(LUẬN văn THẠC sĩ) using video to reduce students’anxiety in english listening lessons an action research at thanh hoa medical college

NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ USING VIDEO TO REDUCE STUDENTS’ ANXIETY IN ENGLISH LISTENING LESSONS: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT THANH HOA MEDICAL COLLEGE Sử dụng phương tiện nghe nhìn để làm giảm sự lo lắn

NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ

USING VIDEO TO REDUCE STUDENTS’ ANXIETY IN ENGLISH LISTENING LESSONS: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT

THANH HOA MEDICAL COLLEGE

Sử dụng phương tiện nghe nhìn để làm giảm sự lo lắng của sinh viên trong giờ học nghe: Một nghiên cứu hành động tại trường Cao Đẳng Y Tế

Thanh Hóa

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Ha Noi – 2013

NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ

USING VIDEO TO REDUCE STUDENTS’ ANXIETY IN ENGLISH LISTENING LESSONS: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT

THANH HOA MEDICAL COLLEGE

Sử dụng phương tiện nghe nhìn để làm giảm sự lo lắng của sinh viên trong giờ học nghe: Một nghiên cứu hành động tại trường Cao Đẳng Y Tế

Thanh Hóa

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: Dr Lê Văn Canh

Ha Noi – 2013

LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS v

LIST OF ABBREVIATION vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study 1

1.2 Research Aims and Research Questions 2

1.3 Significance of the study 2

1.4 Scope of the study 2

1.5 Design of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Overview of anxiety and listening anxiety 4

2.1.1 Anxiety 4

2.1.2 Anxiety in listening comprehension 6

2.1.3 Causes of listening anxiety 7

2.1.4 Effects of FLA on listening comprehension 8

2.2 Definition and benefits of using videos in learning English in general and in learning listening skill in particular 9

2.3 Previous studies 12

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 14

3.1 Action Research 14

3.1.1 What is action research? 14

3.1.2 Rationale for the use of an action research 15

3.2 The context of teaching and learning listening skill at THMC 17

3.3 Participants 17

3.4 Classroom setting 18

3.7 Research program 22

3.8 Data collection procedure 22

3.9 Data analysis procedure 23

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 24

4.1 Students‟ initial attitude to listening skill 24

4.2 Possible explanations for the students‟ listening anxiety 25

4.3 Changes in students attitude toward listening skill after using video 26

4.4 Impacts of video- based instruction on reducing students‟ anxiety in doing listening comprehension tasks 28

4.4.1 Video as a useful tool to solve the causes of the students‟ anxiety 28

4 4.2 Changes in students‟ perceived learning (understanding and retention ) and performance……… ……….……… ………….29

4.4.3 Students‟ preference in doing listening activities 31

4.4.4 Students‟ preference toward video techniques used by the teacher in listening lessons 33

4.4.5 Students‟ assessment on the role of video 34

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS 37

5.1 Major findings and discussion of the research 37

5.2 Conclusion 38

5.3 Objective revisited 39

5.4 The limitations of the research 39

5.5 Suggestion for further studies 40

REFERENCE 41 APPENDICES I

Table 2: Students‟ anxiety in listening lesson without video

Table 3: The causes of the students‟ anxiety in the listening lessons

Table 4: Students‟ attitude toward listening after using video

Table 5: Students‟ anxiety in listening lesson using video

Table 6: Students‟ preference in doing listening activities

Table 7: Students‟ preference toward video techniques used by the teacher in listening lessons

Figures

Figure 1: Change in percentage of students‟ comprehension after using video Figure 2: Change in percentage of students‟ retention after using video

Pie charts

Chart 1: Students‟ assessment on the importance of video

Chart 2: Students‟ assessment on effectiveness of video material

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

TMC: Thanh Hoa Medical College L1: first language

L2: second language ULIS: University of Language and International Studies IT: Information Technology

Ss: students ESP: English for special purpose FLA: Foreign Language Anxiety

LC : Listening Comprehension

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study

Recently, technology has been recommended to be used in education with a view of providing learners with more learning opportunities Videos are among the technologies that are believed to have significant influences on second or foreign language learning This type of technology is said to allow teacher to create virtually the target language environment into classroom so that live or prerecorded news, music, sports from all over the world can be viewed by students in real time The advantages of using video in the language classroom have been recognized by many researchers in applied linguistics The main advantage of using video as a technology for language teaching is considered to be its ability to present and immerse learners into complete communicative situations (Lonergan, 1984) Another important advantage is the ability of video to cover non-verbal aspects of communication and its cross-cultural comparison potential (Stempleski & Tomalin, 1990) In addition, using video in the classroom allows differentiation of teaching and learning according to students‟ abilities, learning styles and personalities

Despite those benefits to language learners, the issue of how videos help to reduce the students‟ listening anxiety is not yet adequately explored As a teacher I believe that anxiety inhibits students‟ participation in the learning processes, which affects negatively the students‟ acquisition of the target language Listening comprehension

in foreign language learning causes a lot of anxiety among learners because of a variety of reasons Therefore, efforts should be made to reduce the student anxiety

as the first step towards a more learner- centered approach to foreign language teaching

One of the reasons that causes students‟ listening anxiety is that while listening to the recorded messages, students cannot see the speaker‟ face This makes it impossible for them to use the non-linguistic cues such as facial expressions and other gestures to comprehend the speaker‟s message By using the video to visualize

the speakers and the communication settings, I believe that the teacher can help students to feel less anxious in doing the listening tasks This is the rationale for this present study

1.2 Research Aims and Research Questions

This action research is aimed to explore the impact of the teacher‟s use of videos on students‟ listening anxiety To be specific, it is intended to gain understanding of the extent to which the use of videos helps to reduce students‟ listening anxiety So, the study is to find answers to the following research questions:

Question 1: To what extent does the use of video in teaching listening change

the attitude of second year English non-majors toward learning listening skill?

