Forming and developinglistening skills in english for sixth and seventh graders at vietnam junior high schools

The study reported in this thesis examines how to form and developlistening skills in English in the sixth and seventh grades at Vietnam junior high schools using the new textbooks Tieng

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HO CHI MINH CITY

ENGLISH FOR SIXTH AND SEVENTH GRADERS AT

VIETNAM ,JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS

i\ th esis s ubmitt e d in p artial fulfillment

o r th e re quirement s l or the de gree o r

ki as ter 0 I' i\ rt s (' n so L)

Submitted by NGU YEN TIll LAN T I I ANII

Ac udcmi c S upervi so r

L E '1'1 -11 TI I ANI -I , Ph D, ; .;

i _ LA ' ~ " l ~

L · - - i

' _ . - -

-Ho chiminh c it y Oc tobe r 2005

STAT JF:MENT OF AUTHORSHIP

r hereby certify tha t th is thesis en tit le d " Formin g and Developin g

Listening Skills in En g lish for Sixth and Se venth Grader s at V ie tna m

Junior High Schools" is my own wor k

This thesis ha s not be e n sub m itte d for the aw ard of any de g re e or dip lo ma

in any other instituti on

Hochirn inh Ci ty Octo ber 20, 2005

Nguyen Thi Lan Thanh

First of all, my thanks go to Dr Le Thi Thanh who ha s given me valuable and generous assistance over the lengthy period of researching and writing this thesis Without her careful guidance and encouragement I could not have finished this thesis

Secondly, I am indebted to all my teachers for their helpful instructions during the course; to my Director who has given me

suggestions for this thesis

Thirdly, I would like to thank all of my colleagues and the students for their help with data collection, and their cooperation and participation in the study.

Finally, thanks go to my family I would like to thank my parents who have givcn me much cncouragement and help; and

to my husband for his support and understanding.

II

A BSTRACT

Vietn am ese students have show n defect s 111 the ir ahility to listen to

Eng lish Listenin g comprehen sion on any kind of tes t seems to be the mostdifficult part for which Vietn am e se stude nts alwa ys get poor mar ks Can we

crea te ways to form and devel op listenin g skills for Vie tnamese studentsimmediately from their hc ginniug stages of le arning En lish to help them

overcome the se defects? That is the question guid ing this thesis which I ha ve

entitled "f or min and Developi ng Listeni ng Skils in English for Sixth and

Sev enth Graders at Vietnam Junior High Schools" As defined hy the junior

high school curr iculum these stude nts arc all ;It a he ginni ng level of Eng lish

with limited or even no pro ficien cy in understanding and spea king English and

lillie or n skill in reading and writing English

My first aim in this thesis was III describe the general te aching and

le arning situation of En lish in Vietnamjunior high schoo ls and the com mo nly

used tea chin g method s This led me to look critica lly at the typical roles of

te ach ers in teachin g English especially in a l sten ing class since the laun ch of

the new serie s of Englishtextbooks for students at unior high schools

To obta in informa tion relati ve to the areas menti on ed in the guiding

ques tio n of the study ~ design ed a survey usin a questi onnaire an assessm ent

of liste ning tcst ha sed O il the content of the tcxthonks and a co-reIation aI

analysis for both sixth and seve nth gra ders learning from the textbooks Ti en g

/ 11 11 O Ti cn g ;\1111 7 I n addition in order 1 discover the opinions and teach ing

meth ods of te achers (If sixth and seventh grades a questionnaire for the

tea ch ers was employe d

I II

Th e d ata co llecte d reve al ed valuable in formatio n whi ch co uld be o f

b enefit for t eaching a nd l e arn in g E ng lish Fir st o f a ll, for mi ng a nd d e ve lo p in g

li stening s k ills f or b eginn ers of s ix th a nd seve nth gra des is w ha t we t e a ch e rs

ca n d o o n ly wh en w e a re abl e t o a c t as tea che rs co nnec ting s tude nts a nd t he

l anguage Secondl y , s tude nts' r e sponse s a nd p erforman ce o n th e li st ening t e st

r evealed that th eir li st enin g a b ility w a s n ot in prop orti on t o th eir l e arning tim e

S o , forming and de velopin g li st ening s k ill t o geth er wi th o the r s ki lls h a s t o b e a n important part in any Engli sh t ea ching pr ogram o f ES Lrr EFL And f ina lly ,

th ough te aching li stenin g s k ill , t o juni or hi gh s c hoo l s tude n ts i s a c ompl etely

o new thing f or juni or h igh te ache rs, a nd i s ratherdiffi cult f or m an y t each ers w ho

a re u sed t o te a chin g E ng lis h th rou gh Vi etn am ese, t e a chers h a ve s how n th e ir

eff orts in appl yin g n ew m ethods in t e a ching listen ing a nd s peak in g t o lay a

g ood fo unda tio n f or be g inne rs o f E ng lis h a s a r equ irem ent b y th e M inis try of

E d uca tio n.

