Teachers' difficulties in teaching English listening skills to the 11th -grade at Daimo High school, Hanoi and some suggested solutions = Khó khăn của giáo viên

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS DM school ELS Ss Dai Mo high school English Listening Skill Students Teachers’ techniques of encouraging students Students’ evaluation on other students’ participat

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

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

NGUYỄN THỊ LỆ THỦY

TEACHERS’ DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING ENGLISH LISTENING

AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

(Khó khăn của giáo viên trong việc dạy kĩ năng nghe hiểu cho học sinh

lớp 11 Trường THPT Đại Mỗ, Hà Nội và một số giải pháp)

M.A Minor Thesis

Major: English Teaching Methodology Code : 60 14 10

Hanoi – 2011

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

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

NGUYỄN THỊ LỆ THỦY

TEACHERS’ DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING ENGLISH LISTENING

AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

(Khó khăn của giáo viên trong việc dạy kĩ năng nghe hiểu cho học sinh lớp 11 Trường THPT Đại Mỗ, Hà Nội và một số giải pháp)

M.A Minor Thesis

Major: English Teaching Methodology Code : 60 14 10

Supervisor: CHU THỊ PHƯƠNG VÂN M.A.

Hanoi - 2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of abbreviations viii

List of tables and charts viii

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 1

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Methods of the study 2

5 Significance of the study 2

6 Design of the study 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Definitions of listening 4

1.2 Communicative approaches to listening comprehension 5

1.3 Stages of a listening lesson 7

1.3.1 Pre-listening stage 7

1.3.2 While-listening stage 8

1.3.3 Post-listening stage 9

1.4 The teacher’s role in the listening lesson 10

1.5 Potential problems in learning ELS 12

1.6 Strategies of listening comprehension 13

1.7 Role of motivation, interest and relevance in learning ELS 14

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 16

2.1 Introduction of language teaching and learning conditions in DM school 16

2.1.1 Subjective factors_Human 16

2.1.1.1 The learners_ Grade 11th students 16

2.1.1.2 The teachers 16

2.1.2 Objective factors_Teaching and learning conditions 17

2.1.2.1 Teaching aids 17

2.1.2.2 Duration 17

2.1.2.3 Class size 17

2.2 The new “Tieng Anh 11” textbook 17

2.2.1 Grade 11 listening objects 18

2.2.2 Listening lessons 18

2.3 Research questions 18

2.4 Data collection instruments 19

2.4.1 Instrument one: Questionnaires 19

2.4.2 Instrument two: Interviews 19

2.5 Summary 20

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 21

3.1 Questionnaires 21

3.1.1 Questionnaires for students 21

3.1.2 Questionnaires for teachers 28

3.2 Results of the interviews 34

3.3 Summary 37

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND SUGGESTED SOLUSIONS 38

4.1 Findings 38

4.1.1 Teachers’ attitudes towards teaching ELS 38

4.1.2 Students’ attitudes towards learning ELS 38

4.1.3 Students’ difficulties in learning ELS 39

4.1.4 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching ELS to grade 11 students 39

4.2 Suggested solutions 40

4.2.1 Doing a pre-listening warm up activity effectively 40

4.2.2 Encouraging students to practice ELS outside the classroom 40

4.2.3 Giving support and encouragement 41

4.2.4 Upgrading teaching aids 42

4.2.5 Adapting and re-designing the tasks 42

4.2.6 Equipping students with listening strategies 42

4.3 Summary 43

PART III: CONCLUSIONS 44

1 Summary of the study 44

2 Limitations of the study 44

3 Recommendations for further study 45

REFERENCES 46 APPENDICES I

Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students I Appendix 2: Questionnaire for teachers III Appendix 3: Interview questions for teachers V Appendix 4: Topics of the listening texts in English textbook 11 VI

