Using note-taking techniques to improve 9th grade students’ listening skill at Sao Vang secondary school . M.A. Thesis Linguistics: 60 14 01 11

In order to achieve the aim, the writer focuses on:  finding out the benefits of applying note-taking techniques in listening lessons for grade 9th students;  identifying the possible

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG

USING NOTE-TAKING TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE 9TH GRADE STUDENTS’ LISTENING SKILL AT SAO VANG SECONDARY

SCHOOL

Sử dụng các kỹ thuật tốc ký để phát triển kỹ năng nghe cho học sinh

khối 9 trường THCS Sao Vàng

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.140.111

Hanoi - 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG

USING NOTE-TAKING TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE 9TH GRADE STUDENTS’ LISTENING SKILL AT SAO VANG SECONDARY

SCHOOL

Sử dụng các kỹ thuật tốc ký để phát triển kỹ năng nghe cho học sinh

khối 9 trường THCS Sao Vàng

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field : English Teaching Methodology

Code : 60.140.111 Supervisor: Dr Mai Thị Loan

Hanoi - 2014

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DECLARATION

I, Nguyen Thi Phuong, certify that this thesis is the result of my own study and the substance of this research has not been submitted for degree to any other university or institution

Hanoi, November 2014

Student

Nguyen Thi Phuong

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, I would like to send my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Dr Mai Thi Loan, for her valuable guidance, helpful advice, recommendation, and encouragement during the time I tried to complete this minor thesis Without her supervision, this work would never have been possible

My deepest thanks also go to my colleagues at Sao Vang secondary school who are willing to help me during three months of conducting my research

I would like to thank all the teachers of Post-Graduate Department for their valuable lectures, whose knowledge is the foundation for my thesis Finally, I would like to express my biggest love and thanks to my family for their unconditional contributions during the time I conducted my research It was my parents and my husband who gave me the will to complete this challenging work

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL English as Foreign Language

ULIS University of Languages and International Studies VNU Vietnam National University

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Students’ opinions toward effectiveness of the application of

note-taking techniques 21 Figure 2: Students’ perceptions of the benefits of note-taking skills 22 Figure 3: Students’ perceptions toward difficulties in applying note-taking

techniques in learning listening 23 Figure 4: Students’ evaluation on teacher’s strategies of teaching listening

using note- taking techniques 24 Figure 5: Students’ preference of note-taking techniques 25 Figure 6: Students’ opinions on activities to improve their note-taking skill in listening lessons 26 Figure 7: Students’ expectations about teacher’s instructions to take notes 27

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF FIGURES v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aim and objectives of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Methodology of the study 2

6 Significance of the study 3

7 Design of the study 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Listening theory 5

1 1.1 Definitions of listening 5

1.1.2 Listening classification 6

1.1.3 Listening comprehension process 7

1.1.4 Language learners’ difficulties in listening comprehension 9

1 2 Note-taking techniques 10

1.2.1 Definitions of note-taking 10

1.2.2 Techniques of note-taking 11

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1.3 Review of related studies 12

1.4 Summary 14

CHAPTER 2: Methodology 16

2.1 The setting of the study 16

2.1.1 The school 16

2.1.2 Curriculum and textbook 16

2.2 Research design 17

2.2.1 Participants 17

2.2.1.1 Students 17

2.2.1.2 Teachers 17

2 2.2 Restatements of research questions 18

2.2.3 Data collection 18

2.2.3.1 Instruments 18

2.2.3.1.1 Questionnaire for students 18

2.2.3.1.2 Interview for teachers 19

2.2.3.2 Data collection and analysis procedure 19

2.3 Summary 19

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 21

3.1 Data analysis 3.1.1 Questionnaire for students 21

3.1.1.1 Aims 21

3.1.1.2 Participants 21

3.1.1.3 Results 21

3.1.1.3.1 Students’ opinions toward the effectiveness of the application of note-taking techniques 21

3.1.1.3.2 Students’ perceptions of the benefits of note-taking techniques 22

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3.1.1.3.3 Possible difficulties in applying note-taking techniques inlistening

