Luận văn thạc sĩ an initial evaluation of the listening materials for first year english majors at the faculty of english language teacher education, ulis, vnu as perceived by students and teachers a needs

Figure 3.2: Ts’ overall opinions on their Ss’ main listening problems 41 Figure 3.3: Comparison between Ss and Ts’ opinions on Ss’ main listening problems 41 Figure 3.4: Comparison betwe

List of abbreviations vi

1.1 Listening and teaching listening in the foreign language classroom 6

L2 Foreign language / second language

TSA Target situation analysis

ULIS University of Languages and International Studies VNU Vietnam National University, Hanoi

Figure 3.2: Ts’ overall opinions on their Ss’ main listening problems 41

Figure 3.3: Comparison between Ss and Ts’ opinions on Ss’ main listening problems 41

Figure 3.4: Comparison between Ss and Ts’ opinions on Ss’ main listening problems 42

Figure 3.5: Ss’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials

for first-year ELT Ss in terms content

48

Figure 3.6: Ts’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials

for first-year ELT Ss in terms of content

49

Figure 3.7: Ss’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials

for first-year ELT Ss in terms of recordings

50

Figure 3.8: Ss’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials

for first-year ELT Ss in terms of recordings

50

Figure 3.9: Ss’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials

for first-year ELT Ss in terms of topics

51

in-class listening materials for first-year ELT Ss

Table 1.1: NA / initial assessment components (Brindley, 1984) 17

Table 2.1: Assessment in the “listening – speaking 1” course 34 Table 3.1: Opinions of Ss and Ts on Ss’ listening proficiency and attitudes towards the importance of listening skill

V

Table 3.2: Ss and Ts’ opinions on Ss’ main listening problems VII

Table 3.3: Opinions of Ss and Ts on Ss’ wants in learning listening skill VII

Table 3.4: Coding for listening needs interview transcript – question 1 VIII

Table 3.5: Coding for listening needs interview transcript – question 2 IX

Table 3.6: Ss and Ts’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials for first year ELT Ss

XIV

Table 3.7: Ts’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials

for first-year ELT Ss in terms of objectives

XV

Table 3.8: Ss and Ts’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials

for first-year ELT Ss in terms of layout / graphics

XV

Table 3.11: Ss and Ts’ overall judgement on the current in-class listening materials

for first-year ELT Ss in terms of topics

XIX

Table 3.12: Coding for listening materials evaluation interview transcript XX

Table 3.13: Ss’ performance in listening tasks – theme “employment” XXVII

Table 3.14: Ss’ performance in listening tasks - theme “holidays and festivals” XXVII

what we read and five times more than we usually write” The significant role of listening in communication and language learning is also recognized by other researchers such as Dunkel (1991), Anderson and Lynch (1988) This skill can be considered as a very important input in foreign language learning; therefore it deserves sound attention from teachers (Ts) and learners

Having spent two years teaching in the English Division 1, the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education (FELTE), University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS), Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU), the author has had a number of informal talks with students (Ss) about their studies Many complaints and worries came from their difficulties and the lack of self-confidence in their own ability and performance in listening comprehension Their mid-term and end-of-term test results also showed that

to many Ss, listening skill was a bigger challenge than other three English learning skills The results showed that many Ss did well with the reading, speaking and writing tests with some having maximum scores (i.e 10 out of 10) However, they were not as successful with the listening tests The scores for these tests were far lower than those for the other three ones, with some Ss scoring very low This indicates that a lot of attention should be paid to helping Ss improve this skill

It is undeniable that materials play a crucial role in language teaching and learning According

to Hutchinson and Torres (1994: 3), materials are “an almost universal element of *English language+ teaching Millions of copies are sold every year, and numerous aid projects have been set up to produce them in *various+ countries” Tomlinson (2003: 2) suggests that materials “include anything which can be used to facilitate the learning of a language.” He also claims that the needs and wants of the learners should be taken into consideration when designing materials Many researchers (Nunan, 1988; Peacock, 1999; Richards, 2011; Rubdy, 2003) share the same idea with him From this point of view, Ts should identify learner expectations and attitudes about how languages are learned and also explain the reasoning behind classroom methods in order to reduce any gap between learner and teacher beliefs This is a valuable source of data for Ts in designing, evaluating and adapting materials

The importance of materials evaluation has been recognised by many researchers and experts

in foreign language teaching such as Ellis (1997) and Robinson (1991) They claim that materials

evaluation should be carried out not only to choose among the available materials the most suitable for one’s particular situation but also to determine whether the chosen ones work for that situation after having been used for a period of time It can also bring general insights into how Ts use materials and suggest directions both for materials development and professional development activities (Hutchinson

& Torres, 1994)

The listening materials used for first-year English majors at FELTE, ULIS, VNU have been employed

in the “listening - speaking 1” course since 2006 Some changes have been made to them based on informal feedback from some Ts at the end of the course During the end of term meetings for English division 1 (which is in charge of the implementation of the course), Ts are requested to give comments on the materials they have been using during the semester The criticism that they make is discussed among all Ts and based on the final conclusion, the necessary changes will be made to the materials for the next school year However, no research has been done on a bigger scale to find out how Ss and Ts evaluated the materials As Ferris (1998) stresses, it is important to use both student and faculty informants when looking at the needs and difficulties of ESL Ss in various academic settings This would help to provide a well-rounded picture of the academic needs of those Ss whose first language is not English Therefore, to the author’s mind, a study with reflection of both Ts and Ss on the current materials will bring more validity and reliability to the materials evaluation

Because of the given reasons, the author decided to use a needs-based approach to discover how the Ss and Ts evaluated the current in-class listening materials in order to help the Ss improve their listening skill

2 Aims and objectives of the study

This study aims to analyze and evaluate the listening materials for the first semester for first-year English majors FELTE, ULIS, VNU by seeking answers to the following questions:

1 What are the first-year English majors’ needs when learning listening skill at FELTE, ULIS, VNU

in Ss and Ts’ perspectives?

2 To what extent do the current listening in-class materials for the first semester meet their needs in Ss and Ts’ perspectives?

3 Scope of the study

Due to the small scale of the study as well as the limitation of time, this study focuses on evaluating the current listening materials for the first semester for first-year English majors at FELTE from

course school year 2010-2011) The materials to be evaluated include in-class materials in the form of

handouts delivered to Ss in each lesson and CDs containing listening recordings for the tasks in the

handouts Teacher’s pack with suggestions for lesson plans and supplementary materials are not included

in this study

Participating in the research are 100 first-year English majors of the school year 2010-2011 and

12 Ts in charge of teaching listening skill in the first semester The evaluation took place in the first

semester of the school year 2010-2011 from September 2010 to January 2011

4 Methods of the study

Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were employed in the research using the following tools:

the end of the semester, another interview was done with 10 other Ss randomly chosen among the

participants to judge how the materials met their needs in learning listening skill and what changes they

would like to be made to the materials to better meet these needs The reason all the interviewees were

Ss will be explained in chapter 2, “methodology”

Observation

Comment [YUN1]: Hang 2: đây là questionnaire

ạ Em có giải thích rõ tại sao lịa dùng questionnaire sau khi dự giờ vào chương 2 – methodology ạ