In a n a ttemp t t o co n tri bute a sys te matic l o o k at t he teac hers' role s a nd

s tude nts ' act ua l p er form an ce t o ge nera l i ns ti tu tio na l p rocess o f for m ing a nd

de vel op ing li steni ng sk ill for be g inn ers of 61h a nd 7th grades, the a uthor o f th i s

th e si s wi shed to o ffer a de pi ct ion (I f th e se matt e rs in th e a na lysi s and

interpret ation o f th e data co lle ct e d M o st i m porta n tly , r eco m me nda tio ns we n:

s ugge s te d ba sed on this perception B e cau se o f th e lim it of t im e a nd sco pe o f

the s tud y , th ere must be limitation s H o w e ver, b e cau se t e a chi ng li stenin g s k ill

•

t o j u n ior high scho ol s tude nts i s a c omple tel y n e w thin g w hic h c au sed ma ny

co n trove rs ia l m atters, this s tud y ca n h us e d o n bo th eva lua tive and

in stru ct ion al le vel s w he n there s eem s t o be ve ry few paper s m en tio n te a ch in g

l istenin g s ki lls III E ng lis h f o r V ietn a m e se jun ior hi g h s tudents i n an effe ctive

w a y

I V

Chapter I BACKGROUND TO Tim STUDY 5

1.1 A SUMMARY OFGENERAL LISTNEING PROBLEMS 5

1.2 A DESCRIPTION OF TEACIIIN G ENGLISH AND POPULAR

TEACHING METHODS USE D IN VIETNAM MIDDLE AND

v

2.2 THE NATURE or LIST ENING , 1

2.3 LIST ENI NG IN /\ FO REIGN LANGUAG E 1

2.4 THE RELATI ONSHIPS OF LISTENING TO OTHER

2.4 1 The relation bet ween liste ning and other aspects 1()2.4.2 The relation between liste ning and speaking , 1R

2.4.3 Listening and Reading , 1

2.5 FACTORS AFI'I:Crl NCi Ti lE LISTENING PROCT SS 21

2,(1 TI II:ORIES AND SOME IU':LATIT) STU DIES 24

Chaptcr4 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 39

4.1 RESPONS ESTO SURVE Y QUE STI ONNA IRES 39

4.2RESPONSES TO THE LIST ENING ASSESSMENTTEST 47

4.3 RESPONSESTOTHE SURV EY QUEST IONNA IRE S FROM

4.3.1 Teachers ' background informati on 64

4.3.3 Teach ers' practical meth ods for teaching the listening skill 69

5.2.1The roles of classroom teach ers 78

I Serv ing as a bridge bet ween the langu age and stude nts 78

2 As a conductor creatingan effecti ve

5.3.1 Compr,ehens ion befor e produ ction 83

Table 4.1Comparison of percent of 6111 andill graders' reported

Table4.2Compa riso nOU)11l and i ll graders' opinio ns of their

Table4.3 Comparison degreeofcomprehellsion of the li stenin g chan ne l in

Ti clIg 11 1117 () of the' thrce groups of611l grade rs A :'\

Table 4.4 Perce nt differen ces bet ween the 6111 and i ll graders' dailytime for

Table 4.5 Comparison ofcorrec tanswers in Part I mad e by 611 and i h

Table 4.11 The percent differenc es in Part 3 between ()11l andi ll grade rs

writingthe correctclock time as they heard from the tape 5

Tab le 4.12 The perc en t diff eren ces ill Part 3 amon g the three groups or

Tab le 4.1 The per cent diffcrcnccs in Part 3 between the two groups or

v 111

Table 4.14 J\ compa rison ofthe results of Part 4 and Part 713 between

Table 4.15The result s of l'art 4and Part 713for the three groups 01'

Table 4.16 The rcsulIsofPart4 and Part 7B for the two groups 0I'i hgraders 5~

Table 4.17 J\ comparisonof the results lor Part 5 between (JI" and i" graders 59

Table4.1g The rcsuIts 0fl'art (,Iiirthe (,'"and i" grade groups '()()

Table 4.1 9 The result s ofPart (JIor the three (JI"grade groups ,(J2Table 4.20 Comparisonof the result sofI'art () fo r the two i" gradegro ups .r <)

Table 4.21 Teachers' background inf orm ati on ,(J4

Table 4.22 Teachers opinionsof teachin g listening h 5

Table 4.23Teach ers' opinions of the listenin g channelin T i eng Anh (j

Tuhlc 4.24 Teachers ' opinions of the testing andevaluation f or listening ,(17

Tahlc4.25Teachers' opinions ofdilficulticsof the irown and fro111 their

Table 4.26 Teachers practical meth odsused in teaching the Pre-l istenin g step 70

