The use of video assisted instruction for second yeah english majors at the peoples security academy in listening class an action research

LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS Figure 2: Most favourite video programs Figure 3: Most favourite video-assisted classroom activities Figure 4: Change in percentage of students’ retent

College of Foreign Languages

Post-Graduate DEPARTMENT -   -

ĐẶNG NGHIấM THU NGA

The Use of Video-Assisted Instruction for Second-Year English-Majors at THE People’s Security Academy

in Listening Class – An Action Research

(Nghiên cứu hành động về tác động của việc dạy học có

sự hỗ trợ của băng hình đối với sinh viên chuyên ngữ năm thứ hai tại Học viện An ninh nhân dân trong giờ học nghe)

Field : Code:

Course:

Supervisor:

English Methodology

60 14 10 K15 MA.Minor Thesis

ĐỖ TUẤN MINH, Ph.D

Hanoi, September 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements i

Abstract ii

Table of contents iv

List of figures, tables and charts vii

List of Abbreviations viii

Chapter 1: Introduction 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Significance of the study 2

1.3 Aims of the study 3

1.4 Scope of the study 3

1.5 Design of the study 4

Chapter 2: Literature Review 6

2.1 Definition and benefits of using video in language classroom 7

2.2 Theories of listening comprehension 10

2.2.1 Introduction and definitions of listening comprehension 10

2.2.2 Listening processes 11

2.2.3 Listening in language learning and teaching 13

2.3 The application of video in language teaching 14

2.4 Previous studies and fitness of the present study into the field 16

Chapter 3: Methodology 18

3.1 The context of teaching and learning listening skills to English majors in the PSA 18

3.2 Participants 19

3.2.1 Students 19

3.2.2 Teachers 20

3.3 Problem formulation 21

3.4 Classroom setting 23

3.5 Instruments 24

3.5.1 Interviews 24

3.5.2 Questionnaires 24

3.5.3 Classroom observation checklist 25

3.5.4 Achievement tests 26

3.6 Teaching procedure 27

3.7 A description of the Research Process 28

3.8 Plan of action 29

3.9 Data collection procedure 31

3.10 Data analysis procedure 32

Chapter 4: Results and Evaluation 34

4.1 Teachers’ perception and evaluation toward students’ listening competence and video-assisted instruction 34

4.1.1 Teachers’ evaluation toward students’ listening competence 34

4.1.2 Teachers’ perception of video-assisted instruction 34

4.1.3 Teachers’ evaluation toward video-assisted instruction 35

4.1.4 Teachers’ perception of difficulties in teaching listening using video 36

4.2 Reflection on the implementation of action plan in the first half of the second semester 37

4.2.1 Students’ performance in the first half of the second semester 37

4.2.2 Teacher-researcher’s self-evaluation toward the teaching process and students’ attitude in the first half of the second semester 39

4.3 Modifications 40

4.4 Final reflection and reporting the outcomes 42

4.4.1 Students’ initial assessment on their listening skill 42

4.4.2 Changes in students’ attitude toward learning in video-assisted instruction 43

4.4.3 Students’ assessment on the role of video-assisted instruction 45

4.4.4 Changes in students’ perceived learning and performance 46

Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusion 50

5.1 Major findings and discussion of the research 50

5.2 Limitations of the research 52

5.3 Suggestion for further studies 53

References 54 Appendices I

Appendix 1: Interviews for teachers I Appendix 2: Questionnaires for students III Appendix 3: Findings from interviews XI Appendix 4: Classroom Observation Checklist XIX Appendix 5: Sample of lesson plan using video XXIII

LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS

Figure 2: Most favourite video programs

Figure 3: Most favourite video-assisted classroom activities

Figure 4: Change in percentage of students’ retention after using video

Figure 5: Change in percentage of students’ comprehension after using video

Pie charts

Chart 1: Final listening mark of second-year English majors in the first semester

Chart 2: Result of mid-term listening test using video

Chart 3: Students’ assessment on the importance of video-assisted instruction

Chart 4: Students' assessment on the necessity of video-assisted instruction

Chart 5: Result of final test of second semester

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale of the study

Technology is becoming more and more prevalent in today’s classrooms in Vietnam and a part of the classroom as an instructional and research aid for teachers and students However, there are not many studies on the effect that technology such as video

or Internet in the classroom has on students’ attitudes towards learning There are a lesser number of studies on the effect of video to support teaching and learning listening skill in the classroom Many questions have arisen from the use of technology in general and video-assisted instruction in particular in listening class but so far without satisfactory answers Do students’ attitudes about learning change when using video in the classroom? Does it motivate students to learn more? Does it affect a student’s academic listening comprehension in the classroom? What impacts do technology in general and video in particular have on a student, when they view the challenges of a listening lesson? How should video-assisted instruction be designed and used in listening class?

In the process of acquiring foreign language in the light of Communicative Approach, listening seems to be the most challenging for learners at the People’s Security Academy Second language (L2) listening comprehension is a complex process, crucial in the development of second language competence Knowing the context of a listening text and the purpose for listening greatly reduces the burden of comprehension However, students still often have difficulty in comprehension and lack concentration as well as attraction in listening class They try hard to hear every single word, to interpret any minutiae of spoken English and totally collapse at the end Such a fact shows the necessity and an urgency to provide students with a new and effective listening setting

Video materials have long been used in the classroom as an important tool for teaching listening and speaking in the world In recent years, combining video with IT –

information technology (computer-based streaming audio and video) – is being developed

It allows teachers to transport virtually the target language environment into the classroom

so that live or prerecorded news, music, sports from all over the world can be viewed by students in real time The main advantage of using video as a technology for language

teaching is considered to be its ability to present and immerse learners into complete communicative situations (Lonergan, 1984) Another greatest advantage is the ability of video to cover non-verbal aspects of communication and its cross-cultural comparison potential (Stempleski & Tomalin, 1990)

It may be said that video is the best means of demonstrating native speakers’

natural fluent communication and their natural behavior in the process of communication

Learners can not only hear how native speakers speak, they can observe and learn how

they behave when speaking It also gives materials for oral communication because

learners may brainstorm and discuss what they have seen and heard, role-play it, enact it, develop and transform it in their own speaking, etc They can do that in pair intercourse, small group communication, whole-class discussions actively involving everyone present

in the classroom The observed native-speakers’ behavior may be imitated in such communication so that cultural components of communicative competence are acquired together with its linguistic components