Comment [YUN2]: Hang 3: Em thấy sinh viên

chưa có khả năng diễn tả hết ý kiến của mình vào bản questionnaire Chính vì thế sau khi trò chuyện gợi mở với các em, em đã có được câu trả lời rõ hơn cho phần open-ended của questionnaires GV có khả năng diễn đạt ngắn gọn đầy đủ ý tưởng của mình nên

em không thấy cần phải phỏng vấn vì nếu hỏi họ sẽ nhắc lại những gì đã viết trong questionnaire

During the semester, two random listening lessons in different classes were chosen for observation in order to obtain a general idea of how the Ss participated in activities in class and how well they performed in these tasks

Task performance measurement

After each observed lesson, all Ss’ papers were collected and analysed to gain insight into their task performance

5 Significance of the study

The findings of this research will be useful not only to the researcher and the materials developers but also to the teaching staff and first-year English majors at FELTE First of all, the research will provide Ts with insightful information on Ss’ listening needs and preferences as an input to materials design This information could possibly be used as additional evidence for some current hypotheses about first – year English majors’ listening needs in EFL within Vietnam

Moreover, thanks to the research, Ss and Ts had an opportunity to raise their voice about what the Ss needed in learning listening skill, how well the current listening materials met these needs and what changes should be made to the materials in order to better facilitate the Ss

Additionally, the outcomes of the research will help form a foundation towards improving the quality of the current listening materials They are to contribute to the database of English division 1 in their regular materials reviewing activities

Furthermore, it is hoped that the results obtained from the research will make some contributions to the field of materials evaluation

6 Design of the study

The study is divided into three parts as follows:

Part A, “Introduction” includes the rationale for the study, the purposes, scope, significance, methods and design of the study

Part B, “Development” starts with Chapter 1 “Literature review” presents background knowledge

to the study, the concepts and definitions to be used in the study such as the nature of listening comprehension, listening process, listening skills, listening difficulties in EFL as identified by former researchers, needs analysis, materials evaluation and adaptation This chapter would lead to the theoretical background that is used as the foundation for the study

Chapter 2 in part B, “Methodology” provides more specific information about the methods employed to conduct the study i.e the context of the study, description of participants, methods of data collection and data analysis methods

Chapter 3, “Findings and discussions” includes the findings from the questionnaires and interviews It also contains discussions about Ss’ listening needs and the evaluation of the current in-class listening materials as perceived by the Ss and Ts

The last part of the study, part C, “Conclusion” summarizes the main findings of the study, presenting the recommendations based on these findings The significance and limitations of the study; and suggestions for further study are also included in this chapter

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents the theoretical background that forms the foundation for this research The first part includes the literature review on listening and teaching listening in the foreign language classroom Since needs-based approach was employed in this study, the theory of needs analysis in language teaching was provided in the next part of this chapter The last part is devoted to the theme of this research, materials evaluation in language teaching

1.1 Listening and teaching listening in the foreign language classroom

1.1.1 Definitions of listening comprehension

Listening is believed to play a crucial role in language acquisition which is why many researchers have tried to define it According to Buck (2001: 3), “listening comprehension is an active process of constructing meaning and this is done by applying knowledge to the incoming sound’ in which ‘number of different types of knowledge are involved: both linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic knowledge” He claims that comprehension is affected by a wide range of variables and any characteristics of the speaker, the situation or the listener can affect the comprehension of the message

In addition to this, Underwood (1989) simplifies the definition of listening to the activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from something we hear

Another definition is given by Wolvin and Coakly (1985) They identify listening as the process of receiving, attending to and assigning meaning to aural stimuli According to this viewpoint, listening is a complex, problem-solving skill The task of listening is more than perception of sound, although perception is the foundation, it also requires comprehension of meaning

1.1.2 Significance of listening

Listening is the first language mode that children acquire It provides the foundation for all aspects of language and cognitive development, and plays a life-long role in the processes of communication According to Wilt (1950), people listen 45 % of the time they spend communicating; 30

% of communication time is spent speaking, 16 % reading, and 9 % writing

In the light of second language acquisition theory, language input is the most essential condition

of language acquisition As an input skill, listening plays a crucial role in students’ language development According to Krashen (1985), a language is acquired by understanding the linguistic information people hear Hence language acquisition is achieved mainly through receiving understandable input and listening ability is the critical component in achieving understandable language input

a “Bottom-up” processing

According to early theories of language teaching, the nature of listening comprehension is regarded mainly as a two-level activity, recognition and selection (Rivers, 1968) This view is known as the “bottom-up” process

The first level involves the ability to identify features such as the structural relationship between words and phrases, word groupings, time consequences, logical and modifying terms, intonation patterns, pitch level significance, hesitations, reformulations and any other redundant utterances as adding nothing to the development of thought Until the recognition of these is fully automatic, a listener, especially a foreign language / second language (L2) listener cannot be expected to retain enough in his memory to relate one segment to another

The selection level is the ability to select from the stream of sound specific details of the message which express the meaning of the speaker’s purpose or which suit his own purposes The incoming details are regarded as the prime source of information about the message Basic to comprehension is the decoding of sounds, words, phrases and sentences until a meaning is formed The listener must be able

to segment speech into units which have to be recognised in his mental dictionary

Clark and Clark (1977) summarise the “bottom-up” process as follows:

1- Listeners take in speech and retain a phonological representation of it in “working memory”

2 – They immediately attempt to organise the phonological representation into constituents, identifying their content and function

3 – As they identify each constituent, they use it to construct underlying propositions, building continually onto a hierarchical representation of propositions

4 – Once they have identified the propositions for a constituent, they retain them in “working memory” and at some point, purge memory of the phonological representation In doing this, they forget the exact wording and retain the meaning

Clark and Clark (1977)

The basis for this view of listening comprehension is the listener’s grammatical and lexical knowledge which is used to extract the meaning of the text

b “Top-down” processing

Another view is called “top-down” process According to Anderson and Lynch (1988), listening comprehension is not merely a process of the decoding and extracting of incoherent textual meaning It is one of “constructing a coherent interpretation” of the spoken message Successful listening is perceived

to have a constructive, personal nature The representation of the spoken message results from our combining new information with our previous knowledge and experience

As Adams and Collins (1979) put it, a spoken or written text does not itself carry meaning “A text only provides directions for listeners (or readers) as to how they should retrieve or construct the intended meaning from their own previously acquired knowledge” (p.3)

The centre of the “top-down” processing view of listening comprehension is the importance of background knowledge If a listener cannot make use of background knowledge, which may be knowledge about topic, situation or context, the incoming message may be incomprehensible

c Interactive process

According to some scholars, neither bottom-up nor top-down processing alone is sufficient for comprehension Both processes interact simultaneously The language units that listeners use in understanding language are the propositions which an utterance of speech event expresses (Clark & Clark, 1977) They are represented indirectly within the surface structure of utterances Listeners make use of two kinds of knowledge to identify propositions: knowledge of the syntax of the target language and real world knowledge, or systemic (linguistic) and schematic (non-linguistic) knowledge (Widdowson, 1983) Syntactic knowledge enables them to segment incoming discourse into chunks or constituents The ability to correctly identify them is a result of two types of competence: grammatical and semantic Knowledge of the structure of noun phrases, verb phrases and the grammatical devices that signal logical relationships enable listeners to segment discourse into appropriate chunks and thus identify the propositions underlying what is actually uttered For those who find segmentation difficult, comprehension is also difficult (Richards, 1983)

