A study on the use of portfolios in improving listening skill of second-year students at Hanoi University of Industry = Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng hồ sơ bài tập

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ____________________ NGUYỄN THÙY TRANG A STUDY ON THE USE OF PORT

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THÙY TRANG

A STUDY ON THE USE OF PORTFOLIOS IN IMPROVING LISTENING SKILL OF SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG HỒ SƠ BÀI TẬP TRONG VIỆC CẢI THIỆN KỸ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ 2 TẠI

TRƯỜNG ĐH CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

HANOI – 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THÙY TRANG

A STUDY ON THE USE OF PORTFOLIOS IN IMPROVING LISTENING SKILL OF SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG HỒ SƠ BÀI TẬP TRONG VIỆC CẢI THIỆN KỸ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ 2 TẠI

TRƯỜNG ĐH CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Dr Ngô Hữu Hoàng

HANOI – 2014

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DECLARATION

I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct I also certify that all material and results which are not original to this work have been fully cited and referenced

March 2014

Signature

Nguyễn Thùy Trang

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Ngo Huu Hoang for his helpful guidance, critical comments, ongoing support and invaluable contributions during all the stages of this study

I owe my special thanks to Dr Nguyen Thi Minh Tam, who has made insightful suggestions for improving my thesis

I am grateful to all lectures and staff members of the Faculty of Post - Graduate Studies for their valuable lessons and help

I am thankful to the students who took part in this study for their cooperation and contribution Lastly, I am deeply indebted to my family and colleagues whose encouragement has been extremely important to the success of this study

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ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to explore the efficiency of the application of portfolios in the listening skill of second-year non English major students at Hanoi University of Industries, HAUI It took into consideration the listening progress of target students in order to generalize this method at the university

The participants included 52 second-year non English major students at HAUI A designed listening portfolio given to students and collected at the end of the process, questionnaires and task performance measurement were employed to investigate the efficiency

of listening portfolios and then, find out some suggestions on teaching and learning listening skill Qualitative method was used to analyze data obtained from the aforementioned data collection instruments

This is a piece of action research and the findings of the research provided insight into the efficiency of portfolios in improving listening skill The mid-term test results also showed that progresses were made after the process of portfolios Based on the findings, some recommendations, limitations and suggestions were given out

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ABBREVIATIONS

AOF Academy of Finance

EFL English as a foreign language

ESL English as a second language

ESP English for specific purposes

HAUI Hanoi University of Industry

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION OF AUTHORITY ……… ……… ……….I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……….……… … …II ABSTRACT……… ……….………… III ABBREVIATIONS.……… ……… ………IV

TABLE OF CONTENTS V

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale……….1

2 Aims and research questions of the study……….……… ……….1

3 Scope of the study……….…….……….2

4 Structure of the study……….2

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical background of listening comprehension……… ……… 4

1.1.1 Listening comprehension……….……….4

1.1.1.1 Definitions……….………….4

1.1.1.2 The process of Listening Comprehension……….…… …… 5

1.1.2 The importance of listening……….……… … 6

1.1.3 Teaching and learning listening skill……….……… ….6

1.1.3.1 The role of teacher in teaching listening skill……… ………….…….6

1.1.3.2 The importance of students‟ autonomy……….………… 7

1.2 Theoretical background of portfolios……….…….8

1.2.1 Definitions of portfolios……….……… 8

1.2.2 The required elements of portfolios………… ……….9

1.2.3 Steps to develop a portfolio……… …….…….10

1.2.4 Strengths and weaknesses of using portfolios in learning listening……… ……11

1.3 Previous studies……… ………12

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Introduction……….… ….14

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2.2 Context of the study……… 14

