An Exploration into difficulties faced by the teachers in teaching listening to non - English major students at Hanoi University of Industry

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ĐẶNG THỊ HỒNG NHUNG AN EXPLORATION INTO DIFFICULTIES FACED BY THE TEACHERS IN TEACHING LISTENING TO NON –ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐẶNG THỊ HỒNG NHUNG

AN EXPLORATION INTO DIFFICULTIES

FACED BY THE TEACHERS IN TEACHING LISTENING

TO NON –ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

(Nghiên cứu những khó khăn của giáo viên trong việc dạy nghe cho hệ

không chuyên tại trường Đại học Công nghiệp Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: Methodology Code: 601410 Course: 16

Hanoi - 2010

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐẶNG THỊ HỒNG NHUNG

AN EXPLORATION INTO DIFFICULTIES

FACED BY THE TEACHERS IN TEACHING LISTENING

TO NON –ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

(Nghiên cứu những khó khăn của giáo viên trong việc dạy nghe cho hệ

không chuyên tại trường Đại học Công nghiệp Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: Methodology Code: 601410 Course: 16 Supervior: Phạm Minh Tâm, M.Ed

Hanoi - 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Certificate i

Acknowledgements ii

Table of contents iii

List of tables, charts and pie charts v

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for the study and research problem statement 2

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Methodology 2

1.4 Scope of the study 2

1.5 Significance of the study 2

1.6 Design of the study 3

CHATER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Definitions of Listening 4

2.2 Nature of Listening Comprehension 6

2.2.1 Listening Comprehension 6

2.2.2 Listening Process 7

2.2.3 The Features of Spoken English 9

2.3 Procedure of Listening Lessons 11

2.3.1 Pre – listening stage 11

2.3.2 While – listening stage 12

2.3.3 Post – listening stage 13

2.4 Roles of Teachers in Listening Lessons 13

2.5 An Overview of Common Difficulties in Teaching Listening 14

2.6 Previous Studies 14

2.7 Conclusive Remarks 15

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 16

3.1 Research Context 16

3.2 Research Questions 16

3.3 Research Approach 16

3.4 Participants 17

3.5 Data Collection Instrument 17

3.6 Data Collection Procedure 17

3.7 Data Analysis Procedure 18

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 19

4.1 Data Analysis and Results 19

4.1.1 The teachers’ opinions towards teaching listening comprehension 19

4.1.2 The teachers’ perception of factors making their teaching of listening difficult 19

4.1.3 The teachers’ perception towards the importance of the features of spoken English in learning listening comprehension 20

4.1.4 The teachers’ exploitation of the features of spoken English into teaching listening 21

4.1.5 The teachers’ activities in pre – listening stage 23

4.1.6 The teachers’ activities in while– listening stage 24

4.1.7 The teachers’ activities in post – listening stage 25

4.1.8 The teachers’ exploitation of teaching aids 26

4.1.9 The teachers’ exploitation of the listening materials 27

4.2 Findings and Discussion 28

4.2.1 The teachers’ lack of experience in teaching 28

4.2.2 The inefficiency in the teaching methodology 28

4.2.3 The teachers’ limitations in exploiting teaching materials and teaching aids 30

CHAPTER 5: SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMENDATIONS 31

5.1 Developing the listening materials 31

5.2 Encouraging the students’ internal factors 32

5.3 Combining intensive listening with extensive listening 32

5.4 Applying three stages in teaching listening effectively 33

5.5 Teaching listening strategies for students 34

5.6 Combining teaching listening comprehension with teaching other aspects of English 36

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION 36

6.1 Summary of the findings 36 6.2 Limitations and suggestions for further study 37

REFERENCES

APPENDIX

LIST OF TABLES AND PIE CHARTS

Pie chart 1: The teachers’ view of the importance of teaching listening comprehension

compared with other skills

14

List of tables

Table 1: The teachers’ perception of factors making their teaching difficult 14

Table 2: The teachers’ perception towards the importance of the features of spoken

English in learning listening comprehension

15

Table 3: The teachers’ exploitation of the features of spoken English into teaching

listening

16

Table 4: The teachers’ activities in Pre – listening stage 16

Table 5: The teachers’ activities in while listening stage 19 Table 6: The teachers’ activities in post – listening stage 20 Table 7: The teachers’ use of teaching aids in teaching listening comprehension 21 Table 8: The teachers’ exploitation of the course books 22

