Luận văn learning styles and their influence on listening skills development among 11th form students

VIETNAM NATIONAL ENIVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER LEARNING STYLES AND THEIR INFLUENC

VIETNAM NATIONAL ENIVERSITY, HANOT

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

LEARNING STYLES AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON

LISTENING SKILLS DEVELOPMENT AMONG 11'-

FORM STUDENTS

Supervisor: Luc Dinh Quang

Year of enrolment: QII2009

Hanoi, May 2013

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIÁ HÀ NỘI _

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ”

KHOA SƯ PHAM TIỆNG ANH

KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGIIIỆP

PHONG CÁCH HỌC VÀ SỰ ẢNH HƯỚNG CỦA

IPHONG CÁCH HỌC ĐẾN SỰ PHÁT TRIÊN KỸ NĂNG

NGHE CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 11

Giáo viên hưởng đẫn: Lue Dinh Quang _ Sinh viên: "Trịnh Fhanh Huyền

HaNG Nam 2013

ACCEPTANCE

I hereby state that J: Trinh ‘Thanh Liuyén, QU2009.1°.1.L4, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Aris (TEFL) accept the rorquirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor's Graduation Paper deposited in the library,

In terms of these conditions, | agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Lbrarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the

paper

Signature

Trinh Thanh Huyện

April 25%, 2013

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, T woul like (o show my hearllelt appreenation and thanks to my supervisor Luc Dinh Quang, M.A whose careful instructions and useful advice certainly bring

about the birth of this rewarding thesis

Sccondly, the teachers of the Facully of English Language Teacher Education deserve

my gratitude for their guidance and support during the conduct of my research

Thirdly, I am heartily thankful to the students in the Foreign Language Specializing School, ULLS, VNU for their willingness and co-operation during the completion of

my survey questionnaires and interviews

Fourthly, 1 would fike to express my deep appreciation to he authors of the books,

joumal articles for their great ideas that have been reviewed in my paper

Fifthly, my heartfelt thanks also go to my family and friends whose continuing encouragement and support enabled me to develop my confidence and snecess of my worthy thesis

Last bul not least, my sincere gralilude also goes to my readers for their constructive

comments on this paper

ABSTRACT

‘This study investigates learning styles and their influence on listening skills development Specifically, the researcher focuses on the difficulties experienced by the targeted students and their styles adapted in learning listening comprehension In addition, the research site and subject is 195 students in 11"-form in the Foreign Language Specializing School, ULIS, VNU, Hanoi The data colleclion instruments were survey questionnaires, and interview It was fustly revealed from the results that

five most typical obstacles barrier the targeted students from effective listening

comprehension they are psychological factors, limited vocabulary, speaker’s speech, long listening texts, and difficult grammatical structures in listening texts Secondly, in tenns of the students’ learning slytes adapied in developiry listening skills, four underlying styles are unveiled, they are reflective, global, visual, and sensing Basing

on these finding, the researcher offers some pedagogical suggestions for the sake of

the effectiveness of 11-form students’ adaptation of suitable learning styles in

developing listening skills.

TABLE OF CONT

1.4 Significance of the st0đy, it nreeerareeerrarirrereiareooo 8

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1, Gverview of listening skills

2.1.1, Listening comprehension

2.1.2, Listening miero skills `

2.1.3, Real-world listening and in-class listening

2.1.4, Students’ difficulties in listening skills development

2.2.2 Distinctions among leaming styles, leaming strategies, and leaming skills 2B 2.2.3, The formation of learners’ styles Xinh

2.2.4 Types of learning styles

2.3, Leaming styles adopted in developing listening skills

3.3.1 Ways to change a learning style

2.3.2, Ways to adapt a leaming style in developing listening skills

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.2 Patticipants and the selection of participants

3.3 Data collection instruments

3.4 ‘Dala collection method and pracedure

3.5 Dala analysis method and procedure

3.5.1 Dala analysis method

3.5.2 Data analysis procedure -

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1.1 Students’ difficulties in listening comprehension 27 4.1.2 Shadents’ perceptions of real-life listoning and in-class listening, 35 4.1.3, Students’ Icaming styles adopted in devcloping listening skills

4-2 Discussion of the results

4.2.1, Students’ diflicnities in listening comprehension

4.22 Students’ learning styles adopted in developing listening skills

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION

5.1 Summary of the major findings

5.2 Pedagogical suggestions

5.3 Limitations of the study

5.4, Suggestions for further studies

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, AND ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF TABLES

Table I Classes allocated with survey questionnaires

Table 2 Siructare of students’ survey questionnuire

Table 3 Structure of students’ interview

Table 4 Outstanding difficulties in listening comprehension

Table 5 Hactors related to the speaker's speech

Tabie 6 Students’ responses when having listening problems _

Table 7 The differences between real-life listening and in-class tse

Table 8 Methods to improve listening skills M

Table 9 Students’ preferred methods to inprave listening skills in each class

Table 10 Students' expectation from the teachers’ method to help adopt learning ‘styles 44 Table 11 Students’ preferred methods to improve listening skills and the corresponding siles

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure {: Listening iypes classified by John A Kline (1996) ce T

Figure 2: Relationship among learning styles, learning strategies, and learning skills

Figure 3: Kolb’s learning stile model (Adopted from

http://www nwlink com!~donclark/hrdthistoryskolb html)

Figure 4: Learning styles classified by Felder and Silverman (1988)

Figure 5 The difficulty of listening period (Question I, Appendix IA)

