as their understanding of those practices and the situations

in which the practices are carried out… The approach is only action research when it is collaborative, though it is important to realize that action research of the group is achieved through the critically examined action of individual group members (Kemmis

and McTaggart 1988: 5-6)

Simply, action research is “learning by doing” It means that a group of people identify a problem, do something to resolve it, see how successful their efforts were, and if not satisfied, try again Wallace (1998: 1) and Coles and Quirke (2001:14), AR is the process

of systemic collection and analysis of data in order to make changes and improvement or solve problem

AR is designed to bring change for the better and all people participating in the study will benefit as „stakeholders‟ (Dick and Swepson, 1997) The classroom could become a laboratory for experimenting with, contesting and evaluating the material and classroom tasks in a teacher‟s own context and situation (Nunan, 1991: 62) Brown indicates that the teacher will learn most effectively and change behavior in circumstances where there is personal engagement in identifying a practical concern as the focus of the study, designing

of the study, taking action, collecting evidence, formulating conclusions and feeding these back to practice

2.1.2 Action research models

There are many models of action research used in the previous studies on language Action research involves small-scale investigative projects in the teacher‟s own classroom

and includes a number of phases recurring in cycles: planning- action- observation- reflection

According to McBride and Schostak (2002), AR involves seven steps and the cycles can be demonstrated as follow:

Step 1: Identifying a focus of interest or a problem -> Step 2: Collecting data -> Step 3:

Analyzing data/ generating hypotheses -> Step 4: Planning action steps -> Step 5: Implementing action steps -> Step 6: Collecting data to monitor change -> Step 7: Analysis and evaluation -> Spiral to next circle -> Step 1

Similarly, Nunan (1992) proposes a series of steps in the action research as follow:

Step1: Problem identification -> Step 2: Preliminary investigation -> Step 3: Hypothesis -> Step 4: Intervention -> Step 5: Evaluation -> Step 6: Dissemination -> Step 7: Follow- up Kurt Lewin (1946) describes the circles involving three steps:

Step 1: Unfreezing: Faced with a dilemma or disconfirmation, the individual or group

becomes aware of a need to change

Step 2: Changing: The situation is diagnosed and new models of behavior are explored and

tested

Step 3: Refreezing: Application of new behavior is evaluated, and if reinforcing, adopted

Among the models of action research mentioned above, the research made up her mind to choose Nunan‟s Action Research Cycle for this study because all the steps are very clear and easy to follow

2.1.3 Action research cycle and procedure for this research

Action research was developed and carried out in the researcher‟s own class during 8 weeks from week 1 to week 8 of the first term The subjects of the study were fifty grade

11 students who took part in the research from beginning to the end Data were collected from both the pre-action stage and during the action stage from week 1 to week 8 of this study

As stated above, Nunan‟s Action Research Cycle was adapted for this research However, due to time limited, only five steps were conducted as follow:

Step 1: Problem identification (week 1)

To identify the problem, the researcher spent one week observing her students, recording classroom interaction in listening lessons in grade 11I, talking to students and discussing

Then, the researcher found out that the majority of students at Kinh Mon High school in general and in grade 11I in particular were uninterested in listening lessons During the listening lessons, they often just sat silently, listened to the tapes with the hope to complete

the tasks in the textbooks This led the researcher to the first research question: „What

makes students uninterested in listening lessons?

Step 2: Preliminary investigation (week 2)

This investigation would allow students to express their opinions on listening lessons, the listening tasks in the textbook English 11 and their suggestions for improvement and help identify the causes of the problem

The data were elicited by using a pre-listening test (appendix 1), survey questionnaire 1 for students (appendix 2) and document (listening tasks) analysis A pre-test was prepared and

administered to fifty students of class 11I on the first day of week 2 Students did the short test in 15 minutes and then the teacher collected the test to mark The survey questionnaire

1 was delivered to students on the second day of week 2 and collected on Saturday of the same week Listening lessons and listening tasks in English 11 were analyzed based on the

criteria of a good task presented in Chapter 1 Two listening lessons (Unit 1 and Unit 2)

were observed by a colleague teacher along with observation sheets

Step 3: Hypothesis (week 3)

The data collected from week 2 was then analyzed to form the hypothesis After

reviewing the initial data, the first research question: „what makes students uninterested in

listening lessons?‟ was answered It was the unsuitability of the original listening tasks in