2.2.1 The setting of the study……….…….….14

2.2.2 Course book……….…………15

2.3 Methodology……….…… 15

2.3.1 Participants……….…… 15

2.3.2 Instrumentation……… … ……15

2.3.2.1 Questionnaires for students……….…… …16

2.3.2.2 Designed content of the listening portfolio……….…… 17

2.3.3 Data collection procedure……….… ….18

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 3.1 Data analysis……… ….19

3.1.1 Data analysis of the students' survey questionnaire before the portfolio process… ….19

3.1.1.1 Students‟ motivation in study listening skill……… … ……19

3.1.1.2 Students‟ learning experience……… … 20

3.1.1.3 Student‟s knowledge of listening portfolios………….……… … 21

3.1.2 Data analysis of the students' survey questionnaire after the portfolio process… ……22

3.1.2.1 Students‟ attitude towards the portfolios……… …22

3.1.2.2 Students‟ preferences for working arrangement on the portfolios……… … 25

3.1.2.3 Students‟ preferences for task requirements on the portfolios………… ……26

3.1.2.4 Students‟ difficulties in listening portfolio process……… … 27

3.1.2.5 Students‟ suggestions to improve the listening portfolio contents……… …28

3.1.3 Data analysis of students‟ testing results……….……29

3.2 Major findings and discussions……….………… ……31

3.2.1 Summary of the study stages……… ……31

3.2.1.1 Initiation………31

3.2.1.2 Preliminary investigation……… 31

3.2.1.3 Hypothesis……….…………31

3.2.1.4 Intervention………32

3.2.1.5 Evaluation……… ………33

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3.2.1.6 Dissemination……… ………33

3.2.1.7 Follow-up……….………….33

3.2.2 Major findings and discussions………33

3.2.2.1 The habit of students‟ learning listening skill outside class……….33

3.2.2.2 Students‟ opinion of listening portfolio contents……….………….34

3.2.2.3 Students‟ opinion of working arrangement……… ….….34

3.2.2.4 Students‟ opinion of task type on portfolios……… …… 35

3.2.2.5 Students‟ difficulties in the process of listening portfolios………36

3.2.2.6 Students‟ learning progresses……… ………37

3.3 Summary……….37

PART C: CONCLUSION 1 Recapitulation……… …….38

2 The answers to the Research questions……….…….38

2.1 Research question 1………38

2.2 Research question 2……….………….… 39

3 Implications for the application of portfolios in the listening skill……… …….40

3.1 Specifying the concept of the portfolio and its contents……… …….… 41

3.2 Designing a more suitable portfolio contents……… … … 41

3.3 Encouraging students‟ autonomy……… ………… 41

4 Limitations of the study……… ………….42

5 Recommendations for further study……….…… ……42

REFERENCES……… 43 APPENDICES I

comment on the listening skill: “Listening is the Cinderella skill in second language learning

All too often, it has been overlooked by its elder sister: speaking.” Listening is an important

skill and probably the most challenging skill in learning English on account of learners‟ unfamiliarity with different intonation pattern and use of stress, etc For the second-year non English major students at Hanoi University of Industries, most of them agree that they encounter a lot of difficulties in learning the listening skill such as social setting, background knowledge, cultures, similar pronunciation or inferred information Because the level of English language proficiency of the students is not very high, the motivation of learning listening is affected Additionally, limited time duration of listening lesson every week is conducive to the slow learning progress of students Obviously, students should spend more time practicing outside class As a solution, listening portfolios which reflect what students have done at home are a useful additional learning tool For years, in ESL field, employing portfolios to learn at home has been a good way for learners to obtain the listening skill for its purposefulness, systematization and above all, actual reflection of learning activities It not only helps teachers assess students‟ work, but also keep students continuously learning Although the teacher may deal with considerable challenges to the exploitation of portfolios, it

is still worthy to carry out because of the benefits it offers Now, this method of practicing is firstly introduced at HAUI as a piloting solution for improving the listening skill

For the above reasons, the choice of the study entitled “A study on the use of portfolios in improving the listening skill of second-year students at Hanoi University of Industry, HAUI” is not accidental

2 Aims of the study

The specific aims of the research are as follows:

- To investigate the influence of portfolios on students‟ the listening skill (through the exploration of students‟ preferences towards the application of portfolio in the listening skill and the measurement of their improvement in the listening skill after the listening portfolio)

