Luận văn the difficulties of non major of english at haiphong foreign language center–haiphong university in learning listening skill and some suggested solutions

UNTVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES PHAM THI PHUQNG ‘THE DIFFLCULTLES OF NON - MAJOR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH AT TIAIPHO

VIETNAM NATIONAT UNTVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

PHAM THI PHUQNG

‘THE DIFFLCULTLES OF NON - MAJOR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH AT

TIAIPHONG FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTER - IIAIPEEONG UNIVERSITY

IN LEARNING LISTENING SKILL AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

NHUNG KHO KHAK CTIA SINH VIEN KHONG CHUYRN ANH TẠI TRUNG

TÂM NGOẠI NGỮ - DẠI HỌC HÃI PHÒNG TRONG VIỆC HỌC KỸ NẮNG

NGHE VẢ MỘT SỐ GIẢI PHÁP ĐỀ XUAT

M.A,MINOR PROGRAMIME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

TIANDI - 2014

'VIETNAM NATTONAT, UNIVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

PHAM THI PHUQNG

‘THE DIFFLCULTLES OF NON - MAJOR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH AT

TIAIPHONG FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTER - IIAIPEEONG UNIVERSITY

IN LEARNING LISTENING SKILL AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

NHUNG KHO KHAK CUA SINH VIEN KHÔNG CHUYÊN ANH TẠI TRUNG

TAM NGOAINGU’- DAL HOC HAI PHONG TRONG VIỆC HỌC KỸ NẮNG

NGHE VA MOT SỐ GIẢI PHÁP ĐỀ XUẤT

M.A.MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Prof Dr Hoang Van Van

TIANOL - 2014

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Kirst of all, L would like to send my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof

Dr Hoang Van Van, who guided me throughout the accomplishment of this research

Tt it had not been for his kind guidance, insightful comments and valuable support, my thesis would not have been completed

T also owe my gratitude to my family, who has always been very supportive with my study

Th addition, Tam grateful 1o all iny colleagues and students al Haiphong Foreign Language Center, who have encouraged me and shared ine useful information ‘Their cooperation helped me a lot to finish the thesis

Personally, T highly appreciate all the assistance T am greatly interested in this study as it is of great help for me However, { am responsible for any remaining

xmistakes and short comings that are found in this work.

ABSTRACT

Listening skill is one of the most neccessary skills to communicate in the real life In learning a foreign language, it is more and more important to leam this skill In

fact, students often take the wrong way wheu hslening and this leads them 10 the poor

result Realizing the problems from teaching experiences, the author would like to do a

research titled “The difficulties of non-major students of English at Haiphong Foreign Language Center-Haiphong University in learning listening skill and some

suggested solutions

This study is an investigation into the problems experienced by non-major students of Unglish at Ilaiphong Foreign Language Center-Haiphong University in

loamning listening skill The subjects of the study were 75 non-English major students

and 5 teachers at Haiphong Foreign Language Center (HFLC)-Haiphong University

The data were collected through the questionnaires from students, and the interviews from the teachers

‘The results of the research will point out the difficulties that learners meet when

they learn the listening skill at HFLC More importantly, it helps the author find out

the causes of those difficulties so that she can work out the right solutions la the

problems With the hope of improving leamers’ listening competence, the author has

wied her best ta do this thesis by her own experiences and knowledge m English

teaching mcthodology

The findings of the research will reveal the difficulties that learners experience

wher they lea ihe listening skill at the center Some conclusions were drawn,

recommendations were made, some limitations were pointed out and suggestions were offered,

iti

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1; Purposes of learning English at HKLC

Figure 3.2; Leamers' time distribution in practicing four language skills

Figure 3.3: Students’ attitude toward listening skill

Figure 3.4: Students’ lime allocation [or self-study

Figure 3.5: What the learners do before and while hslenmg

Figure 3.6: Learners’ assessment on the listening tasks in the textbook

Figure 3.7; Learners’ interest in different listening activities

Figure 3.8: Learners’ interest im exira Histening aclivilies

Figure 3.9: The objective factors affecting learners’ learning the listening skill