Table 4.27 Teachers' f ocu s ofconccntr.uion in Whi le-Iistening step 70

Table 4.28 Techniqu es used b teache rsto help students

Table4.29 Ways teachers help studentswith listenin g comprehe nsionof texts 71Table 4.30 Techniquesused byteachers to develop theother language

Table 4.31 Teachers' waysof testing listening 73

Table 4.32Teachers' use of II'S and 'Play with Words ' section 7

I X

Figure 4.2 Percent comparison or the three groups or61 graders'

comm unicative ability 42

I"-rgurc s4.3 Cornpan son. Iictwccn (lho ancI 7 1hgruuc.1 rs' comp reI 'icnsion

,

ofthe textbo oks' listenin g channel 44

\

Figu re4.4 Compari son Ill'percenta ge di Ifcrcn cc s in compreh en sion or the

textb ook s' listenin g channel between the two groups

x

ES L English as a Second Language

Xl

The study reported in this thesis examines how to form and developlistening skills in English in the sixth and seventh grades at Vietnam junior

high schools using the new textbooks Tieng Anh 6 and Tieng Anh 7 This

introduction presents (l) the reasons why I chose this topic, (1) the aims ofthe study with an overview of my thesis and (3) the organization of thestudy

Listening is widely perceived to be the most difficult of the fourlanguage skills Being a life-long learner and teacher of English, I am wellaware of how difficult and "painful" it is to make headway in my listeningcompetence I have long been intrigued by the very challenge of listening.Fortunately, in my job as a teacher, I have had the opportunity to teachEnglish from elementary to college level Through my work with collegestudents, especially, I have heard many of their complaints about theobstacles facing them in communication and comprehension due to theirpoor listening ability and mispronunciation Moreover, these obstacleshave had an impact on their understanding and studies

In recent years, one often hears complaints that college studentseven those whose major is English lack the most basic English knowledgeand have language skills that are so poor that they are not able to do class

work successfully According to a recent survey reported in the Thanh Nien newspaper on the English skills of young applicants to foreign

companies, the young applicants now really lack communicative skillswhich are vital for their work and chances for promotion Although theyhave spent at least ten years learning English from high school to college.this amounts to a waste of time when thcv arc unable to usc their Englisheffectively for their work This is a serious matter regarding the teaching

of English in schools and is an issue that needs to be solved soon

Presently working as a teacher of English at a junior high school,using the new English Textbooks for sixth and seventh grades which werewritten with situation and topic-based and communicative methods tobuild up communication skills for beginners in sixth and seventh grades, Ihave found out that the new English textbooks have created manyproblems for teachers in applying the new teaching methods because up tonow teaching English in Vietnam has still followed teacher-centeredmethods of Grummar-Translatlon In other words, Grummar-Translation

is still predominant in high schools in Vietnam Conscqucntty, teachingEnglish in a communicative, situation-based way is still strange andbeyond the reach of the majority of teachers at Vietnam middle and highschools who arc used to the traditional methods Moreover, there remainmany different and controversial viewpoints on teaching listening skills.Although there arc always teacher training sessions before using the newtextbooks, teachers still run into difficulties in their practical teaching Itseems that until now a few papers on teaching listening skills forVietnamese have been written

In spite of the difficulties in teaching listening in an effective andcompelling way, I think there must be ways to help learners of Englishovercome these difficulties and it is up to teachers to lind the ways toovercome these obstacles from the moment they begin to learn English

This is also a time when innovations in teaching methods, in educationalquality etc are being applied in the new series of English textbooks used

time" for beginners of English

Finally, the above reasons: the challenge of listening in a foreignlanguage, students' difficulties, and the method of English teaching,

Skills in English for Sixth and Seventh Graders at Vietnam Iunior High

to me, teachers of English at junior and senior high schools in Vietnam,lecturers teaching at college levels, and students as well

English for Sixth and Seventh Graders at Iunior High Schools in

- investigate practical problems that teachers and students face in theteaching and learning of listening skills through data analysis

3

- present implications and an applicable teaching solution using someof' the suggested listening tasks presented in the new textbooks to helpstudents develop listening skills.

3 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

The study begins with an introduction of the thesis which states thereasons why I chose the topic; the aims of the study with an overview ofthe thesis; and the organization of the study Following the introductionare five chapters Chapter One presents the background of the stud)' withthe information needed to understand the issues discussed in the thesis.Chapter Two is the theoretical background on which the study is based toexplain the proposed application to teaching listening skills ChapterThree presents the methodology employed toward the practicalinvestigations Chapter Four analyzes the information collected ChapterFive presents findings and recommendations with some proposedtechniques for teaching listening skills to sixth and seventh graders In the

end are the appendix and a list of bibliography

CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

In this chapter, I would like to present the background informationnecessary for understanding the issues discussed in this thesis Thischapter consists of four sections The first section is a summary of thegeneral listening problems with which learners are often faced A briefdescription of teaching English and popular teaching methods used inVietnam middle and high schools comprise section two The third sectionpresents the teaching of English at Vietnam middle and high schools in thenew context The final section is a summary of the teaching syllabus andrequirements for Tieug Auli 6 and Tieng Anlt 7.

