the reality of teaching and learning English listening skills in grade 10 at Yen Mo B high school, Ninh Binh province = Thực trạng dạy và học kỹ năng nghe tiếng

Table 4: The teachers‟ preparation before listening lessons Table 5: The audio-visual support that the teachers use in listening lessons Table 6: The teachers‟ classroom practices in the

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

ĐỖ THỊ NGÂN

THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS IN GRADE 10 AT YEN MO B HIGH SCHOOL

NINH BINH PROVINCE

THỰC TRẠNG DẠY VÀ HỌC KỸ NĂNG NGHE TIẾNG ANH TẠI KHỐI LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT YÊN MÔ B, TỈNH NINH BÌNH

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60 14 10

Hanoi - 2012

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

ĐỖ THỊ NGÂN

THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS IN GRADE 10 AT YEN MO B HIGH SCHOOL

NINH BINH PROVINCE

THỰC TRẠNG DẠY VÀ HỌC KỸ NĂNG NGHE TIẾNG ANH TẠI KHỐI

LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT YÊN MÔ B, TỈNH NINH BÌNH

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: ĐỖ BÁ QUÝ, M.Ed

Hanoi - 2012

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF TABLES

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

2 Aims of the study

3 Research questions

4 Scope of the study

5 Method of the study

6 Design of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Definitions of listening

1.2 Significance of listening

1.3 Listening process

1.4 Micro-skills of listening

1.5 Effective teaching of listening

1.6 Stages of a listening lesson

1.6.1 Pre-listening stage

1.6.2 While-listening stage

1.6.3 Post-listening stage

1.7 Potential problems in listening

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1.8 Related studies on listening

1.9 Summary

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Overview of the current situation of teaching and learning English at Yen Mo B high school

2.1.1 The school context

2.1.2 The new textbook English 10 (the standard textbook) and its listening section

2.2 Methodology

2.2.1 Research questions

2.2.2 Participants

2.2.3 Data collection instruments

2.2.3.1 Survey questionnaire

2.2.3.2 Classroom observation

2.2.4 Data collection procedure

2.2.5 Data analysis procedure

2.3 Summary

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Findings from questionnaires for the teachers and the students

3.1.1 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the importance of listening in language teaching and learning at school

3.1.2 The teachers’ and students’ opinions about the students’ listening competence

3.1.3 The teachers’ and the students’ opinions about the listening sections of the textbook English 10

3.1.4 The teachers’ and the students’ ways of teaching and learning English listening skills

3.1.4.1 Teachers’ ways of teaching English listening skills

3.1.4.1.1 The teachers’ preparation before listening lessons

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3.1.4.1.2 The audiovisual support that the teachers use in listening

lessons

3.1.4.1.3 The teachers’ classroom practices in listening lessons

3.1.4.1.4 The factors affecting the teachers’ ways of teaching in listening lessons

3.1.4.2 The students’ ways of learning English listening skills

3.1.4.2.1 The students’ evaluation of the teachers’ ways of teaching English listening skills

3.1.4.2.2 The students’ preparation before listening lessons

3.1.4.2.3 The students’ favorite practices in listening lessons

3.1.4.2.4 The students’ home practices on listening skills

3.1.5 Difficulties in teaching and learning English listening skills

perceived by the teachers and the students

3.1.6 The teachers’ and the students’ suggested solutions to improve the current situation of teaching and learning English listening skills

3.2 Findings from classroom observations

3.3 Discussion of the findings

3.4 Summary

PART C: CONCLUSION

1 Conclusions

2 Recommendations for more effective listening lessons

3 Limitations of the study

4 Suggestions for further research

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire for the teachers

Appendix 2: Survey questionnaire for the students

Appendix 3: Classroom observations

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

MOET: Ministry of Education and Training

YMBHS: Yen Mo B high school

Table 4: The teachers‟ preparation before listening lessons

Table 5: The audio-visual support that the teachers use in listening lessons

Table 6: The teachers‟ classroom practices in the pre-listening stage

Table 7: The teachers‟ classroom practices in the while-listening stage

Table 8: The teachers‟ classroom practices in the post-listening stage

Table 9: The factors affecting the teachers‟ ways of teaching English listening lessons

Table 10: The effects of teaching and learning English listening skills on students‟

language ability

Table 11: Students‟ opinions about listening lessons

Table 12: Students‟ preparation before listening lessons

Table13: The students‟ favorite practices in the pre-listening stage

Table14: The students‟ favorite practices in the while-listening stage

Table 15: The students‟ favorite practices in the post-listening stage

Table 16: The students‟ home practice on listening skills

Table 17: The teachers‟ difficulties in teaching English listening lessons

Table 18: The students‟ difficulties in learning English listening skills

Table 19: The teachers‟ and the students‟ suggested solutions to improve the

current situation of teaching and learning English listening skills

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1 Rationale for the study

It is undeniable that English has become a common means of communication all over the world today Being aware of its importance, Vietnam has felt an urge to train its citizens to have greater competence in the use of English for communication That is the reason why the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has implemented a curricular change in schools since 2002 The new curriculum aims to enable school students to communicate in English at the basic level in all modes of communication i.e listening, speaking, reading, and writing (Van et al, 2006, p 3) In order to achieve this aim, a set of textbooks has been issued for students from grade 6 to grade 12 The textbook is claimed to be theme-based and skill-based, with the adoption of the “two currently popular teaching approaches, i.e the learner-centred approach and the communicative approach A focus is on task-based teaching as the leading methodology” (Van et al, 2006, p.12) Obviously, the ultimate goal of the textbook is to develop students‟ communicative competence

However, as a teacher of Yen Mo B high school (YMBHS), I find that the teaching and learning here still focus too much on grammar, vocabulary and structures Although the teachers and the students follow the English course book issued by MOET, in which each unit is designed to be composed of five parts - reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus; assessment and testing focus on grammar, vocabulary, reading and partial writing Therefore, listening skill

is paid less attention to Consequently, many students who may have mastered the basic elements of English grammar and vocabulary are weak at listening

The above situation has inspired me to do the research entitled “The reality

of teaching and learning English listening skills in grade 10 at Yen Mo B high school, Ninh Binh province” with the hope of making some contributions to

improving the teaching and learning of English listening skills in grade 10 at YMBHS

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2 Aims of the study

Generally this study aims to investigate the reality of teaching and learning English listening skills in Grade 10 at YMBHS

Specifically the study seeks to find out:

 The present situation of teaching and learning English listening skills in grade 10 at YMBHS;

 The teachers‟ and the students‟ perceived difficulties in teaching and learning English listening skills in grade 10 at YMBHS; and

 The teachers‟ and the students‟ suggested solutions to improve the current situation of teaching and learning English listening skills in grade 10 at YMBHS

2 What are the difficulties in teaching and learning English listening skills in

grade 10 at YMBHS as perceived by the teachers and the students?