‘Fable 1: Problems from the listeners

‘Table 2: Problems from the listening material

Table 3: Problems from environment factors

2 Aim of the study and research quostions 1

3 The Scope of the study cee eeeseeeeeeeeseteseessanesaes 2

4 The method of the sỈUdy ác nha iệu 2

5 The organization of the study cách ưe 3

I/21.90100)0A 4009000 u10 ẽa11Ạ 4

1.1 What are listening and listening skill ~ 4

1.1.1 Definitions

1.1.2 The importance ofthe listening skill 5 1.1.3 Potenuial dilicultdes im listenimg sk1Ïl -. 6 1.1.3.1 Listening problerms thư 6

v

2.1.2 Resources and materials cceniecieeree H1 2.1.3 Teachers and Leaching meLhods - ccceece 13 2.2 Data collccflon - so chan 18 2.2.1 Parlicipanls (2Q St nhe 14 2.2.2 Data collection instrumenfs 14

CTIIAPTER 3: DATA ANATYSIS AND IINDINGS 15

3.1 Intended research contents

3.1.1 Purposes to learn English at HFLC 1S 3.1.2 Students” al(Itude toward listerning skIÍ] . 16 3.1.3 Students’ strategies in listening 2.00.0 ceteris 18

3.1.4 Learners’ assessment on the listening task in the text book .20

3.1.5 Problems expericnced by Icarners in learning English listening

m 23 3.1.5.1 Problems from listeners -~ s-so 23 3.1.5.2 Problems from the lisieninp mafterials 25 3.1.5.3 Problems from environment ÍacLors .- 27

3.2 Summary

3.3 Suggested solution improving the teaching of English listening

skill to learners at Haiphong Foreign Language Center

3.3.1 Recommendations for teaching English listening skill for non-

1naJor studems ai HE LC ác nen 32 3.3.1.1 Improving teacher”s classroom techniques 33 3.3.1.2 Training students to become active listeners voce 34 3.3.1.3 Developing the listening materials 36

3.3.1.3.1 Adapting and improving listening materials 36

vi

3.3.1.3.2 Choosing sunplementary listening materials 37 3.3.1.4 Improving teachimg [aciliies and resouTces 37 3.3.1.5 Othcr problcrnatic arcas che 37 3.4 SummiaTy cà STt S212 1132 HH HH 010210121122 21c ro 38

PARY IL: CONCLUSION Si rreg 39 Icổ< oi on 39

3 Limitations of the study .enhehee 40

4 Suggesllons [or [urther study .ecceeie 40

U13 ¿30)091/0.11555 I

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PARTI INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Listening plays a significant role in daily connmunication No one can deny the importance of listening skill in foreign language learning because it takes much time

and energy to make progress in this skill Listening plays an imporlant role in

communication It is said thet of the total time spent on communicating, listening takes

up 40-50% According to Devine (1982), listening is the primary means by which

incoming ideas and information are taken in

Being good at communicators in foreign languages especially in English is always a desire of all foreign language leamers [lowever, it requires them to speak

and to listen well in which listening is considered the most challenging skill for every

leamer In fact, there are many factors affecting the learners in listening acquisition They may come from the listeners (their background knowledge, their interest or their molivation }, from the listening material or from the environment factors: Consequently, it is very difficult for them to master this skill

With thirteen-year experience of teaching English listening skill at Haiphong

Foreign Language Center and from whal T observed many classes al HFC, it ean be

found that many students failed in practicing listening skill Some of the students

complained that they were not confident with listening tasks so they could hardly

understand (he spoken messages

Realizing the problem from teaching experiences, | have decided to cary out a

study namely “The difficulties of non-major students of English at Iaiphong

Foreign Language Center-Haipheng University in learning listening skill and some

suggested solutions”

2 Aim of the study and research questions

‘The aim of the study is to probe difficulties experienced by students at Haiphong Foreign Language Center (HFLC) in leaming listening skill and to offer

solutions lo help students overcome these difficulties.

