Luận văn a study on major factors affecting the freshmen's performances on toeic listening test at vietnam maritime university

Vimaru freshmen’s results m semester T- TORIC test 3.2.2.Difficult parts of TOEIC listening perceived by Vimaru freshmen.. What are linguistic fholors allecting Vimaru freshmen’s perfor

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSLTY OF LANGUAGES AND LNTERNATLONAL STUDEES:

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN THI HUYEN TRANG

A STUDY ON MAJOR FACTORS AFFECTING THE FRESHMEN’S

PERFORMANCES ON TOEIC LISTENING T

AT VIETNAM MARITIME UNIVERSITY

NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC NHÂN TO ANH HUONG DEN KET QUA BAI THI

NGUE TOELC CÚA SUNH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT

TRUONG BAI HOC HANG HAI VIET NAM

MA Minor Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

HA NOI—2012

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSLTY OF LANGUAGES AND LNTERNATIONAL STUDIES:

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN THI HUYEN TRANG

A STUDY ON MAJOR FACTORS ATFECTING TIIE FRESIFMEN'S

PERFORMANCES ON TOEIC LISTENING TEST

AT VIETNAM MARITIME UNIVERSITY

NGHIEN CUU CAC NHAN 106 ANH HUONG DEN KET QUA BAL

THI TOEIC CUA SINH VIEN NAM THU NHAT

TRUONG DAI HOC HANG HAI VIET NAM

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Pham Thi Hanh, M.A

HA NOT - 2012

TABLE OF CONTENT

Declaration

Acknowledgements

Abstract

Lisl of Lables, figures, and abbreviations

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

2 Aims and objectives of the study

3 Scope of the study

4 Significance of the study

5 Method of the study

a Orgamization of the study

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT

CITAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Listening

1.1.1 Definitions of Listening,

1.1.2 Definitions of Listening comprehension

1.1.3 Sources of listening difficultics

1.1.3.1 Linguistic factors

1.1.3.2 Non- linguistic factors

1.2 Listening TOHIC test

1.3, Summary

2.1 The setting of the study

2.1.1 Participants

2.1.2 Materials and current English study situation

2.2 Data collection instruments

2.3.2 Holding the semi-structured interviews

2.3.3 Camying out observations

2.4 Duta analysis

3.1 What are Vimaru freshmen’s attitudes towards TOEIC listening?

3.1.1 Reading Comprehension vs Listening Comprehension in ‘TOHIC test

3.1.2 Vimaru freshmen’s attitudes towards TOLIC listening,

3.1.3.Vimaru freshinen’s feelings when taking TOFIC listening lesi

3.2 What are Vimaru freshmen’s current study situation and

performances on TOELC listening test?

3.2.1 Vimaru freshmen’s results m semester T- TORIC test

3.2.2.Difficult parts of TOEIC listening perceived by Vimaru freshmen

3.2.3 Vimamu freshmen’s strategies while doing TOEIC listenmg test -

3.2.4 Virnaru lreshrnen’s balnts before domg TORIC listening test

3.2.5 Vimaru freshmen’s habits while doing TOHIC listening test

3.2.6 Vinaru freshiuen’s habits when they carol listen 10 TORIC test

3.2.7, TOEIC practice before taking the final test

Vv

3.2.8.Factors causing difficultics in doing TOBIC listeuing toat

3.3 What are linguistic factors affecting Vimaru freshmen’s performances

bn TOFIC listening?

3.4 What are non-Linguistic factors affecting Vimaru frexhmen’s

performances on TOEIC listening?

3.8 What are Vimaru reshmen's suggestions for improving TOEIC

PART THREE: CONCLUSION

1 Summaries of major findings

1.1 What are Virmaru freshmen’s atliludes towards TORIC listening?

1,2 What are Vimaru freshmen's current study situation and performances

on TOEIC listening?

1.3 What are linguistic fholors allecting Vimaru freshmen’s performances

LA, What are non - linguistic factors affecting Vimaru freshmen’s

performances on TORIC listening?

L5 What are suggestions and expectations made by the freshmen to

improve their TOEIC listening results

2, Pedagogical recommendations to improve freshmen’s firal TORIC

listening results

2.1, Recommendations for English study in the class

2.2 Recommendations for facilities

2.3 Recommendations for T'OKIC-based listening test

imitation of the study

4, Recommendations for further related study

REFERENCES

APPENDICES,

LISTS OF FIGURES AND ABBREVIATION

41

Figure 1: Reading comprehension vs Listening comprehension in TOEIC test

Vigure 2: Vimaru freshmen’s attitudes towards ‘POUIC listening

Figure 3: Vimaru freshmer’s feclings wher taking TORIC listening teat

Figure 4: Vimaru freshmen’ TOKIC results in semester 1

Tigure $: Difficult parts of TOLIC listening perceived by Vimaru freshmen

Figure 6: Vimaru freshmen’s strategies while doing TOEIC listening

Figure 7: Vimaru freshmen’s habits before doing ‘OHIC listening test

Figure 8: Vimaru freshmen’s habits while doing TOLIC listening test

Figure 9 Vimaru freshmer’s habits when they carmol lislen to TORIC test

Ligure 10: 'TOLIC practice before taking the final test

Figure 11: Vimaru freshmen’s suggestions for improving TOBIC listening skill

Figure 12: Virnaru [restiment’s expectations towards the inal TORIC listening tes!