3 What solutions do the teachers and the students suggest to improve the current situation of teaching and learning English listening skills in grade 10

at YMBHS?

4 Scope of the study

This small-scale study is limited to the reality of teaching and learning English listening skills in Grade 10 at YMBHS The investigation of teaching and learning other skills will be beyond the scope of this study

This study is a detailed survey at YMBHS in Ninh Binh Province Therefore, its findings are not intended to be generalized to other school contexts Indeed the findings may not apply beyond the actual participants in this particular study

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5 Method of the study

The study was designed to use both quantitative and qualitative methods, involving two instruments: survey questionnaires and classroom observations Besides, reviewing the related documents is also a method to establish the theoretical background for the study

6 Design of the study

The study is divided into three parts: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion

The Introduction presents an overview of the study including the rationale,

aims, research questions, scope, method, and design of the study

The major part of the study, the Development, is divided into three chapters

Chapter one provides theoretical background for the study Chapter two presents the methodology of the study and the last chapter is devoted to analyzing the data and discussing the findings of the study

The Conclusion part provides a brief summary of the findings in

correspondence with the three proposed research questions and offers some recommendations for better listening teaching and learning The limitations of the study and suggestions for further study are also discussed in this chapter

Besides, the survey questionnaire for the teachers and students, and the classroom observation notes are included in the Appendices

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter gives an overview of the literature, including key concepts and related studies in the field in order to provide a theoretical background for the study

1 1 Definitions of listening

No one can deny the crucial role of listening in our daily life in general and

in acquiring a language in particular Therefore, many scholars have made effort to explore this skill As a result, there exist a variety of definitions of listening in the literature

Listening, as Howatt and Dakin (1974, as cited in Yagang, 1993) define, is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying This process involves understanding a speaker‟s accent or pronunciation, the speaker‟s grammar and vocabulary and comprehension of meaning An able listener is capable of doing these four things simultaneously

Ronald and Roskelly (1985) define listening as an active process requiring the same skills of prediction, hypothesizing, checking, revising, and generalizing that writing and reading demand

Underwood (1989) points out that listening is an activity of paying attention

to the speaker and trying to get meaning from what we hear She argues that hearing can be thought of as a passive condition, but listening is always an active process To listen successfully to spoken language, the listener needs to be able to understand not only the words themselves but also the meanings hidden in words

In short, although listening is viewed differently by different authors, the above definitions have one important thing in common: listening is a complex, active process of interpretation in which the listeners must actively make use of skills and knowledge from both linguistic and non-linguistic resources

1.2 Significance of listening

Listening has been proved to be of great importance in communication as well as in language teaching and learning

Sharing this view, Wallace, Stariha and Walberg(2004) state that: “Listening skills are essential for learning since they enable students to acquire insights and information and to achieve success in communicating with others” (p 13) Similarly, Nunan (1998) believes that “listening is the basic skill in language learning Without listening skill learners will never learn to communicate effectively” (p 1)

It is obvious that language learning depends on listening since it provides the aural input that serves as the basis for language acquisition and enables learners to interact in spoken communication Thus, language acquisition is achieved mainly through receiving understandable input and listening ability is the critical component in achieving understandable language input (Guo, N & Wills, R., 2006, p.3)

Given the importance of listening in language learning and teaching, it is essential for language teachers to help students become effective listeners In the communicative approach to language teaching, teachers should model listening strategies and provide listening practice in authentic situations

1.3 Listening process

Over the past few decades, there have been numerous studies showing different views on listening process, of which the concepts of bottom up and top down processes are commonly discussed today (e.g Buck, 2001; Richards, 2008)

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Bottom-up processing means listeners are trying to make sense of what they hear by using their linguistic knowledge such as vocabulary, grammar or functional phrases, and sounds, etc In this type of process, listeners build their understanding

by starting with the smallest units of the acoustic message: individual sounds, or phonemes until the meaning is derived

On the other hand, top-down processing means listeners use their prior knowledge (schemata) to understand the meaning of a message Prior knowledge may be the knowledge of the listening topic, context, or other information stored in listeners‟ long-term memory

However, listening is a complex process which is not either bottom-up or top-down, but interactive process involving both listeners‟ prior knowledge and linguistic knowledge in understanding the massage Therefore, it is necessary for both teachers and learners to recognize the pros and cons of each type so that they can have better choice of the way to process a listening text

1.4 Micro-skills of listening

Listening involves a multiplicity of skills Different scholars have produced different lists of micro-skills of listening (e.g Willis, 1981; Richards, 1985; Rost, 1994)

Willis (1981, as cited in Yagang, 1993) lists a series of micro-skills of listening, which she calls enabling skills They are: (1) predicting what people are going to talk about, (2) guessing at unknown words or phrases without panic, (3) using one's own knowledge of the subject to help one understand, (4) identifying relevant points; rejecting irrelevant information, (5) retaining relevant points (note-taking, summarizing), (6) recognizing discourse markers, e.g., Well; Oh, another

thing is; Now, finally; etc., (7) recognizing cohesive devices, e.g., such as and

which, including linking words, pronouns, references, etc., (8) understanding

different intonation patterns and uses of stress, etc., which give clues to meaning and social setting, (9) understanding inferred information, e.g , speakers' attitude or intentions

