NGHIÊN CỨU CÁ THỂ VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TÀI LIỆU THỰC TẾ TRONG GIẢNG DẠY KỸ NĂNG NGHE CHO HỌC SINH THPT TẠI HÀ NỘI

In the contemporary globalized world, people realize the importance of English listening skill in communication in general and in work in particular. In order to communicate with others successfully, people should listen well to understand what their communicator is talking about. In addition, speaking skill, i.e. a productive skill, is normally the one which impresses others at the beginning of the conversation; however, it is the receptive skills like listening skill that acts as the basis for speaking skill to flourish. As a result, English listening skill has become a key factor for people who want to socialize with foreigners and then, one of the decisive requirements for having a wellpaid job. It is also the reason why there are more and more English listening courses which aim at helping learners improve their listening skill. Next, teaching listening in high schools is emphasized by Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training. According to The guidance for high school education in English in 2013 – 2014, listening must be assessed at least once in each semester besides being tested in the end term test which has not been implemented before. It can be inferred that teaching and learning listening in high schools has been increasingly concerned. Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training requires high school teachers and students to focus much more on listening skill. In addition, the Ministry encourages teachers to apply new methods in order to improve the quality of teaching and learning for high school students (The guidance for high school education in English in 2013 – 2014). In order to help students to improve their listening skill, there are several effective ways. Among them, using authentic listening materials is considered to be of great help. The topic about authenticity of teaching materials itself has had a long history beginning from 1890s. Until now, most of the researchers consider authentic materials as beneficial in teaching and learning English skill (Henry Sweet (1899), Little, Devitt, Singleton (1988), Lee (1995), Gebhard (1996), Peacock (1997), Shrum and Glisan (2000), Shei (2001), Lin (2004), Khaniya (2006) and Oguz and Bahar (2008)). Moreover, authentic materials are available in our life. According to Gebhard (1996), there are unlimited sources for teaching materials. For those who live in countries where English is a foreign language, it is simply a matter of searching creatively. Teachers in urban areas of these countries can access authentic materials from cable TV, English language newspapers and magazines, and even from popular music on the radio. In large cities, modern grocery and department stores carrying imported products and the tourist industry such as hotels can offer useful authentic resources. Or else, during travel to Englishspeaking countries, teachers could pick up useful materials that could be adapted for their English lessons. In fact, Viet Nam is not an English speaking country, however, in the technological era, mass media such as the Internet, cable television and radio which contain nothing but authentic materials are accessible for almost all high school students, especially those in big cities like Hanoi. Furthermore, in comparison with listening materials given in course books which are modified to be suitable for students’ level, authentic materials are close to life and challenging. Therefore, it might be possible to use authentic materials to motivate high school students to listen and facilitate their listening skill so as for them to listen better. For those main reasons, the researcher has decided to do research into “A case study on using authentic materials in teaching listening for high school students in Hanoi”. Hopefully, the research could contribute to the literature on using authentic materials to improve four language skills in an Englishasaforeignlanguage environment like Vietnam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

A case study on using authentic

materials in teaching Listening for high school students in Ha Noi

Supervisor: HOANG HONG TRANG, M.A Student: TRAN NHAT ANH

Year of enrollment: QH2010

Hanoi – 2014

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

NGHIÊN CỨU CÁ THỂ VỀ VIỆC

SỬ DỤNG TÀI LIỆU THỰC TẾ TRONG GIẢNG DẠY KỸ NĂNG NGHE

CHO HỌC SINH THPT TẠI HÀ NỘI

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Th.s Hoàng Hồng Trang Sinh viên: Trần Nhật Anh

Khoá: QH2010

HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2014

I hereby state that I: Tran Nhat Anh, class QH 2010 F1 E9, being a candidate for

the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating

to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library.

In terms of these conditions, I 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 librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper.

Signature

Hanoi, May 5, 2014

I am absolutely conscious that I could not complete this thesis without thehelp of others In this occasion, I would like to take a chance to express my deepestgratitude to them

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude andappreciation to my supervisor, Ms Hoang Hong Trang for her acceptance to be mysupervisor, and for providing me with insightful and valuable comments From thepoint of a teacher, an advisor and an instructor, she suggested and encouraged me to

do this research Thanks to her instructions and encouragement, I could carry outthis study successfully

I would like to thank my family for their constant and endless source of love,support and encouragement They have been always by my side whenever I havehad difficulties and tiredness

I would also want to extend a special shout-out to all the researchparticipants The project would not have been accomplished without theirresponsible and valuable ideas and opinions in the questionnaire

Finally, my special thanks go to my dear friends for their understanding andassistance during the process of doing this research

All these people play remarkable roles in this research I once more time say

my most sincere thanks to all of them

This study was conducted with the attempt to explore the reality of materialsused in teaching and learning English listening skill in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai highschool in Hanoi and the attitude of teachers and students to the use of authenticmaterials in teaching listening in this school In order to do so, two English listeningskill teachers and 42 tenth form students in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school wereinvited to take part in the survey questionnaires After data were analyzed bothquantitatively and qualitatively, it was found out that authentic materials weresometimes used besides the course books and both teachers and students havepositive attitude towards the use of authentic materials in teaching and learninglistening despite some possible difficulties caused by this type of materials

TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Listening as a skill

2.1.2 Status of listening skill in an English language curriculum 6

2.2 Authentic Materials

2.2.2 Classification of Authentic Materials 10

2.2.3 Advantages of Authentic Materials 11

2.2.4 Disadvantages of Authentic Materials 12

2.2.5 Criteria to choose Authentic Materials 13

2.3 Related studies on using Authentic Materials in teaching listening 16

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Case study method 3.1.1 Reasons for choosing case study method 19

3.1.2 An overview of Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school 19

3.2 Selection of subjects 20

3.3 Data collection instrument 21

3.4 Procedures of data collection 3.4.1 Questionnaire for teachers 23

3.4.2 Questionnaire for students 24

3.5 Procedures of data analysis 24

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Results

4.1.1 Questionnaire for teachers

4.1.1.1 The current situation of teaching and learning

listening in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school 26

4.1.1.2 The types of materials used for teaching listening for high school students in Ha Noi 27

4.1.1.3 The attitude of teachers in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school towards the use of authentic materials in teaching listening 27

4.1.2 Questionnaire for students 29

4.1.2.1 Students’ self refection on their listening skill 29

4.1.2.2 The reality of materials used in teaching and learning listening in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school 35

4.1.2.3 The attitude of students in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school towards the use of authentic materials in learning listening 35

4.2 Discussion 4.2.1 The reality of materials used in teaching and learning listening in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school 38

4.2.2 The attitude of teachers and students in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school towards the use of authentic materials in teaching listening 39

4.2.3 Overcoming the constraints 42

4.2.3.1 Vocabulary 42

4.2.3.2 Speed 45

4.2.3.3 Time consuming of choosing authentic materials 46

4.2.3.4 Unavailability of equipment 49

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary of findings 50

5.2 Limitations 51

5.3 Suggestions for further research 51

REFERENCES 53

APPENDICES 58

Appendix A: Questionnaire for students

Appendix B: Questionnaire for teachers

LIST OF FIGURES PAGE

1 Figure 1: Difficulties in listening faced by tenth form

students in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school 30

2 Figure 2: Purposes of learning listening of tenth form

students in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school 31

3 Figure 3: Activities to practice listening of tenth form

students in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school 32

4 Figure 4: Sources of authentic listening materials exposed

by tenth form students in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school 33

5 Figure 5: Frequency of exposure of authentic listening materials

by tenth form students in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school 34

6 Figure 6: Reasons students prefer authentic listening materials

7 Figure 7: Reasons students prefer materials in textbooks

to authentic materials 37

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the study

In the contemporary globalized world, people realize the importance ofEnglish listening skill in communication in general and in work in particular Inorder to communicate with others successfully, people should listen well tounderstand what their communicator is talking about In addition, speaking skill, i.e

a productive skill, is normally the one which impresses others at the beginning of theconversation; however, it is the receptive skills like listening skill that acts as thebasis for speaking skill to flourish As a result, English listening skill has become akey factor for people who want to socialize with foreigners and then, one of thedecisive requirements for having a well-paid job It is also the reason why there aremore and more English listening courses which aim at helping learners improvetheir listening skill

Next, teaching listening in high schools is emphasized by Vietnam’s Ministry

of Education and Training According to The guidance for high school education in

English in 2013 – 2014, listening must be assessed at least once in each semester

besides being tested in the end term test which has not been implemented before Itcan be inferred that teaching and learning listening in high schools has beenincreasingly concerned Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training requires highschool teachers and students to focus much more on listening skill In addition, theMinistry encourages teachers to apply new methods in order to improve the quality

of teaching and learning for high school students (The guidance for high school

education in English in 2013 – 2014)

In order to help students to improve their listening skill, there are severaleffective ways Among them, using authentic listening materials is considered to be

of great help The topic about authenticity of teaching materials itself has had a longhistory beginning from 1890s Until now, most of the researchers consider authenticmaterials as beneficial in teaching and learning English skill (Henry Sweet (1899),Little, Devitt, & Singleton (1988), Lee (1995), Gebhard (1996), Peacock (1997),Shrum and Glisan (2000), Shei (2001), Lin (2004), Khaniya (2006) and Oguz andBahar (2008)) Moreover, authentic materials are available in our life According toGebhard (1996), there are unlimited sources for teaching materials For those wholive in countries where English is a foreign language, it is simply a matter ofsearching creatively Teachers in urban areas of these countries can access authenticmaterials from cable TV, English language newspapers and magazines, and evenfrom popular music on the radio In large cities, modern grocery and departmentstores carrying imported products and the tourist industry such as hotels can offeruseful authentic resources Or else, during travel to English-speaking countries,teachers could pick up useful materials that could be adapted for their Englishlessons In fact, Viet Nam is not an English speaking country, however, in thetechnological era, mass media such as the Internet, cable television and radio whichcontain nothing but authentic materials are accessible for almost all high schoolstudents, especially those in big cities like Hanoi Furthermore, in comparison withlistening materials given in course books which are modified to be suitable forstudents’ level, authentic materials are close to life and challenging Therefore, itmight be possible to use authentic materials to motivate high school students tolisten and facilitate their listening skill so as for them to listen better.