Figure 6 Outstanding difficulties in listening comprehension

Figure 7 Frequency of studems’ problems tn class 11G with regard to

‘Question 2, Appenilix 14)

Figure 8 Frequency of studerus’ problems in class (1B with regard to the speaker's speech

‘Question 3, Appendix IA) 7

Figure 9 Frequency of students’ problems in class TLD with regard to the speaker’s

speech(Question 3, Appendix 1A} ce BL

Figure 10 Frequency of students’ = pres inelass HE with regard to the speaker's speech

(Question 3, Appendix IA) my)

Figure 11 Types of listening exercises causing troubles for shidents (Question 4, Appendix

Figure 16 Students’ perceptions of the differences between real-life listening and in-class

Histening(Question 7, Appendix LA)

Figure 17 Students’ perceptions of the easiness in regard to reali fe listening and in class listening(Question 8, Appendix 1A

Figure 20 Students’ expectation from the teachers’ method to help adopt learning styles to

better learning lisiening comprehension ‘Question 12, ippendix 14) -Ö-43

CIIAPTER 1: INFRODUCTION

This chapter, which includes rationale of the study, aims, research questions,

scope and significance of the study, would hopefully provide readers with an overview

of the whole paper

1,1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study

In recent years, the needs to study foreign languages of Vietnamese people have

increased signilicanlly Besides the needs [or olher languages such as Chinese, French, German; Unglish has been the most popular language that Vietnamese learners want to master With ils position as a global language in the corlaxt of globalization, English

is thought to bring many people the opportunity to have good jobs, the chance to study abroad and to do business with foreigners, and the chance to live in English speaking

countries Thus, English has become more imporlant than ever lo many people in

zeneral and Vietnamese people in particular

Having realized the importance of English, English teaching and learning have been paid much allenlion to by many schools and universities in Vietnam The shift from traditional teaching methods to communicative language teaching (CLT) which “sets

as ils goal the teaching of commumicative competence” (Richards, 2006:2) has brought

significant results to teaching and learning English It has a huge foous on language proficiency development In other words, a good command of communicative Lnglish, especially listening skills, is the burning conten of almost all Vietnamese learners to achieve high language proficiency since “listening comprehension is at the heart of

language learning” (Kurita, 2012:30)

Despite its importance, listening skills aro still a big challenge for Victnamese learners

and they find them the most difficult skill to learn As far as the researcher is concerned, there have been a great number of studies on the factors that influence

listerting skills acquisilion, for example, Fan Yagang (1993:16) stales thal there are

four main factors affecting listenmg skills acquisition, 1¢ the message, the speaker,

the listener and the physical setting, Vandergrifl Gin Kurila, 201 2:30) assumes that it is

the teachers that affect learning listening process of students as they do not teach

students the efleclive ways to learn listering,

Among many factors, the rescarcher’s prior concem is learning styles; in other words,

leaners’ characteristics in learning because of three main reasons I'ist, different

learners have different, attributes, different responses to the Tearing environment, so

understanding of these differences is an useful means to fulfill almost every need of

students and enhance the learning outcomes, accordingly Second, there are a great number of researches on learniryy slyles and learners’ slyles bul the researches on the relationship between leamers’ learning styles and listening skills acquisition are rather small in number Therefore, investigating this relationship, in the researcher's mind, is

very necessary and practical [ast bul, nol least, learners” styles are nel paid much

attention to and even neglected by Vietnamese teachers, especially high school

teachers Sitice Leachers do not understand students’ styles, most teachers do impose

many things on students in learning process; gradually, students’ motivation would

decrease

Bevause of these reasons, the researcher has decided to research imlo “Learning styles and their influence on listening skills development among 11" farm students in the Foreign Language Specializing School, ULIS, VNU" Hopefully, the research

would make contributions to develop a deeper understanding of the relationship between learners” styles and listening comprehension development as well as to

enhancing teaching and learning English, accordingly.

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

When conducting the study, the researcher’s primary aim is to find out the difficulties experienced by 11-form studenls in the Foreign Lamguage Specializing School (FLSS), ULLS, VNU in listening, In addition, the researcher would like to

investigate styles of those students in learning listening Furthermore, the relationship

between learners’ learning slyles and listening comprchension development will be revealed When these aims are achieved, the research would bring significant implications for better Tistening skills development, i the (caching and leaming context It should be noted that the objectives of this study is 11°-form students in FLSS, ULIS, VNU, no matter what language they major in

1.3, Research questions

This study is carried out to answer two following questions

1 What are the difficulties experienced by Lith-form students in listening comprehension in the Foreign Language Specializing School, ULIS, VNU?

2 What learning styles have those students developed or adapted in developing

their listening skills?

1.4, Significance of the study

In general, significant picluze of students’ current situation will be revealed, ic their difficulties in leaming listening, In addition, the study is of great importance wher il somehow lights up the overall view of students’ psychology and differences Because of these, big benefits will come to teachers, students and other researchers,

First, with regard to teachers, this research is the source of information to understand students’ difficulties in learning listening better as well as their slyles in learning

listening, teachers may find out many interesting points about students’ attributes

Only when teachers have in-depth understanding of students’ differences can they adjust appropriate methods, and strategies to fulfill almost every need of them and

push them forwards in their learning process That will improve the efficiency of teachers’ tasks and crihance Icarning qualily

Second, as for students, finding out the relationship between their styles and listening skills development is of substantial help in finding the key lo successful leaming Specifically, because the rosoarch will broaden the knowledge of learning styles, students will have a sharp insight into their psychology, attributes, as well as styles, which are relaled 1o listoning acquisition developmont From (hat pom, studerits will

be able to adjust themselves according to their listening development purposes and make progress

Last but nul least, as for other researchers who may have interests in doing research in

the same field, this research can provide them with reliable source for references

Added to this, the researcher is going to suggest further studies, so others may find it useful to decide their scope of study

1.5 Scope of the study

As previously mentioned, the study puts focus on leamers’ learning styles

Specifically, the rescarcher would ike lo find out the difficulties of studerds as well as

their styles in learning listening In addition, the matter of the relationship between learning, styles and listening skills acquisition will be revealed Furthermore, the

research site and subject is 11 form students in FLSS, ULIS, VNU, Hanoi.