‘To achieve this overall aim, the following research questions are raised for

exploration:

1 What are the problems experienced by leamers in learning Fnglish listening

skill at HELC?

2 Tlow can the teacher help learners overcome the difficulties?

3, Scope of the study

‘The study is limited to finding out the difficulties that the learners at HELC cope with in learning English listening skill

‘The objects of the study are the learners at HKLC aged from 15 to over 50 They are studying the second of three levels of English at IIFLC In this center, the textbook thal the learners use is New Englivh File-Pre intermediate (Clive Oxenden, Christina Latham-Koenig, Paul Seligson) ‘This textbook is intended to develop leamers’ four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing

4, Method of the study

To fulfill the above aim, both qualitative and quantitative methods are used

Qualitative research is “a type of scientific research which consists of an

investigation that secks answers to a question, systematically uses a predefined sct of

procedures to answer the question, collects evidence, produces findings that were not dvtermined in advance, produces findings thal are applicable beyond the immediate boundaries of the study” (Trask, 2007, p.239)

The most common qualitative methods are participant observation, in-depth interviews, and focus groups Ta order ta get information about leamers? molivation when they leam English listening skill at HELC, the author has to observe their study

in the real classes Moreover, interviews are used for the teachers of English so as ta get their ideas about the teaching and leaming problems at HFLC

According to Aliaga and Gunderson (2000) “Quantitative research is explaining phenomena by collecting numerical data that are analyzed using mathematically based methods (in particular statistics)”

In this study, the author uses questionnaires for learners to get information about teaching and Jeamnmg listening skill at H'LC

2

After collecting information, all the data will be analyzed for the findings and conclusions will be drawn from these

5, Organization of the study

The study includes three parts as follows

Part 1: The Fatroduction presents ihe background, the aim, lhe scope ard the

method of the study

Part I: The Development consists of three chapters Chapter 1 is the literature review which provides an overview of some theories as well as the previous researches that relate to the study Chapter 2, the methodology and findings describes the current situation of teaching and leaming listening skill at [IMLC Then it will introduce the

parlivipants, the data collection instruments, data analysis and rescarch questions

Finally, the author will analyze the results of the survey and the interviews in order to find out the current state of learning listening skill at IIFLC Chapter 3 offers some

solutions Lo improve learning English lislening skill for learners al HFLC

Part IU: the Conclusion summarizes what has been studied and makes some

recommendations for further research.

PARTH DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

Listening plays an imporlant role in sccond language instruction [or several reasons If you cannot hear it well you will find it hard to communicate or perhaps you

cammol pass your listerimg examination (Rost, 1994) Ti should be noted that the

leamer’s perception of their listening problem and stratogics can affect their comprehension both positively and negatively (Wenden, 1986) ‘I'hus, in order to help

students improve their listening skill, it is necessary to find out their listening

problems, what cause them and how to solve them

1.1 What are listening and listening skill?

£.1.1 Definitions

Th this study, listening is listening comprehension Th is a signifivant, and essential area of development in a native language and in a second language Therefore, there have been many definitions of listening

Gary Buck (2001: 31), for example, points out that “Listening comprehension is

an active process of constructing meaning and this is done by applying, knowledge to the incoming sound” in which “a number of different Lypes of knowledge are involved both linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic knowledge”,

On the other hand, Wolvin and Coakley (1985) see listening as “the process of receiving, attending to and assigning meaning to aural stimuli”

According to Brown (2001), listening is “not merely the process of unidirectional receiving of audible symbols” Ile supposed that one aspect of listening, comprehension which is “ihe psychomotor process of receiving sound waves through the ear and transmitting nerve impulses to the brain” Llence, listening comprises of three elements: the sender, the message and the listener