It is generally observed that although most Vietnamese high schoolstudents have learned English for a long time, they rarely have the chance

to communicate in English outside the classroom In other words, the"have a very limited exposure to an English-speaking environment Thishelps account for the fact that comprehending the spoken form of thetarget language is the most daunting task for most middle and high schoolstudents In that light, identifying some of the problems encounteringstudents will doubtlessly help teachers devise ways to tackle theseobstacles in hopes of a better and more effective listening session Thelistening problems could be stated as follows:

5

• The speed at which an interlocutor speaks and the language hel she

uses are beyond students' control Moreover, most of what is spoken isusually said only once To put it in another way, the listeners, alert asthey are, may not be able to keep up with the speaker, for they missthe gist of the whole speech while being busy trying to work out themeaning of one part Consequently, misunderstanding can easily arise

• Given that students lack exposure to an authentic languageenvironment, students may not be familiar with the sound, stress,intonation and rhythm of naturally spoken English, not to mention thevarieties of English accents they will face

• Another problem is the tendency for the listeners to try to understandevery word in the listening text Paying too much attention to thespecifics will likely result in failure to catch the whole meaning Also,

we teachers, intentionally and unintentionally, have reinforced thispropensity by taking the trouble to repeat or pronounce wordscarefully, slowing down the speed, or adapting our language to suit thestudents' level Thus they are ottcn discouraged by their lack of abilitywhen they are unable to understand a particular word or phrase

• Mispronunciation can also exacerbate failure to understand the targetdiscourse It is usually the case where a very familiar word is notcaught by students as a result of mispronunciation

• Boredom and fatigue may affect the concentration of the listeners

• Distractions inside and outside the classroom may also hinder listeningcomprehension

• One more problem of listening to English is that students get upsetwhen they hear a word they do not know This reaction is damaging to

comprehension and students easily turn off their minds and thuscannot hear the subsequent words.

1.2 A DESCRIPTION OF TEACHING ENGLISH AND POPULARTEACHING METHODS USED IN VIETNAM MIDDLE AND HIGHSCHOOLS

According to a survey of the British Council in conjunction with theDepartment of Education of Hochiminh city on the current situation 01'

English teaching at junior and senior high schools, most teachers involvedstill use the traditional ways of teaching At the junior high school levels,some teachers have tried to teach listening skills hut their teaching mainlyinvolves the students' repeating after the tape or the teacher Practicallyspeaking, the teaching of English in Vietnam middle and high schools stillfollows the old-fashioned, traditional model of Crammar-Translation inwhich the teacher's authority is emphasized while learners are relativelypassive recipients of information, most of which is limited to grammar andvocabulary Additionally, the majority of English class hours are taught inVietnamese rather than English More often than not, students tend to getaccustomed to their teacher's accent, which, however it may he good, isnot standard enough to enable them to understand what is spoken hynative speakers In senior high schools, on the other hand, the content andproduct of reading and writing skills (usually sentence transformation)are focused on while the communication skills of listening and speakingare often neglected or not taught at all As a result, the students learnpassively in class and lack communication skills in reality Although most

7

high school graduates have studied English for at least seven years, theyare not able to carryon a conversation in English Thus the result of theseyears of study is really a waste of time and work for the teachers,studentsand society in general.

At the turn of this century, however, many dramatic developmentsand changes in TESL / TEFL have been made in order to meet the needs

of globalization among nations as well as to help people approach themodernity in many fields Therct'ore, in many countries theCommunicative Approach has taken the place of traditional models and isnow widely used in TESL / TEFL Teaching English in Vietnam, especially

in middle and high schools, needs change as well

SCHOOLS IN THE NEW CONTEXT

Like other countries in the world, Vietnam has to cope with manychanges in the new era In order to grasp and implement the policies ofthe Party, Vietnam Ministry of Education has set up policies foreducational development over ten years' time from 2001 to 2010 whichwould be carried out in two important stages; the first being from 200 I to

2005 and the latter from 2006 to 2010 The important points or the first

stage are "to create basic changes ill education quality , by renovating contents , teaching methods, and educational program s ill order to k eep up with the world's change s and developments:" Consequently, the currentlyused textbooks for all junior and se n ior classes will be replaced with newones from 2002 to 2007 In the vears 2002, 20()3 and 2004 only the .textbooks for grades six, seven and eight were replaced The textbooks

for the other grades are now in restricted use for "experimental study"before being widely used throughout the country In order to implementthe policies regarding the changes, authors have tried to apply thecommunicative methods with the situation-based, theme-based, andcommunicative tasks that are already widely being used in TESL/ TEFL inthe world when writing the new English textbooks in order to developstudents' communicative skills right from the beginning stages of learningEnglish This is, in fact, a big change to go from Grammar-Translation to aCommunicative, situation-based approach not only in writing textbooksbut also in the manner of teaching them.