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

DM school ELS

Ss

Dai Mo high school English Listening Skill Students

Teachers’ techniques of encouraging students

Students’ evaluation on other students’ participation

Factors affecting students’ difficulties in learning ELS

Students’ suggested techniques to better teaching ELS

Teachers’ assessment and attitudes towards ELS

Teachers’ assessment of listening topics & tasks in “Tieng Anh

11” textbook

Teachers’ opinion of students’ attitudes towards listening lessons

Teachers’ opinions of the difficult stage(s) of a listening lesson

Difficulties encountered by the teachers

The frequency of teachers’ using techniques in a listening lesson

Teachers’ suggested solutions to improve listening teaching

Four teachers’ answering interview questions

Students’ assessment of their listening abilities

Students’ attitudes towards the importance of listening skills

Students' frequency of listening to English outside the class

Students’ assessment of tasks in the “Tieng Anh 11” textbook

Students’ attitudes towards the appropriate time for learning ELS

How students discuss their listening comprehension problems

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

In this new era of globalization, English language becomes the international language It has become the most popular language of communication among countries and in many fields of human endeavor So it is important that we learn to use English if we do not want

to be old fashioned Therefore, there is a great demand for teaching and learning English in the world as well as in Vietnam In order to use English effectively, learners need to develop communicative competence Accordingly, they should be helped to develop four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing Listening, therefore, is essential not only as

a receptive skill but also to the development of spoken language proficiency

Aware of the importance of teaching listening skills, all the teachers of Dai Mo high school are trying their best to make the listening lessons effective The teachers themselves always try to find out the best approach to apply in teaching However, the quality of learning and teaching English listening skills still remains very low Therefore, this thesis takes a critical look at the real situation of teaching and learning listening skills at Dai Mo high school to explore the problems as well as to suggest some feasible solutions From the real experience in teaching, the researcher attempts to carry out a research to make the problems clear

2 Aim and objectives of the study

Within the frame work of a minor thesis, the study is aimed at:

- Clarifying the practices of teaching and learning ELS in grades 11 in DM school

- Finding out the difficulties teachers and students in grades 11 in DM school have had to undergo

- Suggesting some feasible solutions to the teaching of ELS for grade 11

It may appear contradictory that in the first two concentrations, the study attempts to investigate both teaching and learning of ELS whereas the main topic raised in the title of the study is only about the teaching However, according to Brown (2007), it is not a contradiction “if we look at the teaching process as the facilitation of learning.”

3 Scope of the study

Learning a second language as a scholar once said “is a long and complex undertaking” Therefore, teachers of a second language certainly have many problems during their teaching In the scope of this research, however, the researcher only has ambition to investigate the difficulties that teachers in DM school have been faced when teaching listening skill for 11th graders Hopefully, they will have more smooth and successful listening lessons Also, it is not expected that the study can bring solutions to the ELS teaching for students of all levels

4 Methods of the study

The study is designed to use both qualitative and quantitative methods Besides, many resources such as books, magazines, articles, newspapers and some sources on the Internet have been read by the researcher

In order to gain the most reliable results, the quantitative data will be collected through two survey questionnaires One survey questionnaire is for 140 students from five different groups in grade 11 in DM school and the other survey is for 7 teachers teaching English for grades 11 during the time they took part in the survey The data, then, will be processed and analyzed to yield conclusions for the study

Along with the quantitative method, the qualitative data has been obtained by informal interviews with some teachers to collect further information about the real situations of teaching and learning ESL in grades 11 at DM school

5 Significance of the study

This research provides an insight into the difficulties that are often met by teachers teaching English for grades 11 in DM school In addition, this research also points out some feasible solutions which are beneficial for both teachers and students

Hopefully, the findings and recommendations of this study will be of some help to the improvement of the teaching and learning ELS of Vietnamese students in general and of

DM school students in particular The study also gives some guidelines for teachers to

help their students overcome their listening comprehension problems The results of this study may also be useful for those who are interested in this field

6 Design of the study

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

Part I: INTRODUCTION- deals with the rationales, aims, methods, scope, significance and design of the study