Table 1: Factors caused difficulties in doing TORIC listening test

‘Table 2: Linguistic factors affecting Vimaru freshmen’s performances on ‘TOKIC listerring

Table 3: Non-Linguistic factors affecting Vimaru freshmon’s performances on

‘TOLIC listening

Abbrevialion:

Vimaru: Viet Nam Maritime University

vill

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale [or choosing the topic

In the age of economic growth and global integration, Unglish obviously plays a very important role However, the criteria for evaluating one’s English

competence are more and more difficult In today’s context, the A, B, C certificates

used for people wishing to find a job are out-of- date, and the so-called IELTS,

TOEFL er TOEIC have heen the best choices TOEIC, together with other

requirements for job seekers, is preferred by most companies in order to assess their employees qualifications Therefore, a lot of people are trying hard to achieve the

success ina TORIC test

It is no doubt that among the four skills normally mentioned in English,

listening is always considered “a key language skill” which “has a vital role in the

language acquisilion process” ( Brett, 1997) Nevertheless, i is lisloninys thal is

always a nightmare for English leamers due to its difficulty My primary

observation shows that students normally get lower marks in listening test in

comparison with other skill tests

In addition, being a lecturer of Hnglish at Vimaru University, through my teaching experience, I have found out that my students are always more afraid of listoning as compared lo other skills Studcnls, especially Gruskunen, find listening boring and stressful, and unfortunately, they have to sit for a TOKIC- based test which includes Reading and Listening comprehension for the final examination

Therefore, many of the students get bad resulls because of low scores ir English

subject in which listening is always a target of blaming

For all of the abovementioned, I would like to carry out a small- scaled study

on “major factors alleoting the froshmen’s performance on TORIC listening lests at

‘Viemam Maritime University” so as to help solve out the problems.

2, Aims and objectives of the study

‘The purposes of the study will be achieved through the answering of five

arch questions

1, What are Vimaru freslunen’ attitudes towards listening TOKIC?

2 What are Vimaru freshmen’s current performance and study situation on listoning TORIC?

3 What are linguistic factors affecting Vimaru freshmen’s performance on listening TOEIC?

4 Whal are non- linguistic factors affecting Viruaru (restmon’s porformance on

listening TOEIC?

5 What are Vimaru freshmen’s suggestions and expectations ta improve their

TOEIC listening results?

3 Scope of the study:

There are three (erms thal should be specified in the sturly Firslly, there are many kinds of English tests, but the author considers TOEIC test only Secondly, it

is TOLIC listening which is the focus of the study, not TOBIC reading Finally, the study is aimed at the freshmen of Vimaru University whose proticicney lovels are from low to high basing on their latest TOLIC results,

4 Significance of the study

Investigaling the “major factors affecting the freshren’s performance on

TOTIC listening tests at Viemam Maritime University”, the study is expected to

make cerlain contributions to the related populations including freshmen taking

TOEIC test, teachers teaching TOEIC, and researchers of the same subjects

First of all, through the problems pointed out and the suggestions made, the freshmen may improve their performanee in Histering TOFIC tes

Similar to the students, the study would help teaching LOKIC teachers to realize their problems in guiding their students in sitting for a test in order to

achieve the best resulls Moreover, by nolieing the students’ difficulties in listening,

teachers can have their In-time considerstien and correction in teaching listcning effectively

In addition lo the benefits given to the two above subjects, the sludy may serve as the foundation based on which further related research would be carried out, Particularly, future research could be made better after the limitations of the study

are considered

5 Mcthod of the study

Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are utilized in order to “provide

a belter understanding of Ihe research problem and question than cithor method by itself’ (Creswell, 2002) Questionnaire is the first thing to be made which is

delivered to the freshmen after they take the first TORIC- based test and have the

Gnal resulis Then, i033 Che tum of interview in which the author wishes lo have Lhe reliable share from the students ‘he last but not least, test room observations are

carried Lo have the direct data

6 Organization of the study

The rest of the stucly includes two parts as follow:

Part 2 consists of

Chapter 1 Literature Review presents related theoretical background of the study in which concepts of listening and factors affecting the students’ performances in listening TORIC would be discussed

Chapter 2, Methodology, covers four major parts, namely, participants, data collection instruments, data collection procedures, and data analysis procedures

Chapter 3, Results and Discussions, presents, analyzes and discusses the findings in order to answer the five research questions of the study

Parl 3, Conclusion, provides summuries of the main findings, suggestions for bettor rosults, limitations of the study, and lastly, recommendations for further

related researches.

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, relevant knowledge collected from various sourees will be presented so that it can suitably serve as a foundation for the research ‘he paper is divided into two parts including theories on listening difficulties and TORIC listening

1.1 Listening

1.1.1 Definitions of listening

It is believed that listening is a significant and essential element of

communication and interaction in a native language and in second language as well

Tn fact, there have been numerous defimtions of listening (Bentlycy & Bacon, 1996,

Gary Buck, 2001, Scarcella & Oxford, 1992) which present different views of

scholars towards the concept

There are some traditional views that consider listening as a passive language skill alongside with reading skill ilowever, listening is a really receptive skill and

the role of the listeners is no longer passive bul active in many scholara’ point of

views Bentley and Bacon (1996), define listening as “an active process during which the listener constructs meaning from oral input”

Sharing the same idea towards the activeness of listening, Underwood (1989)

shows that “listening is the activity of paying, attention to and trying to get meaning from something we hear”

1.1.2 Definitions of listening comprehension

Mentioning the definition of listening comprehension, Gary Buck (2001)

suggests that “listening comprehension is an active process of constructing meaning

and this is don by applying knowledge to the incoming sound” in which “number

of different types of knowledge are involved: both linguistic knowledge and non-

litynistic knowledge”

Unlike the other authors, Browa (1994) socs both narow and broad definition towards listening comprehension According to him, in its narrowest

definilion, listening is the process by which lislenci come 10 an inlerprelation (or a stream of speech, In its broader definition it also includes the process by which listeners use those interpretations for intended process

Rost (2002), on the other hand, defines listening comprehension as “a process of receiving what the speaker actually says, constructing and representing meaning, negotiating meaning with the speaker and responding, and creating

meaning Iough involverment, imagination and empathy”