lessons 23

3.1.1.3.4 Students’ evaluation on teacher’s strategies of teaching listening using note-taking techniques 24

3.1.1.3.5 Students’ preference of note-taking techniques 25

3.1.1.3.6 Students’ opinions on activities to improve their note-taking in listening lessons 26

3.1.1.3.7 Students’ expectations about teacher’s instruction to take notes 27

3.1.2 Interview for teachers 28

3.1.2.1 Aims 28

3.1.2.2 Participants 29

3.1.2.3 Results 29

3.1.2.3 1 The benefits of note-taking techniques in teaching listening 29

3.1.2.3.2 Teacher’ perceptions toward the possible difficulties 29

3.1.2.3.3 Strategies to improve students’ listening competence through note-taking techniques 30

3.2 Findings 31

3.3 Summary 34

Part III Conclusion 35

1 Recapitulation 35

2 Implications 36

3 Limitation of the research 37

4 Suggestion for further studies 38

REFERENCES 39

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APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1: Questionnaire for students (Vietnamese version) I APPENDIX 2: Questionnaire for students (English version) IV APPENDIX 3: Interview for teachers (Vietnamese version) VII APPENDIX 4: Interview for teachers (English version) V APPENDIX 5: Transcript of the interview APPENDIX 5: Samples of notes

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PART I INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Listening is an important part as well as an essential means of language acquisition In the mid twentieth century, Bloomfield (1942: 2) ever declares that:

“One learns to understand and speak a language primarily by hearing and imitating native-speakers” Although this saying a little looks down on the written language,

it is true to assume the indispensable role of listening skills in learning English Lundsteen (1979: 3) also affirms that listening is the first language skill to appear

In chronologic order, children listen before they speak, speak before they read, and read before they write From this point of view, the importance of teaching listening can well be seen and it is now regarded the first and foremost skill to be acquired in learning a new language

For being a complex phenomenon, teaching listening has caught the attention

of many researchers (Brown (2007), Hayati and Mohmedi (2009), Hinkel (2006), Vandergrift (2007)) and teachers in pursuit of finding ways for classroom instruction, especially in learning strategies exploiting listening Referring to language learning strategies, Chamot (2005: 21) believes that learning strategies are procedures that facilitate learning and are conscious and goal-driven Less successful students can be taught strategies to help them become better language learners Among various learning strategies, note-taking is a cognitive strategy which students use to write down key words and concepts in abbreviated verbal, graphic or numeral forms to assist performance of language tasks (Chamot (1989: 16)) Spires and Stone (1989: 39) hold one opinion that note-taking is an important skill that helps learners rehearse the lecture content and can serve as a memory device that can help them to remember parts of the contents that were not included

in the notes themselves Note-taking is also the master key to manage many kinds of English listening tasks

All the aforementioned conditions drive the author to carry out the research

“Using note-taking techniques to improve 9th grade students’ listening skill at Sao

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Vang secondary school” Hopefully, this study will make a small contribution to improving listening skills for grade 9th students at Sao Vang secondary school

2 Aim and objectives of the study

The aim of this study is to explore the exploitation of using note-taking techniques to enhance students’ listening skill In order to achieve the aim, the writer focuses on:

 finding out the benefits of applying note-taking techniques in listening lessons for grade 9th students;

 identifying the possible difficulties encountered by students at Sao Vang secondary school in learning listening with the use of note-taking techniques;

 proposing strategies to teach listening skill using note-taking techniques

3 Research questions

In order to achieve the aim, the study was carried out to address the following research questions:

1 What are the benefits of applying note-taking techniques in listening lessons?

2 What are the difficulties encountered by the students at Sao Vang secondary school in learning listening with the use of note-taking techniques?

