USING SONGS TO ENCOURAGE GRADE 10 SCHOOLERS TO LEARN LISTENING SKILL AT THUONG XUAN 3 HIGH SCHOOL

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGTHUONG XUAN 3 HIGH SCHOOL THE INITIATIVE FROM TEACHING EXPERIENCE “USING SONGS TO ENCOURAGE GRADE 10 SCHOOLERS TO LEARN LISTENING SKILL AT T

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

THUONG XUAN 3 HIGH SCHOOL

THE INITIATIVE FROM TEACHING EXPERIENCE

“USING SONGS TO ENCOURAGE GRADE 10 SCHOOLERS

TO LEARN LISTENING SKILL AT THUONG XUAN 3 HIGH

THANH HOÁ 2017

Table of contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 1

1.3 The population of the study 2

1.4 The methodology 2

2 Content 2

2.1 theoretical background 2

2.1.1 Listening skill 2

2.1.2 Songs 3

2.2 The real situation before emplementing songs in teaching listening skill 4 2.2.1 Research settings 4

2.2.2 Students’ attitude and their difficulties in listening lessons 4

2.3 The solution of the problem 7

2.3.1 The seven-step process of the Action Research 7

Table 2.1 The integration of songs 8

2.3.2 Some teachniques in teaching listening skill 8

2.4 The findings 9

2.4.1 Results of students’ survey questionnaire B: Teachers and students’ attitudes toward the implement of English song 9

Table 2.2 Mean Values of questionnaire variable: “Students’ attitude towards the application of songs in the class” 10

2.4.2 Findings from interviews 11

2.4.3 Findings from classroom observation 12

2.4.4 Discussion 12

3 Conclusion and implication 13

3.1 Conclusion 13

3.2 Implications for effective listening lessons 14

3.3 Some considerations and suggestions on using English songs 14

REFERENCES 16

1 Introduction

1.1 Rationale

Regarded as an international language, English is spoken in most parts ofthe world - and is considered the principle means of communication among thetrade, diplomatic, and airline communities English has been a compulsorysubject among Vietnamese students for many years Teaching English inVietnam will help our students take advantage of globalization, and teachers arealways seeking ways to improve their techniques for more effective lesson plansand higher cognitive retention among their students at all levels As a teacher ofEnglish at a high school, the author constantly faces the many problems inherent

in helping students absorb and apply a foreign language Of primary importance

is teaching listening skill, which is a topic of much debate among researchers InEnglish textbooks for Vietnamese upper secondary school students, listening isone of the four skills that students have to learn Listening is one of thefundamental language skills, and crucial in the development of the secondlanguage competence It is essential for language teachers to help their studentsbecome effective listeners By developing their ability to listen well, we developour students' ability to become more independent learners, as by hearingaccurately they are much more likely to be able to reproduce accurately, refinetheir understanding of grammar and develop their own vocabulary

However, among the listening lessons in textbooks for Vietnamesesecondary students that I have taught, lessons are long and complicated, andcontain needless repetition that is boring rather than inspiring to students.Therefore, many of the students seem not to be interested in the listeninglessons They have low motivation to study This problem is the foundation of

my thesis, and I address how to teach listening comprehension more attractivelyand effectively, so that more students will want to learn In this thesis, the authordemonstrated the use of songs, and examined their effectiveness in opening thetextbook’s content in such a way as to increase 10th grade students’ motivation

to listen and enjoy English Learners observations and student surveys werecollected to determine the effectiveness of using these new techniques Theresults of this research will promote a new plan for using English songs to helpteachers with teaching listening comprehension (with greater student enjoymentand retention) It is hoped that using English songs will be an effective techniquefor teaching listening in high schools in Viet Nam and elsewhere

1.2 Aims of the study

The study aims at:

- Investigating the attitudes of the grade 10 students at Thuong Xuan 3 highschool towards listening skill before implementing the use of songs in teachinglistening

- Selecting and using English songs in teaching English listening to thegrade 10 students at Thuong Xuan 3 high school

- Evaluating the effectiveness of applying English songs in encouraginggrade 10 schoolers to learn listening skill at Thuong Xuan 3 high school toprovide implications for English language teaching.

