Luận văn developing listening skills through gap fill tasks for the first year non english major students

3 To what extent do gap-fill tasks help the first-year students at HUNRE improve their listening siaills, from both students’ and teacher’s perspectives?. The data for the study were co

VIETNAM NATIORAL UNIVERSITY, LLANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILLS TIIROUGII GAP-FILL TASKS FOR THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MA.IOR STUDENTS: AN

ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT HANOT UNIVERSITY OF

NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT

(NGHLEN CUU NANG CAO KY NANG NGHE QUA HOAT DONG

NGHE DIEN THONG TLN CON THIẾU CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ

NHAT KHONG CHUYÊN ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG DẠI HỌC TÀI

NGUYEN VA MOI TRUONG HA NOT)

M.A MINOR ‘THESLS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 6014.0111

HANOI - 2013

ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF

NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT

(NGHIEN CUU NANG CAO KY NANG NGHE QUA HOAT DONG

NGHE DIEN THONG TLN CON THLEU CHO SLNH VLEN NAM THU

NHAT KHÔNG CHUYEN ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC TÀI

NGUYEN VA MOL TRUONG HA NOL)

MLA MINOR ‘THESLS

CODE: 6014.0111

SUPERVISOR: Prof Dr HOANG VAN VAN

HANOI - 2013

DECLARATION

T hereby declare that this thesis is the result of my own research and that the substance of the thesis has not, wholly or in pait, been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution

Lanoi, December, 2013 Ngô Thị Hà

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thosis has been avcomplished with the help and encouragement of many people

I would like to express my deep gratitude to all of them

Kirst and for most, | would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Prof Dr [loang Van Van Ilis profound knowledge in both linguistics and language

teaching methodology has been of great benefit to me Without his precious

guidance, insightful comments and suggestions, and invaluable encouragement, my

thesis might not have been finished

T would also like to send my deep thanks to the staff of the Faculty of Post-graduate

Studies for their help and to all the lecturers for their interesting lectures and

supports, which are really useful for this research

Besides, my special thanks should also be expressed to my colleagues and students

at ITUNRE Their cooperation brought great contribution to the success of my

study

Last but not least, my sincore thanks were sent to my family and my friends for their encouragement and moral supports Without them beside me, 1 might not have completed the research

Initial investigation of the study showed that almost students at HUNRE found

listening challonging and many diifieulties perceived by students were revealed Among those, the biggest problems were of the unsuitability between the listening

tasks and students’ level To better the situation, an action plan was made with

focus on using gap-fill tasks Lo help students develop their listoning skalls

The inlervention was fairly successful in improving studers’ lisLening skills Their listening ability was upgraded and they also felt more interested in listening lessons

Basing on the findings of the research, some conclusions were drawn out

Recommendations, limitations and suggestions were also discussed

It is hoped that the present study will be helpful for English teachers who share the

sane wish 1o help students solve their problems in learmng hstering skills al UUKRU

Ngô Thị Hà

ii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

HUNRE: Hanoi University of Natural Resources and Environment L2: second language

TESOL: Teachers of English lo Speakers of Other Languages

GE; General English

ESP: English for Specific Purpose

NCE: New Cutting Fdge

MA: Master

PhD: Doctor of Philosophy

iv

LIST OE CHARTS AND TABLE

CHARTS

LL: Students” results of the first sernester

Chart 2: Results of the pre-test

Chart 3; Results of the three meetings

Chart 4: Students’ comments about vocabulary of the recordings

Chart 5: Students? comments about the grammar’s difficulty of the recordings Chart 6: Students’ comments about the length of the recordings

Chart 7: Students’ comments about the speed of the recordings

Chart 8: Students’ comments about the level of tasks’ difficulty

Chart 9: Students’ comments about their accomplishment of the tasks

110: Resulls of the post test

Chart 11: Students’ improvernent through Losts

TABLES

Table 1: List of topics conveyed in cach module of the course books

Table 2: List of listenmg tasks in each module of the course books

1.1.2 Listening skill in learning a foreign language S227

LAL.S Listening tasks o ccccccscscssssssessssansuseeesseessseessssssstssssnsiiaesvasesisveeesesel ]

vi

1.2.1 Gap-fills tasks in learning listening skills

2.1.1 An overview of teaching and learning English al HUNRE

2.1.2, Facilities and learning condition

2.5.2, Phase 2; Action Planing

2.5.3 Phase 3: Taking Action

3.1.3, Analysis of talks with students

3.1.4 Analysis of the students’ results of the first semester

3.3.1 Results of the exercises ia four meetings 34

3.4.2 Students’ involvement in listening tasks 41

3.5.1 BfTeeL oF gap-il tasks on đeveloping studenb? listening skills from

3.5.2 EifeoL of gap-lill tasks on developing students? Hstening skills from the

3.5 Sussestlons for Ruther study co 46

viii

PARTT INTRODUCTION

1, Rationale of the study

Ihe role of Linglish as “global language” has now been asserted with many

eloquent testimomes of its usefulness and contributions im many fields of hfe such

as science, technology, culture, education, economy, entertainment and so on

Hnglish has helped people closer in ‘global village’ (Nguyen, ‘I N., 2008) and

helped them broaden their knowledge as well, With ils wide use as the dominant

language in media, books, etc, Inglish has brought people many chances to get ta

know about other countries and thei cultures, literature works, traditions, etc., thus,

broaden their knowledge with the help of the common and popular language

English 1s used as the most common language in external communication of many fields Since “Boi moi” with “opened” policy, Viemam has been “closer” to the dynamic outside world Vietnamese people now can easily access information, enterlainments, books, science, and high teckmology which are usually in Frglish Businessmen, tourists, scientists, eto come to Vietnam bringing with them many chances to help develop the country in many aspects Most of them often use

English in communication thal makes the use of English in Vietnam more and more

widely and important

In the Educational System of Victnam, English has now been a compulsory subject in curriculums in schools and universities English is considered not only an interest or a favourite subject but also practical and great demand for students for their higher study as well as for their success in the future Thus, “ils study is

considered as an academic pursuit” (Nguyen, T N., 2008)

Jn leaming English for communicative purposes, learning skills receives

greal interests Although each of the four skills — reading, listening, writing,

speaking, has their own characteristics and they are challenging in their own way, listening is considered the most challenging skill The factors that affect the

snidents’ listening ability are various, they may come from the students themselves

(their background knowledge, motivation, interest ), from the leaming context, from the learning material, or front leaching syllabus.