Richards (1983) also claims that knowledge of the world also helps listeners identify propositions and produce a plausible reconstruction of likely events This can sometimes compensate for difficulty in segmentation at the syntactic level

Thus, successful listening is an interplay between top-down and bottom-up processing

1.1.4 Listening difficulties for foreign language learners

Ur (1984) defines eight main potential L2 listening comprehension problems, set out in roughly the order of importance These problems are heavily based on the analysis of spoken English given by Brown (1977)

The first problem is hearing the sounds, which means L2 learners do not perceive certain English sounds with any accuracy because they do not exist in their first language (L1) It is even more difficult for L2 learners when the new sound exists in L2 but only as an allophonic variation of another phoneme Another reason for this potential problem is that L2 learners are not used to the stress and intonation patterns of English and the way these influence both the realization of certain phonemes and the meaning of the utterance

Understanding intonation and stress can also be a challenge to L2 learners since the English system of stress, intonation and rhythm can interfere with the L2 listener’s proper understanding of spoken English Primary among these is the division of utterances into tone groups - strings of syllables run together to form a single sequence and generally characterized by one heavily stressed ‘tone’ The rhythm of speech is based on these “tones” and to a lesser extent on other minor stresses, and intervening lightened syllables may be pronounced very fast as not to break this rhythm The importance

of intonation derives from the great extent to which it often influences the meaning of an utterance

Ur (1984) classifies coping with redundancy and “noise” as a listening difficulty as well When listening to someone speaking, we usually have to put up with a certain amount of ‘noise’ Some words may be drowned by outside interference whereas others are indistinctly pronounced Since L2 learners have a slower grasp of meaning, these gaps are far more challenging to be taken to their stride This is the result of (1) the much larger sheer number of gaps than that in their L1; (2) unfamiliar sound combinations, lexis and collocations which are necessary to make predictions or retroactive guesses as to what was missing; (3) their compulsion to understand everything, even what is totally unimportant, L2 learners are getting disturbed, discouraged and even completely thrown off balance if coming across an incomprehensible word

Besides the aforementioned problems, predicting can also cause L2 learners difficulties There are several language patterns that form the basis of expectations such as intonation and stress patterns; familiarity with the clichés, collocations, idioms and proverbs commonly used; more obvious choices of vocabulary or grammar L2 learners find it difficult to predict what is going to be said in the next part of the conversation if they do not have a reasonable grasp of the pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar of L2

Understanding colloquial vocabulary can be a challenge to L2 learners since they might not be familiar with a lot of vocabulary used in colloquial speech which may already be known to them This is partly the matter of time and practice It takes time before a newly learnt word becomes really known well enough to be readily recognised It is partly because of speed of discourse If the speaker speaks at a high speed, the L2 listener just simply does not have enough time to search his memory for the meaning

of something he does not immediately recall Another reason for this potential problem is the different pronunciation of known words or of colloquial collocations

Another problem is fatigue Ur (1984) explains that listening can be very tiring for L2 learners since they cannot set their own pace and make breaks where they wish It is even more tiring for those who work harder than necessary in order to accurately perceive and interpret every single word they hear The fatigue may cause them difficulty in grasping the content of the listening comprehension exercise as they go on with it to the end Its effects depend on how hard the learners need to concentrate and on their ability to do so for long periods

Understanding different accents can also be problematic Many L2 learners find it more difficult

to understand unfamiliar accents Therefore, the more experience they have in listening to and understanding a number of different accents, the more likely they are to be able to cope successfully with further ones

The last problem in Ur’s list is using visual and aural environment clues It does not lie in the lack

of skill in perceiving and interpreting extra-linguistic clues, but the ability to apply it when listening to L2 The reason for this potential problem could be L2 learners’ overloaded receptive system Having to work much harder at decoding than native listeners, trying to interpret every detail as it comes up instead of relaxing and taking a broader view, they do not have time and attention to spare for absorbing information beyond the actual semantic significance of the words themselves

Underwood (1989) also proposes seven potential problems in learning to listen to English Some

of these problems overlap with those listed by Ur (1984)

The first problem is the lack of control over the speed at which speakers speak Since L2 listeners cannot set their own pace and make breaks where they wish (Ur, 1984), they may feel that utterances disappear, hence cannot keep up with what is being said They either concentrate on the meaning of one part of what is heard and miss the next part or ignore a whole chunk because they fail to sort it all out so quickly

Not being able to get things repeated can cause 2 learners difficulties In many listening

The listeners’ limited vocabulary is a source of listening problem For L2 listeners, an unknown word might cause them to stop and think about its meaning and hence, miss the next part of the speech

It is believed that this is often because the way they have been taught their English gives more emphasis

to accuracy than fluency and focuses on mastery of the forms of L2 rather than on how the language is used Therefore, they tend to focus on the language word by word to work out its structure, then to decide on its meaning

Another problem is failure to recognise the ‘signals’ The ways the speaker uses to indicate that

he is moving from one point to another, giving an example, or repeating a point are not immediately

self-evident to a L2 listener and can easily be missed

Problems of interpretation are also suggested by Underwood (1989) These problems may be a result of L2 listeners’ unfamiliarity with the context They can also easily misinterpret the meaning of non-verbal clues such as facial expression, nods, gestures, tone of voice

Underwood (1989) also considers the inability to concentrate as a listening problem This can be

a major problem since even the shortest break in attention can seriously impair comprehension The reasons for L2 listeners to have this problem are various The enormous effort (often greater than is useful) they make to follow what they hear word by word can make listening tiring although the topic is interesting Poor quality of recordings and machines can also cause this problem

Last but not least, established learning habits can cause L2 difficulties in listening to English Traditionally teachers have aimed to teach the L2 students to understand everything in the English lesson

by repeating and pronouncing words carefully, by grading the language to suit their level, by speaking slowly and by pausing frequently This may cause students to be worried if they fail to understand a particular word or phrase when they are listening and become discouraged by their lack of success

The aforementioned potential listening problems have been chosen to be the basis of some items

in the questionnaires on listening needs analysis (NA) in this study

1.2 Needs analysis in language teaching

According to Richards (2001), most of the literature on needs analysis (NA) originally came from the realm of English for specific purposes (ESP), but NA procedures have increasingly come to be viewed as fundamental to the planning of general language courses too He emphasizes that a NA assures a flexible, responsive curriculum rather than fixed, linear curriculum determined ahead of time by instructors It provides information to the instructor and learner about what the learner brings to the course (if done at the beginning), what has been accomplished (if done during the course), and what the learner wants and needs to know next Hutchinson and Waters (1987) also strongly argue against

the misconception that the needs of the general English learners are not specifiable They believe that although NA started mainly in the field of ESP, there should not be any differences between ESP and English for general purposes as far as NA is concerned Therefore, the theoretical foundation of NA in ESP presented below forms the basis for this research

1.2.1 Definitions and types of needs

From goal-oriented perspective, needs can be defined as what students should be able to do at the end of their language course or “what the user-institution or society at large regards as necessary or desirable to be learnt from a program of language instruction” (Mountford, 1981, p 27)