For those main reasons, the researcher has decided to do research into “A

case study on using authentic materials in teaching listening for high school students in Hanoi” Hopefully, the research could contribute to the literature on

using authentic materials to improve four language skills in an language environment like Vietnam

English-as-a-foreign-1.2 Objectives of the study

In this study, the researcher would like to concentrate on finding out the kinds

of materials used in teaching English listening for high school students in NguyenThi Minh Khai high school in Hanoi and analyzing the attitude of teachers andstudents in this school towards using authentic materials in teaching and learninglistening

1.4 Significance of the study

Although the study was conducted as a small scale one, the researcher doeshope that the results could raise teachers’ awareness of advantages of usingauthentic materials in their language teaching and may point out possible difficultiesfor teachers and students when teaching and learning with authentic materials so thatteachers can be better prepared if they have an intention of using these materials inthe future

Hopefully, the study could contribute to the improvement in quality ofteaching and learning English listening in particular and English language in general

in not only Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school, but also other high schools inHanoi.

1.5 Scope of the study

In the study, the researcher only focuses on investigation of the use ofauthentic materials in teaching listening, not other language skills Besides, due tolimited resources, the subject for research is limited to one 10th grade class and twoteachers of English in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school, Tu Liem District, Hanoi

Chapter 3 Methodology details the method employed to carry out the researchtogether with data collection instrument, participants, procedures of data collectionand method of data analysis

Chapter 4 Results and Discussion presents and discusses the results of theresearch and some suggestions for overcoming constraints of the use of authenticmaterials in teaching listening for students in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school

Chapter 5 Conclusion summarizes the main findings, draws the conclusion,acknowledges the limitations of the study and suggests further study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Listening as a skill

2.1.1 Definition of listening

Among four language skills, the most frequently used skill in the course of adaily life is listening (42%), followed by speaking (32%), reading (15%) and writing(11%) Therefore, it could be said that listening is the most important skill forcommunication Saricoban (1999) insists that listening is one of the fundamentallanguage skills It is a medium through which children, young people and adultsgain a large portion of their information, their understanding of the world and ofhuman affairs, their ideals, sense of values and their appreciation

Regarding the term “listening”, there are various definitions given bylanguage researchers

According to Anderson and Lynch (1988), listening is an internal process,which cannot be observed directly This means it is difficult to assess whether thelistener has effectively used the skills at a particular occasion, what listeningstrategies are employed, which source of information is dominantly used, and whatproblems the listener experiences This distinctive feature of listening might lead tothe view that listening is a passive skill in which the listener simply receives aspoken message Thus, listening remained the least understood and studied in thelanguage teaching/learning area (Rost, 1990; Morley, 1991; Vandergrift, 1999)

On the contrary, listening skill has received a considerable attention today.Also, the perceptions towards listening are different Unlike Anderson and Lynch(1988) considering listening as a passive skill, Rost (1991) affirms that “listening is

an active process requiring participation on the part of the listener” (p.21) Agreeingwith Rost (1991), Vandergrift (1999) believes listening comprehension is a complex,

active process including discriminating between sounds, understanding vocabularyand grammatical structures, interpreting stress and intonation, and then combiningwith the larger socio-cultural context of the utterance There are various opinions onfactors included in listening process from which the hearer could understand themessage sent from the speaker For example, according to Vandergrift (1999), asmentioned above, they are vocabulary, grammar, stress and intonation However,Oxford (1993, p 206) refers that together with perception of the sound, “listeningincludes comprehension of meaning of words, phrases, clauses, sentences andconnected discourse.” In the opinion of River’s (1987), listening activity needs tointegrate skills of language, such as pronunciation, vocabulary mastery, writing,speaking, and reading.

In this research, a simple definition of listening proposed by Keith Morrowand Keith Johnson (1998) would be adopted According to those, listening refers tothe ability to understand how a particular sentence relates to what else has been saidand its function in the communication

2.1.2 Status of listening skill in an English language curriculum

Despite the fact that listening plays a critically important role in bothlanguage learning, communication, academic pursuit and current English curriculum(Rost, 2002; Vandergrift, 2004), it remains the least researched and understood of allfour language skills (Nation & Newton, 2009) and “such neglect is surprising”(Hedge, 2003, p 228) While the other three language skills, i.e., reading, writing,and speaking, received direct instructional attention, listening skill in languagelearning was regarded as a solely passive activity (Mendelsohn, 1984: Oxford,1993) In teaching listening, teachers often expected students to develop theirlistening skill by Audio-lingual method and without assistance (Mendelsohn, 1984)

In the Audio-lingual approach, it is believed that if students listen to the targetlanguage all day, they will improve their listening comprehension skill through theexperience The fact that listening has been neglected or poorly taught may havestemmed from the belief that it is a passive skill and that merely exposing students

to the spoken language provides adequate instruction in listening comprehension(Call, 1985)

In addition to the American Audio-lingual Approach, the English languageteaching programs of the British Situational Approach did not pay much attention tolistening beyond its role in grammar and pronunciation drills and learners’ imitation

of dialogues during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s (Morley, 2001)

Arguments for listening comprehension began in the mid-1960s by Rivers(1966) who said that “Speaking does not itself constitute communication unlesswhat is being said is comprehended by another person” and that “Teaching thecomprehension of spoken speeches is therefore of primary importance if thecommunicative aim is to be reached” In 1969, at the Second AILA (InternationalAssociation of Applied linguistics) Conference held in Cambridge, England, the role

of teaching and learning listening was focused on through new views on theimportance of the following issues: (a) individual learners and the individuality oflearning, (b) listening and reading as non-passive and very complex receptiveprocesses, (c) listening comprehension’s being recognized as a fundamental skill,and (d) real language used for real communication as a viable classroom model(Morley, 2001) Then, slowly and steadily, more attention has been given tolistening comprehension

