Strategies for exploiting listening tasks in campaign 2 at english department, military science academy

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Factors in the Literature cited in Boyle, 1984:35 Table 2: Direct Learning Strategies to be Applied to the Four Language Skills Table 3: Indirect Learning Strateg

NGUYỄN THỊ THANH HUỆ

STRATEGIES FOR EXPLOITING LISTENING TASKS IN CAMPAIGN 2 AT ENGLISH

DEPARTMENT, MILITARY SCIENCE ACADEMY

(Chiến lược khai thác các bài nghe trong giáo trình Campaign 2

tại khoa Tiếng Anh, Học viện Khoa học Quân sự)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Hanoi – 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF CHARTS AND FIGURES ix

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Scope of the study 2

1.4 Methods of the study 3

1.5 Design of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Theory of listening 4

2.1.1 Definitions of listening and listening comprehension 4

2.1.2 The importance of listening comprehension 4

2.1.3 Listening comprehension process 6

2.1.4 Factors that affect the process of comprehending listening texts 8

2.1.5 Stages of carrying out a listening lesson 10

2.2 Theoretical background of language learning strategies 12

2.2.1 Definitions 12

2.2.2 Oxford’s classification of language learning strategies 12

2.2.2.1 Direct strategies 13

2.2.2.2 Indirect strategies 13

2.3 An overview of the course book “Campaign 2” 16

2.3.1 Objectives of the course book 16

2.3.2 Structure of the course book 17

2.3.3 Objectives of the listening skill 17

2.3.4 Brief description of the listening comprehension section 18

2.4 Current teaching and learning GE and ME at English Department, MSA 18

2.4.1 Teaching staff, teaching methods, and teachers’ knowledge of Military English.18 2.4.2 Military cadets 19

2.4.3 Teaching and learning facilities 20

CHAPTER 3: DATA COLLECTION, FINDINGS, AND DISCUSSIONS 21

3.1 Data collection 21

3.1.1 Subjects’ background information 21

3.1.2 Methods of collecting data 21

3.2 Findings and discussions 23

3.2.1 Cadets’ attitude towards listening skill 23

3.2.2 Cadets’ opinion on the listening tasks in the course book “Campaign 2” 24

3.2.3 Cadets’ difficulties in listening to military texts and possible sources of difficulties .26 3.2.4 Cadets’ use of listening strategies 27

3.2.4.1 Memory strategies 28

3.2.4.2 Cognitive strategies 28

3.2.4.3 Compensation strategies 29

3.2.4.4 Metacognitive strategies 30

3.2.4.5 Affective strategies 31

3.2.4.6 Social strategies 31

3.2.5 Cadets’ opinion on teachers’ ways of teaching listening tasks in “Campaign 2”.32 3.2.5.1 Teachers‟ frequency of organizing three-stage listening lessons 32