CUAPTER 2: LETERATURE REVIEW This chapler has been designed to review the literature related to the thesis’s

issues Hopefully, it would provide readers with background knowledge to understand

the rest of the paper better

2.1 Overview of listening skills

main stages: “receiving, processing, and interpreting aural stimult” According to Goh

(2002), listening involves understanding a speaker’s accent or pronunciation, the speaker's grammar and vocabulary and comprehension of meaning

In this light, the process of listening is nol mercly of “reviving, responding, processing, and imerpreting” It is the receptive skill, which requires listeners to understand four factors: accent or pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and meaning

In this study, the term “listening” should be understood as the receptive skill, which

consists of understanding four main factors: accent or pronunciation, grammar,

vocabulary, and meaning

2.1.1.2 Models of the listening process

So far, there have been a reat number of works on the models of the listening

process According lo Flowerdew and Miller (2005), there are three well-known

models, i.e the bottom-up model, the top-down model, and the interactive model First, the bottom-up model refers to the understanding the message

by starting with the smallest units of the acoustic message: individual sounds,

or phonemes ‘hese are then combined into words, which, in tum, together make up phrases, clauses, and sentences (Fowerdew and Miller, 2005-24)

Sharing the same viewpoint, Richards (2008:4) agreed that, bottom-up processing starts

with “successive levels of organization — sounds, words, clauses, sentences, texts —

until meaning is derived" Therefore, in teaching and learning context, according to

this model, teachers should begin leaching lexical and grammatical aspects first, and then these components will be used to “work out the relationship between elements of

sentences” (Richards, 2008:4), which, mm tum, [acilitale listening comprehension,

Regarding the top-down model, this model emphasizes on having prior knowledge in listening comprehension process Breaking utterances down into components is not an ellective way lo process comprehension Richards (2008-7) distinguished the bottom-

up model from the top-down model: “Whereas bottom-up processing goes from language to meaning, top-down processing goes from meaning to language” The third

model is the inferactive model, this model is the combmation of the botlom-up

processing and top-down processing Flowerdew and Miller (2005:27) made known that this model enables listeners for “individual variation in linguistic processing” In other words, depending on factors such as listeners’ purposes, topic or content of a text, teaching purposes; bottom-up model or top-down model may predominate each

other for better listerng courprehension,

2.1.1.3 Types of listening

The researcher could find various ways of classifying listening types From the

viewpoint of Kline (1996), listening falls into five types The following figure shows

in detail these five types:

mm

Tnfomi Appreciative aie

lisler Ï 5 listening listening

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Củ

primary Thi DƯ ch

ĐiÍch, ¿

CƯ

Cô g) Pere Mente

as close as : certnin

ont s sponi ters eto one h 1 tote PS |

cues, to discritninate radio, or film Bot

Figure 1: Listening types classified by John A Kline (1996)

In the context of teaching and learning, Cooper (n.d.) divided listening into four main

types, which, in the researcher's mind, is very popular In fact, some types of listening

classified are similar to that of Kline (1996) that have been discussed above; the distinction here lies on the nature of listening in the classroom environment The first

type is critical listening, Cooper made known that critical listening happens when

students have judgments, opinions, or critical responses while listening In other

words, a student analyzes information while listening to sieve the best information This type requires many efforts on the part of students because it is not “an automatic

response to what is said”, Cooper stated Fortunately, critical listening can be achieved

by earning to listen critically Whon students’ critical hslening skill develops, their critical thinking skill also expands, and that will promote their learning process The

second lype is dialogic listening, this Lype is inked to mutual comprehension That

means, students or teachers interact with cach other, exchange ideas to understand

thoroughly certain issues By way of mutual interaction, students’ problems in their study will be solved remarkably Regarding the third type: informalive listening, this is listening to understand the message Cooper said, “Lf the listener misunderstands or does not pay close attention, informative listening is affected” Thus, in order to

improve informative listening, students nesd to pay much allention to whral is

conveyed to understand it better ‘fhe fourth type refers to appreciative listening Appreciative listening happens when students enjay a speech, a lecture of the lecturer Those students have special interes!s and concerns aboul the subject walter discussed

by the lecturer The higher appreciative listening develops, the better it is for students

to enhance their motivation

Seeing that each type of listening has its own advantages, it is advisable that students should take advantages of various listening types, co-ordinate them appropriately to improve their learning process

2.1.2 Listening micro skills

So far, the writer of this paper has found various researches on listening micro

skills According to Rost (1991) (in Saha and Talukdar, n.d), listening comprises

some component skills such as “discriminating, between sounds, recognizing words, identifying expressions and sets of utterances that act to create meaning” Clearly,

these skills mentioned recpatre hsteners to identify components from the smuall ums

such as sounds, words, grammatical word groupings, to larger components such as sets

of utterances, verbal or non-verbal cues that create meaning Therefore, we can infer

that those skills are somehow like bottom-up processing to listening comprehension