Tl can be concluded from the above mentioned delimtions that hslenimg skill

can be understood as “the ability to identify and understand what others are saying This involves understanding a speaker's accent or pronunciation, understanding his

4

grammar, recognizing his vocabulary and being able to grasp the meaning of what he says.” (Howat and Dakin,1974),

11.2 The importance of listening skill

Listening is a skill that is important because it helps us learn and understand

different things Usually, a person who listens properly is able to react appropriately to

a particular situation or towards a particular person Everyone, in the real life, often

listens more than speaks, reads or wriles We lisien everywhere and every time We

listen to everything and everybody

There are differences between hearing and listening While hearing is a part of five senses (hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and looking) listening is a choice to

hear and understand il, As an integrative skill, hstening plays an imporlanl role in the

process of language leaming or acquisition and facilitating the emergence of other language skill According to Nord (1980: 17), listening is the way of leaming the language “It gives the leamer information fiom which to build up the knowledge necessary for using the language When this knowledge is built up, the leamer ean begin to speak “The listerring period is a time of observation and learning which

provides the basis for the other language skills” (Nation, 1990: 12) Most learners will

spend more time listening to the foreign language than producing it themselves

Failing 10 understand spoken language, people may miss important information

presented to them or respond in a fumny way So training in listening is really necessary It helps students make the transition from classroom English to the real-life English more easily and effectively

From the point of view of psychology, listening is a nocessary skill 10 facilitate

autonomous leaming and encourage leamers’ independence Listening is also an important form of communication ‘This is the reason why “We were given two ears but only one month; this is becausc God knew that listening was twice as hard as talking” People need to practice and acquire skills to be good listeners

1.1.3 Potential difticulties in listening skill

LL

Listening problems

In her book entitled Yeaching Listening, Mary Underwood (1989), points out the following listening problems:

* Lack of control over the specch at which speakers speak

This means the leamers cannot control how quickly the speaker speaks They

feel that the ullerances disappear before they can sorl (hem out “They are so busy

working out the meaning of one part of what they hear that they miss the next part Or they simply ignore a whole chunk because they fail to sort it all out quickly enough’ One of the reasons [or this is Lhal learners carmol keep up with the spocch and they often try to understand everything they hear When they fail in sorting out the meaning

of one part, their following will be missed This can lead to the ignorance of the whole

chunk of discourse Obviously, they fail to listen One method of lavkling this is to

show students how to identify the important words that they need to listen out for In English this is shown in an easy-to-spot way by which words in the sentence are

stressed (spoken louder and longer) Another is Lo give them one very easy task that

you know they can do even if they do not get 90% of what is being said to build up their confidence, such as identifying the name of the famous person or spotting

something Ihal is mentioned many times

* The listener’s vocabulary

This is the main problem of the leamers in listening comprehension TL is very difficult to understand the spoken text if we do not know the new words According to

‘Underwood (Ibid.), “unknown word can be like a suddenly dropped barrier causing them to stop and think about the meaning of the word and thus making them miss the text part of the speech” ‘There are four situations relating to the vocabulary that the

leamers usually committed These situations are presented below:

(1) Trying to understand every word In spite of the fact that they can hope with missing whole chunks of speech having conversation on a noisy slzeel in our own language, many people do not seem to be able to transfer that skill easily to a second language

(2) Getting left behind trying to work out what a previous word meant All people speaking a foreign language have experienced this problem at one or more than

one time This often happens when you hear a word half However, it also can happen

with words you are trying to work out that sound similar to something in your language In individual listening you oan cut down on this problem with vocabulary

pre-teach and by getting studerts to talk about the same Lopic first 1o bring the relevant

vocabulary for that topic area nearer the front of their brain One training method is to

use a listening or to get them to concentrate just an guessing words from context

