Luận văn a study on using english songs in teaching listening skill to improve the efficiency and motivation for first year non english major students at hai duong medical technical university

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND ENTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES, Seepteeet estat tetes pO TIH PHƯƠNG NGUYÊN ASTUDY ON USING ENGLI

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND ENTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES,

Seepteeet estat tetes

pO TIH PHƯƠNG NGUYÊN

ASTUDY ON USING ENGLISH SONGS IN TEACHING LISTENING

SKILL TO IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY AND MOTIVATION FOR

FIRST-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HAI DUONG

MEDICAL TECIINICAL UNIVERSITY

Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng bài hát tiếng Anh trong việc day ky nang nghc để tạo động

Tực và nâng rao hiệu quả chơ sinh viên không chuyên Anh năm thử nhất

Trường Đại học Ke Thuật y (Ế Trãi Tuơng

M.A MINOR PROGMAME TIIESIS

Ficld: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 0111

Hanoi — 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

+4342t#k#tt4++t+teee

ĐỒ THỊ PHƯƠNG NGUYÊN

A STUDY ON USING ENGLISH SONGS IN ‘TEACHING LISTENING

SKILI TO IMPROVE THE EFFICTENCY AND MOTIVATION FOR

FIRST-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HAI DUONG

MEDICAL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng bài hát tiếng Anh trong việc đạy kỹ năng nghe dé tao déng

Tực và nâng cao hiệu quả cho sinh viên không chuyên Anh năm thứ nhắt

"Trường Đại học Kỹ Thuật y (Ế Hải Dương

M.A MINOR PROGMAME TIIESIS

DECLARATION

I certify that the thesis titled: “A study on using English songs in teaching listening

skill to improve the efficiency and motivation for first-year non-Knglish major students at Hai Duong Medical Technical University” is the result of my own work I have provided

fully docurnertied references to the work of olhers The material m this thesis has not been

submitted for assessment in any other formal courses of study

Hanoi, August 2014

Mat Tin S.oan, Ph.D

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The thesis is finished with the support of many individuals, and thus is collection of mumerous intellectual minds, sympathetic hears, contemplative moments, and prolonged engagement

First of all, I deeply appreciate my supervisor, Dr Mai Thi Loan 7 am able to finish my master thesis duc to her thorough reading, critical comments, invaluable suggestions, various sources of references and previous corrections on my writing

Additionally, f would like lo offer my sincere thariks lo all the teachers and students of Hai Duong Medical ‘echnical University for their willingness to help me to complete the collection of necessary data for the study

Fiually, special gratitude is extended to my family end my close friends who have envouraged and supported me in every stage of this study

ABSTRACT

This study investigates whether the using of English songs in teaching listening

skill to non-major students is effective or not and discusses some suggestions of how

to use English songs in teaching listening skill in classroom

To achieve the aims of the thesis, the aulhor used the following dala collector instruments; survey questionnaire for teachers, survey questionnaire for students, and tests for students

The resulis and [indings point oul the benefils of using English songs in

teaching listening, some criteria to choose appropriate songs for teachers when

teaching listening And some tasks the teachers should design to teach students with

the use of songs

In conclusion, songs van be a good material for the use of teaching listening for

students

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LI: first language

LI: second language

Std Deviation: Standard deviation

MTU: Hai Duong Medical Technical University

EEL: English as Forcign Language

Kind of task(s) the teachers usually designed to teach students with the use

Raw marks in listening (pre - test)

Raw marks in listening (past - test}

The benefils of learning listening through the use of English songs

Students’ favorite activities while they are listening to English songs

Reasons that students listen to English songs Teachers’ opinion about some advantages of using songs in class

Teachers’ opinion about some disadvanlages of using songs ini class

CYilena for sel

ting songs of the teachers

The sources for teachers to select songs co cớ esse Frequency distribution (pre - test)

Mean and Std Deviation (pre - test) Table 10: Frequency distribution (post - test)

Table 11: Mean and Std deviation (post - test)

1.2.3 The importance of inolivation in listening classes - 1

1.3 Songs as a motivator for studenis to listen 12

2.1.1 Teachers” background infcrmation oc cv csec ¬ a

2.1.3 Teaching and leaming condition at TIMTU .ccsssssusseecaneseecunseeseen LS

.1.1 Questionmaire for teacheis cssccrncrrererrree ¬

.1.2 Questionnaire for studenis cssccrncerererecee ¬

19

19

3.1.2 Participants ¬ ssueessansentuaseansetinevoase Mà 20

3.1.3.1 Students’ attitude towards English songs 20

3.1.3.2 The improvement of students’ listening after they had been taught with the use

3.1.3.3 Students’ opinion about the benefits of learning listening through d the use of

3.1.3.4, Students’ favorite aclivities while they are listening Lo Fislish songs 23

3.1.3.5 Reasons that stucdents listen to English songs 24

3.2.3 Datta amalysis 0.0 cscs etesas cesses ieeens sens seeesnsenssiceeneenee 25 3.2.3.1 The frequenvy of using songs lo teach listening skill 35 3.2.3.2 Teachers’ opinion about advantages of using songs to teach listening skill 26 3.2.33 Teachers’ opinion about disadvantages of using songs lo leach listening skill 26 3.2.3.4 Kind of task(s) the teachers usually designed to teach students with the use of