English 11 that made students bored with listening lessons and then their listening comprehension was not enhanced Therefore, the hypothesis formed was that the modified listening tasks could help the students improve their listening comprehension in the

listening lessons and the second research question „How can the modified listening tasks

help improve students‟ listening comprehension in the listening lessons?‟ was formed

Step 4: Plan Intervention (week 4- 7)

 Action plan (week 4 )

It is obvious that the most important outcome of the planning action is a detailed plan of what the researcher intends to implement or modify the activities That is the reason why in this step with the above mentioned hypothesis, the researcher prepared a careful action plan In this action plan, the researcher adapted the original tasks in three

listening lessons (Unit 3, 4 and 7) of English 11 to meet the student‟s needs and added

some changes after each lessons implemented in order to make them more suitable for the students Besides, the researcher also prepared questionnaire 2, observation sheets and teaching diaries

 Action implementation (week 5-7)

In this step, the action plan was applied in three lessons and lasted three weeks Each lesson lasted 45 minutes This aimed at studying the effects of the modified listening tasks

on improving students‟ listening comprehension The action implementation was carried out by the researcher with the participation of fifty students of class 11I at Kinh Mon Upper- Secondary School and one observer who was invited to observe the class during the

listening lessons

 Collecting data (week 5-7)

Also from week 5 to week 7, three listening lessons using the modified listening tasks were observed Three teaching diaries were composed In addition, questionnaire 2

for students (appendix 3) was filled by students themselves after each listening lessons Finally, a post-listening test (appendix 6) was followed up to measure students‟

improvement

Step 5: Evaluation (week 8)

In this step, the data collected in weeks 5-7 which reflect students‟ listening comprehension improvement in listening lessons using the modified listening tasks were analyzed The analysis was done to indicate how the modified listening tasks affected on students‟ listening comprehension, what the researcher has learnt as well as what experiences can be drawn from these lessons Analyzing the post data helped answer the

second research question „How can the modified listening tasks help improve students‟

listening comprehension in the listening lessons?‟

2.2 Data collection instruments

In order to do this action research successfully, pre and post data were collected by using qualitative and quantitative method with pre and post tests, survey questionnaire, classroom observations, document analysis (listening tasks) and teaching diaries

2.2.1 Pre- test (Appendix 1) and post- test (Appendix 6)

Testing was chosen as a mean of collecting data for this study firstly because test results

students‟ improvement as the test score can show a relative degree of validity and reliability

In this study, the researcher used tests to measure students in two periods: one was done at the pre-action stage to test students‟ listening level at that time and one was at post-action stage to measure students‟ improvement Both these tests were done within fifteen minutes

in the textbook Question 4 examines frequency of appearance of types of listening tasks in English 11 Question 5 is about students‟ opinions about listening tasks in the textbook Students‟ feelings when doing listening tasks are the focus of question 6 Question 7 examines students‟ opinions about the effect of listening tasks on their listening competence Question 8 probes what kinds of listening tasks students like best in listening lessons The last question seeks how the teacher treats listening tasks in class

Questionnaire1 is written in Vietnamese in order for students easily understand It does not require students to provide their name to ensure confidentiality The questionnaire copies will be distributed to the students on Monday of week 2 and collected on Saturday of the same week

2.2.2.2 Questionnaire 2 (Appendix 3)

This questionnaire is adapted from Peacock (1997) It is to evaluate students‟ improvement created by the modified listening tasks in listening lessons during three weeks of the implementing phase

The questionnaire is made up of two questions The first question is to probe whether students enjoy and satisfy with the modified listening tasks In this question, there are three closed items on a semantic differential scale of adjectives showing students‟ opinions about modified listening tasks i.e boring/interesting, unsatisfying/satisfying and inappropriate/appropriate From boring/interesting, there are five ranges applied: boring, monotonous, acceptable, pretty interesting and interesting It means that each item can be

scored from one to five Students‟ comments and suggestions to make the listening tasks more appropriate are the focus of question 2

Like Questionnaire 1, Question 2 is written in Vietnamese and does not require students to provide their names The questionnaire copies will be delivered to students at the end of each lesson and collected in the next lessons