3.2.5.2 Activities provided by teachers to better cadets‟ listening skill 33

3.2.5.3 Cadets‟ opinion on teachers‟ ways of organizing listening activities 34

CHAPTER 4: IMPLICATIONS 35

4.1 Utilizing appropriate strategies 35

4.1.1 Memory strategies 35

4.1.1.1 Using associating and elaborating strategies 35

4.1.1.2 Placing new words into context 35

4.1.2 Cognitive strategies 36

4.1.2.1 Improving note-taking techniques 36

4.1.2.2 Developing writing summaries skills 38

4.1.3 Compensation strategies 38

4.1.3.1 Making guesses from the context 39

4.1.3.2 Making guesses based on visual clues 39

4.1.4 Metacognitive strategies 39

4.1.4.1 Finding about language learning 40

4.1.4.2 Seeking practice opportunities 40

4.1.5 Affective strategies 40

4.1.5.1 Feeling relaxed/ Lowering anxiety 40

4.1.5.2 Writing a language learning diary 40

4.1.6 Social strategies 41

4.1.6.1 Asking for clarification or verification 41

4.1.6.2 Cooperating with peers 41

4.6.1.3 Developing cultural understanding 41

4.2 Teaching listening strategies to the third year cadets in a systematical way 42

4.3 Organizing three-stage listening lessons 42

4.3.1 Pre-listening activities 43

4.3.2 While- listening activities 43

4.3.3 Post- listening activities 44

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 45

5.1 A brief summary of the thesis and the main conclusion 45

5.2 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research 45

REFERENCES 46

Appendix 1: Survey Questionnaire I

Appendix 2: Real Performance Test IV

Appendix 3: Note taking - Symbols and Abbreviations VII

Appendix 4: Common Abbreviations and Acronyms of Military Terms Used in Listening Tasks

in Campaign 2 VIII

Appendix 5: A Sample Listening Strategy Instruction Lesson IX

Appendix 6: Performance Checklist for Listening Strategies XI

Appendix 7: A Sample Listening Lesson Plan XII

Appendix 8: Some Original Listening Tasks in Campaign 2 XVII

Military Science Academy

Strategies for Inventory Language Learning

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Factors in the Literature (cited in Boyle, 1984:35)

Table 2: Direct Learning Strategies to be Applied to the Four Language Skills

Table 3: Indirect Learning Strategies to be Applied to the Four Language SkillsTable 4: Cadets‟ Attitudes towards Listening Skill

Table 5: Cadets‟ Opinion on the Listening Tasks in the Course book “Campaign 2”Table 6: Memory Strategies Applied by the Third-year Cadets

Table 7: Cognitive Strategies Applied by the Third-year Cadets

Table 8: Compensation Strategies Applied by the Third-year Cadets Table 9: Metacognitive Strategies Applied by the Third-year Cadets Table 10: Affective Strategies Applied by the Third-year Cadets

Table 11: Social Strategies Applied by the Third-year Cadets

Table 12: Grenfell & Harris‟ Model of Teaching Listening Strategies

LIST OF CHARTS AND FIGURES

Chart 1: Frequency of Teacher‟s Organizing 3-stage Listening Lessons

Figure1: Students‟ Difficulties in Listening to Military Texts

Figure 2: Possible Sources of Difficulties

Figure 3: Cadets‟ Use of Listening Strategies

Figure 4: Activities Provided by Teachers to Better Cadets‟ Listening Skill

Figure 5: Cadets‟ Opinion on Teachers‟ Ways of Organizing Listening ActivitiesFigure 6: Standard Outline Note-Taking Format

Figure 7: An Example of Mapping Method

Figure 8: An Example of Charting Method

In order to improve Vietnamese learners‟ communicative competence to meet the demand ofglobalization, English teaching methodology has been considerably reformed The teaching methodhas shifted from Grammar Translation to Audio-lingual and now to Communicative Approach inwhich teachers become instructors who provide guidance for students to perform lifelike tasks tomore realize the teaching-learning process In the process of acquiring English in a new light,listening seems always to be the most challenging subject for learners, especially for those whocome from rural areas These students may have good knowledge of grammar and structures, butmerely these are not enough to assure equal ability of listening and speaking This phenomenon isquite common in universities around Vietnam and Military Science Academy is not an exception.Military Science Academy is the only military academy in Vietnam which trains major languagecadets Like students at other language universities in Vietnam, cadets here are faced up with manydifficulties in learning listening skill, especially when they listen to military texts Among variouscauses of this such as students‟ background knowledge, students‟ interests in listening, the difficultylevel of listening texts, etc., inappropriate strategies for exploiting listening tasks or listening withoutclear strategies are the main problems As judged by Nauman (2002), the majority of students come tolistening activities with little knowledge of how the listening process works and even with seriousmisconception about what make them successful in listening Therefore, it is urgent that clear listeningstrategies should be applied in exploiting listening tasks (especially, ESP listening tasks),

and they should also be transferred to and absorbed by individual students so that students themselves can be more active and effective in dealing with spoken language not only in classroom but also in social contacts.