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- To give some suggestions for using portfolios to enhance students' the listening skill With such aims, the study aims at answering the research questions as follows:

1 To what extent do portfolios influence students’ listening skill?

2 How can teacher improve the contents of portfolios to develop student’s listening skill?

3 Scope of the study

As being specified, the study is concerned with using portfolios in teaching the listening skill

to the second-year non English major students of HAUI Other approaches to teach the listening skill intended for students at other levels of English language proficiency would be beyond the scope

4 Structure of the study

The thesis is divided into three parts:

Part A: Introduction

This part provides an overview of the study such as the rationale, the scope, the aims, research questions, structure of the study

Part B: Development contains 3 chapters:

Chapter 1: Theoretical background and Literature review

This chapter reviews some previous researches on the similar topic Specifically, the chapter is divided into two main parts: (i) theoretical background of listening comprehension which conceptualizes the nature of the listening comprehension, the importance of listening, teaching and learning the listening skill; (ii) theoretical background of portfolio which includes definitions of portfolio, the content of portfolio, stages of portfolio implementation, the benefits and drawbacks of portfolio in learning listening;

Chapter 2: Methodology

The chapter presents the methodology used in the study including the setting, instrumentation, and data collection procedure

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Chapter 3: The Study

This chapter consists of 2 main parts: (i) Data Analysis: Data collected from the task performance measurement and questionnaire was analyzed It explains why the results came out as they did, and how they helped to achieve the objectives of the study as well as to answer the two research questions; (ii) Major findings and Discussions

Part C: Conclusion

The chapter revisits the main points discussed beyond The two research questions are also answered and some limitations of the study and future research will be presented

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the author will focus on the concepts of the listening skill and portfolios Other previous studies on this topic are also reviewed

1.1 Theoretical background of listening comprehension

1.1.1 Listening comprehension

1.1.1.1 Definitions

Traditionally, listening was viewed as a passive process, in which learner‟s ears were receivers into which information was poured, and all the listeners had to do was passively register the message Anderson & Lynch (1988) share the same idea that learners tend to take listening for granted Recently, it has been recognized that listening is an „active‟ process, and that good listeners are just as active when listening as speakers are when speaking For EFL learners, listening comprehension is a complex and challenging activity According to Vandergrift (1999), vocabulary, coordinating sounds, grammatical structures, and background knowledge involves a great deal of mental processes on the part of the listener Over the years, a numerous of researchers have tried to define “listening comprehension”

Regarding listening comprehension, Buck (2001: 3) states that “listening comprehension is an

active process of constructing meaning and this is done be applying knowledge to the incoming sounds” in which “a number of different types of knowledge are involved: both linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic knowledge”

In addition, Underwood (1989: 1) simply defines listening comprehension as an activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from the thing learners hear In her book, she also makes it clear that when speakers use particular words in particular occasions; it is not simple that learners only understand the words themselves They need to figure out what speakers really mean

O‟Malley and Chamot (1989: 420) conclude that “Listening comprehension is an active and

conscious process in which the listener constructs meaning by using cues from contextual

There exist several definitions of listening comprehension Among all, a representative one is propounded by Clark & Clark (1977: 43-44) for their broad and narrow definition:

“Comprehension has two common senses In its narrow sense, it denotes the mental processes

by which listeners take in the sound uttered by a speaker and use them to construct an interpretation of what they think the speaker intended to convey…Comprehension in its broader sense, however, rarely ends here, for listeners normally put the interpretations they have built to work ”

1.1.1.2 The process of Listening Comprehension

There are two distinct processes involved in listening comprehension

 “Bottom - up”: Learners utilize their linguistic knowledge to identify linguistic elements in an order from the smallest linguistic unit like phonemes (bottom) to the largest one like complete texts (top) They link the smaller units of the language together to form the larger parts and it's a linear process where meaning is derived automatically at the last stage It is absolutely "text based" process where learners rely

on the sounds, words and grammar in the message in order to create meaning

 “Top - down”: This requires learners to go to the listening with their prior knowledge

of topic, context, and type of text as well as knowledge of language to reconstruct the meaning using the sounds as clues