In this study, the researcher would like to investigate the use of video-assisted instruction for second-year English majors at the PSA in listening class This study will describe an action research project for video-assisted instruction as well as collaborative teaching and learning It also gives an account of how the teacher-researcher reflected on her teaching and modified her teaching methods, followed by a description of the changes

in students’ listening comprehension and their attitudes toward learning listening skill compared with traditional audio-only version

1.2 Significance of the study

Although listening skill has always been given a significant position in language teaching, the questions of how to teach and learn listening skill effectively often pose great problems to both teachers and students This study primarily explores how the use of video-assisted instruction affects second-year English majors at the PSA in listening class

It, therefore, serves as a valuable resource for teachers to gain a deep insight into the practice of video-assisted instruction at the target university More importantly, an inventory of video-assisted instruction as well as practical evaluation and modifications in teaching methods aims at assisting teachers to effectively teach listening skill to English majors Placing second-year English majors at the center of analysis, the study intends to

help the target population to succeed in improving listening comprehension On a larger scale, the study can be beneficial to teachers of English and English majors at other universities, who may undergo the same context of teaching and learning this skill

1.3 Aims of the study

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of video-assisted instruction on enhancing second-year English-major students’ learning at the PSA in listening class Based on the findings, an action plan is implemented to evaluate the effectiveness of this instruction as well as the students’ improvement in their listening comprehension

To achieve this purpose of the study, the following research questions are addressed:

Research Question 1: How does video-assisted instruction affect students’ learning (i.e comprehension and retention) in listening lessons?

Research Question 2: Does the use of video in teaching listening change the attitude of second-year English-majors toward learning listening skill?

Research Question 3: Do students’ learning (i.e comprehension and retention) and motivation (i.e., attention and satisfaction) in video-assisted instruction differ from that

in traditional audio-only instruction?

Research Question 4: Does the use of video in listening class improve students’ listening competence?

1.4 Scope of the study

The research limits its scope to listening skill and to its participants of second-year English-majors of intermediate level at the People’s Security Academy

Of four skills of language teaching, I choose listening skill to deal with as I have tried out some listening lessons using video and I have found that listening in the classroom derived from the use of video is very interesting and hopeful Also, I realize changes in my students’ attitudes toward learning listening skill Furthermore, this issue in language teaching has not been exploited sufficiently so far

The choice of participants is simply a matter of convenience as I am teaching listening for second-year English-majors at the People’s Security Academy at the moment

Personally, I suppose that students at this level are more suitable for the application of this teaching method Hence, audio-visual lessons are very demanding to most students, and require them relevant background knowledge to comprehend

The materials for my listening lessons are collected from several sources such as movies, films, news, documentaries or video clips downloaded from the Internet However,

as Underwood (1989) pointed out that what determines the difficulty of a teaching material

is not just the material itself but also what the students are asked to do with it, the selection

of authentic materials is still limited due to several reasons Firstly, the preparation for the lessons is very time-consuming Secondly, teachers always find it difficult to design appropriate exercises and tasks for their students Finally, not all teachers are competent in

IT (information technology) so that they can cut, record, edit the video and apply it into

their listening lessons

1.5 Design of the study

The thesis is divided into six parts:

Chapter 1 introduces the research problem and rationale of the study It also states the significance, aims, scope and methods of the study

Chapter 2 not only provides an overview of background to the study, including key concepts and theories relating to the research topic but also discusses previous studies of this field to reveal the research gap which needs filling In addition, the chapter enlarges upon the context of teaching and learning listening skill at the PSA and exposes the problem formulation

Chapter 3 presents the methodology applied in the study including participants, instrumentation, research process and plan of action In addition, the procedure of data collection is also embraced

Chapter 4 presents the results of the research and data analysis, from which major findings are revealed and discussed Additionally, the reflection of the action plan is implemented

Chapter 5 reviews the findings and indicates some limitations of the study Also, discussion and suggestions for further study are put forward

Conclusion

In summary, the chapter has dealt with the rationale, research problem, purposes, scope and methods of the study An overview of the thesis design ends this chapter With all the contents above, the chapter acts as a guideline for the development of the later parts

of the study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

The importance of context-based learning using real world context for enhancing learning outcomes has been emphasized by socio-cultural learning theorists (Merriam & Caffarella, 1999) The dominant idea of socio-cultural learning theory is that learning is not something that happens in isolation, or is just inside the head, but is shaped by the context, culture, and tools in the learning situation (Merriam & Caffarella, 1999) It is believed that real world contexts in which there are social relationships, tools, and engaged experiences, can make the best learning environments (Lave, 1996) This idea of socio-cultural learning is also based on Vygotsky’s thought that all human activities take place in

a cultural context with many levels of interactions, shared beliefs, values, knowledge, skills, structured relationships, and symbol systems (Vygotsky, 1978) These interactions and activities are mediated through the use of tools, either technical or psychological Among various tools, the use of instructional technology has been rapidly adopted for the enhancement of interactions and activities

Of the various technologies currently available, video technology is suitable for context-based learning because it can convey the information or knowledge in a more interesting way In addition, compared with expository materials, stories in video can help learners easily understand and remember the content (Jonassen, Peck, & Wilson, 1999) Anticipating the benefits that a video recorder brings into the classroom, more language teachers are designing video tape materials with the classroom exploitation in mind Four

or five minutes of video tape material can easily provide enough stimulating input for one hour’s teaching

This chapter gives an overview of the literature in which key concepts, theories and previous studies in the field are presented In addition, research gaps are exposed to fit in

with the present study

2.1 Definition and benefits of using video in language classroom

According to Longergan (1994), the term “video” has two meanings For some, it means no more than replaying television program on a video recorder, for viewing in class

or private study For others, it implies the use of video camera in class to record and play back to learners their activities and achievements in a foreign language Longergan defines the term “video film” as a photographic process, involving the effects of light and chemicals on sensitive paper He also categorized the sources of video materials used in language teaching as follow:

- video recordings of language-teaching broadcasts and films;

- video recordings of domestic television broadcasts, such as comedy programs and new programs;

- video recordings of specialist films and television programs, such as documentaries produced by industry, or educational programs;

- video language-teaching materials made for the classroom rather than for public transmission as broadcasts;