These above reasons led the author of this paper to conduct this study in order to discover listening strategies in general and applying those strategies in exploiting listening tasks in Campaign 2 in particular The author herself hopes that this paper will contribute to improving the teaching of listening to military texts at her academy and also wishes to get useful contributions from her colleagues as well as readers to help her cadets better exploit listening tasks in the military course book „Campaign 2‟.

1.2 Aims of the study

This minor study is aimed at giving suggested strategies for exploiting listening tasks in

the Military English course book Campaign 2 at English Department, MSA and at the same

time implications for more effectively exploiting listening tasks in the book are given.

In order to fulfill the abovementioned aims, the study tried to answer two following questions:

(1) What are the appropriate strategies for exploiting listening tasks in Campaign 2

at English Department, MSA? and

(2) What can be done to exploit listening tasks in Campaign 2 effectively at MSA?

The study primarily investigates the theoretical background of language learning strategies, listening strategies and develops further in investigating strategies uses as well as exploring suitable listening strategies for exploiting listening tasks in Campaign 2 It, therefore, serves as

a valuable resource for teachers at ED, MSA to gain a deeper insight into the practice of Military English listening strategies among the third-year cadets More importantly, a suggested list of listening strategies is presented to assist teachers with way to enhance their cadets‟ ability in processing military listening tasks At the same time, the study is open to invite contributions from readers to add more suitable strategies for exploiting listening tasks

in Campaign 2 in particular and in other Military English course books in general.

1.3 Scope of the study

It would be really challenging for this minor thesis to cover all the aspects of listening Therefore,the study just stays within the strategies for exploiting listening tasks in the course book Campaign 2 bySimon Mellor-Clark and Yvonne Baker de Altamirano, a Military English course book Other areas oflistening such as choosing materials or academic listening are beyond the study

1.4 Methods of the study

In completing this research, following methods have been used:

First of all, intensive and extensive reading helps equip the author with sufficient background knowledge related to listening comprehension, language learning strategies, and listening strategies so as to collect data for the literature review.

Second, survey questionnaires for students are used as the major instrument to collect data.

Third, observation of students‟ real performance through a listening test as well as informaldiscussions with both the third-year cadets and the teachers at ED, MSA have been made

Collected data, then, have been processed and analyzed.

1.5 Design of the study

The study is divided into five chapters as follows:

Chapter 1 is the introduction part of the study in which Reasons for conducting the

research, Aims of the study, Scope of the study, Methods of the study and Design of the

study are respectively displayed.

Chapter 2 reviews the literature on listening comprehension as well as its role in learning a foreign

language, the listening comprehension processes and factors that affect those processes Moreimportantly, in this chapter, theoretical background of strategies, classifications of language learningstrategies, listening strategies and stages of listening strategies implementation have been thoroughlypresented Besides, Chapter 2 also provides an overview of the course book “Campaign 2” and the basicinformation about current teaching and learning Military English situation at ED, MSA

Chapter 3 describes data collection, presents, analyzes as well as synthesizes data

collected from the survey questionnaires, students‟ real performance through a listening

test, the author‟s own observation and informal discussions with both cadets and teachers about listening strategy applying and training.

Chapter 4 is comprised of recommendations for appropriate strategies for exploiting

listening tasks in Campaign 2, listening strategy teaching for the third-year cadets and

suggested methods of organizing effective listening lessons.

Chapter 5 provides brief summary of the thesis, presents conclusion about applied strategies, mentions the limitations of the study, and suggests ideas for further research, as well.

In short, Chapter 1 has discussed the rationale, aim, scope as well as methods of the study Ending the chapter is an overview of the thesis design Thanks to such lucid contents, this chapter acts as an orientation for the development of the later parts of the thesis.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

The chapter gives an overview of the literature, including key concepts and related studies in thefield Besides, the context of teaching and learning Military English in MSA is also briefly presented

2.1 Theory of listening

2.1.1 Definitions of listening and listening comprehension

No one can deny the crucial role of listening in our daily life in general and in acquiring a language in particular 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 simply understood as “the act of hearing attentively” (Retrievedfrom wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn , 2nd March, 2010) in which the term „hearing‟ itself issaid to be one of the traditional five senses It is the ability to perceive sounds by detectingvibrations via an organ such as the ear and the inability to hear is called deafness (Retrieved from

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listening, 2nd March, 2010).