3 What should teachers do to improve students’ English listening skill with the use of note-taking techniques?

4 Scope of the study

Acquiring listening skill is a vast issue in language learning However, due to the limit of time, experiences and knowledge, this study touches upon only some note-taking techniques which are used in teaching listening skill and cannot cover all the listening techniques in teaching and learning

5 Methodology of the study

In order to achieve the aim of the study, the study was carried out by some steps as follows:

Firstly, a survey questionnaire was delivered to students to:

Secondly, personal interviews with two teachers were conducted in order to:

 survey teachers’ perception on applying note-taking techniques in teaching listening;

 find out teacher’s difficulties in applying note-taking techniques in teaching listening;

 study teachers’ strategies in teaching listening skill with the use of note-taking techniques

After the data were collected, they were categorized and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively to obtain the realistic results

To end with, based on analysis of survey results and references, some pedagogical implications and suggestions in order to improve teaching and learning English listening using note-taking techniques will be proposed

6 Significance of the study

This study points out the benefits and difficulties in applying note-taking

in listening lessons More importantly, it offers some suggestions for teachers to enhance students’ English listening competence through the use of note-taking techniques Hopefully, the findings and recommendations of this study will be of some help to the improvement of the teaching and learning listening skill at Sao Vang secondary school

7 Design of the study

This paper is organized into three main parts as follows:

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Part I: Introduction: This part presents the rationale of the study, aims and objectives of the study, research questions, scope of the study, methodology of the study, significance of the study and design of the study

Part II: Development: This part is divided into three chapters Chapter 1 serves as the theoretical background for the study, presenting the concepts and relevant theories Chapter 2 deals with the methodology of the study Chapter 3 presents the findings and analysis of the data collected

Part III: Conclusion: This last part of the study recaps the major findings of the study and deals with some suggestions for improving students’ listening competence with the use of note-taking techniques In addition, it also poses several directions for future research

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PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter will provide the theoretical background for the study Firstly, the definition of listening, listening classification, the listening comprehension process and language learners’ difficulties in listening comprehension were given Then, the definition of note-taking, methods of note-taking and its benefits were provided in the following part Finally, some related studies are reviewed as the background for the research

1.1 Listening theory

1.1.1 Definitions of listening

Listening plays a crucial role in our daily life in general and in acquiring a language in particular For being an ambiguous term, there have been a variety of definitions of listening in broad meaning and those of listening comprehension in specific angle

In the first place, listening is the process by which spoken language is converted to meaning in the mind (Lundsteen (1971: 9)) Underwood (1989: 1) shares the same view when she defines that listening is an activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from something we hear She emphasizes the importance of working out what speakers mean when they use particular words in special ways on particular occasions, not simply to understand the words themselves Additionally, Yagang (1993: 16), also affirms that listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying This involves understanding a speaker's accent orpronunciation, his grammar and his vocabulary, and grasping his meaning An able listeneris capable of doing these four things simultaneously

Looking closer to the term listening comprehension, Richards and Schmidt (2002: 313) point out that listening comprehension is the process of understanding speech in a first or second language The study of listening comprehension in second language learning focuses on the role of individual linguistic units (e.g

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phonemes, words, grammatical structures) as well as the role of listener's expectations, the situation and context, background knowledge and topic Littlewood (1981: 66) shares this view when saying that listening requires active involvement from listeners The nature of listening comprehension is that the listeners should be encouraged to be engaged in an active process of listening for meaning, using not only the linguistic cues but non linguistic knowledge as well Listening comprehension can be facilitated when the listeners can understand what the native speakers say at a normal speed in natural situations

Chastain (1976: 23) suggests that to understand what native speakers say, the listeners do not need to pay attention to every word and all of the details in the text but they should focus on the content of the message in a natural situation They should try to predict the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context of the spoken text To do so, they should make the best use of their background knowledge and relate their prior knowledge to the new information in the spoken text

Synthesizing the definitions above, the researcher concludes that listening is not a passive but active process of constructing a message from a stream of sound with what the listener knows of the phonological, semantic and syntactic potentialities of the language, of receiving, attending and understanding auditory messages

1.1.2 Listening classification

There are many different kinds of listening or different situations in which

we use listening Each situation is different and each may require a different kind of listening

According to Helgesenand Brown(2007: 5), listening can be divided into reciprocal listening and non-reciprocal listening Reciprocal listening happens when both listener and speaker are in the interaction alternately listening and speaking Listeners have chances to ask for clarification, repetition, or slower speech from a conversation partner Non-reciprocal listening is the kind of listening where the

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listener listens passively to a monologue or speech Some non-interactive listening situations are listening to the radio, film, etc People have no opportunity to ask for clarification, slower speech or repetition