`" "— DT 3.2.3.5 Criteria for selecting songs ofthe teachers ¬— - "¬—

3.2.3.6 ‘The sources for teachers to geÌ©0E sONg cooiiororee "

3.3.4, Data analysis and findings versie setsestieete Xearsrsiaoo.2Ð 3.3.4.1 Pre test (At the beginning of the term) ¬ - Xeareriao.30

vi

3.3.4.1.1 Frequeney distrIDution coi cccceecsetcierieeriecree ¬

1.2 Research question 2: Which (asks should teachor design to teach listening to

1.3 Research question 3: What are crileria to choose appropriate songs in Leaching

listening in classroom ¬ TH saresroo.28

vi

PART A: FNTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale of the study

Among four skills of English, listening is often considered the most challenging for students dus 10 the complex and subtle nature of Tisiering comprohension in second language (L2) or foreign language It takes much time and effort to make progress in this skill At IIai Duong Medical Technical University, many students are afraid of loaning listening and they oficn say that they do nol want to Tearn listening,

Like many other teachers, 1 think that this problem can only be solved by finding an answer to the question: “Ilow to help students change from the feeling of fear to the one of interest when they are doing listening?” However, interest is something very unstable and unpredictable because it depends on many factors such

as: the content of the subject, the necessity of it, the method of the teacher, or even the

weather of the day That explains the reason why it takes Leachers a great effort and

trial to maintain the students’ interest in the lesson and avoid the boredom also

Research shows that there are some main ways to hold students’ interest such as:

audio-visual aids including objects, Mash cards, pictures, overhead projector transparency, film, video, and language activities like games, songs, story-telling,

projects Of all the items,

songs seem to be the most available and easiest to exploit

Therefore, the author chose English songs as the means to do a research to improve the efficiency and motivation for first-year non-Linglish major students at Lai Duong Medical Technical University

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study aims at finding out benefits of using Lnglish songs in teaching listening skill to non-major studonls, finding out the tasks the teacher should design Lo wach listening to students with the use of songs, and discussing criteria to choose appropriate songs in teaching listening in classroom

To be more specific, the objectives of this study are to:

- investigate the positives sides of using Jnglish songs in teaching listening skill

to non-major students,

- find out the tasks teachers should design Lo teach students with the usc of songs,

- work out criteria to choose appropnate songs in teaching listening in classroom

1.3 Research questions

With these aims, the researcher carries out this study to answer the following questions:

(1) Whal are the benefits of using songs 1o teach listening skill to suiklenls2

(2) Which tasks should teachers design to teach listening to students with the use of songs?

(3) What are criteria ta choose appropriate songs in teaching listening in classroom?

4 Scope of the study

In this study, the author intended to use famous love songs to teach listening for

non — major students at the pre — intermediate level at HMTU Songs may include many Lypes such as: classical, pop, jazz, rap, tradilional, love songs, cle This rescarch

just focuses on the use of famous loves songs that have soft music with quite simple wards, catchy tunes and are easy to listen to

15 Significance uf study

‘The study is hopefully useful for students and others of concemed Students will

be motivated to leam listening with the use of songs and they wiil be able to memorize the lessons easily Besides that, the use of songs may help them to disappear their boredom in leaming The study also provides the teachers with the benefits of using

English songs to teach listening skill at HMTU

1.6 Methodology

All comments, remarks, assumplion and conclusion of the study were based on the data and analysis Data collection for analysis in the study was gained through the following resources:

+ Survey questionnaires for teachers and students

~ Tests for students

1.7 Design of the study

The paper was designed with lure parts as follows:

Part A: Introduction presents the rationale of choosing the topic, the aim and objectives of the study, the scape of the study significance, methads and design of the

study lo be applied.

Part B: Development composes of three chapters

Chapter 1: Literature review sets up some theoretical backgrounds that are relevant to

the purpose of the study: the definition of listening skill, types of listening, the

difficulties in learning listening skill, the definition of motivation, types of motivation

and its importance in listening classes, songs as a motivator for students to listen

Chapter 2: Method of the sludy mentions setting of the study and research design

inchading participants and data collection

Chapter 3: This chapter includes data analysis and findings

Part C: Conclusion deals with major findings of the research Limitations of the sLudy

and some suggestions for further study were also included in this chapter.

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER Lb LITERATURE REVIEW

11 Listening

1.1.1 Definition uf listening

According to Ilowatt and Dakin (1974:34 - 36), listening is the ability to

identify and understand what others are saying This process involves understanding a

speaker's accent or promunciation, the speaker’s grammar and vocabulary, and

comprehension of meaning An able listener is capable of doing these four things

simultancously

Ronald, K and Roskelly (1985:78) define listening as an active process

requiring the same skills of prediction, hypothesizing, checking, revising, and

generalizing that writing and reading demand, and these authors present specific

exercises to make students active listeners who are aware of the imner voice one hears

when writing

Besides, according to Rost (1991:164), listening comprises some componont skills such as discriminating between sounds, recognizing words, identifying grammatical proupings of words, identifying expressions and sets of utterances that act

to create meaning, comnecting linguistic cues to non-linguistic and paralinguistic cues,

using background knowledge to predict and later to confirm meaning and recalling

important words and ideas

Underwood (1989-187) also says Đai listening is the ability of paying to and trying

to get meaning from something we hear She explains that to listen successfully to speken

language, we teed to be able lo work oul what, speakers meant when they use particular

words in particular wavs on particular occasions, and not simply to understand the words themselves But listening is different from hearing Whilst hearing, can be thought of as a

passive condilion, istersing is always an active process From those ideas, listemmg usvolves

a multiplicity of skills It is a complex, active process interpretations in which listeners match what they hear with what they already know

1.1.2 Types of listening

According to Wolvin& Coakley(1996) (cited in Goh 2000), five types of listening

have been identified according to their purposes as follows:

« © Discrimmnative Listening

+ Comprehensive Listening

» Therapeutic Listening

« Critical Listening

« Appreciative Listening

Discriminative listening is where the objective is to distinguish sound and visual

somuli, This objective does nol take into account the meanimg; instead the focus is

largely on sounds In a basic level class, this can be as simple as distinguishing the

gender of the speaker or the number of the speakers, etc As mentioned before, the

focus is nol on comprehending: but on avcustoming the cars lo Uke sounds If one thinks s/he can see that this is where L1 listening begins - the child responds to sound

stimulus and soon can recognize its parents’ voices amidst all other voices Depending

on (he level of the studonts, the listening can be discriminating sounds to identifying

individual words

Comprehensive listening is a kind of listening which the foous is to understand the message The writers consider this as the basis for the next three types of listening However, the problem can come in the form of understanding, Depending on both individual and social factors, students can end up understanding the same message in different ways Lots of work in teaching listening in the classroom has to happen here

in facilitating the students to develop their comprehension skills

Therapeutic listening - is one kind of listening where the listener's role is to be a

sympathetic listener without much verbal response Tn this kind of listening, the listener allows somebody to talk through a problem This kind of listening is very

important in building good interpersonal relations

Cuitical listening is the fourth kind of listening where hsteners have to evaluate the

message Listeners have to critically respond to the message and give their opinion

Appreciative listening focusca on enjoying whal one liaicus Wher students listen

to English music, even if they do not understand, they still enjoy challenging notion of comprehensive listening as the basis for other three types of listening, Generally, students listen to the songs once and try to make out the lyrics bofore hstering a second time with the lyrics Then they recalled that they appreciated the song better during the second time and were able to see the relation between how one would enjoy

something thal s/he is able lo make sense of,

45

In this way, the discussion of the five types of listening tuned out to be quite informative and thought provoking for all underscoring the adage when one teaches to

leam

According to Johna Kline (1996; 29 - 43), different situations require different

types of listening We may listen to obtain information, improve a relationship, gain

appreciation for something, make discrimminalions, or engage in a crilical evaluation

While certain skills are basic aud necessary for all types of listoning, cach type

requires same special skills He identified five types of listening

Tnformative lisLening is the name we give to the siluation where the lisloner’s primary concem is to understand the message Listeners are successful in so far as the

meaning they assign to messages is as close as possible to that which the sender

wilended Informative listening, or listening Lo understand, is found in all areas of our lives, Much of our learning comes from informative listening

Relationship listening aims at either helping an individual or improving the relationship between people Therapeutic listening is a special type of relationship listening ‘therapeutic listening brings to mind situations where counselors, medical personnel, or other professionals allow a troubled person to talic through a problem But it can also be used when you listen to friends or acquaintances and allow them to get things off their chests Although relationship listening requires you to listen for

information, the emphasis is on understanding the other person Three behaviors are

key lo effective relationship listening: attending, supporting, and empathizing

Appreciative listening includes listening to music for enjoyment, to speakers

preseniation, perception, and previous experience

AAs for critical listening, the ability to listen critically is essential in a democracy On the job, in the community, at service clubs, in places of worship, in the family—ihere is practically no place you can go where critical listening is unimportant Politicians, the media, salesmen, advocates of policies and procedures, and our own financial, emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual needs require us

to place a premium on critical listening and the thinking thai accompanies i Elfective

6

critical listening requires careful judgment about the expertness and trustworthiness of the speaker In fact, ethos or speaker credibility may be the most important single

factor in critical listening and thinking However, ethos without logos is not enough

‘The final type of listening is discriminative listening It may be the most important type, for it is hasic to the other four By being sensitive to changes in the

speaker”s rate, volume, force, pitch, and emphasis, the informative lisLener can detect

cven nuances of difference in meaning Detection of differences between sounds made

by certain instruments in the orchestra, or parts sung by the a cappella vocal group,

cnhanees approvialive listening Finally, sensilivity lo pauses, and othor vocal and nonverbal cues, allows critical listeners to more accurately judge not only the

speaker’s message, but his intentions as well

Tn my opinion, the effectiveness of lisloning, whether informative, relational,

appreciative, critical, or discriminative, requires skills In some cases, the skills are the same for the various types of listening; in some cases, they are quite different

1.1.3 The difficulties in learning listening skill

‘The listening process is often described from an information processing perspective

as an active process in which listeners select and interpret information that comes from auditory and visual clues in order to define what is going on and what the speakers are

trying to express (Thompson& Rubin 996; 331) Considering various aspects of

listening comprehension, Underwood (1989) organizes the major listening problems as follows:

1 Jack of control over the speed at which speakers speak ,

k2 not beig able Lo get things repeated,

3 the listener's limited vocabulary

4 failure to recognize the signals,

5 problems of interpretation,

6 inability to concentrate, and

7, Bstablished learning habits

Underwood (1989: 15), sees these problems as bemg related to learners! different

backgrounds, such as their culture and education She points out that students whose culture and education includes a strong storytelling and oral communication tradition ave generally beller al listening comprehension (han those from a reading and book-

3

based cultural and educational backgroud Moreover, learners whose uative language possesses the stress and intonation features similar to those of English are likely to

have less trouble than the learners whose L1 is based on different rhythms and tones:

Focusing on EFL leamers with Chinese language backgrounds, Goh (2000; 55 -

75) investigated listening comprehension problems in students in college EEL studies

The data were collected from Isarner diaries, small group milerviews, and immediate

retrospective verbalization Findings include ten listening comprehension problems in

relation to three cognitive processing phases which are perceptions, parsing, and

ublivalion, proposed by Anderson (1983, 1995) Perceptual processing relers to

maintaining attention to spoken input, parsing means encoding the input to establish a meaningful representation in short-term memory, and utilization concems using the

background knowledge to inlerprol the impul Cor slorage

In my opinion, listening is vital not only 1 language leaming but also in daily communication Maybe, the difficulties in leaming listening skill are caused from listeners’ lack of control over the spced at speakers and listeners’ limited vocabulary

‘To acquire an acceptable listening skill, listeners themselves should have much more exposure to a variety of listening Teacher plays an important role in teaching leamers strategies and how to apply them to the listening task

LZ Motivation

1.2.1 Definition of motivation

Motivalion is defined im differen ways by differen rescarchers

According to Gardner (1985: 134), motivation in his socio — psychological model

is the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learnizyr the language

plus favorable attitude toward learning the language Penny (1996: 95), considers

motivation difficult to give a definition; she prefers ta think about motivation in terms

of motivated learners, that is, learners who are willng to invelve themselves in

learning activities to progress She states that teaching and leaming can become snuch easier and more pleasant when there is learners’ motivation Psychologists have made

the distinelion between intrinsic and extrinsic molivalion

According to Penny (2004: 375), it is difficult to define motivation as it is better

to think of the motivated learner: “One who is willing or even eager to invest in

learnina, activiHes and making prograss Leamers’ motivation makes teaching and leaming immeasurably easier and more pleasant as well as more productive”

Williams and Burden (1997: 120) see motivation as a state of cognitive and emotional arousal, a state which leads to a conscious decision to act and gives rise to a period of sustained intellectual and/or physical effort

Relating motivation Lo learning a second language (1.2), (1997: 75), slated that

motivation involves the attitudes and cffective states that influence the dearce of effort that leamers make to learn an L2, Brown (2000: 160) indicated that motivation is some

kind of internal drive which pushes samcone to do things in order to achieve something

Literature shows that different researchers have different ways of defining motivation However, they all share the same point of view thal motivation combines effort and desire plus favorable attitudes and occurs as a result of a combination of

internal and external influences

rom my little experience, | have found out that it is important to be interested in what students like or who they admire Then it is easier to get them closer to the teacher because then they can speak more together aboul the issue lal they are interested in The author agrees with the definition of motivation proposed by Gardner (1985) According to Gardner (1985:50), motivation includes four aspects: goal, c{fortful behavior to reach the goal, desire to allain the goal, posilive altitudes towards the goal However, a goal is not necessary a measurable component of motivation, but

a stimulus thal gave rise to motivation

L2

ypes of motivation

According to the self-determination theory, there are two types of motivation,

one based on intrinsic interest in the act vity and the other based on extrinsic rewards

to the aclivily itself (Deci & Ryan (1985), cited in Lucas (2010: 6))

Intrinsic motivation is generally possessed by people having personal interests

in doing something and helping to set their goals People are intrinsically motivated not because accomplishing the activity they do bring a reward, bul because domg the activity itself is a reward (Domnyei’s 1998: 51)

Démyei’s (2001: 55) notes that a student with intrinsic motivation participates

in his or her learning for its own sake, for the enjoyment it provides, the learning it

permits, or the feeling of accomplishment it evokes

Richard Ryan and Edward Deci (1985: 201) believe that intrinsic motivation is

founded upon innate needs for competence and self-determination (cited in Lucas,

(2010: 6))

Another type of motivation is extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, derives

from an anticipation of rewards such as praise, awards, prizes, and evaluation, and fear

for punishment An extrinsically motivated student doos the activity in order to obtain some reward or avoid some punishment external to the activity itself, and this kind of

motivation refers to leaming situations where the reason for doing a task is something

other than an interest in the task itself (Wiliams and Burden (1997: 40))

Foreign language teachers should be conscious of the fact that learners bring to the classroom not only their intelligence but also attitudes and interests which are consequences of a varicty of psychological and sociological factors Therefore, that is part of responsibility for teachers to channel these affective elements (Girard (1997:

71)

Apart from intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, Ellis, R (1997: 76) adds another

type of motivation, which is resultative motivation In his opinion, motivation is result

of learning,

Gardner and Lambert (1972) first made the most famous distinction between

two types of motivation: integrative and instrumental

Thlegrative molivation is the desire (o learn a language to inlegrale successfully

into the targct language community According to Gamer and Lambort (1972, eited in Ellis, 1997:509), motivation is strongly influenced by integrative orientation to language learninyg Tr their words, an integrative orientation involves an interest iu leaming an L2 because of a sincere and personal interest in the people and culture

represented by the other group

Instrumental nuotivation, on the contrary, is something which concems the practical value and advantages of learning a new language’ (Lambert 1974: 98, cited in Filis, 1997), and which is characterized by ‘Ihe wish to learn the language for purposes

of study or career promotion (Penny 1996; 276) and the desire to obtain something

10

practical or conerete from the study of a second language (Hudson 2000) In other words, instrumental motivation is the leamer’s desire to learn a language for utilitarian purposes (such as employment/travel/exam purposes) in the context of language learning

Both kinds of motivation are essential clements of success in leaming a second language, but it is integrative motivation which has been found to sustain long-term success when learning a second language Bilis (1997) In some of the early researchers

by Gardner and Lambert (cited in Ellis, R 1997), integrative motivation was viewed more important in a formal leaming environment than instrumental motivation

Integrative motivation was regarded as superior to instrumental motivation for

predicting the suecess of second language learning © However, from snother perspective, instrumental motivation is meaningful for the learner who has had limited access to the L2 culture, or foreign language settings Domyei's (1996, cited in Vaezi, 2008:55) opposed Gardner by claiming that instrumental motivation is more important

than the integrative motivation

Tiny opimon, il is important to note thal mstrumenial motivation has only bacon

acknowledged as a significant factor in some research, whereas integrative motivation

is continually linked 10 successful second laryguage acquisition

‘Yo sum up, there are many kinds of motivation However, it is the author's

belief thal intrinsic motivation produces morc potential benelits than cxtrinsic

motivation Intrinsically motivated students tend to try harder and think more deeply than extrinsically motivated ones

£2.3 The importance of motivation in listening classes

Listening to English is regarded to be hard for students who are not English

majors from the researchers’ observation and discussion with students, the author has

realized that, many students have associated Hstening courses with pain and boredom

and often complain that they become tired of listening to the tape from the beginning

to the end and benefit little from listening lesson Therefore, it is necessary for English

twaghers lo realize the imporlarice of how to make lsteriny classes more interesting, especially at the first stage of the lesson and how to know motivate students so that

they can develop their listening comprehension (Broughter 1978)

HH

Motivation is a basic principle of all kinds of teaching the language of the students is best motivated by practice in which he senses the language that is truly

communicative, that is appropriate to its context, that his teachers’ skills and

techniques are moving him forward 1o a fuller competence in the foreign language

(Broughter 1978:.47)

So, how to keep students’ interest in learning must be focused Without mlerest,

motivation and variation in teaching and learning, students certainly feel bored with

listening

Tn conelusion, it is known that motivation is difficul io be measured, but teachers can notice when their students are motivated by their facial expressions,

attitudes and also by their participation in class Motivation is an important factor that

contributes to hie success in teaching and learning forcign languages in general and in teaching and learning listening skills in particular

13 Songs as a motivator for students to listen

The importance of motivation in second language teaching and leaming has been discussed for many years Teachers and researchers believe that activation plays

an important part in the process of acquiring an additional language because motivated students are usually those who participate actively in class, express interest in the subject-matter, and study a great deal But since motivation is something very

personal, it is not easy to develop (Lightbrown & Spada 1999) If we can make our

classrooms places where sludenls enjoy coming because the atmosphere is supportive and non-threatening, we can make a positive contribution to students’ motivation to

leam Eor this sake, songs seem 1o do very well

Sangs have a great tendency to attract the attention of students that other forms

of the mass media lack Even the person wha is totally tone deaf may at times considers himself a good singer and a person who cannol understand the words of a song can still appreciate the song itself, Songs, especially cuxrent pop songs exert a great influence over the young generation from which our studems come And because songs deal with the whole realm of hignar emotions and expenenees- [rom Jove, hate, joy, to loneliness and sadness, they really appeal to the young people

While many students find it difficult and stressful to learn a new language,

songs cart help wash away these feelings Rach song has ils own lyrics and as the lyrics

t2

come out from the composer’s heart with tempo and rhyme, it is easy to penetrate into

other people’s hearts That is the reason why when students mumble the words of the

songs along the lyrics, they gradually get used to the language and find it easier ta

learn According to McDonald (1984:187), the use of the songs in English classroom allows the students to hide behind the music and then avoids the heat of an early

spollight landing on timid siudenls By thal way, it also wraps the slulents’

perceptions of how difficult it is to use the new language

Tn addition to that, when songs are played, the group spirit is really fostered,

which is a great help to studerits in thir practice of the language skill And because the students cam carry the songs beyond classroom doors and sing for their family and

friends This, in tum, tends to reinforce the students’ interest in leaming English

From the opinians above, it can be eonchided thal songs are one of the best

methods to teach and motivate students to learn listening skill So teachers should take

advantages of songs to stimulate and help students improve their listening skill

1.4 Review of related studies

In the context of Vietnam, there have been few studies on the use Linglish songs and its effectiveness on learning English skills

‘Tran Thi Tuyet Mai (2010) at Duy Tien High school conducted a study titled

“Using English traditional songs to improve students’ pronunciation” with its aims are

finding out whether the use of English traditional songs to teach pronunciation for high

school students is effective or not and working out the most effective ways of using English songs to teach pronunciation for high school students

Tran Thi Qarh (2008) conducted a study tilled “The use of song Lo improve

listening skill for students at ITC foreign language center in Hai Duong” In her study, she fooused mainly on investigating the effectiveness of using songs in teaching listening skill

Bui Thi ‘Thu (2011) exploited songs to motivate students in leaming English grammar She illustrated that the Inglish songs have an important role in helping students memorize the grammatical rules more casily

Not only in Vietnam, there have been so many foreign researchers investigating

the teaching language methodology with the use of English songs

43

Andrew Yau Hau ‘Ise, a teacher of English in Malaysia conducted a thesis on

“Malaysian teachers! perspectives on using songs in Lnglish language teaching” The

purpose of his study is to probe the angles of Malaysian ESL teachers on the

employment of songs Specifically, it aims at inquiring their philosophy on the pedagogical value, attitudes, and cerebration on the impact of songs in English

teaching Based on appropriate lileralure, songs have proved to be the most impressive

characteristics of ESL programmes that they are helpful listening materials, and the

most relaxing and language leaming strategy reported by young leamers of English In

addition, they are vital and indispensable elements

Kwong, Sukmun, Hlsa, (2006) also studied about English through songs

factors affecting students' motivation in English as a second language classroom

Knowing that studenis at schoo! did nol have a desire to learn English songs bul are attracted by the popular songs, the researcher would like to take her dual role as a teacher of English and teacher of music to use the English songs to investigate the factors that affect students’ motivation in learning English through songs

Neil 'T Millington in Japan had a thesis on “Using songs effectively to teach English to young leamers” This paper starls by analyzing why songs should be considered as useful pedagogical tools The author then proposes using songs as language learning tasks to maximize the benefits of using songs and attempts to show

how this might be done using practical examples The paper also explores how classic

children’s songs could be modified to help toachers use them more frequonily to teach

a wider variety of topics

Hans Mol in Austratia investigated the use of songs in English classroom He

explained that songs will help learners become familiar with word stress and intonation, and the rhythm with which words are spoken or sung and that songs also help memorization

As a teacher of English, the author realized that songs will enable leamers to remember chunks of language which they can then use in conversations or in writing As Jangunge leachers, we can usc songs lo praciice listening, speaking, reading and writing

1.5, Summary

4

‘This chapter has provided the relevant literature, which has helped to form the theoretical and conceptual framework for the study Firstly, the definition of listening skill, types of listening process and the difficulties in learning listening skill are given based on some authors’ ideas in which listening has been considered as a vital role in communicative language teaching Secondly, the importance of motivation in listening

classes and songs as a molivalor for siden to listen are also presertled in this chapter.

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1, Setting of the study

2.1.1 Teachers’ background information

Up to now, there are 11 English teachers at Hai Duong Medical ‘Technical

‘University All of them are quite young, well —trained and energetic which is a very good

condition for HMTU They are both males and females, and all of whom graduated from

Ha Noi National University, Ha Noi University and Ha Noi Open University Five of them

had an MA degree Eight are in their thirties with more than 7 years of teaching experience

Three others are in their fortics with ever 15 years of teaching expericnce Most of therm were aware of the importance of listening skill and tried hard to improve their teaching of

listening, motivate students and help them overcome those difficulties However, not all of

the teachers choose the same fochuiques to teach Tisining Some chose Io use givity,

background information and new words, while others chose authentic materials or some extra activities that were suitable for their stndents

2.1.2 Students’ background information

‘This research was carried out at Lai Duong Medical Technical University with the participation of forty first year non-major students, They all were in the first term and from two different classes For those students, English was not their major but a compulsory subject in the schedule Being technical students, English was really an

impossible subject as they always complained that it has so many mules, it is so

complicated, and they have no head for Fnglish However, as English was taught and

examined through four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, it is become

more indigeslible to them Of the four sl isterung was always (he most horrible to

the studonts as it was the first tune they lcarm English via skills, so they could not gct used to listening to English That was the reason why many of them either often played truant or did their privale things during listening lessons

2.1.3 Teaching and learning condilion al HMTU

TIMTU was founded 45 years ago and this university is situated in the center of Hai Duong city Fnghsh is not an old subject al this school Tt was introduced 20 years ago Before that, Russian had been taught

ue ta the fact that this schoot was founded a long time ago, it has enough

classrooms and modem equipment [nol only has projectors in all classrooms bul also

tố

two language Jabs for English classes HMI'U has a foreign language center with 11 teachers of Lnglish and they are passionate teachers The difficulty in teaching and

leaming comes firstly from students In general, students in the school differ in their

level of language proficiency Most students have been leaning English since grade 6,

‘but a small number of students who come from the cities started leaming English in

grade 3 Some of the students live in the remote rural areas where living and learning

conditions arc difficult

Although most of the students started learning English at the early age, many of

them have low proficieney of English because they paid more allention to other subjects Before coming to this university, they had to take an exam with three subjects

and these subjects are not English The students have wrong attitudes toward learning

English as well as shortage of time [or English Despite the above difficullics, the teachers of Huglish at HMY'U are young, well trained and energetic which is a very good condition for HIMTU

In temns of language teaching method, most of the teachors at HMTU are familiar with the traditional teaching method which put a great emphasis on grammar and vocabulary and there is a little time for teaching listening When working with new syllabus, they feel it difficult to initiate activities and manage the class Fortunately, all of them are young teachers and they have great desire and motivation

to acquire knowledge of communicative competence to apply in teaching English

2.2.1.2 Teachers

1) teachurs participated in mswering questions These teachers are in charge of teaching English to first-year students, among which 9 are female and 2 are male All teachors graluated from Hanoi University or Vietnam National University, Frylish Department 5 teachers out of 11 have Master degrees, 3 teachers are doing a Master couse ‘Theis time length of teaching English is from 3 years to 30 years They are all

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enthusiastic teachers and willing to help their students to overcome their listening

comprehension problems

2.2.2 Data collection

Both questionnaires and test were employed in this research so as to get the accurate data

2.2.2.1 Instruments

2.2.2.1.1 Questionnaire for teachers

Questionnaire was delivered to teachers at the end of the first term It aims at

finding out teachers’ frequency of using songs, their opinions about advantages and disadvantages of using songs, kind of tasks they designed to Leach listening, skill, teachers! opinion about the oriteria for choosing appropriate songs in teaching listening skill ‘Ihe questionaire is written in English with six questions: question 1 aimed at

finding out the frequency the teachers use song lo leach listening, queson 2 made

clear about teachers” opinion about benefits of using songs to teach listening skill; question 3 found out teachers’ opinion about disadvantages of using songs to teach

listening skill: question 4 worked out the tasks that teachers design to teach with the

use of songs; question 5 worked out the criteria for teachers to select songs in teaching listening in classroom, questions 6 found oul the sources (cachers collect songs to teach listening

2.2.2.1.2 Questionnaire for sLudents

Queslionnaire for students was delivered at the end of the first term TL aims at

identifying students’ degree of interest, students’ improvement, their opinion about the

benefits of leaming Listening through the usc of English songs, thei favorite activities while they are listening to English songs and reasons that students listen to English songs ‘he questionnaire for students is written in Vietnamese so that students can

understand the queslicns more easily and it consisis of [ive questions: question 1 aimed at finding the degree students like listening through songs; question 2 worked out the extent which songs can help students to improve their listening, question 3

found oul the sLudents’ opiion aboul the benefits of learning listening through the use

of English songs; question 4 aimed at discovering students’ favorite activities while

they are Listening lo English songs; question 5 pointed out the reasons thal studsnits

listen to English songs

2.2.2.1.3 Test

Two tests of listening (pre- test and post- test} were designed to assess students’

listening skill in the first term

These lesis were designed with the same form and level of difficulty There are

two parts in these tests Part I: Listen to conversation and choose the best answer, part

18

11: Listen to short talk and tick true or false statements Time allowed for each test is

fifleen minutes The aim of the lests is lo answer the question whether leaching

listening skill through the use of songs is effective or not

2.2.2.2 Data collection and analysis procedure

The researcher carried our this study in two first - year - student classes during

the first term of the school vear 2013 2014 There are 30 students in each class with

various levels of English Class E1102.1 was taught with English songs in the listening

part and class H1102.3 was taught without using English songs The data was collected

in the following slaps

Step 1: Two classes (1101.1 and E1101.3) were handed a listening test as a pre- test

at the beginning of tem

Step 2: Atthe end of the term, these two classes were given another listening lest as the post

—test to find out the effectiveness of teaching and leaming listening through songs

Step 3: The survey questionnaire for students was delivered to the experimental class

to find out the degree students like leaming listening through songs, what extent can

they improve their listening skill through songs, what benefits of leaming listening skill through songs, whai favorile activitis while they are lisLoning to songs and why they listen to English songs A survey questionnaire was also delivered to the teachers

of English at HMI'U to find out the frequency teachers use English songs to teach

listening skill, teachers! opinions aboul advantages and disadvantages of using songs in

class, the tasks that teachers design to teach with the use of songs, criteria to choose

appropriate songs, and the sources they collect songs These two questionnaies were

delivered at the end of the term

‘The results then were analyzed and presented in forms of tables and charts

Data analysis and findings will be prosented inthe next chapter

3.3 Summary

In this chapter, the author introduces the setting of the sbudy and research

design including participants, data collection and analysis procedure

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CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 3.1 Questionnaire for students

3.1.1 Aims

The questionnaire was used to explore students” attitude and opinion toward the

use of English songs in teaching listening lesson

3.1.2 Participants

‘The participants of this survey questionnaire are 60 students in two classes who

were taught with and without the use of songs

Chart 1: Students’ attitude towards English songs

The pie chart clearly shows the students’ attitude towards the English songs

From the chart, it can be seen that most of the students were fond of listening English

songs which takes up for (88%) More than half of them (73%) expressed their great

love for this way of teaching However, there are some students said that they did not

enjoy the use of English songs (12%)