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the study and research problem statement

As an international language, English has been remarked with many changes, notably the changes in the movement towards the teaching of English Teaching and learning English in Vietnam is not excluded from the international trend as Vietnam is broadening and improving the relationship and co – operation with other countries in many fields of life As a result, English has become a compulsory subject at various schools and universities

Teaching a foreign language refers to teaching different aspects including: grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary and four skills which are: writing, reading, speaking and listening These different aspects are equally significant in mastering a language and they should be developed thoroughly

Along with other skills, listening has been of great importance as Brett (1997, p.39) stated that “listening is a key language skill, it has a vital role in the language acquisition process” The research by Morley (2001) concluded that average people can expect to listen “twice as much as we speak, four times more than what we read and five times more than we usually write” In addition, Michael Lewis (1993, p.32) emphasized that “Almost all the world‟s natural language output is spoken rather written” Therefore, there has also been an increase in the number of studies on the role of listening in communication and in language learning (Dunkel, 1991; Anderson and Lynch, 1988)

Listening provides input, consequently, improving listening ability helps to widen students‟ input Thus, teaching listening effectively is very necessary and important in order to support students‟ input and improve students‟ language acquisition However, listening seems to get less attention by a number of learners as they suppose that listening

is the most difficult skill among four skills At Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI), listening is a big challenge for many first year students who rarely have chance to practice listening at high schools The students have the habit of ignoring listening which makes the teaching of listening become a challenge for the teachers Moreover, the ineffectiveness in teaching listening is the key reason that creates troubles for the teachers in their work

1.2 Aims of the Study

The study is intended to examine the teachers‟ difficulties in teaching listening comprehension to the first students The study will find the answers to the following questions:

1 What are the difficulties as perceived by the teachers in teaching

listening at Hanoi University of Industry?

2 What are the possible suggestions and recommendations to overcome the difficulties perceived by the teachers in teaching listening comprehension?

1.3 Methodology

The study was conducted in accordance with the survey approach That is because the study focused on the teachers‟ attitude at HaUI towards the teaching of listening comprehension to find out their difficulties The data was collected from the survey questionnaire done on 30 full time teachers of English at HaUI

1.4 Scope of the study

This minor thesis was conducted in Hanoi University of Industry in order to investigate the difficulties as perceived by the teachers in teaching listening comprehension The study focused on surveying the methods that the teachers at HaUI use

to teaching listening comprehension which has created troubles for themselves The thesis also offered some suggestions and recommendations to overcome the problems

1.5 Significance of the study

This study contributed to list out the difficulties faced by the teachers at Hanoi University of Industry in teaching listening comprehension More importantly, the results

of the research are believed to serve the purpose of improving the teaching of listening to the first year students at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI)

1.6 Design of the study

The study contains of six chapters

Chapter 1: presents the background, the significance, the aims and scope of the study Chapter 2: presents the theoretical background relevant to the study

Chapter 3: describes the setting of the study which is the current situation of teaching

and learning listening comprehension at Hanoi, University of Industry

Chapter 4: deals with analyzing the data collected

Chapter 5: provides the findings of the study and recommends suggestions for

improving the teaching of listening comprehension at HaUI Chapter 6: gives the summary of the thesis and suggestions for further study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

of the listeners is no – longer passive but active”

Listening is quite different from hearing In Cambridge Advanced Learners‟ Dictionary, listening is defined as “to give attention to someone or something in order to hear them” while hearing is defined as “the ability to hear” In other words, “listening requires the active attention – and an active intention – on the part of the hearer” (Helgesen, 2003, p 4)

In teaching listening, it is necessary to mention about listening skills and listening strategies Rost (1991) emphasized the skills necessary for listening comprehension which are perception skill (for example: discriminating between sounds or recognizing words…), analysis skill (such as identifying grammatical grouping of words) and synthesis skill (for instance: connecting linguistic cues like intonation and stress and non – linguistic cues like gestures and relevant objects to construct the meaning of spoken texts In addition, Rost (1991) mentioned about using background knowledge and context to predict and understand spoken texts These above factors make up a person‟s listening ability Thus, in order to improve learners‟ listening skill, teachers should encourage their students to use listening strategies which help them become better listeners “Strategies are effort to compensate for uncertainties in understanding, and could include inferences, realizing where misunderstandings have occurred, and asking for clarification.” (Mary Underwood,