1.3 The population of the study

Applying English songs in the class may bring about many benefits interms of effective grammar learning, listening, pronunciation, and it can beimplemented at different classes However, in this research, we would like tofocus on the use of English songs in teaching listening and the participants areonly students of grade 10 at Thuong Xuan 3 high school, Thuong Xuan district.There are 40 grade 10 schoolers involving in this study They take part inthe listening lesson with the use of songs and do the questionnaire

All the teachers of English in Thuong Xuan 3 high school, aged three to thirty-one years old, also take part in my study They shared theiradvantages and disadvantages of teaching Engish listening here and observed

twenty-my class to find out if the song using have positive effects on the learners’attitudes towards listening lessons

1.4 The methodology

To fulfill the above aims, qualitative and quantitative method was chosenfor the study All comments, remarks, assumptions and conclusion of the studywere based on the observation, data and analysis Data collections for analysis inthis study were gained though the following resources:

According to Anderson and Lynch (1988), listening is a receptive skill

along side with reading skills and the role of listeners is no longer passive butactive

Listening skill plays a very importance role in foreign language teaching,

which is emphasized by Rost (1994) as the following:

Firstly, Listening provides input for the learner so it is vital in the languageclassroom Without understandable input at the right level, any learning simplycannot begin

Secondly, listening is the decisional factor of the success of the interaction.Spoken language provides a means of interaction for the learner Since thelearners must interact to achieve understanding, access to speakers of thelanguage is essential Moreover, learners’ failure to understand the languagethey hear is impetus, not an obstacle, to interaction and learning

Thirdly, Listening lessons contain authentic language, which presents achallenge for the learner to attempt to understand language as it is actually used

by native speakers

Finally, Listening exercises provide teachers with a means for drawinglearners’ attention to new forms (vocabulary, grammar, interaction patterns) inthe language

In real teaching and learning, listening skill seems to be the most difficult

skill to be acquired by students of the four language basic English languageskills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) According to Underwood (1989),there are seven problems in listening skill that students may encounter: (1) lack

of control over the speed at which speakers speak; (2) not being able to getthings repeated; (3) the listener’s limited vocabulary; (4) failure to recognize thesignals; (5) problems of interpretation; (6) inability to concentrate and (7)established learning habit

From the students’ dificultties in mastering listening lessons, the educatorsorganizing the teaching ang learning process should plan their listening lesson toencourage their learners to take part in the listening lessons positively

2.1.2 Songs

According to Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (2000, p.412), song is

“a short piece of music with words that you sing” It may be written for one orseveral voices and it is generally performed with instrument accompaniment Songs are part of daily life for most people The benefits of songs inELThave been well-documented by a myriad researchers The benificial roles ossong using are revealed as the following:

Firstly, motivation is one of the things that can be gained by using songs inforeign language classroom Rogers (1999) found that “the use of songs creates

an atmosphere of interest in the study of English and can lead from a “teachercentered” to a “student centered” class Using music can lift the atmosphere inclass, or develop a non-threatening classroom atmosphere, bring in a boost ofenergy and capture the children’s attention Besides, English songs can motivatethem in their quest to learn English

Secondly, songs can be catchy and re-usable Songs are catchy and fun andESL students will feel happy to hear them many times till they can sing along Ifteacher plays the recording of a dialogue the second time, students may getbored with it However, songs can be reused without making students becomefed up with listening

Thirdly, songs related to cultural aspects could be chosen to present tostudents about social situations, historical events, geographical descriptions, andothers The use of songs, according to Jolly (1975), gives students theopportunity to acquire a greater understanding of the culture underlying thetarget language

Besides, songs can help students remember vocabulary, grammaticalstructures and aid in comprehending the general meaning

In short, songs are proved tobe an effective tool for language teacher toenhance their learners to master the foreign language

2.2 The real situation before emplementing songs in teaching listening skill

2.2.1 Research settings

Thuong Xuan 3 High School has been founded for several years Thoughthe school’s Board of Directors have always encouraged and supported theteaching and learning of the English Language at our school, the facilities forlearning English, such as computers and projectors are very poor Therefore,there are many problems which need to be solved: The books and materials forstudents are limited Additionally, the students have no opportunities to practiceEnglish with native speakers- vital to anyone trying to improve their listening aswell as verbal skills