In attempt to improving students’ listening skills, I have decided to carry out

a study namely “Developing Listening Skills through Gap-fill Tasks for the First Year Non-English Major Students: an Action Research Project at Hanoi

University of Natural Resources and Environment”

2 Aims of the study

The maitr purpose of this roscarch is to study the olfecis of using gap-Litt tasks on improving the students’ listening skills at Hanoi University of Natural

Resources and Linvironment (IIUNRU) ‘he specific objectives of the study are:

- To figure out difficulties perceived by students in learning listening skills

- To find out effective ways Lo help improve sLudents’ hstening skills

- To investigate whelher doing gap-fill listening tasks can help students improve their listening skills from students and teacher's perspectives

3 Research questions

Tn order (o oblain the objectives of the study, the [following rescarch questions were

formulated:

1) What are the difficulties experienced by the first—vear students at HUNRE

in learning listening skills?

2) What should be done to unprove the students’ listening skills?

3) To what extent do gap-fill tasks help the first-year students at HUNRE

improve their listening siaills, from both students’ and teacher’s perspectives?

4 Scope of the study

With the limit of a minor thesis and due to the limited knowledge and time, I

could just carry out the investigation on a small scale This action research was

conducted for only nine wecks with three listening lessons and in the context of 45

first-year students at HUNRE in the second semester of the academic year 2012-

2013 In additions, as aforementioned, this stady focuses on using gap-fill exercises

to teach listening skills to the above students Hence, the results of this study is

limited to the above teaching context and participants

5 Methodology

To realize the objectives of the study, both qualitative and quantitative methods are used The data for the study were collected through the following instruments

- Talks with colleagues and students: were conducted at the very beginning of the study to identify students’ problems in learning listening skills

= Document analysis 1: the amalysis focuses on listening tasks in the course books to sco whether they are suitable with students level and interests or not Then some adjustments could be made to match students’ level and interests

- Document Analysis 2: The analysis of students’ results of the first semester was conducted to have deeper understanding of students’ right competence in English

+ Pre-test was designed to [ind out the students” listening slalls through gap-[ill tasks, before taking the action

- Learning diaries were done by students (with clear instruction of the researcher) to record their comments on the tasks and exercises as well as the effectiveness of the lesson, the difficulties perceived by the students during the lesson, and their generat comments on the leaming listening skills through gap- fill tasks

- Teaching diaries were written after each lesson to record the students’ reaction

or performance in learning listening skills through gap-fill tasks The diaries also record the effectiveness of the lesson, the difficulties occured during the lesson

in the perspective of the teacher

+ Post-test was designed lo find out the sludents’ listening skills through gap-fill tasks, after taking the action

6 Design uf the study

The study consists of three parts as follows:

Part I: The Introduction provides the basic information such as rationale of the study, aims of the study, research questions, seope of the study, methods of the stady and the design of the study

Part If: The Development consists of three chapters Chapter I is the literature review in which theoretical background relevant to the purpose of the

study is discussed In the second chapter, Chapter II, the methodology of the study

is explained with detailed description of how the study is conducted The last chapter is to report the data analysis as well as the results of the study

Part Il: The Conclusion summarizes what has been studied Then some recommendations are proposed, some Inmitattons of the study are pointed, and some suggestions for further research are offered

PART IT DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

“listening, in its broad sense, is a process of receiving what the speaker actually

says (receplive orientation); construcling and represcriling meaning (conslructive

orientation); and ervaling meaning through involvement, imagination and empathy

to be a single activity but a complicated process According to Boyle (1983),

“Listening comprehension is defined as the process of understanding speech in a second or foreign language When comprehending something, we can understand

what is said It is assumed that speaking and writing are the process of cncoding the message while listening and reading decode them Listening comprehension, therefore, is a perspective skill involving identifying and retaining information orally received.” Garry Buck (2001) emphasizes that it is “an active process of constructing meaning and Ibis is done by applying knowledge to [he meoming sound”, In this active process, “a number of different types of knowledge arc involved: both linguistic knowledge and nonlinguistic knowledge” By this he means that listening requires much more than just using ears to receive sounds If one doesn’t have enough required knowledge of both linguistics and non-linguistics,

he ear’ Ldo the lisiening comprehension well

Rixon (1986) makes a classification of lislening comprehension basing on ils

different, involvements The classification consists of two types: intensive and

extensive listening Fxiensive listening involves hstening to gel general understanding, for example, watching a film, understanding and enjoying a story; or listening and carrying out instructions Intensive listening, on the other hand, involves more detailed analysis of the language used or listening for specific information Listening for specific information involves [nding answers to specific questions

Brown and Yule (1983) prefer to use the terms “degrees of comprehension” when discussing listening comprehension The authors suggest a list of four degrees

of comprehension on which listening exercises or tasks can be designed ‘hese degrees are (1) The listener can repeat the text, (2) The student should have heard and understood the meaning of particular vacabulary items as that are used in that text; (3) The student should be able to resolve anaphoric and to determine which was referred to: and (4) The student should be able to work out not only what is directly asserted in the text, but also what is implied