Looking closer to the term „listening comprehension‟, Richards, J.C, Platt, J and Platt,

H (1993: 216) define that “listening comprehension is the process of understanding speech

in a second or foreign language.”

Howatt and Dakin (1974) state that listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying This process involves understanding a speaker‟s accent or pronunciation, the speaker‟s grammar and vocabulary, and comprehension of meaning.Ronald and Roskelly (1985) emphasize listening as an active process requiring the same skills

of predicting, hypothesizing, checking, revising, and generalizing that writing and reading demand.Needless to say, listening is an important and active skill of spoken language because it involves various kinds of the listener‟s knowledge to match what they hear with what they already know on the process of comprehending what the speaker means.

2.1.2 The importance of listening comprehension

For the past thirty years, the role of listening skill has been reconsidered and paid more attention It

is acknowledged a significant language skill which is used most in human communication (Anderson &Lynch, 1988; Anderson-Mejras, 1986) There have been a considerable number of studies on listeningcomprehension and their authors all emphasized its crucial position in language teaching and learning.According to Wallace, Stariha and Walberg (2004:13): “Listening skills are essential for learning sincethey enable students to acquire insights and information, and to achieve

success in communicating with others” Sharing the same idea, Nunan (1998, cited in A Majid Hayati, 2009:144) believes that “listening is the basic skill in language learning Without listening skill learners will never learn to communicate effectively.”

It is undeniable that “listening is the first language mode that children acquire It provides the foundation for all aspects of language and cognitive development, and it plays

a life-long role in the process of communicating.” (Guo, N & Wills, R., 2006:3)

Proving the frequent use of listening in communication, a study by Wilt (1950) found that people listen 45% of the time they spend communicating; 30% of communicating time was spent on speaking, 16% reading and 9% writing The following studies share similar figures:

In reality, listening is used far more than any other single language skill in normal daily life Onaverage, we can expect to listen twice as much as we speak, four times more than we read, and fivetimes more than we write (Rivers, 1981; Weaver, 1972 cited in Murcia, M L, 1991:70)

Feyten (1991, cited in ZoranaVasiljevic, 2010:41) claims that “more than 45% of communicatingtime is spent listening, which clearly shows how important this skill is in overall language ability.”Thus, listening provides input for not only speaking but also reading and writing First, it is so vivid tosee the hand-in-hand relationship between listening and speaking One cannot speak sensibly if he cannotlisten effectively because of a simple reason that he does not have proper input Brouwer (2002, cited in Luo,C., 2008:26) stresses that listening is many things, most often taking place in an interactive process wherelistening and speaking take place simultaneously Listening well helps bring about good knowledge ofpronunciation, intonation, rhythm, stress and, needless to say, a rich source of vocabulary and information,which are in turn the basic condition for reproducing spoken language successfully Second, listening also has

a close relationship with reading, another receptive skill A large-scale L1 study by Neville (1985, cited inAnderson & Lynch, 1988:18) among 6,000 schoolchildren found that they performed very consistently incloze tests of reading and listening comprehension At ages 8, 11, 13 their scores were highly correlated: goodlisteners were usually good readers and poor listeners were generally poor readers This close relationshipbetween listening and reading is based on the common „language processing skill‟ of the two Garrod (1986,cited in Anderson & Lynch, 1988:19) has pointed out that, in both reading and listening, processing has totake place sequentially, i.e we sample one word at a time But in order to comprehend the messagesuccessfully, we have to analyze the whole segments of input, such as phrases, sentences and paragraphs Heprovides evidence from his own experiments with adult native readers that suggest they do indeed build up anoverall interpretation, or mental model of a text as they read The similar evidence can also be found inNeville‟s (1985) study when similar kinds of error were made in both types of text and

many of those mistakes seemed to stem from the reader‟s or listener‟s failure to keep the overallcontent of the text in mind Last, listening even has influence on writing What can be absorbedfrom listening will be a plentiful source of raw materials for writing Through listening, learnerscan not only obtain vocabulary or ideas but more importantly, they also „feel‟ ideas better thanks tothe speaker‟s voice or body language or way of delivering information, which will be meaningfulfor learners themselves to reproduce language in a livelier written form This is also the significantdifference between perceiving information from reading and that from listening.

