A survey research on the influences left by anxiety on listening comprehension of grade 12 students at gia vien a high school

LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS SLA: second language acquisition ESL: English as a second language EFL: English as a foreign language LC: Listening comprehension FLLAS: Foreign Language Listening

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

Nghiên cứu ảnh hưởng của sự lo lắng đến việc nghe hiểu của học sinh lớp 12

trường Trung học Phổ thông Gia Viễn A

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60140111

Hà Nội- 2016

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

Nghiên cứu ảnh hưởng của sự lo lắng đến việc nghe hiểu của học sinh lớp 12

trường Trung học Phổ thông Gia Viễn A

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Phan Văn Quế

DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “A survey research on the influences left by anxiety on listening comprehension of grade 12 th students at Gia Vien A High school.” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at

the University of Languages and International Studies, Viet Nam National

University, and that this thesis has not been submitted for any other degrees

Ha Noi, March 2016

Luong Thi Thuy Hang

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like primarily to thank Assoc Prof Dr Phan Van Que for helping

me complete this study This paper would not have been possible without his constant support and encouragement His patience and helpful criticism helped me confidently express my ideas into this paper I regard myself extremely fortunate in

having him as my dissertation supervisor

I would also like to express my sincere thanks to all my lecturers at the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies for their valuable lectures which have helped me a great deal in gaining a lot of theoretical as well as practical knowledge

My special thanks go to the teachers at Gia Vien A High school who has helped me enthusiastically observe the classes during the listening lessons

I never forget to express my thanks to 69 students in the classes 12B1, 12B3, 12B6 and 12B9 and 10 students in the classes 12B2, 12B4, 12B7 who helped me collect the data through the questionnaire and the interview

Finally, I would also like to express my deep gratitude and love to my devoted parents, my husband and my lovely son who gave me time and encouraged

me to complete this study

in a hope to create a low- anxiety classroom atmosphere, and help to improve

students’ listening performance and proficiency in a most favorable affective state

TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION I ACKNOWLEDGMENTS II ABSTRACT III TABLE OF CONTENTS IV LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS VI LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES VII

PART I INTRODUCTION 1

1.RATIONALE FOR THE RESEARCH 1

2.AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH 3

3.THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS 3

4.SCOPE OF THE STUDY 3

5.METHOD OF THE STUDY 4

6.SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 4

7.DESIGN OF THE STUDY 5

PART II DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER 1.LITERATUREREVIEW 6

1 Definition of listening comprehension 6

2 Significance of listening 6

3 Process of listening comprehension 7

4 Anxiety 7

5 Foreign Language Anxiety 8

6 Anxiety in listening comprehension 10

CHAPTER 2.METHODOLOGY 11

1 Restatement of research questions 11

2 The fitness of the research approach 11

3 Context of the study 11

3.1 Setting of the study 11

3.3 Participants 13

4 Research instruments 14

5 Data collection and analysis procedure 17

6 Summary 18

C HAPTER 3 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 19

3.1 Students’ attitudes towards listening lessons and listening skill 19

3.2 The students’ anxiety when learning listening 24

3.3 Reduction of the listening anxiety 32

3.4 Concluding remarks 33

PART III: CONCLUSIONS 36

1 S UMMARY OF THE STUDY 36

2 P EDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS 36

2.1 Select material of general interest level 36

2.2 Use teachers’ prior knowledge of the material to guide the listeners 36

2.5 Use more teaching aids to support for listening lessons 37

2.6 Be sympathetic and sensitive to student anxiety about LC and FL learning 37

3 L IMITATIONS OF THE STUDY AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 38

REFERENCES 39 APPENDICES I

LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS

SLA: second language acquisition

ESL: English as a second language

EFL: English as a foreign language

LC: Listening comprehension

FLLAS: Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale FLLCAS: Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale FL: Foreign language

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Categories and items of fllas 16