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Rost (1994) provides a different list of micro-skills for listening They are: (1) discriminating between sounds, (2) recognizing words, (3) identifying stressed words and groupings of words, (4) identifying functions (such as apologizing) in a conversation, (5) connecting linguistic cues to paralinguistic cues (intonation and stress) and to non-linguistic cues (gestures and relevant objects in the situation) in order to construct meaning, (6) using background knowledge (what we already know about the content and the form) and context (what has already said) to predict and then to confirm meaning, (7) recalling important words, topics and ideas, (8) giving appropriate feedback to the speaker, (9) reformulating what the speaker has said

The list of micro-skills offered by Richards (1985) may be the most comprehensive He has identified 33 micro-skills for conversational listening and

18 micro-skills for academic listening Some of the skills are: the ability to identify purpose and scope of the lecture; the ability to recognize lexical terms related to subject/topic; the ability to deduce meanings of words from context; the ability to recognize markers of cohesion; etc

To sum up, students need to integrate a variety of skills in order to listen successfully All these skills form a person‟ listening ability Therefore, it is essential for the teachers to design suitable tasks to help students develop these skills

1.5 Effective teaching of listening

Many scholars such as Rixon (1986), Anderson and Lynch (1988), Underwood (1989), Rost (1990) have emphasized the need for effective teaching of listening and have provided different teaching methods and procedures

According to Underwood (1989), teaching listening comprehension in languages aims to help students function effectively in real-life listening situations such as lectures, radio and TV news, meetings, etc Therefore, conventional listening lessons in which students listen to teachers‟ reading or tapes and answer comprehension questions, and then teachers give feedback in the form of „right‟

The teaching of listening will be more effective if the teachers use visual supports (pictures, graphs, diagrams, maps, transcripts) because visual supports can help provide learners with cultural information and enable them to predict more accurately Visuals also help to drive learners‟ attention to the important parts of the message and train them to listen for specific information (Sheerin, 1987; Underwood, 1989)

In terms of the type of listening tasks, Rost (1990) states that listening comprehension tasks should be appropriate to the discourse type Regarding this point, Sheerin (1987, p 128) suggests that listening tasks should not rely exclusively or mainly on multiple-choice items or questions that require exact recall

of verbal details, but should vary according to the listening text While setting the tasks, teachers also should take such factors into consideration as students‟ general background, interest and purpose

Additionally, it is essential for the teachers to give positive feedbacks for learners during listening lessons, which ensures that learners experience success as often as possible Moreover, positive feedback helps to diagnose the cause of the failure to understand the discourse so that remedial actions can be taken (Sheerin, 1987; Rost, 1990)

In short, to teach listening skills effectively, it is essential for the teachers to make necessary preparations, provide necessary supports during actual classroom practices, and help students find suitable listening strategies for different listening

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tasks However, all these may be practical when teachers are well-qualified and engaged in continuous professional development trainings (Palmer, 1993)

1.6 Stages of a listening lesson

In general, a listening lesson often consists of three stages: pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening stages (Rixon, 1986; Underwood, 1989; Yagang, 1993)

1.6.1 Pre-listening stage

Pre-listening stage is the preparation stage in which the content is made explicit; listening purpose is clarified; and roles, procedures and goals for listening are established (Rost, 1990) The main purposes of this stage are (1) to motivate students since it is obvious that students feel interested and focus on the listening discourse when they are clear about the aim and the content of the incoming listening; (2) to activate students‟ prior knowledge as it is important for students to

be able to relate what they already know to the listening content; (3) to focus students‟ attention on the topic by narrowing down the things they expect to hear; and (4) to provide students with an opportunity to gain some background information for the coming listening topic To achieve these purposes, the teachers need to set appropriate pre-listening activities Underwood (1989) and Yagang (1993) have proposed a list of pre-listening activities: giving background information, discussion about the topic, looking at pictures, guiding questions, predicting, consideration of how the while-listening activity will be done, etc The choice of the activities depend on many factors such as the time, the material available, the place in which the work is being carried out, the nature and the content of the listening text, the students‟ interests, the class‟ proficiency

1.6.2 While-listening stage

According to Underwood (1989), while-listening stage involves activities that students are asked to do during the time that they are listening to the text The purpose of while-listening activities is to help learners develop the skill of eliciting messages from spoken language At this stage, students are advised to focus on

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comprehension to get important information from the text (Rixon, 1986) The choice of while-listening activities should be considered carefully as Underwood (1989) states “good while-listening activities help learners find their way through the listening text and build up the expectations raised by pre-listening activities” (p 46) Good while-listening activities have some characteristics First, they should be interesting enough to motivate students Second, they should be short enough and varied since it may be boring to do the same activity again and again Last, they should not be beyond the ability of most students It is advisable to provide while-listening activities which are a bit challenging for more advanced students, but not discouraging for the less competent ones Some examples of while-listening activities are: filling in blanks, information transfer, storyline picture sets, matching

1.6.3 Post-listening stage

The post-listening stage involves all the activities carried out after the completion of the listening According to Underwood (1989), the purposes of this stage are (1) to check whether the learners have understood what they need to understand and whether they have completed the while-listening tasks effectively; (2) to reflect on why some students have failed to understand or missed parts of the message; (3) to give students the opportunity to consider the attitude and manner of the speakers in the listening text; (4) to expand on the topic or language of the listening text, and perhaps transfer things learned to another context; and (5) to offer an opportunity to integrate listening with other language skills Some of the post-listening activities are problem solving and decision making, role play, summarizing, written work The choice of post-listening activities depends on such factors as the time available, the material available, the ability of the class, the interests of the class and the teacher

In general, a lesson consisting of three stages mentioned above is a common listening lesson framework Although it is not the only way of conducting a

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listening lesson, it is one of the most effective ways that are widely used in classrooms today

1.7 Potential problems in listening

Listening is widely acknowledged as the most difficult skill to master by a large number of language learners There exist some problems in listening from the learners‟ viewpoint (Ur, 1996; Underwood, 1989; Yagang, 1993)

Underwood (1989) identifies seven problems that learners often face in learning listening: lack of control over the speed at which speakers speak, not being able to get things repeated, the listener‟s limited vocabulary, failure to recognize signals, problems of interpretation, inability to concentrate and established learning habits

Ur (1996) shares some points with Underwood (1989) in listening problems when she indicates the following six major problems: difficulties in perceiving sounds, following natural speed and native accent, catching up with the load of information, the need to understand everything, to get things repeated and to have a rest