In the 1970s, listening began to be regarded as the status of centralimportance Instructional programs expanded their focus on pragmatic skills toinclude listening as well as reading, writing, and speaking During the 1980s, asresearchers became increasingly interested in exploring the details of this complexskill, more research, theory building, and curriculum development on listening

comprehension were done Throughout the 1990s, attention to listening in languageteaching increased dramatically Listening is now considered as an active skill thatinvolves many processes Byrnes (1984) characterizes listening comprehension as a

“highly complex problem-solving activity” that can be broken down into a set ofdistinct sub-skills As Richards (1985) points out, “current understanding of thenature of listening comprehension draws on research in psycholinguistics,semantics, pragmatics, discourse analysis, and cognitive science” In order tocomprehend spoken messages, listeners may need to integrate information from arange of sources: phonetic, phonological, prosodic, lexical, syntactic, semantic, andpragmatic

2.1.3. Difficulties of learners with listening skill

Despite the importance of listening in teaching and learning language, itcould not be denied that it is a difficult skill to both teachers and learners In order toprove this opinion, Ghaderpanahi (2012) points out three factors which could make

it difficult and confusing for learners in their listening process They are layers ofsound which are at different volumes and speeds and often with frequentinterruptions, accents and intonation

In addition to three factors above, according to Underwood (1989), thereasons which make listening difficult could be not only related to the speaker, butfrom the listener as well, including: listener’s inability to control the speed ofdelivery, to recognize the signals in listening and concentrate on a foreign language,listener’s limited vocabulary, listener’s shortage of contextual knowledge andlistener’s worry about failure of understanding every word in listening

There are also other problems identified by other writers such as problemsconcerning how to approach the task of decoding spoken English (Brown, G., 1990;Carrier, 1999; Chien & Wei, 1998), difficulties in understanding reduced forms,

distinguishing word boundaries and recognition of non prominent words (Cauldwell,1996), short term memory capacity (Call, 1985; Ellis, 1996; Rost, 1990) and learnersmay lose their interest in the topic or the activity (Rost, 1990)

2.2 Authentic materials

2.2.1 Definition of authentic materials

The definitions of authentic materials are slightly different in literaturewritten by different language researchers Nunan (1989, as cited in Adams, 1995)refers to authentic materials as any material that has not been specifically producedfor the purpose of language teaching To be more specific, Widdowson (1990) notedthat “Authentic materials would be materials designed for native speakers of Englishused in the classroom in a way similar to the one it was designed for” For example,

a radio news report brought into the class so students discuss the report on pollution

in the city where learners live Similarly, Harmer (1991) defined authentic texts asreal texts designed for speakers of the language, not for language students Jordan(1997) seemed to be in agreement with Harmer (1991) when he referred to authentictexts as texts that were not written for language teaching purposes

In short, this research adopts the view of Nunan (1989), Widdowson (1990),Harmer (1991) and Jordan (1997) mentioned above, that is, authentic materials areconsidered as the kind of materials designed for native speakers out of purpose oflearning language

2.2.2 Classification of authentic materials

Gebhard (1996) based on the presentation of the materials to classifyauthentic materials teachers could use in their classes into four categories and gaveexamples for each category:

1 Authentic Listening - Viewing Materials TV commercials, quiz shows,cartoons, news clips, comedy shows, movies, soap operas, professionally audiotaped short stories and novels, radio ads, songs, documentaries, and sales pitches

2 Authentic Visual Materials slides, photographs, paintings, children’sartwork, stick-figure drawings, wordless street signs, silhouettes, pictures frommagazines, ink blots, postcard pictures, wordless picture books, stamps, and X- rays

3 Authentic Printed Materials newspaper articles, movie advertisements,astrology columns, sports reports, obituary columns, advice columns, lyrics tosongs, restaurant menus, street signs, cereal boxes, candy wrappers, touristinformation brochures, university catalogs, telephone books, maps, TV guides,comic books, greeting cards, grocery coupons, pins with messages, and busschedules

4 Realia (Real world objects) used in classrooms coins and currency, foldedpaper, wall clocks, phones, Halloween masks, dolls, and puppets, to name a few.(Realia are often used to illustrate points very visually or for role-play situations)

Differently, according to Mathew et al (1991), there are four types ofauthentic listening materials based on what listeners listen to in their daily life innative language They are songs, conversation, news broadcast and films which aretaken from various sources such as tape recorder, radio, TV, video, computersoftware and CD – Room and the Internet network based communication as well

In this research, the researcher would apply the broader classification ofauthentic materials of Gebhard (1996)