It is no doubt that different scholars have different ideas to the definition of

both listening and listening comprehension Nevertheless, I totally agree with the

view of Welvin and Coakley (1985) in which listening is defined as “the process of

receiving, attending to and assigning meaning to aural stimuli” ‘the definition

suggests that listening is a complex problem- solving skill, and the task of listening

is more than the pereeption of sound; iL also requires comprehension of meaning

1.1.3 Sources of listening difficulty

Unlike the case of investigating the definition of Hisloning and listening comprehension, while seaching theory for sources of listening difficulty 1 have

found out that there are some similar views towards this matter To some authors,

what make listening difficult inclide 7 matters as: Lack of control over the speed

at which speakers speak, Not being able to get things repeated, The listener's limited vocabulary, Failure to recognize the “signals”, Problems of interpretation,

Inability to concentrate, and Establish learning habit (Underwood, 1989)

A little bit shorter but include these above points, Anderson and Lynch

(1998) suggest two problem including background problems and language problems

According 1o thom, “gaps in our knowledge of 1.2 cullure, of the associations and references available to native uses can present obstacles to comprehension”

Duzer (1997), on the other hand, proposes another set of factors inchiding the listener, the speaker, content, and vivual support

Based on the theories collccted from many different authors whose points of views are more or less the same, | would like to divide them into two main factors: Linguistic and Non- linguistic factors in which Linguistic factors imelude dhe sound and pronunciation, the stress and intonation, speech, syntax and vocabulary, informal language, and accent while Non- linguistic factors consist of fatigue,

listener's background, listener’ competence, message, and physical serting

1.1.3.1 Linguistic factors

1.1.3.1.1 The sounds and pronunciation

The way that a word is pronounced is one of the most difficull factors to

most English leamer to recognize and comprehend (Underwood, 1989) In English, just as in other languages, there are sounds which are unknown or unusual for

foreign lisloners, and which they may thecefore fail to distinguish Lrom olkier similar sound or even fail to hear at all Kor example the sound Av/ or /j/ as in “wait” or

“Susi” are nol exisled in the way of pronunciation for Vietuamese students Tu

addition, leamers may find it difficult to distinguish between “ship” and “sheep”, or

“fit” and “feet” Another difficulty may be the “schwa” where the sounds are not

strongly pronounced bul they may vary from many difTerenl vowels such as “ce” as

in “student”, or “o” as in “today”

According to Buck (2001), “the sound of a language must be learned in order

to understand speech” This is obvious: it is not the sound themselves, however, that

causes the most comprehension problems, but the way they vary in normal speech

Moreover, Ur (1984) suggests that sometimes the foreign leamers of English

may lave difficulty with the sequences and judapositions of sounds typical of

Unglish words

1.1.3.1.2 The stress and intonation

It is a fact that the English language derives much of its rhythm from the use

of stressed syllables ‘Iherefore, Underwood (2989) mentions that “students have to

be helped to get used the facl thal words spoken im continuous speech are ofien not

given the same stress as they receive when thoy are said in isolation” The problem

is that students have often leamt the pronunciation of new words by hearing them clearly cuuncialed, one al a time, by the teachers

Mentioning to intonation, Buck (2001) said that “the intonation can make a

considerable difference to the meaning” Obviously, stress and intonation are very

important in word recognition, and moreover, in comprehension Lynch (1998) also

suggests that prosodic features have a direct impact on how listeners chunk and

interpret discourse segments

1.1.3.1.3 Speech

“All second- language listeners have probably had the experience of

listening to something and not quite understanding it because it seem too fast, of

fechng that they could have understvod if only it had been a lle slower” (Buck,

2001) Certainly, the actual speech rate does affect comprehension and results

generally support the common-sense belief thal the faster the speech, the more

difficult it is to comprehension

1.1.3.1.4 The syntax and vocabulary

In Underwood's point of view “listeners who struggle to understand every word using their knowledge of the structure of the language to decipher the message often have problems” (Underwood, 1989) They tend to get confused and will probably be less successful than listeners who seck the meaning without focusing overmuch on the language Oslen and Lluckin (1990) point out that SL students can understand all the words of the listening and still fail to understand the main points, and Durikel and Davis (1994) claim thal coruprchension depends less on the meaning of the individual sentences and more on their inter-relatedness and the structures of the whole text” (as cited in Buck, 2001)

1.1.3.L.5 Formal and informal language

On the first place, it is necessary to clarify the difference between formal and

informal language According io Undorwood (1989), “a distinction is sometimes

made between the language spoken in formal situations and the language used in informal situation as, for example, a lecture and a chat between friends” In his theory, many Tanguage learners have Tiniled experienve on Rrglish language in formal situation In their lessons, they tend to use formal language because this is what is expected when teachers and students talk to each other, and so they have difficulty in understanding informal spoken discourse

Contributing to this idea, Lit (1984) points out that much of informal language may already be known to the foreign listener, but this does not mean that

he is familiar with iL

1.1.3.1.6 Accent

Ur (1984) says that “many foreign- language learners who are used to the

acccul of their own tcachors are surprised and dismayed when they find have difficulty understanding someone else” in fact, when listening, students may

encounter a number of different accents Tn the case of English, Australian

pronounces English differently from American, and this is different again from

British Linglish liven within countries there can be considerable variation: the

dilfersnee between the North and the South (Buck, 2001)

‘The listeners are usually much less familiar with the range of common accents, and they sometimes have considerable problems when they hear a new

accent for the first time and the stronger the accent, the lower the listeners”

comprehension

1.1.3.2 Non-linguistic factors

1.1.3.2.1 Fatigue

Not many authors mention the effect of fatigue when listening, but I totally

agree wilh Ur (1984) when he points oul “how tiring it is listermg to and

interpreting unfamiliar sounds, lexis, and syntax for long stretches of time”