The distinction between Top-down and Bottom-up listening process is visualized vividly by

Helgesen and Brown (1994: xii) as they employ the metaphor of a brick wall, “if you are

standing at the bottom looking at the wall brick by brick, you can easily see details It is difficult, however, to get an overall view of the wall And if you come to a missing brick (e.g:

an unknown word or unfamiliar structure), you get stuck If, on the other hand, you are sitting

1.1.2 The importance of listening

There exists a famous saying: “God gave us two ears and just one mouth for a reason” The

reason is to listen twice as much as to speak No doubt, listening is the most common communicative activity in daily life Morley (2001: 70) shared the same idea that people can

expect to listen "twice as much as we speak, four times more than what we read and five times

more than we usually write"

According to Rost (1994) "Listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides

input for the learner Without understanding input at the right level, any learning simply cannot begin" Rost (1994: 141-142)

Listening requires people to remember, to evaluate, and to understand; therefore, listening is

not a passive activity It is a skill that must be learned, yet according to Pearson et al (2008: 109), “Listening is our most frequently used and least studied communication skill”

1.1.3 Teaching and learning the listening skill

1.1.3.1 The role of teacher in teaching the listening skill

It is undeniable that teachers carry a big responsibility in their classrooms They have a huge impact on their learners either positive or negative and it is the teacher‟s responsibility to create friendly and supportive atmosphere Especially, teaching the listening skill requires lectures a great effort and patience to motivate students

According to the division suggested by Harmer, there are eight main roles of a teacher:

 An organizer: It is believed that the success of a lesson depends on the teacher‟s

organization skills Teachers have to explain what their students are going to do, give clear instructions and constructive feedbacks at the end of the lesson

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 A controller: Teachers are who conduct the whole lesson Teachers whose roles are to

control the lessons specify what students should do throughout the listening stages

 An assessor: One of the important parts of teacher‟s job is to assess their students and

give the students a feedback on their performance They should evaluate how good students were

 A resource: Teachers should facilitate their students by giving advice and is available

when the learners need to consult some problems They usually help with unknown vocabulary or grammatical patterns

 A tutor: In this case, a tutor is a teacher who acts as a coach and as a resource (Harmer

1991: 242) and is able to help their students to develop ideas Teachers help their students during each stage, especially during the while-listening stage They can help their students with prediction of the missing information

 An investigator: Teachers can observe the activities in their lessons and subsequently

evaluate their efficiency They keep reflective journals and evaluate the benefits of each listening activity

 A prompter: This role of teachers sounds quite strange A “prompter” teacher is who

encourages their students and offers suggestions about activities that are being done by the students They ought to support their students during each stage so that the students can be more successful

 A participant: Teachers can participate in pre and post-listening task with the activities

of discussions or role-play Their participation can also improve the classroom atmosphere

1.1.3.2 The importance of students’ autonomy

The autonomy of students is considered as an important factor in making progresses in learning According to Bonnet & Cuypers (2003: 326), the learner‟s own thinking has to be respected in educational context Specifically, Jiao (2005: 28) gives four substantial reasons in support of learner autonomy for English learning: (i) It enhances the learner‟s motivation and leads to more effective learning; (ii) It provides learners with more opportunities for English

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communication in a non-native environment; (iii) It caters to the individual needs of learners

at all levels; and (iv) It has a lasting influence

Thanasoulas (2000) points out that: “If learners labor under the misconception that learning is

successful only within the context of the "traditional classroom," where the teacher directs, instructs, and manages the learning activity, and students must follow in the teacher's footsteps, they are likely to be impervious or resistant to learner-centered strategies aiming at autonomy, and success is likely to be undermined” Thanasoulas (2000: 9)