- self-made video films, involving the teachers and learners

An important attribute of video is the ability to use both auditory and visual symbol systems (Baggett, 1984) It appears that when audio and visual systems are presented together, each source provides additional and complementary information that retains some

of the characteristics of the symbol system of origin Baggett (1984) observed that information obtained visually was more memorable, on the basis of her finding that summaries written a week after viewing a movie were judged to be more complete than those written a week after listening to the audio-only version Kozma (1991) also supported the fact that the visual component is memorable He argued that simultaneous processing of auditory and visual information may aid learning In addition, video might be efficient for learning complex skills because it can expose learners to problems, equipment, and events that cannot be easily demonstrated

According to Dusenbury, Hansen, & Giles (2003), video-assisted instruction has the benefits of standardizing messages, so it might be able to increase the fidelity of implementing instruction The M.A thesis conducted by Nguyen M., T (2005) also summarized general benefits of using video in language classroom as follow:

 It is quite easy to notice the compelling power of video in the classroom, a power that is even enhanced by concentration on short sequences Video, in other words, stimulates students’ motivation, and maintains their interest and concentration better than sound-only learning environment

 Using video in language teaching can enhance students’ understanding and retention of information It brings students also kinds of situation, with full contextual back-up

 Video is used to help enhance the meaning of message trying to be conveyed by the speakers through the use of paralinguistic cues In addition, it allows students to see body language and speech rhythm in second language discourse through the use of authentic language and speed of speech in various situations

 Video is a window on English-language culture

 Video can be used as a stimulus or input for discussion, for writing assignment, projects or the study of other subjects

 Video, as a moving picture book, gives access to things, places, people, events and behaviour, regardless of the language used

 Using video in language teaching allows differentiation of teaching and learning according to the students’ abilities, learning styles and personalities Teaching with video can widen the range of activities in the classroom

 The students dealing with video in their learning improve a range of social skills, including communication, negotiation, decision-making and problem-solving

He also found out that the video course not only teaches English through video but gets students to use the English they have learned in talking about the video In addition, using video creates a great number of tasks and activities that stimulate communication and particular spoken language among students

In the book titled Video in Action, Stempleski & Tomalin (1990) are convinced that the introduction of a moving picture component as a language teaching aid is a crucial addition to the teacher’s resources

First of all, through motivation Children and adults feel their interest quicken when language is experienced in a lively way through television and video Using a video sequence in class is the best thing to experiencing the sequence in real life

Second, through communication Teachers have observed how a video sequence used in class makes students more ready to communicate in the target language

Third, through non-verbal aspects of communication Video allows us to see gestures, expression, posture, dress, and surroundings – the setting of communication and

to freeze any moments to study the non-verbal communication in detail

Finally, through cross-cultural comparison Observing differences in cultural behaviour is not only suitable training for operating successfully in a different community

It is also a rich resource for communication in the language classroom

To sum up, the use of video can make language more accessible to learners by:

 making it easier to integrate and contextualize listening, speaking and pronunciation, reading and writing activities

 motivating learners and helping them in their efforts to use the language naturally

in their own lives by seeing how the characters succeed in communicating with native speakers and getting things done in their everyday activities

 bringing native speakers into the classroom (on video), providing additional models for pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm besides that of the teacher

 raising learners’ awareness of non-verbal aspects of communication

 increasing listening comprehension: paralinguistic features (facial expression, body language, context, setting…) help learners comprehend more than from listening to audio tape only

 stimulating learner interaction and communication with co-learners as they discuss the video itself or ways in which it relates to their lives and experiences

 raising cross-cultural awareness: learners enjoy observing similarities and differences between the behavior of the characters in a video clip and that of their own families and friends

2.2 Theories of listening comprehension

2.2.1 Introduction and definitions of listening comprehension

Research has demonstrated that adults spend 40-50% of communication time listening (Gilman & Moody 1984), but the importance of listening in language learning has only been recognized relatively recently (Oxford, 1993) Since the role of listening comprehension in language learning was taken for granted, it merited little research and pedagogical attention Although listening played an important role in audio-lingual methods, students only listened to repeat and develop a better pronunciation (for speaking) The role of listening has been considered as a tool for understanding and a key factor in facilitating language learning Listening has emerged as an important component in the process of second language acquisition (Feyten, 1991)

Listening is an invisible mental process, making it difficult to describe Listeners must discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, interpret stress and intention, retain and interpret this within the immediate as well as the larger socio-cultural context of the utterance (Wipf, 1984) Rost (2002) defines listening, in its broadest sense, as a process of receiving what the speaker actually says (receptive orientation); constructing and representing meaning (constructive orientation); negotiating meaning with the speaker and responding (collaborative orientation); and, creating meaning through involvement, imagination and empathy (transformative orientation) Listening is a complex, active process of interpretation, in which listeners match what they hear with what they already know

According to Underwood (1989), listening is the activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from something we hear She also emphasized: “To listen successfully to spoken language, we need to be able to work out what speakers mean when they use particular words in particular ways on particular occasions, not simple to understand the words themselves” (Underwood, 1989:1) The author called for listening beyond word level, and stressed the necessity for associating utterances within their context as a prerequisite for successful comprehension

Specifically, listening theory is about an active process in which individuals focus

on selected aspects of aural input, construct meaning form passages, and relate what they hear to existing knowledge (O’Malley, Chamot, Kupper, 1989:418) During the process of interpreting aural input, listeners extensively deploy both linguistic knowledge (phonology,

lexis, syntax, semantics and discourse) and non-linguistic knowledge (knowledge about the topic and about the context, and general knowledge about the world and real life)

Rivers & Temperly (1978:63) defined listening as a complex operation integrating the distinct components of perception and linguistic knowledge It is not a passive but an active process of constructing a message from a stream of sound with what one knows of the phonological, semantic, and syntactic potentialities of the language

All in all, listening has been conceptualized in different ways and from different points of view However, the role of context-based listening is also found and highlighted

in many definitions

2.2.2 Listening processes

There are two distinct processes involved in listening comprehension Listeners use 'top-down' processes when they use prior knowledge to understand the meaning of a message Prior knowledge can be knowledge of the topic, the listening context, the text-type, the culture or other information stored in long-term memory as schemata (typical sequences or common situations around which world knowledge is organized) Listeners use content words and contextual clues to form hypotheses in an exploratory fashion On the other hand, listeners also use 'bottom-up' processes when they use linguistic knowledge

to understand the meaning of a message They build meaning from lower level sounds to words to grammatical relationships to lexical meanings in order to arrive at the final message