Reading, writing, and speaking are also tiring but in these activities, the leamers can

make their own break when and where they wish However, in listening, doing this

is impossible because students may miss the important clues while listening,

1.1.3.2.2 Listeners’ background knowledge

It is true that the background of the listeners may affect the listening comprehension According to Anderson (1984), listeners with different background

will have different level of difficulty im bstening comprehension and without

background knowledge; they will have many difficulty in this field Sharing the same idea, Underwood (1989) also points out that students whose culture and oducalion includes a strong storytelling and oral commumieation tradition are generally better at listening comprehension than those from a reading and book-

bases cultural and educational background

In addition to cullural background, the way lo interpret language is also different from country to country For Vietnamese students they may find it hard to

understanding the meaning of the sentence “Tis hot here” (when the speaker may

want to open the door rather than mentioning about the today’s weather only)

‘Therefore, Vietnamese students whose background knowledge is much

different trom that of in English may have a lol of trouble in hstenng

comprehension

1.1.3.2.3 The listeners’ competence

Tt can be said that listeners’ competence ix of great portant to the listening

comprehension which is a complex, problem-solving skill (Wolvin and Coakley,

1985) In this study, listeners’ competence can be understood as language

competence, abilily to predict and vonontrate The success of listening may be mainly due to a good language competence such as good vocabulary, pronunciation

and listening skill

Nonnally students face a lot of problems in having rich vocabulary For them,

“listening to foreign language, an unlmown word can be like a suddenly dropped

barricr causing them to stop and think about the meaning of the word and thus making them miss the next part of the speech” (Underwood, 1989)

Wrong pronunciation is also a problem to listening comprehension When leamers do not pronounce the right way, it will be difficult for them to hear the sounds Vietnamese students may get confused in recognizing the word “ship” or

“sheep”, “for” or “four” Especially, many of them blame for the use of linking

sound such as “lookat” or “putup”

Apart from language competence, ability to predict and concentrate can be

factors leading Lo listernng problems Ifthe listeners can make a guess as Lo the sort

of thing that is going to be said next, he will be much more likely to perceive it and understand it well, he may even be enabled to do without it altogether (Ur, 1984)

Unfortunalaly, nel many students car take advantage of this point

1.1.3.2.4 Message and topic

Again, this is the factor (o detertnine the ability to concentrate of ihe lisleners

It is casicr for the listeners to concentrate if the topics of the listening are interesting

and related to common and familiar issues of everyday life On the other hand, if the

topic is boring or together with the noise of the room or the qualily of the Lape, etc,

the students may find it hard to concentrate (Underwood, 1989)

1.1.3.2.5 Physical setting

Menhiomng to this problem, Underwond (1989) states hal “Outside factors

may well make concentration difficult, too” Sharing the same idea, Llarmer (1991)

says that “Physical condition (classroom size, book, char, desk, light, etc) had great

impact on sludarl’s leaning as well as the subject matler” According to Ur (1984), some words may be drowned by outside interference, others indistinctly pronounced

The foreign- language learner, whose grasp of meaning is slower than dial of a

native and demands more of an cffort, find these gaps far more difficult to take in his stride ‘'his outside interference can be understood as the noise from outside, the

noise inside the reom aud even the cough of somcone else in the room Morcover,

10

the atmosphere in the room as it is too hot or the number of students which is over

70 students per room can be a matter contributing to listening problem

1.2 Listening TOKIC test

1.2.1 Test

1.2.1.1 Definitions of a test

Towards the moaning of a (est, inany different authors have different

definitions According to definition cited in Longman dictionary, a test is: “any

procedure for measuring ability, knowledge or performance” Alphonse (2008), on

the other hand says thal “lesting is onc of the best way which cnables the teacher to

see at a glance how the students’ perform or how they are progressing” [lowever,

T have found that the definition made by Rubayee (2008) is the most effective in

which “lests are important in determining the students’ learning achievements in

the classroom; at the same time they also help teachers to monitor his/her teaching

methods in the classroom” (cited in To and Nguyen, 2008)

1.2.1.2 ‘Types of test

There ara many ways to classify tests including basing on their uses and purposes, or on the types of test tasks, etc According to test purposes as the

grouping principle, we can classify tests into four common types as below:

Proficiency ‘Io see how good students are at Janguage, or use of the language ‘The

tests contents of a proficicney tests are nol chosen according to what has

been taught, but according to what is needed for a particular purpose

Placement To identify students’ level of language and find the best elass for them

tests ‘These are essential in laige institutions that frequently receive new

students

Diagnostic To identify problems thal students have wilh language They help

tests teachers diagnose the language problems students have and to plan what

to teach in future

1.2.2 TORIC test

In 2005, the Ministry of Education and Education testing Institute- based in

US regarded the use of TOEIC to asset students’ English language proficiency

Thus, universilies in Vietnam can apply the TORIC program to teach and evaluate

students’ learning outcomes instead of the old program and tests for A, B, C

certificates

The new TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) is a

standardized, multiple-choice test for adult, non-native speakers designed to

measure your language ability and your ability to understand English In order to

score well ơn the new TOHIC test, you must have two goals: improve your

proficiency in English and improve your test- taking skills The test has two

sections: Listening comprehension and Reading comprehension

The TORIC tesh is scored on a seale of 10 10 990 Only correct responses

count toward your score These correct responses are added and converted to a

TORIC score (please sez the Appendix 1)

Listening TOEIC tost is divided into four parts including photos description,

listening and responses, conversations, and the last one is talks (Please see

Appendix 2}

1.3 Summary

To sum up, this chaplor has provided some dilTerent, curren theories of both listening and sources of listening difficulty in order to give a clear overview on the

matter of the study The following chapter will deal with the methodology with

which the study was conducted,

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

Aller reviewing a theoretical basis for the study in the previous part, in this chapter, the researcher will discuss the methodology used to implement the research The chapter will cover four major parts, namely, participants and current English study situation at Vimaru, data collection instruments, data collection procedures, and data analysis procedures