Strongly believing in the importance of students‟ autonomy in learning, Austin (2006)

emphasizes that: “There is no magic solution and encouraging learner autonomy takes time

and a lot of patience on the part of the teacher as well as the learner In some cases it seems almost impossible to achieve and can leave both parties confused and frustrated However, as professionals it is our duty to remember that no matter how tempting it is to revert to spoon feeding our learners; it is our duty to begin from day one and to continue to the end of a course in a manner that gives our learners every opportunity of developing their independence

to the greatest extent possible.” Austin (2006: 1)

1.2 Theoretical background of portfolios

For telling examples, some educators shared the same idea that a portfolio is a specific or purposeful collection of one's work demonstrating progression of learning, understanding and skills (Hamm & Adams, 1991; Phelps, LaPorte & Mahood, 1997)

Paulson, Paulson, and Meyer (1991) define a portfolio as “a purposeful collection of students’

work, not only exhibiting students’ effort, progress, and achievement, but also demonstrating students’ participation in selecting contents and selecting the criteria for assessment”

Paulson, Paulson, and Meyer (1991: 60)

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Rieman and Okrasinski (2007: 9) state that “a portfolio is an assessment tool that allows

creator to put his or her best foot forward and document the knowledge and skills mastered through the learning process”

In the article “Nurturing Student Learning through Portfolios”, Margo Gottlieb writes that portfolios are a means of alternative assessment and that they “facilitate articulation between

teachers and individual students, other teachers, parents, and administrators.” (Gottlieb,

1995: 12)

Briefly, a listening portfolio is an organized collection of students‟ work in the listening skill that indicates the products of their own learning process

1.2.2 The required elements of portfolios

There are a variety of different portfolios and each kind of portfolios serves its own purpose and consists of its own required elements According to Wolf and Dietz (1998), there are three purposes for portfolios: (i) learning portfolio, (ii) assessment portfolio and (iii) employment portfolio They also conclude that portfolios normally contain selected evidence

of performance and products in various contexts accompanied by a teacher‟s comments and reflections Generally speaking, a portfolio is a folder containing all the student work; others see it as a collection of the student best work According to Lynch & Shaw (2005), in practical

reports, papers, and other materials, together with the student‟s reflection on his or her learning and on strengths and weaknesses It may also contain reports of grades, evaluations, and examinations, and it is usually held together in some appropriate binder

It is important to include all of the following in a portfolio:

1 Cover Letter: The cover letter summarizes the evidence of a student‟s learning and progress

2 Table of Contents

3 Entries - both core (items students have to include) and optional (items of student‟s choice) The core elements will be required for each student and will provide a common base from which to make decisions on assessment The optional items will allow the folder to represent the uniqueness of each student

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4 Dates on all entries, to facilitate proof of growth over time

5 Drafts of aural/oral and written products and revised versions; i.e., first drafts and corrected/revised versions

6 Reflections can appear at different stages in the learning process (for formative and/or summative purposes.) and can be written in the mother-tongue at the lower levels or by students who find it difficult to express themselves in English This can relate to students‟ performance, to their feelings regarding their progress and/or themselves as learners

Normally, teachers apply portfolio with the task of collect authentic materials and then reflect them This is proved to be effective in writing skill In case of the listening skill, the author desired to adjust the requirements of portfolios to match with students‟ language proficiency levels in this study The levels of subjects were supposed to be low and the required elements

of portfolio were adapted as below:

7 Final grade report

These above elements would be included in the guideline for portfolios It is the teacher‟s duty

to give a clear instruction and guideline to the students (See appendix for guideline)

1.2.3 Steps to develop a portfolio

There are various authors discussed on the stages of implementing a portfolio Specifically, Hill et al (1994) recommends a range of steps including defining the portfolio purpose, teaching students self-reflection, structuring portfolio reviews, making time for peer evaluation, and sharing portfolios with parents

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According to Hamp-Lyons & Condon (2000), there are three basic stages that must exist in the implementation of portfolios