According to Brindley (1984), needs refer to wants, desires, demands, expectations, motivations, lacks, constraints, and requirements From this point of view, needs of students may be in a great harmony or in opposition to the requirements of course designers Brindley adopted Richteridh’s (1972,

1980, 1983, 1984) distinction between what is called “objective” and “subjective” needs “Objective needs are those which can be diagnosed by teachers on the basis of the analysis of personal data about learners along with information about their language proficiency and patterns of language use … subjective needs which are often ‘wants’, desires’, ‘expectations’ or other psychological manifestations of

a lack) cannot be diagnosed as easily.” (Brindley, 1984, p.31)

Brown (1995) discusses the dichotomy of situation needs and language needs, where he defines

situation needs as information of the “program’s human aspects, that is, the physical, social, and

psychological contexts in which learning takes place,” (p 40) and language needs as “the target linguistic

behaviours that the learners must ultimately acquire” (p 40)

The categorization of needs suggested by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) includes two types of needs taken into account for NA of ESP course design as follows:

The first type is target needs They are what the learner needs to do in the target situation

Hutchinson and Waters describe the target needs in terms of necessities, lacks and wants Necessities are what the learner has to know in order to perform effectively in the target situation Thus, it is a matter of observing the existing proficiency of the learners However, to identify necessities alone is not enough;

we also need to know what the learner knows already in order to decide which of the necessities the learner lacks Lacks are what the learners already know that are the gaps between the target proficiency and the existing proficiency of the learners Wants can be considered to be the perception of the needs

of the learners In other words, wants are what the learners feel they need It is concerned with asking questions about target situation and the attitudes towards situation of the various participants in the learning process

The second type is learning needs They can be considered as what the learner needs to do in

order to learn Learning needs covers all of the factors connected with the process of learning, such as attitudes, motivation and awareness, personality, learning styles and strategies and social background

Both target situation needs and learning needs are important to ESP course design They can guide the direction of course design to meet the learners’ needs since they influence on the nature of the syllabus, materials, methodology, and evaluation procedures In research studies, the researcher can examine the needs, problems, wants and other implementation factors by investigating the target situation and learning situation in order to adjust the new information for learners

This categorization was employed to conduct this research since it is comprehensive and well suited to the study

1.2.2 Definitions of needs analysis

Many practitioners define language NA in various ways and from different viewpoints

According to Richards and Rodgers (1986: 156), NA is “concerned with identifying general and specific language needs that can be addressed in developing goals, objectives and content in a language program” Information on needs can be used for designing a new language program and/or evaluating an existing program NA aligns teachers and learners’ agendas by exchanging information on learners’ needs Learners’ needs guide the teachers to select the appropriate tasks or content, while teachers’ statements of goals and objectives provide a better understanding of the purpose of instruction by the learners (Nunan, 1988) He states that “information will need to be collected, not only on why learners want to learn the target language, but also about such things as societal expectations and constraints and the resources available for implementing the syllabus” (p 14)

Nunan (1991) and Brown (1995) define NA as a set of tools, techniques and procedures for determining the language content and learning processes that involves systematic gathering of specific information about the language needs to meet those of a particular group of learners Altschuld and Witkin (1995) claim that needs analysis is a set of systematic procedures pursued in order to establish priorities based on identified needs, and make decisions attempting improvement of a program and allocation of resources

1.2.3 The importance of needs analysis

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), a NA is usually seen as being most beneficial for an ESP course, “an approach to language teaching which aims to meet the needs of particular learners” (p 21) Nunan (1988) considers it as the initial process for the specification of behavioural objectives It is

from these objectives that detailed aspects of the syllabus such as functions, topics, lexis and structures are derived

The research to date emphasizes the significance of a NA for devising a course, writing textbooks

or coursebooks, and the kind of teaching and learning that takes place (Robinson, 1991; Jordan, 1997) Yet it is recommended that a NA should be carried out continuously because “as students become more involved with the course, their attitudes and approach may change” (Robinson, 1991, p.15)

The inclusion of NA can be seen in various curriculum development models that have been developed over the past 20 years, such as the one Brown (1995) suggests NA is the first element of his curriculum approach It can be clearly seen in the figure below that through evaluation of the program the NA is part of a system that returns to the NA again

Figure 1.1: Systematic approach to designing and maintaining language curriculum (Brown, 1995)

Richards (2001) claims that NA can be used for a number of different purposes as follows:

- To find out what language skills a learner needs in order to perform a particular role, such as sales manager, tour guide or university student;

- To help determine if an existing course adequately addresses the needs of potential students;

- To determine which students from a group are most in need of training in particular language skills;

- To identify a change of direction that people in a reference group feel is important;

- To identify a gap between what students are able to do and what they need to be able to do;

- To collect information about a particular problem learners are experiencing

(Richards, 2001, p 52)

Referring to growing demands for accountability and relevancy in public life, Long (2005) cites four reasons for performing needs analyses as follows: (1) to determine the relevance of the material to the learners’ situations; (2) to justify the material in terms of relevance for all parties concerned (teacher, learner, administration, parents); (3) to account for differences in learner needs and styles; (4) to create a syllabus which will meet the needs of the learners as fully as possible within the context of the situation

Accordingly, every language course should be viewed as a course for specific purposes which just varies in the precision with which learner needs can be specified

Having recognised the great significance of NA in the overall language teaching process, and materials designing in particular, the author has chosen NA as the basis for finding out the recommendation for the current listening materials after they have been evaluated by teachers and students using them during the semester

1.2.4 Approaches to needs analysis

Brindley (1984) suggests a summary of NA / initial assessment components as follows:

NA/INNA / Initial assessment data

DATA

1) Learners' life goals So that teachers have a basis on which to

anticipate learners' likely language goals, communication networks and social roles 2) Language goals, communicative

networks and social roles

So learners can be placed in groups based

on common social roles; so that teachers can modify syllabus content to match learners' social roles

3) Objective needs, patterns of language

use, personal resources (incl time)

So learners can be grouped according to their needs and interests

4) Language proficiency and language

difficulties

So that learners can be grouped according

to their language proficiency 5) Subjective needs, including learning

strategy preferences, affective needs,

learning activity preferences, pace of

learning, attitude towards correction

So that teachers can adapt learning activities to individual needs

6) Information about the learners'

attainment of objectives

So that teachers can monitor performance and modify courses accordingly 7) Information about developmental

processes in second language learning,

including learners' communicative

strategies

So that teachers can gear syllabus content and materials to learners' stages of development

Table 1.1: NA / initial assessment components (Brindley, 1984)

According to Robinson (1991), a careful NA should involve “Present situation analysis” (PSA) and

“Target situation analysis” (TSA) PSA aims at finding out the students’ English proficiency level and their existing language requirements at the beginning of a language program, whereas learners’ language requirements regarding the target situation are identified through TSA Robinson (1991) also suggests that TSA and PSA are complementary and form a NA

The trichotomy of NA given by Jordan (1997) includes deficiency analysis, strategy analysis, and means analysis Deficiency analysis is concerned with the necessities that the learner lacks Strategy analysis seeks to establish the learner’s preferences in terms of learning styles and strategies, or teaching methods Means analysis examines the “constraints” - local situation - to find out the ways of implementation of a language course