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, as by hearing accurately they are much more likely to be able to reproduce accurately, refine their understanding of grammar and develop their own vocabulary All of these factors are the prerequisite to assure their better ability to speak, read and write in English.

2.1.3 Listening comprehension process

Listening comprehension process is more complicated than what we have ever thought It is not atall passive, but in fact, an active process requiring the conscious involvement of the listener Over thepast four decades, there have been numerous studies which show different views of the listeningcomprehension process like Clark and Clark (1977), Nagle and Sanders (1986), Underwood (1989),Rost (1990), Buck (2000) Among them there are three common views as follows:

Underwood (1989) divides the process into three „distinct stages‟ including perceiving the sounds,processing information by the short-term memory and transferring information to the long-termmemory At the first stage, the sounds go into sensory store, often called the „echoic‟ memory, and areorganized into meaningful units, according to the knowledge of the language the listener already has.However, the sounds remain in the echoic memory for a very short time, which often causes difficulties

in sorting out what is heard of by the listener In the second stage, the listener processes information bythe short-term memory This again is a very brief stage amounting to no more than a few second At thispoint, words or groups of word are checked and compared with information already held in the long-term memory and the meaning is extracted from them When the meaning is grasped and the actualwords of the spoken discourse are generally forgotten and only the meaning retained The last stage isdone after the listener has constructed a meaning from the utterance At this stage, (s)he might transferthe information to the long-term memory for the later

use Therefore, the listener usually remembers the meaning (usually in short form called

gist) rather than the exact words spoken when (s)he has to recall what has been said.

Sharing similar point of view with Underwood, Goh (2000) builds listening process on three phases: perception, parsing and utilization First, perception is the process of encoding the acoustic message This involves segmenting phonemes from the continuous speech stream into words or groups of words During this phase in listening, an individual attends closely to input and the sounds are retained in echoic memory The second phase, parsing, is the time when words are transformed into a mental representation of the combined meanings of these words This occurs when an utterance is segmented according to syntactic structures or cues to meaning These segments are then recombined to generate a meaningful representation of the original sequence And during the last phase, utilizing, the mental representation above is related to existing knowledge and stored in long-term memory as propositions or schemata At this stage the listener may draw different types of inferences to complete the interpretation and make it more personally meaningful or use the mental representation to respond to the speaker.

Another very well-known view point of listening comprehension process is the conception ofbottom-up and top-down processes Bottom-up processing is trying to make sense of what we hear byfocusing on the different parts including the vocabulary, the grammar or functional phrases, and sounds,etc In this type of process, listeners build their understanding by starting with the smallest units of theacoustic message: individual sounds, or phonemes These are then combined into words, which, in turntogether make up phrases, clauses and sentences Finally, individual sentences combine to create ideasand concepts and the relationships between them Top-down processing, on the other hand, starts withbackground knowledge called schema This can be content schemata (general knowledge based on lifeexperience and previous learning) or textual schema (knowledge of language and content used in aparticular situation: the language you need at a bank is different from what you need when socializingwith friends) (Brown & Helgesen, 2007; Richards, 2005)

As listening comprehension is a complex process which involves the interaction of various bottom-up and top-down factors, it is better to rely on the integration of and the balance between these two processes to better acknowledge spoken language.

In short, there are quite various points of view on the listening comprehension process Therefore, it is necessary for both teachers and learners to recognize the pros and cons of each type so that they can have better choice of tasks when dealing with listening skill.