Question 2: To what extent do the students’ changed attitudes to learning help to

reduce their anxiety in doing listening comprehension tasks?

1.3 Significance of the study

Although listening skill has always been given a significant in language teaching, the questions of how to teach and learn listening skill effectively often pose great problems to both teachers and students This study primarily explores how the use

of videos instruction reduces students‟ anxiety at THMC It also serves as a valuable resource for teachers to gain a deep insight into the practice of video instruction at the college More importantly, an inventory of videos especially videos about medicine are very useful for nursing students Because medical words are difficult and practical environments are not available Videos can help them to understand the lesson, help them to be confident when performing listening tasks Placing second-year students majoring in nursing at the centre of analysis, the study intends to help the population to succeed in improving listening comprehension On

an other hand, the study can be beneficial to teachers of English at other colleges,

who may undergo the same context of teaching and learning this skill

1.4 Scope of the study

As an action research study, the study reported here is limited itself to the exploration of the extent to which the use of videos in teaching listening

comprehension helps to reduce their listening anxiety, thereby changing their attitudes towards listening comprehension I believe that once the students feel more self-confident in listening comprehension and they have a positive attitude towards listening comprehension they will learn English better After all, nobody can learn a foreign language well without the ability to understand the spoken language The results of this study will be used to deepen my understanding of how to use technology to reduce the my own students‟ learning anxiety I do not intend to investigate other aspects of technology or the impact of video-based listening instruction on students‟ listening comprehension performance although this could

be the focus of the second cycle of this action research project

1.5 Design of the study

This study is divided into five chapters:

Chapter 1, INTRODUCTION, presents the research problem and rationale of the study, the aims, scope, significance, methods as well as the design of the study Chapter 2, LITERATURE REVIEW, deals with the theories involving anxiety in listening comprehension and the need of using video in listening comprehension Chapter 3, METHODOLOGY, presents the methodology applied in the study including participants, instrumentation, research process

Chapter 4, RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION, presents the results of the research and data analysis, from which major findings are revealed and discussed Chapter 5, CONCLUSIONS, reviews the major findings and give conclusions, revises objectives and indicates some limitations of the study And discussion and suggestions for further study are put forward

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter gives an overview of the literature in which key concepts, theories and previous studies in the field are presented

2.1 Overview of anxiety and listening anxiety 2.1.1 Anxiety

Anxiety is quite possibly the affective factor that most pervasively obstructs the learning process It is associated with negative feelings such as uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, apprehension and tension Heron (1989:33) makes reference to what he terms existential anxiety, which arises out of a group situation and has three interconnected components that are relevant to the language classroom: “Acceptance anxiety Will I be accepted, liked, wanted? Orientation anxiety Will I understand what is going on? Performance anxiety Will

I be able to do what I have come to learn?”

For acquisition to take place, the learner has to be able to absorb the appropriate parts of the input There can be “a mental block that prevents acquirers from fully utilizing the comprehensible input they receive for language acquisition” (Krashen,

1985, p.3) This block, called “ the affective filter”, might be because “ the acquirer

is unmotivated, lacking in self-confidence, or anxious” (Krashen, 1985, p.3) The Affective Filter Hypothesis ascribes variation between learners to their psychological states If the filter is “ up”, comprehensible input cannot get through;

if it is “ down”, they can make effective use of it In particular the reason why younger learners are better at L2 acquisition over the long term is that “ the affective filter gains dramatically in strength at around puberty” (Krashen, 1985, p.13) Older learners are cut off from proper access to comprehensible input by the increased strength of the filter In Krashen‟s words, “ comprehensible input and the strength of the filter are the true causes of second language acquisition” (Krashen, 1982, p.33), one positively, one negatively

There are few, if any, disciplines in the curriculum which lay themselves open to anxiety production more than foreign or second language learning There

is a great deal of vulnerability involved in trying to express oneself before others in

a shaky linguistic vehicle It is possible in some cases that the methodology used can contribute to furthering anxiety With the grammar-translation method one might assume a reduction of the possibility of anxiety, since the learners have relatively little of themselves invested in the activities required However, with the advent of methods which focus on communication, and especially communication involving more personal aspects of one‟s being, such as feelings, if care is not taken to provide emotionally safe atmosphere, the chance for the development

of anxiety provoking situations can increase greatly This is particularly true if at the same time the stakes involved are very high, such as academic settings, where the evaluation of the learner can conceivably have far-reaching consequences When anxiety is present in the classroom, there is a down- spiraling effect Anxiety makes us nervous and afraid and thus contributes to poor performance; this in turn creates more anxiety and even worse performance The feelings of fear and nervousness are intimately connected to the cognitive side of anxiety, which is worry Worry wastes energy that should be used for memory and processing on a type of thinking which in no way facilitates the task at hand (Eysenck 1979) Although it is a major obstacle to language learning, anxiety can be reduced

Learners may suffer from anxiety in relation to a number of aspects of the 1earning process; for example, about the language itself, about speaking in front

teaching-of other learners, about the language class, about the behavior teaching-of their peers, about their standing in the competition with fellow learners, about taking tests, about the speakers of the language they are learning, etc The more anxious they are, the less well they believe they can perform Classroom anxiety became extreme for the student with the lowest proficiency Each class presented new challenges and the anxiety seemed to be debilitating It is helpful for teachers to understand the

pressures felt by learners in the classrooms Foss and Reitzel suggested that knowledge and skills can best be dealt with through role play, drama, and oral interpretation Through performing the works of others, thoroughly rehearsed in terms of both verbal and non-verbal language, the students experience less communication anxiety than if they themselves must generate their own target language utterances