3.1.3.2 The improvement of students’ listening after they had been taught with

the use of songs

Chart 2: Students’ improvement after they had been taught with the use of songs

There were 86% of students reported that they made some improvement in their

listening skill after a term of leaming with songs And 67% stated that their listening

was improved a lot Some of these students said that they could hear and understand

what the singers sang However, there are still a few students (14%) frankly said that

they did not make any progress

3.1.3.3 Students’ opinion about the benefits of learning listening through the use

of English songs

Make the listening lesson more relaxing 5 57 |8 37,3 | 44

Make the listening lesson more enjoyable 1 [9 [73 |4 |407

Develop my confidence in listening to English |11 [19 (17 |22 |31

Help me to listen to English better 33 |10 |166|50 | 20

Help me to recognize key words while | Š 3 35.6 | 44.3} 12.1

listening

Help me pay greater attention to wordstress |7 |9 | 25.6| 36.7 | 21,7

Help me to discriminate English sounds better | 13.3 | 22.3} 39 | 13.4] 12

Note: 1: Strongly disagree 2: Disagree 3: Don’t know 4: Agree 5: Strongly agree

Table 1: The benefits of learning listening through the use of English songs

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‘These numbers illustrates students’ awareness of the effectiveness of English

songs to their listening lessons Firstly, it can be clearly seen that most of the students

agreed that English songs make their lessons more relaxing 81,3 % of the students

agreed with the first choice, and 44 % expressed their strong agreement ‘the number

for the second choice, which is that songs make the listening lesson more enjoyable is

82.7% This is really important as it means the class is no longer covered with the

feeling of anxicty and unwillingness but joy and fun This marks a raise in students’

motivation for the skill as when they find the lesson enjoyable, they will like to leam it

more and more and when they feel relaxed in 1L they will do i better and better specially, more than half of the students approved that they felt much more confident

in doing listening skill, which never happened before As much as $3% of them stated

strongly thal they were no longer nervous or stressed when doing listening task This positive result reassures that Hnglish songs do a great help in raising students”

motivation in learning listening skill Ilowever, there still exist 17% of them showing

no coneem about this question When being asked for reasons, they explained that they

felt excited to solve the tasks with songs but this excitement could not erase the feeling

of nervousness when they dealt with the real listening exercises

in addition to that, 70% of the respondents claimed that thanks to English songs, their listening skill is better than before Of the rest, 16.6% made no decisions,

and 13.3% found no progress in their study of the skill

Guossing skill seems lo be the most progressive one as 54.4% sludents said that their guessing, skil! was improved through songs

Word recognition stands at the second place with the tumber of 56.4% and il is

followed by the skill of awareness of word stress which is illustrated by 58,4%

Surprisingly, sound discrimination skill is put at the bottom of the list with only 25,4%

of the leamers who claimed that sory helped them discriminate sounds better Most

of the students found this sub-skill quite difficult to do, so they either showed no

concern for it (39%), or disagreed with the statement (35,6%)

The thing should be noled here ts that the number of students who had no idea

on these points seems to be high 35.6% and 25.6% are the respective number of

students who did not know whether songs help them to recognize key words while

listening or pay greater atlenlion to word stress For guessing skill, it is 25.3% These

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people, perhaps, neither saw any progress in their skills nor paid much attention to them

Regardless of these things, it can be concluded that songs can help students improve some bottom-up listening skills such as word recognition, awareness of word siress, and enhance their attention while listening

3.1.3.4, Students’ favorite activities while they are listening to English songs

Finding the words appeared in the song 52%

correct answers

Resides, 55% of the respondents regard listening and ticking True or False sentences is the third of their most favorite activities In fact, this task was not too difficult and they could practice concentration while listening,

Another type of task would alfract students a Jol is listening to the song and

circling the words appeared in the song, which was chosen by 52% Besides, many

students also like listening 10 the songs and correcling mistakes in the songs such as

finding out the extra words or wrong words in the lyrics ‘his is realized with the

portion of 13%

The next activity that students show their concem is discussing about the

meaning of the songs 33% of the students were eager to know about the content of those songs because it oculd make them understand more about the songs they were

listening Lo

At the bottom of their choice, only 12% of the students show their interest to dictation, even a smaller number of them (6,3%) think that doing the multi-choice

queslions while listening is interesting Tl is understandable because these tasks are

often too difficult and take thei a lot of time and sub-skills to fulfill

3.1.3.5 Reasons that students listen to English songs

For improvement in listening skill 59%

Table 3: Reasons that students listen to English songs

A large amount of the informants (over 80%) share the same opinion about

their aim of listening to songs is for relaxation and pleasure, Listening to songs really make them feel comfortable and relaxed after hours of working or studying hard Meanwhile, there is 59% of students saying that their main purpose is to improve listening skill Only 1% or 2% of the students listen to English songs to stay awake or for other reasons

3.2 Questionnaire for teacher

3.2.1 Aims

The aim of questionnaire far teacher is to find out teachers’ frequency of using

songs and kind of tasks they designed to leach with the use of songs and te

comment on advantages and disadvantages of using songs to teach listening skill, criteria for choosing appropriate songs