Luận văn developing compensation strategies in listening for 10th form students at nguyen van cu upper secondary school gia lam hanoi

What recommendations should be made for teachers to help 10" form students NVC School develop compensation strategies in listening?. guessing from the comlext in listening and reading;

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, DANOL

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FALCUTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES,

LE THI HONG HANH

DEVELOPING COMPENSATION STRATEGIES IN LISTENING

FOR 107 FORM STUDENTS AT NGUYEN VAN CU

UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL, GIALAM, HANOL

(Phát triển chiến lược bù trong kỹ năng nghe cho học sinh lớp 10 trường

THPT Nguyễn Văn Cù, Gia Lâm, Ha Nậi)

MLA, Minor Programme ‘Thesis

Major: English Methodology Code: 60 14 10

HANOL, 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, DANOL

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FALCUTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES,

LE TILE WONG LANIL

DEVELOPLNG COMPENSATION STRATEGIES LN LISTENING FOR

10TH FORM STUDENTS AT NGUYEN VAN CU UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL, GIALAM, HANOT

(Phát triển chiến lược bù (rong kỹ năng nghe chơ học sinh lớp 1Í trường

'THPT Nguyễn Văn Cử, Gia Lâm, Là Nội)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Major: English Methodology

Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: VU MAI TRANG, M.A

HANOL, 2010

2 Aims of the study

3 Scope of the study

4 Methods of the study

5 Design of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Listening comprehension

1.1.1 Definitions of listening comprehension

1.1.2 Listening comprehension process

1.1.3 Possible problems in listening comprehension

‘1.2 Language learning strategie:

1.2.1 Definitions of language learning strategies

1.2.2 Classification of language learning strategies

1.2.3 The importance of language learning strategies for students

1.3 Compensation strategies in listening

1.3.1 Definition of compensation strategies

1.3.2 The importance of compensation strategies in listening

1.3.3 Guidelines on applying compensation strategies in listening 13 CHAPTER 2: DATA COLLECTION, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

2.1 Data collection

2.1.1 §etting ofthe study

2.1.2 Subjects of the study

2.1.3 Methods and instruments

2.2.1 Teachers’ perception and evaluation of compensation strategies in listening .18

2.2.2 Students’ perception and evaluation of compensation strategies in listening .20

2.2.3 The current situation of applying compensation strategies in listening

2.2.4, Students’ difficulties and preferences in applying compensation strategies in

listening

2.2.4.1 Students’ difficulties in applying compensation strategies in listening

2.2.4.2 Students” preferences in applying compensation strategies in listening

CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DEVELOPING COMPENSATION

STRATEGIES

3.1 Raising awareness of compensation strategy training

3.2 Integrating strategy training into the lessons

3.3 Teaching basic grammatical mules and phonological rules

3.4 Teaching discourse marker clues

3.5 Exploiting background knowledge

3.6 Recalling key words and structures

3.7 Making full use of visual aids

3.8 Providing pairwork and groupwork

3.10 Providing a variety of listening tasks

Appendix 1: Interviews for teachers

Appendix 2: Survey questionnaires for students

Appendix 3: A sample of an interview transcript

Appendix 4: A sample of a class observation

Appendix 5: A suggested lesson plan of integrating strategy instruction 5E

m_-

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LEL: English as a Foreign Language

LLS: Language Learning Strategies

NVC School: Nguyen Van Cu Upper-secondary School

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Classification of language learning strategies

Table 2: Classi fication of compensation stralegies

Table 3: Descriptive statistics for frequency of compensation strategy use

‘Table 4: Students’ difficulties in applying compensation strategies in listening

Table S: Students” praferonces in applying compensation stralogios in listening

Frequency of use for strategy “using titles and visual clues”

Erequency of use for strategy “using background knowledge clues” Erequency of use for strategy “using contextual clues”

Frequency of'use far stralegy “writing sound transcript”

Erequency of use for strategy “using background noise clues”

Hrequency of tse for strategy “using grammatical chies”

Frequency of use far siralegy “using discourse marker clucs”

Frequency of usc lor strategy “using phonological clues”

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

English language teaching in the recent years has moved ftom traditional approaches, involving the explicit teaching of granmer and translation, 0 various versions of communicative methodology, Consequently, a greater emphasis has been placed on leamers and what strategies they adopt to be successful Well-known researchers such as Cohen (1988), O°Malley and Chamot (1990), and Oxford (1990) have pointed out that leaming strategies arc among the main factors that help determine how well students learn a second or foreign language Therefore, it is the role of the teacher to help students discover and apply appropriate learning stralogies in their learning,

The necessary to equip students with listening strategies to help them develop their listening skill at upper-secondary schools in Vietnam can be seen clearly The new series of English textbooks for stndents have been used in schools in Viel Nam for some years and it seems that listening skill is the most difficult one for our students to master Listening is also the skill that causes a lot of difficulties for teachers to prepare and carry out the lesson because the old textbooks do nol have a separals part for teaching and learning listening skill, The students who are using the new kind of textbooks offen find it hard to catch up with the listening text and as a result they fail to comprehend what is spoken Besides, they come to

ssfully The situation at Nguyen Van Cu Upper-secondary School is the same, if not to say it is more

listening activities with litle knowledge of how to listen offectively and su

serious, We have many weak students who lack vocabulary, grammatical knowledge and have poor pronunciation Listening lessons are really hard for them

There is a variety of strategies that can be employed in listening, skill such as memory

strategies; cognitive strategies; compensation strategies, metacognitive strategies; affective

strategies; and social stratogics (Oxford, 1990} However, compensation strategies which involve in the ability of guessing intelhgently ftom linguistic clues and other clues are of great help to weak students These strategies help students to overcome their limitations to guess what is heard,

‘The facts above explain the reasons why the ressareher conducts the study

upper-secondary school, Gialam, Hanoi” It is hoped that this study can be of some help to teachers and students in listening lessons

2 Aims of the study

First of all, the study ai

and suggestions for developing the targct students’ compensations strategics in listening

To achieve these aims, four research questions have been presented as follows

1 Tlow do teachers and 10" form siudents al NVC School perceive compensation

strategies in listening and their importance?

2 How often do 10 form students at NVC School apply compensation strategies in

listening? Which specific strategies do they use?

3 What arc the difficultics and preferenecs of 10" form students at NVC School in applying compensation strategies in listening?

4 What recommendations should be made for teachers to help 10" form students

NVC School develop compensation strategies in listening?

3 Scope of the study

Eirslly, this study only foouses on compensation stzalogies used in listening (guessing intelhgently) although the new kind of textbook covers all of four skills, namely reading, speaking, listening and writing as well as there are a lot of English language leaming strategies thal can be ernploysd

Secondly, due to the small scale of the study the subjects are restricted only to 10% form teachers and students at Nguyen Van Cu upper-secondary school, who are using the new Kind of lextbook

4 Methods of the study

The author has applied the following methods in this study:

Data collection results from interviews (for teachers), survey questionnaires (for students) and class observations

Data analysis is done through coding, classifying, and reporting the information,

5 Design of the study

The study is divided into three parts

Part A Introduction shows the research problem and the rationale for the research Subsequently, it presents the aims, the scope, the methods and the design of the study

Part B Development consists of three chapters

Chapter 1 provides a sunmmuary of theoretical background which covers a review in key coneepls relating 10 the rescarch Lapic as well as the literature in the ficld,

Chapter 2 deals with the setting of the study and the data collection process, The results obtained are also analysed and interpreted in this part, so that major findings are revealed and discussed

Chapter 3 is concerned with recommendations for developing 10“ form students’

compensation strategies in listening al the larget school These recommendations are drawn fiom the literature review and fiom the findings in Chapter 2

Part C Conclusion reviews the main findings of the study and provides suggestions for further studies

1.1.1, Definitions of listening compreliension

Language is the tool of communication, while listening is the most important part of language communication and it is the basic path to undsrstand others Listening is more than merely hearing words and comprehension is often considered to be the first-order goal of listening, and the highest priority of the listener During the last few decades, scholars have been trying to find owl the nature of listening comprehension and as a result differnt definitions of listening comprehension have been proposed

Underwood (1989: 1) puts a simple and easy-to-understand definition According to

her, listening “is the activity of paving attention fo and fying io get meaning from something

we hear.” Underwoord emphasizes the consciousness of listeners by using the phrase “paying

atiention” Besides, listening hers is not stressed the word level but the meaning of the whole utterance She clarifies that “to listen successfully to spoken languaye, we need tw be able ta

work our what speakers mean when they use particular words in particular ways on particular occasions, and not simply understand the words themselves ”

In Rubin’s point of vicw, “listening 1s conceived of as an active process in which listeners select and interpret information which comes from auditory and visual chies in arder

to define what ix going on and what the speakers are wying to express." (Rubin, 1995: 7 as

cited in Helgesen & Brown, 2007: 3) The author emphasizes the activeness of listeners in the

listening process and also identifies two distinctive features of listening comprehension which are selecting and interpreting Sclecting means listeners use only parl of the incoming information whereas interpreting means listeners make sense of the input ftom their background knowledge as well as the new information

More specifically, Richards and Schrmdth (2002: 313) as cited in TIelgesen & Brown

(2007 3) views listening comprehension as “de pracess of understanding speech in a first or

second language The study of listening comprehension in second language focuses an the role

of individual linguistte units fe phonemes, words, grammatical structures) as well as the

vole of the listeners’ expectations, the situation and context, background knowledge and

topic.” In this definition, the writers mention the role of non-linguistic units such as the context, the background knowledge These things are often neglected in traditional points of

views which regard the listeners as tape recorders I agree most with this definition because it covers all of the necessary factors relating to listening comprehension

Besides the controversies over the definition of listening comprehension, there also exist the concerns aboul the process of lislening comprehension

1.1.2 Listening comprehension process

Listening is different trom hearing in the aspect of listeners’ paying, attention Paying attention results in the fact that listeners actively process what they hear

According to Underwood (1989: 4) the aural process has three stages Firstly, the

‘echoie memory’ takes the sounds for a very short time and classifies them into ‘meaningyid units’ according lo the background knowledge of the listener Secondly, (he information is processed by the short term memory, In a matter of seconds, the meaning is taken out through word-checking and word-comparing (with long term memory information) Finally, the meaning extracted is stored in the long-term memory for the use in the future It can be seen that here Underwood relates the aural process in terms of time and memory The background knowledge of listeners is also mentioned in the listening process

The two findamental modes of information proc

researchers such as Rumelhart (1977), Nunan (2001), Flowerder and Miller (2005) are the bottom-up and top-down processing In bottom-up processing, listeners use their linguistic

sing thal are widely accepled by

Jmowledge lo form final message Linguistic knowledge includes sounds, words, grammatical

relationships, lexical meanings In other words, “bottom-up processing is trving to make sense

of what we hear by focusing on the different parts: the vocabulary, the grammar or functional

phrases, sounds, ete.” (Telgesen & Brown, 2007: 6) On the contrary, Nauman (2002: 25) illustrates that top-down processes “focus on the overall meaning of @ passage and the

application of schemata Schemata are mental frameworks based on past experiences which can he applied to and help us interpret the current situation” In top-down processing,

listeners use their prior knowledge to generate hypothesis Prior-knowledge includes topic of

the listening material, context of the listening material, culture of the listening material, text

type of the listening material It is important for both teachers and students to recognize the

existence of these two types of processing listening input as they both contribute to the

development of listening skill

However, botlom-up processing and lop-dewn processing as well has ils weak points

Bottom-up processing fails to see that understanding a text does not only depend on one’s

linguistic knowledge It is also an interactive process betwsen the listener’s previous

knowledge and the text Top-down processing cannot evoke listeners’ schemata if the

incoming information they hear is unfamiliar to them Besides, although listencrs can trigger a

schema, they might not have the suitable schema expected by the speaker ‘[herefore, one of lislening teacher’s jobs is to help sludents leam Lo balance the two kinds of processing

Because neither batlon-up process nor top-down process alone is sufficient for

comprehension, “these fvo processing intersect to develop an interactive processing.” (Wu,

2008: 23} In the interactive process listeners use both prior knowledge and linguistic

knowledge in understanding messages The degree to which listencrs use the onc process or

the other will depend on their knowledge of the language, familiarity with the topic or the purpose for lislening

Understanding how listeners process listening comprehension will provide students

and teachers with a lot of ideas to listen more effectively It is also necessary to consider the possible problems students often encounter in learning to listen to Linglish

1.1.3 Possible prablems in listening comprehension

Listening is usually a hard skill to master in one’s own language as well as in second Tanguage acquisition There exis some problems from lhe point of views of the Hsteners when

Jearning to listen

Ur (1996: 111) refers to six major problems in listening comprehension which are difficulties in pereciving sounds, following watwial speed and malive accent, catching up wath

the load of information as well as the needs to understand everything, te get things repeated,

and to have a rest ‘Trouble with sounds seems to be the biggest problem as most students have difficully catching the actual sounds of the foreign language The misconceplion that listening

means having to understand every word is a very common problem and is often unconsciously

fostered by teachers and/ or listening materials ‘The effort to understand everything results in ineffective comprehension as well as fectings of fatigue and failure The speed of the speakers

also causes many difficulties to students because they cannot hear the sounds clearly when

dealing with fast and natural native-sounding speech

Underwood (1989: 16) shares some of the main points with Ur about problems in

listening comprehension, She states seven problems which inelude “lack of control over the

speed at which speakers speak”, “not being able to get things repeated”, “the listener's limited

vocabulary”, “failure to recognise signals”, “problems of interpretation”, “inability to

concentrate”, and “established learning habits” Lack of vocabulary is really an obstacle for

people listening to a foreign language since they can sometimes hear the words clearly, but the

problem may occur in understanding the meanings of the words they de not know An unknown word can be like a suddenly dropped barricr causing them to stop and think about the meaning of the word and thus making them miss the next part of the speech, Besides,

“established learning habits” mean studenls are traditionally taught lo understand everything

im the English lessons by listening carefully to Leachers who probably speak slowly and

clearly As a result, studemts become worried and discouraged if they fail to understand every

word while listening

Yagang (1993: 1) provides a little bit different point of view when saying that “The evidence that shows why listening is difficult comes mainly from four sources: the message to

he listened 10, the speaker, the listener, and the physical setting.” The message is considered

in terms of the content (topic, organization .) and linguistic features (liaisons, elision .}

‘The speaker factor includes redundancy, speaker’s voice, accent and speech style ‘Ihe listener factor involves in linguistic knowledge, background knowledge, exposure to different kinds of

listening matcrials, psychological and physical factors The pliysical sctting consists of

background noises, visual and aural environmental clues, ete

The problems students my encounler in listening cormprehension are many and

various As a result, they need to have some solutions to overcome these difficulties and

develop their listening competence Language learning strategies (LLS) can be applied as

effective tools here

1.2 Language learning strategies

1.2.1 Definitions of language learning strategies

Research on LLS has been a growth area since 1970s, when the emplusis on teachers

and teaching shifted to the learners and learning Different researchers have presented theit definitions of this term differently

Learning strategies in the view of O’Malley and Chamot are “the special thoughts or

behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn or retain new information.”

(O'Malley and Chamot, 1990: 1) LLS in this definition are emphasised as cognitive skills,

which relate to being in a state of conscious intellectual activity

Cohen defines LLS as the “processes which are consciously yelected by learners and

which may result in action taken to enhance the learning or use of a second or foreign language, through the storage, retention, recall, and application of information about that

Tanguage” (Cohen, 1998: 4) Cohen emphasises that students consciously select these

processes but in fact there may be strategies students take unconsciously

According to Oxford, LLS are “specific actions, behaviours, steps, or techniques that

students (often wmientionally) use (o improve their progress in developing L2 skilly These strategies can facilitate the internalization, storage, retrieval, or use of the new language Strategies are tools for the self-directed involvement necessary for developing communicative

ability” (Oxford, 1992/1993:18 as cited in Nguyen (2007: 6)) This definition is clear, moderate and refleets the nature of LLS LLS here are learner generated (taken by students); they enhance language learning and help develop language competence, they may be visible (bchaviours, steps, techniques, ete.) or unseen (thoughts, mental processes) The definition of Oxford, an expert in LLS research, will be applied in this study due to its comprehensiveness This definition also serves as guideline for the classification of LLS in the following parL

1.2.2 Classification of Linguage learning strategies

Oxford (1990: 16 - 22) classifies second LLS into two major classes: Direct Strategies (strategies which directly involve the subject matter) and Indirect Strategies (strategies which

do not directly involve the subject matter itself, but are csscntial to language learning) Direct Strategies are classified into memory strategies, cognitive strategies; and compensation strategies Indirect strategies include melacognitive strategies; affective strategies, and social

Š , 2 Applying images and sounds &

£ 3 Anglyzảng and reasoning š

E 4, Creatmg structures for input and | =

1 Guessing intelligently 1 Asking questions

2 Cooperating with others

3 Empathizing with others

‘Table 1: Classification of language learning strategies (adapted trom Oxford, 1990)

Memory stratzgics help learners link one sccond lmgnage item or concept with another but do not necessarily involve deep understanding, Various memory strategies enable learners

to learn and retrieve information in an orderly string (¢.g., acronyms), while other techniques create Icaming and retricval via sounds (c.g., rhyming), images (c.g., a mental picture of the word itself or the meaning of the word), a combination of sounds and images (eg., the keyword method), body movement, (cg., lolal physical response), mechanical means (¢.g., tlashcards), or location (e.p., on.a page or blackboard)

Cognitive strategies enable the learner to manipulate the language material in direct ways, ¢g., through reasoning, analysis, note-taking, summarizing, synthesizing, outlining, reorganizing, information to develop stronger schemas (knowledge structures), practicing in naturalistic settings, and practicing structures and sounds formally

Compensation slralegics (6.g guessing from the comlext in listening and reading;

using synonyms and “talking around” the missing word to aid speaking and writing; and strictly for speaking, using gestures or pause words) help the learner make up for missing

knowles

Metacognitive strategies (e.g., identifying one’s own learning style preferences andneeds, planning for a second language task, gathering and organizing materials, arranging asludy space and a schedule, monitoring mistakes, and zvshaling task sucess, and evalualing the success of any type of learning strategy) are employed for managing the learning process

Affective strategies, such as identifying one’s mood and anxiety level, talking about fisclings, rewarding oneself for good performance, and using deep breathing, have bon shown

to be significantly related to second language proficiency,

Social strategies (¢ g., asking questions to get verification, asking for clarification of a confusing point, asking for help in doing a language task, talking with a native-spcaking conversation partner, and exploring cultural and social norms) help the learner work with others and understand the target culture as well as the language

Oxford's classification is appropriate since it covers filly LLS, from direct strategies

to indirect ones It is a combination of the strategy classification systems by diffcrent experts such as Rubin (1987), Chamot and O’Malley (1990) It is more comprehensive and detailed, and more accessible for readers because the slralegies are organized hierarchically Towever,

there is some overlap among sub-stralagics in Oxford's classification

1.2.3 The importance of language Icarning strategies for students

LLS can enable students to become more independent, autonomous, lifelong leamers

(Allwright, 1990, Little, 1991 as cited in Oxford (2003: 9)) Students are ficer to act, and to

make their own decision and able to leam continuously and permanently thanks to appropriate LLS Besides, a study by O'Malley and Clamol (1990) also suggests thal effective second

Janguage/ foreign language learners are aware of the LLS they use and why they use them

LLS “make learning easier, faster, mare enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective,

and mare transferable 1o new situations” (Oxford, 1990: 8) Oxford (1990: 1) argues that

strategics arc important for twe reasons In the first place, strategies “are fools for active, self

— directed involvement, which is essential for developing communicative competence”

Secondly, learners who have developed appropriale learning slralegies have greater self —

confidence and leam more effectively According to Oxford (1994: 9), LLS:

- contribute to the main goal, communicative competence

+ allow learners to become more self dirceted

- expand the role of teachers

- support learning both directly and indirectly

Towever, the effectiveness of LLS “may depend largely on the characteristics of the

uiven learner, the given language siructure(s), the given context, or ihe interaction of these”

(Cohen, 1998:12) For beginning and intermediate language learners, compensation strategies ray be among the most impartant ones (Oxford, 1990: 90)

1.3 Compensation strategies in listening

1.3.1 Definition of compensation strategies

For purposes of this study and for case of discussion, the term “compensation strategies”, one type of LLS, as Oxford (1990) proposes, will be used in this paper

Compensation strategies are classified as one of the direct strategies in Oxford’s classification Loamors ust cornponsalion sbatogics for earnprohonsion of the targel language when they have insufficient knowledge of the target language In other words, compensation strategies are needed to fill any gaps in the knowledge of the language When learners do not

#mow new words and expressions, they guess the meaning Learners bring their own life expericnee to interpret data by guessing

Compensation strategies are also divided into two strategy sub-groups: Guessing

inlelligently and Overcoming limitations Oxford proposes to use the acronym GO ta

remember these Iwo slralegy sub-groups when stating thal “Janguage learners can GO far with conpensation strategies" (Oxford, 1990: 90) Each of these strategy sub-groups consists

of some specific strategies as shown in the following table

1 Guessing a Using linguistic clues Listening, Reading intelligently | Using other clues Listening, Reading

2 Overcoming, | c Using mother tongue for an Speaking

a limitations in expression without translating it

Table 2: Classification of compensation strategics (adapted from Oxford, 1990)

As can be scen fran Table 2, compensation stralugics in listening are accompanied with guessing intelligently:

- Using linguistic clues: Listeners can use such clues as prefixes, suffixes, word order, stress, inloration, etc to gusss the meaning of unfamiliar language items they hear In order to do sơ, they need to have sufficient knowledge of the target language

- Using other clues: Listeners can rely on clues from other sources such as visual clues,

situational contexl, background knowledge, text structure, cle 1o make guesses about what is

heard

Compensation strategies in listening is the combination of both bottom-up and top- down processing as listeners have to cmploy all available information fiom linguistic

1.3.2 The importance of compensation strategies in listening

Willing (1989: 130) confirms that “de importance of willing and accwrate guessing has long been recognized by language teachers everywhere” Compensation strategies in listening (guessing intelligently) can be of greal help to students in general and begining and inlermediale students in particular becanse they allow studenls lo comprehend the new language despite their gaps in knowledge All effective listening involves guesswork because listeners (even native speakers) often miss some words when listening and speakers can never

be completely explicit or clear about their meaning It is always better to find ways to construct meaning rather than give up; to try to build meaning based on what you understand

than to worry about wtal you do nol understand Compensation stralegigs in listening provide

ways for listeners not to guess blindly but to make intelligent guesses basing on clues ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ language If used successfully, compensation strategies can help students overcome knowledge limitations when they do not hear something clearly or they cannot catch all the words

Compensation strategies have been among the listening strategies with highest frequent ust A study on listening comprehension strategies of Taiwan students by Teng (1998) indicated that among the six strategy categories, compensation strategies were most often employed by subjects Vu (2004) studied listening strategies of the students at an university in Vielmam and conchided thai compensation strategies were most highly employed Monolingual Korean students are reported to use compensation strategies most in a study by Leavell & Hong-nam (2007)

Compensation strategies, along with other listening strategies, serve as elleclive tooks

for listeners in the listening comprehension process “Learners whe are aware of a range of

strategies, and who are able to match their strategies to their listening purposes, will be better

listeners and hetter learners” (Numan as cited in Helgescn & Brown, 2007: 147) Il is of vilal importance that our students be taught to listen effectuvely and ontically

1.3.3 Guidelines on applying compensation strategies in listening

These guidelines arc constructed according to a lot of ideas from Oxford’s Strategy

Inventory of Language Learning (Oxford, 1990), other researchers, language teachers and my

own experience They are also applied in my survey to investigate students’ current

application of componsation stralggics in listening,

- Using grammatical clues (part of speech, prefixes, suttixes

to guess the unfamiliar language items in the listening passage

- Using background knowledge to guess the meaning of the listening,

- Using the words and phrases swrounding the unknown word to make quick gucsses about its general meaning

- Using the Litles, subtitles, pictures, diagrams accompanying the lis mïng lask to

aunđersland the fopie/ eartenl oŸ1he listening,

- Using phonological clues (intonation, stress .) to guess the meaning of the listening

- Using clues from discourse markers (markers of addition’ cause and effect’ sequences’

} to guess the meaning of the listening

- Using clues from body language of speakers to guess the meaning of the listening

= Using clues from background noises a guess the meaning of the listening,

- Writing down the transcript for the word that listeners do not remember the spelling in doing gap-filling exercises

Conclusion:

This chapter has provided an overview of definitions of key terms such as listening comprehension, LLS, and compensation strategies, It also deals with the listening comprehension process, classification of 11.8, the importance of LLS in general and compensation strategies in listening in particular Finally, guidelines on applying compensation strategies in listening have been proposed,

Tt can be scon that there have been quite a lot of stuties related to compensation strategies in listening, However, these studies spend only a small part on compensation strategies because they focus on a variety of listening strategies Besides, there is little information aboul ways to help students develop compensation stralegies This is the gap thal the current thesis study tries to budge By using Oxford’s and some other researchers” 1ửens about compensation strategies in listening, this study hopes to add fither evidence to the srl but growing body of rescarch on this topic

CHAPTER 2: DATA COLLECTION, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

2.1 Data collection

2.1.1 Setting of the study

Nguyen Van Cu Upper-Secondary School (NVC School) is located in Gia Lam district, the suburb of Hanoi It has had a history of 33-year development since its foundation in 1977

Tn the school year 2009 - 2010, our school jas 32 classes with more than 1,500 students, so

there are about 47 students in a class One thing worth to note here is that the entry level of students entering NVC School is not very high ‘lhey mostly come from rural areas where English teaching and [saving has nol been paid much attention Besides, NVC School shares common features wilh classrooms elsewhere in Vietnam: large size, sludents silting in rows of four each and irremovable furniture

Engtish is taught here as 4 compulsory curriculum subject like other upper-secondary schools Students have three periods of English a week and each period lasts 45 minutes The

new textbook of English 10, English 11, and English 12 aims at enabling the students to

communicate in the large! language with four language skills Thore are 16 units in a textbook, and each unit is divided into 5 parts: Readmg, Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Language

Vocus

2.1.2 Subjects of the study

There are two reasons why this study aims at 10* foum teachers and students at NVC

School Firstly, the 10" form students are the newcomers to the new kind of textbooks for

uppor-sccondary schools in which listening is st

cx! equally 1o other thr

kills, Secondly, the students are at pre-intermediate level for which compensation strategies are of great help

as these strategies help them overcome knowledge limitations

There arc five out of cight teachers of English at NVC School participating in this study

‘These five teachers include one male and four females Their ages range fom 26 to 33 with at least four years of teaching English One of them has finished an M.A course al Vielam

National Unive

ty, Hanoi, The reason for this chaice of participants is that they are all in

charge of 10" form classes at NVC School

‘The samples of students here are restricted to four 10" form classes (among eleven 10"

forin classes al NVC School} These four classes, which were chosen randomly, aecount for

180 students They are aged from 15 to 16 and all of them have had at least four years of

learning Fnglish al lower-secondary schools They are nol ths same al English speaking,

competence Some of them are really good and active while a lot of them are quite passive and unmotivated in learning English

2.1.3 Methods and instruments

The process af collecting dala was carried oul in the following steps

Firstly, semmi-struchured imicrvicws 1 conducted with five Ieachers lo ohuïm their

attitudes towards compensation strategies in listarung

Secondly, the author observed two classes of listening to get some mors detailed information

‘Thirdly, the questionnaires were distributed to 180 students to investigate their altitudes towards compensation strategies in listering, the frequency of use of these siralsgies and their difficulties and preferences

Interviews

‘The interviews in this study serve as a useful tool to invest the teachers’ perception and evaluation of compensation strategies in listening They also aim at sccking information about some points related to developing students’ compensation strategies in listening

onal information and the

Fach interview consists of lwo parts: the first one for

second one for the content information The number of prepared questions for the content

information is eight ‘[he interviews are semi-structured, which means there is “a prompt

which requests certain information hut the exact shape of the response is not predetermined”

(Cohen, 1989: 28), In the interviews, the author can sometimes add some explanation as well

as ask for some more detailed information

The one-on-one inferviews were conducted in Vietnamese and im informal ways so that the teachers were able to express their ideas freely It was lucky that all of the teachers were

very enthusiastic in participating in the interviews ‘'he method of recording information was nole-laking Then the interviews were banslaled inlo English for analysis

Class observations

The method of elass observation is used not to investigate the compensation strategies

applicd by students sinec guessing skill is mentalistic and not bchavioristic Instead, it intends

to address the ways in which the teachers help students to develop compensation strategies in

listening

Two classes of listening which ware observed were Unit 15 - Listening, Unil 16 -

Listenmg in English 10, During observations, the researcher was an observer and did not take

part in any classroom activity The observer took notes focusing on techniques that the teachers help students to develop compensation strategics in listening

Questionnaires

The major means of data collection is the questionnaires for sludenis, Fach questionmaire is constructed from two parls: part A for personal information and part B for content information, Part B is divided into three small sections, namely Bl, B2, and B3, BI consists of five yes/no questions in order to find out students’ perception and evaluation of compensation stratcegics in listening B2 includes cight questions to investigate students’ degree of frequency in using specific strategies of compensation strategies in listening These questions are adapted from Oxford’s Stralegy Inventory for Language Learring (1990) and some other ideas, Students answered each item statement using a 5-point Likert-scale that ranged from 1 (Never) through 5 (Always) B3 is made up ftom two multiple choice questions and its purpose is addressing students’ difficulties and preferences in applying compensation strategies Students can choose morc than onc option in this pazt

‘The questionnaire questions were worded carefully and translated into Vietnamese to make il easy for the students The questiormaires were also piloted with the help of three students before delivering to the large number The spzcitic strategies are carefully illustrated with examples, so students can clearly understand them and increase the accuracy of their responses, The studenis were encouraged lo share their ideas frankly and accurately, ic representing what they actually do rather than what they should be doing Besides, the questiommaire papers were collected anonymously in order that students can freely express their ideas

2.2, Findings and discussions

‘The data from questionnaire were keyed info the computer and analyzed by using EXCEL Descriptive statistics, inchding frequencies, means, standard deviations and percentages, were implemented in order to investigate the use of language learning strategies Besides, information from interviews and class observation was also synthesized and

interpreted

2.2.1, Teachers! perception and cvaluation of compensation strategics in listening

In general, three out of five teachers in the interviews were aware of the concept

“listening strats

As adapied (rom Oxford’s definition of language leaning strategies, listening strategies can be detined as “specific behaviors or thought processes” that students use to enhance their leaming listening comprehension Listening strategies are techniques or

activities that contribute directly to the comprehension and recall of listening input Three

teachers shared the same concept For example, Teacher 3 stated that “listening strategies are

techniques and skills that listeners use to listen more effectively.” However, two teachers still jad vague ideas of “listening slralegies” when they considered listerring stralegies as lislening for general or speeifie information

In term of the concept “compensation strategies in listening”, four out of the five teachers admitted that they had never heard of this one Ilowever, when the interviewer

replaced this concept with “guessing intelligently in listening” they all stated the familiarity

‘Teacher 1 emphasized that “guessing shill in listening helps students get the answers and comprehend the listening although they do not catch all the words” Allhough all the teachers

reported to be familiar with “guessing intelligently in listenmg”, results Grom the inlerviews indicated they did not have a full understanding of this strategy ‘hey all thought of guessing

strategy as guessing the answers from the topic and the key words of the listening or

example, Teacher 2 cxplained that “students can base on instructions and key words of tasks

in listening to guess the meaning” Only one teacher (Ieacher 5) added the background knowledge factor as a guessing clue Il is shown thal the leachers were not fully aware of the

detailed system of specific techniques in guessing intelligently in listening (as mentioned m the guidelines in Chapter 1 Literature Review)

Some information front class observations has validated the above finding In two classes of Unit 15 Listening and Unit 16 Lastening, the teachers often asked students some

information relating to the topic of the listening and helped students identify the key words of the questions or the slalements provided before students Fistened

To answer the question “What do you Hunk about the importance of compensation

strategies in facilitating your students’ listening comprehension?" all five teachers

emphasized the importance of compensation strategies in listening lessons Teacher 2

confirmed that “guessing intelligently is very important to students’ listening comprehension

It can make up for 30 percent of the success of listening” Teacher 4 explained that “guessing

skill helps stsdents orient the listening information” Teacher 5 added a very interesting idea

that students’ implementation of guessing skill “helps lessons not to be overloaded”

As a result of the approval of the significance of compensation strategies, teaching compensation stralegies in listening have been done by all of the five teachers interviewed,

They reported that they usually help students develop these strategies by “introducing the

identify key words’ (Teacher 2), “asking students to predict the answers before listening” or

“to predici the content of the listening” (Teacher 3 & 4), and “helpiny students io see the

differences among options in the answers” (Veacher 5) Two class abservations also showed

im Tislening have not been properly investigated and introduced ta English teachers and Jeamers Besides, all five teachers in this study acknowledged the importance of compensation

strategies in listening to students By this, they all meant the necessity of teaching compensation strategies in listening to students lowever, they need to be equipped with more

uscfial techniques to help students develop guessing strategics cffcctively

2.2.2, Students’ perception and evaluation of compensation strategies in listening

Most of the sludents in the survey (84%) admitted thal they had never heard of the term “listening strategies” This term seemed to be quite new to them because even not all of the teachers were aware of this concept (as mentioned in the previous part) and some teachers taughl Tisloning siralogics without naming them Moreover, stulenis can croploy listening strategies consciously and unconsciously, which means that students can exploit the strategies with or without being aware of them

It is noted that a very large number of students appreciate compensation strategies in listening 88% of the informants thought thal compensation stralegics arc importanl in

facilitating the listening comprehension This revelation matched Oxford’s evaluation of compensation stratepiss in listening when she stated that they were among the most important

strategies for beginning and intermediate students (Oxford, 1990: 90) As a result, 85% of the students agreed on the necessity of teaching compensation strategics in listening classcs It is possible to meet the students’ need since a lot of researchers have agreed that learning

strategies can be Laught through strategy training,

These ahove figures showed thal the students hve recognized the imporlanee of these strategies and are willing to learn them, However, only 42% of the students claimed that they had ever been taught compensation strategies in listening It contradicted with teachers’ responses that thcy usually taught these strategies in class This contradiction can be cxplained that teachers often taught these strategies implicitly so students were not aware of this teaching,

In short, the 10> form students at NVC School to some extent had some general ideas

about compensation strategies in listening Moreover, they stressed the importance of these

strategies and the necessity to integrate their teaching into listening lessons ‘heir positive

attitude may be a ercat cncouragement to the teachers at XVC School

2.2.3, The current situation of applying compensation strategies in listening

The first thing that should be mentioned here is only 5% of the samples said (hal they had good listening competence whereas the percentage of fhir and poor competence listeners

is 28% and 67%, respectively ‘This fact coincided with teachers’ statements that they were not

salisficd with Iheir students’ listening competence and listening ski was the most difficull for the students This fact also related to the current situation of applying spectfic strategies in guessing in listening

Descriptive stali

in listening that 10" form students at NVC School reported using, For the Likert-scaled strategy-use items on the questionnaire, the following key helped to interpret the means: 3.5 to

8 Ww:

played Lo investigate (he specific compensation siraleg

$.0, high use; 2.5 lo 3.4, medium use; and 1.0 to 2.4, low use (Oxford, 1990)

Using background knowledge clues | 3.16 106 | medium [2

Using fitles and visual clues 3.55 1.16 high I

Using discourss inatker cuss 230 111 Tow 7

of earning methods prevented them from being efficient listeners

According to the results of ‘Table 3, the most frequently used strategy was using titles and visual clucs (M=3.52) and followed by using background knowledge (M =3.16), using contextual clues (M —2.97), writing sound transcript (M-2.80), using background noise clues (M =2.78), using grammatical clues (M=2.64), using discourse marker elues (M =2.30) The least ficquently used strategy was using phonological clues (M-2.10) There was a quite big difference between the frequency of the two strategies “using titles and visual clues” and

“using phonological clucs” (M=3.52 and M=2.10, respoclively)

HAIways Usually

Sometimes Seldom

ONever

Figure 1: Frequency of Figure 2: Frequency of use

use for strategy “using for strategy “using

titles and visual clues” background knowledge clues”

Figure 1 and Figure 2 show the fiequency of use for the two most cornmonly used strategies: using titles and visual clues, and usmg background knowledge clues The former strategy was of high use whereas the latter one was of medium use As can be seen from the two figures, the percentage of students marked the use of these two strategies from “always”

to “sometimes” accounted for 82% and 78%, respectively Students preferred to use these two

strategies as it seemed easy and natural to apply these strategies and the teachers also focused

on exploiting thesc clues sinec the new textbook English 10 provides a lot of visual aids and Jead-in questions

11% _— 7%

Always Usually

la Sometimes| Seldom

GNever

Figure 3: Frequency of Figure 4: Frequency of

use for strategy “using use for strategy “wri

‘The frequency of use for the two next commonly used strategies, namely using contextual cluss and wriling sound transcript, is shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4 These two strategies were of medium use 68% of the students reported their application of using contextual clues fom “always” to “sometimes” and this number for the strategy “writing

sound transcript” was 63% Students were quite familiar with guessing word meaning ftom

contexts as this skill is much cmphasized in Reading part in the new textbook English 10 Besides, when students heard a word they did not remember its spelling, the best way was writing il according lo [he sound,

Figure 5: Frequency of use Figure 6: Frequency of

background nolse clues” granmatical clues”

Figure 5 and Figure 6 illustrate the fiequency of use for “using background noise clues” and “using grammatical clues”, the two strategies of medium use Students did not use these stratogics as frequently as the above four strategics, Only 31% of the students said that

reason for this moderate use is that listening lessons in the new textbook English 10 do not cxploit much background noise and the teachers also did not pay much attention te these chucs, Besides, 44% of the students indicated that they seldom or never employ grammatical clues to guess unfamiliar language ilems in the listening This technique requires much practice ax well

as sub-skills

The least frequently used strategies, using discourse marker clues and using phonological clues, were clearly shown in Figure 7 and Figure 8 Students’ report showed a low use of those strategics A large number of students (61%) admitted that they never or seldom use clues from discourse markers such as markers of addition/ cause and efffct/ sequences, etc lo guess the meaning of the listening This timilation can be explained by the lack of guidance trom teachers as well as the students’ inability to identity these clues Moreover, it is noteworthy that the strategy “sing phonological clues” was always or often

employed by only 9% of the students as opposed to 68% of the students who said “never” or

“scldom” Students least fcquently uscd phonological clues due to the difficultics in interpreting stress and intonation of the speakers and the limitation in the students’ own prommeiation

To conclude, the data indicated that the students in general did not apply compensation strategies very frequently Besides, the students reported using titles and visual clues more frequently than all the other specific lypes of strategy whereas using phonological clues was the least frequently used strategy

2.2.4 Students’ difficulties and preferences in applying compensation strategies in

listening

2.2.4.1, Students’ difficulties in applying compensation strategics in listening

Difficultics and Problems The percentage of students

Students’ difficulties in understanding and using 67%

granmmiiesl ruls

Students’ difficulties in understanding and using 82%

phonological rules

The listening texts’ lack of visual and contextual clues %

‘Table 4: Students’ difficulties in applying compensation strategies in listening

‘As can be scon fiom Table 4, what challenged students most were the difficulties in understanding and using phonological rules (82%) ‘This revelation matched the previous part's finding that the leash commonly used stralggy was using phonological clues TL also supported Ur's point of view that, Irouble will sounds seems to be the biggest problem for listeners (as mentioned in Chapter 1 Literature Review) The difficulties in understanding and using phonological rules prevented students ftom guessing the correct words and the intended meaning of speakers

‘The second biggest problem for students in this study was the difficulties in understanding amd using grammalical rules 67% of Ihe studenis reported thái they encountered these problems when trying to make guesses They found it difficult to guess the meanings of the listening based on such clues as part of speech, prefixes, suflixes, ete, ‘These difficulties resulted from students” limitation of vocabulary and grammar

The two next problems for students arc unfamiliarity with guessing skill (56%) and lack of interest and confidence (51%) Students may catch some clues but they failed to make inlelligent and logical guesses ar they were nol motivated 1 do so Sludents were used to the need of understanding every word in the listemmg text, so if they missed some they felt embarrassed and could not make any guesses

49% of the sludents reported thal they had difficulty in guessing due lo their Tack of background knowledge despite the fact that “using background knowledge clues” is their second preferred strategy People’s background knowledge in general consists of a wide variety of knowledge and seems lo have no limil, Asa result, students sfill need lo enrich their background knowledge so that they can make correct guesses

It is interesting to note that only 32% of the students confirmed that the difficulties in

guessing originated fram no leaching of guessing skill from Ieachcrs Tl may contradict the previous finding that 85% of students agreed on the necessity of teaching compensation strategies in listening Students may be a little passive to present the ideas related to their teachers or they may be aware that strategy developing comes from both students and teachers,

Not many students (29%) thought that listening texts lack visual and contextual clues

This finding coincided shuilents? frequout, use of stralogies “using lilles and visual clues” and

“using contextual clues” ‘As mentioned before, most of listening parts in the new textbook

English 10 are illustrated with pictures and students were also quite familiar with contextual clues

Krom interviews, all of the five teachers noted that there existed difficulties in helping students develop compensation strategies in listening The first and greatest difficulty,

according to the teachers, is the Fimilalion in studes

background knowledge Teacher 4 explained that “suadents’ lack of vocabulary and backgrownd knowledge takes me a lot of time to explain” It can be seen from the class

vocabulary, pronunciation and

observations that lack of vocabulary and background knowledge prevented students from

answering the questions such as “Who made the Statue of Liberty?” (Unit 15 - Listening) or

“What is Toi An famous for?” (Uuil 16 - Listening) Besides, Teacher 2 added ong mors

difficulty that is ‘students’ limited ability to imfer” She clarified that sometimes students had a

very clear clue but they still failed to make correct guesses ‘This limitation was also seen

through the class observation Vor example, in Unit 15 — Listening, students were taught some

new words such as copper, iron but they gave no answers for the question “What are the

materials of the Statue of Liberty?” Finally, Teacher 5 complained that “students do not spend

auich time practising listening at home, sa it is difficult for students to develop listening

strategies in general and guessmyg strategies in particular”

In short, students’ biggest difficulty in applying guessing strategies is understanding and using phonological clues The next difficulties are underslanding and using grammatical

rules, unfamiliarity with guessing skill, lack of interest and confidence, no teaching of

guessing skill from teachers; lack of background knowledge; and the listening texts’ lack of visual and contextual clues (in order of descending)

2.3.4.2 Students’ preferences in applying compensation strategics in listening

students

The leaching of some basic grarmmalical rules 73%

The tcaching of some basic phonologioal 876 rules

The cxploitation of background knowledge 68%

before listening

‘The recall of important words and structures 92%

The provision of a wide of listening I S396

‘The encouragement from teachers 81%

‘The occasion of working in pairs’ groups 94%

Table 5: Students’ preferences in applying compensation stratogics in listening

It can bee seen fiom Table 5 that working in pairs or groups and recalling important words! structures were the most preferable to students Almost all of the students (94%) preferred to work in pairs or groups Working in pairs or groups helps students compensate their limitation in knowledge and become mote confident, Next, 92% of the students expressed a desire for teachers’ explanation of new words and structures before listening This explanation provides students with knowledge of the target language needed for the listening,

so students have more ehucs lo make intelligert guesses

‘A lot of students wanted to be taught basic phonological clues and be given encouragement ftom teachers (87% and 81%, respectively) ‘Ihe phonological clues are vary

important to them as they can base on word stress or intanalion of a sentences to guess the

intended meaning of the listening, In addition, the students in this study, who mainly come from rural areas, are quite shy, so they do need to be encouraged so that they are willing to make gue

‘A large number of students also washed to be provided with some basic grammatical Tules (75% of the students) and be exploited background knowledge before listening (68% of the students), The grammatical rules help students guess the meaning, of unfamiliar words fiom parts of speech, prefixes, suffixes, etc The background knowledge exploited helps students predict the information they are going to listen or to guess correctly the words they

are listening to

Finally, 68% of the students voted for the provision of a wide of listening tasks and only 39% of the students preferred the provision of more visual aids The variety of listening tasks will help students develop their guessing skills as they can apply these skills in different circumstances Students also may be more motivated to not to do the same task again and again, Besides, the provision of more visual aids should be put into consideration wher it is really useful Lo the students

In summary, the preterences of students in applying compensation strategies in listening are in the following order: pair or group work, word and structure provision, phonological rule teaching; teacher encouragement, gramumatical rule teaching; background knowledge exploitation, listening task variety and visual aid provision,