Table 2: Students’ attitudes towards listening skill 19

Table 3: Students’ ideas towards listening lessons and listening skill 21

Table 4: Factors making students not like listening 21

Table 5: Lack of the confidence in english listening 26

Table 6: Insufficient background knowledge 28

Figure 1: Students’ attitudes towards learning listening skill 20

Figure 2: Students’ motivation of learning listening 23

Figure 3: The reasons of listening anxiety 30

Figure 4: How to reduce listening anxiety 32

PART I INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the research

English is the most popular language in the world It plays an important role

in our social- economic life of human beings Indeed, it is no longer an issue They argued that English has become a world knowledge by the virtues of the political and economic progress made by English speaking nations in the past 200 years It is now the main of language books, newspapers, airports, international business and academic conferences, science technology, medicine, diplomacy, sports, international competitions, music and advertising Nowadays we live in the age of globalization so we need English language because it is the language of this age The number of foreign language learners is increasing, and foreign language educators and researchers have been putting efforts into teaching English more effectively Along with the desire to find more effective ways of teaching English, concern over dealing with learners’ negative feelings and attitudes while learning English has also increased This concern over learners’ negative feelings and attitudes is based on a few language learning theories proposed by a number of language researchers( i.e., Krashen, 1988; Onwuegbuzie, Bailey, & Daley, 1999; Young, 1991) A number of factors influence foreign language learning, and anxiety when learning a foreign language has been identified as one critical factor interfering with foreign language learning and achievements( Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1991) Among the many skills required to use a language( i.e., speaking, listening, reading, and writing), listening comprehension is at the heart of language learning Language learners are expected to understand what the interlocutor is saying in order to continue the conversation When learners have difficulty with listening comprehension, it is likely that their listening anxiety will increase, which

in turn will negatively affect their performance

Being exposed to a natural context and an authentic environment is claimed

to be desirable for foreign language learning Hadley( 2001) asserted that learning

and practicing language in meaningful contexts is more appealing; however, this way of practicing a foreign language is not always affordable or feasible Some foreign language learners may experience higher language anxiety when talking with native speakers face-to-face, and some may not have an opportunity for exposure to an authentic environment Many students may have experienced some degree of helplessness and anxiety when doing the listening comprehension In traditional listening classes, students are given listening materials but not taught

“how” to listen Most of them do not have appropriate listening strategies Ever since language teaching and learning have shifted from the teacher-centered model

to the learner-centered model A number of studies have been undertaken from the students’ perspective Foreign language anxiety is one of the best predictors in accounting for individual differences in language learning success in second language acquisition( SLA), and that it is proved to be one of the most essential and influential affective factors

At my upper secondary school, learning listening is a really challenging job; especially, in grade 12 because of students’ low levels of proficiency in term of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, skills and so forth And they are the reasons that cause the anxiety when listening of students The anxiety makes students find it difficult and tough to listen to and they are not confident enough to do listening tasks successfully

The study is based on the assumption that unless teachers understand students’ anxiety, their teaching of listening comprehension will never be efficient and effective

Although it is important to understand students’ anxiety so as to provide them with needed support, not a single study on the upper secondary school students’ perceptions of the anxiety they have faced with in comprehending the listening tasks in the textbook Being a teacher of English, I myself think that it is essential to do a research on students’ listening anxiety so I decided on choosing

the topic “A survey research on the influences left by anxiety on listening

comprehension of grade 12 th students at Gia Vien A High school.”

2 Aims and objectives of the research

The main purpose of the study is to investigate the anxiety of 12th grade students towards learning listening skill It also proposes some suggestions to minimize the influences on students when learning listening skill

With the above aims, the objectives of this study were as follows:

• Examining the effect of anxiety on students in listening lessons

• Investigating the degree of these influences on students’ listening comprehension

• Proposing some suggestions to minimize the negative effect on students when learning listening skill

3 The research questions

With the given aims and objectives, the study implies two research questions:

- Does the anxiety have any influences on listening comprehension of grade

12th students at Gia Vien A high school?

- What are the effects and sources of foreign language listening anxiety as well

as suggested ways to reduce listening anxiety?

4 Scope of the study

The survey research was conducted at Gia Vien A High school, Ninh Binh

province Because of limited time, it only focused on investigating the influences of anxiety on listening comprehension of grade 12th students, the sources and the

degree of the impact

The participants were 69 students from four classes 12B1, 12B3, 12B6 and 12B9( answer the questions in questionnaire), 10 students( answer the questions in interview) from classes 12B2, 12B4, 12B7, who are non- English major students

5 Method of the study

The study was carried out by some steps as follows:

First, the survey questionnaire for students was employed to find out the sources

and effect of anxiety when learning listening skill

Second, class observation was designed to study students’ performance in listening

lessons

After that, semi- structured interview was conducted in order to:

1 Survey students’ perception on the magnitude of learning English and listening skill in students’ learning English

2 Study the factors that cause their anxiety

3 Find out the influences left by anxiety in their listening comprehension and their way of going on the lessons

Then, the data were collected, sorted and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively

to obtain realistic results

To end with, pedagogical implications for minimizing students’ anxiety in learning

listening skill will be proposed based on the results found from all data collection instruments