Another is 1a load up the task even more by adding a logic puzde or listening and writing, task, so that just listening and try to remember words seems like an easier

option Finally, spending time revising vocabulary and doing skills work where they

come inlo contact wilh il and use il

(3) Not knowing the most important words Doing the vocabulary pre-teaching

before each listening is an effective solution Nevertheless, these words must actually

be guessed from the context The other solution is simply to build up their vocabulary and teach them how they can do the same in their own time with vocabulary lists,

graded readers, monolingual dictionary use, etc

(4) Not recognizing the words that have been known The common reasons

why students might not recognize the words include not distinguish between different sounds in English, or conversely trying to listen for differences that do not exist Other

ns are problems with word stress, seriem and sound changes when words

are spoken together in natural speech such as weak forms What all this boils down to

is thal, sometimes pronunciation work is ihe most important part of listermng

comprehension skills building,

* Inability te concentrate

This can be caused by a number of things but in listening work it is a major problem because even the shortest break in attention can seriously impair the comprehension of the whole process of Histening Whether the lopic is interesting or

not, students sometimes find tired and unable to concentrate The outside factors may

well make concentration difficult, too Nor instance the bad quality machines, poor

recording, unfavorable rooms for the use of recorded materials, strect or next-door

class noise all of these facts preveril strongly lo the concentration of the result, they

cannot get full of the message intended

+ Not being able to catch information repeated

‘This type of difficulty comnects with what the speakers say or “input” while the

listeners are nol always im the positions to gel the repetition This is the ease when

leamers join in conversation outside the classroom Repetition cannot be asked for when listening to the radio or watching television Even in the classroom, when listening to the lectures, learners cannot frequently order the lecturers to repeat the ullerance as many tines as they wish Therefore, the teacher can be solved only when Jeamers are given the opportunity to control their own machines and proceed in

whatever way they wish

* Problems of interpretation

‘These can occur when the speaker and the listener are from the different background and the lislener is unfamiliar with che context of speaker’s walk Studenls

who are unfamiliar with the context may have considerable difficulty in imterpreting

the words they hear even if they can understand the “surface” meaning In addition, the meaning of non-verbal clues, facial expression, nods, gestures, tone of voice can easily

be misinterpreted by listeners from other cullures This problom can even ovcur when

the speaker and the hearer are from the same background and use the same language

* Established learning habits

Learning habit is an important factor leading to the success of language loaming If students establish wrong habits, they may fail in their learning, cte In

different point of view, Goh,C (2000) stales that, problems in listening comprehension

depend on three stages which will be presented as follows:

gq

reviewed literatwe including the definition, the process of listening comprehension and its potential difficulties, the researchers hope that these serve as a base in

understanding to continue with other chapters related to them

0

day it started, there have been millions of leamers studying there Today, HFLC is the

most well-known center in Haiphong city

Currently, IIFLC has over 250 classes with nearly 6000 students Students wha

come here desire to have a good faculty of English with four fluent skills Generally, at

the center, students at level A classes account fur the larges! proportion Next come

students at level B, and the smallest is students at level C These figures show that

teachers al this cenler work with studerds of various levels, different competerice, and variable requirements, thereby oan develop their teaching methods as much as they

can

2,1.2 Resources and materials

The leamers of English at IIFLC are varied in age, sex, and learning purposes

According ta a statistics conducted by the center, leamers’ age ranges from 8 to over

50 This means that in some classes students are still very young, and they learn English because their parents want them to In such cases, their motivation is not

strong and clear enough There are also many school children atiending English

classes to get a good ability of Uinglish grammar to do well in their examination So apart from grammar, other skills are not paid much attention to