Yagang (1993) attributes the difficulties of listening comprehension to four sources: the message to be listened to, the speaker, the listener, and the physical setting The message means the content (e.g topic) and the linguistic features (e.g liaison, elision, colloquial words) of the listening material The speaker factor involves the redundancy, the accent, voice, style The listener factor refers to his/her linguistic knowledge, background knowledge, and exposure to different kinds of listening materials, psychological and physical factors Physical setting consists of background and environmental noises, visual and aural environmental clues, quality of the equipment

To sum up, the problems in listening come from four sources: the speaker, the listener, the listening material and the physical setting It is essential for the teachers to have thorough understanding of these factors so that they can find the

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ways to help their students overcome the difficulties and improve their listening competence

1.8 Related studies on listening

Listening, which is hardly mentioned at all in journals in the 1970s, has now played a much more prominent role, at least in language teaching (Richards, 2003) Since the 1980s, more research, theory building, and curriculum development on listening comprehension has been done because researchers are increasingly interested in exploring this complex skill

Although the teaching and learning of listening skills are paid more attention now than they were in the past, the studies conducted in classrooms in general and the ones to explore the reality of teaching and learning English listening skills in particular remain limited A study by Fantahun (2003) investigated classroom listening comprehension teaching practices of Grade 11 teachers in Ethiopia The results showed that there was a mismatch between the teaching practices implemented by the teachers and the pedagogical procedures favored by the course designers for teaching the listening sections of the new course book The study recommended that in order to develop teachers‟ awareness of the newly introduced communicative language teaching approach, officials at the Ministry of Education, school administrators, department heads and the teachers themselves should take responsibilities to organize practice-based in-service professional development programmes; school libraries and audiovisual centers should be equipped with current reference materials on language teaching methodology and equipment that are useful for teaching listening comprehension

In the context of Vietnam, there have been a few studies on teaching and learning English listening skills that were conducted in classrooms However, most

of the studies focus on the difficulties that the teachers and the students face during listening lessons (e.g Thu, 2008; Hoa, 2010) or on the ways to improve students‟ listening comprehension (Lan, 2006; Hanh, 2010) To date, there has been only a study focusing on the reality of teaching and learning English listening skills in

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classrooms, that is the research entitled “Reality of Teaching and Learning Listening Skills to First-year Non-English Major Students at Phuong Dong University: Problems and Solutions” by Mai Thi Thu Trang (2010) In this study, Trang investigated the problems that the teachers and first-year non-English major students at Phuong Dong University encountered during listening lessons and provided some solutions to overcome those problems The findings of the study revealed that the teachers and the students at Phuong Dong University encountered many obstacles in teaching and learning listening Some of the major problems were: large, noisy and multilevel class; lack of teaching equipments; speed of speech, unfamiliar sounds; limited vocabulary and structures; and students‟ low motivation Coping with each difficulty, teachers and students found their own solutions However, this study only focused on finding out the difficulties that teachers and students faced in listening lessons It did not explore the teachers‟ and the students‟ real classroom practices in listening lessons as well as their attitudes towards listening Moreover, the subjects of this study were university students, who are totally different from high school students This fact leaves a gap for the researcher to conduct the present study to investigate the reality of teaching and learning English listening skills in grade 10 at YMBHS

1.9 Summary

In this chapter the researcher has presented a number of issues related to the research questions This literature review serves as the theoretical framework for the researcher to build up two sets of questionnaires and suggest some pedagogical implications The next chapter will provide the readers with the information about the context and the methodology of the study

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CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the context and the methodology of the study which are very important to the realization of the study

2.1 Overview of the current situation of teaching and learning English at YMBHS

2.1.1 The school context

YMBHS, which was founded forty years ago, is located at a mountainous area of Yen Mo District, Ninh Binh province The school has 33 classrooms, a small library, and two computer-equipped rooms

Concerning the students, there are 1402 students, most of whom come from low-income families They do not have opportunities to get exposed to English except in classrooms English has never been included in the entrance exam to high school in Ninh Binh Province This is the reason why English has not been paid as much attention to as other subjects such as Math, Chemistry, and Physics at junior secondary schools Consequently, the English proficiency level of most students is quite low when they enter YMBHS English is the compulsory subject for all the students at YMBHS The students have three regular periods and a follow-up period

of English a week There is a fact that the administrators of YMBHS are in favour

of natural science subjects, so English is not paid much attention to Most students learn English in order to pass exams, not because of their interest

In terms of teaching materials, the textbook used in the school is the standard one by the MOET for all the grades In addition to the textbook, there are few reference books in the library However, reference books are limited in number as well as in type Therefore, not all the students and the teachers can get access to this source of materials

Regarding the teaching facilities, there are three CD players in total, a set of

CD for each grade, a room equipped with a projector for all the subjects and classes

at the school

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Concerning the teaching staff, there are nine teachers of English, whose ages range from 23 to 36 All of them are female All the teachers majored in English at university In general, they are enthusiastic and supportive to their students and to one another

2.1.2 The new textbook English 10 (the standard textbook) and its listening section

 The new textbook English 10 (the standard textbook)

The new English 10 is the fifth volume which succeeds the new series of textbook for grade 6 to grade 9 The textbook consists of 16 units and 6 review units Each unit covers one topic which is updated and relevant to many aspects of the daily life such as Daily activities, School talks, People‟s background, The mass media, Music, etc Each unit in the textbook is divided into five sections: reading, speaking, listening, writing, and language focus respectively Such division aims to develop students‟ communicative skills and systematize important linguistic components The review unit aims to help the students self-assess their language ability after two or three units

 The listening section in the new textbook English 10

The listening section is the third section in each unit The aim of this section

is to help the students improve their listening skills such as intensive listening, extensive listening, listening for specific information, listening for gist The listening text in each unit is either a monologue or a dialogue of about 120 - 150 words in length The content of the listening text is related to the topic of the unit in

the textbook Each listening section is structured into three stages: Before you listen,

While you listen and After you listen The aim of Before you listen stage is to help

students get used to the topic and the content of the listening text, pre-teach new

vocabulary and make the students ready to listen While you listen consists of two to

four tasks which require the students to fulfill such tasks as deciding true or false

statements, choosing the best option, filling in blanks, answering questions After

you listen aims to help students to consolidate the language skills through the

1 What is the present situation of teaching and learning English listening skills

in grade 10 at YMBHS?