According to Anderson (1995: 37), there are two ways in which people listen

in real-life which are casual and focused listening Casual listening refers to the listening with no purpose and often without much concentration Focused listening,

on the other hand, refers to listening with particular purpose to get information the hearer needs In this case, he/she often listens attentively, but not to everything with equal concentration

Harmer (2007: 273) divided listening into intensive listening and extensive listening Extensive listening refers to listening which students often do away from the classroom, for pleasure or some other reasons Students can use tapes and CDs to listen to their course book dialogues again after they have studied them in class Intensive listening is listening in order to study the way in which English is spoken It usually takes place in classrooms or language laboratories, and typically occurs when teachers are present to guide students through any listening difficulties, and point them to areas of interest

All in all, there are many different types of listening which can be used in various situations, each situation is different and each may require a different kind

of listening

1.1.3 Listening comprehension process

Listening comprehension is regarded theoretically as a complex and active skill involving many processes There two main points of views on listening comprehension process, and each view represents a different perspective

From the cognitive perspective, Anderson (1985: 37) elaborates that comprehension consists of perception, parsing and utilization Perceptual processing is the encoding of the acoustic or written message In listening, this covers chunking phonemes from the continuous speech stream During this stage, an individual pays close attention to input and the sounds are stored in

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echoic memory While the input is still in echoic memory, some initial analysis

of the language code may start, and encoding processes may transform some of the input into meaningful representations In the parsing listening comprehension process, words are converted into a mental representation of the combined meaning of these words The basic unit of listening comprehension is a proposition (Anderson (1985: 38)) Complex propositions may be differentiated into simpler propositions that can be regrouped by the listener to produce new sentences whose basic meaning does not alter Perception, parsing and utilization stand for different levels of processing Of the three levels of processing, perception is the lowest All three phases are recursive and connected closely, and can occur simultaneously during a single listening event

Gilakjani and Ahmadi (2011: 980, 981) see that listening process falls into three types The first one is bottom-up processing This process is activated by the new incoming data It acknowledges that listening is a process of decoding the sounds, from the smallest meaningful units (phonemes) to complete texts It

is closely associated with the listener‘s linguistic knowledge The second one is top-down processing In this process, background knowledge is employed in comprehending meaning of a message The listener actively constructs (or reconstructs) the original meaning of the speaker employing new input as clues

In this reconstruction process, the listener employs prior knowledge of the context and situation within which the listening occurs to understand what he/she hears Interactive processing, the last one, overcomes the disadvantages of bottom-up processing and top-down processing to augment the comprehension Complex and simultaneous processing of background knowledge information, contextual information and linguistic information make comprehension and interpretation become easy When the content of the material is familiar to the listener, he will employ his background knowledge at the same time to make predictions which will be proved by the new input

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By and large, it is generally agreed that interactive process is the one that listeners should employ to enhance listening comprehension In this process, the listeners constantly shuttle between bottom-up and top-down processes Successful listening requires skill in both top-down and bottom-up processing 1.1.4 Language learners’ difficulties in listening comprehension

Underwood (1990: 16) identifies seven potential problems learners often encounterin their learning listening

 Inability to control the speed of the speaker: The learners are so busy working out the meaning of one part of what they hear that they miss the next part

 Inability to get things repeated: The learners not always in a position to get the speaker to repeat an utterance

 Vocabulary limitation:A new word can be a barrier which makes them stop and think about the meaning of the word and thus makes them miss the next part of speech

 Failure to recognize the signals: To move from one point to another, or give an example, or repeat a point, speakers use many different signals For foreign listening, these signals can easily be missed

 Problems of interpretation: Students who are unfamiliar with the context may have difficulty in interpreting the words they hear

 Inability to concentrate: Even the shortest break in listening can seriously affect comprehension Therefore, lack of concentration is a major problem

 Establish learning habits: Students can form the habit of listening word by word from this teaching method of teachers So when they fail to understand a particular word or phrase, they will be worried and become discouraged by their lack of success

Within this light, Brown(2007: 252-254) points out eight following characteristics of spoken language whichmake listening difficult:

 Clustering: clusters play important roles in helping students to get the idea of the whole utterance

 Performance variables: Hesitations, false starts, pauses and correction are variables that prevent learners from getting the correct idea

 Colloquial language: Learners sometimes find it surprising and difficult to deal with colloquial language such as idioms or slang

 Rate of delivery: Virtually, language learner initially thinks that native speakers speak too fast

 Stress, rhythm and intonation: Because English is a stress-timed language, English speech can be a terror for some learners as mouthfuls of syllables come spilling out between stress points

 Interaction: interaction plays a large role in listening comprehension Conversation is especially subject to all the rules of interaction: negotiation, clarification, attending signals, turn taking, and topic nomination, maintenance, and termination

In short, despite the fact that listening is one of the most challenging skills for learners to develop, it is one of the most important skills By developing ability

to listen well, learners will develop their ability to become more independent in learning process

1.2 Note-taking techniques

1.2.1 Definitions of note-taking

Taking notes is the most fundamental training approach for listeners to listen actively and effectively According to Carrieret al (1988: 223), note-taking is a process of recording information captured from a transient source, such as reading, oral discussion, and a lecture Notes are used mostly to record events, capture information, and for several learning purposes Note-taking is a process of

of listening, where listeners have to get the relationships of sounds words into some forms meaningful to them

Sharing the view point that note-taking is the kind of recording spoken information, Nguyen Thi Thu Hien (2007) supplements that note-taking is not simply an activity Notes should be a summary and not an exact copy of what was said It means that the note taker selects and evaluates rather than simply reproduces the information

From above definitions, it can be concluded that note-taking in listening is a process of recording information captured from oral sources Therefore, listeners are likely to be under pressure due to the speed at which speakers present information However, taking notes does not mean writing down every word that is heard Listeners need to actively decide what is important and how it is related to what they have already written

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they want to add after hearing the lecture In the bottom section is a short summary

of the material the users have covered by themselves (Pauk (2005: 207))

Outline method: Using this method, the information is written in an organized pattern based on space indention To show the level of importance, note-takers use the distance from the major point and space relationship indicate major point or minor points This is well-organized system which records the content as well as the relationship It is more effective when note-taking skills are good (Macdonald (2014: 6))

Mapping method: The note begins in the middle of the page and the ideas are added by radiating branches from the centre idea of previous branches All the ideas are expressed in key words To show the link between parts of the map, note-takers use arrows and words This format helps learners to visually track the information they hear regardless of conditions Little thinking is needed and relationships can easily be seen It is also easy to edit notes by adding numbers, marks, and color coding (Macdonald (2014: 10))

Sentence method: In this method, students record every new thought, fact or topic on a separate line All information is recorded, but it lacks clarification of major and minor topics Immediate review and editing is required to determine how information should be organized Using this method learners record everything, moving to a new line every time something new is covered They should use their own shorthand to save time and space and leave space for information that is missed and go back later to fill in ( Macdonald (2014: 7))

1.3 Review of related studies

A number of previous studies looked at the generated debates whether taking improves students listening competence or not

In the first place, there are many studies pointing out the evidence that taking has positive effects on improving learners’ listening skills Lin (2005) found

note-in her study that taknote-ing notes can help students effectively improve their listennote-ing comprehension because students can pay more attention during note-taking process

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The participants of this research project were 70 Taiwanese junior high school students Based on the comparison of pretests and posttests, the mean scores of the pretests and posttests and the analysis of the feedback questionnaires, the finding shows that note-taking is an effective strategy for students to promote their listening comprehension because they can concentrate more on the content

Carrier (2003) also came up with the assumption that students could remember the content easily from the key word notes The participants of this study were 21 senior high school students, and these students were all non-native English speakers Based on the comparison of participants’ pretest and posttest scores, the mean scores are 34.71 and 40.43 respectively which show that students make their improvement in the posttest In addition, through the analysis of the feedback questionnaires, note-taking can help students recall the content easily