Largely, Willis (1981: 134) provided more micro skills:

predicting what people are going to talk about

guessing at unknown words or phrases without panic

using one's own knowledge of the subject lo help one understand idenlifying relevant poiuls; rejecting irrelevant informalion

retaining relevant points (nole-laking, summarizing)

recognizing discourse markers, o.g., Well; Ob, another thing is; Now, finally

« recognizing cohesive devices, ¢.g., such as and which, including tinking words, pronouns, references, etc

© understanding different intonation pattems and uses of stress, etc., which

give clues lo meaning and social selling

© understanding inferred information, ¢ g , speakers! allitude or interitions

In contrast to Rost (1991), Willis (1981) emphasized the top down processing to listening comprehension In other words, listeners should have micro skills of prediction, ideriifivalion, recognilion, the use of prior knowledge to understand the messages conveyed However, there is a shortcoming in both Rost and Willis’s viewpoint: they just provided too general listening micro skills, they did not point out whether these skills belong to real life listening or classroom listening, In fact, different contexts require different micro skills, thus, it is vital to distinguish those in real life and those in academic setting This shortcoming is improved in Richard (1983)s joumal article named “Listening comprehension: Approach, Design, Procedure” in which he classified micro skills into two types: the first type is skills in

“conversational listening” and the secoud one comprises those in “academic listening” According to Richard (1983:228-229), in conversational listening, listeners should have some micro skills such as “retaining chunks of language for short periods, discriminating sounds, recognizing stressed words and rhythm, identifying unstressed words and reduced forms of words, recognizing vocabulary used in certain topics, process speech at different rates” Meanwhile, academic listening includes some micro skills such as “identifying purpose, scope, and topic of lecture, infer relationship,

deduce meanings of words from context, detect speakers’ attitude, recognizing

urelevant maticr, knowledge of classroom converions” (Richard, 1983:229-230)

In the researcher’s point of view, micro skills are essential to develop listening skills When a person’s miero skills are excelleml, there is no doubt that he/she can mater listening comprehension In addition, it is useful for listeners to develop those skills mn

certain context, i.e conversational, academic settmg,

2.1.3 Real-world listening and in-class listening

As amalter of fact, real-life listening is very different from in-class listening, As mentioned in the previous part, real-life listening requires different micro skills from in-class listening Thus, adapt suitable micro skills in certain context is a matter of overriding concern for every skillful leamer However, the differences between real- life listening and in-class listening is not just about micro skills As far as the writer of this paper is concerned, there are many works on those differences which characterize outstanding features of real-life listening ‘I'singhong Ma (2010:465-466) in the research “Communicative Listening Training in English— Features, Strategies and Mothods” said thai

Jn normal life we have reasons for listening, and interests and purposes, which our listening serves We are quile capable, in listening as in reading, of

skimming over some bits of message which are not germane to our current

purposes and then of paying particular detailed attention to those parts which

seem to us most relevant

From Tsinghong Ma’s ideas, we know that real-life listening has two main features First, listeners have imerests in and attention to what they are listening to because they have reasons for listening In daily life, we often listen for many purposes such as to

undersland instructions, Lo discuss problems, to follaw olher people’s advices or just

relaxing by listening to music, Another point that has been stated is that we are free to choose specific piece of information we like and ignore other information that we do

not like to hear In this point, the researcher is falling into the same lines with

Tsinghong Ma

Largely, Ur (1984: 3-9) investigated more knowledge of real-life listening, ie purpose, noises, immediale response, sort chunks of heard discourse, interaction, redundancy, colloquialisms In fact, these features are not presented in all situations,

and certain circumstances may be short of some of these features

Frou the researcher’s point of view, listening in real-life also depends on speakers’ nonverbal cues such as facial expressions, gesture, eye-contact, movements Basing on those cues, listeners can obtain significant meaning of the messages It interesting, that

inseal-life listening, students have chances lo listen to many people with different age,

ender, voice tone Added to this, they may listen to speakers’ improper grammar,

incomplete sentences, repetition, and overlap

As for in-class listening, in fact, there have been no studies which clearly discuss the

characteristics of in-class listening In the researcher's viewpoint, there are three main

features of in-class listening in many High Schools i Vietuam First, most students

have little or no interests in what they are listening to They listen to fulfill their responsibilities, to complete tasks to avoid bad marks or teacher's punishment In

some cases, they feel very bored and tired but they must listen to complete the

assignments As can be inferred from that point, students are actually listening under pressure Second, teachers do nat care much about students’ needs, they just assign as much as listening exercises as possible in order to complete the course, and they just check students’ answers, if students get wrong answers, teachers assume that those

students are very bad at listening, lazy in smadying Thus, in fact, those teachers do not

icach students to develop listening skills Lasl bul not leasl, most listening materials are very old fashioned, grammar-oriented, and poor technical quality

As can be absorbed, there is a huge gap belweon real-workl Hstewiry and in-class listening ‘Ihe negative characteristics of in-class listening will decrease students’

motivation In order to avoid that, teachers should adapt real life listening features in

listening periods to enhance students’ interests, motivation, and interaction to what

they arc listarring to as well as 10 inorcase successful lessons, ascordingly

2.1.4, Students’ difficulties in listening skills development

For many English learners, listening is the most challenging skill compared with other three skills: reading, speaking, and writing The reasons for listening obstacles can be found in many researches According to Underwood (1989) cited in the joumal

article of Nobuko Osada named “Listening Comprehension Research: A brief review

of the past (hirly years” (2004), there are some difficulties in listening comprehension,

ie “speakers speed, limited vocabulary, lack of contextual knowledge, lack of concentration, learning, habits”