2.1.2 Anxiety in listening comprehension

Listening as the most frequently used skill plays an important role in foreign language learning (Vogely, 1998) since through this channel learner is able to comprehend the information The importance of listening comprehension for achieving success in language learning has been emphasized by both instructors and students (Ferris & Tagg, 1996; Ferris, 1998) However, as Scarcella and Oxford (1992) and Vogely (1999) stated anxiety can be highly provoked in listening comprehension context MacIntyre (1995) explained the reason for such an anxiety

is that learners often worry about misunderstanding what they listen to and the fear

of being embarrassed by interpreting the message wrongly (Chastain, 1979) Research in foreign or second language learning has begun to show that anxiety directly undermines motivation and creates a negative affective response to the foreign language being studied (Gardner et al 1987) Therefore, addressing foreign language listening comprehension anxiety is fast becoming a priority in the classroom

Gonen (2009) mentioned that the authenticity of the listening text, incomprehensibility of the listening material and other external environmental factors such as noise and inaudibility can create anxiety among L2 learners

However Dunkel (1991) believes that those students who do not have the confidence might experience anxiety more In a study done by Vogely (1998), students reported the cause of their anxiety on being more concentrated on the nature of speed, level of difficulty, ambiguity, lack of visual support and lack of repetition Kim (2000) in her study analyzed foreign language anxiety scale and

concluded that lack of confidence and being worried over listening are the main reasons of anxiety in L2 learners Moderate negative correlation between listening anxiety and listening proficiency was another finding of her study In another study conducted by Chang (2008) English learners‟ listening anxiety was higher than their speaking anxiety and this anxiety was more significant in testing situation rather than class environment

According to Scarcella and Oxford (1992), listening anxiety occurs when students feel they are faced with a task that is too difficult or unfamiliar to them This anxiety is exacerbated if the listeners are under the false impression that they must understand every word they hear Many learners believe that in order to be “good at

a language they need perfect pronunciation, massive amounts of vocabulary, extensive grammar knowledge, overseas experience, and a natural aptitude for language before they even open their mouths (Horwitz1986) As a result, the anxiety that arises during the listening process often springs form what Joiner (1986) calls a negative “listening self-concept,” that is, a low level of self-confidence in the area of listening

Gardner and MacIntyre (1995) show that the most negative element that influences the language performance is anxiety LC anxiety can undermine speech production because, in order to interact verbally, the listener must first understand what is being said Therefore, LC anxiety should not be ignored, but actively addressed

2.1.3 Causes of listening anxiety

To date, there are numerous explanations on causes of listening anxiety identified

by different researchers

Vogely(1998) documented the sources of foreign language listening comprehension (LC) anxiety using a student self- reported questionnaire She found four main sources of LC anxiety: 1) some characteristics of LC input, including nature of the speech, level difficulty, lack of visual support, and lack of repetition; 2) process-related aspects, including inappropriate strategies, lack of processing time, can‟t

study LC, and can‟t check answers; 3) instructional factors, including lack of practice, “ the test thing” and uncomfortable environment; and 4) personal and interpersonal attributes, including fear of failure/ nervousness and instructors‟ personality

Kim ( 2000) recruited 235 Korean university EFL learners in order to examine the relationship between general foreign language and foreign language anxiety She found that a majority of Korean college EFL learners experienced foreign language listening anxiety, that listening anxiety include two factors: Tension and Worry over English listening and Lack of Self- confidence in listening Responses to open- ended questions and in interviews in the same study revealed that learners were nervous about the following: (a) the listening text ( speed, pronunciation, intonation, acoustic conditions, length of a listening text, level of vocabulary”, p.143), (b) the interlocutors ( gender or number of speakers, previous knowledge, learning style of the learner), and (c) the process of listening (“ the effectiveness or choice of

listening strategies”, p.143)

2.1.4 Effects of foreign language anxiety (FLA) on listening comprehension

FLA is the “fear” or “apprehension” occurring when a student is required to perform in the second or foreign language Anxiety refers to an emotional state which can have both positive and negative influences, and which fosters and facilitates or disturbs and impedes learning (MacIntyre, 1995) Anxiety can harm learners‟ performance in many ways such as not participating in the activities or not using the language in public In contrast, it can be helpful in some ways such as keeping student alert and trying to make the necessary preparation beforehand for

the learning activities

MacIntyre (1999) lists five major effects of anxiety on second/foreign language learning and performance First, academically, language anxiety is one of the best predictors of language proficiency since high levels of language anxiety are associated with low levels of academic achievement in second/foreign language learning The second effect is the social effect Learners with high anxiety level are not

interested to take part in interpersonal communication with others Third, cognitively, anxiety can occur at any stage of language acquisition Anxiety can become an affective filter that prevents certain information from entering a learner‟s cognitive processing system Fourth, anxiety arousal can influence the quality of communication output as the retrieval of information may be interrupted when learners get anxious Finally, personally, language learning experience could, under some circumstances, become a traumatic experience This kind of unpleasant experience may dramatically disturb one‟s self-esteem or self-confidence as a learner (Crookall and Oxford, 1991)

2.2 Definition and the need of using videos in learning English in general and

in learning listening skill in particular

According to Lonergan (1994), the term „video‟ has two meanings For some, it means no more than replaying television program on a video recorder, for viewing

in class or private study For others, it implies the use of video camera in class to record and play back to learners their activities and achievements in a foreign language Lonergan defines the term „video film‟ as a photographic process, involving the effects of light and chemicals on sensitive paper