In short, in order to comprehend an oral message in foreign or second language, the listener is required much more than understanding the verbal message He must have the background knowledge needed to accomplish the given tasks of such an

aclive process

1.1.2 Listening skills in learning a foreign language

For a long time in the history of language teaching, students were expected to

be structure competent Such approaches as Chammar Translation or Audio-Tinguat focus on leamer’s imitation of dialogues or grammar and pronunciation drill and get

their little attention to listening In addition, the syllabuses used for these

approaches also show their emphasis on leamer’s identification of language

“products”, but cursory role of listening im recognition of those producls int the syllabus In those cases, leamers were considered inactive in listening lessons and listening was just a passive skill in language learning In listening lessons, leamers mainly heard the message, trying to elicit the meaning from individual syntactic and

semantic components of ullerances and discourses They offen paid almost no allention on the imporlance of the other factors apart from words, structures of the

discourse such ax background knowledge of speech, infonalion, stress, and

speaker’s intention Following this trend, the teacher often conducted the lesson as

testing listening comprehension rather than teaching it Students were not given

enough instructions of what to do before they listen to the tape This brought about alot of challenges for students and they could nol manage 1o get (he mearong of the

ullerance without support of the Leacher with their own experience of suc

For the last few decades, im a number of studies, there have been changes i the

view of listening comprehension, in which it has no longer a passive skill but has

become an active skill in language learning According to Littlewood (1981),

Listersng demands active involvement from the hearer Tn order to construct the message thal the speaker intends, the hearcr must achively contribute knowledge

from both linguistic and nonlinguistie

Nunan & Miller (1995) define the important role of listening in learning a

foreign or second language as “listening is essential not only as a receptive skill but also to the development spoken language proficiency.” This point of view follows

Rosl’s (1994) ideas in which he also appreciates the important role of listening as

follows:

- Listening is vital m the language classroom because it provides input for the leamer Without understandable input at the right level, any leaming simply cannot begin

- Spoken language provides a means of interaction for the leamer Since the leamer Tnuài inierael to achieve underslandmg, access lo speakers of language is essential Moreover, learners’ failure to understand the language they hear is impetus, not an obstacle, to interaction and leaming

- Authentic spoken language presents a challenge for the leamer to attempt to understand language as it is actually used by native speakers

= Listening exercises provide teachers with a means for drawing learners? attention

to new fons (vocabulary, grammar, interaction pallens) in the language, (Rost, 1994:141-142, cited in Nunan and Miller, 1995)

According to Doff (1988), listening skill is crucial in improving communicative ability because “we cannot develop speaking skill unless we develop listening skill Indeed, if we want to speak well, we firsily must listen lo what others say and understand them elearly.”

It is to say that, the need of learning listening skills is inevitable as listening ability plays an essential role in the success of leaming a foreign or second language

in particular and in global communication in general

1.13 Difficulties in learning listening skills

Difficulties ocewring in leaming listening skill are unavoidable because of plenty of factors, Underwood (1989) lists a wide range of difficulties that students may face with in listening lessons: (1) lack of control over the speed at which speakers speak; (2) not being able to get things repeated: (3) the listener's limited vovabulary; (4) failure to recognize the signals, (5) problems of interpretation; (6) inability to conventrate, and (7) established learning habit She also enrphasizes that

“culture and education includes a strong storytelling” and oral communication tradition are generally “better at listening than those from a reading and book-based culture and education background” and that “student for whom the stress and intonation which occur in English are reasonably familiar have less wouble than those whose own language is based on differont rhythms and tones” It reveals

students from difforent language system may face with lots of problems when they learn a foreign language, especially when they listen to that language

In Ur's (1996) point of view, students may have difficulties in learning listening,

skills such as trouble with sounds, have to understand every word, cannot

understand fast and natural nalive speech, need to hear things more than onee, find

it difficult to keep up, and get tired It scems to be a complicate activity in which students need much more than the competence of grammar and structures of the language

Another reason of the student's ineffectiveness in listening is that they receive

no supporied materials such as “texts, pictures, diagrams or other visual aids” (Lynch, 2005) Their lisloning acuvity is simply Listening to the rovording and dong given exercises or tasks Meanwhile Rost (1994) discusses the problems occurring

in listening lessons in different dimensions In his view, these problems may be of

“motive, transfer, access to input and neurological development” It means that,

wilhoul motivation, abilily to transfer Lhe message, ability (o access (he meaning of

the message, and last but not least, sufficiency of neurologicat development,

students could not be successful in listeming

In terms of the three stages of listening (perception, parsing and utilization), God (2000) lists some problems that may occur:

- AL the perception stage: non-recognition of familar words (students may nel match the sounds automatically to words because of having nol stored the sounds

of words efficicntly in long term memory)

- At the parsing stage: students can quickly forget what is heard (students may understand words for the gist or general meaning, but not exact meaning because

they cannot remember key words or phrases)

- AL the ulhvation stage: 7.2 leamers can understand words but not the intended

message because they carmot cormect words lo extemal sources such as

background knowledge or inowledge of discuss structure

1.1.4, Listening material

Listoning malcrial is very important in language Jearning in general and in Icaming listening skills m particular A suitable material can contbute much to

students" ứraproyoment in learning listening skills Materials which are suitable with the students have to be interesting, in the right level of students” proficiency, and are presented in various activities (Puspita in Ilasyuni, 2006-4, cited in Ingeris, B., 2008) A material, with interesting topics or various activities but too difficult far students, may be considered an ursuilable material, and view versa

A listening material (or spoken English) involves a number of features and it is important to help students aware of such spoken material so that it will help improve their listening ability

Underwood (1989) points out a list of features of spoken English These

features are the sound, stress and intonation, the organization of the speccl

synlax

aud vocabulary, pause aud Gillers, and formal and infonnal language

When dealing with listening material, students can face some problems as unfamiliar topics, difference accents, speed of the speech, or strange sounds

- Topics in listening texts are often various, from daily conversations to formal or

academic speeches and sludents may [ecl unfamiliar with some of them Thus, students offen feel confused and anxious beeause there are many new words or

phrases and also they don’t have any background knowledge of these topics In this case, students need help to get familiar with the topics and it is the teacher who can help them by providing them vocabulary and knowledge conceming the topics

- Accents in recordings of printed malenals arc offen various and “accenl is

polenlially a very important variable in listening comprehension” (Buck, 2001) Thus, for L2 or foreign language listeners, acconls can be a big challenge They often meet difficulties when listening to a recording with new or strange accent Buck also agues that “an unfamiliar accent can make comprehension almost impossible for listener”