SYLLABUS AND REQUIREMENTS

Beginning From the year 2002 and on, a school year now consists ofthirty-five weeks starting from September and ending in May, instead ofthirty two weeks as in previous school years There are two terms a year

of which the first term is 18 weeks long and the second term is 17 weeks

In grades six and seven, there are allotted three periods a week or onehundred and five periods(1 period =45 minutes)a year to study English, ofwhich one-third of the time is for listening Three one-period testsincluding a final term exam are given each term In addition to the threecompulsory tests, there are at least four quizzes and oral tests each term

The textbooks of Tieng Anli 6 and Tieng Anlt 7 consist of sixteen

units In other words, both sixth and seventh graders have to finish eightunits each term The familiar topics of the textbooks are close to students'knowledge which focus on (1) personal information; (2) school life; (3)

9

home life; (4) work and play; (5) people and places; (6) health andhygiene; (7) and the environment around us The higher the grade level,the more difficult the vocabulary, grammar and skills required.

According to the directives given by the Ministry of Education, anintegrative method of teaching skills must he applied; and teachers ofEnglish have to lay the first foundations for the two skills of listening andspeaking for sixth and seventh graders In other words, listening and

speaking are given priority in these two grades, while the other skills will

he emphasized more in the higher grades

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, I would like to present (1) different definitions oflistening; (2) the nature of listening; (3) listening skills for a foreignlanguage; (4) the relationship of listening to other aspects and skills; (5)factors affecting listening; (6) theories and related studies

2.1 DIFFERENT DEFINITIONS OF LISTENING

Listening is the first language skill that children acquire It provides

a foundation for all aspects of language and cognitive development, and itplays a life-long role in the processes of learning and communicationessential to productive participation in life For this reason, people ortenassume that the development of listening skills gets considerable attention

at schools However, according to a survey on high school students,Burley-Allen (1982) found the classroom emphasis on language modes to

be inversely related to the amount of time people use them: students get

12 years of formal training in writing, 6-8 years in reading, 1-2 years inspeaking, and from 0-112 year in listening Swanson (1984b) calls this the

"inverted curriculum." He (1984a) found that there is a tendency forteachers not to emphasize the listening objectives Many studies suggestthat educators have assumed that Iistcning develops naturally (e.g.,Abcllcira, 1987) Furthermore, a study by Swanson (1986) puts forth thatteachers arc not apt to gct much training on teaching Iistcning As aresult, there are different definitions of Iistcning depending on the timeand the point of view of each person Thomlison 's (1984) definition of

11

listening includes "active listening," which goes beyond literalcomprehension to an empathetic understanding of the speaker Coakley(1985) tends to define listening skills as the opposites of negative attitudes.She discusses one common negative listening attitude as self-centeredness,

as opposed to being "other-oriented," with a genuine interest in othersthat leads to acknowledging another person's comments by asking open-ended questions Hirsch (1986) groups definitions as 1) attempts to definethe process; 2) explanations of sequential phases in listening: how sound isreceived, comprehended, and acted upon; and 3) generalist definitionsthat examine aspects of listening without sequencing them or relatingthem to each other as parts of a process

2.2 THE NATURE OF LISTENING

"Listening is the process of perceiving, attending to, and assigningmeaning to aural stimuli." (Wolvin and Ccakley 1985, page 74) Indeed,

listening is more than just perception of sounds but requirescomprehension of meaning Listening is the ability to identify andunderstand what others are saying This involves understanding aspeaker's accent or pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, andgrasping his/ her meaning (Howatt and Dakin) An able listener is capable

of doing these four things simultaneously

Listening not only involves perceiving sounds from spoken messagesbut also receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to bothspoken (verbal) and lor nonverbal messages In fact, listening interacts

with a very powerful nonverbal communication system which sometimescontradicts the verbal messages The nonverbal cues include facialexpressions, gestures etc

Listening, like reading, involves receiving messages, so both skills areoften referred to as receptive skills Receptive skills give way to theproductive skills of speaking and writing which often involve languageproduction.

According to Shrope, to improve our learners' listening skills weshould let them (A ustin Shrope, 1970):

1 Adopt a positive attitude

2 Be responsive

3 Shut out distractions

4 Listen for the speaker's purpose

5 Look for the signals of what is to come

6 Look for summaries of what has gone before

2.3 LISTENING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Listening in a foreign language is a complex process In listening toEnglish as a foreign language, besides the points that Shrope mentionedabove, the most important features can be defined as:

1 Coping with the sounds

2 Understanding intonation and stress

3 Coping with redundancy and noise

4 Predicting

5 Understanding colloquial vocabulary

6 Understanding different accents

7 Using visual and environmental clues

13

Listeners have to be able to understand the main idea of what issaid as well as the specific details They may need to check anypredictions they have made and understand the speaker's meaning,emotions and opinions They may have to infer relationships betweenspeakers, or identify the context in which the speakers are operating In

addition, they may well have to use several of listening skills in thecourse of a single listening activity Following are some of the main skillsinvolved in listening in a foreign language:

Listening for the main idea - listeners listen to identify the overall ideasexpressed in the whole recording

Listening for details - listeners listen for groups of words and phrases atsentence level

Listening for specific information - listeners listen for particularinformation at word level

Predicting - listeners try to guess key information contained in therecording before they listen

Inferring meaning - listeners listen to identify the difference betweenwhat the speaker says and what they actually mean

Identifying emotion - listeners listen to identify the mood of certainspeakers

Listening for opinions - listeners listen to identify the attitude of certainspeakers

In the process of perceiving sounds, it assumed that "we can

perceive speech by building up an interpretation in a series of separatestages beginning with lowest-level units (the phonemic segments of words)and gradually working up to the larger units such as the utterance, from

which we then derive our interpretation of the speaker's meaning." In

other words, our comprehension of speech is built up through a series of'stages starting with individual sounds and gradually building up to an

understanding of the whole message This is known as the serial bottom-up

the message This is known as serial top-down processing.

Therefore, listening is a combination of senses and different types

of knowledge; so it can not be isolated from other skills in the teachingand learning process In teaching, if we have our students producesomething, the teaching will be more communicative and this brings us to

the must of integrating language skills in teaching a foreign language.

Our own "coherent interpretation" of any spoken message must be

built up in order that it can help us to listen successfully Here, we

mention two things First, is "coherent". It needs to be coherent with what

we believe has just been said and what we already know about the

speaker, the context, and the world in general Second, is "interpretation",

that is, our vision of what the speaker meant, and what we are able to

15

access from that meaning Effective listening sharpens thinking andcreates understanding.

2.4 THE RELATIONSHIP OF LISTENING TO OTHER ASPECTSAND SKILLS

2.4.1 The Relation between Listening and Other Aspects

Listening comprehension is the result of combining the newinformation in what we have just heard with our previous knowledge andexperience The role of the previous knowledge, also called "backgroundknowledge" or "knowledge of the world", is central to the way weunderstand language, whether through listening, reading or any other

means Widdowson (1983) refers to it as (1) systemic or linguistic

knowledge which is the knowledge of phonological, syntactic, and

semantic components of the language system and (2) schematic or

non-linguistic information The term "schematic" comes from the concept ofthe schema which could be defined as a mental structure consisting ofrelevant individual knowledge, memory, and experience This mentalstructure allows us to incorporate what we learn into what we know.Therefore, it is one of the most important factors in listeningcomprehension, especially in the "serial top-down model" Lack of socio-cultural, factual, and contextual knowledge of the target language canpresent an obstacle to listening comprehension The following is a figurewhich summaries the relationship between the two principal sources ofinformation we may consult in the process of comprehension

Figure 2.1: Information s ources in c omprehens ion (A dapted fr om A nderson and

L yn ch 19 88:13 )

- -~ ~

c a l\J

p R E

E

E

N S I

a N

Pro cedural kno wledge

B a ck ground kno wledge

Many language instruction experts have traditionally consideredlistening as the handmaiden, servant or poor relation of the three otherchief language skills: reading, speaking and writing Consequently,listening used to be frequently viewed as an enabling skill not worthy ofattention on its own.

A study by Wilt (1950), which found that people listen 45 percent orthe time they spend communicating, is still widely cited (c.g., Martin,1987; Strother, 1987) Wilt found that 30 percent of communication timewas spent speaking, 16 percent reading, and 9 percent writing Thatfinding confirmed what Rankin had found in 1928, that people spent 70percent or their waking time communicating and that three-fourths or thistime was spent on listening and speaking In other words, through thenormal course or a day, listening is used nearly twice as much as speakingand four to five times as much as reading and writing (Rivers, 1981 ).So it

is not wrong to state that listening is integrally connected with otherlanguage skills and is a worthy skill to be taught along with the other skills.Knowing the nature of listening and its relationship to other skills helps uslearn and teach listening skills more effectively

2.4.2 The Relation between Listening and Speaking

All humans are listeners before speakers Babies as young as threedays old, have shown their preference of listening to speech and tomaking sounds (Butterfield and Siperstein, 1974)

Listening often gives way to speaking Usually, listening andspeaking take place at the same time To be a proficient partner in

conversation, one needs to be skilled as both speaker and listener.Effective speaking depends on successful listening This is not only truefor L1 learners but for L2 learners as well Researchers have found thatthe most effective spoken abilities came from speakers who hadpreviously been listeners on the same task So any effective program todevelop listening skills has to provide a wide range of listening situationsand tasks which link speaking activities; or speaking activities are theresult of the process of following and interpreting listening input Insummary, listening is as active as speaking, and in some ways even moredifficult because it requires attention, thought, interpretation, andimagination.