In the research “An investigation of Factors Influencing English Listening

Comprehension and Possible Measures for Improvement”, Naizhao Guo and Robin

Wills analyzed 3 factors thal influence listening comprehension of Chinese sludents

“students’ psychological obstacles, grammar knowledge, and cultural background knowledge”

With a more general view, Fan Vagang (1993) identified four sources of listening obstacles in the classroom: “the message, the speaker, the listener, and the physical

sellinys”

In this research, sources of listening obstacles revealed by Underwood (1989),

Naizhao Guo and Robin Wills, fan Yagang (1993) will be taken as bases

2.2, Overview of learning styles

2.2.1 Definitions of learning styles

As far as the researcher is concerned, there has been a myriad of definitions of

leaming styles For some time ago, the term “cognitive style” was used rather than leaming style Chastain (in Mandana Yousefi, 201 1:71), stated that “the term copnitive style refers to the predispositions individuals have for using, their intellect in specific ways to learn”; and field independence (FI) and field dependence (FD) are two

12

variables of cognitive style Zang, (in Mandana Yousefi, 2011-7!) stated FI/FD “as a

rellechon of the extent to which an individual uscs external or intemal cucs for

conduct organization” Ellis (in Shiela kheirzadeh and Zohreh Kassaian, 2011-189)

defined cognitive style as “the manner in which people perceive, recall, and organive

information” Tennant (1988:89) asserted cognitive style is “an individual's characteristic and consistent approach to organizing and processing information”

Tn general, cognilive styles are more related Lo theoretical or academic rescareh, while leaming styles are more related to practical applications Keefe (in Reid, 1987:87), leaming, styles are “cognitive, affective, and psychological traits that are relatively

stable indicators of how learners perceive, mleract will, and respond to the learamys

environment” Dunn and Dunn (in Reid, 1987: 89), defined learning style is “a term that describes the variations among /eamers in using one or more senses to understand,

organize, and retain experience” More (in Emma Violand Hainer ef al, 1990), defined

learning, style as “the usual or characteristic manner in which a leamer goes about the lask of learning” Durm (in Sehna Kara, 2009), defined learning style as “the way in which individuals begin to concentrate on, process, intemalize and retain new and

difficult information.”

As can be scen, different definitions of learning slyles provide different dimensions

and scopes In this study, the definition of Dunn and Dunn (1979) (in Reid, 1987): “a

term that describes the variations among learners in using one or more senses to understand, organize, and retain experience” will be used to refer to leaming style

related to language learning

2.2.2, Distinctions among learning styles, learning strategies, and learning skills

Leaming slyles, learning strategies, and learning skills are differen in soupe and depth According to Oxford (2003:2), “‘Leaming styles are the general approaches”

that leamers adapt or adopt in learning, and those styles influence students’

achievemenl in the learninyg process, Tn the rescarchar’s point of view, learning styles

are related to personalities, behaviors of individuals in learnmg Dunn and Griggs (in Oxfard, 2003) pointed out thal “Teaming style is the biologically and developmentally imposed set of characteristics that make the same teaching method wonderful for some

and Lernble for others” Therefore, different students have different characteristics, and

these should be considered thoroughly in the teaching process to fulfill students’ needs Meanwhile, in language leaming, “Strategies are the mental and communicative procedures earners use in order fo learn and use language” (Tsinghong Ma, 2010:466) An appropriate strategy would help Jeamers develop greater self-

confidence and motivation Scarcella and Oxford (in Oxford, 2003) asserted learning

stralegies are “specific actions, behaviors, steps, or lechniques — such as seeking oul

conversation pattems, or giving oneself encouragement to tackle a difficult language task — used by students to enhance their own learning” In fact, every learning task has strategies, the matter lics on learmers whelher or not they realize and apply effective strategies to complete the tasks A proper strategy would facilitate language leaming,

Since stralegies can be taught, i is vilal that several strategies should be taught [or

students to complete the tasks successfully, and that strategies should be incorporated

in every lesson In the researcher’s viewpoint, particular learners’ styles would lead to parlicular learning slyles that fll learners’ needs and affect their performance in school In addition, learning styles would be changed when students are more experienced: however, the core style would remain unchanged

As for learning skills, Kolb and Boyatas (1995:4) claimed that “A skill is a

combination of ability, knowledge, and experience that enables a person to do something well” They discussed three aspects of learning skills, ie “skills are domain-specific and knowledge-rich, 4 skill describes an integrated Iransaclion between the person and the environment, skills are developed by practice” In the rescarchor’s mind, learning skills are developed siguificantly through the process of practice Only when a student learns from experiences, his/her skills would develop

exponentially The following diagram shows the relationship among them

Figure 2 : Relationship among learning styles, learning

strategies, and learning skills

In general, learning styles, learning strategies, and learning kills are in one process of

learning in spite of the fact that they are different to some extent Good skills are vital

to solve a specific task well, good strategies are important to set a proper direction to

compete a task, an appropriate style would direct the whole process of learning

2.2.3 The formation of learners’ styles

As a matter of fact, different learning styles are created by different learners’

styles These individual differences have been examined by researchers for a long

time Kolb and Boyatzis (1999) discussed five factors that shape learners’ styles:

“personality types, early educational specialization, professional career, current job

role, and adaptive competencies” Specifically as for personality types, Kolb and Boyatzis (1999:7) asserted that “learning styles result from individuals’ preferred ways for adapting in the world” Sharing the same viewpoint, Jacob Woods (2010) stated

“this generally regards introversion or extroversion or whether a person wants to be

personable or slightly shy” In the researcher's mind, personality plays an essential or

even decisive role in determining leamers’ differences Early edneational specialization oan result in different learning styles as well Kolb and Boyalzas (1999:8) judged “his specialization in the realms of social knowledge influences

individuals’ orientations loward learning, resulting to particular relations between

leaming styles and carly training in an educational specialty or discipline” In other

words, students with different majors, or fields in their study would have different

learning styles Rogarding the third factor, professional carcer choice, Kolb and Boyatzis (1999-9) made known that the different choice in professional career can form learning style via the process of professional training That means, people with different professions would have dilferent styles, and cerlain professions would yesult

in one common style ‘Ihe fourth factor: current job role can influence learning styles significantly Kolb and Boyatzis (1999-10) stated that job requirements force a person

to adapt suitable styles lo meel those requirements Adaplive competencies also

influence leamers’ styles Kolb and Boyatzis (1999:10) agreed that “the specific task

or problem the person is currently working on shapes learning styles”, and drat “each task we face requires a corresponding set of skills for effective performance”, thus,

“the effective matching of task demands and personal skills results in an adaptive

competence”

2.2.4 Types of learning styles

Livery student has hissher own leaming style in educational context ‘hese

differences affect learners’ motivalion, altitudes towards the lessons As related to

individual differences, leaming styles, which result in different learning outcomes, reflect the students’ different interaction, reaction, and experience in the leaming environment, Thus, there is a need to balance these individual differences to raise students’ learning results In order to do that, individual leaming styles are identified, There have been a great number of works and studies which determined different types

of Teaming styles David Kolb (1984)'s book named “Experiential leaning

Experience As The Source Of Learning And Development” is a brilliant book that clarifies learning styles He set an appropriate learning style model The following

diagram shows this model:

Assimilating think and watch >

conceptualization (AC-thinking), and active experimentation (AE-doing) In addition,

the combination of two stages: CE/RO, AC/RO, AC/AE, CE/AE, creates four types of

leaming styles: Diverging, Assimilating, Converging, and Accommodating,

respectively

Fleming (2001) provided another model of learning style) VARK, which stands for

Visual (V), Aural (A), Read/Write (R), and Kinesthetic (K) According to Fleming

(2001), visual leamers prefer visual aids such as pictures, charts, graphs, colors Aural

leamers prefer to listen to a tape recorder, discuss in groups, explain ideas to others

Read/Write leamers prefer to read textbooks and handouts, take notes, write essays

Kinesthetic learners like involving in action, and experiment

Felder and Silverman (1988) discussed eight types of learning styles They are shown

in the following figure:

LEARNING STYLES

[ Ac | Sensing | [ Visual [ Verbal [ Sequential [ Global |

Figure 4: Learning styles classified by Felder and Silverman (1988)

Another learning style model introduced by Duff (2004) is the Revised Approaches to

Studying Inventory model named RASI This model includes three approaches to

studying: deep, surface, and strategic Duff (2004) pointed that students with a deep

approach to studying enjoy the learning activity, make connections to previous

leaming, and use logic and evidence well They are often critical leamers In contrast,

students with a surface approach to studying merely learn by heart, they use

memorization to learn, make fewer connections to previous learning, and they are not

good at critical thinking With a strategic approach to studying, students set their own

strategies to learning: organizing learning routines, managing time to study, achieving

highest grades

As it can be seen, the types provided above vary in terms of scope and depth In this

study, the type provided by Felder and Silverman (1988) and Fleming (2001) will be

taken as bases.

2.3 Learning styles adopted im developing listening skills

2.3.1 Ways to change a Icarning style

As a matter of fact, what makes each person’s style of learning unique is that people are found to have preferences for certain elements or options involved in the process of leaming over other elements or options In order to make the most of a learning style, it is necessary to think about a leaming style, and then adapt a suitable way in study to make the learning slyle more effective and efficient This view is also

shared by Andrea Buckner Schoenherr (n.d.) in the article named “How te change a student’s leaning style” In this article, Andrea points out four steps to adapt a

learning style

Step 1: “identifying the student’s learning style” Basing on suitable survey

quesliormaires, this identification can be made to see the results

Step 2: After discovering, an outstanding learning style, the teachers should “discuss ways the students can use his dominant leaming styles to help him succeed in the class” Importantly, secondary leaming styles should also be planned to develop

Step 3: ‘The teachers create a list of activities for students to practice in order to

“increase a targeted leaming style”

eded in

Step 4: The teachers monilor a progress lo sce whether a student is suc

modifying new learning styles

In the researcher's view, the changes in learning styles require continuous ellorls on the part of students and tcachers, cspecially students to adapt suitable styles

to enhance the learning outcomes

2.3.2 Ways to adapt a learning style in developing listening skills

Tn fact, there have been no studies which clearly discussed the adaptalion of

leaming styles in developing listening skills In the researcher's view point, students should identify their Jearning style before adapting it in developing listening skills

Due to the fact that different people have different ways to leam things, it is important