Listening comprehension is not either top-down or bottom-up processing, but an interactive, interpretive process where listeners use both prior knowledge and linguistic knowledge in understanding messages The degree to which listeners use the one process

or the other will depend on their knowledge of the language, familiarity with the topic or the purpose for listening For example, listening for gist involves primarily top-down processing, whereas listening for specific information, as in a weather broadcast, involves primarily bottom-up processing to comprehend all the desired details

On one hand, research from cognitive psychology has shown that listening comprehension is more than extracting meaning from incoming speech It is a process of

matching speech with what listeners already know about the topic Therefore, when listeners know the context of a text or an utterance, the process is facilitated considerably because listeners can activate prior knowledge and make the appropriate inferences essential to comprehending the message (Byrnes, 1984) Therefore, teachers need to help students organize their thoughts, to activate appropriate background knowledge for understanding and to make predictions, to prepare for listening This significantly reduces the burden of comprehension for the listener

On the other hand, listeners do not pay attention to everything; they listen selectively, according to the purpose of the task This, in turn, determines the type of listening required and the way in which listeners will approach a task (Richards, 1990) differentiates between an interactional and a transactional purpose for communication Interactional use of language is socially oriented, existing largely to satisfy the social needs

of the participants; e.g., small talk and casual conversations Therefore, interactional listening is highly contextualized and two-way, involving interaction with a speaker A transactional use of language, on the other hand, is more message-oriented and is used primarily to communicate information; e.g., news broadcasts and lectures In contrast with interactional listening, transactional listening requires accurate comprehension of a message with no opportunity for clarification with a speaker (one-way listening) Knowing the communicative purpose of a text or utterance will help the listener determine what to listen for and, therefore, which processes to activate As with the advantages of knowing the context, knowing the purpose for listening also greatly reduces the burden of comprehension since listeners know that they need to listen for something very specific, instead of trying to understand every word

In short, second language (L2) listening comprehension is a complex process, crucial in the development of second language competence Listeners may use all of the above processes to comprehend Guiding students through the process of listening not only provides them with the knowledge by which they can successfully complete a listening task; it also motivates them and puts them in control of their learning Therefore, teachers can help students develop their listening comprehension through these processes by designing appropriate listening instructions and activities

2.2.3 Listening in language learning and teaching

Listening comprehension as a separate component of language learning and instruction came into its own only after long and significant debate regarding its validity A large volume of research has demonstrated the critical role of input, and particular

“comprehensible input” in language acquisition, underlining the primacy of the role played

by listening comprehension in second language teaching

Until recently, listening comprehension activity in foreign or second language classrooms was limited to testing listening comprehension The underlying rationale was that if students are successfully learning the target language, they should automatically be able to decode the aural version of structures and vocabulary they learn in their textbooks Success at this decoding was typically measured by correct responses to WH (information) questions Responses to such questions tagged successful retrieval of information from an aural text Knowledge of target language syntax and lexis was deemed sufficient to enable this retrieval and was ultimately the way how students were tested Listening is now treated as a much more complex activity and one that is the cornerstone of language acquisition (Krashen, 1994)

Recognition of listening's critical role in the language acquisition process has greatly influenced contemporary language teaching practice The view that listening is an active and interactive process has, for example, cast the learner in a role other than the passive receiver of aural input (Rost, 1993) Classroom emphasis is now on aural intake through active negotiation of meaning In face to face interaction, the listener, not just the speaker, engages in the active making of meaning It is believed that this mutual negotiation of meaning between speakers activates the cognitive and socio-cognitive processes necessary for language acquisition to occur (Breen and Candlin, 1980; Pica and Doughty, 1985) In short, listening has been recast as an activity central to the L2 acquisition process (Dunkle, 1991; Krashen, 1981; Rost, 1993), and a skill integral to overall communicative competence (Brown, 1994b; Savignon, 1991)

Listeners use meta-cognitive, cognitive and socio-affective strategies to facilitate comprehension and to make their learning more effective Meta-cognitive strategies are important because they oversee, regulate or direct the language learning process Cognitive strategies manipulate the material to be learned or apply a specific technique to a listening task Socio-affective strategies describe the techniques listeners use to collaborate with others, to verify understanding or to lower anxiety Research shows that skilled listeners

use more metacognitive strategies than their less-skilled counterparts (O'Malley & Chamot,

1990, Vandergrift, 1997a).When listeners know how to

 analyse the requirements of a listening task;

 activate the appropriate listening processes required;

 make appropriate predictions;

 monitor their comprehension; and

 evaluate the success of their approach,

they are using metacognitive knowledge for successful listening comprehension, which is critical to the development of self-regulated learning

2.3 The application of video in language teaching

The application of video in the classroom has offered exciting possibilities for language teaching and learning so far There have been a lot of books studying and presenting techniques for using video in the classroom Teaching with video equipment does not imply that an entirely new methodology should be taken over but relate to the teacher’s own professional experience and local conditions

In his book titled “Video in language teaching”, Lonergan (1984) introduced

teachers and teacher trainers to some general principles concerning the use of simple video equipment in the language classroom With these insights into teaching with video, teachers can develop their own techniques and language-learning materials However, the book only limits to simple video equipment: basically, a camera and video recorder Also, there is a limit to what new technology can offer the language learners of the future Therefore, as he pointed out: “the teacher should analyse what the technology can offer; apply sound pedagogical principles to that, and adapt and use the technology for his or her own specific language-teaching situation”

Another book discussing about video techniques is Video in Action by Stempleski

& Tomalin (1990) It provides a full-scale collection of recipes for using video in class Once you have chosen a sequence of video, you can browse through recipes until you find

a suitable one This book not only deals with equipment and the ways how to run a video library but also answers a number of questions about video and its use

The application of ICT in general and video in particular in Vietnam has considerably enriched the variety of methods, resources and a range of activities for learning languages On one hand, it gives more opportunities for communication between peer learners On the other hand, it breaks the routine of learning words or grammar patterns and adds to the positive attitude of both learners and teachers Video has gained popularity in language-teaching classroom in recent years in Vietnam Several language-teaching centers, schools and university use teaching materials aided with audio-video However, using video-assisted teaching materials is very time-consuming and expensive due to the need of facilities for study Only well-equipped schools or language centers can meet the requirements of the course using video