Besides, In Thuong Xuan 3 upper secondary school, there are five teachers ofEnglish, aged twenty-three to thirty-one years old As rural teachers, they have fewopportunities to upgrade their teaching skills, and the school does not have theresources to provide them with modern teaching aids and materials to help theirwork However, despite some disadvantages, they have been successfulteachers- not only developing their own language skills, but improving theirteaching methods There is an atmosphere of collegiality and support among thefaculty and administrators, and we often share our teaching experiences in thehope that we can learn from each other

Most of the students in Thuong Xuan Upper Secondary School are living inthe surrounding rural areas Our students are required to study 13 compulsorysubjects, so they spend little time learning English, and their skills are weak.Though they have been studying English for many years, their focus has been onlearning syntax and grammar so they can pass regular examinations Moreover,because their parents are farmers who never use English in their daily lives, thestudents receive little encouragement at home to develop vital communicationskills As a result, most of the students do not know what they are studyingEnglish for- except to pass their exams Although they know it is important tolearn English in the modern life, they become bored with learning it In eachclass, there are only a few students really learning English- and it is those fewwho are interested in learning it The majority of the students usually forgetmost the things they have learned as soon as their testing period is over Oncethe students lose their motivation for learning, the quality of their classroomexperience rapidly declines

2.2.2 Students’ attitude and their difficulties in listening lessons

The student’s survey questionnaire “A” was constructed with 3 questions.The data collected is presented- along with answers from each of the 40 studentswho responded

This data provided a baseline of the student’s attitude towards their Englishlanguage listening lessons, as well as their perceived difficulties After thestudents received their instructions, they put up privacy folders to block field-of-view from other students

4% 9%

50%

37%

Little interested Not interested at all

Question 1: What do you think about the listening lesson in the text book?

Figure 2.1 Opinions about the reading lessons

The chart in Figure 2.1 shows that about 25 of the 40 responders thought that the listening lesson are difficult, while 16 students saidthat they are boring At the same time, only four students agreed that the content

student-of the listening lesson is normal Only 7.5% student-of the students expressed theopinion that the listening lesson were interesting Further, four of the studentsthought that the listening lesson in the textbook did not relate to their lifeexperiences

Question 2: How interested do you feel in listening lessons?

Question 2 was designed to discover how interested the students are in thelistening lessons When asked about their interest in listening English in class,only 4% of students said they are very interested, with an additional 9% whoindicated that they were somewhat interested

By contrast, 50% of the students revealed that they are not interested at all,with a further 37% indicating that they are only slightly interested These aredismal results

Figure 2.2: Students’ enjoyment to the listening lessons

In conclusion, students overwhelmingly lack interest in the material or find

it too hard This data reveals that the students’ motivation in listening lesson isvery low If they do not like learning, they will not progress in the skill level andtheir language education will be lost This is both the challenge and theopportunity for the teachers to develop interesting methods of instruction toelevate the students’ motivation and interest in learning English

Question 3: What is difficult about the listening lessons?

 it is difficult to understand the main idea of the listening

lesson

 it is difficult to understand the details of the listening lesson 37/40 92.5%

 doing listening tasks (answering questions, gap-filling ) 28/40 70%

 the topic is too difficult for my level of background

knowledge

Table 2.1: Factors that negatively impact student’s listening

As we can see from the table, Question 3 focuses on the student’sexpressed negative factors that impact their listening lesson - that is, thesubjective elements that they think and feel Results were predicable: When thestudents responded whether they had any difficulties in English listening lesson,most of them say “yes” However, they had an opportunity to quantify theirresponses: Question 3 also includes the reasons why the students find listeninglesson difficult

The statistical data shows that 67.5% of the students expressed that thelonger listening lesson, the harder time they had understanding the whole text.90% of the students give the opinion that the factors which make the listeninglesson difficult is that there are too many new words More importantly, 87.5%

of the students agree that it is difficult to understand the main idea of thelistening lesson, and a further 92.5% find it hard to catch the detail of such alarge section of text

About 50% of the students state that the topics chosen by the authors of thelistening lesson pick subject with which the students have no prior backgroundknowledge It would be better if the authors chose familiar subjects (ideally byinterviewing students to learn what they know and like) In addition, Almostthree-quarters of respondents (70%) have difficulty completing required taskssuch as answering the questions