- Students may loose their control when heanng something (oo [asl Speed af speech can affect on sludents success in stoning comprehension Usually, students find it difficult to keep up with the fast native speeches and they are distracted their attention from accomplishing the given listening tasks To help students, teachers

should ask students to calch important or key words thal are necessary Lo complete

the (asks and encourage them to speak onl as much as they can

10

= It is worth nơucing that "the weak rolationship betwcon English sounds and the way they are spelt in the written language, changes in sounds when they occur in rapid, connected speech, the rhythm pattern of English speech, different ways of pronouncing the “same” sound” (Rixon, 1986) These features of native speakers’ pronuncialions of English may be challenges (or foreign language or 12 listeners Other problems perecived by students in tons of sounds and pronunciation may come from their ability to perceive sound accurately as Ur (1991) argues that “most leamers rely mostly on context for comprehension, they are often themselves unaware of inaccurate sound perception” The role of teacher in this case is crucial because students need introduction and practice of strange sounds whieh is essential

to gol the meamng of (he words and main ideas of the speech

1.1.5 Listening tasks

1.1.5.1 Definitions of task

Definitions of task are various from author to author Task is considered a kind of activity which is designed to help achieve a particular leaming goal According to Crooke (1986), ask is “a pcee of work or aclivily, usually will a specified objective, undertaken as a part of an cducational course, at work, or used

to elicit data or research” Lee’s (2000) even gives a full and logival definition about task Task in Lee’s is defined as (1) a classroom activity or exercise that has: (a) an objective obtainable only by interaction among participants, (b) a mechanism for strucluring and sequencing interaction, and (c) a focus on meaning exchange; (2) language leaming endeavor that requires learners to comprebend, manipulate, and/or produce the targct language as they perform some sets of work plans”

Although task is defined with different words, we see a common view that tasks play an essential role in teaching and learning language It is clear that tasks

help learners make improvement in language proficiency

1.1.5.2 Types of listening tasks

Helgesen and Brown (2007) argue that ‘there is no such thing as a complete list of listening tasks’ and tasks that we can recommend are just ‘limited by our

imaginations’ The authors gave out a list of listening tasks the purpose of

11

smulating the readers' imagination Those bstening tasks are: (1) đỉctation — make the questions part of the task by dictating them to students before they listen

to the text; (2) fill in the blank: (3) multiple choices; (4) open answer, (5) predict (guess) answers, then liste; and (6) true / false

In his “Teaching Listening Comprehension”, Ur (1984) suggests a list of tasks that are possible to be designed as well as applicable in listoning classroom, as

follows:

- Dictation exercise: This is common listening, exercise which is usually practices

in the earlier years of school education It requires students an integrative knowledge of the phonological, syntactic and semantic sysicms of a language To

do this task, teacher gives studenis handout, omitting some scrilences of the tox, then plays the tape and asks students to listen to the text and write the missmg

sentences down

- Ticking off items: Learners tick beside the items that they hear in the listening

> True / False: Identily whether the slalement is truc or false based on the listernmg

- Detecting mistakes: Some fact is mentioned with mlcnlional mistakes [or

students to point out

- Gan-filing: Students are given a passage with several gaps in it, they have to listen and fill in the missing words in the gaps

- Pielures: one picture or series of piclures may be used Students are then asked to

identily pictures or componenis as they are referred to, cither naming or ordering

(hem in the order im which hey are mentioned

- Answering questions: based on the content of the listening, students are required

to give longer and full answer to the questions

Continuously, Ur (1996) classifies lislemng lasks basing on the nalures of

students’ response

(1) No overt response: with No overt response listeners don’t have to do any thing

to response to the listening Llowever, their “real response” reveals through their facial expression and body language which often show whether they are following

or nol TL includes following a written text; listen to a familiar text; listening aided

by visual; listening to an informal talk; and lisiening to something entertaining

12

(2) Short Response; involves follow ing instructions; ticking off items; true / false; detecting mistakes; cloze; guessing definitions; skimming and scanmng; pictures identification; mapping: ground-planes; grids-filling: drawing diagram; and graph

Tn sun, we always have a purpose for listening We listen in dilferent ways and do different tasks based on our different purposes Our listening will be more effective with a certain purpose set,

12 Gap-fill tasks

1.2.1 Gap-fill tasks in listening skills

As listed in the previous part, gap-Gill tasks thal usually belong to listening for specific information purpose arc those of major tasks in learning listening skulls It can be seen clearly that gap-fill exercises are widely used throughout the language teaching world Commonly, gap-fill exercises are often considered as a means for students to demonstrate their understanding of vocabulary in context, discouraging, memorivation of translations (Sith el al, 2010) However, with various type of gap-[ill (or clove) tests nowadays, the task of gap-(illing doesn’ only mean to (Il in the blank with a certain word but also choosing from a bank of given words or

alternative options, etc

Moreover, the gap-fill (or cloze) test is valued as an effective instrument which has greal rehabihly and validily in measuring general language proficiency This view can be seen studies of clove tests of many rescarchers, such as Anderson, 1976, Brown, 1983, Fotos, 1991; Weir, 1990, cited in Simon et al, 2010 )

In order to gain success in learning listening skill, it is crucial for students to be given appropriate tasks at certain stage of listening as well as at certain level of

13

language competence Those students with low level of English competence could

not accomplish such complicated tasks as making inferences or listening for gist In

this case, it seems to be more effective for students to do tasks that help them

understand the text well Those tasks including gap-fill tasks in which students may

be required to listen and fill in the gap themselves or they may choose from suggested answers to fill in the gaps

1.2.2 Types of gap-fill exercises or tests

Gap-fill exercises are widely used throughout the language-teaching world And

up to now, many types of gap-fill exercises (or cloze) have been created and applied

in language-learning classroom

Cloze test was first introduced by Taylor (1953)! with the basic form of “the entire

word is rationally or randomly deleted” from the sentence or text Nowadays, gap-

fill (or cloze) test can be designed differently with different feature, Following are common types of the cloze test (cited from the above-mentioned website)