2 What are the difficulties in teaching and learning English listening skills in

grade 10 at YMBHS as perceived by the teachers and the students?

3 What solutions do the teachers and the students suggest to improve the current situation of teaching and learning English listening skills in grade 10 at

in English at University and none of them had Master of Art degree

The target population of students consisted of 434 tenth graders at YMBHS These students, aged from 16 to 17, were equally divided into eleven classes in terms of number and level Most of them started learning English when they entered grade 6 The researcher employed a cluster random sampling technique to select the sample for the study The reason was that it was difficult and time-consuming to select a random sample of individuals and gather these subjects because they had been already assigned to different classes with different timetables In this case,

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according to Fraenkel and Wallen (2005), cluster random sampling was more feasible Therefore, the researcher decided to randomly select three classes by writing the numbers of classes from 10A1 to 10A11 on 11 cards respectively and putting them in a hat; then mixing the cards thoroughly and randomly taking out three cards The numbers chosen were 10A2, 10A4, and 10A11 The total number

of students from these three classes was 131

2.2.3 Data collection instruments

The researcher intended to collect the same information about the reality of teaching and learning English listening skills in Grade 10 at YMBHS from two sources: questionnaires and classroom observations with the hope to guarantee the reliability and the objectiveness of the study

2.2.3.1 Survey questionnaire

To gather data for this study, two sets of questionnaires were administered to the respondents: one for the students and the other for the teachers The questionnaires were tested with a sample of three teachers and fifteen students for feedback on interpretation and clarity After analyzing the data in the piloted study, the final and formal questionnaires were established

 Survey questionnaire for the students

The questionnaire designed for the students was distributed to them in the late second term All questions and items were written in Vietnamese to make sure that the students had a clear understanding of the questions and the items before they gave out their choices In addition, the students were able to express their thought more easily in open-ended questions when they used their mother tongue The questionnaire consisted of two parts Part one was intended to collect personal information of the participants, such as their age, gender, years of learning English Part two consisted of 10 questions which were both close and open-ended The purpose of the questionnaire for the students was to investigate:

- the current situation of learning English listening skills in grade 10 at YMBHS;

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- the students‟ difficulties in learning English listening skills; and

- their suggested solutions to improve the current situation of teaching and learning English listening skills

 Survey questionnaire for the teachers

The survey questionnaire for the teachers had two main parts which were written in English The first part was to get personal information including the teachers‟ gender, age and years of teaching English The second part that consisted

of 9 questions was about:

- the current situation of teaching English listening skills in grade 10 at YMBHS;

- the teachers‟ difficulties in teaching English listening lessons; and

- their suggested solutions to improve the current situation of teaching and learning English listening skills

2.2.3.2 Classroom observation

Along with two sets of survey questionnaires for the teachers and the students, classroom observations were also applied The purpose of classroom observations in the context of the present study was aimed at discovering how the teachers and students actually taught and learnt English listening skills in the classroom This helped the researcher double-check the validity and reliability of the data that were collected through the questionnaires and also gain more information concerning the research questions The observation was carried out in four English listening lessons in four random classes before and after the delivery of the questionnaires The researcher acted as a non-participant in the classroom and took notes about the teachers‟ and the students‟ practices during the lessons

2.2.4 Data collection procedure

All the participants were informed in Vietnamese about the purposes, methods and requirements of the collection of the data to make sure they were clear about what they would have to do and were willing to participate in the study

Two sets of questionnaires - one for teachers and the other for students -

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were distributed to 131 students and 8 teachers of English at YMBHS when they were dealing with unit 14 of the new textbook English 10 To reduce the pressure of time, the participants were allowed to finish the questionnaires at home in one week After one week of delivering, 136 copies were collected (128 from the students and 8 from the teachers)

The classroom observation was also implemented in four random classes for

a month, both before and after the delivery of the questionnaires

2.2.5 Data analysis procedure

Data collected from two different sources were analyzed under six main items: (1) the teachers‟ and the students‟ perceptions of the importance of the teaching and learning of English listening skills, (2) the teachers‟ and the students‟ opinions about the listening section in the textbook English 10, (3) the teachers‟ and the students‟ opinions about the students‟ listening competence, (4) the teachers‟ and the students‟ ways of teaching and learning English listening skills, (5) the difficulties in teaching and learning English listening skills perceived by the teachers and the students, and (6) the teachers‟ and the students‟ suggested solutions to improve the current situation of teaching and learning English listening skills The quantitative data were converted into percentages and presented in the form of tables while the qualitative data collected from open-ended questions and observations were presented by quoting relevant responses Then the data were analyzed both descriptively and interpretively

2.3 Summary

This chapter presented the context and the methodology of the study Concerning the context of the study, some characteristics of the school and the overall information about the new textbook English 10 and its listening section were mentioned In the methodology part, the research questions, the participants, the instruments, and data collection and data analysis procedures were described in details To obtain the aim and objectives of the study, two sets of questionnaires and four classroom observations were used

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CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter focuses on analyzing the results obtained from the questionnaires and classroom observations A detailed discussion of the findings is also presented in this chapter

3.1 Findings from questionnaires for the teachers and the students

3.1.1 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the importance of listening

in language teaching and learning at school

Table 1: The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the importance of teaching

and learning English listening skills at school

Table 1 shows the teachers‟ and the students‟ attitudes towards the importance of teaching and learning English listening skills at school It is surprising that only half of the teachers and 42.2% of the students saw the importance of teaching and learning English listening skills at school while the rest

of the teachers and the students did not think it was necessary to teach and learn English listening skills at school Various reasons were given by both the teachers and the students to explain this attitude, of which the most important one was the students‟ success in exams which excluded listening Below was what they said:

- Teaching listening is a waste of time because it isn’t included in tests and exams I have to focus on grammar and vocabulary because students’ success in exams determines teachers’ teaching competence

- Getting high marks is very important to me and it is the grammar and vocabulary, not listening that help me get good marks

- I have gained nothing from listening lessons because I can’t hear anything

Table 2: The teachers’ and the students’ opinions about the students’ listening competence