1o adap| certain style in studying

In terms of visual style, Jessica Hart (nd.) suggested that students should “use

pens in various colors and creale figures, symbols, graphs, and pictures” 1o facilitate

leaming Ïn the researcher's viewpoint, it 1s important for students to underline or highlight key words, and ideas, and practice doing listening exercises having pictures

or charts alfached in learning listening In addition, studying wilh flash cards and waiting down a set of questions and then writing out the responses (Jessica Hart, n.d) is wise ways in the leaming listening process

Tn lerms of aural style, from the researcher’s point of view, since aural learners prefer

to listen to tape recorder, and work in groups, it is important to choose a suitable

location in the classroom where a student can best hear the recording and focus

attention Added Lo this, students should form a Hstering club to discuss any lisloning problems with friends as learning from others is a excellent way to acquire knowledge

As for Read/Write style, as the name suggested, Read/Write learners prefer lo read

books, or write essays In doing listening exercises, students should read the instructions thoroughly and take notes while listening to a lecture

Wiuh regard to kinesthetic style, Jessica Hart (n.d) recommended thal students should

“study using the whole body, making hand gestures and moving around the room” in leaming In the researcher's viewpoint, to strengthen kinesthetic learning, it is useful

to sit at the front of the class to help students focus on the lessons Also, taking notes

while listening to a lecture is a good way to develop listening skills

Tn the researcher's point of view, learning is a continnous process, students

should adapt their learning styles in this process lo malch the learning environment, It

is useful for students to develop various types of leaming styles to become flexible keamers, and io achieve the besl results, accordingly

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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY This chapter has been made to discuss all the detailed information about methodology conceming employing the two data collection instruments

3.1 Research design

The researcher utilizes both quantitalive and qualilative methods comprising survey questionaire and interview to collect data to the research for three main reasons, First, survey questionnaire is familiar to nearly everyone, especially students, they must have oxpericnced completing some kinds of yuestioumaires, and therefore, they do not make students embarrassed Second, to quickly collect data from a large

number of student participants, survey questionnaire is the most suitable way to

employ Also, survey questionnaire helps the researcher save time and effort to collect information about students’ self-report on their own difficulties and styles in listening comprehension development Third, imterview is implemented among student participants to receive more reliable and intensive data about the research’s issue

In the analysis stage, the data collected from both quantitative and qualitative

method would be calculated and trausferred mo mineral form After thal, [hese dala

would be presented in charts, tables, and graphs for better visualization, better

understanding, accordingly

3.2 Participants and the selection of participants

This research’s participants are 11*-form students in the Foreign Language

Specializing School (FLSS), ULIS, VNU Coneretely, four classes named HB

(English major), 11D (Japanese major), 11E (Chinese major) and 11G (German majar)

winch consist of 195 students in total arc going lo he selected to complete the survey

questionnaires The researcher chooses these classes no matter what language they major in with a hope of investigating the relationship between language major and loamers’ learning styles In other words, discovering whelhier language major allocts

leamers’ styles is of the researcher's interest In addition, due to having a relative who

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is 11 -ferm student in this school, it will be much easier and convenient to contact and

gel information from these participants Furthermore, the number of participants, which accounts for 39% of the 11"*-form students in this school, could be considered reasonable enough for the real condition and scope of the study

The following table shows in detail thc number of students in cach class allotted with

the survey questionnaires

Table 1, Classes allocated with survey questionnaires

Tmporianily, four students were invited to participate in the face-to-face interview

‘Therefore, the researcher could have more reliable and in-depth understanding of the

research’s issue

3.3 Data collection instruments

The researcher emplays both quantitative and qualitative method including

survey questionaire and interview to collect data

+ Survey questionnaire

This method is uilived for three main reasons FirsL, this instrument is the least

time and effort consuming method Specifically, the researcher is able to quickly

collect data from a large number of participants thanks to its typical short close-ended

queslion types thal arc (ast and casy to complete Thus, Ihe dala collected will possess the high representativeness Second, many students are familiar with questionnaires, so

survey questionnaires do nol make them apprehensive Third, this mstrument is quile

fair compared to face-to-face interview because “When completing a questionnaire,

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there are no verbal or visual clues from an interviewer that may influence the person

surveyed” (Catherine Jones, (n.d)

Importantly, to avoid the respondents’ mistakes which result in a large number of

valueless dala, the researcher decided to use simple words, and expressions lo make

sure that the respondents could undorstand thoroughly what they had to do In

addition, the researcher was prepared willing to give explanation and answer all the

questions asked by the respondents

‘The researcher employed both close-ended and open-ended questions in the survey

questionnaire Among those questions, close-ended questions outmumber open-ended

ones While the questiormatre for students in class 11B (English major) was wrillen in

LUnglish, that for students in class 119, 1114, and 11G was translated into Vietnamese

to avoid students’ misunderstanding and confusion, accordingly, to guarantee the

accuracy of (he outcomes The following lable prosonts the details about the structure

of the survey questionnaire:

Table 2 Structure of students’ survey questionnaire

Students’ questionnaire (Appendix 1A and

1B)

1 Students’ difficulties in listening Question 1 to question 5

comprehension

2 Students’ perceptions of real-life Question 6 to question 8

listening and in-class listening

3 Students’ learning styles adopted in ‘Question 9 to question 12

developing listening skills

“ Tntcrview

Face-to-face interview is used in the data collection process for a number of

reasons First, this mstriment will creale more interaction between Lhe researcher and

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the participants, they may have a chance to ask any questions they are not sure about and the re:

cher will clarily the ambiguities for thom Second, porsonal feelings, perceptions and shares are directly obtained; therefore, the issue is investigated in an

in-depth way Third, for each particular situation, interview allows the researcher to

ask more detail questions if suitable, and enhance the data’s precise and validity, accordingly