2.1 The setting of the study

2.1.1 Participants

50 first-year students who are in the second semester of the academic year 2011-2012 al Vimaru were chosen randomly for the stuly They come from different departments at different levels and they have different attitudes and preferences towards listening skills in general and listening TOEIC in particular

Despile the Timiled mumber of the subjects, she still belicves that 5% of the

population (50 over 1000 freshmen of Vimaru) will partly represent for the whole group; therefore, the reliability and validity of the study could be achieved Apart from these surveyed students, other 4 students whose recent TOEIC scores were

different were chosen to participate in the semi-structured interviews

2.1.2 Materials and current English study situation

Applied the credit study of Education Ministry, the freshmen at Vimaru can register at any English classes that are suitable for their time Therefore, in each English class, normally ranging from 65 lo 80 sludenis per class, there is a mix of different students- that means students come from different departments and levels

of English Often, students coming from Maritime Economics Department are better

al English than the other Departments, and Navigalion studerits are normally worse However, these freshmen are taught the same coursebook- NewHeadway- Elementary- 3 edition in 6 periods of English per week They have to study English two times a week and within 15 wecks of studying, each class has 3

TOEIC-based progress tests designed by the teacher of that class The length and content of the tests are different at different classes At the end of 15 weeks, they are asked to sil for a full TORTC- based Lest and then, the scores will be converted

into 10-mark scale as traditional way of marking

2.2 Data collection instruments

Conceming the aims al answenng the five rescarch questions, both

quantitative and qualitative approaches with the triangulation of questionnaires,

observations, and semi-structured interviews were utilized in the study so as to

reach the largcled goals According lo Cohen of al (2000), the combiruation was investigated because it helps myself as the researcher feel confident about the

findings, and moreover increases the depth and quality of information, (Verma &

Mallick, 1999),

2.2.1 Questionnaires

Questionnaire “is a relatively popular means of collecting data” (Nunan,

1992) which is “unprecedented efficient in terms of researcher tume, researcher

effort, and financial resources” (Nguyen et al., 2007) The questionnaires were done

to collect data answering for five rescarch questions and had five parts In the questionnaires, both open-ended and close-ended questions were made under a variety of forms such as multiple choices, putting a tick, etc The content of

questionaire takes the basis of what has been discussed in this paper’s Litcralure

Review and contained factual, behavioral, and attitudinal questions In each set of

questionnaires, different questions were categorized in groups following the five

research questions Particularly, 10 help the participants {ind il casy to complete the questionnaires, the researcher paid much attention to clarify the terms used in the

papers thoroughly and Vietnainese was used lo ensure thal the non-major freshmen

at Vimaru can totally understand the questions (Please see Appendix 3

After finishing the first version, the set of questionnaires was sent to the

supervisor and colleagues for gelling further revised Thon, it was piloted with some

14

freshmen from the university The final version which was adjusted after revising and piloting process was delivered to the freshmen

To be more specific, part 1 af the questionnaire included three first questions aiming to find out the Vimaru freshmen’s attitude towards TOKIC test in general and TOIIC listening test in particular Part 2 including question 4 to

question 11 were done to know the actual performances of these students in TOEIC

listening tests and their cent T'OHIC and English study situation in the classroom and the test room Part 3 had only question 12 consisting of 5 subquestions with a

hope to investigate what linguistic faclors affecting the frestunen’s performances on TOLIC Listening test Like part 3, part 4 contained only question 13 but inchading 5

subquestions with a purpose to find out the non- linguistic factors that influences the freskmnon’s performances on TORIC listening lest Finally, part 5 had two last questions aiming to understand the students’ wants and suggestions to improve the matter

Tn general, il can be said that die questionmaires could answer all the rescarch questions made, however, along with observations and semi-struchmed interviews, the oulcome could yield more reliability and value

2.2.2 Semi-structured interviews

Semi-structured interview was carried out as “the interviewer has a general

idea of where she wants the interview to go and what should come out of 1t”

(Nunan, 199)

The semi-structured interviews were carried out with 4 students who were of different levels basing on their latest English study result in the class With an attempt to create an open and friendly atmosphere for the respondents to express and share their opinions as well as their attitudes, the interviews were held one-by-

one with Victnamese as the main lmguage

In terms of structure, the interview for students included four parts yet

attempting to investigate their apmions and attitudes towards TOEIC lisiening, and

what have made diffeuluies to their performances on TORIC listening jest, and

lastly, their own preferences and suggestions for improvement (Please see Appendix 4) The procedure of building questions for the semi-structured interviews happened

in the sane way as the process of drawing up the questionnaires

Along with other instruments, the semi-structured interviews help to

“validate other methods, or to go deeper into the motivation of respondents and their reasons for responding as they do” (cited in Cohen, Manion, and Morzisor,

2000, p.268)

2.2.3 Observation

Observations were laken as one method among others and were carried out

in the test room

Observations in the test rooms were made to find out any factors can affect

the students” performances on TOEIC hstcumg tesl These observalions were carried out the whole day on June, 1* when all the freshmen had to take the final

TORIC tests Afler that, journals were produced lo keep the data for analysts

process (please see Appendix 5),

2.3 Data collection procedures

The procedures of data collection went through three main phases in chronological order: delivering questionnaires, holding semi-structured interviews and carrying out the observations

2.3.1 Delivering questionnaires

75 questionnaires for students were randomly distributed to three classes

having sludents from different levels and coming from different departments al

‘Vimaru The reason to deliver such number of questionnaires was to climinate the

invalid ones and get back 50 most comprehensible ones, and to avoid losing the questiormaires made by the students

On the day of giving questionnaires, the researcher asked for the help of the teachers teaching those periods to deliver the papers to the students after

introducing the purposes and explaining some necessary information in case of”

16

having any problems The reason to Iet the teachers send out the questionnaires was that under the “authority” of the teachers, students would complete the papers seriously