1 Collection: In this stage, teachers and students work together to save artifacts that represent

successes and opportunities for growth

2 Selection: In this stage, teachers and students review and assess the saved artifacts and

jointly decide which of those artifacts best demonstrate the achievement of learning goals

3 Reflection: In this stage, students express their thinking about each piece in the portfolios

They assess their own growth overt time as well as identify and gaps in their development It can't be denied that this stage is the most important and it is what enables portfolios to become lifelong tools

In short, each author applies different stages in carrying portfolios Thus, the researcher should take his or her own context and learning and teaching situation into account before deciding the stages of portfolio implementation

1.2.4 Strengths and weaknesses of using portfolios in learning listening

For many years, researchers have confirmed the positive effects of portfolios in learning English According to Margery and Gominda (2005: 282-283), it is undeniable that the portfolio brings both teachers and students various benefits as it:

 Assess and promote critical thinking

 Encourage students to become accountable and responsible for their own learning (i.e., self-directed, active, peer-supported, adult learning)

 Facilitate reflection and self-assessment

 Integrate learning and assessment

 Offer teachers vital information for diagnosing students‟ strengths and weaknesses to help them improve their performance (i.e., formative assessment)

 Reflect students‟ progression toward learning outcomes

On the contrary, there exist several weaknesses of portfolios in learning:

 Portfolios take a long time to complete and assess

 The portfolio process involves a large amount of paperwork

 Portfolio assessment may produce unacceptably low inter-rater reliability, especially if the assessment rubrics are not properly prepared or are used by untrained assessors

1.3 Previous studies

There exist some researchers have studies on the use of portfolios in language skills However, most of them were interested in the application of portfolios in writing and reading skill; which means the use of portfolios in the listening skill has not been clarified thoroughly by researchers yet

Giang (2010) had a study on “Using portfolios in teaching the listening skill to the first-year

non-English major students of Accounting Department, Academy of Finance” This study

intended to investigate the attitude of first-year students towards the effects of the portfolio listening activity The quantitative method was chosen for the study The survey questionnaires were used pre-process and post-process to figure out the findings In her study, she applied a quite interesting portfolio sharing activity among groups and designing listening exercises by students The study concluded that a majority of students of AOF had positive attitudes towards the application of portfolio in listening However, for non-English major students whose levels were not supposed to be high, the activity of designing exercises based

on a listening file was considered difficult

Another study will be reviewed here is “Improving the listening skill for third year students at

Hong Duc University though potfolio” by Hoa (2011) The study is an attempt to investigate

the most common portfolio contents exploited by the teachers The data was collected from survey questionnaires for both teachers and students The study suggests that the contents of

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Introduction

This is a piece of action research Its goal is to use portfolios as an intervention to improve students' listening skill In this way, the teacher has the opportunity to extend existing professional development experiences to meet individual needs and the needs of second-year non-English major students at HAUI

The model of action research proposed by Nunan (1992) was adopted and adapted in this study The details in each step will be presented in the latter

2.2 Context of the study

2.2.1 The setting of the study

The research was conducted at Hanoi University of Industry In 2005, the Prime Minister signed the Decision 315/2005 QD-TTG to established Hanoi University of Industry on the basis of Hanoi Industrial College

At HAUI, English is taught to non-English-major students in formal setting with two stages During the first stage, which consists of the first five terms, the students study general English

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with four language skills mainly: speaking, listening, reading and writing In the second stage, students study ESP such as English in Economics, English in Tourism, English in Chemical Technology, and English in Mechanics In this study, the students from Faculty of Technical Training and Tourism are randomly chosen Each academic year is divided into two terms, each lasting 15 weeks and finishing with end-of-term examinations

2.2.2 Course book

The using of the textbook Real Listening and Speaking 1 by Miles Craven is applied to the

teaching to second-year students This book consists of 16 units and is divided into two sections: (i) Social and travel situations, and (ii) Work and study situations This book contains practical tasks to help learners in everyday listening situations, e.g at the shop, in a restaurant

or traveling The exercises in each unit help develop useful the listening skill such as listening for opinions, listening for details, and listening for the main idea