2.4.3 Listening and Reading

As mentioned above, listening and reading involve receivingmessages and are often referred to as receptive skills Listening andunderstanding come from speeches/oral sounds while reading andunderstanding come from written words or texts

In the traditional view, the relative difficulty of listening and oralskills under normal circumstances for native speakers is successfullymastered in the pre-school years before reading instructions begin Achild is usually assumed to already be an effective listener who canidentify sounds, words, and how the major part of the syntax in his/hernative language works, and what the meanings are Thereforc, littledirect attention is paid to the development of listening skills at school.However, according to a large scale survey of 6,000 school children ofdifferent age groups on the relationship between listening and reading,

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Neville (1985) found a consistency in the results achieved means to haveaccomplished something good For all of the age groups, there was a widerange of scores which were highly correlated: good listeners were goodreaders and poor listeners were generally poor readers This suggeststhat for native speakers, listening is not a skill that they master, once andfor all, early on in their life but one that may continue to develop over alonger period than it was traditionally believed.

In contrast, in a study of the L2 reading-listening relationship in a

group of Japanese learners of English, Brown and Hayes (1985) found therelationship to be less clear-cut than it was with Ll learners and that theJapanese learners tended to be better at reading than listening This can

be explained by the fact that listening requires a lot of skills at the sametime, including the ability to recognize English sounds and understand thespeeches (spoken language) which is really difficult for L2 learners due

to their mispronunciation and their lack of vocabulary However, so farthere is not much known about L2 listening-reading relationship.Generally, "researchers have discovered there appears to be animportant general language processing skill that influences performances

in both listening and reading "

Among others, Pearson and Fielding (1983) link listening skills toreading skills They feel that reading and listening make use of similarlanguage comprehension processes They maintain that, like reading,listening involves the simultaneous orchestration of skills in phonology,syntax, semantics, and knowledge of text structure all of which seem to becontrolled by the same set of cognitive processes In conclusion,

developing listening skills could lead not only to improved listening but

also to better reading capacity for both foreign learners and nativespeakers.

Listening is a demanding process, not only because of thecomplexity of the process itself, but also due to many factorscharacterized by the listener, the speaker, the content of the message.and any visual support that accompanies the message (Brown and Yule,1983) In addition, the physical mechanism of the ear and the degree ofattention paid by the listener are also factors that affect the process oflistening comprehension

2.5.1 The Listener

Men and women generally have different styles of communicationwhich lead to their different modes of listening According to Tannen(1990), men often listen for facts and information while women oftenlisten for underlying intentions and feelings This is proved to be true inthe U.S culture as well as most societies of the Western Hemisphere

In addition to the difference in genders, interest in a topic mayincrease or decrease the listener's comprehension A listener who isactively participating in a conversation generally has more backgroundknowledge to facilitate understanding of the topic than a listener who is,

in effect, eavesdropping on a conversation between two people whosecommunication has been recorded on an audiotape Furthermore, activeinvolvement in a conversation by using negotiation skills, such as asking

for clarification, repetition, or a definition of points not understood,enables a listener to make sense of the incoming information.

2.5.2 The Speaker

No two individuals speak in exactly the same way; everyone has a

unique form of speech, or idiolect. Colloquial language, reduced forms anindividual's habit of speech and even his/her characteristic rhythm, pausestructures and accent often make comprehension more difficult Aspeaker's rate of delivery may be too fast, too slow, or have too manyhesitations for a listener to follow Awareness of a speaker's corrections

and use of rephrasing such as "er. J mean That i s w ell .uhtn " canassist the listener In fact, it has been proved that the more exposure thelistener has to the points mentioned above, the greater the ability tocomprehend Therefore, learners need practice recognizing these speechhabits as clues to deciphering meaning

2.5.3 The Content

If the content of a message deals with familiar topics for which thelistener has sutficient background knowledge and enough familiarvocabulary, it is easy for the listener to comprehend If not,comprehension can become a real challenge for the listener

2.5.4 Visual Aids

It is proven that visual aids such as video, pictures, diagrams, gestures,facial expressions and even body language can greatly improve

comprehension if the listener is able to interpret those visual aidscorrectly.

2.5.5 The Physical Mechanism of the Ear

Many people do not have a perfect hearing mechanism In fact, inthe United States one out of twenty people suffers from heating loss ordistortion often caused by loud music or some other kind or noise pollution

at home or at work (Brccchcr and Linde,1992) Joiner descrihed thehearing mechanism as follows:

"The auditory reception of the stimulus- the vocal message- is adetailed process involving the intricate hearing mechanism The soundmust enter the middle car, set into vihration the tympanic membrane,and

be conducted through the inner car to the brain "

(Joiner1986,p.15)

Thus, the physical mechanism of the ear is one or the importantfactors affecting the process of listening comprehension In teaching,attention should be paid to any listening difticulties both from within andwithout in order to achieve the best results in the process of teaching andlearning