1989, p 9) According to Michael Berman (2003, p 2), there are key strategies improving listening ability which are: predicting, identifying main ideas, note taking, processing details, guessing vocabulary from context The strategies should not be separated from the content teaching so that learners can see the applications of them to the development of listening ability

2.2 Nature of listening comprehension

“comprehension is affected by a wide range of variables, and that potentially any characteristic of the speaker, the situation or the listener can affect the comprehension of the message” (Gary Buck, 2001, p.31)

There do exist controversies on the nature of listening comprehension According to Anderson and Lynch (1988), there are two influential views: traditional view and alternative view Traditional view regarded the listener as a tape-recorder and the listener took in and stored aural messages in much the same way as a tape-recorder Anderson and Lynch criticized this view as inappropriate and inadequate This notion is not a tenable one Alternative view considered the listener as an active model builder This kind of listener could combine the new information with his previous knowledge and experience to reach full comprehension of what had been heard Anderson and Lynch agreed with this view It emphasized the active interpretation and integration of incoming information with prior knowledge and experience

Clark and Clark (1977, pp 43-44) gave both a narrow and broad definition of listening comprehension “Comprehension has two common senses In its narrow sense it denotes the mental processes by which listeners take in the sounds uttered by a speaker and use them to construct an interpretation of what they think the speaker intended to convey Comprehension in its broader sense, however, rarely ends here, for listeners normally put the interpretations they have built to work”

Listening comprehension process consists of three steps: receiving, attending and understanding in sequence The understanding step may be followed by responding and remembering as listeners may respond immediately or remember the message to respond at

a later time (Wolvin and Coakly, 1985) Listening is not a single skill It includes many different components and is a complex process involving an interaction between listeners, speakers and spoken texts Michael Rost (1991) divided listening into two elements: the component skills and what a listener does What a listener does is a list of activities that listeners take to understand messages The listeners must take decisions of things such as the kind of situation, important words or units of meaning…

Listening comprehension is of great importance in foreign language learning

“Listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides input for the learners Without understanding input at the right level, any learner simply can‟t begin” (Rost, 1991, p.141) In order to take part in communication activities, it is clear that ones must have the ability to absorb the information from speakers through listening Since listening is important to understand spoken message, the teaching of listening cannot be neglected from the teaching of English

to complete texts In other words, the listeners make use of “his knowledge of words, syntax, and grammar to work on form” (Rubin, 1994, p.20)

2.2.2.2 Top – down processing

Top down process is the process in which listeners employ background knowledge or textual schema to make sense of what they hear The knowledge may be the general knowledge based on life experience and previous learning, or the knowledge of language and content used in a particular situation

In fact, the two processes can not be separated during listening comprehension In

other words, listening comprehension is not either top-down or bottom-up processing, but

an interactive process during which listeners use both prior knowledge and linguistic

knowledge in understanding

Anderson and Lynch (1988, p.13) illustrated the relationship between top down and

bottom up processing in comprehension in the below figure

Figure 1: Information sources in comprehension

(Anderson and Lynch, 1988, p.13)

Background knowledge schematic knowledge →→→ C

2.2.2.3 Intensive listening and extensive listening

Rixon (1986) had a different way of classifying listening He divided listening into

two types: intensive and extensive listening

Intensive listening is listening for detailed information, for example: listening to the

announcement or listening to the weather forecast Intensive listening requires listeners to

understand the meaning of each discourse and, ultimately, to understand every sentence

and word Generally, intensive listening requires listeners to listen to a text several times,

or divide the text into paragraphs and sentences to understand each one The goal is for

students to understand every sentence

Extensive listening, on the other hand, is listening to natural language for general ideas, not for particular details Extensive listening does not require students to understand every sentence, and every word, instead, students are encouraged to grasp the general meaning of the passage The listening passage can be long (listening to stories) or short (listening to jokes, poems) The key point of listening is to understand the content The purpose of intensive listening is to build basic listening skills, while extensive listening is

to strengthen and enlarge effectiveness of intensive listening in order to improve overall listening ability