6 Significance of the study

The study has been conducted with the expectation that the findings will help

students of English at Gia Vien A High school acknowledge the significance of the impact of anxiety when learning listening comprehension, which forces them to reduce the anxious emotion before listening, spend more time and effort preparing

the listening lessons

Still, the researcher harbors the hope that the teachers will understand their

students’ anxiety, study the reasons for such anxiety, from which they will know how to foster positive attitudes or motivation and eliminate the anxious emotion of

their students so as to help them obtain progress and fruitful achievements in learning English and English listening comprehension

7 Design of the study

The study consists of three main parts:

Part I: Introduction presents the rationale of the study, the aims, the research

questions, the significance, the scope, the method and the design of the study

Part II: Development includes three chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature Review, which reviews the theories on listening and English

learning anxiety in listening comprehension

Chapter 2: Methodology, describes the participants, the setting of the study

involving the school, textbook Moreover, this chapter shows how the researcher applied the data collection instruments and her procedure of conducting the study

Chapter 3: Data analysis and findings, in which the researcher uses both

qualitatively and quantitatively method to study and analyze the Figure and collected information

Part III: Conclusions, which summarizes all findings explored and brings out

useful suggestions for the students to reduce their anxiety in learning listening skill

An overall picture of what has been done in this study and suggestions for further studies are also included in this part

PART II DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Definition of listening comprehension

Listening comprehension is a process, a very complex process, and if we want to measure it, we must first understand how that process works An understanding of what we are trying to measure is the starting point for test construction The thing we are trying to measure is called a construct, and our test will be useful abd valid only if it measures the right construct( Gary Buck, 2001) And listening comprehension encompasses the multiple processes involved in understanding and making sense of spoken language These include recognizing speech sounds, understanding the meaning of individual words, and/or understanding the syntax of sentences in which they are presented Listening comprehension can also involve the prosody with which utterances are spoken( which can, e.g., change intended meaning from a statement to a question), and making relevant inferences based on context, real-world knowledge, and speaker-specific attributes (e.g., to what information the speaker has access and about what he/she is likely to be talking) For longer stretches of language or discourse, listening comprehension also involves significant memory demands to keep track of causal relationships expressed within the discourse( Fred R.volkmar, 2013)

Moreover, listening comprehension refers to the understanding of the implications and explicit meanings of words and sentences of spoken language.” (

CDE Guidelines for Identifying Students with Specific Learning Disabilities, 2008)

2 Significance of listening

Listening is the first language mode that human beings acquire It provides the firm basis for all aspects of language and instinctive reflex development, and it plays a very important role in the processes of communication A journal by Tiffany

P Hogan, Suzanne M Adlof & Crystle N Alonzo( 2014), listening comprehension

has a huge effort on reading comrehension starting even in the elementary grades It also highlights a growing number of children who fail to develop adequate reading comprehension skills, primarily due to deficient listening comprehension skills Bulletin( 1952, cited in Naizhao Guo, 2005, p.3) said, listening is the fundamental language skill It is the medium through which people gain a large portion of their education, their information, their understanding of the world and of human affairs, their ideals, sense of values, and their appreciation In this day of mass communication, much of it oral, it is of vital importance that students are taught to listen effectively and critically According to second language acquisition theory, language input is the most essential condition of language acquisition As an input skill, listening plays a crucial role in students’ language development

3 Process of listening comprehension

Rost( 2002, cited in Masanori Tokeshi, 2003, p.27) said, the most common two-levels view is bottom-up processing and top-down processing In bottom-up processing listeners first attend to individual phonological units, and decode a larger unit of input in hierarchical order, from vocabulary to structures, and arrive at the meaning of the discourse In top-down processing, listeners make inferences on the basis of background information, contextual information and expectation Listening comprehension is considered to be an interactive process of bottom-up processing and top-down processing by utilizing linguistic and non- linguistic information( Rost, 1994, p.32; Nunan, 1999, p.221; Buck, 2001, p.1, cited in Masanori Tokeshi,

2003, p.27)

4 Anxiety

Anxiety is an emotion characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil, often accompanied by nervous behavior, such as pacing back and forth, somatic complaints, and rumination( Seligman, M.E.P.; Walker, E.F.; Rosenhan, D.L.) According to Arlington( 2013, p.189), anxiety is a feeling of fear, uneasiness, and worry, usually generalized and unfocused as an overreaction to a situation that is

only subjectively seen as menacing The anxiety also can be “a mental block that prevents acquirers from fully utilizing the comprehensible input they receive for language acquisition”( Krashen, 1985, p.3, cited in Fang Xu, 2011, p.1709) This block, called “the affective filter”, might be because “the acquirer is unmotivated, lacking in self-confidence, or anxious”( Krashen, 1985, p.3, cited in Fang Xu, 2011, p.1709) Anxiety always makes us nervous and affects on our performance in many aspects of life of human beings The feelings of anxiety and nervousness are intimately connected to the cognitive side of anxiety, which is worry Eysenck(