In summary, the data reveals that the students have no or very little interest

in learning listening lessons This data will allow teachers to search for (andadopt) tools which will overcome these many problems English song using willhelp in this regard

2.3 The solution of the problem

2.3.1 The seven-step process of the Action Research

My research focused on using songs to to facilitate our students’ listeninglearning, and we used songs by planning our lessons in the form of an actionresearch with two cycles of a ‘spiral of cycles of planning, acting, observing,and reflecting’ (Kemmis, 1988, p.168), which involves the seven-step process(Sagor, 2000) These seven steps, which become an endless cycle for theinquiring teacher, are the following:

Step 1: Selecting a Focus

This first step is vitally important because the action research processbegins with serious reflection directed toward identifying a topic or topicsworthy of a busy teacher's time Selecting a focus begins with the teacher

researcher or the team of action researchers asking: What element(s) of our practice or what aspect of student learning do we wish to investigate?

Step 2: Clarifying Theories

The second step involves identifying the values, beliefs, and theoreticalperspectives the researchers hold relating to their focus

Step 3: Identifying Research Questions

Once a focus area has been selected and the researcher's perspectives andbeliefs about that focus have been clarified, the next step is to generate a set ofpersonally meaningful research questions to guide the inquiry

Step 4: Collecting Data

Professional educators always want their instructional decisions to be based

on the best possible data Action researchers can accomplish this by making sure

that the data used to justify their actions are valid (meaning the information represents what the researchers say it does) and reliable (meaning the

researchers are confident about the accuracy of their data) Lastly, before dataare used to make teaching decisions, teachers must be confident that the lessonsdrawn from the data align with any unique characteristics of their classroom orschool

Step 5: Analyzing Data

Step 6: Reporting Results

Step 7: Taking Informed Action

When teachers write lesson plans or develop academic programs, they areengaged in the action planning process What makes action planning particularlysatisfying for the teacher researcher is that with each piece of data uncovered(about teaching or student learning) the educator will feel greater confidence inthe wisdom of the next steps

In this study, after identifying the topic ““Using songs to encourage grade

10 schoolers to learn listening skill at Thuong Xuan 3 high school”, we

identified two variables and two research questions The data would be selected

by both qualitative and quantitative methods Then we selected three Englishsongs which related to the topics of three units in textbook These songs were

taught together with the lessons The three selected songs were integrated intothe lessons as follows:

Unit 12: music “Because I love you”

Unit 13: Films and cinema "My heart will go on "

Unit 14: World cup “The cup of life”

Table 2.1 The integration of songs

2.3.2 Some teachniques in teaching listening skill

There are several techniques that can be done by teachers when teachinglistening in the classroom, including :

(1) Filling the Gap: This technique can be done by way of emptying a few

words in a paragraph or dialogue Ask students to listen to text spoken by theteacher or the tape and fill that empty words are

Example:

Listen and fill one suitable word in each gap below:

If I got (1)………on my knees and I pleaded with you

If I crossed a million oceans just to be with you (2)…… you ever let me down?

If I climbed the highest (3)………… just to hold you tight

If I said that I would love you every single night Would you ever let me down?

Well I'm sorry if it sounds kinda (4)………, it's just that

Worried, so worried, that you let me down.

Because I love you, love you Love you, so don't let me down

(2) Picture Guessing: This technique can be done by guessing the image

according to an oral text that was read or heard

Example: What do these pictures relate to?

(3) Finding Mistakes: The technique is done by asking and listening to spoken

text underlined words that do not correspond with the spoken text

(4) Rearranging Sentences / Paragraph: The technique is done by giving

the sentence or paragraph hiatus to students Students are asked to listen to thespoken text and make sentences / paragraphs to be true

2.4 The findings

2.4.1 Results of students’ survey questionnaire B: Teachers and

students’ attitudes toward the implement of English song

An additional set of data was collected after the researcher had applied

English song during the following four weeks of classroom teaching The

students were asked to show their attitudes towards new listening lessons Fourteachers taking part in this study served as observers while I conducted normalteaching in the class A song implementing questionnaire was given to studentsafter the four-week intervention phase to determine students’ attitudes towardthese innovative tools

The questions included in the survey are shown in Table 1 below:

(per total of 40)

Percent