2.2.3 The features of spoken English

It can be recognized that spoken English has different features from written English Being taught to recognize and make use of the features of spoken English in learning listening is very useful for learners to improve their listening ability According to Mary Underwood (1989), the differences happen on sound, stress and intonation, the organization of speech, syntax and vocabulary, pauses and fillers, and formal and informal language

2.2.3.1 The sounds

In English, there are sounds which are unknown or unusual for foreign learners, as a result they may fail to catch such sounds or to distinguish from similar sounds In other cases, listeners may find that sounds are distorted, elided or lost altogether It is also a frequent fact that listeners with only little listening experience fail to connect the sounds they hear with words they have seen and recognized in written form, which makes them confused and discouraged when listening It will be of much help for the students to learn this knowledge in continuous speech so that they can associate what they hear with the language they already know in written form (Mary Underwood, 1989, p 9)

2.2.3.2 The stress and intonation

Stress is widely used in spoken English, which aims to carry the main information speakers wish to convey and emphasize Obviously, words in spoken continuous speech are often not given the same stress as they receive when they are said in isolation Students need to be explained and shown stressed words as well as unstressed words which helps them avoid the feeling that comprehension is impossible as they fail to hear all words clearly (Mary Underwood, 1989, p 10)

2.2.3.3 The organization of speech

Speaking is a creative process, in which speakers are almost in the position of formulating what they are saying Therefore, there is no certain way of knowing how a speaker‟s speech will be organized However, there are some “markers” which listeners can use to convey what speakers are saying For example, to show agreement, speakers often use phrases like: “Yes, it is”, “Mm” … or to show disagreement, speakers may use

“Yes, but…” or “Well, er…” In addition, certain expressions are very useful for conveying information or keeping up with spoken texts For instance, when there are events or examples in a time sequence, time words such as: “first, second, third, next, last…” are usually used In other case, when speakers make comparisons or contrasts, they often use “but, however, in contrast…” When students develop the skill of recognizing those “markers”, they will find it easier to follow “the flow of information” (Mary Underwood, 1989, p 11)

2.2.3.4 The syntax and vocabulary of speech

In Teaching the Spoken Language, Brown and Yule identify a number of differences

between spoken discourse and written discourse (as cited in Teaching Listening, Mary Underwood, 1989, p 12)

a Most speakers of English produce spoken language which is simpler than written language in terms of syntax In stead of using subordinate clauses as in written form, speakers tend to use separate sentences When subordinate clauses are used, they are generally linked by simple conjunctions such as: “and, but, then” more than relative words

b Speakers often use incomplete sentences

c The vocabulary of spoken discourse is usually “much less specific” than that in written discourse For instance, speakers usually use “it / somebody/ they/ you” to refer to people in general, which can be understood by relating them to the immediate context in which they are used

d Interactive expressions in spoken language like: “Well / Oh, Uhuh”

e Information is “packed very much densely” in spoken language than in written discourse

It can be very helpful for students to know such characteristics of spoken language Being aware of such information, they can apply them into their listening to get better result (Mary Underwood, 1989, p 12)

2.2.3.5 Pauses and fillers

Pauses occur in speech to give listeners time to think about what has been just said and to relate it to what has gone before Long gaps in speech are often filled with sounds/ expressions such as “Er…/and er….” to avoid silences Being explained these facts helps students recognize them and know that they are nor part of the essential message (Mary Underwood, 1989, p 13)

2.2.3.6 Formal and informal language

There is often a distinction between the language spoken in “formal” and “informal” situations Many language learners have limited experience of English language in informal situation as in their lessons; they tend to use formal language Consequently, they may have difficulties in understanding informal spoken discourse (Mary Underwood,

1989, p 14)

2.3 Procedure of listening lessons

Along with teaching and explaining the features of spoken language to the learners, designing listening lessons contributes greatly to the success of teaching listening In order

to help learners get most from a listening lesson, a lesson plan of listening is usually divided into three stages: things learners do before listening, things learners during listening, things learners after listening In other words, procedure of a listening lesson consists of three stages: pre – listening, while – listening and post listening