2.2.3 Advantages of authentic materials

There are some advantages of using authentic materials in teaching listening.According to Philips and Shettlesworth (1978), Clarke (1989), Peacock (1997) andBerardo (2006), authentic materials have a positive effect on student motivation It isalso supported by Tamo, D (2009) and Guariento and Morley (2001) who state thatsince authentic materials are real they give the learners a sense of coping with aliving entity and they conclude that in order to promote motivation authenticmaterials can be used Different researchers such as Lee (1995), Little, Devitt &Singleton (1988), Peacock (1997), and Shei (2001) also claim motivation effect ofauthentic materials This, according to Lin (2004), is because learners see authenticmaterials as being only more interesting and stimulating Oguz and Bahar (2008)contend that if learners’ interaction with authentic materials is established withinterest and without difficulty they can participate actively in learning and in thesame way their motivation levels may raise

Secondly, using authentic materials exposes students to real language Chavez(1998) agrees that using authentic materials is to the benefit of the students becausethey are more enjoyable and students find a chance to interact with the language andits use According to Shrum and Glisan (2000), authentic materials provide aneffective means for presenting real language, integrating culture, and heighteningcomprehension They bring two reasons for believing that authentic materials arebeneficial Firstly, by exposure to such materials, students will be provided with theopportunity to see language as is used in real world to serve a real purpose.Secondly, such materials can be considered as a rich source of cultural content Inaddition, Haley and Austin (2004) and Velazquez (2007) encourage the use ofauthentic texts since they believe that such texts can provide a connection betweenthe students on one hand and the target language and culture on the other hand Alsothe teacher is provided with “more opportunities to bring the real world aspects into

the class” (p.93) Thus, it could be said that authentic materials not only functions toprovide students with real language used everyday by native speakers, but giveauthentic cultural information as well

Other advantages listed by experts are authentic materials are related moreclosely to students’ needs, encourage to improve other language skills actively,produce a sense of achievement and support a more creative approach to teaching

2.2.4 Disadvantages of authentic materials

According to experts, authentic materials not only have advantages inteaching and learning language, but also include disadvantages For Kim (2000),Guariento & Morley (2001) and Martinez (2002), authentic materials often containdifficult language, unneeded vocabulary items and complex language structureswhich cause a burden for the teacher in lower-level classes and discouragement forlow level students Then, because students may be unable to understand authenticlanguage input, they could also experience frustration, which may negatively impacttheir receptiveness to authentic material (Bacon & Finneman, 1990; Guariento &Morely, 2000)

Secondly, the use of authentic materials is time consuming for the teachers(Viney, 2006) The materials may be too difficult for students so the teacher willneed longer hours in planning and applying the materials, and most of all theteachers may find it difficult to adjust the materials with the syllabus that the schoolrequires

According to Murdoch (1999), another problem may come out when studentslearn languages for the purpose of gaining success on an examination In thesesituations, teachers have to take the responsibility in achievement of their students.Therefore, if students are presented with authentic text which may not give the rules,

patterns, or structures they need to pass an exam, it is not sure that they could gethigh score in examinations which often require academic language learning

Finally, there are other disadvantages: authentic materials require a goodknowledge of cultural background and become outdated easily (Tamo, D., 2009;Kim, 2009, Guariento & Morley, 2001; Martinex, 2002)

2.2.5 Criteria to choose authentic materials

Authentic materials have some disadvantages as mentioned above, a carefulselection of these materials for use in the classrooms, therefore, should be paid highattention to Oguz and Bahar (2008:331) do not encourage random selection ofauthentic materials To be used effectively they mention that when choosingmaterials there should always “be an aim in using them and chosen materials shouldmeet the objectives of the lesson” Further, they point out that criteria such aslearners’ age, level, interests, needs, goals, and expectations must always be met

In choosing authentic materials three other factors have been introduced byNuttal (in Berardo, 2006:62) as suitability, exploitability, and readability Similar tothe opinion of Oguz and Bahar (2008), according to Nuttal, the most importantcriterion, suitability, refers to the idea that texts must be chosen based on learners’interest and they should be relevant to their needs By exploitability he means theway through which learners’ competence as readers may be developed Readabilitymeans choosing texts’ difficulty based on learners’ language level Besides thepurpose and interest of learners, Rogers and Medley (1988) add some othercharacteristics such as quality, appropriateness, and naturalness of the languagewhich must be considered and for Shomoossi et al (2007) it is the context of useneeds Galloway (1990) recommends the following criteria in authentic materialselection:

1 Topic should be accessible to learners

2 Length of text should not be intimidating to beginning readers

3 Linguistic level should be slightly above the reader’s own level unlessthe tasks are closely structured to involve focused reading

4 Clues to meaning should be abundant such as contextual, verbal, pictorial,and linguistic

(Cited in Haley and Austin, 2004: 160-161)

In agreement with Galloway (1990), according to Tungesh G.M (2012), it isthe most important for teachers to choose authentic materials suitable for interest ofstudents and the proficiency level of the class Of them, the latter is also mentioned

by Fei and Yu-feng (2008) as a determining factor in choosing appropriate authenticmaterials In order to have the best choice, Tungesh G.M (2012) proposed somesuggestions: (1) select shorter texts or articles with simpler, less complex language,(2) use extracts from longer articles, (3) select topics that are likely to be of interest

to the learners, too, (4) most of these materials contain a lot of visuals that can beused as interesting stimuli to generate language, (5) particularly, brochures,magazines and newspapers are readily available and teachers should look out forthese and collect and compile them for use in the classrooms (p.107)