The theoretical base to PSA and TSA suggested by Robinson (1991), which is an effective and suitable approach to this research was adapted to shed light on first-year English majors’ listening needs

1.2.5 Methods of needs analysis

Denzin (1978) proposes the triangulation methodology which can be pursued by triangulating (1) data source (people); (2) method (interview, document, questionnaire, etc.); (3) investigator/researcher; (4) theory (use of multiple conceptual framework); and (5) environment (time and place)

Sharing the same point of view with the aforementioned author, Witkin and Altschuld (1995) suggest that a variety of sources should be employed in order to obtain information necessary for NA They also suggest that the researcher should balance quantitative methods with qualitative ones Data from any single method (surveys, interviews, focus groups, or analysis of existing records) are generally insufficient to provide an adequate basis for understanding needs and making decisions on priorities (p 279)

Brown (1995) proposes two types of source groups for NA The first type is audience groups: they are directly affected by the NA results like teachers and students The second one is resource groups who can provide information about the target group, such as parents and future employers

The importance of using different information sources is also recognised by Long (2005) He claims that besides the learners themselves, other parties related to the language learning and teaching process such as teachers, graduates of the course, administrators, and material developers also provide information about the needs of students

Based on the importance of diversified information sources in NA, the research questions and the conditions in which the study was conducted, the author decided to choose teachers and students as the subjects of this study

Besides subjects of NA, it is also important for the researcher to choose suitable procedures and techniques for data collection Hutchinson and Walters (1987) propose the methods of acquiring NA information including questionnaires, class discussions, learner diaries, one-to-one tutorials, tests and classroom observation It is recommended that more than one means be used to keep the balance between objective and subjective information

As suggested by Brown (1995), the data collection instruments for NA are put into six categories: existing information, tests, observation, interviews, meetings, and questionnaires Each procedure has its own strengths and weaknesses; no procedure is conclusive on its own Open-ended methods (e.g., unstructured interviews) are useful for eliciting perspectives that the researcher has not otherwise considered Closed methods (e.g., structured interviews and questionnaires) will work well in obtaining overall patterns of perceptions or behaviors on predetermined constructs the researcher wants to elicit

Brown (2001) and Long (2005) emphasize the importance of sequencing and utilizating different methods, starting with existing information, followed by unstructured interviews and meetings with the stakeholders to identify the scope and elements to be covered in a survey Based on these pieces of information, questionnaires may be designed and administered followed by post-structured interviews

In this study, the author combined questionnaires containing close-ended and open-ended items with unstructured follow-up interviews and classroom observation to obtain information about students’ listening needs These instruments suited the objectives of the research, the conditions in which it was conducted and would ensure the reliability of the data for the study

1.3 Materials evaluation in language teaching

1.3.1 Definitions and the roles of teaching materials

According to Tomlinson (1998), materials will be considered anything which is used to help language learning Examples include but are not limited to: coursebooks, workbooks, CDs, flashcards, and CD-ROMs

McGrath (2002: 7) views materials as all kinds that “can be exploited effectively for language

learning” As he puts it, text materials “include those that have been either specifically designed for

language learning and teaching (e.g textbooks, worksheets, computer software); authentic materials (e.g off-air recordings, newspaper articles) that have been specially selected and exploited for teaching purposes by the classroom teacher; teacher-written materials; and learner-generated materials” (p 7)

The importance of teaching materials has been recognised by many scholars Nunan (1988) sees materials as “an essential element within the curriculum” Materials “do more than simply lubricate the wheels of learning At their best, they provide concrete models for desirable classroom practice They act

as curriculum models and at their very best they fulfill a teacher development role” (Nunan, 1988, p 98)

According to Bell and Gower (1998, as cited in Rubdy 2003, p 39), materials “provide teachers and learners with a range of professionally developed materials within tried and tested syllabus structures”, allowing teachers to spend their valuable time more on facilitating learning than materials production Materials can be adapted and supplemented to meet the needs of specific classes Moreover, according to Richards (2001: 1), they also have the following functions: (1) serving as the basis for much

of the language input learners receive and the language practice occurring in the classroom especially in English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL) situations; (2) providing the basis for the content of the lessons, the balance of skills taught and the kinds of language practice the students take part in; (3) serving primarily to supplement the teacher’s instruction; (4) providing learners with the major source of contact they have with the language apart from inputs provided by the teacher; (5) serving as a form of teacher training, providing ideas on how to plan and teach lessons as well as formats that teachers can use

Rubdy (2003) summarises the advantages of materials suggested by scholars such as O’Neil (1982); Hutchinson and Torres (1994); Edge and Wharton (1998); Bell and Gower (1998) as follows:

- They fulfil a wide range of practical needs, particularly in contexts where English is being taught

in a non-English-speaking environment and where teachers either lack training or sufficient time

to analyse each group’s needs

- They help provide a route map for both teachers and learners, making it possible for them to look ahead to what will be done in a lesson as well as to look back on what has been done

- They provide structure and predictability, which help give participants in social interactions like lessons a safe base, a platform for negotiation and exploration

- By dealing with a certain amount of routine work for teachers, they free them to attend to more important aspects of lesson planning (including MA and supplementation) and to concentrate on using their creative skills

- They provide teachers, particularly those lacking in training and experience, with a sense of confidence and security

self Most materials are designed and developed by experts in the field, conversant with current theoretical approaches and methodological practices The quality of sophistication in their design, content and organization would be difficult to match with home-grown materials

- They can act as agents of change, allowing innovative ideas to be introduced within their structured framework in a way that enables teachers and learners to develop in harmony with these new ideas They can function as a genre of mass communication, where their authors can enter into positive dialogue with teachers and learners on a number of issues of current significance to English Language Teaching (ELT) professionals

(Rubdy, 2003, pp 39-40)

Generally, scholars seem to have reached a consensus on the role of materials According to them, materials can serve as a guideline for the content of the lessons They can help teachers become more efficient and diverse as well as provide learners with information, especially when they do the self-

directed learning or when language inputs come only from textbooks or teachers such as in EFL classes In conclusion, yielding many pedagogical benefits for both teachers and learners, materials play a significant

1.3.2 Definitions of materials evaluation

As Sheldon (1988) puts it, materials evaluation (ME) is a dynamic process which is "a fundamentally subjective, rule-of-thumb activity" where "no neat formula, grid, or system will ever provide a definitive yardstick" (p 245) It consists of establishing criteria for the curriculum and its match

to the syllabus Sheldon argues that the criteria and the key questions central for setting up a ME scheme partly depend on "the swings of linguistic fashion" (p 240) According to this author, a coursebook needs

to be evaluated in terms of its integration with, and contribution to, the longer-term goals

Tomlinson (2003) proposes a definition of ME that covers the effects of materials on their users According to him, ME is “a procedure that involves measuring the value (or potential value) of a set of learning materials” (p 15)

Evaluators judge the effect of the materials on the people using them and try to measure some or all of the following:

- the appeal of the materials to the learners;

- the credibility of the materials to learners, teachers and administrators;

- the validity of the materials (i.e is what they teach worth teaching?);

- the reliability of the materials (i.e would they have the same effect with different groups of target learners?);

