04051001846 tóm tắt sử dụng hồ sơ học tập nhằm nâng cao khả năng nghe hiểu tiếng anh cho học sinh tại một trường thpt Ở thái bình một nghiên cứu hành Động

04051001846 tóm tắt sử dụng hồ sơ học tập nhằm nâng cao khả năng nghe hiểu tiếng anh cho học sinh tại một trường thpt Ở thái bình một nghiên cứu hành Động

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN THỊ TÂM

USING LISTENING PORTFOLIOS TO IMPROVE ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL FOR STUDENTS AT AN UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL IN THAI

BINH: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT

(Sử dụng hồ sơ học tập nhằm nâng cao khả năng nghe hiểu tiếng Anh cho học sinh tại

một trường THPT ở Thái Bình: Một nghiên cứu hành động)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field : English TeachingMethodology Code : 8140231.01

Supervisor : Prof Hoang Van Van

DECLARATION

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled

“Using Listening Portfolios to Improve English Listening Skill for Students at an Upper Secondary School in Thai Binh: An Action Research Project'' (Sử dụng hồ sơ

học tập nhằm nâng cao khả năng nghe hiểu tiếng Anh cho học sinh tại một trường THPT ở Thái Bình: Một nghiên cứu hành động) submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi Except where reference indicated, no other person's work has been used without acknowledgement in the

text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2022

Trần Thị Tâm

Approved by

SUPERVISOR

(Signature and full name)

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1 1 Rationale of the study

English has become an international language and has been used in a variety of fields in our lives such as communication, travel, culture, trade, and many other fields In today's increasingly interconnected and interdependent world, the use of English as a language of global communication is more and more dominant There is

a fact that English proficiency is a vital factor that brings about the opportunities to engage with the world in a more meaningful way As a result, the main objective of teaching and learning English is to help students effectively use English as a means

of communication According to Hoang Van Van (2016), the aim of teaching and learning a foreign language is for communication in which the main target is "we can understand them, and they can understand us"

It is widely acknowledged that listening skill is one of the core ones that help students fluently communicate in the target language Therefore, students are expected to be good at listening skills to achieve that objective However, it seems that what students can do outside the classroom does not meet this expectation When investigating the practice of teaching and learning English listening skills in state schools in Vietnam, especially ones in rural areas, the researcher found that the main focuses of students are English grammar and reading skills There is little attention paid to speaking, writing, and especially listening skills Therefore, there is a need for language teachers to figure out an appropriate method to solve this problem

In order to study this issue in-depth, the author has conducted the research

entitled “Using Listening Portfolios to Improve English listening skill for students at

an Upper Secondary School in Thai Binh” Hopefully, this research can help students

deeply understand the issues that they have not noticed before as well as suggest some solutions to improve students' listening proficiency At the same time, the study

is expected to serve as a guideline for language teachers wishing to adopt portfolio assessments in their educational context

1.2 Aims and Objectives of the study

The aim of this study is to use listening portfolios to improve listening skills for grade 10 students at an Upper Secondary School in Thai Binh Province, using Action Research as the main method To achieve this overarching aim, the study sets for itself the following objectives:

- finding out the students’ attitudes towards the use of listening portfolios in English lessons

- justifying the impacts of listening portfolios on the students’ listening skills

- finding out the students' difficulties when implementing listening portfolios

1.3 Research questions

Based on the reviewed literature and the overarching objectives of the study, the following research questions are posed:

1 What are the students 'attitudes towards listening portfolios?

2 To what extent do listening portfolios help to improve the students’ English listening skills?

3 What are the students' difficulties when implementing listening portfolios?

The assumption underlying these above-mentioned research questions is that portfolio application can bring positive impacts to the development of students’ listening skills as well as students' learning attitudes

1.4 Theoretical and practical significance of the research

In terms of theory, this study is expected to contribute to the theoretical background of the application of portfolios in studying English listening skills, particularly in the context of a public high school in Thai Binh

In terms of practice, this action research is hoped to give some contributions to the practice of teaching and learning English at high schools, especially the ones in Vietnam In more detail, the findings of the study can be used as a reference for English teachers in the researcher's context to understand their students more and improve their teaching situations

1.5 Scope of the study

This research covers the impacts of listening portfolios on the listening skill of 10th-grade students at a high school in Thai Binh

1.6 Research methodology

Based on the purposes of the study, action research using questionnaires,

teacher's journals, and listening tests to collect data from students were used This

action research employs both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection

and data analysis

1.7 Structure of the thesis

The study entitled “Using Listening Portfolios to Improve English Listening

Skill for Students at an Upper Secondary School in Thai Binh” is divided into five

chapters which are presented as follows:

● Chapter 1 is the Introduction

● Chapter 2 is the Literature review and theoretical background

● Chapter 3 is the Research methodology

● Chapter 4 is the Data analysis and Findings

● Chapter 5 is the Conclusion

1.8 Summary

This chapter demonstrates the basic information of the study such as the

rationale of the study, the aims and objectives of the research, and the significance,

and scope of the research In addition, the research questions, research methodology,

and the structure of the study have been mentioned in this chapter

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

In this chapter, the writer presents an overview of the literature related to the study, which serves as the foundation for the sequential development of the research The theories cover the concept of listening skills and listening portfolios At the same time, the results of the previous studies related to the research area, which plays an essential role in directing the researcher in figuring out the appropriate methods to conduct the research are mentioned and reviewed