Different from Galloway (1990) and Tungesh G.M (2012) in terms ofcomplexity level of the materials, Spelleri (2002) gives that recommendation that itmust be slightly beyond learners’ level for increasing motivation, awareness, andcuriosity Karpova (1999) provides a list of the criteria which need to be consideredwhen using authentic materials as follows:

1 Content: the content of authentic materials has to be appropriate forlearners’ age, interest, needs and goals

2 Tasks: tasks must be “sequenced and differentiated” and must include

“communicative and cognitive procedures” so that the learners’ background andnew knowledge can be integrated

3 Teacher-learner relationship: the materials must be structured in a way that

a “reciprocal” interaction between the instructor and the learner takes place

4 Learning strategies: cognitive abilities of the learners must be improved bypaying attention to learning strategies

5 Learning environment: the environment provided must in a way encourage

“risk taking and idea sharing”

6 Social Values and Attitudes: authentic materials must be a reflection ofsocial values and attitudes

7 Culture issue: authentic materials must further learners’ “cultural,sociolinguistic, and paralinguistic awareness”

In terms of authentic listening materials, Valencia (1991) and Karpova (1990)reported some guidelines for selecting authentic listening materials Their guidelinesare as follows:

1 Authentic listening materials should reflect important themes and ideas

2 Authentic listening materials should be consistent with the goals of thesubject area curriculum in your district

3 Authentic listening materials should be rooted in real world experiencesand have application to the world both inside and outside school

4 Authentic listening materials should be sensitive to the developmentalprogression of students

5 Authentic listening materials should allow students to engage in higherorder thinking (Valencia, 19910, p 590 – 591)

Karpora (1999) [cited in (Su, 2007, p 50)] also provided several guidelinesfor selecting authentic listening materials including: (1) content: authentic listeningmaterial should be content appropriate to the age, interests, needs, and goals ofstudents (2) Tasks authentic listening materials should contain tasks that presentcognitive and communicative procedures that students could apply to their new

knowledge in the collective exploration (3) Teacher – learner relationship: authenticlistening material should be balanced between instructors and students „expectations

of the learning activities and involve a reciprocal interaction (4) Strategies:authentic listening materials should contain learning strategies (5) Learningenvironment: authentic listening material should encourage the process of ideasharing and risk-taking (6) Social values and attitudes: authentic listening materialsshould reflect social values and attitudes (7) Culture issue: authentic listeningmaterials should reflect cultural issues (8) Miscellaneous: authentic listeningmaterials should function along with grammar points and the instruction should beclear

However, Oguz & Bahar (2008) concluded that when authentic listeningmaterials are used taking the above mentioned rules into consideration, they will bebeneficial for students at all levels One of the important points in creating authenticlearning environment is the teachers’ ability to use authentic materials in a way thatwill benefit students

2.3 Related studies on using authentic materials in teaching listening

So far there have been a number of researchers in the world who haveinvestigated the issue of using authentic materials in teaching listening Forexample, they are “Listening skills development through media” (Meskill, 1996),

“Using authentic materials to develop listening comprehension in English as asecond language classroom” (Thanajaro, 2000), “Some problems in listeningcomprehension using authentic materials encountered by the third year students ofSma Dua Mei Ciputat” (Tuanany, 2007), “The importance of authentic listeningmaterials in EFL classrooms in Cape Verde” (Monteiro, 2010), “The use of songs as

a tool to work on listening and culture in EFL classroom” (Arevalo, 2010) and

“Using authentic aural materials to develop listening comprehension in the EFL

classroom” (Ghaderpanahi, 2012) In Vietnam, there are also studies on this topicsuch as “Using authentic materials on websites as supplementary materials forteaching listening to second year students at VNU – CFL” (V T T Van, 2005),

“Designing listening tasks using authentic materials with CLT orientation inteaching listening skills to first year students at English Department, CFL – VNU”(N T M Thao, 2005), “Designing listening tasks based on authentic materials forthe development of listening skills for first year students at English Department,VNU – CFL” (P T T Huyen, 2008), and “The exploitation of authentic materialsfrom the Internet as supplementary materials to develop listening skills for secondyear students in the ED – HULIS” (D T H Ly, 2010)

It could be clearly seen that the studies mentioned above are all concentrated

on using authentic materials in teaching listening for adult learners in general andstudents at university level

With regard to the level of high school students, as far as the researcher isconcerned, in Vietnam, there have been at least three studies which study on thesame topic as that of this research Among them, in the research “The application ofVOA special English to teach listening skill to 11th form students in An Duong highschool” conducted recently by N T H Phuong (2010), the researcher provides arecommendation of using VOA special English on the Internet to teach listening for

11th form students in a specific high school in Hai Duong province Until thepresent, VOA special English is still one of the common sources of listeningmaterials However, with the development of multi-media which leads to highavailability of authentic listening materials, VOA special English is becoming lesspopular to high school students Furthermore, this type of materials, to some extent,

is modified for English learning, thus, it may not be really considered “authentic”materials

Additionally, while previous studies mostly focus on the application ofauthentic materials into teaching listening, there has been no research into the

current situation of materials used in teaching and learning listening in high schools

in Hanoi from which the difficulties of both high school teachers and students withlistening skill could be found out and solutions would be suggested Therefore, theresearcher hopes that this study could bridge the gap in literature and provide aninsight into the reality of materials used in teaching and learning listening in a highschool in Hanoi and the attitude of teachers and students in this school to theapplication of authentic listening materials so that the quality of teaching andlearning listening in high schools in Hanoi could be improved