The situation of video application in universities under Ministry of Public Security

is rather gloomy Students are not interested in learning English as it is not a major subject Only the PSA and the People’s Police Academy have English majors The equipment and facilities needed for language learning and teaching, therefore, is relatively sufficient For example, the laboratories are equipped with cabins and headphones, computers, projectors and even multi-media projector as well as Internet access, which facilitate the teaching of listening skill using video a lot Students can view online video clips, films, documentaries and news In other words, both teachers and students have a lot of opportunities to approach English learning and teaching in a new and effective way However, the investment of building this kind of laboratories needs a large amount of money Each university can afford to have one or two models like these Furthermore, not all teachers of English are able to deal with video edition like cutting, recording, editing or making a video clip suitable for their listening lessons This kind of work requires teachers to master computer software ICT competence is always Vietnamese teachers’ weakness which becomes a hindrance for the application of technology in general and video in particular in their teaching Obviously, the application of video in teaching listening skill is not satisfactory

In summary, the application of video in language teaching has been clarified and closely linked with the process of designing questionnaires in order to investigate the effect

of video-assisted instruction on second-year English majors at the PSA It is, therefore, necessary to study the context of teaching listening skill to English majors at the PSA

2.4 Previous studies and fitness of the present study into the field

In the context of Vietnam, especially in HULIS, there have been few studies on the use of video and on the effect of video-assisted instruction on students’ listening

competence Nguyen, M.T (2005) conducted a study titled “Design a listening and

speaking syllabus using video for English language non-majors at pre-intermediate level“

In his study, he mainly built up a suitable syllabus with audio-visual aids to improve students’ listening and speaking skills He also embraced fundamental techniques and video activities in language classroom However, the syllabus he designed limited its scope

to non-English-majors at pre-intermediate level with the purpose of improving listening and speaking skills The study was conducted on students of the above level in May School, at 36 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, where most teaching materials were aided with audio-video The method used in this study is qualitative including comments, remarks, comparisons and suggestions based on factual research, observation, experience and discussion Although the findings and syllabus were valuable and practical in the context

of language teaching and learning in Vietnam, there are still several limitations in this study Firstly, the subjects of the study were students from a school – a foreign languages center, who were totally different from university students in terms of classroom setting, English proficiency, linguistic competence as well as materials and teaching method applied by teachers Secondly, the reliability of data collected was not sufficient as he did not present his questionnaires in the thesis, which might fail to depict the need analysis

Another thesis conducted by Bach, T., H., Y., (2009) studied on the effectiveness of video-assisted instruction on teaching listening for non-English-majors at Phuong Dong university This is an experimental research in which the participants were divided into two groups: the control (A) and the treatment (B) Both of the classes were second-year non English major students The results from pre-test showed that the listening competence in class A was better than class B However, after one semester applying video-assisted instruction to class B, the students’ listening competence was better than the control group who were not taught with video materials The only limitation of this study is its instrumentation The only instruments are pre-test and post-test whose validity and reliability are not high enough It is better if included other instruments such as journals or observation checklist

To sum up, thanks to the aforementioned research gap, the researcher feels an urge

to conduct an investigation on the use of video-assisted instruction on English majors at the PSA in listening class

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

Introduction

Chapter 3 presents the methodology applied in the study including the context of teaching and learning listening skill to English majors, problem formulation, participants, plan of action, instrumentation and the procedure of data collection and data analysis In addition, it provides justifications for the selection of research methods

3.1 The context of teaching and learning listening skill to English majors in the PSA

Unlike other universities under Ministry of Public Security, the PSA has two kinds

of students: non-English-majors and English-majors Therefore, the aims of the two curriculums are different Non-English-major students are expected to be fluent in English communication meanwhile it is compulsory for English-major students to master English both spoken and written in order to meet the needs of their later work Both non-English-major and English-major courses in the university last five years

The learning materials for English-major students in the first two years are designed by teachers of English from Foreign Languages Department A large number of students come from different parts and provinces of the country where English is belittled, and they have few opportunities to get a full access to the learning of English four skills Consequently, this learning stage mainly focuses on the development of four skills in order

to help students get a general background of English proficiency From the third year, English-major students concentrate on other specialized subjects such as Linguistics, Lexicology, British Literature, Cross Culture and Translation Especially, in the last two years, they will learn ESP textbook The ESP materials for English-major students, which are designed by teachers of English from Foreign Languages Department, focus on special vocabulary as well as translation and interpretation development At the end of the course, the English proficiency levels of English-majors are expected to be advanced

The current listening textbooks used for second-year English-majors in the two semesters are “Intermediate listening comprehension” by Patricia Dunkel & Phyllis L.Lim

and Contemporary Topic 1 by Helen Solorzano and Laurie Frazier respectively The purpose of using these textbooks is to improve students’ listening comprehension and retention as well as familiarize them with the major rhetorical patterns of formal, spoken English In addition, these textbooks not only provide them with update information and knowledge but also raise their cultural awareness such as GM food, diversity in the U.S higher education or the American Civil War

3.2 Participants

The participants of this study are thirty English-major students whose English proficiency is intermediate and four teachers of English at the People’s Security Academy While the first group was involved in questionnaires, the latter was asked for in-depth information in semi-structured interviews and observation checklists

3.2.1 Students

The target population of this study is the English-major students at the PSA but only 30 second-year English-majors: 12 males and 18 females were chosen to take part in this study due to the fact that there is only one English-major class for each course The class met once a week, for two hours each time, for 15 weeks There are only five students from Hanoi and the rest are from other provinces in the country Most of them have been learning English for at least eight years (i.e from lower secondary) However, their age and their learning conditions in high schools are very different More specifically, as some of them did not pass the university examination for the first time, they are older than their classmates Students from Hanoi had more opportunities to listen to English tasks in the textbook than those from other provinces due to the sufficient equipment and experienced teachers Their English proficiency is intermediate The average listening points at the first semester were not high

There are two reasons for this choice of participants Firstly, from their listening mark at the first semester, the participants proved to be of different levels at English, ranging from “not good” (grade from 5.0 to 6.0) to “fairly good” (grade from 7.0 to 8.0) and to “good” (grade over 8.0) This feature helps to diversify the information collected Secondly, the choice of freshmen becomes inadequate as they are newcomers and their

listening competence is limited due to little chance for listening English and insufficient equipment at their high schools On the other hand, the choice of third-year students is not feasible as they started studying ESP Consequently, second-year students are the most appropriate ones