- the ability of the materials to interest the learners and the teachers;

- the ability of the materials to motivate the learners;

- the value of the materials in the terms of short-term learning (important, for example, for performance on tests and examinations);

- the value of the materials in terms of long-term learning (of both language and of communication skills);

- the learners’ perceptions of the value of the materials;

- the teachers’ perceptions of the value of the materials;

- the assistance given to the teachers in terms of preparation, delivery and assessment;

- the flexibility of the materials (e.g., the extent to which it is easy for a teacher to adapt the materials to suit a particular context);

- the contribution made by the materials to teacher development;

- the match with administrative requirements (e.g., standardization across classes, coverage of a syllabus, preparation for an examination)

(Tomlinson, 2003: 15)

Tomlinson also emphasizes that since the needs, objectives, backgrounds and preferred styles of the participants will differ from context to context, evaluations will also be different

1.3.3 Reasons for materials evaluation

Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 97) see ME as an analytical “matching process:matching needs to available solutions”. According to Sheldon (1988), the selection of an ELT textbook often signals an important administrative and educational decision in which there is considerable professional, financial, or even political investment A thorough evaluation, therefore, would enable the managerial and teaching staff of a specific institution or organization to discriminate between all of the available textbooks on the market Besides that, educators can get familiar with the materials’ content, yet will find

it easier to identify the particular strengths and weaknesses in textbooks already in use Thus, they can make optimum use of the materials’ strong points and recognise the shortcomings of certain exercises, tasks and entire texts

Two other reasons for ME are proposed by Weir and Roberts (1994) Firstly, it provides evidence

“which can inform theoretical disputes about directions to be followed in language teaching or in teacher education” (p.11) Secondly, ME is a tool to indicate the suitability of particular approaches or techniques under given conditions and whether they meet the claims made for them

Ellis (1997) suggests two reasons for carrying out ME The first one is the need to choose among the materials available the most suitable one to use for a particular situation The second one is the need

to determine whether the material which has been chosen works for that situation after it has been used for a period of time

1.3.4 Types of materials evaluation

According to Rea-Dickens (1994, cited in Li, 2004), there are three kinds of evaluation as follows: (1) pre-use evaluation which can be done prior to the use of a coursebook (for the purpose of checking the construct validity and the match with needs); (2) in-use evaluation; and (3) post-use evaluation, measured in terms of learners’ performance She advocates giving more attention to in-use and post-use evaluation

Tomlinson (2003) also shares the same idea with Rea-Dickens on the aforementioned kinds of

ME In his opinion, pre-use evaluation “involves making predictions about the potential value of materials for their users” and is often considered to be impressionistic He suggests that the evaluation should be made criterion-referenced to “reduce (but not remove) subjectivity” and to make it “more principled,

The author states that with whilst-use evaluation, the value of the materials is measured whilst evaluators are using or observing the materials being used Tomlinson (ibid) sees this type of evaluation

as “more objective and reliable” than the first type as “it makes use of measurement rather than prediction” Nevertheless, besides its usefulness, it can also be “dangerous” too since “it is limited to measuring what is observable” and “cannot claim to measure what is happening in the learners’ brains” and cannot “measure durable and effective learning because of the delayed effect of instruction” (p.24)

Post-use evaluation is viewed by Tomlinson (ibid) as “probably the most valuable” as it can measure “the actual effects of the materials on the users” What this type of evaluation can measure is the short-term effect such as motivation, impact, achievability, instant learning, etc and the long-term effect such as durable learning and application In other words, this is “the actual outcomes of the use of the materials” Therefore, post-use evaluation provides “the data on which reliable decisions about the use, adaptation or replacement of the materials can be made” (p.25) The drawback of this type is that it takes time and expertise to measure post-use effects reliably

1.3.5 Models for materials evaluation

a Materials evaluation system suggested by McDonough and Shaw

According to McDonough and Shaw (1993), an evaluation includes two stages The first stage – the external evaluation is accomplished by “looking at the ‘blurb’, or the claims made on the cover of the teachers / students book and the introduction and table of contents” The necessary factors in this stage include the use of visual / audio equipment, coursebook layout, topic bias, the publication date, coursebook provisions and time factors

The second stage – the internal stage is “an in depth investigation into the materials” The essential issue at this stage is “to analyse the extent to which the aforementioned factors in the external evaluation stage actually match up with the internal consistency and organization of the materials as stated by the author / publisher” The detailed considerations at this stage include skill presentation, material grading and sequencing, natural language element inclusion, the relationship of tests / exercises

to materials and learners, and the suitability for teachers and different learner learning styles

This system looks at materials from the view of teacher-centeredness Based on observing how teachers and learners use materials in the classroom, evaluators judge whether the books have achieved the role as a learning media effectively They may inspect whether materials have accomplished the specific output of language items and uses, and whether they are convenient for teachers and learners to adapt according to their own needs

b Evaluation model suggested by Breen and Candlin

Breen and Candlin (1987) suggests two evaluation phases In phase one, the evaluation mainly concentrates on the requirements for learning conditions and environment This phase poses some initial questions as to the usefulness of materials teachers have or wish to adopt It is specifically related to the aims and content of the materials; what they require learners and teachers to do and what function they have as a classroom recourse In the second phase, the focus is judging materials on the ground of learners The foci of the questions in this phase are learner needs and interests; learner approaches to language learning; and the teaching / learning process in the classroom This model is more learn-centred than the one suggested by McDonough and Shaw

c Guideline suggested by Cunningsworth

Cunningsworth (2002) proposes the following guidelines which he believes to be applicable in any

- Coursebooks should take account of students’ needs as learners and should facilitate their learning process without dogmatically imposing a rigid method

- Coursebooks should have a clear role as a support for learning Like teachers, they mediate between the target language and the learner

(Cunningsworth, 2002: 5-17)

It can be clearly seen that among the three models presented above, the third one reflects the strongest sense of learner-centeredness in evaluation with a focus on learners’ needs Therefore, this model has been chosen as the framework for this study

1.3.6 Criteria for materials evaluation

Daoud and Celece-Murcia (1979) recommend the following criteria for ME: subject matter; vocabulary and structure covered, illustrations; physical make-up which includes cover, size, binding, paper, printing and type; the four language skills; general features of the teacher's book; methodological/pedagogical guidance in the presentation of lessons and exercises; linguistic

background that is based on contrastive and error analysis (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and orthography)

Seven criteria for ME suggested by Williams (1983) include: general, speech, grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, and technical The first criterion - general, “embraces global considerations

of methodology, the needs of the learner, the teacher, and the community” (Williams, 1983: 352) whereas the technical criteria are concerned with "the quality of editing and publishing; the availability of supplementary material; cost and durability of the text; authenticity of language and style of the writer, etc." (pp 352-353)

Sheldon (1988) presents a checklist that includes two main categories: factual details and factors Factual details contain the title, author, publisher, price, physical size, duration of the course, target learner, teacher, and skill Factors include rationale, availability, user definition, layout/graphics, accessibility, linkage, selection/grading, physical characteristics, appropriacy, authenticity, sufficiency, cultural bias, educational validity, stimulus/practical revision, flexibility, guidance, and overall value for money