According to Dusenbury, Hansen, & Giles (2003), video-assisted instruction has the benefits of standardizing messages, so it might be able to increase the fidelity of implementing instruction

The M.A thesis conducted by Ta.,V., D (2003: 19) generalized some advantages of video clips in language teaching as follow:

- Video clips create a natural language environment with the combination of sound and pictures, which is intrinsically interesting to language learner Unlike traditional classes with boring text-books, poor quality cassettes and non-native like pronunciation of teachers, which makes students feel isolated from language environment, learners are now totally absorbed in English environment provided by video with clear sound, vivid and colorful pictures and human- video interactions

- Video makes students more confident and active in learning English In traditional classes, students dare not ask their teachers to repeat something several times, but with video, they can stop it, rewind it and watch it until they understand the language

- Learning English by video clips, students have chance to listen to native people With video, learners are immerses in the target language environment They listen

to the native pronunciation, accent, even tone and stress At the same time, they will have a good grasp of vocabulary, the correct use of language Learners absorbed these things naturally without being aware of it Therefore, they will remember all what they learn for a long time

- Video can bring the outside world into the classroom as they are sound and vision recorded on to video tape and played through a video recorder on to a TV screen If television shows the culture of the target language in action, video allows the learners to examine it in detail According to one American psychologist, Robert Meridian, as much as 80 percent of our communication is non-verbal Our gestures, expression, posture, dress and surrounding are as eloquent as what we actually say Video allows us to see this in action and to freeze any moment to study the non-verbal communication in detail

The M.A thesis conducted by Nguyen M., T (2005) also summarized general benefits of using video in language classroom as follow:

- It is quite easy to notice the compelling power of video in the classroom, a power that is even enhanced by concentration on short sequences Video, in other words, stimulates students‟ motivation, and maintains their interest and concentration better than sound-only learning environment

- Using video in language teaching can enhance students‟ understanding and retention of information It also brings students kinds of situation, with full contextual back-up

- Video is used to help enhance the meaning of message trying to be conveyed by the speakers through the use of paralinguistic cues In addition, it allows students to

see body language and speech rhythm in second language discourse through the use

of authentic language and speech in various situations

- Video is a window on English-language culture

- Video can be used as stimulus or input for discussion, for writing assignment, projects or the study of other subjects

- Video, as a moving picture book, gives access to things, places, people, events and behaviors, regardless of the language used

- Using video in language teaching allows differentiations of teaching and learning according to the students‟ abilities, learning styles and personalities Teaching with video can widen the range of activities in the classroom

- The students dealing with video in their learning improve a range of social skills, including communication, negotiation, decision-making and problem-solving

He also found out that video course not only teaches English through video but gets students to use the English they have learned in talking about the video In addition, using video creates a great number of tasks and activities that stimulate communication and particular spoken language among students

To sum up, the use of video can make language more accessible to learners by:

- Making it easier to integrate and contextualize listening, speaking and pronunciation, reading and writing activities

- Motivating learners and helping them in their efforts to use the language naturally

in their own lives by seeing how the characters succeed in communicating with native speakers and getting things done in their everyday activities

- Bringing native speakers into classroom (on video), providing additional models for pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm besides that of the teacher

- Raising learners‟ awareness of non-verbal aspects of communication

- Increasing listening comprehension: paralinguistic features (facial expression, body language, context, setting…) help learners comprehend more than from listening to audio tape only

- Simulating learners‟ interaction and communication with co-learners as they discuss the video itself or ways it relates to their lives and experiences

- Raising cross-cultural awareness: learners enjoy observing similarities and differences between the behavior of the characters in a video clip and that of their own families and friends

2.3 Previous studies

In the context of Vietnam, especially in ULIS, there have been few studies on the use of video and on the effect of video-assisted instruction on students‟ listening

competence Nguyen, M.T (2005) conducted a study titled “Design a Listening and

Speaking Syllabus Using Video for English Language Non-major at Intermediate Level.” In his study, he focused mainly on building up an appropriate

Pre-syllabus with audio-visual aids to improve students‟ listening and speaking skills

He also embraced fundamental techniques and video activities in language classroom However, the syllabus he designed limited its scope to non-major students at pre-intermediate level with the purpose of improving listening and speaking skills The study was conducted on students of the above level in May School, at 36 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, where most teaching materials were aided with audio-video The method used in this study is qualitative including comments, remarks, comparisons and suggestions based on factual research, observation, experiences and discussion Although the findings and syllabus were valuable and practical in the context of language teaching and learning in Vietnam, there are still several limitations in this study Firstly, the subjects of the study were students from

a school- a foreign languages center, who were totally different from university or college students in terms of classroom setting, English proficiency, linguistic competence as well as materials and teaching method applied by teachers Secondly, the reliability of data collected was not sufficient as he did not present his questionnaires in the thesis, which might fail to depict the need analysis

Another thesis conducted by Bach, T., H., Y., (2009) studied on the effectiveness of video-assisted instruction on teaching listening for non-English majors at Phuong

Dong university This is quasi-experimental research in which the participants wee divided into two groups: the control (A) and the treatment (B) Both of the classes were second-year non-major students The results from pre-test showed that the listening competence in class A was better than class B However, after one semester applying video-assisted instruction to class B, the students‟ listening competence was better than those in class B who were not taught with video materials The only limitation of this study is its instrumentation The only instruments are pre-test and post-test whose validity and reliability are not high enough It is better if included other instruments such as journals or observation checklist