2.1.4 Factors that affect the process of comprehending listening texts

Through the brief description of the listening comprehension process mentioned above,

it is clear that the process of comprehending listening texts is a really complex process which requires the combination of various linguistic and information sources Therefore, it

is necessary to put factors affecting this process into consideration.

Different linguistic methodologists and experts have differentideas about these factors

Following is the summary of the most salient factors suggested by Boyle (1984).

4.2 home background, size of family

4.3 educational background and type of school

4.4 physical health and alertness

5 Intellectual

5.1 knowledge of the target language in its various aspects: phonology, lexis, syntax, and cohesion

5.2 powers of analysis and selection: ability to distinguish between main and supporting points

5.3 knowledge of the specific topic or subject

5.4 memory (short term and long term)

6 Psychological

6.1 Motivation and sense of purpose while listening

6.2 Attitude of the listener to the speaker

6.3 Attitude of the listener to the message: level of interest

6.4 Listener’s power of attention and concentration

1 Language ability of the speaker: native speaker- beginner level, non-native speaker

2 Speaker’s production: pronunciation, accent, variation, voice, etc.

3 Speed of delivery

4 Prestige and personality of the speaker

1 The language used to convey the message: phonological features, including stress, intonation, weak

forms (especially in conversation), lexis, syntax, cohesion, etc.

2 Difficulty of content and concepts, especially if the material is abstract, abstruse, highly specialized or

technical, esoter ic, lengthy, or poorly organized.

3 Acoustic environment: noise and interference

4 Amount of support provided by gestures, visuals, etc.

Table 1: Factors in the literature (cited in Boyle, 1984:35)

The information in the above table is the generalization of different factors affecting the process ofcomprehending listening texts combined from different authors by Joseph P Boyle in his study titled

“Factors affecting listening comprehension” Among the three factors, listeners seem to play the most

important role in comprehending the listening texts with their active status in dealing with the texts

Regarding physical and educational factors, there have been not many studies on these and so the

results have not been clearly confirmed In Boyle‟s research carried out with 60 students and 30

teachers in Hong Kong, only 10/60 (16.67%) of students mentioned family background and 3/60 (2%)

of students mentioned sex factor Sharing the similar result, in her Review of Second Language

Listening Comprehension Research, Joan Rubin has found only three studies considering how gender

may relate to differences in listening comprehension and she concludes that “the small amount ofresearch on gender and listening comprehension is inconclusive.” (Rubin, 1994:208) The factor in this

category which seems to attract more attention of the researchers is age In a study conducted in

Quebec, Canada, working with members (aged range from 17 to 41 with the mean age of 22.76 years)

of the Canadian Armed Forces undergoing English language training, Seright found that the mean gain

in listening comprehension made by the younger subjects exceeded that made by the older subjects.”(Rubin, 1994:208) Seright‟s finding is “consistent with an earlier study by Halladay that showed thatyounger adults acquired L2 skills more quickly than older adults.” (Rubin, 1994:208) However, Rubinstates that Seright‟s results are just beginning to our understanding of how age affects listeningcomprehension and in fact, this is still a controversial issue which needs more investigations

Different from physical and educational factors, intellectual and psychological ones get more

attention from researchers and they, in fact, obviously have great impact on listening comprehension,especially the knowledge of different kinds (including linguistic knowledge and backgroundknowledge), and motivation In his study, Boyle found that 23/60 (38.3%) of students appreciated therole of general ability in English and the same number chose the knowledge of vocabulary and idiom Atthe same time, 10/30 (33.3%) of the teachers in Boyle‟s research considered knowledge of targetlanguage played an important role in their students‟ listening ability The familiarity of topic or subjectmatter is also very important in the process of comprehending listening texts There are 11/60 (18.33%)

of students and 7/30 (23.33%) of teachers mentioning this factor There have been quite a great number

of studies on this field: Long (1980), Mueller (1980), Markham & Latharn (1987), O‟Malley et al(1991), Chiang & Dunkel (1992), Tsuj & Fullilove (1998), and Sadighi (2006), etc and they all confirmthe impact of background knowledge/ prior knowledge on listening comprehension Besides, motivation

is also the factor that attracts interest of many linguistics methodologists and teachers including Andrew(1989), Brown (1990), Field (1998), Zhang (2000), Brown (2004), and Hsu (2006), etc In his study,Boyle‟s finding shows that 11/60 (18.33%) of students and 11/30 (36.67%) of teachers considermotivation an important factor in improving listening skill

