A study on the use of listening test-taking strategies and their relationship with students' performance at Que Vo I Upper Secondary School in Bacninh

Nguyễn Văn Độ Năm bảo vệ: 2010 Abstract: This study examines 165 in 4 groups Que Vo I upper-secondary school students’ test-taking strategies and their relationship with listening per

strategies and their relationship with students' performance at Que Vo I Upper Secondary

School in Bacninh

Lê Thị Thúy Hà

Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ Luận văn ThS Chuyên ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15

Người hướng dẫn: Prof.Dr Nguyễn Văn Độ

Năm bảo vệ: 2010

Abstract: This study examines 165 (in 4 groups) Que Vo I upper-secondary school students’

test-taking strategies and their relationship with listening performance It further looks into how students adjust their strategies under different task conditions The participants will complete a three-phase (before/during/after) test-taking questionnaire and will be given a listening test comprising tasks After each subtest, students will report the strategies used based on a strategy list, and further “wrote in” their own strategies The results show that all students favor some strategies, regardless of their listening proficiency The difference between high- and low-level students is not in the number of strategies used but in the

preferential order and frequency of use Students’ listening performance had a strong

correlation with the strategy used before the test-taking phase Based on students’ reported strategies it was found that students were able to adjust their strategy use according to the change in task conditions, the same strategy may be used in different ways and for different purposes by different levels of students, some strategies are interrelated and are used

concurrently, and test-taking strategy involves multiple dimensions, making it difficult to tease out one factor from another

Keywords: Tiếng Anh; Thủ thuật nghe; Bài kiểm tra; Kỹ năng nghe

Content:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration

Acknowledgements

Abstract

Table of contents

List of charts and tables

Part one: Introduction………

1 Rationale………

2 The aims of the study………

3 Scope of the study………

4 Research questions………

5 Research methodology………

6 The design of the study………

Part two: Development………

Chapter one: Literature review………

1.Introduction………

1.1 Listening strategies………

1.2 Listening test/task………

2 Listening Strategies in Second Language Learning 3 Listening Task in Relation to Task Performance and Strategy Use Chapter two: Methodology………

II.1.The setting of the study………

II.1.1.Overview of the new “Tiếng Anh 12” textbook………

II.1.1.1.General description………

II.1.1.2.Listening skill in the textbook……….…

II.1.1.2.1 Stages of teaching listening ………

II.1.1.2.2 Listening skills, tasks and activities………

II.1.2.The context of teaching and learning listening skill at upper-secondary school II.1.2.1.In Vietnam II.1.2.2.At Que Vo I upper-secondary school………

II.2 Research methodology

II.2.1 Research questions II.2.2 Subject of the study II.2.3.The data collection Instruments II.2.4.Procedure II.2.5.Data Analysis Chapter three: Results and Discussions………

III.1.Questionnaire Results III.2.The Listening Test Results and researcher’s observations III.2.1.The Listening Test Results III.2.2.Researcher’s observation III.3.Students’ Strategy Use Under Different Test Tasks Part three: Conclusions, Recommendations and implications on listening teaching… I Conclusions………

II Recommendations………

III Limitations and suggestions for further studies………

Reference………

Appendix 1………

Appendix 2………

Appendix 3………

Appendix 4………

LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS

LP: language proficiency

HLP: High language proficiency

MLP: Medium language proficiency

LLP: Low language proficiency

* Strategy likely stimulated by the treatment

◊ Strategies reported by students

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Summary of the Test Procedure

Table 2: Statistics for Participants Responding to Listening Test-taking Strategy Questionnaire

Table 3: Student Performance for Four Forms of Listening Support

Table 4: Students’ Reported Strategy Use with Repeated Input

Table 5: Students’ Reported Strategy Use with Vocabulary Support

Table 6 Students’ Reported Strategy Use with Previewing Test Questions

Table 7 Students’ Reported Strategy Use with Topical Knowledge Stimulus

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Second language listening comprehension is a complex process and crucial in the development

of second language competence; yet, the importance of listening in language learning has only been recognized relatively recently (Nunan,1998;Celce-Murcia, 2001) Since the role of listening comprehension in language learning was either overlooked or undervalued, it merited little research and pedagogical attention in the past But at present, some researchers have devoted some time to listening and believe it to be an important skill in teaching and learning For instance, Nunan (1998) believes that: “… listening is the basic skill in language learning Without listening skill, learners will never learn to communicate effectively In fact over 50%

of the time that students spend functioning in a foreign language will be devoted to listening….” (p 1)