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Case study method

3.1.1 Reasons for choosing case study method

In the present study, case study method is adopted because the characteristics

of case study method could fulfill the purposes of the study and the researcher’ssituation

According to Benbasat et al (1987), using case study, the researcher couldunderstand the nature and complexity of the processes taking place Since thepurposes of this study is to identify the materials used in teaching listening inNguyen Thi Minh Khai high school and analyze the attitude of teachers and students

of this school towards using authentic materials in teaching listening, case studymethod could help the researcher investigate the reality in Nguyen Thi Minh Khaihigh school in greater detail and then accomplish the purposes of the study

Moreover, case studies involve an attempt to describe inner relationshipsexisting in reality in a single organization (Benbasat et al, 1987) In this research,because of limited time and ability, it seems to be difficult for the sole researcher tocover a larger scope, for example, all high schools either in Hanoi or in Vietnam so

as to gather the information for the study Instead, one case, specifically, a tenthform class in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school in Hanoi might be moremanageable for the researcher

3.1.2 An overview of Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school

Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school in Tu Liem District, Hanoi was theschool the researcher chose to conduct the study The reason why this school was

chosen as the subject of the study is that this was also the place where the researcherserved in her practicum.

For the past 45 years, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school is one of the highlyqualified high schools in Hanoi which have educated students for comprehensivedevelopment In the process, the school has been rewarded by Vietnam’s Ministry ofEducation and Training for contribution to the general educational development ofthe country In order to continue its tradition and meet the increasing requirements

of the Ministry, the school sets the goal to focus on innovating in management,teaching methods, facilities and out door activities According to orientations andtasks for the future determined by the Management Board of Nguyen Thi Minh Khaihigh school in 2010, it was claimed that innovative teaching and learning methodsshould be approached contributing to educational quality

There are 91 teachers and staff and 1658 students who are working andstudying in the school In the school year 2010 – 2011, 100% of teachers arerecognized to meet the quality standard for a high school teacher suggested by VietNam’s Ministry of Education and Training In the same year, the school ranked 74thamong 200 high schools in the country in terms of the percentage of students whopassed the entrance examination to universities

In terms of equipment, similar to other high schools in Hanoi, Nguyen ThiMinh Khai high school satisfies the requirement of The Ministry of Education andTraining, providing five multi-media rooms with high-quality technologicalfacilities, i.e., projectors, computers and speakers for teaching and learning English

3.2 Selection of subjects

In this study, the researcher chose to do the survey in a tenth form class which

is also the class the researcher was in charge of during the practicum This class isgoing to take university entrance exams in Group D so they pay great attention to

three subjects: English, Literature and Math At the present, these students are usingEnglish 10 published by The Education Publishing House to learn English, just asother 10th form classes all over Vietnam

Besides, two English teachers of grade tenth were invited to participate in thesurvey for teachers They are English teachers who are teaching listening for tenthform students in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school One of them was theresearcher’s supervisor in the practicum and has had approximately 30-year-experience in teaching English for high school students This teacher also teachesEnglish for the class whose students took part in the survey for students The other is

a young teacher who has had about three years of teaching English in Nguyen ThiMinh Khai high school She gets familiar with applying technological advances inher teaching and is currently taking charge of teaching English for another tenthform class in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school

Hopefully, through the questionnaires done by them, the researcher couldhave a better picture of teaching and learning listening comprehension in NguyenThi Minh Khai high school

3.3 Data collection instrument

In order to collect data for this study, questionnaires were used because of itstime-saving and cost-effective features Also, a large amount of information could

be collected within a short frame of time

In this part of the thesis, the researcher would describe the questionnaire forteachers and questionnaire for students which were used to collect data for the study

Firstly, because of the limitation of time of the teachers, questionnaire forteachers (Appendix B) is designed in form of an online survey via

http://www.esurveyspro.com so that it is more convenient for them to respond intheir free time In the questionnaire, there are both closed-ended and opened-ended

questions for teachers to not only choose options which reflect their opinions, butgive additional information as well Questions in the questionnaire are written inVietnamese and have clear instructions in order that teachers could do the survey inthe right way as the plan of researcher.

There are 12 questions about the current situation of teaching and learninglistening in high school and the advantages and disadvantages of using authenticmaterials in teaching listening in high school in Ha Noi

Among them, the first three questions of the questionnaire are about student’slearning listening in high school, and then the next two questions are aimed atpointing out how teachers adapt their method and procedures in order to helpstudents improve their listening skill The rest of the questionnaire includes question

6 to 12 in order to find out whether teachers apply authentic materials in teachinglistening or not and the reasons of the choices

Next, questionnaire for students (Appendix A) is designed to be clear andaccessible for high school level Both closed – ended and open – ended questions areincluded in the questionnaire

In terms of closed – ended questions, there are options given by researcher forrespondents to choose while open – ended ones which requires respondents toprovide their opinions in writing for additional details and in case they havedifferent opinions from options given in questionnaire The questionnaire is written

in Vietnamese for ensuring students to understand questions thoroughly Moreover,the researcher planned to instruct them to do the survey and explain questions if it isnecessary

In the questionnaire, it includes three main parts: students’ self reflection ontheir listening skill study from item 1 to 9, the reality of teaching and learning ofEnglish listening in their class from item 10 to 11 and the attitude of students inNguyen Thi Minh Khai high school to the use of authentic materials in learninglistening from item 12 to 14 By designing the questionnaire as mentioned above,

the researcher desires that respondents would not be confused about the content ofthe questionnaire, instead, they could understand all the details in the survey clearlyand hence the validity of the result would be enhanced.