To adult Isarners, all of dhe four skills are essential both in communication and

working management However, it is hard for them to acquire a foreign language as

their development often “fossilizes” into permanent error pattems that no teaching or

coirection can tmdo, thouạh they are well aware of the learning purposes O£ course,

there are great individual differences, which depend on effort, attitudes, amount of

exposure, quality of teaching, and plain talent, but there seems to he a gap for the best

adults in the best circumstances

Despite some clear distinctions in learners’ age as shown above, most of the

learners here are from 15 to 35 They are either students of upper secondary schools or

universities, who need English for their study or future jobs, or employees at offices

which require English for the accomplishment of their jobs, or workers at foreign

invested companies, in which English is the key factor for success!ul communication

‘The learners are, therefore, strongly activated,

With learners of various ages, language competence, learning purposes, etc it

is hard for tcachors al the center (o find the bes! way to leach thom, especially when four skills of Hnglish ae interwoven and required to be taught simultaneously by only

one teacher

An HFLC, English is taught mainly at three levels: clomentary (level A}, pro- intermediate (level 13), and intermediate (level C) ‘he main textbook is New Lnglish

File by Clive Oxenden, Christina Latham-Koenig, Paul Seligson The purpose of this

English textbook is to develop all fom language skills such as listening, speaking,

reading and writing and to improve language Inowledge like phonetics, grammar and vocabulary for leamers

Fach classroom is equipped with a board, a CD player, four fans and fourtecn tables There are some high-quality classrooms which have a projector and an air-

conditioner Each class consists of more than twerly students Listening lesson is

‘usually taught in normal conditions Each lesson lasts an hour and a halt It is often

taught in combination with the other skills such as reading, speaking or writing skill It

seerna [hal lisloning is always (he most difficult and frustrating for learners As a consequence, practicing this skill always takes much time and requires more

concentration both from the teacher and the leamers At first, listening to English

sectna lo be impossible for the learners Bocause, here, they gel started with English systematically for the first time or thei: knowledge of the English language is still

poor.

2.1.3 Teachers and teaching methods

AL HFI.C, there are 90 teachers of English aged 22 lo 58 Most of them were

educated in the English language department either at the Universities of Language

and Toternalional Studies or al Hana University, and the rest graduated wilh English

major from other universities One of them 1s now a PhD student, 13 out of them have

obtained M.A Degrees and one will get an M.A Degree at the end of this year The oldest teachers have more than 3G years of teaching expericnee, and the youngest just more than a year Three of them have ever had times attending intensive Hnelish courses abroad, mainly in England, America and Singapore eto

The teachers in HFT.C are assigned to (each at different levels, and different

classes Class time is often ] hour and a half (equivalent to 2 periods), and the teachers

have to go to class at least once a day In classes of level A, B, or C, each teacher is responsible for onc class separately This means he/she has to porform lus/her task

with four skills simultaneously [lence it is not easy at all for the teacher to do well all the time with four different skills If he poes further for speaking, there will be less

time for the other But if histening is placed an important parl in the Leaching syllabus,

the other skills may receive less attention

more than Lwerity-five learners

‘The second group under study consists of the teachers at HE'LC ‘These teachers have been teaching here for more than two years Their ages range from 26 to 34 Four

of them have obtained M.A degrees in English, another teacher has chtained a B.A

degree from Llaiphong Private University ‘They are active, creative and enthusiastic

teachers

2.2.2 Data collection instruments

To arrive at the reliable data, a survey was conducted and questionnaires were

administered to 75 learners of 3 level B classes The questionnaire used as instrament

for data collection was designed to get information about:

1 The students’ purposes to leam English at HFLC (Q 1)

2 The students’ attitude toward listening skill (Q 2 - 3)

3 ‘The students’ strategies in listening (Q 4-5)

4 The students’ assessment on the listening lask:

File Pre-intermediate (Q 6-9)

5 The problems experienced by the students in leaming Linglish listening skill

(Q10-11)