2.3 Methodology

2.3.1 Participants

Fifty two second-year students, aged 20 – 22, were selected to participate in the study Most of them are female They come from They are supposed to have equal knowledge of English before entering the HAUI since most of them have learnt English for at least 7 years (from grade 6 to grade 12 at school) These students were randomly selected to go in for the research To some extent, the participants chosen in the study could be representatives for the rest of the population

2.3.2 Instrumentation

Two questionnaires will be used to investigate the answers to the research questions: one before the process of portfolios and one after the process of portfolios In the book

“Developing a Questionnaire” (Gillham, 2000), some outstanding advantages of using

questionnaires in research are listed such as their efficiency in terms of (i) research time and costs and (ii) researchers‟ effort Specifically, researchers can send out a thousand questionnaires in the time it takes to do two semi-structured interviews Then data could be processed fast and relatively straight forwards

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Meanwhile, a designed portfolio was given out to students In general, a portfolio is a collection of students‟ work, which means they are free to choose materials related to the required topics Normally, teachers believe that designing good portfolio contents is hard and

in some cases, they have to design their own portfolio contents to correspond to students‟ needs, interests and levels of knowledge In this study, the contents of listening portfolio were designed by the author, consisting of 12 listening files (one file for each week)

Moreover, a pre-test and post-test were given to the students before and after the application of portfolios

Although Vietnamese is considered as the optimal language to elicit the issues, the language use in the questionnaires and portfolio guidelines was English Specifically, the English language used was simple and easy to understand and the students might learn some new words through it For the portfolio guideline, the teacher explained in English first, and then translated in mother-tongue to ensure all of the students understand

2.3.2.1 Questionnaires for students

There are two questionnaires for students before and after the portfolio process

The pre-process questionnaire consists of 5 questions and aims at exploring:

1 Students‟ learning experiences (Question 1, 3, 4)

2 Students‟ motivation and interests in learning the listening skill (Question 2)

3 Students‟ knowledge of portfolios (Question 5)

The post-process questionnaire consists of 8 questions and was designed to get information concerning:

1 Students‟ attitude towards the use of portfolios (Question 1, 2, 3, 4)

2 Students‟ preferences for working arrangement (Question 5)

3 Students‟ preferences for task requirement on portfolios (Question 6)

4 Students‟ difficulties in listening portfolio process (Question 7)

5 Students‟ suggestions to improve the listening portfolio contents (Question 8)

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They are multiple choice questions to which the participants can choose more than one option and if necessary can supply other choices

2.3.2.2 Designed content of the listening portfolio

As mentioned above, the teacher provided students with a designed portfolio The study was conducted in 15 weeks The purpose of designing the listening files is to avoid students‟ dishonesty in picking their own materials from unreliable sources They may choose the listening audios with transcripts on the Internet and pretend as they had worked on it By designing the contents of portfolio, the teacher is able to control and evaluate their students‟ real ability

Commonly, the requirement in a portfolio is to collect authentic materials which relate to the given topics, and reflect them In other words, the students are allowed to freely choose listening files from reliable sources After collecting the files, they are required to make text outline of each file or design listening exercises for their peers, or even write down the transcripts Each requirement serves its own purposes In this study, completing the given tasks, summarizing the main ideas of the files and writing the full transcript were all applied in order to figure out the most suitable and effective requirement to the students at HAUI

The portfolio consists of 12 listening files corresponding to 12 topics:

services

Ordering a pizza

Asking information on the phone

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2.3.3 Data collection procedure

3.1.1 Data analysis of the students' survey questionnaire before the portfolio process 3.1.1.1 Students’ motivation in studying the listening skill (question 2)

All of the students have learnt English for at least 7 years Therefore, they are supposed to be

at equal foot in English proficiency However, the students are from many parts of the country, which leads to the fact that different teaching methods may affect their language skills, especially Speaking and Listening A huge amount of students admit Grammar Sections were focused strongly during their secondary and high school time As a result, most of the students find it extremely difficult to learn the listening skill as they cannot understand what native speakers mention in the tape