3.4 Procedures of data collection

3.4.1 Questionnaire for teachers

Step 1: Design the questionnaire

The questionnaire is designed basing on the objectives of the research: the currentstatus of teaching and learning listening in high school in Ha Noi and the attitude ofteachers in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school towards the application of authenticmaterials in teaching listening from perspectives of teachers

Step 2: Pilot and revise the questionnaire

The questionnaire had been done by a listening teacher of grade ten in Nguyen ThiMinh Khai high school in Hanoi in order to pilot the understanding of content andthe timing Basing on that, the researcher could revise and improve thequestionnaire

Step 3: Deliver the questionnaire

As mentioned above, the researcher designed the questionnaire in form of an onlinesurvey on http://www.esurveyspro.com and sent invitation to take part in the survey

to e-mails of two listening teachers in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school As soon

as clicking the link of http://www.esurveyspro.com in the invitation, the teacherscould do the survey and send the result to the researcher after clicking the button

“Finish” at the end of the survey

3.4.2 Questionnaire for students

Step 1: Design the questionnaire

The questionnaire is designed basing on the objectives of the research mentionedabove: the current status of teaching and learning listening in Nguyen Thi MinhKhai high school and attitude of students in this school to the use of authenticmaterials in learning listening

Step 2: Pilot and revise the questionnaire

The questionnaire was delivered to one tenth form class in Nguyen Thi Minh Khaihigh school in Hanoi comprising of 45 students in order to pilot the understanding ofthem and the timing Basing on that, the researcher could revise and improve thequestionnaire

Step 3: Deliver the questionnaire

The researcher delivered the questionnaire to a graded ten class in Nguyen Thi MinhKhai high school Therefore, there were 42 respondents taking part in the research intotal Each questionnaire may need about seven to ten minutes to be done; as aresult, the research gave students questionnaire after class and recommended them to

do it Moreover, the researcher attended while they were doing the questionnaire inorder to be able to explain more about the questions and instruct students ifnecessary

3.5 Procedures of data analysis

In terms of data analysis, because the purpose of this research is to find outthe situation of materials used in teaching and learning listening in one class inNguyen Thi Minh Khai high school and to evaluate the attitude of teachers and

students towards the use of authentic materials in teaching listening for high schoolstudents in this school, the researcher has collected both quantitative and qualitativedata so that through the former, the researcher could measure what types ofmaterials and how frequently teachers and students in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai highschool teach and learn with those materials in listening classes and by the latter, theresearcher could indicate the attitude of them towards the issue of using authenticmaterials in teaching listening for high school students and reasons for their choices.

After the data have been collected, they are organized and analyzed Forclosed-ended questions, statistical analysis was used, then those data were presented

in bar charts and pie charts The open-ended questions were analyzed throughcontent analysis by the researcher with the aim of reflecting characteristics andconcepts

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Findings

In this part of the thesis, the results of surveys would be presented and

analyzed

4.1.1 Questionnaire for teachers

4.1.1.1 The current situation of teaching and learning listening in

Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school

As mentioned above, the researcher designed a questionnaire for teachers andinvited two teachers to take part in the survey Thanks to the enthusiasm and supportfrom both of them, the researcher could gain useful information for the findings part

Regarding the current situation of learning listening in Nguyen Thi MinhKhai high school, both teachers agree that listening is a difficult skill for students tolearn

Moreover, for the question about the aspects of listening skill which studentsmay find difficult, they have the identical opinions that are (1) speed of the listening

is often too fast for students to catch up with, (2) there are a lot of different accentswhich students are not familiar with, (3) quality of recordings of listening tapes ispoor which may distract students and (4) students can not stay concentrated until theend of the listening

Despite the difficulty of listening, the teachers claim that their students are allexcited about listening lessons

With regard to activities used to motivate students to learn listening, theyapply various different activities Both of them pay attention to the pre-listeningactivity which leads students to the listening by introducing and familiarizingstudents with topics of the listening and helps students be confident by introducingnew words, new structures and the content of the listening before students listen.Besides, one of them adds that she modifies the lessons, particularly tasks andrequirement of tasks in order to be suitable for students’ level and she changes sometopics in the textbook basing on students’ interest and demand as well

4.1.1.2 The types of materials used for teaching listening for high

school students in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school

About materials used for teaching listening, the teachers have used materials

in the textbook required by the Ministry of Education and Training and materials inother books at the same level In addition, one of them also uses authentic materialsonce to four times per school year

Answering the question about which sources are used to get authenticmaterials to teach listening for high school students, the teachers share the opinionthat they select authentic materials from the Internet for their teaching in class

There are some criteria the teachers apply to choose authentic materials Theyare (1) complexity of the listening, (2) possibility of designing tasks and activities,(3) motivation of the listening to students and (4) quality of the recording

4.1.1.3 The attitude of teachers in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high

school towards the use of authentic materials in teaching listening