- Open gap-filling: students are given a text with some missing words or phrases

They are asked to listen to the recording and fill in the blank of the texts

- Banked gap-filling: choose the appropriate word from a bank of alternatives

- The fixed-ratio cloze (the random cloze): Every n'” word is deleted to be suitable

for assessing overall language abilities (Alderson, 2000; Bachman, 1985; Oller,

1979; Steinman, 2002) The following is an example of a sixth-word deletion

cloze test

Example of fixed-ratio cloze test

People today are quite astonished by the rapid improvements in medicine

Doctors 1) _ becoming more specialized, and 2) drugs are appearing on

the 3) daily, At the same time, 4) are dismayed by the

inaccessibility 5) doctors when they are needed 6) doctors’ fees are

constantly on 7) _ — rise, the quahty of medical 8) — — has reached an

abysmal low

' The literature review presented in 1.2.2, is cited from document retrieved from

http://www ukessays conv dissertation literature-review/literature-review-of-the-cloze-test-english-

language php

just make some small adjustments to fit the purpose of this study.

(Adapted from Cohen, 1994: 234)

- The rational cloze: Only specific words are deleted to be appropriate for a particular purpose, such as testing grammar, reading comprehension, and vocabulary (Bachman, 1985) As can be seen in Example 8, a rational cloze test

where functional words are deleted Lo asst 88 HTHTTTRT is presented

Example of rational cloze test

Typically, when trying lo lest overall understanding 1) the text, a tester

will delete thos: words 2) _ seem Lo carry the main ideas, or 3)

cohesive devices Uhal make connections 4) — — tcxIs, including anaphoric

references, connectors, and so 5) However, the tester then needs 6)

check, having deleted key words, that they 7) indeed restorable form the remaining context

(Extracted fram Alderson, 2000: 210)

- The conversational close: some words or sentences are deleled to determme the

communicative language skills of native- and the non-native-test-takers (Llughes, 2003) ‘The student is required to fill in what is missing in the blanks, as shown in

the following example

Example of conversational cloze

David: Hello, Mike How are you?

Mike: Not tao bad, David, and you?

David: OK You know, Œ) been trying to work out (2)

lo go on holiday this year, (3) a real problem T

ly can’t decide where to go Any ideas?

Mike: Well, F suppose you could try Lhe South (4) France,

David: No, I don’t really think so I don’t know why, exactly Maybe it's (5)

bit expensive down there

cơmplicated (Hinofotis & Snow, 1980) However, the multiple-choice cloze test can

be utilized for testing both specific skills and language proficiency

Example of Multiple-choice close

A farmer’s daughter had been out to milk the cows and was returning home,

carrying her pail of milk on her head As she walked along, she (1)

thinking:

(A} started (B) had to (C) prepared (D) began to

be

(Extracted from Kaczmarek, 1980:152)

- the matching cloze: each deleted word, with or without additional diswactors, is

usually provided in alphabetical order and put in a column on the right of the cloze

passage This form of language test, featuring ease of construction and scaring, is

suitable for measurmg specific knowledge of English language such as vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension for native and non-native elementary students (Baldauf & Propst, 1979) Studemts are required to match the correct word provided

in the right column with the numbered blanks, as shown in the following example Example of Matching cloze

Ken and ‘om like dogs (1) _like a and

big brown dogs Q) sillittle Db dog

while dogs Tom G) a brown ¢ has

dog He likes (4) with his dog a playing

I's going lo school with him CTom

(adapted from Baldouf & Propst, 1979:323)

- The close elide: Irrelevant words are added to the original text, and the students’ task is to find these additional words and delete them (Alderson, 2000; Steinman, 2002) However, the cloze elide test is very difficult to construet and is suitable for assessing reading, speed (Alderson, 2000)

In short, each type of the above mentioned exercises has their own strong points

It, however, requires careful consideration of choosing the suitable type for certain

learners, im certain contexts, and with cerlain purposes For those students who are

16

at clementary and pre-intermediate level, open gap-filling, banked gap-filling, conversational cloze, multiple-choice cloze, and matching cloze sound more

suitable than the rest mentioned,

13 Previous studies

Some revent studies of teaching and learning listening skills also mentioned the use of gap-fill tasks as a method to improve student’s listening skill ‘fran, hi Oanh (2011) carried out a study entitled “The use of song to unprove listening skills for students” at her workplace In her study, Oanh found out that her students were

tilerested im gap-flling lasks and often “felt excited” when doing Ủns tasks

However, gap-fill tasks are just one of many tasks she used in her study In an attempt to help students improve their listening skills, Nguyen, ‘I'hi Anh Tuyet (2007) conducted a study in which she tried to find out the real problems faced by her students and offered some solutions to help improve her students’ listening ability Sharing the same wish lo help students develop their listenizy skills, Tran, Thi Lan (2005) suggested some techniques to help improve students’ listening

ability after finding out that her students encountered a lot of difficulties in their

leaming listening skills Her suggestions focus on techniques applied at three state

of listening (pre-, while- , and post-listening) Having a quite profound study on

listening tasks, Vii, Thi Thanh Dinh (2011) in her “Smproving 11" form students’ listening comprehension through modified listening tasks of the new textkook English HI at Kinh Mon High School, Hai Duong” concluded that “modified listening tasks were quite effective as the tasks could help be students more engaged into the lessons and their listening competence was enhanced” Dinh used four types

of listening tasks so the results of the study were distributed by all the four modified

listening tasks, not airy single one

In sum, those studies focus on many need-to-be-solved problems at one time and the results of the studies involve many factors In addition, in those researches, gap- fill tasks were applied simultaneously with other tasks such as T/F listening: Q&A listening, etc., thus the results of these studies may not reveal exactly how much gap-[ill tasks contnbuted to the inproveimont of students’ listening skills.