To make a successful commuinication in English

Favorite subject

Chart 1: Students’ motivation in studying the listening skill

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The students take notice of the importance of the listening skill and it is shown apparently in chart 1 that 100% of students under investigation agree that the purpose of studying the listening skill is to make a successful communication Getting high score in the subject is also another purpose to work on listening with 67.3% of the students Forty out of fifty-two students (76.9%) state that they study the listening skill because of its necessity in future jobs The number of students learning the listening skill to satisfy their hobby is not very large Only 23% of the subjects find it interesting to learn listening This implies a low motivation among these students From the chart, it is apparently seen that most of the student may not be actively responsible for their own learning, which urgently requires teachers‟ effort to reform the teaching methods

3.1.1.2 Students’ learning experience (question 1, 3, 4)

64%

21%

Often Very often Never

Chart 2: Students’ frequency of practicing the listening skill after class

To improve listening ability, some participants share that they have been working hard on it outside class because of the short time limit of listening lessons each week As can be seen from the chart, 9% of the subjects admit they listen to English very often and thirteen out of fifty-two students state that they often practice the listening skill at home A great population

of students (64%) claims that they do not often practice listening English after class Meanwhile, it is noticeably concerned that 6% of the students do nothing to improve their listening ability Teachers may wish to employ more appropriate teaching methods and encourage students‟ self-learning

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Chart 3: Students’ self-studying methods in the listening skill

It is apparently shown in the chart that most of the students (92.3%) practice the listening skill

by completing exercises on the course book before class They confirm that it is one of the teacher‟s requirements to have a more effective class lesson Listening to foreign music or news is another way to improve listening ability by 86.5% of the informants In fact, the activity of listening to English songs is popular among students because they can do it everywhere and every time However, most of them admit it is the melody that they prefer to listen, instead of trying to figure out the lyrics Meanwhile, watching English films without subtitle and making conversation on different topics with native speakers is less noticeable, with 11.5% and 1.9% respectively The activity of seeking materials and doing online exercises is preferable by more than half of the participants In the era of technology and network, listening exercises is always available on websites Besides, 26.9% of the students admit they are attending extra courses at some English centers to enhance the listening skill

3.1.1.3 Student’s knowledge of listening portfolios (question 5)

34.6 %0%

0%

Chart 4: Students’ knowledge of listening portfolios

When being asked about listening portfolios, 34 students, which account 65.4% in total, confirm they know nothing about it 34.6% state that they have ever heard of the term

“portfolio” and applied it in writing skill before However, no-one cannot give a thorough

explanation of a listening portfolio In other words, the students confuse if portfolios in listening and writing are the same

3.1.2 Data analysis of the students' survey questionnaire after the portfolio process 3.1.2.1 Students’ attitude towards the portfolios (question 1, 2, 3, 4)

As can be seen from chart 5, nearly two third of the subjects (60%) are conscious of the importance of portfolios in improving the listening skill as well as to their autonomy Especially, 15% of the students believe in the very important role of portfolios because it helps continue their life-long learning process Meanwhile, an amount of participants do not highly appreciate the role of portfolios in enhancing listening ability They may find it not interesting and suitable enough for their preferences and language needs

Chart 5: Students’ awareness of the importance of listening portfolios to the autonomy

Chart 6: Students’ general assessment of the contents of listening audios

According to chart 6, it is clearly seen that most students, which account for 40% and 15%, find the portfolio contents useful and interesting, respectively Indeed, the students state that they are able to enrich the background knowledge, improve the listening skill, and enlarge their source of vocabulary and grammar structures However, 39% say that the contents of listening audios are difficult because of new vocabulary, native accents, speed of speaking, proper names Only 4% say that the listening files are easy to them The rest of the students (2%) claim that they feel boring about the portfolio contents