Hui-Fang Shang and I-Ching Ko (2007) also carried out a research to explore students’ perceptions of note-taking and analyze the impact of note-taking on students’ foreign language listening comprehension Fifteen university EFL students were interviewed individually by using the semi-standardized technique The major finding indicates that taking notes did not distract students from their listening process; instead, they even paid more attention to the text and note-taking helps them recall the content of the listening passages Hui-Fang Shang and I-Ching Ko came to an end that the advantages of note-taking outweigh its disadvantages, so it can be concluded that note-taking is an effective strategy for students to improve their listening comprehension

In Viet Nam, Phi thi Bich (2013) investigated the application of note-taking strategies in listening lessons for high school students Her quasi-experimental research revealed the differences in students’ listening performance after using note-taking strategies in three months and students’ opinion and attitude towards the application of note-taking in listening lessons She concluded that by taking notes, students can remember the information as well as personally evaluate the importance of the information

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Phan Thi Kim Lien (2011) conducted her study to survey students’ perceptions of the benefits of note-taking and difficulties in taking notes She also studied students’ perceptions of note-taking strategies to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test Participants were 50 students who are currently studying for the TOEFL iBT at EQuest English Center, Hanoi Findings from questionnaire revealed that most of the students hold positive attitudes toward the major benefits of note-taking skills Besides, they encountered some challenges in taking notes like listening to the talks and at the same time taking notes, missing important information while taking notes

However, some studies regarded that students cannot enhance their listening comprehension when they employ note-taking in listening process Aminifard{a}and Aminifard{b}(2012) conducted an experimental study aiming at investigating the effect of note-taking strategy on listening comprehension of conversations and mini-lectures The results showed no statistically significant mean differences between the two groups.In Vietnam, Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen (2011) carried out a study on note-taking strategies employed by students at International School, Vietnam National University, Hanoi There is no difference in listening score between note-takers and non note takers

From the research findings, one can come to the point that, in general, the majority of the research findings provide support for the effectiveness of using note-taking techniques in teaching and learning a foreign language Many researchers and educationalists have been sharing the same idea that note-taking has positive impacts in the field of teaching and learning listening comprehension 1.4.Summary

In a nutshell, this chapter focuses on the useful concepts for the accomplishment of the study To begin with, prominent definition of listening is introduced and then come the kinds of listening and the process of listening comprehension followed by language learners’ difficulties in listening comprehension Besides that, some background knowledge of note-taking is

15 presented: the definition of note-taking and note-taking methods The author also gives a brief review of related studies

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY This chapter describes the setting of the study including: school, curriculum and text book The following part is research design which provides information about participants, restatement of research questions and data collection

2.1 The setting of the study

2.1.1 The school

This study was conducted at Sao Vang secondary school in Tho Xuan district, Thanh Hoa province It has had a history of 40-year development since its foundation in 1973 and it is one of the oldest and biggest secondary schools in Tho Xuan For many years, it has been the most reliable address for students and parents

of the district The teaching staff composes of 39 teachers (21 are females) Most of them are young (from 26 to 37 years old), enthusiastic and creative

In the school year 2012-2013, the school had 16 classes with more than 500 students, among which there were 88 ninth grade students divided into three classes,

so there were about nearly 30 students in each class One thing worth to note here is that English teaching and learning has been paid much attention However, the school shares common features with classrooms elsewhere in Vietnam: large size, students sitting in rows of four each and irremovable furniture

2.1.2 Curriculum and textbook

English is taught here as a compulsory curriculum subject The students are attending English lessons with the course book: English 9 by the Ministry of Education and Training The book is designed on the basis of topic with 10 units which aim at enabling the students to communicate in the target language with four language skills Each unit is divided into 5 parts: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Language Focus Listening texts are under the tendency of theme - based and task – based approach The book provides a wide range of different

listening texts and tasks at each stage with a view to helping students improve their listening skill

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In general, the textbooks systematically provide secondary schools English forms and use and communicative skills which are suitable to their ages In addition, they help students to have adequate understanding about the land, the people and the cultures of Vietnam, England and other countries in the world 2.2 Research design

Difficulties are created by the students’ limited knowledge of the language system and their lack of experience hearing fluent natural speech in target language This is due to the inappropriate learning strategies in listening, and the time limitation for teachers of English in class Each week, they had three forty - five minute English lessons and one more selective lesson Of four skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening, they found listening is the most challenging skill 2.2.1.2 Teachers