2.3.2 Holding the semi-structured interviews

One-by-one interviews for the students were done in their dormitory rooms

The first, part of the mterviews was to mlroduce and establish the close rapport

between the interviewer and the interviewees hen, the researcher started the

interviews and asked the permission to the use of tape-recarding along with the

confinmalion of conlidentiahly of the merviews Under the friendly and open

atmosphere, the respondents were encouraged to express their views and share their

opinions towards the questions raised by the researcher During the interviews, in

addition lo asking for the respondents’ point of views, the rescarcher also let hem:

chances to clarify and explain what listening difficulties they had to face A part

from the use of lape-recording, the researcher took neles om some importaril

information through the interviews for the sake of later transcription

2.3.3 Carrying out the observations

After holding the interviews, two observations in the test rooms were carried

out in the morning and afternoon on June, 1" While the students were taking the

tests, the researcher was observing and taking notes Everything happened in the

tesL room from the attitudes and performances of stutlents to the outside factors

were written down

2.4 Data analysis procedure

Procedure “refers to sifting, organizing, summarizing, and synthesizing the data so as to arrive at the results and conclusion of the research” (Seliger and Shohamy, 1989) The collected data was aytthosized and analy zed according to five research questions as follows:

The first research question (What are Vimaru freshmen’ atttudes towards TORIC listening?) was answered by th mfornation (Tom the first 3 quesitons m the

17

set of questionnaires Morcover, the data analyzed trom the interviews also contributed to the finding

The sceond research question (What is Vimaru freshmen’s current performance

and study situation on TOHIC listening?) was addressed by the questions 4 to 1] in the

questionnaires In addition, the interviews and the analysis of the observations provided

more information

‘The next research question (What are the linguistic factor affecting Vimaru

freshmen’s performances on TOHIC listening?) required information from the

interviews as well as the dala [rom question 12 in the questiormaires

the fourth one (What are the non- linguistic factor affecting Vimaru freshmen’s performance on TOBIC listening?) dealt with the information during the

interviews Furthermore, the question 13 of the questionnaires and te observations wore

another source of data to answer this research question

The last research question (What are Vimaru freshmen’s suggestions and

expectations to improve their TORIC listening results?) was answered by the

information from the interview and the last two questions im the set of

questiormaires

2.5 Summary

‘The third chapter gave a clear view on the methodology of the research including participants, data collection instruments, data collection procedure and data analysis procedure Based on the aims of the study, using triangulation of questionnaires, observations and semi-structured interviews was considered as the best choice to collect the thorough and in-depth information from the respondents and can make the data gained afterward reliable and comprehensive All those findings will come in the following,

chapter

18

CHAPTER III: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The data, after being collected from the questionnaires, the observations, and the semi-structured interviews, would be analyzed and interpreted to answer the five research questions

3.1 What are Vimaru freshmen’s attitudes towards TOEIC Listening?

3.1.1 Reading Comprehension vs Listening Comprehension in TOEIC test

FIGURE 1: READING COMPREHENSION VS LISTENING COMPREHENSION IN TOEIC TEST

Reading is harder than Listening miListening is harder than Reading

o Goth are difficult Bath are easy

As can be seen from the chart, 54% of the participants thought that both

skills are difficult while 46% of the others expressed that Listening is harder There

was no answer for the other options, It is understandable because TOEIC may be a hard-to-cope-with test for the non-major freshmen whose English were normally

weak Moreover, through the results from this question, it could be seen that

listening is always a threat for the students in comparison with reading as “language learners often feel inundated with problems when they first attempt to listen to a new language” (Underwood, 1989) The next two questions give more insights into the attitudes of these students towards TOEIC listening

3.1.2 Vimaru freshmen’s attitudes towards TOEIC Listening

FIGURE 2: VIMARU FRESHMEN'S

TTUDES TOWARDS TOEIC LISTENING

Very Difficult Nether Easy Very

easy

Again, most of the students were afraid of listening: the option “very

difficult” accounted for 30% and “difficult” was 54% Explaining for this fear, one

of the interviewee shared that “to listen well needs a lot of elements such as good

pronunciation, rich vocabulary and sometimes, a little bit luck” (S2, line 38)

Surprisingly, 16% of the students thought that, for them, listening is “neither

difficult nor easy” However, there were no confident students who dared to say that

listening is “very easy” or “easy”

In conclusion, that TOEIC listening was considered difficult could help the

teachers teaching English in general and teachers at Vimaru in particular point out

the solution to teaching listening as well as designing the test

3.1.3 Vimaru freshmen’s feelings when taking TOEIC listening test

FIGURE 3: VIMARU FRESHMEN’S FEELINGS WHEN TAKING TOEIC LISTENING TEST

From the chart, “tense”, “anxious”, “scared”, “unable to concentrate” and

other feelings happened when the respondents did the TOEIC listening tests Among these feelings “tense” made up for 36% and coming next was “anxious” with 14%, “scary” with 10%, and “able to concentrate” with 10% These were

normal feelings when students considered listening as an obstacle and of course,

these feelings could affect their listening results

However, many students (30%) cannot define their feelings when having to

take the listening test that they chose “other feelings” when being asked Responding to this phenomenon, different participants had different reasons They

varied from “hard to understand”, or “not sure the answers” to “cannot listen”

Noticeably, an interviewee shared that he felt sleepy because of “the monotonous

sounds from the tape” (S3, line 71)

Generally, students encountered a variety of feelings when taking listening

test These often occured when they were afraid of listening or they were not

confident when doing listening test However, if they could not have a comfortable

mind, it could have had impact on their listening results

3.2 What are Vimaru freshmen’s current study situation and performance

on TOEIC listening test?