2.3.1 Pre – listening stage

Pre – listening stage is the stage that prepares students for listening tasks This stage asks students to get to think about the topic they are going to listen In other words, this stage helps students “focus their minds on the topics” by narrowing down the things that the students expect to hear and activating relevant knowledge and already known language (Mary Underwood, 1989, p.31)

When planning lessons, time must be allocated for pre – listening activities and the activities should not be rushed Pre – listening work can be done in a variety ways Some of the activities are clearly preparation for listening, while the others might be the setting – up

of the while – listening activity However, all different activities in pre listening stage provide students‟ opportunities to gain some knowledge that will help them to follow the listening text In addition, in this pre – listening stage, students are likely to use the words which they will shortly hear in the text This will assist them when they come to match

what they hear with their store of knowledge Moreover, students can increase the sense of realism thanks to being provided information about when, where, by whom and to whom the words were spoken And obviously, the fact that all the students understand what they have to do before you start to play the listening text is of much importance to the students‟ success in listening

Pre – listening work can consist of a whole range of activities, including:

- the teacher giving background

- the students reading something relevant

- the students looking at pictures

- discussion of the topic/ situation

- a question and answer session

- written exercise

- following the instructions for the while – listening activity

- consideration of how the while – listening activity will be done

(Mary Underwood, 1989, p 31)

2.3.2 While – listening stage

While – listening stage is the stage in which students are asked to do tasks during the

time that they are listening to the texts While- listening stage helps students listen better, more accurately through a list of designed comprehension tasks As Rixon (1986) pointed out that the purposes of while listening stage is to challenge and guide students to handle the information and the message from the listening text However, to reach that goal, while – listening activities should be interesting, so that students feel they want to listen and carry out the activities Moreover, they should be things which most people can do They must vary at different levels and in different cases Some while – listening activities are successful with groups of varying levels of ability Exercises which require students to check, tick, draw, circle… make good while listening activities and should not be rejected because of their simple structure

In addition, the topics and the content of the listening texts plus the students‟ interest decide the success of while – listening activities Therefore, choosing appropriate materials for while – listening stage is of great importance to the improvement of learners

Mary Underwood (1989, pp 49 -50) recommended various while – listening activities:

- marking / checking items in pictures

- multiple – choice questions

- putting pictures in order

- text - completion

- true / false exercise

- making models/ arranging items in patterns

- completing grids

2.3.3 Post – listening stage

Post – listening stage is the stage in which all the work related to a particular

listening text are done after listening is completed Some post listening activities are extensions of the work done at the pre – listening and while – listening stage and some relate only loosely to the listening itself (Mary Underwood, 1989, p 74)

Some common forms of post – listening activities are the answering of multiple choice questions or open questions based on the spoken text Post – listening activities aim

at checking whether the students have understood what they need to understand and whether they have completed whatever while – listening task has been set successfully There is a number of ways to reach this purpose: by the teacher giving the answers orally,

by pairs checking each other‟s answers, by the teacher showing the answers on the blackboard, by group discussion …Another purpose of post – listening stage is to reflect

on why some students have failed to understand or missed part of the message At this stage, discussions are often employed, and then the teachers have opportunities to draw attention to specific parts of the listening text and focus on the forms, functions, lexis, stress and intonation which have caused problems for the listeners This stage also aims at expanding the topics and the language of the listening texts This can help students gain some certain knowledge on the topics they have listened to, which widen their background and languages abilities for further Here is the list of post listening activities offered by Mary Underwood (1989, pp 82-83)

- role – play

- summarizing

- establishing the mood/ attitude/ behavior of the speaker

- written work

- form/ chart completion

- matching with a reading text

2.4 Roles of teachers in listening lessons

English listening is very helpful to all students to deepen or to improve their language skill To have effective listening lessons, the role of teachers is very crucial Mary Underwood (1989, pp 21- 22) supposed that in listening classes, a teacher needs to be imaginative and creative in developing their teaching methods to develop good atmosphere and make English lessons more exiting In this way, the listening teacher has to be able to create interesting materials for the students in the process of teaching and they have to know how to apply them The influence of the materials and the methods of the English teacher in teaching listening is really vital, because students will be more interested in their study The competence of the teacher in teaching listening will also influence the success

of students

Teacher should have a set of exercises, tasks or other activities for the students in their classes It is really beneficial and positive experience to try various classroom activities because successful materials of the subject matter depend on the use of teaching method