1979, cited in Fang Xu, 2011, p.1709) says that worry wastes energy that should be used for memory and processing on a type of thinking which in no way facilitates the task at hand Classroom anxiety became extreme for the student with the lowest proficiency It is helpful for teachers to understand the pressures felt by learners in the classrooms Foss and Reitzel( cited in Fang Xu, 2011, p.1710) suggested that knowledge and skills can best be dealt with through role play, drama, and oral interpretation

5 Foreign Language Anxiety

As the number of English learners is constantly increasing, English education

is concerned more and more As MacIntyre, P D.; Gardner, R C.( 1994, cited in Shabnam Amini Naghadeh, Mansour Amini Naghadeh, Naser Amini Naghadeh, Hasan Aminpour, 2013, p.85), foreign language anxiety is the feeling

of unease, worry, nervousness and apprehension experienced when learning or using a second or foreign language As Fotos( 1998, cited in Shabnam Amini Naghadeh, Mansour Amini Naghadeh, Naser Amini Naghadeh, Hasan Aminpour,

2013, p.85), these feelings may stem from any second language context whether associated with the productive skills of speaking and writing, or the receptive skills

of reading and listening However, unlike English as a second language( ESL) instruction, EFL instruction in East Asian countries has focused on reading and writing for the last few decades) He says that nowadays, EFL curricula also emphasize the importance of oral and listening skills in English Because of the

focus on reading and writing in EFL education, EFL learners are extremely nervous when they have to speak with and listen to English speakers, and this interferes with the learners’ improvement in speaking and listening skills( Shabnam Amini Naghadeh, Mansour Amini Naghadeh, Naser Amini Naghadeh, Hasan Aminpour,

2013, p.85) The interference with the learning experience is also related to the- affective filter theory suggested by Krashen( 1988, cited in Shabnam Amini Naghadeh, Mansour Amini Naghadeh, Naser Amini Naghadeh, Hasan Aminpour,

2013, p.85) This theory concedes that when language learners have anxiety, it negatively affects their learning process In other words, the anxiety interferes the students’ learning foreign language and their performance Thus, it is important to take into consideration the language anxiety that many EFL learners experience, and teachers should help them manage such anxiety( Shabnam Amini Naghadeh, Mansour Amini Naghadeh, Naser Amini Naghadeh, Hasan Aminpour, 2013, p.85) Language anxiety is distinguished from other types of anxiety by its association with interpersonal interactions in everyday life( Horwitz, 1986, cited in Shabnam Amini Naghadeh, Mansour Amini Naghadeh, Naser Amini Naghadeh, Hasan Aminpour, 2013, p.85) and the social context in which people communicate with others( MacIntyre, 1995, cited in Shabnam Amini Naghadeh, Mansour Amini Naghadeh, Naser Amini Naghadeh, Hasan Aminpour, 2013, p.85) Because language learning interacts with others, a language learner’s communication ability

is hindered in the presence of nervousness and anxiety when interacting with others Furthermore, as Young( 1991, cited in Shabnam Amini Naghadeh, Mansour Amini Naghadeh, Naser Amini Naghadeh, Hasan Aminpour, 2013, p.85) reckoned,

“knowing about language anxiety helps educators understand how students learn language and how they can help students manage the stress that accompanies language anxiety” Language anxiety is frequently found in oral activities in foreign language classrooms, and a number of language researchers have focused on the relationship between oral proficiency and anxiety( Gregersen & Horwitz, 2002; Horwitz, 1986; Mejias, Applbaum, Applbaum& Trotter, 1991, cited in Shabnam

Amini Naghadeh, Mansour Amini Naghadeh, Naser Amini Naghadeh, Hasan Aminpour, 2013, p.85) Compared to speaking anxiety, other kinds of language anxiety have rarely been studied There is a particular paucity of research in listening anxiety( Elkhafaifi, 2005, cited in Shabnam Amini Naghadeh, Mansour Amini Naghadeh, Naser Amini Naghadeh, Hasan Aminpour, 2013, p.85), defined

as “nervousness and anxiety of listening in a foreign language” This is mostly because current EFL instruction focuses on testing EFL learners’ comprehension rather than helping them improve their language skills( Phillips, 1992, cited in Shabnam Amini Naghadeh, Mansour Amini Naghadeh, Naser Amini Naghadeh, Hasan Aminpour, 2013, p.85) There are the ideas of some researchers In general, when students learn a foreign language, obviously, they cope up with the anxiety

6 Anxiety in listening comprehension

In many researches, students report that speaking in the foreign language has the most anxiety production( Young, 1990; Phillips, 1992, cited in Fang Xu, 2011, p.1710) However, they have begun to encounter the anxiety on listening and it also

is a problematic area for them Krashen( in Young, 1992, p.168, cited in Fang Xu,

2011, p.1710) recognized that although speaking is cited as the most producing skill, LC is also “highly anxiety provoking if it is incomprehensible” According to Scarcella and Oxford( 1992, cited in Fang Xu, 2011, p.1710), the students feel anxious when they are faced with a task that is too difficult or unfamiliar to them This anxiety is critical if the listeners are under the false impression that they must understand every word they hear Many Gardner and MacIntyre( 1993, cited in Fang Xu, 2011, p.1710) show that the anxiety is the most negative element that influences on students The anxiety that accompanies the LC task is the one that is most easily ignored because the goal of most classroom activities focuses on the speaking skill LC anxiety can undermine speech production because, in order to interact verbally, the listener must first understand what is being said Therefore, LC anxiety should not be ignored, but actively addressed

anxiety-Chapter 2 METHODOLOGY This part will present restatement of research questions, the fitness of the

research approach, context of the study, research instruments, data collection procedure and methods of data analysis

1 Restatement of research questions

- Does the anxiety have any influences on listening comprehension of grade

- What are the effects and sources of foreign language listening anxiety as

well as suggested ways to reduce listening anxiety?

2 The fitness of the research approach

A survey research is a study of a large group through direct study of a subset

of that group Surveys are widely used to gather data at a particular point in time to describe the nature of existing conditions, identify standards against which existing conditions can be compared and determined the relationships that exist between specific events For these reasons, the researcher believed that a survey research design would fit her purpose

3 Context of the study

3.1 Setting of the study

Founded in 1960, Gia Vien A High school has been developing At the present, there are over 1060 students placed in three grades: grade 10, grade 11 and grade 12 Each grade has a class which is taught the advanced- english knowledge The school has a library serving reference materials for students There is also a computer room serving information technology courses and examination

At Gia Vien A High school, all students must learn English as a compulsory subject There are required to complete the general English terms in three grades Each Advanced- English class in each grade has from 30 to 38 students At the end

of each term, students are always examined on the thorough exam with the major in

grammar; moreover with the four skills including listening, speaking, reading, writing Before, the students got used to translation grammar teaching method in which the teachers focused on the rules of grammar structures and students practiced the drills to remember those structures Therefore, at high school, most students have difficulties in listening and speaking skills However, at the moment,

it is changed, students are used the modern technology, are taught all four skills in each lesson Thereby, listening and speaking skill are getting better and better Among all teachers currently teaching at Gia Vien A High school, 07 of them are the teacher of English, and, 02 of 07 teachers have C1 Certificate They are all females ranking from 23 to 40

The textbooks used in general English courses are “ Tiếng Anh lớp 10”, “ Tiếng Anh 11”, “ Tiếng Anh 12”( Basic) and in the Anvanced- English classes, English textbooks used are Advanced- English textbooks by Tu Anh( the chief author), and Mai Phuong Vi, Phan Ha, Huynh Dong Hai, Huynh Thi Kim Thoa, Vu Thi Lan, Luong Thi Ly, Song Phuc, published by Education Publishing House Because of the final examination format, students are always required to practice and complete all language skills during the course including listening, speaking, writing, reading comprehension and language forms Besides, practicing and working in pairs and groups are of the most popular activities in the class to get the

best result in speaking skill

3.2 Listening skills in the textbook

Listening is the abilities to identify and understand what others are saying This involves understanding a speaker’s accent or pronunciation, his grammar and his vocabulary, and grasping his meaning( Goh, 2002) An able listener is capable

of doing these four things simultaneously Hence, listening is an important skill and probably the most difficult one

Traditionally, listening passages and methodology was not the matter of universal interest in English curriculum at upper-secondary school Listening did not make up any part of a unit procedure and testing as well The only means of

listening was that the teacher or students read the texts, questions and answered Even through this language skill was mentioned teachers seemed to ignore and made no effort to improve it

In contrast, the new “ Tiếng Anh 12” fosters to develop language skills, including listening comprehension Indeed, listening lessons make up 20% of 86 periods of the English syllabus Noticeably, each lesson is divided into stages: pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening in order to obtain certain languages comprehension or skills

3.3 Participants

The study was first conducted with the participation of 79 students randomly chosen from different classes of grade 12 representing 1060 students to answer the questions in questionnaire and the questions of interviewing part Among 69 students, there are 19 students from class 12B6, 15 students from class 12B1, 15 students from class 12B3, 20 students from 12B9 And among 10 interviewed students, there are 3 students from class 12B2, 3 students from 12B4, 4 students from 12B7 Most of students are aged 18 They come from different backgrounds and environments, varied from the rich to mountainous areas Most of them have been learning English for at least 7 years but enrolled the course with low, medium and even high level of English proficiency

These groups of students are chosen for the study for the two following reasons:

Firstly, Students at grade 12 have quite many experiences in learning English;

especially listening They experienced the hardship, the challenges when listening English Absolutely, students at the advanced- class have more difficulties A study

on these students who have just been studying English for nearly 7 years is ideal to understand their reasons for learning listening skill difficultly and plan strategies for improving their listening skill in next terms

Secondly, a study on students sharing the same type of drives and condition of

learning but differing in learning purposes and styles can help define the different levels more sufficiently The number of students from the class 12B6 and 12B9 are

bigger than those of any other classes assumed to learn English better than others and seem to be more interested in English Most of them have higher level of language proficiency than those from other classes because English is one of their main subjects at the class entrance exams They also would like to develop their abilities in using English as their future career requirements By contrast, the other parts of students from other classes tend to regard English as less important than the other subjects, so most of them just learn English in order to pass the exams

4 Research instruments

In order to obtain data and information for the study, the set of questionnaire for non-majored students is used Using questionnaire is one of the most popular instruments to investigate opinions and one of the best choices to collect data from a large group of subjects at the same time Moreover, the semi- structured interview and classroom observation are conducted to collect the related data

1 Questionnaire for the students is delivered to students for the purpose of

finding the factors that affect them, the impact of the anxiety when they listen as

well as their expectations in the English class Question items are divided into four

Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale (FLLAS)

According to Shengli Wang( 2010, p.562), Kim’s( 2000) English version of FLLAS which is based on the FLLAS designed by Horwitz et al in 1986 The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale designed by Horwitz et al in 1986 is one of the most popular instruments used in the language anxiety research The scale is a self-report measure of language learner’s feelings of anxiety in the foreign language classroom The scale has 33 items and 5-point Likert-type scales are used According to Horwitz( 1986, cited in Shengli Wang, 2010, p.563), the internal

consistency is 0.93 based on Cronbach’s coefficient alpha and test-retest reliability over a period of eight weeks is r=0.83( p<0.001) Therefore, the scale is “an adequately reliable and valid measure”( Kim, 2000) The purpose of this scale is to measure the general language anxiety as a specific reaction to foreign language learning Listening anxiety as a language anxiety accompanied by listening process has its own characteristics Therefore, some researchers, such as Elkhafaifi ( 2005), Zhou( 2003) and Kim( 2000), studying listening anxiety tend to work out their own scales on the basis of the FLLCAS Kim( 2000, cited in Shengli Wang, 2010, p.563) uses her own version of Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale in her dissertation under the supervision of Horwitz, E.K To develop the new instrument, Kim follows the guidelines of Gable and Wolf and De Vellis The adapted second language version of Wheeless’ Receiver Apprehension Test and the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale by Saito, Horwitz and Garza( 1999) are also good sources for addition to items A five point Likert Scale has been widely used in instruments measuring opinions, beliefs and attitudes, so it was chosen in the

research It ranges from l “strongly disagree” to 5 “strongly agree” A student’s endorsement in l “strongly disagree” is equated with a numerical value of one; 2

“disagree” is two; 3 “neither agree nor disagree” is three; 4 “agree” is four; and 5

“strongly agree” is five After the deletion of 8 items, an alpha of 0.93 and 33 items remained in the final form of the instrument Therefore, as a scale, it is highly reliable In this survey reseach, the researcher uses Kim’s English version, adapts( Items 3, 14, 20, 21, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33) to support her purpose Finally, this version has 33 items and 3 categories: nervousness and worry over English listening(Items 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 19, 20, 24, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33.), lack

of confidence in English listening(Items 6, 7, 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, 21, 22, 23, 25), concern about insufficient background knowledge( Items 1, 5, 16, 29) For each subject, the partipant choosess their own answer that is appropriate with their present feeling A high score represents high anxiety in the English classroom

Table 1 Categories and items of FLLAS

FLLAS Categories Nervousness and Worry

over English Listening

Lack of Confidence

In English Listening

Insufficient Background Knowledge Items Items 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10,

2 Semi- structured interview is conducted in order to survey students’

perception on the magnitude of learning listening skill in students’ learning English Study their students’ involvement in listening activities And find out the anxiety left by listening comprehension and their way of going on the lessons Interview are one of the most important sources of studying information and this minor thesis was not a different circumstance Powney and Watts( 1984, cited in Verma & Mallick,

1999, p.122) defines it as “an interaction between three elements: the interviewer, the interviewee, and the context of the interview including the issue questions raised

in the interview” The researcher applied the method since it could explore in greater detail and in depth some particularly important aspects and address other closely related topics Besides, interview is among the most challenging and rewarding forms of measurement It requires a personal sensitivity and adaptability

as well as the ability to stay within the bounds of the design of the interview

What is more, interview is a popular research method because they are flexible and participatory Interview is flexible because the interviewer has the

freedom to change some questions or the asking order of the questions according to the reactions of the users Besides, interview is participatory since they require both the interviewer and the participant to join in an interactive conversation

On the other hand, interview is relatively short, and the researcher can collect

quantitative data as well as qualitative data Also, depending on the type of the interview, the researcher may not be able to establish the natural environments of the participants

In this study, ten students are interviewed in a natural setting so that they can feel at ease when answer the researcher’s questions The time budget is allocated flexibly so that each subject feel free to express to the best their opinions, support their points and add extra information when needed As the subjects are all non-major English students, the interview can be carried out in Vietnamese so as to get correct information

3 Classroom observation is also applied to clarify and test the validity of

information about actual teaching and learning listening context

The questionnaire, interview and classroom observation are the methods used

in survey research to collect the quantititive and qualititive data.( Thomas M Archer, 2007) To give the reliable data, the researcher have decided to choose these methods

5 Data collection and analysis procedure

The data were collected and analyzed by following steps:

The questionnaire was carried out at grade 12th students in Gia Vien A High school and the data of the study were collected The instructions about how to fill

in the questionnaire were explained carefully to them First, the participants were explained the content and purpose of the questionnaire clearly to help them fully understand it They were also guaranteed that the results and personal information would not be publicized The questionnaire was given to each participant, and it took about 10 minutes to finish Second, the data of each class were collected separately and given to the researcher 69 copies of questionnaire were collected.( FLLAS is based on a Likert-type scale with five possible responses to each of the questions) The scale ranges from 1( Strongly Disagree) to 5( Strongly Agree) The answer indicating the highest degree of anxiety receives five points, whereas the

answer indicating the least anxiety is one point In order to summarize the participants’ background information and responses to the questionnaire, statistics were computed The survey questionnaire was designed in English

And the semi- structured interview was used to collect the more data about students’ anxiety when they listen, factors causing their anxiety and how to help to motivate listening learning better in the classroom

During English lessons, observing class was conducted Class observation is specifically constituted to bring about learning, hence, “it is not unreasonable to collect data about what goes on there”( Nunan, 1992, p.91) The observations were carried out in six listening lessons in four different classes at Gia Vien A High school The results then were analyzed and presented in forms of tables, and figures Data analysis and findings will be presented and discussed in the next chapter

6 Summary

By means of questionnaire and semi- structured interview for students, the researcher hoped to conduct a qualitative and quantitative result of the research The generalization of the conducted data was expected to provide relatively exact information about real teaching situation at Gia Vien A High school The students chosen randomly would make the research more objective There may exist unavoidable limitations during the research but it is hoped that the reliable basis for the data analysis and findings will be provided

Chapter 3 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

This part of the thesis presents and discusses the findings that arise from the specific questions in order to answer the research questions The findings resulted from the analysis of the three sources of collected data: questionnaire, interview and classroom observation

The comments and perceptions made by students in response to the questionnaire were consolidated and categorized by the researcher The results were subsequently tabulated and converted to percentages for the convenience of analysis Along with interview, information gained via classroom observations helped to assist interpretation

3.1 Students’ attitudes towards listening lessons and listening skill

Students’ attitudes towards listening could be found in the answer to question

1,2, 3, 4 in interview for students The results are shown in the following tables and figures

The interview data showed that the students were divided into three broad groups

Table 2: Students’ attitudes towards listening skill

Ideas for listening skill Number of mentions Percentage

Listening is more important skill than

other skills

Listening is not so important as other

listening are varied, but they all seemed to see the association of listening to other language skills or to the acquisition of other formal elements of the language

“ In my opinion, listening skill is very important and it’s as important as

others”

“ From my point of view, listening is as necessary as speaking, reading,

writing But, it’s so difficult”

“ I think that it’s not as important as other skills”

“ Personally, it’s as difficult and important as other skills”

“ Certainly, listening is a very necessary skill However, I think it’s less

important than other skills”

“ I think because it’s not easy and other skills are not, so; it’s important and

others, too”

Their attitudes towards listening skill can be diagramed as follows:

Figure 1 - Students’ attitudes towards learning listening skill

Listening is not so important as other skills

As apparent from the Figure, the student respondents valued the importance

of listening skill in different ways 0% of them thought that listening skill was very important, the most important of the four skills, whereas 70% considered listening equally important to reading, writing and speaking skills and only 30% found it not

so important as other skills The reasons the students gave for their perception of the importance of listening are varied, but they all seemed to see the association of

listening to other language skills or to the acquisition of other formal elements of the language These students thought about the importance of listening skill with the facts in their daily life and activities.( see appendix 3B)

Table 3: Students’ ideas towards listening lessons and listening skill

As clearly shown in Table 3, most of students do not like listening skill due

to some their own reasons They often feel stressed when learning listening lessons The anxiety is left by these lessons Besides, 30% students like because they find it interesting and useful for learning other skills 20% students say that it depends on the content of the listening lessons If the title of the lesson is familiar, exciting, easy to understand, to listen; they will like it and vice versa

There are many reasons why students do not like listening skill and table 4 showed these reasons in detail:

Table 4: Factors making students not like listening

1 Always feel stressed and nervous when listening 100%

3 Cannot understand the listening text and tasks 40%

5 Teachers do not have the good method or approach 20%

To answer question 4, 5 students who do not like listening give the reseacher their own answers Because they are not interested in learning English and the question is quite difficult to answer, the researcher uses a Vietnamese question to ask them And the results can be seen from table 4, all of them cope up with the anxiety when attending a listening lesson The very important factors involves 60%

of the respondents( 3 of 5 students) are the boring listening tasks and the bad facility It seems to be the theme of listening lessons does not interest them It is the reason why they do not concentrate on the listening lessons and do not like listening skill And the poor condition of class is another reason that makes them not be attracted by the listening lesson The size of class is too big, the sound of radio is too soft, the modern technology is insufficient,…This fact leads to the boredom of students According to interviewed students, their teacher’s method is problematic Their teachers’ voice is not loud and attractive enough to listen to in distance They

do not know how to make them feel interested in their lecture The teachers rarely use teaching aids They do not hear clear anything, then understand nothing either Coming next is 40% of the subjects ( 2 of 5 interviewees) who can not understand the listening text and tasks due to the lack of English background knowledge and ability, the laziness in practicing listening at home,…

They explained:

“ Mỗi khi nghe em đều thấy rất căng thẳng, hầu như không nghe thấy gì nên

em không thích kĩ năng này, trường lớp thì không được đầu tư nhiều về cơ sở vật chất và nữa là các bài tập nghe trong sách giáo khoa không thật sự lôi cuốn!” “ Em học Tiếng Anh cũng được 7 năm rồi, học kĩ năng nghe cũng nhiều nhưng hầu như điểm nghe của em không cao nên nó luôn làm em sợ hãi, mà thực ra

là bản thân em cũng không hiểu yêu cầu cũng như nội dung các bài nghe, em vẫn phải nhờ bạn bên cạnh hướng dẫn, hơn nữa các chủ đề của bài tập nghe cũng không thu hút, gần gũi!”

“ Em sợ và lo lắng khi phải học nghe Lớp học cũng không được trang bị đầy

đủ để phục vụ cho giờ nghe: Loa đài thì kém chất lượng, lớp hơi đông nên gây ra nhiều tiếng ồn,….Giáo viên của chúng em cũng không sử dụng nhiều công cụ hỗ trợ dạy kĩ năng nghe, dạy cũng không lôi cuốn!”

“ Em sợ giờ học nghe nhất!Đúng hơn là em lo lắng mỗi khi nghe, bài tập nghe không thực sự lôi cuốn và em cũng không hiểu yêu cầu trong mỗi bài.”

tố làm em tăng nỗi sợ hãi và càng không thích học môn nghe hơn!”( see appendix

3B)

Besides students feel bored when learning listening, there are 3 students like

it And they have their own motivation

In their opinions, listening is very necessary in school curriculum

According to Figure 2, their reasons for learning listening is various and surprising

To get good job in the future

Figure 2: Students’ motivation of learning listening

The results of the Figure 2 show that the subjects are found to possess such kinds of motivation: instrumental and integrative In theory, integrative motivation

is considered a key component in assisting language students to develop proficiency

in a second language when they become residents in a community where the target language is used in social interactions In contrast, with instrumental motivation, the