To sum up, I felt an urge to conduct an investigation on the use of video- assisted instruction on students at The THMC in listening class However, I only investigated on aspect of listening anxiety and exploited the impact of video on reducing students‟ listening anxiety

Conclusion

This chapter not only provides an overview of background to the study, including key concepts and theories relating to the research topic but also discusses previous studies of this field to reveal the research gap which needs filling These issues will

be referred back in the next chapter

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

Chapter 3 presents the methodology applied in the study including the review of action research, the context of teaching and learning listening skill to English non-majors, participants, plan action, instrumentation and the procedure of data collection and data analysis In addition, it provides justifications for the selection

of research methods

3.1 Action Research 3.1.1 What is action research?

In the literature, action research had been defined in many ways Corey (1953) defines action research as “a way in which teachers try to study their own problems scientifically, in an effort to evaluate, guide and correct their procedures” Looking at the effectiveness of action research, Tsui (1993) states that: “ Action research is a very effective way of helping teachers to reflect on their teaching and to come up with their own alternatives to improve their practice” (Tsui, 1993, p.33)

Grebhard and Oprandy (1999) define action research at two levels, the inside classroom level and the outside classroom level: “ At one level, action research is about teachers identifying and posing problems, as well as addressing issues and concerns related to the problem It is about working toward understanding and possibly resolving these problems by setting goals and creating and initiating a plan

of action, as well as reflecting on the degree to which the plan work At another level, it can be about addressing educational practices that go beyond each teacher‟s classroom” (p.12 )

In the “ Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied linguistics”

Rechards and Platt give the following definition of action research:

“ Research which has the primary goal of finding ways of solving problems, bring about social change or practical action, in comparison with research which seeks to discover scientific principles or develop general laws and theories”

To sum up, action research is a kind of scientific study which is often carried out by

a teacher or an educator in order to solve a practical problem in a classroom As it named, it focuses mainly on the actions both students and teachers So, it can solve the problems which are related to all actions and activities in a classroom The problems which are solved by action research are often practical and useful for teachers

3.1.2 Rationale for the use of an action research

As defined by Milss (2003:4), an action research is “ any systematic inquiry conducted by teacher researchers to gather information about the ways that their particular school operates, how they teach, and how well their students learn The information is gathered with the goals of gaining insight, developing reflective practice, effecting positive changes in the school environment and on educational practices in generals, and improving student outcomes” Kemmis and Mc Taggart (1988) identify three characteristics of an action research, which are: “carried out by practitioners”, “collaborative” and “aimed at changing things” A typical action research needs to go from one step to another Eileen Ferrance (2000, p.22) suggested an action research cycle as follows:

According to her cycle, the first step of an action research is to identify the problem

Then, data must be collected through means of interview, questionnaires, diary, etc

Next, the data is analyzed to find out problems The fourth step is to design a plan

of action that will allow me to make a change and to study that change After the intervention has been carried out, it is the research‟s task to evaluate its effects in order to justify whether the intervention worked or not One of the most significant features of an action research is it is very situational, which means it appears to provide specific solutions to specific problems in each context While other types of researches focus on experimenting or testing a pre-assumed theory or concept, action research aims at “improving the situation” Therefore, it is very beneficial to the teaching and learning process

Action research in schools, colleges or universities solves everyday practical problems experienced by teachers, rather than the “theoretical problems” defined by non-teaching researcher It should be carried out the teachers themselves or by someone they commission to carry out for them

If the teacher was trained to conduct action research, he could solve his problems on his own or in collaboration with other teachers Tsui (1993) gave three reasons why

a teacher needed action research:

To solve own problems in a scientific process and improve own practice

To adapt theory (findings of conventional research) to practice (own problems) Share the results of action research with other teachers

Moreover, action research was also for teachers‟ professional developments He would become a better teacher because he knew how to find out and solve his problems in teaching scientifically on his own This also showed his dynamic, activeness and imagination in his teaching

As stated in Chapter 1, the purpose of this study is to explore the extent to which the application of a video-based approach to teaching listening comprehension helps to reduce my own students‟ listening anxiety The research was conducted by me as a classroom teacher with my own students, and in my own classrooms The results of the study would be helpful to my own teaching and professional development Hence, an action research approach is appropriate to the purpose and the nature of

the study

3.2 The context of teaching and learning listening skill at THMC

Most students at THMC are non-English majors; therefore they are expected to be fluent in English communication They have 2 year course for studying English The first year they are taught to get general background of English proficiency In the second year, students concentrate on English for special purpose relating nursing mainly

The learning materials for English non-major students in the first year are “New Head Way” A large number of students come from different parts and provinces of the country where English belittled, and they have opportunities to get a full access

to the learning of four skills Consequently, this learning stage mainly focuses on the development of four skills in order to help students get a general background of English proficiency Four skills are focused in teaching English in our curriculum

In listening lesson, students listen to a text or conversation from radio After that they have to finish some tasks in the text book This method, from my point of view, do not bring good results, in contrast, it always make students stressful or anxious

The ESP materials are designed by the teachers of English from Foreign Language Department Most lessons in the textbook mainly focus on nursing And four skills are also focus and at the end of the course, the English proficiency levels of the students are expected to be advanced

ESP materials are not various for students In addition to the time constraint for listening, students do not have much chance for further practice Consequently, students at THMC face variety of problems with listening skill, one of which is their anxiety when they perform listening tasks