All the questions im Ihe survey were designed with a hope Iltal the roxearcher

can get students’ opinions about their English listening skills and their attitudes, motivation and other information about the textbook, listening tasks or teachers’ waching mcthods These questions were close to the techniques (hal the researcher

expects to be appropriate for the improvement of students’ listening ability

Additionally, interviews were used for the teachers Five teachers who have

been teaching, the level B of this program were interviewed directly about their own

ways of teaching listening Lo the Jeammers, and their comments on their students in

leaming that skill, Also, the interviewer would like them to suggest some recommendations that are helpful to improve and to motivate students’ leaming listening skill

In conclusion, this chapter describes the method using questionnaires to investigate students and teachers so as to answer the research questions raised in the first chapter Based on the subjects mentioned, prominent findings for the roscarch

questions will be realized and presented in the next chapter

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 3.1 Intended research contents

3.1.1 Purposes to learn English at HFLC

Fustly, the author would like to show the chart of the learners’ purposes to take

part in English course at HFLC As can be seen in the following pie chart, the purpose

that urged most leamers 34.7% to take part in English course at HFLC is improving their English for their work requirement From this figure we can see that English

becomes more and more important for the work need, They all need to get the ability

of communicating in English to promote or to change a better job in the future 33.7%

of the leamers join the English class in order to apply for a job They learn English so

that they can get a necessary certificate of English and get a better job These leamers are the students who have just graduated from the universities or colleges; or some of

them learn English to be interviewed to go to work in other countries A small group

of learners (20%) would like to improve their English at the vocational school, the

university or the college The least number of learners (12%) here studied English

because they had free time or they liked English so they wanted to join and leamed it

as an interest Therefore, the learners’ background is very complicated

applying for jobs m work requirement m improving English at school Other purposes

The chart on the purposes to learn English at HFLC gives a positive sign that

all of the leamers here have their own motivation to leam this foreign language It is

one of the most basic elements that encourage the leamers to work hard and get

success in learning English

3.1.2 Students’ attitude toward listening skill

How do the students learn the listening skill in English? And how do they distribute their time in practicing the four skills of language learning: listening,

speaking, reading and writing? The following chart shows the differences in time

distribution among them

B Listening Speaking

& Reading

m Writing

Figure 3.2 Learners' time distribution in practice four language skills

As can be seen from the chart, most students spend their time practicing

listening skill (51%) It means that students have awareness of learning communicative language so that they can apply it when they need while speaking (16%), reading skill

(13%) and the writing skill (20%) are comparatively similar, Of the four skills,

listening skill accounts for the most time In other words, students seem to have enough patience and interest to practice listening skill as much as possible

16

strongly agree

and agree

mneutral

i disagree and strongly disagree

Figure 3.3: Students’ attitude toward listening skill

The pie chart shows most of students (74%) consider listening as the most

difficult skill among reading, writing and speaking Only 19% of them do not have any

ideas about this question A small number of students (7%) think that listening is not very difficult for them

Tn fact, as what can be seen from the chart, the learners who confirmed that it

is easy to leam listening skill are the best students It is a pity that this number is

small (5/75) In short, the survey proves well the assumption about the difficulty of

listening to English and learning it

Whether these difficulties can make the learners uninterested in it or not? This question is clarified by the next chart which shows the learners’ self-study in learning

listening skill at Haiphong Foreign Language Center

Without much self-practicing, the students cannot make any improvement or

have good results in listening comprehension Self-study is such a way to succeed in

listening.

1% 13%

[never Brarely sometimes often

Figure 3.4: Students’ time allocation for self-study

As can be seen from the chart, up to 60% of the students sometimes practice listening skill at home, 26% of them often do it as their habit, 13% rarely do and only

10% never do it Students’ time allocation for self-study at home is also a problem and

it affects them very much in mastering the listening skill It seems to be a disadvantage

of learners at HFLC

3.1.3 Students’ strategies in listening

How do the students learn listening skill in their classes? The following charts

will show the ways they did it

mSeries1 âMSeries2 mSeries3 MSeries4 mSeriesS

Figure 3.5 What the learners do before and while listening

What students do before listening partially has impacts on their comprehension

of the listening text According to the data which has been collected, 29.3 % of the

students said that they would go through the questions and guess what the topic is

about It is reasonable enough for this first stage of listening However, the task

instruction should be prior to read under any circumstances As they read them, they

know what they are supposed to do and how to deal with that There are just 29.3 % of students taking this first step