3.2.1 Vimaru freshmen’s results in semester 1- TOEIC test

FIGURE 4: VIMARU FRESHMEN'S TOEIC RESULTS IN SEMESTER 1

Overall, these students got low results in the first final test at the university

Within the researcher’s expectations, there were 18 respondents under the average

21

point, (200 points which was equivalent to 5 point when it was converted into

traditional 10-scale mark), 27 students got a little above and above the average, and

only 5 students got quite higher ones, This fact could reveal a problem that TOEIC test in general and TOEIC listening in particular was too new and hard for these non-major students who did not have many chances to study listening before However, there were still some students got quite high results which indicated that they may have good English background

As a whole, most of the freshmen were at low English level and not many of

them got good results at the final English test The reasons for getting low mark in

TOEIC test and specially TOEIC listening would be explained in the next questions

3.2.2 Difficult parts of TOEIC Listening perceived by Vimaru freshmen

FIGURE 5: DIFFICULT PARTS OF TOEIC LISTENING PERCEIVED BY VIMARU FRESHMEN

“Part 1 is hard for me because I cannot recognize what the words are due to my bad pronunciation, hence, I always choose randomly” (S3, line 75)

Though this is still a difficulty for some students, it was optimistic that many

could get points in this part, which can motivate them to continue other harder ones

22

Part 2- listen and responses was decided as an obstacle by 58% of the respondents, In their opinions, this part was hard to do because it needed a good

inference and sometimes, they could not listen to as “the options are easy to be

tricked; all the options seem to be considered as the answers” (S4, line 106) Moreover, “the limitation of communication languages was another reason for

not being able to find the correct answers” he added

With 82% agreed, part 3- conversations was seen as another difficulty that

the freshmen had to overcome They claimed that, like the case in part 2, though

they can understand the conversations but they still cannot choose the best answers

as “sometimes the four options were hard to clarify” (S1, line 22) Strikingly

from the chart, 100% of the surveyors were afraid of Part 4 It is understandable that

non-experienced students cannot do well in this part as it requires much knowledge

of a wide range of topics Furthermore, some students wrote that part 4 was too fast

to listen and normally they could hear the sound of speaking but understand nothing

One of the interviewees explained that “part 4 had one voice and I did not have

rich vocabularies for those topics” (S3, line 43)

3.2.3 Vimaru freshmen’s strategies while doing TOEIC Listening test

FIGURE 6: VIMARU FRESHMEN’S STRATEGIES WHILE DOING TOEIC LISTENING TEST

strategies in listening comprehension (Rost, 1991),

Regarding to the strategies used while taking TOEIC listening test, only 22%

of the participants had strategies of doing TOEIC listening while the other 78% did

23

not use any Investigating more in used listening strategies, the respondents shared various ways such as “listen to key word”, “listen to Question word”, or “listen to known words”

In short, it was understandable that the freshmen were not taught much about listening strategies while they were at high school as listening was rarely carried out

in the class, By these findings, teachers of English should bear in mind a need of

teaching the students listening strategies

3.2.4 Vimaru freshmen’s habits before doing TOEIC listening test

FIGURE 7: VIMARU FRESHMEN'S HABITS BEFORE DOING TOEIC LISTENING TEST

4 24% Read and underline the key words

22 W Have a look at the paper test but do nothing

Not surprisingly, when being asked to share the habits before listening, only

24% “read through and underline the keywords” while 42% “have a look at the

paper test but do not read anything”, and the other 22% “do nothing” Having no

choice from these three options, the rest 12% had their own ideas that they tried to

calm down before doing the test or relaxed for a while by facing down the table

These findings from the questionnaires were quite similar to those of

observations Through her observations, the majority of the students had a look at the paper tests but they did not carefully read or underlined keys words The others

looked around to find their friends or someone who had the same test codes to seek

for help Like the information in the questionnaires, there were some students faced

down the table to rest and some just sat in silence There were still many students reading the paper test and used their pencils to do something, however, the

researcher was not sure that whether they did it effectively or not

24

To summarize, students normally did not have good preparation before listening as they may not have many chance to practice when they were at High schools However, they should be taught to well prepare before listening since the more and effectively they do it, the higher points they can get

3.2.5 Vimaru freshmen’s habits while doing TOEIC listening test

FIGURE 8: VIMARU FRESHMEN'S HABITS WHILE DOING TOEIC LISTENING TEST

Listen to main ideas 30%

Concerning to the usual actions while doing TOEIC listening, 66% of the

respondents “try to understand every words” and the other 42% “try to listen to every details” These figures indicate that students had a tendency to understand

everything if they wanted to choose the answers correctly Among the respondents, there were 30% “reading the options while listening”, 28% “listen to main ideas” and 26% “try to listen to the key words” These findings were suitable to what were pointed out in students’ listening strategies that some were trying to apply academic techniques to get right answers Unlike the above surveyors, the other 10% held other habits as they “try to guess the ideas based on what can be listened”

Generally, lots of students did not have good habits while listening in general

and TOEIC listening im particular, which could made their listening ineffective,

3.2.6 Vimaru freshmen’s habits when they cannot listen to TOEIC test

FIGURE 9: VIMARU FRESHMEN’S HABITS WHEN THEY CANNOT LISTEN TO TOEIC TEST

25

students just had two above choices if they could not listen well

Generally, many of the students had a tendency of choosing randomly if they could not listen to the normal tests as well as the TOEIC test

3.2.7 TOEIC practice before taking the final test

FIGURE 10: TOEIC PRACTICE BEFORE TAKING THE FINAL TEST

when being asked whether they had a TOEIC practice before the final test or not,

76% of the surveyors had not seen such kind of test and only 24% of these students

had chances to practice the test but it did not last long The longest practice as

proved by these students was 2 months and the shortest was a week This fact

indicates that the time of training was not enough for students to have a good result

26

In short, most of the students had not practiced TOEIC before and the others though were trained, the time for practicing was too short to master the test