As listening is assuming greater importance in foreign language classrooms and in language acquisition (see, e.g., Nord , 1978; Byrnes, 1984; Long, 1989; Feyten, 1991; Dunkel, 1991),the new textbook which is designed based on communicative approach driving at developing and consolidating communicative skills like speaking ,reading , writing and listening was introduced to schools over our country for several years

For several years of the application of the new textbook at my upper-secondary school, there are many listening problems emerge One of the most serious problem is that students find listening difficult and touch to listen to and they are anxious, not confident enough to do listening tasks or listening tests successfully For more than ten- year- teaching English experience and through the observation and talking with students, I find that what make them anxious and fail in listening tasks or listening tests is the strategies they use Therefore, my minor thesis here studies the use of listening test-taking strategies and their relationship with Students’ performance

2.The aims of the study

The study aims to reach the following targets:

-Studying the listening strategies used by students when taking a listening test: the frequency and vary in listening proficiency in using strategies at three diffirent phases through survey questionaire and students’written report

-Investigating their use of test-taking strategies correlate with their listening performance -Suggesting recommendations to improve listening teaching and learning at Que Vo I upper-secondary school

3.Scope of the study

This minor thesis conducted at Que Vo I upper-secondary school used a listening test-taking strategy questionnaire to explore listeners’ general picture of test-taking strategies at three different stages—before, during, and after a test, then further investigated any correlation with listening test performances, and finally a student report was used to examine how HLP and LLP students adjusted their strategy use under different test task conditions There are a number of reasons for this choice:

- Listening is still a rather new skill to the students and teachers at Que Vo I upper-secondary school

-It is difficult and a nightmare to the students

-Students always get bad marks and they are always lack of confidence

for the listening tests

Besides, at the present pedagogical context ,out of the three grades: grade 10,grade 11, grade

12, grade 12 is the most reliable to classify into different language proficiency and they are experienced and armed with most listening strategies Therefore, students of grade 12 were chosen

4 Research questions

In order to achieve the aims mentioned in the section two, the present study focused on answering the following question:

1 How does the use of test-taking strategies correlate with learners’listening performance?

Beside that answer the two sub-questions to help the teachers to find out good way to

improve students’ listening competence and performance

1 What strategies are the most and the least frequently used by the learners when taking a test? How are students of varying listening proficiencies similar or different in their strategy use at the three different phases?

2 Do students of different levels of listening proficiency use different strategies for different test tasks? If so, what are the strategies?

5 Research methodology

The research is done by both qualitative and quantitative methods: It is carried out on the basic of the situation analysis, material collection, survey questionnaires , class observations , and students’ written reports

In the first place, situation analysis, has a low at the background to the study including the description of the current context at Que Vo I upper-secondary school and listening skill in the new textbook“ Tiếng Anh 12”.Secondly, for the theoretical basis ,a lot of reference materials

on listening methodology and problems have been gathered, analyzed and synthetized thoroughly with the due consideration for teachers’ teaching and students’ learning situations Eventually, for the practical basis, questionnaires, class observations, reports were carried out with the students to gather the most reliable data for analysis to find the answers to the research questions as mentioned above

6 Design of the study

The study consists of three parts: Introduction, development and conclusion

The first part is the introduction, which provides information about rationale, purposes, scope and significance of the topic as well as research questions, method and design of the study

The development part consists of four chapters: literature review, research methodology, results and discussion, and recommendations Chapter one, literature review of listening comprehension problems, listening comprehension strategies and Listening Task in Relation

to Task Performance and Strategy Use Chapter two, methodology, presents in details the setting, and procedures as well Chapter three, results and discussion concerns the findings, discussions and implications of the study Chapter four, recommendations, concerns the

researcher’s recommendations and suggestions for enhancing the effectiveness of teaching and learning listening skill

The last part, conclusion, summarizes the main issues touched upon so far in the study Apart from that, the research addresses some limitations of the study and gives suggestion for further studies

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