13.33%

23.33% 63.3%

Good Fairly good Not good

Chart 1: Final listening mark of second-year English majors in the first semester

In short, such a choice of student guaranteed the diversity of samples and the objectivity of the study results

3.2.2 Teachers

Among thirteen teachers of English in the Foreign Languages Department at the PSA, only five teachers (including the researcher) are responsible for English-major classes This characteristic creates an opportunity for the researcher to have an insight understanding about their perceptions and beliefs To attain this purpose, in-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out on four teachers to exploit reliable data

The four teachers are varied in terms of gender and teaching experience The youngest aged 26 teaches English for four years while the oldest aged 51 with 27 years of teaching Two of these teachers do not totally teach English-major classes but non-English

major ones However, only one teacher is being in charge of the class under investigation Interestingly, three teachers are also applying video in their teaching

3.3 Problem formulation

Most of the teachers of English at the PSA admit that teaching listening skill to English major students is the most challenging job It is not only time-consuming to prepare for listening lessons but also difficult to design appropriate tasks or adapt materials suitable for different students’ levels However, in the process of teaching listening to English majors, the researcher observes that a number of students do not seem interested or motivated All qualified English language teachers know that a listening process consists

of three phases and each has its own purpose There are many different activities to use in each stage The most important listening skills teachers train the students to gain are listening for gist and listening for specific information They help the students to focus on the information required to finish the listening tasks What the teacher’s do (as mentioned above) only work well in the class where there are many good students

A lot of listening strategies have been applied in listening class Some classes were successful while other’s still had problems Although there was considerable improvement from the students when they listened to the tape or did the activities instructed by the teacher, their marks - the only instrument reflecting their learning progress - are often not high This shows that no matter how effective the listening activity itself can be, teachers and students are still facing obstacles in the classroom

The problems that students often face are lack of social knowledge, difficulties in comprehension and retention, and distraction Some teachers say that mot of the students often lack concentration in the classroom There are several factors affecting their attention during class time For instance, listeners are not attentive to the content of the lecture Listeners are attentive to the teacher’s gesture and mannerism and are not focusing to the content Listeners are distracted by the room temperature or the surroundings This is not

an uncommon situation Often teachers may observe this This is mainly because many people do not have good attention and listening skills The teacher, therefore, should find some ways to develop attention and listening skills which are very important for effective communication between the teacher and the learner

A new series of English listening textbooks and materials for students have been used in the PSA for recent years and there has been a lot of feedback from teachers who have used them One of the problems they face is that they are not satisfied with their teaching of listening Although they have been trying to find ways to make their listening activities more effective and interesting, the results obtained are not as good as what they want

Some conclusions have been withdrawn to explain the situation Many teachers stated that the new textbooks or teaching materials which contain a large amount of knowledge hinder the students’ learning A lot of students lack of social awareness to acquire language in this sense Others stated that they have many weak students who lack vocabulary, grammatical knowledge and have poor pronunciation Students of this kind reduce classroom learning and other potential learning environment Sometimes the problem originates from the teachers themselves Many teachers think that if they teach in

a class with many weak students, they cannot spend a lot of time teaching listening They

do not use all of activities they designed when writing lesson plans because if they do, the weak students cannot keep up

In the process of carrying out this study, the researcher also looked into other issues relating to language learning which have been discovered so far

The research took into account the psychology of learning habits and skills Certain psychological factors were considered as well such as memory, mental condition and ability

Students learn well if they are well-motivated Teacher can motivate even unmotivated students

- Visual learners learn through seeing

- Auditory learners learn through listening

- Tactile/Kinaesthetic learners learn through moving, doing and touching

Therefore, the researcher has tried out some lessons using video and realizes that video seemed to be the most effective and appropriate way to improve English majors’ listening

competence as it combines both visual (for visual learners) and audio (for auditory learners) In many cases, teachers can organize activities and design listening tasks to activate tactile students to get involved in post-listening activity like role-playing or doing

a project Also, there were dramatic changes in students’ attitude toward learning listening Students seemed more motivated and interested in listening lessons using video Consequently, the researcher felt an urge to conduct the study on the effect of video-assisted instruction on students’ motivation and learning in listening lesson A 15-week plan of action for implementing video-assisted instruction was made to investigate whether students’ learning and motivation in video-assisted instruction differ from that in traditional audio-only instruction

3.4 Classroom setting

In the language laboratory, in order to view the live streaming video coming from the teacher, a computer will be configured with a video projector This projector will allow the video stream to be presented on a large screen for the whole class to view The video stream must be viewed from one place due to the audio The computer connected to the projector will have the only speakers in use in the classroom These speakers will be used for the audio portion of the video broadcast from the teacher The students were seated in cabins and listened to the audio with headphones To allow the teacher to communicate with students, the teacher will be outfitted with a wireless clip-on microphone This microphone will have a direct audio channel to the student over the LAN (local area network) to allow better communication and facilitation for the teacher Allowing the teacher to have this direct channel will help keep the students’ communication to the teacher separate from video broadcasting This will allow the interactions between the students and teacher to have a better communication structure

3.5 Instruments

3.5.1 Interviews

Semi-structured interviews were conducted among four teachers of English at the PSA Each lasted for approximately 15 or 20 minutes The interview consisted of two parts, namely personal information and interview questions The face-to-face interviews aimed at investigating teachers’ perception and evaluation of video-assisted instruction on English majors in listening class Thereby, the opinions and comments of other teachers

help the researcher much anticipate the problem and implement some modifications in teaching listening With the approval of all the subjects, the tasks were tape-recorded for later reference The interviews were made in Vietnamese due to the preference of all respondents This choice of language did not threaten the reliability of the data but avoid any misunderstanding between interviewees and interviewer The best use of these interviews was that the ideas, perception and evaluation of other teachers toward listening and video-assisted instruction considerably contributed to creating corner-stone for problem formulation and the researcher’s self-evaluation later

Unarguably, the best aspect of interviews is that they provide us with actual voices and precise words Later, when reporting the data, this type of information can add credibility to the reports and vitality to the findings Apart from a list of questions, it creates a chance for the researcher to flexibly extend the contents to better exploit the information from interviewees Consequently, a rich and large amount of information may completely be obtained (Sample of questions for semi-structured interviews can be found

in Appendix 1)