To Lerms of the structure, the interview consisted of both close-ended and open-ended

questions, and open-ended questions were bigger in number Further details are shown

in the following table:

Table 3 Structure of students’ interview

Students’ interview (Appendix 2)

1 Students’ difficultics im Lstonmg Question I to question 2

comprehension

2 Students’ perceptions of real-life Question 3

listening and in-class listening

3 Studenls' lemming styles adopted mm ‘Question 4 to question 10

developing listening skills

3.4 Data collection methad and procedure

Stage 1: Contacting the participants

Tu this stage, the researcher will contact the parlicipants and arrange suilable lime for

them to do the survey

Stage 2: Introducing

Tho tescarvher and the survey questionnaires will be iutroduced and so docs the

purpose of the study

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Stage 3: Doing the survey

Aller asking the participants lo do the survey, the researcher will be willing to give them instructions if they raise any questions

Stage 4: Collecting data

After vellocting the data, the researcher will saying thanks to the participants, cvaluate the data to ensure the degree of accuracy and completeness

3.8 Data analysis methad and procedure

3.5.1 Data analysis method

‘The researcher employs two methods to analyze the data:

- Quantitative method: survey questionnaire

- Qualilalive method: interview

Vor quantitative data, the researcher will synthesize and interpret the statistics

Specifically, the dala will be calculated and Lransferred into munerical form

For qualitative data, the researcher will summarize or quote in the analysis stage

3.5.2 Duta analysis procedure

Data from instrument 1 the Questionaire

Step 1: Before collecting the data, the researcher checks the accuracy and conciseness

of the questionnaires” questions and answers to guarantee the data’s validity

Step 2: The statistics will be analyzed in percentage and grouped into different

Step 2: Analyzing

The researcher will check the results carefully beforehand and choose suitable

methods to aralyz the data

Step 3; Reporting

The findings will be revealed and the conclusion will be made

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CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION This chapter shows the readers the results of analysis process after following six phases in the data analysis procedure,

4.1 Findings

4.1.1 Students’ difficulties in listening comprehension

4.1.1.1 Students’ perceptions of the difficulty of listening periods

In order to investigate the difficulties experienced by 11-form students in the

FLSS in listening comprehension, the researcher found out their general judgments

about listening periods The data are shown in the following chart

Figure 5 The difficulty of listening period (Question 1, Appendix 1A)

As can be seen from the chart, there is a variety in the students’ perceptions of

the difficulty of listening periods The vast majority of students consider listening as difficult to very difficult Recognizably, class 11G has the largest number of students

judging listening difficult, while the students in class 11D are almost unanimous about

the extreme level of listening difficulty In contrast, there is a number of students

assess listening very easy or easy However, those students are small in number,

ranging from 2.2% to 8.1%

4.1.1.2 Students’ outstanding difficulties in listening comprehension

As discussed, that almost all target students value listening difficult to very

difficult Indeed, their outstanding difficulties are revealed in question number 2

shown in the following chart:

Figure 6, Outstanding difficulties in listening comprehension

Table 4 Outstanding difficulties in listening comprehension

a Speaker's speech

b, Limited vocabulary

¢ Lack of contextual knowledge

d Lack of grammar knowledge

e Your psychology: nervous, bored, tired, worried, ete

f Long listening text

g Listening texts which have difficult grammatical structures

h Others

As seen in the chart, speaker's speech and limited vocabulary is considered to

be the outstanding difficulties with the largest percentages compared to other choices,

28.5%, and 28.3% respectively Following, the difficulties related to psychological

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factors, long listening texts, and difficult grammatical structures in listening texts are

chosen by 21.7%, 25.1%, and 19.4% corresponsively One of those students shared

that psychological factors were so important that they could influence successful

listening; uncomfortable feelings such as nervousness, or boredom made him unable to

listen any longer (S2, Appendix 3B) When being asked about the causes of

uncomfortable feelings, that interviewed students blamed on the fact that his teacher

was so strict and that he had few interesting activities to motivate students Another

student shared that a long listening text caused tiredness and monotonousness, and a

student could not continuously grasp much information for a long time (S3, Appendix

3C)

In brief, the chart shows the various perceptions concerning listening obstacles

among the respondents There are five most outstanding factors unveiled:

psychological factors, limited vocabulary, speaker's speech, long listening texts, and

difficult grammatical structures in listening texts

4.1.1.3 Frequency of students’ problems with regard to the speaker’s speech

The answers to the questions related to the frequency of students’ problems concerning the speaker’s speech are illustrated in the chart below There are four

charts corresponding to each class’s answers

Figure 7 Frequency of students’ problems in class 11G with regard to the speaker's

speech (Question 2, Appendix 1A)

Table 5 Vactors related to the speaker’s speech Accent

Lb Thlonation

Redundancy Stuttering Pronunciation

As can be seen from the chart, students’ problems with regard to the speakers

speech is recognized by a significant frequency Conoretely, 37.9% of respondents acknowledge that they sometimes face problems related to these factors, ie accent,

intonation, redundancy, stuttermg, pronunciation, dialect, volume, colloquial

expressions, and stress ‘This percentage has made the highest proportion compared

wil

other frequencies Recognizably, the idea that students usually and always have

problems related to these factors is chosen by a small number of students, 3.8%, and

4.8% respectively By and large, it could be inferred that the speaker’s speech does not cause many (roubles (or those largel respondents,

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