2.5 An overview of common difficulties in teaching listening comprehension

As mentioned above, to master a language, it is necessary for learners to develop all aspects of a language equally and it is necessary for teachers to teach all aspects effectively However, the teaching of listening is not really as effective and successful as the teaching of other parts In her research in Da Nang University, Ton Nu Xuan Huong (2007) found out that there are three main factors leading to this fact Firstly, the teaching

of listening can be a hard work due to learner element Learners with their limitations in terms of language ability and listening experience may make the teaching of listening less successful Secondly, lacking of teaching facilities and equipments, to some extent, prevents the teaching of listening from reaching the best results Thirdly, and most importantly, it is the inefficiency in teaching methodology when teachers conduct their lessons should be responsible The effectiveness of listening lessons depends greatly on the ways teachers plan their teaching in class This thesis focused on investigating the teachers‟ methodology and activities in listening classes to find out the problems that the teachers have to face when teaching listening comprehension

2.6 Previous studies

There have been other researchers who studied about teaching listening over the world and in Vietnam

Over the world, some researchers have conducted their studies on English teaching in general and teaching listening in particular For instance:

Ekasari, F (2002) carried her paper “English Teaching Learning Process using Communicative Approach in SD Negeri Tegalrejo 1” She described the strength and weakness using communicative approach that makes the students active in classroom activities

Mawardani, A (2000) carried out his research “The Implementation of Teaching listening At the Third Year Student of SMU Negeri 1 Surakarta” He described teaching learning process in the classroom especially about the implementation of teaching listening

to the third year student of SMU Negeri 1 Surakarta

Listening difficulties perceived by learners and teachers have attracted some investigators at the Post Graduate Department of Vietnam National University, College of Foreign Languages

Phung, Thi Hoai Thu (2008), carried out the study: “Listening difficulties perceived by teachers and students in using the new English Textbook for grade 10 at Que

Vo II upper secondary school in Bac Ninh.”

Nguyen, Thi Kim Ngan (2008) carried out the study: “Difficulties in teaching listening comprehension in the coursebook “Head for business” to 2nd year students at Economics Department, HaNoi Open University and some solutions”

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the current situation of teaching and learning listening comprehension

of non – major English students is described as the setting for the study The data gathered from the questionnaire are discussed in terms of their purposes and how they are exploited

in the study

3.1 Research context

The study was conducted at Hanoi University of Industry, which is one of the universities in the north of Vietnam The university mainly has been training workers and engineers of technical majors who need English for their jobs

The teaching of English at HaUI is divided into two phases In the first phase (the first and second semester), students study general English with four skills: writing, listening, reading and speaking One teacher is responsible for teaching English during the whole semester for one class In the second phase (the third semester), students study English for specific purposes matching with their majors

The students have two lessons every week with three periods for each lesson (each period

is 45 minutes long)

3.2 Research questions

The study has been conducted to answer the two research questions:

1 What are the difficulties as perceived by the teachers in teaching listening at Hanoi University of Industry?

2 What are the possible suggestions and recommendations to overcome the difficulties perceived by the teachers in teaching listening comprehension?

3.3 Research approach

The study was conducted in accordance with the survey approach That is because the study focused on the attitude of the teachers at HaUI towards the teaching of listening comprehension to find out their difficulties The data was collected from the survey questionnaire done on 30 full time teachers of English at HaUI

3.4 Participants

The English teaching staff at HaUI consists of 115 teachers whose age ranges from

23 to 40 Most of them are female and hold B.A degrees or M.A degrees from English

Department in different universities of foreign languages, mainly from Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies

The study employed 30 teachers (11 teachers less than 24 years old, 16 teachers aged from 24 to 35, 3 teachers over 35 years old ) to complete the survey for teachers in terms of teaching listening comprehension All the teachers surveyed teach the same course book: New Headway Elementary for the first year students