3.2.8 Factors caused difficulties in doing TOEIC listening test

TABLE 1: FACTORS CAUSED DIFFICULTIES IN DOING TOEIC LISTENING TEST

suggested difficulties were nol all experienced by all students, nor were they

experienced to the same degree by students from different backgrounds

(Underwood, 1989) Looking at the information shown in the table, it is interesting

1o find out thal linguistic factors seemed Lo have much more effeel on Ute students*

listening rather than non- lingmstic factors, More specifically, 84% of the

respondents had to cope with the problem of “speakers’ pronunciation” which made

up the highest proportion of alll the suggested difficulties

“There are some words | know but I cannot listen because they were

spoken differently from what I usually pronounce” (S2, fine 48)

After “spcakors’ pronunciation”, “speakers’ fast speed” and “new

vocabularies and structures were two more difficulties that students had to deal with

which accounted for 78% and 74% respectively

Apart from these obstacles, 54% and 52% pointed out that because of

“unfamiliar topics” and “limited background knowledge”, they could not listen

clloctively Meanwhile, the other 44% found TORIC listening hard duc to the

problem of “only listening once”

Coming next was “speakers’ stress and intonation” which was considered as another difficulty by 38% of the participants Almost equally as the above, “long

time of listening” was chosen by 32% of the respondents for what made them listen

ineffectively

The stall proportions int the table belonged lo some non-linguistic factors such as “large and crowded rooms” with 18%, “poor listening equipment” with 10%,

“background noise” with 18%, and “personal mood and health” with 22%

Finally, option “olhers” did nol gel any agreement as our students had to [ace

too many difficulties that they could not think of anything else

As a whole, these above all caused challenges to the respondents and among

these sourees of difficulties, the linguistic elements aecounled for much more

proportion than the non-linguistic ones ‘'he next two questions would explain more

for these findings

3.3 What are linguistic factors affecting Vimaru freshmen’s performances

on TOEIC listening?

TABLE 3: LINGUISTIC FACTORS AFFECTING VIMARU FRESHMEN'S

PERFORMANCE ON TOEIC LISTENING

agree sure | agree | dan’t

agree

1 I fesl confused when the speakers|30% [54% 12% [4% |0%

promounee dilferenily from what.T usually do

2, 1 feel hard to understand if there are too]24% [62% 10% [4% | 0%

many new vocabularies and structures

3 I cannot understand the main ideas if the | 32% 60% 6% 0 0%

speakers speak too fast,

4 I think that speakers’ intonations don't | 8% 35% 30% | 36% | 4⁄4

28

have any effects lo their listernng

5 I don’t understand the meanings of slang in | 26% 66% 8% 0% 0%

the listening

Tt can be recognized from the table that pronunciation caused students a lot

of difficulties due to the fact that 30% and 54% “totally agree” and “agree” with the

suggested problems 12% of the respondems are “not sure” with this statement as

sometimes, pronunciation was not a big problem for them The other 4% did not

face this difficulty when listening since they may have good pronunciation to cope

with the listening [lowever, that the majority of the students considered

pronuncialion as au obstacle advised teachers to help their sladents enhance their

pronunciation as much as possible

After pronunciation, new vocabularies and structures were another threat for

sludsnls when Hislenitys, which also realized by Underwood (1989) and Higgin

(1995) When being asked, 66% (24% for “totally agree” and 42% for “agree”}

confessed that too many new words and phrases made them feel hard to understand

the lisicning “as there are too many new words and some words I knaw but

they have many meanings which 1 cannot work out immediatcly”(S3, line 31)

Nevertheless, 10% were “not sure” about this and 1% did not agree with as their

vocabularies were rich cnough to master their listening Again, the findings called

for a need of enriching and improving vocabularies and structures during the

process of studying by students themselves It was, consequently, important for

teachers to encourage and activate their students’ vocabulary acquisition

Another challenge for student was the speed of delivery which was totally

agreed by 32% and agreed by 60% of the participants Only 6% was “not sure”

about thal as “Speed is not really my prablem since there are both slow and fast

parts” (S1, line 18) Unlike the above, there was no one disagreed with this

slalement, As a result of these findings, the students obviously face certain

difficulties in Listening and listening TOEIC because they lack control over the

speed at which the speakers speak, which was also found out by Underwood (1989),

and llowerdew and Miller (1996)

Wher being asked whether intonation bad any effe

is to their TORIC

listening, 30% (including 8% totally agreed and 22% agreed) mentioned that

intonation did not affect the process of listening while 30% were “not sure” and

40% of the others disagreed with this According to them intonation did have effect

on their listening and in fact, it is true that “imtonation can make a considerable

difference to the meaning” (Buck, 2001)

Last bul not least, slang can creale a great deal of troubles to students white

listening as “many language leamers have limited experience of Linglish in informal

situation” (Underwood, 1989) Therefore, 26% totally agreed and 66% agreed that

“slang” made the listening hard to understand The resi of the students (8%) were

not sure about this matter which showed that they may have known some and could

overcome this obstacle when doing TOEIC listening However, the above

mentioned problem should be improved by introducing students these informal

expressions suitably Particularly, it is vital for the students themselves to cover

slang in any sources

In summary, almost all of the students found them in the above situations

when doing listening ‘I'OLIC test showing that the linguistic factors were really big

problems for the freshmen, both for the bad and good ones

3.4, What are non - linguistic factors affecting Vimaru freshmen’s

performances on TOKIC listening?

TABLE 3: NON-LINGUISTIC FACTORS AFFECTING VIMARU FRESHMEN’S PERFORMANCE ON

“FOEIC LISTENING

Situations Totally [Agree | Not | Don’t | Totally

agree sure | agree | don’t agree

1 I feel hard to understand the |20% | 46% | 28% | 6% 0%

unfamiliar topics

2 I cannot choose the answers though [20% [38% [26% [16% [0%

T ean listen Lo the tests

3 I cannot listen well if the test rooms | 21% [22% | 36% [18% |0%