Table 2 presents the students‟ listening competence which was assessed by the teachers and the students themselves It is clear from table 2 that the majority of the teachers assessed their students‟ real listening ability bad (62.5%) and 43.8% of the students supported their teachers‟ opinion A eighth of the teachers (12.5%) and 18.0% of the students responded that the students‟ listening competence was really bad A fourth of the teachers (25.0%) thought that their students‟ listening competence was average and 35.9% of the students supported their teachers Only 2.3% of the students claimed that they were quite good at listening while none of the teachers agreed with their students It is worth mentioning that none of the teachers and the students thought that the students were really good at listening

3.1.3 The teachers’ and the students’ opinions about the listening sections of the textbook English 10

Table 3 shows the teachers‟ and the students‟ opinions about the listening sections in the textbook English 10 It is clear from the table that most of the teachers and the students expressed their agreements on items A, B and D, which means they thought that the listening sections consisted of a lot of lifelike pictures, familiar topics and varied tasks Only half of the teachers agreed that the contents of the listening texts were interesting, the tasks were appropriate to the students‟ ability and the length of the listening sections was appropriate for a 45-minute lesson, which was supported by 54.7%, 42.2%, and 67.2% of the students

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respectively However, a large number of the teachers (37.5%) claimed that the tasks were not appropriate to the students‟ ability and the length of the listening sections was not appropriate for a 45-minute lesson, which was agreed by 42.2% and 14.8 % of the students respectively

Items

Strongly Agree

Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

Disagree

T (%)

S (%)

T (%)

S (%)

T (%)

S (%)

T (%)

S (%)

T (%)

S (%)

A Lots of lifelike pictures 0.0 10.9 62.5 41.4 12.5 25.0 25.0 19.6 0.0 3.1

3.1.4.1 Teachers’ ways of teaching English listening skills

3.1.4.1.1 The teachers’ preparation before listening lessons

Items Always

(%)

Usually (%)

Sometimes (%)

Rarely (%)

Never (%)

A Studying the listening text 50.0 25.0 25.0 0.0 0.0

B Simplifying the listening text 0.0 0.0 0.0 37.5 62.5

C Referring to related sources 0.0 0.0 50.0 37.5 12.5

D Adapting the listening tasks 0.0 0.0 25.0 37.5 37.5

E Identifying and preparing support 12.5 50.0 37.5 0.0 0.0

F Preparing supplementary exercises 0.0 0.0 50.0 25.0 25.0

Table 4: The teachers’ preparation before listening lessons

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As indicated in table 4, studying the listening text was the most frequent preparation that was always or usually made by 75.0% of the teachers Identifying and preparing support ranked the second with 62.5% of the teachers always and usually doing it In the third place, referring to related sources and making important notes and preparing supplementaty exercises were sometimes done by half of the teachers None of the teachers claimed that they frequently adapted listening tasks This was sometimes made by only a fourth of the teachers and the rest of the teachers admitted that they rarely or never did it Simplifying the listening text was the least frequent preparation which was rarely or never exploited

by all of the teachers

3.1.4.1.2 The audiovisual support that the teachers use in listening lessons

Types of support Always

(%)

Usually (%)

Sometimes (%)

Rarely (%)

Never (%)

Table 5: The audio-visual support that the teachers use in listening lessons

As shown in table 5, audio was the most frequently used support which was always or usually provided by 75.0% of the teachers Drawings ranked the second with 25.0% of the teachers claiming to provide it frequently while the rest of the teachers admitted exploiting it rarely or never Pictures were usually used in listening lessons by only 12.5% of the teachers Concerning maps, most of the teachers (87.5%) reported that they never used this kind of support to help their students during the listening lessons It is noteworthy that all of the teachers never used video when teaching listening lessons

3.1.4.1.3 The teachers’ classroom practices in listening lessons

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 The teachers’ classroom practices in the pre-listening stage

Practices 1 (%) 2 (%) 3 (%) 4 (%) 5 (%)

1 Introducing the background information 12.5 37.5 37.5 12.5 0.0

2 Drawing the students‟ attention to the visual support 0.0 50.0 25.0 25.0 0.0

3 Helping the students review key words 0.0 25.0 37.5 37.5 0.0

4 Presenting new words and structures 87.5 12.5 0.0 0.0 0.0

5 Making the students read through the questions 37.5 37.5 25.0 0.0 0.0

6 Setting purposes for each listening task 0.0 25.0 37.5 37.5 0.0

7 Making the instructions clear to the students 50.0 37.5 12.5 0.0 0.0

8 Giving advice on listening strategies 0.0 12.5 50.0 25.0 12.5

9 Engaging the students in pair/group discussion 12.5 25.0 50.0 12.5 0.0

Table 6: The teachers’ classroom practices in the pre-listening stage

(Note: 1 = always; 2 = usually; 3 = sometimes; 4 = rarely; 5 = never)

Table 6 illustrates the teachers‟ classroom practices in the pre-listening stage It is clear from the table that the teachers‟ most frequent practice in the pre-listening stage was presenting new words and structures which was always or usually performed by all the teachers Coming next was the practice of making the instructions clear to the students with 87.5% of the teachers always or usually utilizing it In the third place, making the students read through the comprehension questions before they listen to the listening text was always or usually performed by 75.0% of the teachers Coming next were introducing background knowledge of the listening text and drawing the students‟ attention to the visual support for predicting the content of the listening text, which were always or usually utilized by 50.0% of the teachers Engaging the students in pair/group discussion seemed to be an unpopular practice which was frequently done by 37.5% of the teachers Only a fourth of the teachers claimed that they always or usually helped their students review key words related to the listening text and set purposes for each listening task Advising the students with different listening strategies appeared to be the least frequently used practice that was usually exploited by only 12.5% of the teachers

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 The teachers’ classroom practices in the while-listening stage

Practices 1(%) 2(%) 3(%) 4(%) 5(%)

10 Asking the students to check the accuracy of their

prediction in the pre-listening stage 0.0 25.0 50.0 12.5 12.5

11 Making the students listen for the gist of the listening text 0.0 25.0 62.5 12.5 0.0

12 Making the students listen for detailed information 0.0 50.0 50.0 0.0 0.0

13 Making the students listen and write the answers to

the comprehension questions 87.5 12.5 0.0 0.0 0.0

14 Encouraging the students to guess the meanings of

new words from the context 0.0 12.5 75.0 12.5 0.0

15 Making the students take meaningful notes 0.0 0.0 25.0 50.0 25.0

16 Engaging the students in pair/group work to compare

and contrast their answers to the comprehension questions 12.5 50.0 37.5 0.0 0.0

17 Giving immediate feedback if possible 37.5 62.5 0.0 0.0 0.0

Table 7: The teachers’ classroom practices in the while-listening stage

(Note: 1 = always; 2 = usually; 3 = sometimes; 4 = rarely; 5 = never)

Table 7 presents the teachers‟ classroom practices in the while-listening stage of a listening lesson As can be seen from the table, making the students listen

to the tape or teachers‟ reading and write the answers to comprehension questions and giving immediate feedback if possible were the most frequently used practices which were always or usually carried out by all of the teachers Coming next was engaging the students in pair/group discussion to compare and contrast their answers which was always or usually utilized by 62.5% of the teachers Half of the teachers declared that they usually made their students listen for detailed information to elicit specific information while the other half admitted that they carried out this practice sometimes Asking the students to check the accuracy of their prediction in the pre-listening stage and making the students listen for the gist

of the listening text were usually carried out by a fourth of the teachers

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Encouraging the students to guess the meanings of new words from the context and making the students take meaningful notes to write summaries or reports later seemed to be neglected in classrooms because none of the teachers always or usually engaged their students in these practices

 The teachers’ classroom practices in the post-listening stage

Practices 1

(%)

2 (%)

3 (%)

4 (%)

5 (%)

18 Engaging the students in pair/work discussion 0.0 25.0 67.5 12.5 0.0

19 Asking the students to provide personal information 0.0 37.5 50.0 12.5 0.0

20 Asking the students to listen and shadow-read the

listening text

0.0 0.0 37.5 37.5 25.0

21 Letting the students listen for entertainment 0.0 0.0 25.0 37.5 37.5

22 Engaging the students in writing summaries 0.0 0.0 50.0 50.0 0.0 23.Engaging students in reading related passages 0.0 0.0 0.0 25.0 75.0

24 Having no time for post-listening practices 0.0 37.5 62.5 0.0 0.0

Table 8: The teachers’ classroom practices in the post-listening stage

(Note: 1 = always; 2 = usually; 3 = sometimes; 4 = rarely; 5 = never)

Table 8 presents the teachers‟ classroom practices in the post-listening stage

It is obvious from the table that the two most popular practices in the post-listening stage were concerned with the oral ones in which individual work was preferred to pair/group work Giving the students the tape script of the listening text, letting them to listen for entertainment and engaging them in writing summaries or reports were sometimes carried out by the teachers Asking the students to read related passages was neglected in listening lessons because all the teachers admitted that they utilized it rarely or never Amazingly, lack of time for post-listening stage was

a problem that was usually faced by 37.5% of the teachers and the rest of the teachers (62.7%) sometimes got trouble with it

3.1.4.1.4 The factors affecting the teachers’ ways of teaching in listening lessons

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Factors Very

important Important Unimportant

Very unimportant

G Requirements of the exams 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

H My colleagues‟ teaching ways 12.5 12.5 75.0 0.0

I Teaching facilities 25.0 75.0 0.0 0.0

J Others:

Table 9: The factors affecting the teachers’ ways of teaching English listening lessons

As shown in the table, the most influential factor deciding what the teachers did in classrooms was the requirements of the exams which was claimed to be very important by 100% of the teachers Coming next were the students‟ proficiency level, the time allowance and the teaching facilities which were indicated to be either very important or important by all the teachers Most of the teachers were influenced by the availability of the materials, the interest of the students and the nature of listening with the percentages of 87.5, 75.0, and 75.0% respectively It is interesting to note that teachers‟ personal beliefs and their colleagues‟ teaching ways appeared to be the least important factors with 37.5 % and 25.0% of the teachers respectively seeing the importance of these factors to their classroom practices

3.1.4.2 The students’ ways of learning English listening skills

3.1.4.2.1 The students’ evaluation of the teachers’ ways of teaching English listening skills

Table 10: The effects of teaching and learning English listening skills on students’

language ability

It is clear from table 10 that the number of the students who got much benefit was much lower than the number of those who got a little benefit from the learning of listening skills with the percentages of 13.3 and 59.4 respectively It is a warning for the teachers to know that a considerable number of the students (37.3%) responded that the teaching and learning of listening skills did not help them improve their language ability at all

Options A Interesting B Boring C Stressful D Relaxing E No idea

Students (%) 11.7 30.5 36.7 18.8 2.3

Table 11: Students’ opinions about listening lessons

The data in table 11 show that in contrast to a small number of the students thinking that listening lessons were interesting (11.7%) and relaxing (18.8%), a large number of the students expressed that the listening lessons were boring (30.5%) and stressful (36.7%) Few students (2.3%) had no idea on their teachers‟ presenting listening lessons Many students specified their opinions as follows:

- My teacher usually plays the tape and covers the tasks in the textbook only; there are no other activities to motivate students, so the lessons are boring

- Listening is very difficult to me and I don’t know how to listen effectively I

am always stressed during the listening lessons

- All I can do in listening lessons is copying the keys that the teachers give

3 (%)

4 (%)

5 (%)

A Studying the pictures and the questions for prediction 0.0 13.3 26.6 39.8 20.3

B Reviewing related words and structures 3.1 14.8 37.5 30.5 14.1

C Reading related materials 1.6 7.0 20.3 27.3 43.8

D Preparing nothing 2.3 25.8 17.1 22.7 32.0

E Others:

Table 12: Students’ preparation before listening lessons

(Note: 1 = always; 2 = usually; 3 = sometimes; 4 = rarely; 5 = never) Table 12 presents the students‟ preparation before listening lessons As can

be seen from the table, it is a warning fact that over a fourth of the students (28.1%) always or usually prepared nothing for the listening lessons The students who always or usually studied the pictures and the questions in the listening lessons, reviewed the words and structures in previous lessons of the unit, and read the related materials accounted for 13.3%, 17.9% and 8.6% respectively On the contrary, most of the students rarely or never performed these with the percentages

of 43.0, 44.6, and 71.1 respectively

3.1.4.2.3 The students’ favorite practices in listening lessons

 The students’ favorite practices in the pre-listening stage

Practices Students (%)

1 Looking at the visual support to predict the content of the listening text

before listening

78.1

2 Working in pairs/groups to discuss what you know about the listening topic 70.3

3 Reviewing key words and structures related to the listening text 74.2

4 Copying new words and structures appearing in the listening text 35.2

5 Reading through the comprehension questions before listening 44.5

6 Working in pairs/groups to guess the answers to the comprehension

questions

46.9

Table13: The students’ favorite practices in the pre-listening stage

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Table 13 shows the students‟ favorite practices in the pre-listening stage As can be seen from the table, the students‟ most favorite practice was looking at the visual support to predict the content of the listening text (78.1%) which was closely followed by reviewing key words and structures related to the listening text (74.2%) and working in pairs/groups to discuss what they know about the listening topic (70.3%) Working in pairs/groups to guess the answers to the comprehension questions and reading through the comprehension questions were loved by 46.9% and 44.5% of the students respectively Copying new words and structures seemed

to be the least favorable practice which was chosen by 35.2% of the students

 The students’ favorite practices in the while-listening stage

Practices Students (%)

7 Checking the accuracy of your prediction in the pre-listening stage 39.1

8 Listening for the gist of the listening text 34.4

9 Listening for detailed information of the listening text 35.2

10 Listening and writing the answers to the comprehension questions 85.9

11 Guessing the meanings of new words from the context 34.4

12 Taking meaningful notes to write summaries or reports later 11.7

13 Working in pairs/groups to compare and contrast your answers to

the comprehension questions

82.0

Table14: The students’ favorite practices in the while-listening stage

Table 14 presents the students‟ favorite practices in the while-listening stage

It is obvious from the table that listening and writing the answers to the comprehension questions was the most favorable practice in the while-listening stage which was chosen by 85.9% of the students Working in pairs/groups to compare and contrast the students‟ answers to the comprehension questions ranked the second with the percentage of 82.0 In the third place, checking the accuracy of the students‟ prediction in the pre-listening stage was loved by 39.1% of the students About a third of the students indicated that they liked listening for the gist

of the listening text, listening for detailed information of the listening text, and

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guessing the meanings of new words from the context Standing in the last place was taking meaningful notes to write summaries or reports later which was loved

by only 11.7% of the students

 The students’ favorite practices in the post-listening stage

The practices in the post-listening stage Students (%)

14 Working in pairs/groups to discuss the issues related to the listening text 74.2

15 Providing personal opinions on the issues related to the listening text 29.7

16 Shadow-reading the tape script while listening to the text again 83.6

17 Listening for entertainment (e.g music) 100.0

18 Writing summaries or reports on the listening text 20.3

19 Reading the passages related to the listening text 15.6

Table 15: The students’ favorite practices in the post-listening stage

Table 15 illustrates the students‟ favorite practices in the post-listening stage

It is clear from the table that the students‟ most favorite practice in the listening stage was listening for entertainment (100.0%) which was closely followed by shadow-reading the tape script while listening to the text again (83.6%) Working in pairs/groups to discuss the issues related to the listening text ranked the third with 74.2% of the students claiming to like it It is worth mentioning that only a minority of the students indicated that they enjoyed providing personal opinions on the issues related to the listening text, writing summaries or reports on the listening text and reading related passages with the percentages of 29.7, 20.3 and 15.6 respectively

post-3.1.4.2.4 The students’ home practice on English listening skills

Table 16: The students’ home practice on listening skills

When being asked about home practice on English listening skills, over two thirds of the students (68.7%) admitted that they did not practice listening to English at home at all This was explained by various reasons of which the most

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important ones were the students‟ lack of materials for practice and their perceptions of the importance of listening to their learning Below was what they said:

- I have no CD player and recordings to practice listening at home

- I can’t find the recordings for practicing listening in the area where I live

- I don’t have time to practice listening; I have a lot of homework on other subjects to do

3.1.5 Difficulties in teaching and learning English listening skills perceived by the teachers and the students

 Difficulties as perceived by the teachers

C Lack of teaching facilities and materials 50.0

E Students‟ lack of interest in learning English listening skills 100.0

G Teachers‟ inexperience in teaching the new textbook 37.5

H Others:

Table 17: The teachers’ difficulties in teaching English listening lessons

As shown in the table, the biggest difficulty that the teachers encountered in teaching English listening skills was students‟ lack of interest (100%) Students‟ limited vocabulary was the second biggest problem that 87.5% of the teachers faced Lack of time to deal with the requirements of the listening lessons ranked the third with 75.0% of the teachers experiencing it Besides, a considerable number of the teachers (50.0%) indicated that they had trouble with the lack of the teaching facilities and materials Large class, students‟ lack of background knowledge, and teachers‟ inexperience in teaching the new textbook appeared to be the least popular problems which were experienced by 37.5% of the teachers

E Teachers‟ ineffective teaching methods 45.3

F Lack of learning facilities and materials 34.4

G Lack of interest in learning listening skills 40.6

J Others: 15.6

Table 18: The students’ difficulties in learning English listening skills

Table 18 presents the difficulties that the students encountered in learning English listening skills It is obviously seen that the biggest problem faced by 86.7% of the students was the speaking speed of the speakers Limited vocabulary ranked the second with 71.1% And next was different accents, which was experienced by 62.5% of the students Over a half of the students (59.4%) indicated that their lack of background knowledge was an obstacle in their learning English listening skills Teachers‟ ineffective teaching methods and lack of interest in learning listening skills were also popular problems which were encountered by 45.3% and 40.6% of the students respectively Lack of time to practice listening skills and lack of learning facilities and materials were experienced by a third of the students Large class seemed to be an unpopular problem because only 16.4% of the students got trouble with it Some students also faced some other difficulties such

as bad quality of recordings or students‟ laziness, which were mentioned by 15.6%

of the students

3.1.6 The teachers’ and the students’ suggested solutions to improve the current situation of teaching and learning English listening skills