Part II: DEVELOPMENT – consists of three chapters

Chapter 1: Literature review – provides some theoretical background about listening

comprehension and teaching listening skill

Chapter 2: Methodology – presents the current situation of teaching and learning

listening at DM school This chapter also deals with the introduction of the research methods which cover research questions, the participants and data collection instruments

Chapter 3: Data analysis and discussions – presents the data results, analysis collected

from two questionnaires as well as the interviews

Chapter 4: Findings and feasible solutions – concludes the findings the researcher has

from the study and proposes some solutions to the teaching of ELS for grade 11 in Dai

Mo high school

Part III: CONCLUSION- gives a brief description of the study and states the limitations as well as recommendations for further research

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Definitions of listening

People have two ears and one mouth so they can listen twice as much as they speak This important fact points out that listening happens between people A vast majority of the time that we are speaking, we are listening as well Over the last two decades, with a new wave of interest in the development of communicative competence in language teaching, listening comprehension skills have ever received much more attention in language teaching classrooms There have been a large number of definitions of listening comprehension which present different views of language scholars towards the concept

Helgesen (2003: 24) stated that “Listening is an active, purposeful processing of making

sense of what we hear.” It is clear that the listener is doing more than simply decoding

what is heard This view emphasized the active interpretation and integration of incoming information with prior knowledge and experience

In Rubin‟s point of view (1995:7), “listening is conceived of as an active process in which

listeners select and interpret information which comes from auditory and visual clues in order to define what is going on and what the speakers are trying to express” She

emphasizes the activeness of listeners in the listening process and also identifies two distinctive features of listening comprehension which are selecting and interpreting Selecting means that in the process of making sense of the input, listeners use only part of the incoming information whereas interpreting means in trying to make sense of the input, they use their background knowledge as well as the new information to decipher what is going on and to figure out what speakers intend

Another way to approach the definition comes from O‟Malley and Chamot (1989: 420)

They made a conclusion that “Listening comprehension is an active and conscious process

in which the listener constructs meaning by using cues from contextual information and

existing knowledge, while relying upon multiple strategic resources to fulfill the task requirement.”

Moreover, Richards and Schmidt (2002: 313) emphasized that “Listening comprehension

is the process of understanding speech in a first or second language The study of listening

comprehension in second language focuses on the role of individual linguistic units (e.g., phonemes, words, grammatical structures) as well as the role of the listeners’ expectations, the situation and context, background knowledge and topic.” In this

definition, the writers mention the role of non-linguistic units such as the context, the background knowledge These things are often neglected in traditional points of views which regard the listeners as human tape recorders who just hear what they are to listen without paying sufficient attention to the discourse such as background knowledge of the speakers as well as their intentions, attitudes, implications and other shades of meaning From the above definitions, it can be concluded that listening is not a passive but active and conscious process in which learners construct and convey meaning by using not only the linguistic cues but their non-linguistic knowledge as well

1.2 Communicative approaches to listening comprehension

According to Rost (1994:139), foreign languages have been taught formally for centuries and records of language teaching materials have been around for over 500 years However,

in all of this time, it appears that listening has not received a great deal of attention until more recent times

Listening comprehension is regarded theoretically as an active process in which individuals concentrate on selected aspects of aural input, form meaning from passages, and associate what they hear with existing knowledge

There are many ways of approaching listening teaching The researcher, however, only has

an ambition to mention two different approaches when teaching and learning English listening at schools: top-down and bottom-up process The ideas come from famous scholars namely Rumelhart (1977) and Flowerdew and Miller (2005)

 Bottom-up view considers listening comprehension as a process in which listeners make sense of what they hear by focusing on different parts: the vocabulary, the grammar or functional phrases, sounds, etc Schemata are

hierarchically formed, from the most specific at the bottom to the most general at the top It acknowledges that listening is a process of decoding the sounds, from the smallest meaningful units (phonemes) to complete texts This process is closely associated with the listener‟s linguistic knowledge However, bottom-up processing has its weak points Understanding a text is an interactive process between the listener‟s previous knowledge and the text Efficient comprehension that associates the textual material with listener‟s brain does not only depend on one‟s linguistic knowledge