2.2.3 Classroom observations (Appendix 4)

The observation sheets were used five times, twice at the pre-action stage (week 2) and three times at the action stage (week 5-7) by a non-participant observer The class was observed twice in week 2 to find out whether original listening tasks could make students satisfied The class was also observed three other times when the modified listening tasks were applied to investigate whether the modified listening tasks could help students better

in listening For each lesson, the non-participant observer observed 45 minutes She has a set of checklist involving students‟ concentration on the listening tasks, their involvement

in the tasks and their enjoyment and persistence She also observed students‟ reactions to the modified listening tasks and their preferences for listening tasks

The observation sheet consists of six items, each of which is ranked on the scale of one (low) to five (high) A non-participant observer completes the sheet until the lessons ends and after that she will work out the daily total score

Five listening lessons are observed Unit 1 (Friendship) and Unit 2 (Personal experiences)

are observed at the pre-action stage with the original tasks to see whether the tasks are

suitable and motivating students Unit 3 (A party), Unit 4 (Volunteer work) and Unit 7

(World population) are observed during the action stage with modified tasks

All the information collected from the class observations along with data from other data instruments were analyzed to evaluate the effects of modified listening tasks on students‟ listening comprehension

2.2.4 Teaching diaries (Appendix 5)

Teaching diaries refers to the recording what the teacher do in classrooms By gathering information about what is going on in the classroom, analyzing and evaluating the information, the teachers can identify what is appropriate to students or what is not Then some changes and improvements are made Normally, teaching diaries reflect the lesson plans, the way of teaching and learning

2.2.5 Textbook analysis

Textbook analysis is focused on analyzing the text material systematically There are different ways to analyze a textbook The analysis can include the structure of the text, the focus of the author, design and organization, language content, topic and methodology of the book or the usefulness of the learning assists and the aims and approaches

In this study, listening tasks in listening lessons of English 11 were analyzed to see whether they are suitable or not These listening tasks were analyzed basing on the criteria

of a good listening task mentioned in Chapter I, Section 1.2.2 This analysis helped the researcher have a sufficient evaluation of the listening tasks in the textbook Then, the researcher could decide which tasks in the textbook should be modified to better student‟s listening comprehension

The results of the textbook analysis are presented in Chapter 3

2.3 Participants

This study was carried out in the school year 2011-2012 at Kinh Mon High School, where the data were collected, analyzed and improvement strategies were tried out The people who took part in this study were

2.3.1 The teacher/ researcher

The researcher has been teaching English at Kinh Mon High School for 6 years She

is thirty years old She graduated from Hanoi National University- College of Languages and International Studies and now she is attending a Master Course in TESOL at this college, too

2.3.2 The non- participant observer

The observer invited to take part in this study is a teacher of English at Kinh Mon High School She got a B.A in English from Hanoi National University- College of Languages and International Studies She is at the age of forty and has been teaching English for 15 years

2.3.3 The students

The subjects of the study are fifty grade 11 students (28 females and 22 males) in the researcher‟s class- Class 11I- at Kinh Mon High School in the academic year 2011-2012 Their ages are between 16 and 17 They come from different communes of Kinh Mon district All of them have learnt English since class 6 However, their English proficiency

is quite low, especially listening skill Most of them do not pay attention to listening study

as they think that this skill is not very important and especially it is not tested in any National Examination In the school year 2011-2012, the student has a 45 –minute period per week for the listening skill

2.4 Summary

This chapter presented the research method of the study, instruments and the data collection procedure and analysis as well as the description of the participants Given the aims and objectives of the research, the researcher decided to employ survey questionnaires, the observation sheet, teaching diaries and document analysis Next chapter-chapter three- will present the data analysis and findings

CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

This chapter, first of all, analyzes the initial data collected from observations, questionnaires, textbook analysis and teaching diaries Then, the hypothesis and planning and action phases are presented Finally, the researcher discusses the techniques used for modifying listening tasks as well her attempts to evaluate the action research

3.1 Initial data

3.1.1 Results from pre-listening test

As stated in Chapter 2, on the first day of week 2 students would do a test to measure their level

Below are the results of the test

Table 1: Results of the pre-test

Marks Marks 1-2 Marks 3-4 Marks 5-6 Marks 7-8 Marks 9-10

3.1.2 Results from pre-action stage observations

At pre-action stage, the researcher taught Unit 1 (Friendship) and Unit 2 (Personal experiences) with non-modified tasks The lessons were observed by another teacher During the observations, this teacher took notes and gave the total marks of students‟ involvement in the tasks in the two periods The following is the description of one lesson: