Using dictation to improve listening skills of grade 10 students at a high school in ha nam province

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THỊ QUỲNH ANH USING DICTATION TO I

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

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

NGUYỄN THỊ QUỲNH ANH

USING DICTATION TO IMPROVE LISTENING SKILLS

OF GRADE 10 STUDENTS

AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN HA NAM PROVINCE

(Sử dụng chính tả để cải thiện kỹ năng nghe hiểu cho học sinh lớp 10 tại một trường trung học ở Tỉnh Hà Nam)

M.A MINOR THESIS (Type I)

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Hanoi - 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

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

NGUYỄN THỊ QUỲNH ANH

USING DICTATION TO IMPROVE LISTENING SKILLS

OF GRADE 10 STUDENTS

AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN HA NAM PROVINCE

(Sử dụng chính tả để cải thiện kỹ năng nghe hiểu cho học sinh lớp 10 tại một trường trung học ở Tỉnh Hà Nam)

M.A MINOR THESIS (Type I)

Field: English teaching methodology Code: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân

Hanoi – 2019

DECLARATION

I certify that the minor thesis entitled “Using dictation to improve listening

skills of grade 10 students in a high school in Ha Nam province” and the work presented in it is the result of my own work, and that the minor thesis or any part of the same has not been submitted to any university and institution I also accept all the requirements of ULIS relating to the retention and use of M.A Graduation Thesis deposited in the library

Hanoi, October 2019

Author‟s signature

Nguyễn Thị Quỳnh Anh

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would first like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân for his valuable guidance, encouragements, criticisms and correction throughout my research Without his help, this study would be far from finished He consistently allowed this paper to be my own work, but steered me in the right direction whenever he thought I needed it

I am greatly indebted to all my lecturers at Faculty of Post-graduate Studies

of University of Languages and International Studies – Vietnam National University, Hanoi who have provided me an invaluable source of knowledge for my completion of this thesis

I would also like to thank fourty 10th grade students at a local school in Ha Nam province Without their passionate participation and input, the validation survey could not have been successful

I must express my very profound gratitude to my family and friends whose unfailing support and continuous encouragement help me throughout my years of study and the process of researching and writing this thesis This accomplishment would not have been possible without them

Last but not least, I wish to thank my readers for their interest and comments

ABSTRACT

How to improve English listening skill effectively is always a topic that has attracted much attention from language teachers Students of English find listening lessons difficult because they do not have appropriate methods to get over the difficulties As a result, this research attempts to look at one method called dictation

to improve high school students‟ listening skills This study is conducted to find out: (1) a clear view of dictation, (2) how the method works on the students, and (3) how much the student‟s listening skills are improved The data were collected through action research with 40 grade 10 students in a local high school in Ha Nam province All of the groups were pre-tested at the beginning of the study Throughout the learning process in class for 18 weeks, the teacher gave the students dictation practice tasks All students in the class were post-tested at the end of the intervention For the detailed outcome, the data was collected and analyzed carefully An analysis of survey questionnaires is done on the students to find out their attitudes towards this technique As the findings show, the research reveals that dictation contributes positively to improving listening skills for students

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF CHARTS viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the thesis 1

1.2 Aims of the thesis 3

1.3 Scope of the thesis 3

1.4 Methods of the thesis 4

1.5 Significance of the thesis 4

1.6 Design of the thesis 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Listening 6

2.1.1 Definition of listening 6

2.1.2 The importance of listening 7

2.1.3 Listening problems 8

2.2 Dictation 9

2.2.1 History of dictation 9

2.2.2 Definition of dictation 9

2.2.3 Characteristic of dictation 10

2.2.4 Types of dictation 11

2.2.5 The advantages of dictation 12

2.2.6 The disadvantages of dictation 14

2.2.7 Related studies 14

2.3 Summary 16

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 17

3.1 Research site 17

3.2 Research design 20

3.2.1 Initial relection 21

3.2.2 Planning 22

3.2.3 Action and observation 22

3.2.4 Reflection 25

3.3 The participants 26

3.4 Research questions 26

3.5 The data collection instruments 27

3.5.1 Pre- and Post-tests 27

3.5.2 Questionnaires 28

3.6 Method of data analysis 29

3.6.1 Quantitative data 29

3.6.2 Qualitative data 29

3.7 Summary 30

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 30

4.1 Analysis of listening practice tasks 30

4.1.1 Standard dictation 31

4.1.2 Error identification 31

4.1.3 Jigsaw dictation 31

4.1.4 Listening cloze 32

4.1.5 Elicited imitation 32

4.2 Analysis of the listening tests 33

4.3 Analysis of the survey questionnaire 36

4.4 Discussion of the findings 40

4.4.1 Achievement and difficulties 41

4.4.2 Attitudes 43

4.5 Summary 43

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 45

5.1 Summary of the study 45

5.2 Pedagogical implications 45

5.3 Recommendations 46

For the other researchers 47

5.4 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research 47

5.6 Conclusion 48

REFERENCES 49

APPENDICES I

APPENDIX 1 : A Lesson Plan I

APPENDIX 2: Pre-Test VIII

APPENDIX 3: Dictation 1: Unit 1: Family Life XI

APPENDIX 4: Dictation 2: Unit 2: Your Body And You XII

APPENDIX 5: Dictation 3 Unit 3: Music XIV

APPENDIX 6: Dictation 4: Unit 4: For A Better Community XV

APPENDIX 7: Dictation 5: Unit 5: Invention XVI

APPENDIX 8: Post-Test XVII

APPENDIX 9: Questionnaires XX

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1: Listening practice task for dictation 4 XV

Table 4.2: The results of pre-test and post-test 33Table 4.3 Student‟s response to the questionnaires 37

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 3.2 Action Research Model (Source: Kurt Lewin, (1934)) 21

Chart 3.2.3: Conceptual framework 25

Chart 4.2: Students‟ mean score of average mark 36

Chart 4.3.1: Students‟ attitudes towards dictation 38

Chart 4.3.2 The benefits of dictation 39

Chart 4.3.3 Student‟s difficulties when doing dictation 40

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the researcher will set the introduction of the study, including: the rationale for the study, the aims, the scope, the method of the study, and the design of the thesis

1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the thesis

Language plays such an indispensable part in our life as a means of both spoken and written communication By using language, people can express their feelings and thoughts to communicate with others in fulfilling their daily demands so that close relation among members of the group can be carried out (Ramelan, 1993: 8) Ramelan further states that “The use of language enables the members of a social group to cooperate with one another for their own benefit.”

It can not be denied that English nowadays is not only a language to communicate among people but also a connection among countries in many fields such as science, education, tourism, industry, trade and so forth In Vietnam at present, English is a compulsory subject from lower secondary education because of its role in industrialization and modernization of the country On the basis of the National Curriculum, teachers are expected to teach their students five basic aspects which are Speaking, Listening, Reading, Writing, and language knowledge (phonology, lexis, and grammar) As a matter of fact, in the process of teaching and learning English, listening seems to play an important role It gives the learner information to build the knowledge which is necessary for using the language Listening provides the vital input for learners to acquire the language and somehow

it promotes speaking skill However, for the students, listening skill is always supposed to be the most difficult one because from the very first place of learning English, Vietnamese students seem to pay more attention to learning grammar, vocabulary Unlike other language skills such as reading and writing, which learners

can observe directly, listening is an abstract, intricate “process of hearing, identifying, understanding and interpreting spoken language” (Lewis, 2007) Many students have significant problems with listening The speed, the reduced forms, the use of intonation, and unfamiliar accents, all ask learners at all levels a great deal of practice Therefore, the choice of the appropriate method is a great significance in developing listening skills and student‟s overall language learning

At a local high school where the researcher has been working, students‟ listening skill presents a big problem that the teachers of English here have to deal with Several techniques have been applied to teaching and learning English, however, most of them have not been appropriate and effective One of the techniques to improve listening comprehension which is recommended in many books about teaching EFL in general and teaching listening comprehension, in particular, is dictation (Celce-Murcia, 1995; Gilbert, 1996; Ur, 1991) According to researchers‟ opinion, dictation brings about a variety of benefits For instance, Lightfoot (2004) pointed out that dictation could be done with any level, depending on the text carefully designed and applied and it could be graded for a multi-level class Montalvan (2006) maintained that dictation involved the whole class, no matter how large it was The dictation text can be completely prepared beforehand and administered quite effectively by any inexperienced teacher As a result, Pappas (1977) regards dictation as a good means of improving learners‟ listening skill For grade-10 students‟ problems of poor listening comprehension and as one of the teachers of English in this school, the researcher would like to improve the students‟ listening skills and hope that this method can improve the students‟ listening skills All considered, a study on “Using dictation to improve grade-10 students‟ listening skill at a high school in Ha Nam province” was conducted

1.2 Aims of the thesis

In traditional listening teaching methods in general and, in particular, teaching listening tends to treat students equally Teachers have tendencies to present the same in-class exercises and activities to all learners and expect the same outcome

In present, with the development of high technology, numerous techniques to teach listening are applied in listening lessons; however, dictation is still a good method

to be used to teach listening when it has various implications for educators in terms

of classroom instructions

The overarching aim is to find out whether students can improve listening skill through dictation Therefore, the study is carried out with the aim of finding the answers to the following question:

1 To what extent does dictation contribute to improving English listening skills

of the grade-10 students at a local high school?

2 What are students’ attitudes towards this listening technique?

1.3 Scope of the thesis

Due to the limits of the time, ability and condition, it is unable to cover the whole achievement test for all students in a local high school but focus on the listening tests as a part of achievement test for a class of grade-10 students It provides the general theory of language teaching, analyzed data of the test as well as the students‟ comments to investigate the effectiveness of dictation to enhance English listening skill for grade 10-students (about 40 students) at a local high school To be more convenient, one class the researcher has been teaching as the object of the investigation was chosen

1.4 Methods of the thesis

Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to achieve the aims stated The data collected for the study is analyzed from the results of pre-test and post-test as well as students‟ survey questionaires

Pre-test and post-test which have been examined to have an equivalent difficulty level, are used to test students‟ listening skills before and after the project The pre-test is delivered to students before the intervention and the post-test is used to collect the scores and then compare to the scores of the pre-test

The qualitative research method through survey questionaires are conducted to aim at finding out the students‟ attitudes towards dictation as well as their comments on using dictation in the English lessons

1.5 Significance of the thesis

In fact, dictation was generally applied in English teaching and learning, and there has been a wide range of studies about the implications of this theory However, there were a few studies about its effectiveness on improving listening skills

The findings of the thesis may serve as useful information not only for the researcher, involved students but also for all language teachers In particular, the study is conducted to improve listening competence of grade-10 students at a local high school Therefore, the results of this study may be generalized to apply for students at the same level in other schools It is also hoped that the thesis will make

a contribution to the achievement in listening learning of students at different levels Besides, this study may also bring new insights into language teaching when recommendations for other researches are stated with the hope of taking the most advantages of the using dictation as a model for listening teaching

1.6 Design of the thesis

This thesis is divided into five chapters as follows:

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION provides the basic information such as the

nationale of the study, aims of the study, scope of the study, methods of the study and design of the study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW presents key concepts such as

definition of listening, listening as the final goal of learning a language, listening as

a means of acquiring language, and evaluation standard on listening skill In addition, the followings are also included in this chapter: the history of dictation, definition of dictation, characteristics of dictation, type of dictations and so forth

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY describes the method of

investigation consisting of research site, research questions, participants, instruments, methods of data collection and analysis

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION presents the detailed

results of the survey including Data analysis and Discussion, gives a detailed presentation of data and a detailed description of data analysis

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION provides the conclusion of the research, points

out limitations and makes some suggestions with future directions on the improvement of dictation test for grade-10 students

REFERENCES AND APPENDIX come at the end of the study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

researcher bases the study on the theories which are the views of the famous applied linguists This section contains the definitions of listening, learning to listen, types

of listening, listening problems, types of classroom listening performance, and assessment of listening

Myers and Myers (1988: 143) define that listening is not just hearing It includes understanding, paying attention, analyzing, evaluating the spoken messages, and possibly acting on the basis of what has been heard

Listening is the ability to identify and understand what the speaker is saying through understanding his accent, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and comprehension of meaning (Howatt and Dakin, 1974 ) (Rost, 1994) draws a particular list of components to master when dealing with this skill:

- Discriminating between sounds

- Recognizing words

- Identifying stressed words and grouping of words

- Identifying functions (such as apologizing, suggesting, advising and so on) in conversations

- Connecting linguistic cues to paralinguistic cues (intonation and stress) and to non-linguistic cues (gestures and relevant objects in the situation) in order to construct meaning

- Using background knowledge and context to predict and then to confirm meaning

- Recalling important words, topics and ideas

- Giving appropriate feedback to the speaker

- Reformulate what the speaker has said

Rost (1994) insists on the fact that students must deploy all these sub-skills

to realize a successful process when he states: “Successful listening involves an integration of these component skills In this sense, listening is a coordination of the component skills, not the individual skills themselves This integration of these skills constitutes a person's listening ability”

Ma Lihua (2002) states that listening comprehension is a complex psychological process of listeners‟ language understanding by hearing Listening is

an interactive, not a passive skill, which the students need to put much effort and practice So as to listen effectively, the listeners must have sufficient knowledge of the language he or she is listening to

2.1.2 The importance of listening

Listening plays an important role in learning a foreign language, especially in communication We cannot communicate with others successfully unless we understand what the speakers mean A study conducted by Wilt (1950) states that when communicating, 30 percent of communication was spent speaking, 16 percent

because of their listening ability and how they response to what they have heard

Listening to a second language seems to be so difficult Besides, in class, students have less chance to learn listening than learn speaking, reading, writing and grammar However, students can day by day enhance their listening skills by practicing listening daily

2.1.3 Listening problems

We need to identify the problems before finding the solutions to deal with them Following are some of the learner‟s problems and the solutions that Ur (1996: 111-112) identifies:

a Trouble with the sounds

Most students do not catch the words but they respond by understanding the context

b Find it difficult to keep up

Some students feel worried, stressed or even tired and bored when they miss some words of the text because much information comes so fast Therefore, they cannot concentrate on the lessons The teacher should encourage and explain to the students that there is no need listening to every word but try to get keywords

c Need to hear thing many times

In order to understand, students need more than once to hear the text For difficult texts, teachers can give students opportunities to listen more times

Besides, Goh (2000) reports that some listeners complain that they quickly forget what they have heard and then they easily miss the following information

To deal with the students‟ difficulties in learning to listen, the teacher has to identify and classify those difficulties Then to make the lessons more effective, teachers must select and design appropriate materials

2.2 Dictation

2.2.1 History of dictation

Dictation is regarded as one of the oldest techniques introduced in the Middle Age It is known for testing progress in the learning of a foreign language It was used to transmit course content from teacher to students in both translation method and traditional direct method

2.2.2 Definition of dictation

David and Rinvolucri (1998) defines dictation as decoding the sounds of (English) and recording them in writing Dictation has been proved to be extremely effective at all levels It helps students to distinguish sounds and requires them to transfer sounds into written words It can be said that “dictation” is a process of listening to something from the teacher and the students record it by writing down

in their notes

In the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching Applied Linguistics, Richards

(1999: 108) defines dictation as “a technique used in both language teaching and language testing in which a passage is read aloud to student or test-takers, with pauses during which they must try to write down what they heard as accurately as possible”

Many experts claim that dictation is such an effective teaching method for

teachers Oller (1979: 39) states that:“Dictation is a task which requires the

processing of temporally constrained sequences of material in the language, divided

up the stream of speech and then refers down what is heard requires understanding the meaning of the material.”

According to Taylor as quoted by Fachrurrazy (1989), “Dictation” means “ (1)

reading a passage aloud, (2) dividing the passage into phrases that are short

enough to remember and re-reading phrases with gap long enough for subjects to

record the preceding phrase in writing, (3) optionally re-reading each phrase as it

is being written, and (4) re-reading the whole passage as in (1).”

Dictation is when the teacher reads aloud the passage of around 150 words three

times For the first time, the teacher reads the text without breaks at a normal speed,

while the students write down what they have heard For the second time, the

teacher reads the passage in phrases and pauses long enough for students to write

The last time the teacher once again reads the whole text at a normal speed, for

students to check what they have written

2.2.3 Characteristic of dictation

Zhiqian (1989) states that dictation makes the lessons more and more efficient It

has a numerous characteristics as follows:

(1) Dictation includes activities which are suitable for a wide range of levels and

ages Dictation can be used in a class of any size When the dictation

technique? is used, all of the students work at the same time, even in a very

large class

(2) Students can learn in groups by creating their own text In other word,

students can learn by their own with the teacher‟s guide or example

(3) It gives students opportunities to get practice in note-taking that is very

necessary in any course, especially in learning languages

(4) Dictation attracts students‟ attention in listening lessons Dictation requires

students to focus on the exercise or they will miss words

(5) Doing dictation is a good chance for students to practice listening, gaining

vocabulary, grammatical points and distinguishing sounds

2.2.4 Types of dictation

Dictation can be classified into various types Oller (1979), for example, identifies five types of dictation: (i) standard dictation, (ii) partial dictation, (iii) dictation with competing noise, (iv) dicto-Comp, and (v) and elicited imitation Standard dictation, according to Oller (Ibid.), is probably the most renown Students are required to write down what has been read by the teacher or played back from a recording at a normal conversational speed The students are given enough time to challenge their short term memory Partial dictation, also called spot dictation, is a kind of standard dictation, but the students are given either the written version of the text or the spoken one The students must listen to the spoken text and fill in the missing blank in the written version Dictation with competing noise is rather difficult because noise is added to the material For example, the situation of the communication is in public spaces or in the place where the television or the radio is turned on Dicto-Comp is a combination of two forms, namely dictation and composition The teacher reads the whole passage three times and then ask them to write what they have heard after the third time as a reproduction And elicited imitation means that after listening to the material, students are asked to repeat or recount what they have heard rather than write it down

From another perspective, Rost (2002) also identifies dictation into five categories: (i) fast speed dictation, (ii) pause and paraphrase, listening cloze, (iv) error identification, and (v) jigsaw dictation According to Rost (Ibid.), in fast speed dictation the teacher reads a text at a natural speed, and the students can ask for as many repetitions of any part of the passage as they want, but the teacher will not slow down her reading speed This activity attracts students‟ attention on features of fast speech In pause and paraphrase, Rost maintains, the teacher reads a passage and pauses periodically for the students to write paraphrase but not a single word This activity focuses students on meaning, improving their vocabulary and how to say things in a different way In listening cloze, the teacher provides a passage with

missing words that the listeners fill in as they listen or after they listen This activity requires students to fill in the blanks with words, which helps students to focus on particular language features In error identification, the teacher provides a fully transcribed passage with a number of errors The students have to listen and identify the errors, which draws students‟attention to detail by grammatical or semantic And in jigsaw dictation, students are asked to work in pairs Each student keeping a different part of the full dictation reads their parts to the other so as to complete the passage This activity encourages the negotiation of meaning

2.2.5 The advantages of dictation

Lado (1977: 34) says that dictation serves many teachers and students

effectively Frodesen (1991) reports that dictation can be “an effective way to

address grammatical error in writing that may be the result of erroneous aural perception of English Dictation can help students to diagnose and correct these kinds of errors as well as others.”

According to Montalvana (2006), there are 21 advantages of dictation as follows and the first six of them are the most important

1 Dictation can help develop all four language skills in an integrative way

2 It can help learn grammar

3 Discussion helps to develop short-term memory

4 Practice in careful listening will be useful later on in note-taking exercise

5 Correcting dictation can lead to oral communication

6 Dictation fosters unconscious thinking in the new language

7 Dictation is psychologically powerful and challenging

8 Dictation can serve as an excellent review exercise

9 If the students do well, dictation is motivating

10 Dictation involves the whole class, no matter how large it is

11 During and after the dictation, all the students are active

12 Correction can be done by the students

13 Dictation can be prepared for mixed ability groups

14 Dictation can be prepared for any level

15 The students, as well as the teacher, can get instant feedback (if the exercise is corrected immediately)

16 The dictation passage can (and should) be completely prepared in advance (it also can be taped)

17 Dictation can be administered quite effectively by an inexperienced teacher

18 While dictating, the teacher can move about, giving individual attention

19 Dictation exercise can pull the class together, for example, during those valuable first minute

20 Dictation can provide access to interesting texts, by introducing a topic, for example, or summarizing it, as in a dicto-comp

21 Research has shown the learning to write down what you hear can encourage the development literacy

Lighfoot (2004: 23) says that dictation exercises are very important, particularly for developing the children‟s awareness of phonic sounds Lightfoot says that there are several reasons for which dictation activities work well in the classroom From the teacher‟s point of view, dictation:

1) Can be done with any level, depending on the text used

2) Can be graded for a class at multi-levels

For students, dictation:

a) Can focus on both accuracy (form) as well as meaning

b) Can develop all four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) can be develop if the students do the dictating rather than the teacher

c) Give students the opportunity to notice features of pronouncing such as weak forms, linking and elision

2.2.6 The disadvantages of dictation

Beside a variety of benefits, dictation also brings some drawbacks such as reading speed, memorizing, and spelling Regarding to reading speed, in fact, by dictation, students cannot distinguish the difference between the oral and the written language Additionally, teachers read texts at a slower speed; therefore, students are still not familiar with the language spoken by natives Memorizing in the short term memory is sometimes a problem when there is too much information Finally, in some cases, students have difficulties in spelling They can get the sound but cannot spell and vice versa For example, a lot of English learning beginners may not distinguish between the short /ɔ/ and the long /ɔ:/ Therefore, they will make spelling mistakes, which helps less in learning spelling or even pronunciation by dictation

In addition, there are other disadvantages as follows Alderson (1978a) reports that the evidence concerning dictation is inconclusive and it is useful only as

a part of the battery of listening tests rather than a single solution If the dictation is not recorded on tape, the test will be less reliable, as there will be differences in, for example, the speed of the text The exercise can be unrealistic if the texts used have been previously created to be read rather than heard There is a close relationship between the sounds and the spelling system Therefore, in some cases, students concentrate too much on single sounds and guess the single word but not the meaning of the whole text After that, with the limited memory span, the students cannot retain what they have heard

2.2.7 Related studies

Before this research, there were a number of the studies to explore the

relationship between dictation and listening skills as follows:

Firstly, the thesis was carried out by Nguyen Thi Minh Hang (2004) “English Dictation Tests For First Year Students Of Business Administration Faculty, Hanoi Foreign Trade University Problems And Solutions” The research was done on 100

FTU second year students of Business Administration Faculty (three classes) and 20 teachers teaching the first year students To collect the data, the researcher used both quantitative data (listening tests) and qualitative data (interview and questionnaire) Based on the data analysis, it was found that the student‟s listening comprehension was improved It can be seen easily from the data that she showed in her thesis

Moreover, Ika Ratna Melawanti (2007) conducted a research entitled

“Dictation As a Testing Technique In Measuring The Student‟s Listening Skill” The population of this study was in one class consisting of 36 students having low marks in listening tests of the fifth grade of SD Negeri Wonorejo 01 Karanganyar Demak in the Academic Year of 2006/2007 To collect the data, the researcher used the quantitative data The teacher gave the listening tests twice and analysed the results It can be seen from the score of the students are in average 7 -

9 Clearly, this listening technique contributed to enhancing the students‟ listening ability

More recently, Intan Nurjannah Nasution (2017) investigated “The Implementation Of Dictation Technique To Increase Students‟ Ability In Listening Skill At Smk-1 Alfattah Medan.” with the aim of knowing the students‟ ability in listening skill by using dictation technique and finding out whether the dictation technique can increase the students‟ ability in listening skill The subject of this research was 30 tenth-grade students of SMK-1Al-Fattah Medan Academic year 2016/2017 who participated in a classroom action research As above, it was concluded that Dictation Technique could increase the students‟ ability in listening skill at tenth grade in SMK-1 Al-Fattah Medan

In general, there is a variety of the recent application of Dictation Technique Although each was conducted at different levels of learners and educational background, it is time to note that using Dictation Technique can be helpful in

improving the learners‟ listening skills That was the reason why the researcher chose listening technique to enhance the students‟ listening skills

2.3 Summary

The literature review of the present study is clearly presented It provides some general infomation about listening and dictation in term of the definition, advantages & disadvantages, and the theoretical framework underlying the issue Next, the third chapter has briefly discussed research methodology

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

To address the research question and achieve the aims, this study was conducted with the participation of 40 students at a local high school Details of the research site, the participants, the instruments, the procedures of data collection and method of data analysis will be stated in this chapter

3.1 Research site

A local high school, the research site, located in a countryside of the north of Kim Bang district, Hanam province, was established in 1999 Although the school has just been founded for 19 years, it is on top 5 of 23 schools in the province and becomes a reliable school of parents and students of the district The reason why the researcher chose a local is that the researcher has been teaching here for 3 years the students‟ listening ability is so weak that the researcher needs to find some ways to improve it

The school has 24 classes with approximately 365 students from grade 10 to grade 12 and over 60 teachers of different subjects English is a compulsory subject

at this school It is taught by 5 female teachers aged from 25 to 40 The teaching and learning of English here is based on the national curriculum by the Ministry of Education and Training Therefore, all students of the school use the same sets of English textbook (Tiếng Anh 10, Tiếng Anh 11, and Tiếng Anh 12)

A communicative approach which helps student improve communicative skills through speaking, listening, reading and writing is applied to English curriculum at high school Particularly, phonetics, vocabulary, and grammar are the key instruments The English textbook “Tiếng Anh 10” by Hoang Van Van et al

(2012), the workbook, and other teaching facilities (tapes & recorders, computer, speaker, projector and so on) are the essential elements in learning and teaching English, especially English listening skill

“Tiếng Anh 10” textbook consists of ten units for two terms It is designed under theme-based approach with ten topics There are eight parts in each unit as follows: Getting Started, Language, Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, Communication Culture, and Project After three units, there is a Review to examine how well the students have achieved in the previous units The Review is constructed as follows: Vocabulary, Pronunciation, Grammar, Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing With this book, students can speak, listen, read and write English at basic level They get an overview of English-speaking, people and cultures and then conserve and develop our national traditions and cultures

Listening lesson is the fifth part in each unit and under the theme-based and tasked-based approaches In general, the textbook provides the students with a variety of topics and listening activities with the aim of helping the students to improve their listening skills in fifty-five weeks with one hundred and five periods Each period lasts forty-five minutes At the end of grade 10, students will be able to listen and understand short monologues or dialogues for main ideas or specific information Moreover, they can identify and differentiate sounds, words and intonation

Followings are five topics in semester I corresponding with five topics in the listening practice tasks

 Topic 1: Unit 1: Family life

The main idea of this listening lesson is about how the roles of men and women family are changing Beside widening the vocabulary related to the topic, the students can revise the usage of the present tense and present perfect to express the changes Moreover, the questions of the practice task helps to better the

students‟ listening skill for specific information Especially, it focuses on improving the listening skill to do True-False tasks

 Topic 2: Unit 2: Your body and you

The listening audio is about how to choose a healthy diet It helps the students not only learn more new vocabulary related to the food pyramid but also enhance their listening competence by analyzing and comparing the given information in True-False statements with the listening tape

 Topic 3: Unit 3: Music

In this unit, the students have to listen to a conversation talking about music taste to answer the questions For this kind of exercises, the students are required to listen for specific information to complete the task They have to listen carefully, analyze and take note of the information needed to the question

 Topic 4: Unit 4: For a better community

There are various exercises for the students to practice in unit 4 about an announcement for volunteers such as Matching, True-False statements and Multiple-choice questions These activities ask the students to use a number of listening skills to complete the tasks Undeniably, it helps a lot to improve listening skills

 Topic 5: Unit 5: Inventions

In the last unit of semester I, the students have a chance to access to another type of listening exercise, namely Cloze test beside Short-answer question The listening audio introduces some basic information of a new mean of transportation – flying car The students are required to listen to some specific information about the flying car and try to fill in the blanks with one suitable word or number This

exercise helps the students both enhance their listening comprehension and widen their knowledge about this new kind of vehicle

After investigating the listening score in the high school entrance exam, the teacher realized that the students had several problems with listening skills Most of them got low marks in the listening part With the above setting, the researcher expected to intervene with a new approach to see whether learners‟ listening skills could be improved as expected

3.2 Research design

Classroom Action Research was applied in this study It is an action research conducted with planning, acting, observing and reflecting with an aim of improving the quality of listening process in the classroom According to Mettetal (2001), Classroom Action Research is a research designed to assist teachers in understanding what is happening in his or her classroom, and then make changes for the future Moreover, action research can promote “teachers‟ growth as an empowered professional”, “teachers‟ confidence in their teaching ability”, and their

“problem-solving skills as well” (Briscoe and Wells, 2002: 429) Action research involved the collection and analysis of date related to aspect of professional practice and it chould be repeated until found satisfied solution

Action research is a suitable chosen research method for the study for some reasons Besides many other teaching methods, the new sight of Dictation Technique can be a useful approach for meeting the expectation to what extent Second, action research is aimed at changing things as well as suggest a reference source for other research From the findings of the effects of using activities based

on Dictation Technique on young learners‟ listening skill, some constructive suggestions will be given so that teachers can facilitate students‟ English listening learning

Classroom Action Research is combination of qualitative research and Quantitative research The data was collected qualitatively and analyzed quantitatively According to the explanation above, Action Research was used to see the improvement of the students‟ listening skillss through dictation technique

Accroding to Kurt Lewin (1952: 462-463), there are five steps in Action Research, namely Initial Reflection, Planning, Action, Observing and Reflection The below diagram illustrates the action research model

Chart 3.2 Action Research Model (Source: Kurt Lewin, (1934)) 3.2.1 Initial relection

The study started when the researcher realizes that there is a need to improve the students‟ listening ability The new approach – using activities based on dictation technique should be used In other words, step 1 was implemented to figure out the problem The demand for a new approach in order to help students

better their listening skills was identified and then investigated

Initial Relfection

Planning

Action Observation

Reflection

3.2.2 Planning

Planning is to develop an action plan critically to improve what happened In this step, the researcher did a literature search before beginning the action research The literature review was to strengthen the validity of the research by giving the theoretical framework, and comparing the findings in other researches with future findings

After having a quite clear literature review, the researcher refined the question for the research Participants of the study were the 10th graders in A local high school where the researcher is working and the teaching material is “Tiếng Anh 10”

3.2.3 Action and observation

The action here is a conscious action and control, which is a variation

of a careful and prudent practices Firstly, in order to measure students‟ listening level prior to the treatment, learners took the listening pre-test within 15 minutes (APPENDIX 2) The teacher marked the pre-test and kept the result for later use

The intervening program lasted 18 weeks The teacher made a suitable lesson plan (APPENDIX 1) for teaching listening dictation in targeted units (Units 1, 2, 3,

4, 5 in Tiếng Anh 10 – students‟ book) The researcher followed the basic content of each lesson and find or design dictation tasks based on the theory of Oller and Roster for the students to practice The detailed plan and activities under dictation technique, as well as steps of the in-class lessons are mentioned below

a The lesson plans with different dictation practice tasks

According to Rinvolucri (1996), a lesson plan is regarded as the instructor‟s road map of what students need to learn and how it will be done effectively during the class time In this action research, with the purposes to deliver the lesson by a

new approach – dictation technique, the lesson plans were prepared carefully and focused on dictation activities

It is importantly noted here is that learning activities related to different dictation techiniques were inserted into the listening lesson plan Specifically, a wide range of activities was adapted, for instance:

- Standard Dictation (Unit 1: Family life, Lesson 3)

- Error Identification (Unit 2: Your body, Lesson 3)

- Jigsaw Dictation (Unit 3: Music, Lesson 3)

- Listening Cloze (Unit 4: For a better community, Lesson 3)

- Imitation Elicited (Unit 5: Invention, Lesson 3)

b Procedures of the in-class lessons

Firstly, they were given pre-test to measure their listening skills and then, dictation practice tasks were relatively given in listening lessons The students were asked to pay attention to the teacher‟s explanation and guidance and did what are said After the process, the students took post-test to figure out the progress of the students‟ listening ability Finally, the teacher gave the students questionaire to collect their comments and attitude toward this project

The conceptual framework underlying this research is presented in the

following diagram

Chart 3.2.3: Conceptual framework

PRE-TEST Dictation practice

task 1

Dictation practice task 2

Dictation

practice task 5

Dictation practice task 4

Dictation practice task 3

The teacher tried to activate learners‟ listening ability via five types of the dictation activities corresponding to five units in the textbook “Tiếng Anh 10” For example, in Unit 1, lesson 3, the students were asked to take advantage of their memory to write down what they have heard from a recording at a normal conversational speed, which is considered as a traditional way of dictation For lesson 3 of Unit 2, the students involved in Jigsaw Dictation Activity The students were required to work in pairs Each of them kept a different part of a full text then read their parts to the other so as to complete the passage About Unit 3, the researcher applied Error Identification The teacher provides a fully transcribed passage with a number of errors The students have to listen and identify the errors

of the listening lesson In Unit 4, the students were given a familiar dictation technique called Listening Cloze which requires the students to listen and fill in the blanks with missing words The last practice task was Imitation Elicited In this task, students must repeat or recount what they have heard rather than write it down while listening

During the researching period, the lesson plans were designed and updated accordingly with the daily observation Right after learners finished all five dictation practice tasks, the researcher delivered post-test (APPENDIX 4) to evaluate students‟ achievement after the project

3.2.4 Reflection

In this step, the results were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively to evaluate the action plan With the quantitative data, after the 18-week project, data were collected and compared with the results of the pre-test The researcher analyzed the

descriptive statistics to answer the research question “To what extent does dictation

contribute to improving English listening skills of grade-10 students at a local high school in Ha Nam?”

About the qualitative data, in the last week, questionnaires were directly given

to the students to ensure effective implementation The introduction was written and said in Vietnamese to lessen any misunderstanding and ambiguity All the participants were given twenty minutes to complete the questionnaire and explained for any information that they needed The researcher based on the data to answer the

question: “What are the student’s attitudes towards this listening technique?”

3.3 The participants

The participants in this study are 40 grade-10 students from class 10A2, whom the researcher teaches English in a local high school

It is convenient for the researcher to carry out research with the own students

in collecting data Moreover, they have the same listening competence which was assessed in the last academic year 40 students who are at the age of 16 in class 10A2 account for 11% of grade-10 students in this school (There are 365 students in total) There are 34 females and 16 males They all come from village and have the same family background The time they started learning English is the same It is when they were in grade 6

Every week, the students had three English lessons basing on “Tiếng Anh 10” and one extra lesson for other optional topics called “optional periods” The pre-test and the post-test were carried out in optional periods, five dictation practice tasks were carried out in the post-listening part of the listening lesson

3.4 Research questions

As mentioned in Chapter 1, in this minor thesis, the researcher would like to improve listening skill for grade-10 students at a local high school in Ha Nam province Therefore, the study is conducted in an attempt to find out the answers to the following questions:

1 To what extent does dictation contribute to improving English listening skills

of grade 10 students at a local high school?

2 What are the students’ attitudes towards this listening technique?

3.5 The data collection instruments

In this research, both qualitative and quantitative approaches were employed There were two research instruments: pre- and post - tests and questionnaires The former instrument measured students‟ listening ability The latter was used to see the students‟ attitudes toward the new approach Followings are the detailed description of the instruments used for data collection in this study

3.5.1 Pre- and Post-tests

According to Brown (2004: 3) a test is a method of measuring a person‟s ability; knowledge, or performance in a given domain The goal in giving the test was to measure the students‟ achievement in listening comprehension Tests were a pre-test and a post-test The pre-test was given to the students before being taught using dictation technique and the post-test was given to the students after being taught using dictation techinique It is aimed to know whether the students‟ listening ability improves or not, before and after taught using dictation techinique Both pre-test and post-test shared the same form, length, and level of difficulty All kinds of tasks in the tests were familiar to students, so that they would feel more confident while doing the test

Listening practice tests used in this minor thesis are T/F statements, listening cloze and multiple choice

a T/F items

True/False tasks require students to select the correct answer out of the two answers, which seems to be quite easy Additionally, the teacher can use it for

large classes However, there are only 2 answers, therefore, students may just guess the answer but not listen comprehensively

b Listening cloze

It is quite easy to design listening cloze Test designers can omit any words, proposition, adjectives, nouns, verbs or articles that they want Moreover, scoring is quite reliable and efficient However, for students, gap-filling exercise is one of the most difficult tasks in doing tests

c Multiple choice question

For this kind of question, it is a good chance for students to skim the ideas in the questions and the options But it is also problematic for the students who have difficulty in finding key words

The test comprised three main parts each of which has five questions:

Part 1: Multiple choice (0.5 x 5 = 2.5 points)

Part 2: True or False (0.5 x 5 = 2.5 points)

Part 3: Listening cloze (1 x 5 = 5 points)

For the first kind of test, it is conducted in Week 2 to evaluate student‟s listening competence before applying dictation to lessons The last test is taken to figure out the last result after the research (Week 17)

3.5.2 Questionnaires

A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondent Questionnaire is easier and less time consuming to administer the interview and the responses of various information can be gathered Related to this statement questionnaire will be given by the researcher before and after treatment to the students to get information from them about their activities, opinions, expectations, and attitudes and perceptions The researcher asked the students to fill the questionnaire by reading the questionnaire and put √ to one of the responses I chose

questionnaires because it is one of the most popular instruments which is easily prepared, conducted and analyzed with a huge number of subjects Therefore, the set of questionnaires (APPENDIX 4) was given to students in Week 18 to collect their opinions, attitudes, and their difficulties when learning dictation in English lessons, especially in listening lessons

3.6 Method of data analysis

To collect the data, the researcher used pre-test, post-test and questionnaire

in order to know the students‟ initial achievement, their achievement after intervention and their attitudes toward the new learning approach

3.6.1 Quantitative data

The quantitative data generated according to the results obtained from the students‟ pre-test and post-test The quantitative data were analyzed by computing the average scores or the mean scores of pre-test and post-test The formula is used

to analyze the data adapted from Djiwandono (2008):

∑X

M =

N Where: M: Mean score of the students‟ achievement of each English skill

N: The total number of the students

3.6.2 Qualitative data

In terms of the data from the questionnaires, they were analyzed statistically

by calculating the numbers of responses and the percentages respectively These statistics were arranged according to different categories and displayed in charts and table for better illustrations and explanations

3.7 Summary

In this chapter, the researcher has indicated the most basic background information of the thesis which are the location and time of the thesis, participants, research questions The other parts of this chapter helps to clarify other aspects of the study such as instruments, the procedures of data collection and analysis methods The researcher made an attempt to get a reliable and valid data for the study

In the next chapter, the result of tests and questionnairess would be analyzed

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The data from the study were taken from the scores of pre-test, post-test and the questionnaire They were then devided into three kinds of analysis, namely:

The analysis of listening practice tasks

The analysis of the listening tests

The analysis of questionnaires

Moreover, the discussion of the findings is enclosed to show the similarities and differences between the present study and the existing research in the field

4.1 Analysis of listening practice tasks

To enhance listening skills for students, the researcher applied dictation to English listening lessons for a period of 18 weeks in the first semester of a school year The researcher carried out one practice tasks in post-listening part for each