 Top-down view, on the other hand, starts with background knowledge in comprehending the meaning of a message This knowledge can be content schema (general knowledge based on life experience and previous learning) or textual schema (knowledge of language and content used in a particular situation) While listening, the listener actively constructs (or reconstructs) the original meaning of the speaker employing new input as clues to understand what he/ she hears However, if the incoming information the listener hears is unfamiliar to him, it cannot evoke his schemata and he can only depend heavily

on his linguistic knowledge in listening comprehension Besides, although the listener can trigger a schema, he might not have the suitable schema expected by the speaker Thus, only relying on top-down processing may result in the failure

of comprehension

The two views above have certain disadvantages Bottom-up view focuses on linguistic knowledge whereas top-down bases on background knowledge While listening, accordingly, if listeners depend heavily on one of two, they will fail to understand the spoken text It is now generally accepted that both top-down and bottom-up processes should be combined to enhance listening comprehension These two processes intersect to develop an interactive process The process employing background knowledge information, textual information and linguistic information make comprehension and interpretation become easy for listeners When the content of the material is familiar to the listener, he will employ his background knowledge at the same time to make predictions

of what the speakers are going to say or to overcome barriers of unfamiliar words As opposed to this, if the listener is unfamiliar with the content of the listening text, he can

only depend on his linguistic knowledge, especially the lexical and syntactical knowledge

to make sense of the information

Understanding how listeners process listening comprehension will provide students and teachers with a lot of ideas to listen more effectively It is also necessary to consider the possible problems students often encounter in learning to listen to English

1.3 Stages of a listening lesson

Rixon (1986:63-64) stated that a commonsense way of dividing up a listening lesson is into three stages:

- Things to do before the students hear the passage, to help them get the most out of what they are going to hear

- Activities and exercises to be carried out as the students listen to the passage, to guide them as they try to gasp the main information in it

- Things to do once the class has come to grips with the meaning and content of the passage, and is ready to look back, to reflect on some of the language points in it or

to do some extension work based on the content of the passage

The three stages are summarized as: Pre-listening stage, While-listening stage and listening stage Each stage has its own aims and activities

listening text Ur (1992: 4) points out that "It would seem a good idea when presenting a

listening passage in class to give students some information about the content, situation and speakers before they actually start listening"

Pre-listening work can be done in various ways and consist of a wide range of activities Thus, Underwood (1989:33) stated that teachers should consider the following factors when choosing pre-listening activities:

- The time available;

- The material available;

- The ability of the class;

- The interest of the class;

- The interest of the teacher;

- The place in which the work is being carried out;

- The nature and content of the listening text itself

The last item on the list, "the nature and content of the listening text", is very important when teachers choose activities Teachers need to select some kinds of suitable activity to some types of text

Davis (2000:78) points out that pre-listening work can consist of a whole range of

activities, including:

- Discuss a relevant picture

- Discuss relevant experiences

- Associate ideas with the topic

- Associate vocabulary with the topic

- Predict information about the topic

- Write questions about the topic

1.3.2 While-listening stage

While-listening activities are what 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 understand the text and develop the skill of eliciting message from spoken language Teachers should not expect students to try to understand every word For example, teachers may ask students to listen for three pieces of information the first time they hear the recording, and tell teachers about the attitude of the speakers after the second time they have heard it In general, teachers should help their students understand rather than testing their understanding the whole time

Underwood (1989:49) pointed out that when choosing while-listening activities, teachers should consider the following factors:

a) The possibilities for varying the level of difficulty if required;

b) The inconvenience of carrying out activities which require individuals to give their responses orally in the classroom This kind of work is best done in a language laboratory Classroom while-listening activities generally have to be limited to those which can be done without the need for each student to respond by speaking; c) Whether the work is to be done by the students with the teacher present or whether

it is to be done as private study, either in the classroom or at home, this will influence the teacher's choice of activity as he/she may want to give students different work according to their level of ability, to provide additional instructions,

or to select activities which generate little or no marking;

d) Whether or not the while-listening activities generate material or ideas which might

be used for post-listening work, and if so, whether the teacher wishes to make use

of these

Furthermore, Davis (2000:78) suggests the following while-listening activities:

- Identify the exact topic, or an aspect of it

- Note two to four pieces of information

- Checking whether the students have understood what they need to or not;

- Reflecting on why some students have failed to understand or miss parts of the message;

- Giving the students the opportunity to consider the attitude and manner of the speakers of the listening text;

- Expanding on the topic or language of the message and transferring learned things

to another context;

- Making introduction for the planned work

Again, according to Underwood (1989:80), when the teachers select post-activities, the attention should be given to the following factors:

- The amount of language work which the teacher wishes to do in relation to the particular listening text;

- The time which is allowed to do post-listening work;

- Whether the post-listening work should consist of speaking, reading or writing;

- Whether the post-listening stage is seen as an opportunity for pair/group-work or it

is intended that students should work alone;

- Whether it is necessary to provide post-listening activities which can be done outside the classroom (at home/ in the listening centre);

- The chosen activity should be made motivating

And here are the possible post-listening activities by Davis (2000:78):

- Give opinions

- Relate similar experiences

- Role-play a similar interaction

- Write a brief report

- Write a similar text

- Debate the topic

In conclusion, by raising students' awareness of listening as a skill that requires active engagement, teachers should help their students develop both the ability and the confidence to handle communication situations they may encounter beyond the classroom

In this way teachers will give their students the foundation for communicative competence

in the new language

1.4 The teacher's role in the listening lesson

It is increasingly evident that teachers play an essential role in students‟ developing listening skill According to Underwood (1989: 21-22), the teacher's objectives should include:

(a) Exposing students to a range of listening experiences

This can be done by using a lot of different listening text (stories, conversations, descriptive talks, etc.) which incorporate a variety of language (formal or informal, spoken

by native speakers or foreign speakers, delivered slowly or quickly)

(b) Making listening purposeful for the students

This can best be achieved by providing tasks which are as realistic as possible, so that the students can relate what they are doing in the lesson to things that happen in real life, outside the classroom

(c) Helping students understand what listening entails and how they might approach it

Often, this means changing the attitudes of students, particularly if in the past their attempts to learn to listen have been successful It is worth spending a little time explaining the processes of listening to your students (in their own language if necessary) and talking

to them about how they listen in their native language

(d) Building up students' confidence in their own listening ability

Success breeds success, and students who feel they are succeeding will be encouraged to

go on trying The teacher' role in this is to provide experiences and activities in which students can be successful It is important to remove the idea of "testing" from listening activities and to take advantage of the almost universal interest in problem-solving as a basis for most of the listening work

To have a successful listening lesson, the teacher should spend time preparing the lesson carefully There are a number of steps to take when the teacher plans the listening activity for the class:

- Choose the listening text

- Check that the activities are suitable

- Adjust the level of difficulty of the activities if you need to

- Consider whether the listening work you are planning will fill the time available

- Think about visual aids

- Make up your mind what procedure you will adopt for the listening session

- If you are planning to present the listening text 'live', practice reading it aloud

(Underwood, 1989: 25) Most of the teacher's work associated with listening practice is done before the actual lesson During the lesson, the teacher should create and maintain an encouraging class atmosphere by:

- Being available to give help whenever it is needed, but not inflicting help on those who do not need it This may be at any stage during the lesson

- Encouraging the students to help each other, so that the emphasis is on the successful completion of the task(s) rather than on who got it 'right' or 'wrong'

- Not treating the activities as tests to be marked and scored

- Encouraging the students to alter their answers if they wish to, perhaps after listening for a second time

- Encouraging students to jot down odd words, ideas and thoughts as they are doing their listening task

- Suggesting that the students use dictionaries when it would prove helpful

- Including lots of pair-work and group work

- Making listening work enjoyable

- Leaving out part of the work rather than rushing

- Giving immediate feedback

(Underwood, 1989:26-28) Obviously, teachers play a significant role in the listening lesson Hence, it is advisable that teachers prepare their lesson plans properly and conduct listening lessons in a purposeful way to help students improve their listening skill

1.5 Potential problems in learning ELS

It is true that language learners often feel overwhelmed with problems when they start to learn listening skills of a new language English language learners also encounter various problems when learning ELS Brown and Yule (1983) suggest that there are four clusters factors which can affect the difficulty of oral language tasks: the speaker, the listener, the content and support (pictures, diagrams, visual aids) And according to Yagang (1994), the

problems in listening were accompanied with the four following factors: the message, the speaker, the listener and the physical setting Furthermore, a numbers of researches have been carried out to pick out the problems in listening As Flowerdew & Miller (1996:139) assumed that the problems of the students were for the speed of delivery, new terminology and concept, difficulty in focusing and the physical environment Anderson and Lynch suggest that while a large number of factors are involved this falls into three principle categories: the type of language, the purpose in listening and the context in which the listening takes place Teachers have to consider not only the number of factors involved but also the relationships between them

Meanwhile, Underwood (1989:16-19) draws out potential problems of English language learners as follows:

- The 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 the 'signals'

- Problems of interpretation

- Inability to concentrate

- Established learning habits

Whatever the reasons for students' problems, it is important that teachers recognize the features of the spoken language and understand how they affect students From that, teachers can design exercises and assignments to help students practice and become familiar with the specific features of the English language such as sounds, stress, intonation, etc

1.6 Strategies of listening comprehension

Listening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension and recall of listening input Listening strategies can be classified by how the listener processes the input

Top-down strategies are listener based; the listener taps into background knowledge of the topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language This background

knowledge activates a set of expectations that help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate what will come next Top-down strategies include:

- listening for the main idea

- listening for specific details

- recognizing cognates

- recognizing word-order patterns

Listening comprehension tends to be an interactive, interpretive process in which listeners use prior knowledge and linguistic knowledge in understanding messages Listeners use metacognitive, cognitive and socio-affective strategies to facilitate comprehension and to make their learning more effective Metacognitive strategies are important because they regulate and direct the language learning process Research shows that skilled listeners use more metacognitive strategies than their less-skilled counterparts (O'Malley & Chamot,

1989, Vandergrift, 1997a) The use of cognitive 5 strategies helps students to manipulate learning materials and apply specific techniques to a listening task Socio-affective strategies describe the techniques listeners use to collaborate with others, to verify understanding or to lower anxiety

1.7 Role of motivation, interest and relevance in learning ELS

Cottrell (2001:107) confirmed that little learning can take place without motivation – without „wanting to learn‟ If the subject is presented in ways which do not seem relevant

to the students‟ own lives, histories, circumstances and aspirations, they may find it very difficult to focus their attention for long Moreover, motivated students are usually those who participate actively in class, express interests in the subject-matter, and study a great deal Therefore, to improve students‟ listening skills, motivation is an integral part of

students‟ learning progress Here are the following solutions for the teachers to increase students‟ motivation:

(a) Focus on individual motivation

- Encourage students to focus on students own motivation

- Build this into the reflective aspect of the course

- Link their learning to their personal skill profiles or portfolios

(b) Make subject matter relevant to the students own lives

- Explore with the students the relevance of your course to personal life context

- Include careers education within the curriculum

- Information which always seems to be about alien circumstances or people with whom students do not identify can become a strain on their attention

(c) Increase interest in the subject

- Using a variety of approaches, teaching styles, and ways of breaking the time

- Setting assignments and tasks which require students to work out answers and solve problems for themselves

- Building in opportunities for small „successes‟

- Building in real-life learning

(d) Help students to feel good about their study

- Give praise where it is due Students need to feel they can succeed

- Help students to feel that they are getting somewhere with their work

- Show students exactly what is required to excel

- Give opportunities to do something creative or to deliver an end-product

- Create opportunities for students to feel they are part of a good team or group

- Help students to feel that study goals are worth the effort

In short, if teachers can make their classrooms places where students enjoy coming, because the content is interesting and relevant to their age and level of ability, where the learning goals are challenging yet manageable and clear, and where the atmosphere is supportive and non-threatening, they can make a positive contribution to students‟ motivation to learn

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 Introduction of language teaching and learning conditions in DM high school

During the teaching and learning of English, subjective factors (human factors) objective factors (equipment, duration, and so on) both have vital role in helping learners to gain knowledge With that fact, in this part of the chapter, attempts are done to make those decisive elements in DM high school clarified

2.1.1 Subjective factors_ Human

2.1.1.1 The learners – Grade 11th students

The samples of students here are restricted to five 11th form classes (among seven 11thform classes at DM school) These five classes, which were chosen randomly, account for

140 students The 11th form students at DM school are seventeen years old They do not have

a good English speaking and listening environment Only in the classroom can they learn and use the language They do not have other places to practice the knowledge they have learnt from school Although students in DM school have at least four years learning English in Lower Secondary school, many students entering DM school have little knowledge and motivation towards English, which creates difficulties for teachers during lessons

2.1.1.2 The teachers

In Dai Mo high school, there are totally 7 teachers of English, including the researcher, aged from 29 to 42 One of them has finished an M.A course at Vietnam National University, Hanoi In the school, teachers of English are not grouped separately from teachers of other subjects Therefore, it is not comfortable and convenient for us to discuss our problems in teaching during group meetings

In addition, the number of female teachers formed the majority (5 female teachers and 2 male teachers) Some of them, however, are middle-aged which prevents them from learning training programs to have more updated and flexible ways of teaching a new language The participants of this study were members of this team

2.1.2 Objective factors _ Teaching and learning conditions

2.1.2.1 Teaching aids

Facilities in DM school are brought into question The classes are not well-equipped with tapes, cassette players, speakers, TVs, CDs or overhead projectors except for a board, chalks, pictures or other visual aids designed by teachers themselves There are two modern classrooms for language teaching and learning equipped with teaching aids such as overhead projectors and the Internet Students only have a chance to use these devices when the teachers present model lessons on special occasions such as Women‟s Day and Vietnamese Teacher's Day Therefore, students do not have many chances to use both visual and audio aids to practice listening skills often

2.1.2.2 Duration

Students in high schools, in general, have three periods of English a week; each period is supposed to deal with one lesson in a unit lasting 45 minutes In Dai Mo high school all the classes have 3 periods of English per week

2.1.2.3 Class size

The average number of students in a class in DM school ranges from 40 to 50 Students are arranged to sit at desks in four rows, each of which includes 5 - 6 desks of two students

2.2 The new “Tieng Anh 11” textbook

The new “Tieng Anh 11” textbook composed by Van, H V et al., (2006) has been in use since 2006 as the official textbook to obtain general English at grade 11.The textbook consists of 16 units in terms of 16 topics There are five parts in each unit represented

through 5 lessons: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Language Focus respectively The book adopts two new approaches: learner–centered and communicative aiming at students‟ better use of English “as a tool of communication at basic level in terms of listening, speaking, reading and writing” (Van, H.V et al., 2006, p 33)

2.2.1 Grade 11 listening objectives

The aim of the course is to equip students with English listening skills for basic communication For grade 11 students, the objectives are to develop listening comprehensive skills such as intensive listening, extensive listening, listening for specific information, listening for gist, etc

2.2.2 Listening lessons

In the “Tieng Anh 11” textbook, reading, speaking and listening lessons are divided into

three parts: Before you listen, While you listen and After you listen In Before you listen,

learners listen to the subject matters related to the unit topic; new vocabulary is presented

in listening sessions While you listen includes 2 - 4 tasks (matching, multiple choice

questions, true/false, comprehension questions, gap-filling, taking notes, etc.) aiming at

developing students‟ comprehensive listening After you listen consolidates comprehensive

listening via summary, speaking and writing activities In order to realize the course objectives, the listening section focuses on daily and popular topics

2.3 Research questions

In order to find out the difficulties that the teachers and students of grade 11 in teaching and learning ELS, it is necessary to answer the following questions:

1 What is the present situation of teaching and learning ELS at Dai Mo high school?

2 What difficulties do the teachers and the 11th form students encounter in teaching and learning ELS?

3 What are the suggested ways to effectively improve the current situation of teaching and learning ELS at this school?

2.4 Data collection instruments

In order to obtain in- depth, rich data and information for investigating the situation and the difficulties that teachers and students encountered in teaching and learning ELS, the study used two methods of data collection: questionnaires (conducted in May, 2011 when students generally fulfill their listening lessons in English 11) and informal interviews

2.4.1 Instrument one: Questionnaires

The questionnaire for the students was written in Vietnamese so that they would not misunderstand the questions The questionnaire was designed to investigate the students‟ attitudes toward the learning of listening, the difficulties they encounter in learning ELS, and the students‟ expectations for better teaching and learning ELS

The questionnaire delivered to the teachers was strictly conducted in English It aimed to find out the teachers‟ attitudes toward the teaching of listening, the difficulties they encounter in teaching ELS, the teachers‟ knowledge of teaching listening and the teachers‟ expectations for better teaching and learning ELS

Questionnaires for students and teachers both had closed questions (students and teachers only choose one option) and open- ended questions (with more possibilities at their disposal) After collecting all the questionnaire responses from both teachers and students, the researcher calculated the numbers of responses and the percentages respectively of the questions in each questionnaire

2.4.2 Instrument two: Interviews

In order to understand better about the reality of listening teaching and learning and difficulties that teachers had to face with listening lessons, the researcher had unconventional talks with 4 teachers The questions in the interview were basically based

on those in the questionnaire in order to find out the real reasons for their answers as well

as to understand more about the reality of teaching and learning ELS Hopefully, the

results from the interviews would contribute much to finding out the solutions to the

improvement

2.5 Summary

To conclude, this chapter presents the methodology of the study In other words, it describes the aims, context, participants and instruments of the study Given the collected data, Chapter 3 will depict the data analysis and the study results

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS

The comments and perceptions made by the teachers of English and students of grade 11 in Dai Mo high school in response to the questionnaire were consolidated and categorized by the researcher These results were converted to percentages for the conveniences of analysis Besides the questionnaires, information gained through interviews was added to assist interpretation

3.1 Questionnaires

3.1.1 Questionnaires for students

Question 1: How do you evaluate your English listening ability?

Good 1%

Very good 1%

Bad

62%

Chart 1: Students’ assessment of their listening ability

The data from chart 1 shows that only 1% of the students were very good at listening skills, 1% revealed that they had good ability while 36% of them (50 out of 140) were bad at listening skills Surprisingly, 62% of the participants believed that they were at medium level From the results, most of the students were at low and medium English listening level It could be explained that students did not have to take the graduation examination at secondary school They might pay more attention to subjects such as maths and literature for high school entrance exams Moreover, they did not take any listening test when

learning English at grade 10 That was really a big problem for English teachers teaching

11th form students Therefore, to improve listening skills, students should make use of chances to practice listening English in the class This problem also matches with 4 teacher‟s ideas They complained that their students were very bad at English and that they were always lack of time in running the lesson

Question 2: How are English listening skills important to you?

Little important 11%

Not important 7% Very important 36%

Important 46%

Chart 2: Students’ attitudes towards the importance of listening skills

As shown in chart 2, nearly half of the students (46%) thought that listening was important and even 36% revealed that it was a very important skill 11% of participants stated that it was of little importance and the smallest percentage (7%) underestimated the significance

of this skill In general, most of the students highly appreciated the importance of English listening skills, especially communication ability However, it seems to be contradictary to the low level of their participation in classroom activities When being asked about their classmates‟ participation in listening lessons (question 9), 33% of them thought that most

of their classmates were reluctant to listen This was also a challenge for both students and teachers to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning ELS at DM school

Question 3: How often do you listen to English outside the class?