3.5.2 Questionnaires

To answer the research questions, the researcher used a survey questionnaire for second-year English major students (Appendix 2) The questionnaires are developed to investigate whether the video-assisted instruction motivates students in their listening lesson and whether students’ listening competence is improved Each questionnaire comprised two parts Part 1 including five questions aimed at investigating students’ evaluation toward their listening competence and listening instruction as well as collecting some information on general background of the students such as the number of listening hours they spend per week Part 2, consisting 18 questions, was intended to investigate the effect of video-assisted instruction during listening lessons, the reasons and difficulties that they encountered when they were watching and listening video The questionnaire was written in Vietnamese to facilitate students’ understanding as well as to avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the questions The items in the questionnaires are both closed and open-ended in format, allowing respondents not only to select one from among a limited number of responses but also to reply in their own words Furthermore, difficult terminologies were simplified and clarified in the process of

translation to aid students’ comprehension of each questions To ensure the validity of the questionnaires, the questions were reviewed by three individuals who have expertise in teaching and conducting research studies

On one hand, questionnaires seem to be more time-saving and fruitful in large scope than other methods On the other hand, questionnaires also emerge its limitations Since the questionnaires consist of a mixture of closed and open questions, students tend to hesitate to answer open questions They are afraid to elicit the answers or brainstorm This fact motivates other exploitations of research method, which are classroom observation and achievement tests

3.5.3 Classroom observation checklist

According to Sagor (1992), the checklist involves three steps:

 Agree on what constitutes a particular behaviour or category

 Visit classroom to collect data

 Arrange the data into categories

However, Wallace (1992) thought that being observed is an unusual event, and makes teaching under observation a more stressful experience than usual Consequently observation in this study is not associated with supervision, inspection or teacher-training The focus of the observation is on the students: the way they work, the way they interact, the way they respond to the teaching, their on-task and off-task behaviour, and so on

The observation was done by the teachers concerned Even the teacher-researcher had her own checklists During the lesson, the teacher-researcher observed the interactions the students have with the teacher and with each other, their emotions, the way they responded to the teacher, the manner in which the students interacted with each other, their listening comprehension and retention By this way, checklist can yield rich data for analysis

Additionally, with the checklist process, more than one or two teachers can collect the data Non-reciprocal observation (i.e we are observed by others but we don’t observe them) is the most appropriate method since Wallace (1998) stated that it is the teacher who

is initiating the process, and ultimately the evaluation that matters is the teacher’s personal self-evaluation In this case, we are benefiting from other colleagues’ perceptions and

remarks Therefore, the research invited some of the colleagues who were also being in charge of English major students to observe the listening class using video The observers focused on investigating the effect of video-assisted instruction on students’ motivation and learning in listening class As Sagor (1992) said, these uses of checklists provided vivid portraits of how class time and activities were being used

3.5.4 Achievement tests

Evaluation and testing not only help to investigate whether students’ learning is enhanced but also allow teacher to evaluate whether his action plan works or not According to McNamara (2000), achievement tests cover and aim at measuring what language the students have learnt as a result of teaching They are closely associated with the process of instruction because they accumulate evidence during or at the end of the course to see whether and where the progress has been made

There are two achievement tests in the second-semester, one in the middle and the other at the end of the semester The first one was mid-term test which covered half of the fourteen units and the mark accounted for 30 percent of the total score The final test, which took up 70 percent of the total score, covered the later seven units but measured students’ achievement in the whole semester Both of the tests have the same format and criteria Listening tests lasted for 30 minutes with three pieces of video clips of different types and topics The length of each video clip was more or less than three minutes The following are some question types used in listening tests:

 Multiple-choice: Of four options, students choose the best answer to the given question

 True/False/Not given: students decide whether the given information is true or false or not mentioned in the video

 Gap-filling: students are required to fill in blank with no more than three words

to complete a sentence extracted from the video

 Missing summary: students are given a certain summary of the video clip they would see later, which have some missing information They are required to complete the summary by adding the missing information they find in the video

 Open-ended question: students are required to answer the question with no more than three words

The tests also had undergone strict evaluation of the same examiners (teachers of listening) because the result was taken as students’ final grades The evaluation of listening comprehension was based on the number of correct answers to the given questions

To sum up, the aforementioned instrumentation, namely interviews, questionnaires, observation checklist, and achievement tests were associated in order to collect the most sufficient amount of information needed

3.6 Teaching procedure

After selecting an appropriate video material, a wide range of guiding questions, tasks and activities are designed to instruct and facilitate students’ comprehension and retention, as well as to stimulate discussion on the topic around in the video clip chosen

Video-assisted listening lessons are divided into three stages: Pre-viewing, viewing and Post-viewing The treatment of using video in listening class will last for two periods (approximately two hours) Pre-viewing stage serves as warm-ups including some pictures, posters or other visual aids to arouse students’ interest and evoke their concerns toward the topic In this phase, students are also provided with a certain amount of vocabulary and necessary grammatical structures and expressions for discussing and analyzing the video

While-While-viewing is the main stage of the lesson in which various tasks and activities are used to gradually guide students from general comprehension to details or vice and verse Students also use the structures and expressions given in the first stage to analyze and discuss the video Besides, other skills like recognizing and understanding body language, guessing from the context, identifying objects, describing places, people and events, etc are built up and developed During the lesson, the teacher will initiate the viewing of the video broadcast coming from computer In the first period, the students will watch a piece of video on a certain topic Then the teacher will check the students’ comprehension and retention through a range of questions and exercises

reflecting

The second period or Post-viewing stage is mainly to enhance students’ retention Additionally, it is an open discussion, where students can exchange information with one another, review and drill exercises and activities The teacher will help them with some hints Students will be given some questions or related topics to think over, either in spoken or written form, or both

3.7 A description of the Research Process

3.8 Plan of action

15-WEEK PLAN OF ACTION FOR IMPLEMENTING VIDEO-ASSISTED

INSTRUCTION IN LISTENING CLASS

1 Famous people: Napoleon

Grammar points: Talking about the past and chronological order

2 Viewing some piece of news recorded from VTV4

Grammar point: Talking about the past (Past Simple, Past Progress,

and Past Perfect)