Two teachers of English at the school took part in the research One of them graduated from ULIS and the other graduated from Hong Duc University They were at the age of 30 and 35 with more than 8 years of English teaching experience The younger teacher had 3 years of teaching English 9 and the older had 7 years of teaching English 9 This means they both had experiences in teaching listening skill for 9th grade students

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In general, they were enthusiastic in teaching and eager to enhance the teaching skills and their students’ performance They were all aware of the importance of improving listening skill for students and were very eager to apply new strategies in teaching listening

2.2.2 Restatement of research questions

As stated earlier in the introduction, the study tries to investigate the following questions:

1 What are the benefits of applying note-taking techniques in listening lessons?

2 What are the possible difficulties encountered by the students at Sao Vang secondary school in learning listening with the use of note-taking techniques?

3 What should teachers do to improve students’ English listening skill using taking techniques?

note-2.2.3 Data Collection

2.2.3.1 Instruments

As mentioned above, to fulfill the stated goals, the author used the questionnaire and interview to collect the data

2.2.3.1.1 Questionnaire for students

A questionnaire was designed for students to gather students’ opinions toward the application of note-taking techniques in teaching and learning English listening skill The questionnaire was delivered to 30 students at the end of the term

By the time, students were familiar and formed their perceptions of note-taking skills The questionnaire consisted of three main parts

Part 1: included two questions which aimed at surveying the students’ perception toward the benefits of using note-taking techniques in listening lessons

Part 2: consisted of one question to investigate the possible difficulties in applying note-taking techniques in learning listening

Part 3: comprised four questions which clarify students’ opinions on teaching and learning strategies in listening lessons with the using of note-taking techniques

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The question types were multiple choice questions in both types: ended type which can choose more than one option and open-ended type The reason for choosing these two types of questions was that the researcher could collect both controlled information as well as students’ personal opinions towards the issue of note-taking at the same time The questionnaire was carefully translated into Vietnamese for all the respondents to make sure that they did not have any language problems in understanding every statement item

closed-2.2.3.1.2 Interview for teachers

The interview was conducted with the two teachers of English at the end of the second term There were three questions which aimed at investigating the teachers’ perceptions toward the benefits of using note-taking techniques in listening lessons and possible difficulties they may encounter in applying note-taking techniques in teaching listening Besides, the last question was raised to figure out teachers’ ideas toward the strategies in listening lessons with the using of note-taking techniques The interview was also carried out in Vietnamese to avoid any misunderstanding from the interviewees

2.2.3.2 Data collection and analysis procedure

The data were collected and analyzed by following steps:

Firstly, the questionnaires were delivered to the 30 students in class 9A after three months applying note-taking techniques A personal interviewed was also conducted with the two teachers of English at the end of the second term

After collecting information, the data were categorized and consolidated Finally, the results were demonstrated in figures with detailed explanation

2.3 Summary

This chapter presented the methodology of the study Concerning the setting

of the study, some characteristics of the school such as the teaching and learning conditions, the students, the teaching staff and the overall information about the curriculum and text book were mentioned In the methodology part, the research

20 questions, the subjects, the instruments, data collection and data analysis procedures were described in detail

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGSThis chapter will present and analyze the data collected from the survey questionnaire for students and interview for teachers.

3.1 Data analysis

3.1.1 Questionnaire for students

3.1.1.1 Aims

The questionnaire was employed to figure out the benefits

difficulties of applying note

investigate the students’ opinions toward teacher’s strategies in teaching listening through note-taking techniq

3.1.1.2 Participants

The participants of this survey questionnaire were 30 students of class 9A

at Sao Vang secondary school

3.1.1.3.Results

3.1.1.3.1 Students’ opinions toward

taking techniques

Figure 1: Students’ opinions toward

The effectiveness of the application of note

by Figure 1 As can be seen, approximately 60% of the students

the effectiveness of note

17% of students agreed the method was very effective Only 17 % view it as slightly effectively and a small