3.3 Participants

The target population of this study is the English non-major students at intermediate

at THMC but only 50 second-year students were chosen to take part in this study due to the fact that I taught this class very often, therefore it was convenient to carry

out the plan The writer chose the participants because of the following reasons: Firstly, The writer who is teaching during the first term and she recognizes that her students always worried about listening skill The writer can identify that problem through her observation during the first term she taught, through her survey questionnaire Secondly, second-year students were chosen because they had spent more than one year learning listening skill with traditional method by using audio-only material This point made it feasible for me to make some comparisons between two methods: the one with audio-only material and the one with the aid of video material Therefore, she could partly evaluate the effectiveness video material

to her students‟ listening competence

Moreover, the third year students are busy with their subjects major in nursing That is why it is very feasible to choose the second year students

3.4 Classroom setting

In the class, in order to view the live streaming video coming from the teacher, a computer will be configured with a video projector This projector will allow the video stream to be presented on a large screen for the whole class to view The video steam must be viewed from one place due to the audio The computer connected to the projector will have 2 speakers that are fixed at two corners in the class The students sat in the class with 2 students in one table, no cabins and no headphones The teacher will guide students do the listening tasks and she will control all stages on her or his computer It means that the teacher has to prepare the video and save it in her or his computer Although cabins with headphones are not available because of poor facilities, this still keeps the interactions between the students and teacher to have good communication All students will listen as audio but with the use of video- assisted instruction

3.5 Instruments 3.5.1 Interviews

Four students were interviewed for approximately 10 or 15 minutes The interviews were made Vietnamese due to the preferences of all respondents The choice of

language did not affect the reliability of the data; in contrast, it helps to avoid any misunderstanding between interviewees and interviewer The aims of using these interviews were to help I get the ideas, perception and evaluation from the students toward listening with video – assisted instruction The comments and opinions of the students are really helpful for me to self evaluate later and anticipate the problem and implement some modifications in teaching listening as well In addition, when reporting the data, this type of information can add credibility to the reports and vitality to the findings

3.5.2 Questionnaires

Two questionnaires were designed and administered: one prior to the use of the videos in teaching listening comprehension and the other after the intervention The purpose of the questionnaires was to collect information about the students‟ attitudes towards listening comprehension as well as their listening anxiety All the questions in the questionnaire were developed with reference to the data gained through the interviews as described in the previous section and the literature on listening anxiety

The pre-intervention questionnaire consists of three questions The first and the second questions ask about the students‟ attitude to listening skill and the third question is to seek the causes of listening anxiety

After the intervention, i.e., the application of the video-based approach to teaching listening comprehension, post-questionnaire which composed of twelve questions was administered to the students The purpose of this questionnaire was to obtain information about the students‟ attitudes and opinions about how much the use of videos in listening comprehension lessons helped to reduce their listening anxiety and to identify the changes in their attitudes towards listening comprehension

3.5.3 Diaries

Elliot (1991) refers to the diaries as a valuable research tool as they can include

"observations, feelings, reactions, interpretations, reflections, hunches,explanations"

of the students and the teachers, in other words as they include insights

(McDonough, 1994) In this study, the students were invited to write their own diaries about their reflections on the listening lesson they were taught The purpose

of asking the students to write their own diaries is to gain more in-depth information about their perceived benefits of the video-based approach to teaching listening comprehension At the end of the research period, data analysis started with the analysis of the diaries This analysis, which was concerned with the diaries written

by the students, consisted of three steps The first step was to read the diaries and to identify the most common feedback provided made by the learners The second step was to read all the diaries again and underline the parts reflecting the teacher‟s and students‟ statements about the effect of using video to reduce listening anxiety The third step was to analyze all the diaries according to comments in terms of the effect of using video to reduce listening anxiety

3.6 Research procedure

The chronological steps of the study are summarized in five steps as follows:

Step 1: Initiation (Identify the problem)

During the first term of the school year, I recognized that my students felt tension in the listening classes They did not want to participate into listening activities and I seemed to be very worried to present the listening performance To understand more about this current situation, I had informal chats with the students in the free time or break time to gain understandings of their problems in listening Some students told

me that they were very worried when learning listening They were afraid that they couldn‟t hear and understand anything Some others said that listening skill was the most difficult for them

Step 2: Preliminary Investigation (Collect data through a variety of means)

To confirm the problems, I gave the pre-questionnaire to fifty students in my class

It helps me to gain the students‟ attitude toward listening, how they are worried and the reasons of their anxiety

Step 3: Intervention (Devise strategies and innovation to be implemented)

Being aware of the benefits of video, I decided to choose some videos that

appropriate to the content of the lessons and my students‟ level in order to apply in

my listening lectures Moreover, I also used some listening activities and videos techniques to teach them with the hope that I will bring them a comfortable and effective atmosphere in listening class The criterion for selection was the activities and exercises that were appropriate to the students‟ proficiency And the videos were clear and practical Then I taught listening with videos in eight weeks Each lesson lasted 45 minutes And the plan of action was as the table of subtitle 3.7

Step 4: Evaluation (Collect data and analyze it to work out the findings)

In order to identify the students‟ attitude after the training period, I already gave the post-questionnaire I also carried out an informal interview in order to investigate the changes more thoroughly Four students were selected to answer some questions All the interviews were conducted in Vietnamese so that participants could fully articulate their views without being constrained by the use of the second language The interviews were recorded, then transcribed and analyzed by the author More importantly, I collected students‟ diaries to find out what they thought, how they reflected to the listening lessons with videos Collect all the data from the means of questionnaire, interview and diaries I analyze the data for findings and I gave the yield conclusion and suggestions for the further study based on the findings

Step 5: Dissemination

After finishing the study, I shared the results with my colleagues to reconfirm the effectiveness of the study and justified some necessary information

3.7 Research program

10 WEEK PLAN OF ACTION FOR IMPLEMENTING VIDEOS IN LISTENING CLASS

- Pre – questionnaire

3.8 Data collection procedure

The results of the study were based on data collected through interviews, questionnaires, diaries The stage of data collection happened during the second semester of the school year

The process of data collection was carried out in five main steps:

Step 1: The pre- questionnaire was conducted among the students to generate and

reconfirm the problems the researcher identified before The delivery of pre- questionnaire was carried out at the beginning of the second semester of school year and post- questionnaire right after the final lesson finished

Step 2: Listening lessons using videos were administered to fifty students

Step 3: I randomized four students for interview

Step 4: I collected all diaries from students Through reading information students

wrote, I can understand what they think about the lesson day by day, what has changed and what problems students get

Step 5: I classified and analyzed the data, information collected from interviews,

questionnaires, diaries

3.9 Data analysis procedure

Data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively Most of the data obtained through the questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively in terms of the percentage while the diaries and interviews were analyzed qualitatively

In summary, in this chapter, I presented briefly the definitions of action research and gave some reasons for my choice The context of teaching listening skill to second year students at THMC is revealed Later, the chapter presents the method applied in the study, namely participants, research procedure, research program, instruments, the procedure of data collection and data analysis

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The chapter presents and discusses the study results which will be categorized in four main headings, namely (1) Students‟ initial attitudes to listening skill, (2) Possible explanation for students‟ anxiety, (3) Changes in students‟ attitude toward listening skill after using video, (4) The impact of video- based instruction on reducing students‟ anxiety in doing listening comprehension tasks

4.1 Students’ initial attitudes to listening skill

Before the use of videos in listening lessons, I carried out the survey questionnaire

to find the students‟ thinking and liking about listening skill and how they feel

before the listening lessons

1 Do you like learning listening skill ?

Table 1: Students’ attitude toward listening before using video

The result showed very clearly that 58% (29 students) of the students gave the negative answer “no” and 36% of them liked it a little It is really noticeable that only one student likes listening skill lesson a lot And two students specify the other

ideas One of the two said that “sometimes I like sometimes I do not like.” and the other said “I don’t know” From this finding, we can understand the students‟

interact with listening skill It is concluded that most of them express negative signs with listening lessons

2 Do you feel anxious when you learn listening skill through audio?

Table 2: Students’ anxiety in listening lesson without video

When being asked whether they are anxious when they learning listening skill through audio- based instruction, the majority (78%) chose “ yes, a lot”, 16% of the students felt anxious a little and the minority (6% ) gave the other answers in which two of them said that I was often worried when I met a very strange topic If it is about daily topic, I am rarely nervous One person supposed wrote “ no comment” From the result above, we can conclude that most of the students are very worried

in the listening lessons Nobody gave the answer “ no” It proved that anxiety is a factor which always effects the students‟ comprehension

The result exploited from the interview absolutely matched with the result from the questionnaire Four students stated they are not fond of listening lessons They

expressed their feeling as : “I am tension in listening class” or “I feel the time of the

listening lesson last too long” or “I am afraid I can’t understand the content of the listening text.”

It can be said that these findings are basic foundation for me on the way to explore the factors that contributed to her students‟ anxiety in listening comprehension

4.2 Possible explanations for the students’ listening anxiety

All these factors are believed to be influenced on the students‟ anxiety in the listening lessons

Table 3: The causes of the students’ anxiety in the listening lessons

From the table, we can easily to recognize that unfamiliar topic, the speed of the speech and speaker‟s pronunciation are the main factors that affect the students the

A The topic is unfamiliar

B The speed of the speech

C The speaker‟s pronunciation

D Vocabulary

E Quality of the recorder

F The times that the listening text is read

most 90% of the students are afraid of listening skill because of the speed of speech And 80% of them state that unfamiliar topic and the speaker‟s pronunciation make the anxious Nearly two third of the students stated that vocabulary was their reasons of their anxiety And 46% of the students felt anxious because of the times that the text listening is read Only one third of the students considered quality of the recorder as one of the causes of their anxiety It is can be easily seen from the table is that the minority (4%) gave the other factors One person wrote “ the listener‟s personality ” and the other said practicing habit affects listener‟s anxiety From the above result, I can know the main reasons of the students‟ anxiety in the listening lessons and this is useful remarks that help me to explore the impact of video on reducing her students‟ anxiety

4.3 Changes in students’ attitude toward listening skill after using video

The aims of the post- questionnaire were to explore students‟ attitude to their listening skill after using videos in particular, to what extent the video material helped to reduce their listening anxiety This point would partly prove the use of video material in teaching listening skill effective or not All the survey questions were handed out to students who had accessed to video material in class All below are what they revealed

1 Do you like learning listening class using videos ?

Table 4: Students’ attitude toward listening after using video

From the table above, we can see there is a considerable change in students‟ attitude toward listening skill When being asked whether they like learning in listening class using video, a large ratio of the students responded „yes‟ which a positive sign It is very surprised that the percentage of the students voted for listening using videos went up to 98% in which 78% of them liked a lot and 20% of them like a little It is noticeable that nobody gave the answer “no” and only one student gave

the other idea One student wrote in the diary that “I like learning listening when I

understand the content of the listening text, I don’t like when it is difficult”

2 Do you feel anxious when you learn listening skill through videos ?

Table 5: Students’ anxiety in listening lesson using video

From the above table, we can see there are considerable changes in percentage of the anxious feelings of the students When learning listening skill through audio, 78% of the students felt anxious a lot while this percentage dropped suddenly down

to only 4% after learning through videos 16% of them felt anxious a little and 12%

of them chose the same answer after being taught through videos The prominent percentage in the two tables is the result of “ no” Respective percentage of the students (80%) gave the answer “ no” anxiety when using videos to learn listening skill while no one chose “ no” in the first table Two students specified the other

answer, both of them said “sometimes they still worried and at another time is not”

Both of them gave the reasons of pronunciation and vocabularies of the listening text

The research findings from students‟ diaries, as reasoned by some students, the use of video not only encouraged them to listen better but also made them more enjoyable and interested One of the students wrote that the videos made the lesson less stressful and she felt as if time had been flying faster:

“It is the first time I listened with video- assisted instruction I felt the time of the

listening lesson seem to be faster I recognized that my classmates were interested

in They look at the screen with the wide- opened eyes They whispered to each other that it is better if every listening lesson has videos.”