3 Viewing some pieces of news recorded from BBC channel

4 Viewing part 1 and 2 of the film Mulan

5 Viewing part 3 and 4 of the film Mulan

6 Viewing part 5 and 6 of the film Mulan

9 Viewing video clips about education programs:

How to make successful presentation

Vietnam War – The real story

13 Viewing part 1 of the film The Bone Collector

Grammar points: Making present and past speculations

14 Viewing part 2 of the film The Bone Collector

Grammar points: Making present and past speculations

students Later, after viewing the news in English by Vietnamese broadcasters, students get involved in the news spoken by native speakers Kinds of news include weather forecasts, sport, news-bulletins and business news Each video clip lasts only two or three minutes

Some parts of the cartoon named Mulan are also extracted in Unit 5 and 6 The reason for

this choice is that the language used in the cartoon is easier to understand and comprehend than in other kinds of films The speed of the conversations in the cartoon is more suitable for learners at low intermediate level

Stage 2;

The purpose of the mid-term test in week 7 is to evaluate the progress made on the half way of the semester The researcher collects information from interviews, observation checklists and the result of mid-term test to expose preliminary evaluation of the effect of video-assisted instruction in listening class Hence, the teacher-researcher will make some modifications in the teaching method and designing the lessons in order to best exploit the potential of video in listening class and to help students improve their listening competence

as well

Stage 3:

The third phase consists of six units at higher level The topics of each lesson are more diversified and interesting, covering from documentaries to feature film In this stage,

a lot of challenging activities are designed to stimulate students’ interest and involvement

in the lesson The evaluation from stage 2 will help the teacher see whether the assisted instruction is effective and what problems arise during listening lessons using video Hence, the teachers will know where and how to modify the teaching and even video materials While-viewing and Post-viewing activities do not purely relate to listening skill but others For example, in unit 13 and 14, students have a chance to view a thrilling

video-film titled The bone collector In this lesson, students will learn to predict what happened,

what happening and what happens next They also learn to describe things and events This lesson helps Ss get familiar with context-based listening and daily conversations and have

a general background of specialized English, specifically language used for crime scene investigation In the post-viewing discussion, students may be asked to complete a report

of crime scene investigation about what they have just seen

Stage 4:

Students will take the final test whose result accounts for 70 percent of the total score The test is intended to evaluate the whole progress of students and partly answer the

first research question: How does video-assisted instruction affect students’ learning (i.e comprehension and retention) in listening lessons?

3.9 Data collection procedure

The results of the study were developed on the basis of empirical data collected through interviews, questionnaires, observation and two achievement tests The stage of data collection happened during the second semester of the school year The process of data collection was carried out in five main stages:

Firstly, the interviews were conducted among four teachers to obtain their perceptions, comments and evaluation toward the matter under investigation, which was the effect of video-assisted instruction in listening class The result of the interview was part of the database which the researcher used to make modifications

Secondly, listening lessons using video were administered to thirty second-year English majors The delivery of questionnaire was delayed till the end of the semester to ensure the objectivity of the information that students provided

Thirdly, a mid-term test was taken after six units to see whether and where the progress was made Together with the results of observation checklist, the problems during video-assisted instruction emerged Thereby, appropriate modifications were applied to improve students’ listening competence

Fourthly, right after the final lesson finished, the students were asked to complete the questionnaire The teacher did not use students’ names to assure anonymity The teacher clarified any questions the students might have about the questions

Finally, students took the final test which determined the whole progress of their learning

Meanwhile, classroom observation was implemented in the whole process Initially, observation checklists were distributed to the teachers that the researcher intended to invite This gave them some time to read the checklists carefully before attending the video-assisted class Observation checklist was also carried out by the researcher in every

lesson The observers attended the video-assisted class twice during the second semester (one before the mid-term and one after)

The last step was to classify and analyze the data collected from interviews, questionnaire, classroom observation and achievement tests For questionnaires and achievement tests, the results and answers to close-ended questions were input into Microsoft Excel and automatically calculated and reported in percentages and frequencies

As regards classroom observation and open-ended questions in the questionnaire, contributive information was fully interpreted Meanwhile, the interviews among four teachers were minutely transcribed (see Appendix 3 for Findings from Interviews)

3.10 Data analysis procedure

Qualitatively, based on the data collected from interviews and classroom observation, a lot of truthful information about teachers’ perception and attitude toward the use of video in class, improvement of students’ listening competence and even their changes in attitude toward learning listening skill are provided

Quantitatively, with the result of survey questionnaire and two achievement tests, the researcher can work out the effect of video-assisted instruction on students’ motivation and learning and demonstrate it by tables and graphs The final test score will be compared with the score of the first semester and mid-term test

The analysis of the data was carried out in statistical procedure Descriptive analysis will be used and often reported in frequencies and percentages These descriptive statistics are numbers that classify, summarize and report the data

All the results collected from four sources will be comprehensively analyzed and discussed in the next chapter – Results and Evaluation

Conclusion

In summary, in this chapter, the context of teaching listening skill to second-year English majors at the PSA is initially revealed, which is an important basis of problem formulation Later, the chapter presents and justifies the research method applied in the study, namely participants, plan of action, instrumentation, the procedure of data collection

and data analysis The interpretation of findings will be elaborated on the following chapter

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND evaluation

Introduction

The chapter presents and evaluates the study results which will be categorized in four main headings, namely (1) teachers’ perception and evaluation toward students’ listening competence and video-assisted instruction, (2) reflection on the implementation

of action plan in the first half of the semester, (3) modifications (4) final reflection and reporting the outcome In the process of data analysis, relevant findings from interviews, questionnaires, classroom observation checklist and achievement tests will be four-cornered to attain a truthful assessment of the data

4.1 Teachers’ perception and evaluation toward students’ listening competence and video-assisted instruction

4.1.1 Teachers’ evaluation toward students’ listening competence

Three of the teachers asked agreed that students’ listening competence is the weakest of four skills Only one teacher (T1) had a different idea when he affirmed that some of them can understand from 40% to 50% of a listening text As regards the problems students often have in listening class, two teachers believed that students do not have listening strategies while another teacher (T3) mentioned their lack of social knowledge and attention in class Also, students’ bad pronunciation hinders them from effective listening As reasoned by one teacher (T2), students are easy to be distracted from listening

by the surroundings such as noise outside class or temperature in the room In short, it can

be concluded that listening skill is the weakest of students in general and English majors in particular

4.1.2 Teachers’ perception of video-assisted instruction

Findings from the interview showed that teachers at the target university had a quite adequate perception of video-assisted instruction Evidentially, all of them, more or less, used video in their teaching of all four skills Being inquired about their perception of the issue, the interviewees exposed much of understanding and knowledgeableness