Questionnaire for students

questionnaire was employed to figure out the benefits, the

difficulties of applying note-taking techniques in listening lessons

investigate the students’ opinions toward teacher’s strategies in teaching listening

taking techniques

The participants of this survey questionnaire were 30 students of class 9A

at Sao Vang secondary school

Students’ opinions toward the effectiveness of the application of note

Figure 1: Students’ opinions toward the effectiveness of the application

of note-taking techniques The effectiveness of the application of note-taking in learning is illustrated

by Figure 1 As can be seen, approximately 60% of the students highly appreciated

note-taking techniques in developing their listening skill, even 17% of students agreed the method was very effective Only 17 % view it as slightly effectively and a small proportion (6%) disapproved the positive ef

60%

17%

Effectively Slight effectively Ineffectively

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS This chapter will present and analyze the data collected from the survey

, the possible techniques in listening lessons and to investigate the students’ opinions toward teacher’s strategies in teaching listening

The participants of this survey questionnaire were 30 students of class 9A

tiveness of the application of

note-effectiveness of the application

taking in learning is illustrated

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note-taking on their listening skills These numbers revealed that the majority of students acknowledged the facilitative effect of note-taking on their listening skill 3.1.1.3.2 Students’ perceptions of the benefits of note-taking techniques

Figure 2 : Students’ perceptions of the benefits of note-taking techniques

Note:

Item 1: Concentrate on the listening process

Item 2:Review and recall information of the listening text easily

Item 3: Gather information for the following exercises in the lessons

Item 4: Remember the information of the listening text

Item 5: Understand the listening text

The graph above indicatesstudents’ perceptions of the benefits of note-taking techniques A noticeable finding in the chart worth mentioning is that nearly all of the students (90%) shared the same opinions that note-taking could help them to concentrate on the listening process At the same time, a relatively high number of students, 23 students over 30 students (77%), agreed that note-taking was beneficial

in terms of allowing them to review and recall information of the listening text easily More than half of students (57%) found out that thanks to note-taking, they were able to gather information for following exercises in the lessons and nearly the same proportion of the students (53%) stated that note-taking helped them to remember the information from the listening text However, only 11 over 30 students (37%) assumed that note-taking help them to understand the listening text

3.1.1.3.3 Possible difficulties in applying note-taking techniques in listening lessons

Figure 3: Students’ perceptions toward possible difficulties in applying

note-taking techniques in learning listening Note:

Item 1: Lack of vocabulary capacity

Item 2: High speed of the speaker

Item 3: Difficulties in listening and writing at the same time

Item 4: Difficulties in identifying keywords and main ideas

Item 5: Lack of background knowledge of the topic

The chart above shows learners’ perceptions toward the possible difficulties

in taking notes It can be seen that students’ difficulties may vary, but the most challenges and the least ones are obvious Among the suggested points of difficulties that may face students, the highest rate falls on the lack of vocabulary

23 out of 30 students, which accounted for 77% of the students agreed that lack of vocabulary was the biggest problem in taking notes while listening In the second place, more than half of the note-takers (67%) found it difficult to take notes with

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the high speed of the speaker Nearly half of the students (43%) admitted that they were not good at listening and writing down at the same time.Besides, 11 out of 30 students, accounting for 37 percent found it unable to identify the keywords and main ideas to take notes However, only 5 over 30 note-takers (17%) agreed that lack of background knowledge of the topics distracted them from taking notes Besides the given possible difficulties, some students shared that they found it difficult to take notes with different accents of the speakers and some added that the noises outside classroom may obstruct them from taking notes while listening 3.1.1.3.4 Students’ evaluation on teacher’s strategies of teaching listening using note-taking techniques

Figure 4: Students’ evaluation on teacher’s strategies of teaching

listening using note-taking techniques Note:

Item 1: Provide students with certain amount of words needed for listening activities

Item 2: Provide students with certain key words

Item 3: Recall important words and ideas related to the listening

Item 4: Provide background knowledge of the listening text

Item 5: Provide standard note-taking systems

The chart above represents evaluation of students on the effectiveness of teacher’s strategies in teaching listening with the use of note-taking technique

As can be clearly seen from the chart, providing certain amount of words needed for listening tasks was highly appreciated with 73% students confirming it