The checklist proposed by Peacock (1997) contains eight criteria: general impression, techinical quality, cultural differences, appropriacy, motivation and the learner, pedagogic analysis, the student’s book and supplementary materials

Cunningsworth (2002) suggests ME criteria such as general aims and communicative coursebook, design and organization, learner needs, language content, skills and teachers’ books The criteria are clarified with specific checklists

The author decided to base this study on checklists suggested by Sheldon (1988), Cunningsworth (2002) and Peacock (1997) Sheldon (1988), Cunningsworth (2002) and Peacock (1997) as she believed they were comprehensive and well suited to this research Her checklist takes elements from the aforementioned checklists, adapts them with new categorization and a new scoring system to suit the scope and focus of this research

1.4 Materials adaptation in language teaching

1.4.1 Reasons for materials adaptation

McDonough and Shaw (1993) suggest possible reasons which are often taken into account in adaptation as follows:

- lack of grammar coverage in general;

- lack of practice on grammar points of particular difficulty to these learners;

- reading passages contain too much unknown vocabulary;

- comprehension questions are too easy because they sound too much like written material being read out;

- not enough guidance on pronunciation;

- subject matters are inappropriate for learners of this age and intellectual level;

- photographs and other illustrative materials are not culturally acceptable;

- amount of material is too great / too little to cover in the time allocated to lessons;

- lack of guidance from teachers on group work and role-play activities with a large class;

- dialogues are too formal, and not really representative of everyday speech;

- audio material is difficult to use because of problems to do with room size and technical equipment;

- too much or too little variety in the activities;

- vocabulary list and a key to the exercises would be helpful;

- accompanying tests needed

Another list of reasons for materials adaptation is suggested by Cunningsworth (2002) Overlapping a bit with the list above, it draws a knowledge of learner styles and the learner as a whole, which is absent from McDonough and Shaw’s list

According to him, the factors that adaptation depends on are as follows:

- the dynamics of the classroom;

- the personalities involved;

- the constraints imposed by syllabuses;

- the availability of resources;

- the expectations and motivations of the learners

1.4.2 Objectives for adaptation

“Having clear objectives is a necessary starting point for adapting any materials.” (Islam and Mares, 2003: 89) The list of objectives for adaptation proposed by McDonough and Shaw (1993) includes the following:

- to personalise;

- to individualise;

- to localise;

- to modernise

Islam and Mares (2003) add some more objectives as follows:

- to add real choice;

- to cater for all sensory learner styles;

- to provide for more learner autonomy;

- to encourage higher-level cognitive skills;

- to make the language input more accessible;

- to make the language input more engaging

Based on prior research, McGrath (2002) summarises the two most frequently cited purposes for adaptation as follows:

- to make the material more suitable for the circumstances in which it is being used, i.e to mould

it to the needs and interests of learners, the teacher’s own capabilities and such constraints as time, or “to maximise the appropriacy of teaching materials in context, by changing some of the internal characteristics of a coursebook to better suit our particular circumstances” (McDonough

& Shaw, 1993, p 85);

- to compensate for any intrinsic deficiencies in the material, such as linguistic inaccuracies, of-datedness, lack of authenticity (Madsen & Bowen, 1978) or lack of variety (Tice, 1991)

out-(McGrath, 2002: 64)

1.4.3 Techniques for materials adaptation

McDonough and Shaw (1993) and Cunningsworth (2002) suggest techniques for MA as follows:

- Adding: When adding to published materials, the teacher is supplementing the existing materials and providing more materials The teacher can do this by either extending or expanding

+ Extending: When extending an activity, the teacher supplies more of the same type of material, thus making a quantitative change in the material

+ Expanding: Expanding adds something different to the material which makes the change qualitative rather than quantitative as the one extending makes

Additions to materials can come at the beginning, at the end or in the middle of the material being adapted

- Deleting: A material can be deleted either by subtracting or abridging

+ Subtracting: The change is quantitative For example, a teacher can decide to do five of the questions practising the simple past tense instead of the ten in the coursebook

+ Abridging: This causes a qualitative change For example, the teacher may decide that focusing attention on pronunciation may inhibit the learner’s fluency and decide not to do any of the pronunciation exercises in a coursebook

- Simplifying: The teacher can reword instructions or text in order to make them more accessible

to learners, or simplify a complete activity to make it more manageable for learners and teachers However, there is a distinct danger of distorting language when attempting to simplify a text and thus making the text unauthentic

- Reordering: The teacher may decide that it makes more pedagogic sense to sequence activities differently

- Replacing material: The teacher may decide that a more appropriate visual or text might serve

an activity better than the ones presented in the published material This is often the case with culturally specific or time-specific activities He may also decide to replace a whole activity depending on the goals

of a particular class or lesson

In conclusion, this chapter provides a literature review on different aspects of listening and teaching listening in the foreign language classroom; needs analysis and materials evaluation in language teaching A conceptual framework that derives from this literature review has been chosen to guide this study, including: (1) the categorization of needs by Hutchinson and Waters (1987); (2) the theoretical base to PSA and TSA suggested by Robinson (1991); (3) the ME model suggested by Cunningsworth (2002); and (4) the checklists for ME suggested by Sheldon (1988), Cunningsworth (2002) and Peacock (1997) The methodology of this research will be presented in detail in the next chapter

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the context in which the research was conducted, the participants, methods of data collection and methods of data analysis of the study

2.1 Description of the context

Since the materials being evaluated are a part of the “listening-speaking 1” course, there is

a need to give a brief description of the course It was compulsory for all first-year Ss at FELTE majoring in ELT or English translation, which in this study are indicated as English majors The course was allocated with three credits The overall objectives of the course were based on the global Common European Framework By the end of the first semester, the Ss‟ ability should partially meet B1 level

The course lasted for 15 weeks in which the first week was saved for a diagnostic test and class meetings and the eighth week was used to give Ss a mid-term test on listening, reading and writing During the other thirteen weeks of the course, 10 lessons in different themes and two review sections were covered The listening and speaking lessons of each week went in sync with each other and with the same theme (See appendix 1 for detailed syllabus)

The listening part accounted for 35% of the total score of the listening – speaking course

in which the assessment was allocated as follows:

End-of-term speaking test 35%

Table 2.1: Assessment in the “listening – speaking 1” course

In terms of materials, the Ss were required to have the following materials before the course started

- (1) Kay, S., Jones, V., & Kerr, P (2002) Inside out – Pre-Intermediate (Students’ Book)

Oxford: Macmillan Education

- (2) Lecturers and tutors in Division 1, ULIS, VNU (compiled and edited) Speaking and pronunciation focus Hanoi: VNU Press, 2006

- (3) Lecturers and tutors in Division 1, ULIS, VNU (compiled and edited) Listening focus Hanoi: VNU Press, 2006

The first material was a core textbook that was used in class along with speaking activities designed by the speaking teachers One of the sources for these activities was a collection of speaking supplementary activities collected and designed by the lecturers and tutors in Division 1 The second and third ones were employed for Ss‟ speaking and listening practice at home For in-

class listening activities, teachers used a collection of listening materials compiled and edited in