2.5.6 The Degree of Attention

Attention is important in general Cohen (1990) emphasizes itsimportance for listening In his survey using a questionnaire, he confirmedthat students take in less classroom input than teachers might desire,

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often in the range of 25%-85%.People generally remember only about20%-30% of what is said (Breecher, 1983) Based on this, he concludedthat if the listener is not paying adequate attention, the information willnot be processed This is consolidated by Scovel:

"A ttention is central to the entire process of second languageacquisition and, for that matter, to any form of learning Attention

is the learner's window to the world; it is the neuropsychological

acquisition Attention neurologically and psychologically explainsthe ways external stimuli enter (or are blocked from) the mind andthe way the mind shapes (or does not shape) the individual'sperception of the people and the languages that make up thesurrounding environment "

(Scovel]lJlJ] ,pp.3,5)

2.6 THEORIES AND SOME RELATED STUDIES

"Humans acquire language in only one way - by understandingmessages or by receiving "comprehensible input." (Krashen,]lJS2).According to Krashen and Asher (1982), comprehensive input is an important factor in second language acquisition "Lnput " describes all the

incoming speech (and other) signals that listeners hear and from whichthey select cues in order to construct a mental order of the speaker'smessage Such input is input-for-comprehension

To Krashen (1981), comprehension plays a central and possiblypredominant part in the whole process of language learning

Comprehensive input is essential when we learn a foreign language Acomprehension-before-production approach can facilitate languageacquisition, particularly in the early stages One of Krashen's hypothesesabout comprehensible input is the Input hypothesis, which is his attempt toexplain how the learner acquires a second language or how secondlanguage acquisition takes place.

According to this hypothesis, the learner improves and progressesalong the 'natural order' when he/she receives second language 'input'that is one step beyond hislher current stage of linguistic competence Forexample, if a learner is at a stage 'I', then acquisition takes place whenhe/she is exposed to 'Comprehensible Input' that belongs to level 'i + I'

We are able to understand language containing unacquired grammar withthe help of context, which includes extra-linguistic information, ourknowledge of the world, and previously acquired linguistic competence.The caretaker provides extra-linguistic context by limiting speech to thechild to the "here and now" The beginning-language teacher providescontext via visual aids and discussion of familiar topics The Inputhypothesis has two corollaries:

a Speaking is a result of acquisition and not its cause Speech cannot

be taught directly hut "emerges" on its own as a result of buildingcompetence via comprehensible input

b If input is understood, and there is enough of it, the necessarygrammar is automatically provided The language teacher needsnot attempt deliberately to teach the next structure along thenatural order- it will be provided in just the right quantities andautomatically reviewed if the student receives a sufficient amount

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of comprehensive input In his later writings, however, Krashenadmits that comprehensible input is a necessary but not a sufficientcondition for acquisition The other necessary condition relates tothe Affective Filter hypothesis.

The "affective filter" is an imaginary barrier which preventslearners from using input which is available in the environment "Affect"refers to things such as motivations, needs, attitudes and emotional states

So a learner who is bored, tense, angry or anxious will screen out input,making it unavailable for acquisition Therefore, the filter limits what isnoticed and what is acquired depending on the learner's state of mind ordisposition

Because comprehensible input plays an important role in learning asecond language, Krashen exhorted to provide extensive quantities ofcomprehensible input without offering any special instructions to learners

on how to deal with this input The concept seems to be that listeningcomprehension simply takes care of itself without any aid or teaching and

"Listening can take care of itself without any aid of teaching And the bestmethods are therefore those that supply 'comprehensible input' in lowanxiety situations, containing messages that students really want to hear.These methods do not force early production in the second language, but

improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensibleinput, and not from forcing and correcting production "

Like Krashen, Michael Long also views comprehensible input thesource of acquisition Yet, he differs from Krashen in emphasizing oneparticular way of achieving comprehensible input - meaning negotiation.

To Michael Long, there must be other ways in which input is madecomprehensible than modifying the input itself One way is by use of thelinguistic and extra-linguistic context when the incoming speech isinadequate Another way is through orienting conversation to the "here-and-now" A third way, more consistently used method is modifying notthe input itself but the interactional structure of conversation through

comprehension checks and clarification requests etc

2.7 SUMMAI{Y

The chapter has discussed the current issues relating to listeningskills and the other ones in both Ll and 1.2 teaching and learning:Listening, an important skill which has a close relation to other skills, is animportant aspect that can not be left out of any educational program,especially ESL This theoretical position has been supported by a numher

of SLA theories and studies; however, most of the studies and theoriesmerely discuss the importance of listening in general without anycarefully investigating of how to instruct listening in the form ofcomprehensible input effectively and the important teaching andfacilitating roles of teachers' in instructing comprehensihle input tobeginners These roles consist of record keeping; classroom management;scene setting; language analysis; presentation of rules governinggrammar, phonology, morphology, and spelling; discussion of cross-

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