Another student wrote about the benefits of the video for her vocabulary learning:

“Today, although I felt a little bit tired, I am still eager to listen and watch the

videos about parts of the body It was interesting and real topic I could remember

the names and meanings of the parts of the body without spending much time to study at home.”

The students seemed to be happier when they were able to do the exercises or when they were able to understand the information in the listening text:

“I was really happy today because I heard very clearly from the video “fractures”

That is why when my teacher called me go to the board to do gab-filling exercise Although the pronunciation in this video is quite fast, I gave a lot of correct answer thanks to the lively visual pictures in the videos”

“I prefer video-based materials because I can recall parts of videos due to the visual interaction, where I am forced to think out the meaning The videos allow me

to witness, not calculate[i.e guessing] the meaning.”

While watching the video, the students paid more attention to the listening text and this helped their comprehension and memorization of the information better For example, below are two extracts from their diaries:

“Because I find learning with video kept me more focused and actively involved.”

“Because the video clips stick in my mind, learning with video helped me retain information.”

As it can be seen from the information above, video has greatly contributed to increasing students‟ interest in learning listening skill which was considered to be boring and difficult by many students

4.4 The impact of video- based instruction on reducing students’ anxiety in doing listening comprehension tasks

4.4.1 Video as a useful tool to solve the causes of the students’ anxiety

In a study done by Vogely (1998), students reported the cause of their anxiety on being more concentrated on the nature of speed, level of difficulty, ambiguity, lack

of visual support and lack of repetition When I used the questionnaire to find the causes of her students‟ anxiety The previous result showed some main reasons such as: the topic is not unfamiliar, the speed of the speech, the speaker‟s pronunciation, and vocabulary To exploit the impacts of the videos on reducing the students‟

anxiety, four students were interviewed with the question “why do you think video

can help you to reduce anxiety in the listening lessons?” Here are their answers:

Student 1: For me, I am worried when I can not watch facial expression or actions

of a person who is speaking That is why when I listen through videos I feel more comfortable

Student 2: My vocabulary is limited I am worried if the listening lesson has too

many new words to me When listening through video, I can guess the meaning of

some words based on the images

Student 3: Oh, The speed and pronunciation of the speaker are the factors that

affect me the most Therefore, I think videos can partly reduce my anxiety because it

is difficult to listen to but it is easy to watch

Student 4 : Oh, familiar or unfamiliar topics are sometimes not important to me

when I learn with videos because I listen and I can see, so I can guess what I am

listening to

These answers can prove the fact that some factors causing students‟ anxiety can be solved

4.4.2 Changes in students’ perceived learning (understanding and retention) and performance

Perceived learning in video- assisted instruction and audio-only was analyzed in terms of understanding and retention According to the result of survey questionnaire, the majority of students stated that videos help them to remember and comprehend much better while the rest said only a little Specifically, the figure in the bar chart showed the changes in percentage of students‟ retention and comprehension after using video

Two major trends emerged from the percentage of students‟ comprehension and retention before and after using video

In term of comprehension, it is apparent from the information supplied that the degree of the students‟ comprehension changed dramatically before and after using videos Before having intervention of videos, the largest respondents (50%) said they understand the listening texts a little and over one fourth (28%) students said

they do not understand Nobody gave the answer “ very much” Only one student can understand the listening texts much and one fifth students comprehend at “ moderate” level In contrast, the percentage of the students‟ comprehension increased remarkably after using videos 4% of the students can understand a little and no one is not able to comprehensible about the listening texts A half of the students (50%) said it is easier to get information based on the context Over a quarter students (26%) can understand very much The moderate degree of the students‟ comprehension before and after using videos is the same In short, the total of the students understand the listening texts with videos are much more than the ones learn listening without videos

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

very much

Figure 1: Change in percentage of students’ comprehension after using video

In term of retention, the proportion of the students‟ retention using videos gave a positive sign Comparing the information in the bar chart, we can recognized the fact that videos can make the listening texts to be more memorable Before using video, just over two third (68%) of the students remember the listening texts a little and just under a quarter students (24%) remember moderately And the minority (from 2% to 4%) can be able to remember very much or much and even “ nothing”

On the contrary, the number of students can remember the listening texts rose considerably after videos being applied: fifteen times with “ very much” degree, ten times with “ much” degree Only 4% of the students remember a little and nobody can not be memorable

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

ve ry

m uc

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m uc h

m od

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a lit tle

Figure 2: Change in percentage of students’ retention after using video

From the data above- analyzed, we can conclude that most of the participants perceived that the video learning was more comprehensible and memorable than audio only in terms of remembering and understanding

4.4.3 Students’ preference in doing listening activities

Table 6: Students’ preference in doing listening activities

There are a lot of activities I used in the listening lessons The activities in the table are what I carried out very often and I recognized these activities are useful and suitable to my students‟ level Through the information in the table, we can see that the majority (80%) voted for the “word- recognizing” activity It can be easily to understand that this type of activity is quite easy because the words were given and