2006 by lecturers and tutors in Division 1, ULIS, VNU These materials come in form of black and white handouts delivered to Ss in each lesson They included 10 themes and two review sections The topics that were covered in these materials can be listed as follows: people description, places, couples, sports, shopping, employment, rich, rules, fashion, holidays and festivals Besides the handouts, they also included CDs containing listening recordings for the tasks in the handouts These CDs were provided to Ts only

The teaching staff included 24 lecturers, all of whom were members of Division 1, FELTE, ULIS with teaching experience varying from one year to ten years Twelve of them were

in charge of teaching listening skill The course was delivered to 303 first-year Ss majoring in ELT and English translation who were indicated as first-year English majors in this research In this study, they are addressed as first-year English majors or first-year ELT Ss

2.2 Description of the participants

There were two groups of participants in this research: the S sample group and the T one The first group included 100 first-year English majors, selected randomly among 303 Ss taking the speaking-listening 1 course at FELTE, ULIS, VNU Their age ranged from 18 to 20 They were divided into 12 classes with the largest participant number being 33 and the smallest being

24

The second group contained all 12 teachers who were in charge of teaching listening skill

in the speaking-listening 1 course of school year 2010-2011 They were between 23 to 28 years

old, with at least one year of teaching experience and at most seven years‟ experience working as

In this study, three sets of questionnaires were used to get information about the students‟ needs in learning listening skill as perceived by themselves and their teachers, the Ss‟ performance in the listening lessons that the researcher observed; and the Ss and Ts‟ views on the current listening in-class material for the first semester The questionnaire type constructed by the author belongs to both „close-ended‟ and „open-ended‟ items

Because the questionnaires ask for information about the respondents, in a non-evaluative manner, there are neither correct nor incorrect answers For the purpose of eliciting more truthful responses, it is important to think about the issue of confidentiality of the respondents The author puts a notice that the information given in the questionnaires will be kept confidential and only the author will have access to their answers

The steps of constructing the questionnaires were performed as follows: (1) Piloting the questionnaires; (2) Revising the questionnaires; (3) Delivering the questionnaires

The first set of questionnaires – listening needs analysis

In this set, there are two questionnaires for the Ss and Ts with the same items The content

of these questionnaires was based on Hutchinson and Waters‟ s categorization of target needs (1987) The first part of the questionnaires includes questions 1 – 3 about the Ss‟ listening proficiency and attitudes towards the importance of this skill) Questions 4 – 15 in the next part were designed to discover their lacks which were shown in form of the listening difficulties they faced The main listening problems listed in the checklist in this part were suggested based on those proposed by Ur (1984) and Underwood (1989) The last part includes question 16 about what forms of support the Ss needed to improve their listening skill

The second set of questionnaires – an evaluation of the current in-class listening materials

The questionnaires were designed based on Peacock‟s checklist (1997), Cunningsworth‟s checklist (1995) and Sheldon‟s checklist (1988) for choosing a textbook They included three parts: (1) the overall judgement on the difficulty level, effectiveness, interestingness of the materials (questions 1-3); (2) the evaluation of how the materials met the Ss‟ needs in terms of objectives, layout / graphics, content, recordings and topics (questions 4-24); (3) how the materials should be changed in order to better meet Ss‟ needs (question 25 in Ss‟ questionnaire / 26 in Ts‟ questionnaire)

The questionnaires for students and teachers contain the same questions except for question 25 in Ts‟ questionnaire Since the Ss were freshmen, the author assumed that it would be hard for them to evaluate the suitability of the objectives of the materials to these of the course, the question item in this part was included only in the questionnaire for the Ts All the other items in the two questionnaires were exactly the same

The third set of questionnaires: Ss’ performance in the listening lessons that the research observed

These questionnaires were designed to discover what difficulties the Ss faced in fulfilling each task in the lessons observed

2.3.2 Observation

Taylor-Powell and Steele (1996) claimed that observation is a “valuable method for collecting evaluation information”, which provides the researcher with the opportunity to document activities, behaviour and physical aspects without having to depend upon people‟s willingness and ability to respond to questions Therefore, observation was employed to collect data about the Ss‟ performance in the listening lessons that the research observed

Two random listening lessons in different classes were chosen for observation The topics

of these two lessons were “employment” and “holidays and festivals” respectively The observation gave the researcher a general idea of how the Ss participated in activities in class and how well they performed in these tasks However, as the number of Ss participating in each class was relatively large (i.e 23 for lesson 1 and 24 for lesson 2), the researcher recognised a necessity

to employ task performance measurement and questionnaires about the same matters at the end of each lesson in order to obtain more reliable data These questionnaires belong to the third set of questionnaires aforementioned

This data collection method was carried out right after the observation Before the listening lessons started, the Ss were requested to write down their answers on the handouts given

by their teachers which contained the listening tasks They were also noticed not to mix up their own answers with the keys provided after each task was completed After the lessons ended, the handouts with the Ss‟ were collected for task performance measurement

2.3.4 Interviews

According to Brinkmann (2008: 470), interviewing is a conversational practice where knowledge is produced through the interaction between an interviewer and an interviewee or a group of interviewees They are useful for eliciting perspectives that the researcher has not otherwise considered Brown (2001) and Long (2005) also emphasized the importance of sequencing and utilizing different methods, starting with existing information, followed by unstructured interviews and meetings with the stakeholders

In this study, interviews were carried out to help the author obtain knowledge about students‟ personal perceptions on the students‟ listening needs and the current listening in-class materials Since the student participants were all freshmen whose English was at a relatively low level (i.e pre-intermediate as stated in the description of listening – speaking 1 course), it was assumed that they might feel more comfortable expressing their ideas in their mother tongue when having an informal talk with the researcher Therefore, after the questionnaires on the matters above, the researcher conducted unstructured interviews in Vietnamese to clarify the unclear answers in the open-ended questionnaire items and to encourage the Ss to share their ideas about these matters Due to limited time, in each interview, there were 10 participants randomly chosen among 100 student participants

2.4 Methods of data analysis

2.4.1 Quantitative method

According to Jacobsen (2002), the fundamental starting point of the quantitative method is that the social reality can be measured by methods and instruments that give information based on numerical values This method was employed to analyse the date obtained from close-ended questionnaire items After each episode was coded, SPSS was used to produce the final data analysis results

2.4.2 Qualitative method

Qualitative data from the interviews, observation and the “open-ended” items of the questionnaires were analyzed with this method Each episode was coded and compared with every other episode for similarities and differences After that, the researcher grouped analyzed data into categories, those categories are examined for how they are related to one another and then collapsed under a higher level category until the central category that explains most of variation in the data is revealed or „discovered‟

2.4.3 Data collection and analysis procedure

The study includes four main steps: (1) needs analysis survey; (2) task performance observation, measurement and survey questionnaires; (3) materials evaluation survey; and (4) data analysis At the beginning of the first semester of the school year 2010-2011, a survey was carried out to collect data of Ss‟ listening needs During the semester, the researcher observed two listening lessons and conducted questionnaires and task performance measurement after each lesson to find out about the Ss‟ performance on the tasks in these lessons At the end of the semester, there was another survey to obtain knowledge about the Ss and Ts‟ evaluation of the in-

class listening materials used during the semester After the data collection was complete, the data were analysed, conclusions were drawn and recommendations were made

This chapter has presented the methods of this study The results of the research are provided in the next chapter