CHAPTER IT

‘THE METHODOLOGY 2.1, Context of the Study

The study was carried out at IUNRI where | have been working for about five years The description of the study’s context is given as follows

2.1.1 An overview of teaching and learning English at IUINRE

Hanoi University of Natural Resources and Environment (HUNRE) is a

newly upgraded university from Hanoi College of Natural Resources and

Environment The university belongs lo the Ministry of Natural Resources and

Hnwironment ‘he university has seven major faculties Faculty of Geology, Faculty of nvironmemt, Faculty of Information ‘lechnology, Faculty of Economics, Vaculty of Llydrographic Meteorology and Water Natural Resource, Maculty of Landing Management, and Faculty of Geodesy and Cartography The English

Department is directly under the management of the universily managing board

English language teaching at HUNRE is undertaken by the English Department’s sta(f of 16 teachers whose ages range from 25 to 55 Most of them were cdueated in the English language department cither at the University of Language and International Studies (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) or Hanoi University, and the rest graduated with English major from other universities One

of 16 teachers is now a PhD student; nine out of them have obtained M A Degrees

in TESOL, and Cour others will get their M.A Degrees in one or lwo year’s time Most of the loachers have more than live years of teaching experience and they have always shown great cnthusiasm and interest in their work

The students al HUNRE come from different areas in Norther and Central Parts of Vietnam Most of them learnt Knglish for three or seven years at school while only a few of them leamt other languages such as lirench, and there are no students who did not learn any foreign language at all In fact, the students’ English proficiency is various Some of the students are quite good af Fnglish, while a big number of them have jusl lilile English Some others even know nothing, about

Frglish al all

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The English trainmg program at HUNRE is proscribed to the cwriculum for the first and second year students with the amount of 210 class hours in total, of which 150 olass hows are spent on General English (GE) in the first and second semester and 60 class hours are on Linglish for Specific Purposes (ESP) in the third

or fourth semester In GE cowses, the students are aught English for general purposes and the course books in use are the first and second ones (Elementary and Pre-Intermediate) in the series of New Cutting Ddge written by Sarah Cunningham and Peter Moor (first published 2005) After GI courses, the studemts are expected

to cover basic grammatical points of the English language and a certain amount of general vovabulary In terms of language skills, they are supposed lo have ability to communicate in English al clementary and pre-inlermediatc levels

2.1.2 Facilities and learning condition

As mentioned above, due ta short age of development and financial

obstavles, the university cannot facilitate ils teaching and learning condition with In-

tech equipment At present, there are about 50 classrooms and each of which has

about 35-70 seats for students Meanwhile, each class has about 50 to 80 students so classes are usually too crowded and in fact, are not suitable for English lessons

where it should be suitable for upto 25 students each In terms of teaching

curriculum, the students have 150 lessons of 45 minutes in their two first semesters

for learning GE In the first semester they have 75 lessons and 75 more for the next one [his amount of time shows that students don’t have much time to practice

nglish because the time allowed is divided among teaching the four skills as well

as teaching grammar and structures It can also he seen that the amount of time allocated on listening skill is modest, meanwhile listening is considered a “complex skill” and requires a lot of practice At present, there is no language laboratory which is very effective for leaming listening Cassettes are used for teaching listening that is challenging for students because of the crowded classes ‘Ihose

students who sit at the end of the classroom sometimes can not hear the sound clear

enough or at least they may have difficulties of concentration

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2.2 Course book analysis

The course book New Cutting Fdge is wrillon for international studsnis Tl lakes CLT (Communicalive Language Teaching) as the main teaching method The four core skills are integrated to foster comprehensive linguistic development Its design is for language skills learning, along with supplying the students needed language ilerus and vocabulary

To some extent, the course books (elementary and pre-intermediate versions) are thought to be not really suitable for the students at HUNRE In fact, most

students are not used to learning skills because when learning al high school they

spent most of their time doing multiple-choice tests and had little time to practice listening or speaking as they were not the target in their exam In addition, some

tasks in the course books are too difficult or not familiar with the students

Especially, the results of the talks with students and colleagues show that the

listening (asks in the course books are difficult and some of them are nol suitable [or

the students This results in the fact that the students are not interested m and cannot

accomplish the given tasks

2.3 The participants

T graduated in 2005 and have 8 years of experience in teaching Exylish T

have been teaching English at HUNRE for about 5 years T am now attending a Master course at University of Languages and Intemational Studies

Three colleagues who took part in the talks are those of experienced teachers with more than 5 years of teaching experience and they are also having classes of

the same level as mine

The main subjects of the study are 45 first- year students (32 males and 13 females) in my class - class DII2K1? at ITUNRU in the academic year 2012-2013 Their ages are between 18 and 20 They are supposed to have pre-intermediate level

of English In fact they are not really good at English This can be proved by their results in the final cxamination of the first somester as well as thew daily

2 In the first semester, Une class trad 54 students, however, 3 of lhe had dropped their sludy and 6 others had changed their major ar moved to other faculties

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performances in class Although they have finished English J in the first semester, their English competence is much lower than expected

2.4, Data collecting instruments

2.4.1 Talks with colleagues and students (See Appendix 1 and 2)

In order to identify the difficulties in learning listening skills, I have conducted some talks with both my colleagues and students In the talks with the students the topics were about the students’ interest in learning English in general and listening in particular The students were also asked about the difficulties they perceived when learning listening skills They were also asked to express their wish

of how to make their learning listening more effective In the talks with the colleagues, the topics were alse about (he sludents’ interest in learning English in general and listening in particular, in perspective of their teachers The difticultics

in learning listening skills as well as solutions to improve it were also discussed

2.4.2 Pre-test (See appendix 5)

A pre-test was administered to the students af the diagnosing phase The Lesl

consists of three tasks with 25 questions in total Task 1 is a multiple choice cloze including 5 questions Task 2 is a banked eloze with 10 questions Task 3 is an

opened cloze with 10 more questions ‘I'he purpose of students’ doing the pre-test is

to identify students’ real English competence in term of listening skills, particularly

in intensive Astering Basmg on the students’ scores, teacher make plan of nexl

steps to improve their target skill

2.43 Learning diaries (see Appendix 3)

Atter cach mesting (or lesson), the students were asked to complete a leaming diary (with clear instruction of the researcher/teacher) to record their feelings about the tasks they had just dome (about grammar structure and vocabulary; about the speed and difficulty level of the recording), their interests, satisfaction as well as the effectiveness of the lesson, the difficulties perceived by the students durmg the lesson, and their general commonts on Ieaming, listening skills through gap-fill tasks With the hope to make it easy for the students to