2.1 Theoretical background of Listening Comprehension

2.1.1 Listening Comprehension

2.1.1.1 The nature of listening

2.1.1.2 The Listening Comprehension Process

2.1.2 Teaching and learning listening skill

2.1.2.1 Approaches of teaching listening

2.1.2.2 Stages of a listening lesson

2.1.2.3 Basic types of listening classroom performance

2.1.2.4 The difficulties for listening to a second language

2.1.3 The importance of listening

2.1.4 Listening outside classroom

2.2 Theoretical background of portfolios

2.2.1 Definitions of portfolios

2.2.2 The nature of portfolios

2.2.3 Types of portfolios

2.2.4 Steps to develop a portfolio

2.2.5 Strengths of portfolios

2.2.6 Limitations of portfolios

2.2.7 Related studies on listening portfolios

2.3 Summary

The chapter has so far presented the relevant literature review which helps to form the theoretical framework of the study The framework used in this study is

based on theories about portfolios and teaching listening skills by authors such as Nunan (1991), Brown (2000), Wilson (2008), and many other influential scholars In addition, this chapter provides readers with a summary of the related studies in the same field All of these serve as the foundation for the study on the use of portfolios

in improving students' listening skills in the researcher's context Moreover, the literature review in this chapter has indicated a research gap that needs to be covered

in this study

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides a detailed description of the research’s methodology, the context, and the participants of the study In addition, the procedures to collect data and methods of data analysis are presented in this chapter

3.1 Theoretical background of Action research

3.1.1 Definitions of action research

3.1.2 Theoretical background of different Action research models

3.1.3 Rationale of using Action research

3.2 Research context

3.2.1 Research setting

This action research is carried out at a high school, in a rural area in Thai Binh province It is a small school with over 1000 students divided into 27 classes The average number of students per class is from 40 to 45 students Most of the students come from poor farmer families, which prevents them from having a good condition for learning English

3.2.2 Participants

The subject of this research is 42 students from class 10A9, at a high school in Thai Binh

3.3 Research procedure

This action research follows the four-step model developed by MacIssac (1995) In more detail, there are four stages in this classroom action research:

Stage 1: Planning

Identifying the problem

The majority of them are not able to listen to long listening tapes such as lectures or long conversations As a result, these students usually show their unconfidence in their listening skills Their learning motivation for listening skill is also discouraged as a direct result, which leads to a boring, unlively classroom atmosphere

Developing a plan of action

From the identified problems, the researcher decides to make some efforts to

solve the problems Some strategies are designed by the researcher with the hope to improve students’ listening skills and their learning motivation

Stage 2: Action

This research was conducted in 8 weeks, from week 5 to week 13 in the first semester of the academic year 2021- 2022

The researcher conducted action research on the experimental group (class 10A9), who studied the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, and the listening portfolios were implemented every week

The following form is used as a guideline for students to carry out their portfoliosː

1 Introduction listening

portfolios: process,

requirement, scoring

Free listening topic

Pre- test Free listening topic Listen to the tape (videos, songs, films…),

+ take note main ideas, new words/phrases/structures

+ summarize the listening file + design listening tasks

+ work in groups/individually + write reflections

2 Topic: Household Chores

(adapted from the topic in Unit

1: Family life)

Listen to the tapes + take note main ideas, new words/phrases/structures

+ summarize the listening file + design listening tasks

3 Topic: Generation gap

(adapted from the topic in Unit

1: Family life)

4 Topic: Your body and you

- Health problems

5 Topic: Your body and you

- Exercises and their benefits

+ work in groups + write reflections

6 Topic: Music

- Music and its advantages

7 Topic: Volunteer work

8 Discussion

Free listening topic

Post- test and post

questionnaire

Listen to the tape + take note main ideas, new words/phrases/structures

+ summarize the listening file + design listening tasks

+ write reflections Finish the post- test and the post questionnaire

Table 3.1 The procedure of listening portfolio application Stage 3: Observation

As mentioned before, the researcher has a big challenge in observing students' performance because it is not a classroom activity Therefore, the researcher mainly observes their work through brief checking in classrooms, students' reflections, teacher journals, and their improvement in listening skills via listening tests or classroom activities

Stage 4: Reflection

In this stage, the data from tests, questionnaires, and teacher's journals will be collected and processed It will be used to help the researcher determine to what extent listening portfolios help to improve students’ listening skills and students’ attitudes towards the implementation of listening portfolios Some conclusions, implications, and recommendations can also be drawn

Moreover, the researcher evaluates the effects of using listening portfolios on students' listening ability in order to make sense of what happened during the first cycle Based on the findings, the researcher decided to further the cycle of classroom

action research in order to improve the classroom situation and revise and solve the weaknesses occurring in the first cycle

3.4 Data Collection Instruments

Based on the research questions, the researcher decides the appropriate data collection techniques Specifically, in this classroom action research, the data are collected via questionnaires, teacher's journals, and tests are explained as follows:

3.4.1 Questionnaire

3.4.2 Tests

3.4.3 Teacher's journals

3.5 Data collection procedure

3.6 Data analysis method

3.6.1 Questionnaire

The pre-questionnaire was designed in the form of multiple-choice questions and the Likert- Scale questionnaire, which aims at discovering students' views on the importance of English listening skills, their level of English listening skills, and reasons to practice English listening skills At the same time, the data regarding students' opinions on the methods of improving their English listening skills and their attitude towards an extra English listening activity were also collected

The post questionnaire used in this research is the Likert- Scale questionnaire, which is designed in the form of rating scales with the scales ranging from (1) Strongly disagree/(2) Disagree/ (3) No opinion/ (4) Agree/ (5) Strongly agree

The data from the questionnaire are quantitatively analyzed using SPSS 20 to identify the means and standard deviation of each questionnaire item, from which students' attitudes toward listening portfolios, students' opinions of the impacts of portfolios on their listening skills, and students' opinions of the difficulties when compiling portfolios are mentioned and reviewed The results of the quantitative analysis are presented in the form of tables and charts, which makes it easier for readers to follow the research results

3.6.2 Tests