In addition, new words are such matters that prevent students from

understanding the text When encountering a new word, just 6.7 % choose to ignore

the word and keep on listening, 36% try to guess its meaning and 47.4% feel depressed and cammot listen any more From this, we can see that lacking of vocabulary could be a barrier to students

As Hedge (2000: 37) points out, instead of listening to every word in their first

language, many language learners tend to integrate their linguistic competence,

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experience and back ground knowledge to comprehend the text

In listening comprehension, a good listener will not listen to all the words of the listening task They may skip any part of it and just focus on the information that they need for their answer In contrast, most participants in my research consisting of

73,6% agree that they listen to word by word Listening word by word or listening for

detail as they think is very important to get the main ideas Once they try to

comprehend every single word, there are few chances for them to discover the key

words which give them clues to understand the listening text

In our first language, we skim over parts of the message and pay attention to

relevant parts only Thus, sentences are not possessed word by word and the focus is

placed on the ideas behind these words and how these ideas are linked together to draw conclusion

3.1.4, Learners’ assessment on the listening tasks in the textbook

The degrees of difficulty of the listening tasks in the textbook New English File-Pre intermediate by Clive Oxenden, Christina Latham-Koenig, Paul Seligson are assessed by the learners as follows:

Too difficult Difficuit

Appropriate

Figure 3.6 Learners’ assessment on the degrees off difficulty of the listening tasks

in the textbook The above table shows that most students (73.3%) find the listening tasks in this textbook appropriate with their ability of English There are 22.6% of the students who say the listening tasks are difficult Only 2.7% of them think they are too difficult to do However, 1.4% of them find the tasks easy; it means that the textbook is appropriate with most of the leamers It can be concluded that the

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textbook does not prove to be a big problem for the students to learn English

listening skill However, it does not mean that it is easy for all the students The

matter is whether those listening tasks are interesting or not for the students to learn

In this textbook, the most popular types of listening activities are true/ false;

completing the missing words, choosing the correct answer, or answering the

comprehension questions, etc

Of those listening activities, students express their interest in them differently

The differences are shown in the following table

ATP

True/False Completethe Choosethe Answer Other

missingword correct answer comprehension

Figure 3.7 Learners’ interest in different listening activities

From the table, it can be seen that the most favorite listening activities are complete the missing words (30.67%) and choosing the correct answers (24%)

These types of activities are simple because the leamers can do without fearing of spelling mistakes Answer comprehension questions accounts for 25.33 % and

true/false, 10.67% These types of activities are more complicated for the learners, It

requires the learner’s general comprehension about the listening text and general

skills such as skimming, scanning, paraphrasing, etc Moreover, the learners also

need good knowledge of grammar and vocabulary in order to express the ideas based

on what they heard Then, the listening activities affect the students’ interest in learning this skill a lot

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In order to motivate the students in learning listening skill, beside the

listening activities given in the textbook, the teacher has to adapt them and create

more interesting activities The survey collected their feedbacks about the listening

activities that they would like to do

Figure 3.8 Learners’ interest in extra-listening activities

The writer has given four groups of extra-activities that are often used in order to enhance the learners’ motivations in learning the listening skill The students are let

to listen to the songs; watch the films on DVDs or listen to the stories on the radio,

listen to the news like VOA special news or speeches or lectures; or listen to the short dialogues such as conversations, or interviews, etc As can be seen from the above

bar chart, most of the learners like listening to the dialogues Listening to the

dialogues are the most favorite activities which accounts for 46.67 % of the students

at HFLC In contrast, listening to the news, speeches or lectures bored the most

students Only 9.33% of the students like this Besides, listening to songs seems to

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