21

complete the diaries, laming diary forms were designed in form of optional choices

so that the students only had to tick at the option they want to choose and there were also spaces for them to write their comments

2.4.4, Teaching diaries (see Appendix 4)

Afler cach meeting, T mysell’ also wrote a teaching diary in order to record the students’ unvolvement, mnterests, and satisfaction in learning listening skills through gap-fill tasks The diaries also recorded the effectiveness of the lesson, the difficulties occurred during the lesson in the perspective of the teacher

2.4.5 Post-test (see Appendix 6)

The post-tes was designed to find oul the students’ listening skills through gap-Lill tasks after taking dhe action, The post-test is designed in the same form with the pre-tost It also consists of three tasks with 25 questions in total

2.5 The research procedure

Ihe research was developed and carried out during 9 weeks from week 4 to week 13 of the second semester As mentioned above, the main subjects of the

study were 45 students wha took part in the research from the beginning to the end Data were collected at both the pre-action stage and during the action stage The

research action was conducted using Ihe action research vycle suggested by Susman

(1983) ‘The research cycle consists of five phases: diagnosing; action planning;

taking action; evaluating; specifying learning

(first—year students at HUNRE in learning listening skills?

Tn order to identify the problems, T conducted talks with five students and

three colleagues about learning and teactong English in gencral and learning and leaching listening skills in particular T also obsorved my sludents and recorded

22

classroom interaction in listening lessons In addition, I analyzed the students’ results of the first semester to have a clearer view of students’ ability in term of learning English subject

After more than a week, 1 could come to a conclusion that a major number of

first-year students at ITUNRE faced with difficulties in learning English, especially

isterong They often feel uninterested in listening lessons and could nol gel success afer cach lesson The reasons for this meffectiveness are clarified that sluderiLs

always [ind 11 difficult lo accomplish the listening tasks Sore tasks are thoughl to

be not suitable with the students’ level And students also complained that they

were not made aware of the topics and they were not provided enough vocabulary

before the hstening starts Sometimes they did jusl few pre-listenmg activities and usually went straight forward to he listening activities to do lasks as required, Thus,

they often failed to (nish the listening tasks After the talks with my colleagues, T

once more found out that the students faced with a lot of difficulties in learning

Linglish and listening was thought to be the most difficult to the students In order to

strengthen the identification, I analyzed the students’ results of the first semester

The results showed thal more a half (67.9%) of the students failed their final exam

(with under-five scores) and the rest of them just gol modest resulls (5-7/10 scores) (also analyzed the course books to see the suitability of the listening tasks in the

course books with students’ level

2.8.2 Phase 2: Action planning

Afler the problems identification, T realized thal something should be done to help students learn listening skills better The data vollected from the previous phase were analyzed Certain problems revealed and solutions were proposed to solve the problems Among the problems revealed, I found out that the most common problems [aced by the studenls were from the unsuitable tasks in the textbooks T hypothesized thal gap-fills would be one of the measures to help the students improve thour listening skills Thus, I decided to apply gap-till tasks with the hope

to improve their students’ listening skills Before taking the intervention, I would spend some time to find the answer for the second research question which was

23

formulated at the beginning of the sccond phase The question is: “What should be done to improve the students’ listening shills?” and the answer may be “through fap-fill tasks” In addition, a pre-test was prepared and administered to the students

of class DH2K1 The students did a test in 25 minutes and the test papers were collected for marking The students? scores help me identify the sudents’ current level of listening

Basing on the hypothesis, T look a careful review of gap-lills tasks and ils uses in lislening lessons Then listening lessons were planned carefully aml in detailed, exercises and activities were adapted or redesigned for the action Also, 1 prepared learning and teaching diaries for meetings in the “Taking action” phase

2.5.3 Phase 3: Taking aclion

Atter everything has beon prepared already, the real action took place There were three meetings conducted in this phase Hach meeting lasted for 45 minutes This aims at studying the effects of applying gap-filled tasks on improving the students’ listening skills

Alter each meeting, the students were asked to complete a learning diary form with clear instruction of the teacher/researcher And they could hand in the

diaries al the begiming of the next mectmg At the same lime, T also wrole my owrr

leaching diaries Tk is for a comparison between the studerts’ and tsacher’s perspectives about the lessons,

Finally, a post-test of listening was followed up to measure the students’

improvement

2.5.4, Phase 4: Evaluating

Tn this phase, the data collected from the third phase were analyzed These data reflect the siuders’ listening skill improvement in hstening lessons using gap- fill tasks ‘The data analysis was done to find answer to the third research question:

“Yo what extent do gap-fill tasks help the first-year students at HUNRE improve their listening skills, from both students’ and teacher's perspective?” Moreower, it

was also to midicale whal T had learnt and experienced from these lessons

14

2.8.5 Phase 5: Specifying learning

Basing on tho resulis of the data analysis, some general firxtings wore

identified The effcet of using gap-lill tasks was clarified and some

recommendations are given for further studies

2.6 Summary

This chapter presents the context of the study, its participants, the couse book analysis, data collections instruments and the methodology and procedure of conducting the study In the next chapter chapter 3, | will present the data analysis and findings of the study

CHAPTER TIT DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

3.1 Diagnasing data

3.1.1, Analysis of the text book

3.1.1.1 New Cutting Lidge (NCE) — Klementary and pre- Intermediate

New Cutting Edge (Elementary and pre-intermediate) are coursebooks used

al HUNRE Rach book consists of 15 modules In the second semester students have

to learn module 11 to module 15 of NCF-elementary and Module 1 to Module 6 of

NCE-pre-Intermediate Each module conveys a certain topic as shown in the

following table:

11 The World around Us 1 Leisure and Lifestyle

13 Learning for the Future 3 At Rest, at Work

6 Time off

Table 1: List of tapios conveyed in the course books

Tt can be seen from the table above that the topics in the course books are familiar to the students because those topics concern their daily life Having experienced from previous somesters, I myself also find out that the topics in the coursebooks are familiar to my students and [ have rarely heard my students complaining about strange topics In addition, the students seem to be very interested in some topics such as “The world around us" in Module 11 (about animals and pels), “Tearning for he Future” in Module 13 (about dream jobs), or

“Important Firsts” int Module 2 (about past events), ete

To have a closer view of listening tasks in the course books, 1 make a list of listening tasks as in the following table

26

11 - Listen and answer the 1

open-ended questions

- Listen and fill in the gaps

12 - Listen and choose the 2 - Listen and choose

best answer (multiple pictures at describes the

- Listen and tick at true - Listen and answer the

13 |- Tisien and answer the 3 > Tisien and complete a

information in the table

15 - Tisten and mark the 5

piclure with the extracts

- Listen and complete the

sentences

6 - Listen and make a list of

problems mentioned in the

story

- Listen and make a note

of problems mentioned in the story

‘Yable 2: List of listening tasks in the course books

The table above shows the main listening tasks in the course books In fact,

there are some other listening sections designed as subsidiary parts of the other

skills or language focuses

1t can be seen that the tasks listed in the above table are various | myself

experienced that students don’t usually finish all those listening tasks ‘hey often have difficulty with such complicated tasks as Answering open-ended questions;

Notes taking; Completing charts or tables; or Gap-filling It is because their

vovabulary is limited and they are not skilled cnough to accomplish these given tasks Sometimes, they are also successful in doing such tasks as numbering pictures ar sentences, ticking at things heard, or deciding True / False These tasks are considered easier for the students because they just have to follow the

inslructions and mark their choices

3.1.2 Analysis of talks with colleagues

When talking to my colleagues, I realize that they share a view that students have a lot of difficulties in listening lessons They also agree that there are many

factors affected the students’ listening ability Fastly, crowded classes are nol

suitable for listening lessons Secondly, students’ level or proficiency is not good enough to follow the listening lessons In addition, the syllabus and course books are also challenges because the amount of time in the syllabus for listening portions

are limited and many tasks in the course books seem not to be suitable with

students” ability,

“some tasks in our course book are not really suitable with the students’ level and

we need lo adjust them to be more suitable.” (From Talk 1-Appendix

i)

In terms of tasks in the course books, my colleagues agree that some of them are not really suitable with students and need adapting And they also admil thal, due

to the hmiled time amd other factors, they just follow the instruchons given in the

course books and rarely have adaptations

“7 find thal some tasks in the course books arc not really suitable with our students

They are difficult for them because the students’ level is not as expected However,

due ta some factors, [ dont have tin

to adjust the given lasks T usually follow the instructions given in the course books.” (From Talk 2-Appendix 1)

Shanng about low to help students nprove the listening abiHly, the colleagues agree that they canot change the classes, or the courscbooks, or the syllabus, but they can make some changes with their lesson plans and teaching methods They give some possible suggestions, such as

28

“1 sometimes replace a difficult task in the course books by an easier ane of the same topic of let my students do some pre-listening lasks lo be aware of the lopic before

Ụ

The talks with my colleagues help me consolidate my diagnosis that students had many diflicnllics in learning listening I was alse inspired to seck oul ways le help students improve their stoning skills

3.1.3 Analysis of talks with students

All the students participating in the talks shared the same point that learning listening skills is very difficull They complained that crowded classes constrained

the effectiveness of their learning listening heir leaming habits and English proficiency were also mentioned as factors that affect their learning listening However, the most important factor of that ineffectiveness was the recordings and

tasks in the course book

“Many recordings are too fast for me to listen and some tasks are also too difficult for

me ty accomplish.” (From talk 4, Appendix 2 — researcher's

translation)

‘Those students complained that they have to listen to fast recordings without

enough pre-listening activities and suitable tasks to do, so they failed to finish the tasks They also thought that if they had more time lo be aware of the Lopie, have

enongh vooabulary and tasks that are suilable with their level, they would implement the listening tasks easily and more effectively

“think that if T have enough vocabulary, gel farnifiar with the topic of the listening,

and suilable tasks, 1 can succeed in those listering tasks regardless of fusl-specded

rranslation)

Afier talks with students, T can come to a conclusion that students had to face

with many challenges in their listening skills Some of those problems are

unchangeable (the crowded classes, the course book, the syllabus), but some others

can be changed by teachers, such as adapting tasks in the course and making it more

suitable to students’ ability

29

3.1.4 Analysis of the students’ results of the first semester

At HUNRE, students have to take part in a final examination at the end of each semester The results of this exam will decide whether a student is qualified

enough to be up-graded or not The subjects of this study also did an English test in

the final exam of their first semester The test was designed to check students’ three

skills (reading, writing, and listening) as well as their competence of grammar

structures and vocabulary In the first semester there were 53 students of DH2K1 attending the exam And bellow is the summary of their results (see the appendix10

for details)

Mar 02 (11 3%) mit 3-4 (85 59) Mark 56 (92.1%) Mark 7.8 0%)

Ma 9-10 (0%)

Chart 1: students’ results of the first semester

The chart above shows that students got very low scores for their final exam 67.9% of students could not pass the exam Specifically, 11.3% of those students got very low scores of 0 to 2 and 56.6% got scores of 3 or 4 Whereas, only 32.1%

of the students passed the exam with average scores of 5 or 6 and none of them

could achieve score 7 or more The result shows a fact that students were not

successful in their exam in particular and in their English learning of the first semester in general

3.1.5 Analysis of the pre-test

As mentioned in Chapter 2, a pre-test was administered to 45 students of

class DH2K1 The purpose is to measure the students’ level Below are the results

of the test

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