3.5 Data Collection Instrument

The questionnaire with 10 questions was used as the instrument for collecting data for this study In this study, the questionnaire was employed as the instrument for collecting data as it enabled the participants to do the survey easily by choosing suitable options for multiple choice questions and give written answers for an open – questions

At the beginning of the questionnaire, the purpose of the study was stated

The questionnaire for the teachers consists of 3 questions about personal information,

10 multiple choice questions and 1 open – ended question

Personal information of the teachers was used to inform the researchers of the teachers‟ profile Question 1 aimed at gathering information about the teachers‟ attitude towards teaching listening Question 2 to question 6 was used to investigate the ways the teachers carry out their lessons Question 7 to question 9 was used to find out the application of teaching aids and teaching materials into teaching listening Question 10 was used to collect the suggestions from the teachers to teach listening comprehension more effectively

3.6 Data Collection Procedure

The questionnaire was administered to 30 teachers At the end of the first - year, the teachers were given the questionnaire to complete all the questions The teachers were asked to do the survey when they had break and they completed the survey at the teachers‟ room All the survey papers were collected by the researcher right after the teachers had answers to all the questions

3.7 Data Analysis Procedure

The answers for the questions in the questionnaire were used to analyze Descriptive statistics were mainly employed to examine the collected data In addition, raw data was transformed and illustrated in pie charts and tables which made the data easy to understand and compare

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This part of the thesis presents and discusses the findings that arise from the specific questions in order to answer the research questions

4.1 Data analysis and results

4.1.1 The teachers’ opinions towards teaching listening comprehension

The first question in the questionnaire aims at discovering the teachers‟ judgment on the importance of teaching listening comprehension in comparison with other skills (speaking, reading and writing)

Pie chart 1: The teachers’ view of the importance of teaching listening comprehension

compared with other skills

100%

More important Equally important Less important Don't know

All the teachers surveyed agree that teaching listening comprehension of the same importance as teaching other skills This reflects the idea that the teachers understand the necessity of teaching their students to develop four skills equally

4.1.2 The teachers’ perception of factors making their teaching of listening difficult

From the teachers‟ perception, there are various reasons influencing their work in teaching listening comprehension

Table 1: The teachers’ perception of factors making their teaching difficult

Big class size 13.3 % Lack of necessary facilities 10%

experience in teaching listening should be counted as one reason

4.1.3 The teachers’ perception towards the importance of the features of spoken English in learning listening comprehension

Table 2: The teachers’ perception towards the importance of the features of spoken

English in learning listening comprehension

1.Very important 2 Important 3 Not very important 4 Not important

1 2 3 4 Being aware of phenomenon of sound

(assimilation, elision…)

36.6% 50% 13.4% Being aware of stress and intonation 73.3% 26.7%

Being aware of “markers” (e.g: “Er/ Erm/ Well…”

and their meaning

30% 56.6% 13.4%

Being aware of pauses and “fillers” (for example:

“Er…/ and er….”) during long silences and their

The above table shows that the majority of teachers highly appreciate the importance

of being aware of stress and intonation in learning listening comprehension (73.3% chose

“very important” and 26.7 % chose “important”) The result is lower for other features of spoken English According to 36.6% of the respondents, being aware of phenomenon of sound such as assimilation, elision … plays an important role in developing listening 50 % has the idea that knowing phenomenon of sound is not very important and the rest (13.4%)

do not think that being aware of phenomenon of sound has positive effect on learning listening comprehension A great number of teachers also refuse to accept the importance

of recognizing “markers”, pauses and fillers in the development of listening Only 30% of the teachers judge that “markers” and 26.6% consider pauses and fillers important The rest share the idea that they are not very important or not important at all The situation is quite different for knowing formal and informal language 20% think that having the knowledge

of formal and informal language is very important towards learning listening In addition, 63.3% believe that this feature is important while 16.7% keep the idea that it is not very important

4.1.4 The teachers’ exploitation of the features of spoken English into teaching listening

Here is the result of the teachers‟ frequency in exploiting the features of spoken English to teach listening

Table 3: The teachers’ exploitation of the features of spoken English into teaching

listening

1 Always 2 Often 3.Sometimes 4 Rarely 5 Never