Other factors belonging to intellectual and psychological groups are memory, sense of purpose while listening, attitude of the listener to the speaker, the interest of listener in the message as well as the listener‟s attention and concentration on what (s)he is listening to.

The second major group of factors is speaker ones Among the four sub-groups including speaker‟s

language ability, speaker‟s production of pronunciation, accent, variation, voice, etc., speed

of delivery and prestige and personality of the speaker, the second and third seem to have decisive influence on learners‟ understanding of the message Boyle‟s findings show that 13/30 (43.33%) teachers and 17/60 (28.33%) students mentioned the influence of accent on the comprehension of the listening texts At the same time, 5/30 (16.67%) of teachers and 17/60 (28.33%) of students chose the influence of speed of delivery These two factors are also emphasized by Underwood (1989) and many other researchers like Brown (1968), Wilcox (1978), Eisenstein & Berkowitz (1981), Major et al (2005) and Barlow (2009), etc.

In terms of factors in the material and medium, the main focus seems to fall on acoustic

environment with the influence of noise and interference 10/60 (16.67%) of students and 12/30 (40%) of teachers in Boyle‟s study mention this factor Noise including noise inside and outside classroom or background noise in the tape/ CD is considered physical factors which usually distract listeners from concentrating on and recognizing information in listening texts Some studies on these are Ur (1984), Rubin (1994), Hasan (2000) and Zekveld (2009), etc.

In short, there are quite a great number of factors that more or less have influence on the ability to comprehend the listening texts of learners Therefore, it is really essential for teachers to recognize the impact of each of these factors on their students to help them overcome the difficulties and comprehend the listening texts thoroughly.

2.1.5 Stages of carrying out a listening lesson

Mary Underwood (1989) sees the teaching procedure of listening comprehension as being

made up of three stages, namely pre-listening where the students activate their vocabulary and their background knowledge, while-listening where they develop the skill of eliciting messages, and

post-listening which consists of extensions and developments of the listening task.

Pre-listening is the preparation stage In the first place, it is to provide context and motivation by

helping learners become conscious of the purpose of or the focus on the upcoming listening input Onlywhen students are clear about the aim and meaning of their coming listening can they feel interested andconcentrate on the next stage of listening Second, it is to give full play to learners‟ initiatives byactivating their background knowledge As suggested by Rivers (1981), teachers can activate learners‟prior knowledge through preparatory discussion of related topics and by making sure that key words areknown and have been recently brought to conscious awareness of their students‟ Last, the pre-listeningstage is to provide learners with necessary micro-listening sub-skills such as predicting, getting the gist,extracting specific information, extracting detailed information, and making inferences so that they canbetter deal with listening tasks in following stages

According to Underwood (1989) “while-listening activities are what students are asked to do

during the time that they are listening to the text As far as listening comprehension is concerned, the purpose of while-listening activities is to help learners develop the skill of eliciting messages from spoken language.” (p.45) Therefore, in a well-organized integrated listening lesson, it is necessary that

teachers should have a clear idea of the possible difficulty-bound parts of the listening materialaccording to the knowledge of their learners so that they can help them overcome the difficulties bypausing at those parts and asking questions that aim to elicit listeners‟ response like “What is justsaid?”, “What is going to be talked about?” By doing so, teachers are more likely to focus on listeners‟process of listening and can take advantage of such an interaction to help learners work out a solution totheir problems It is in this stage that teachers can either implicitly or explicitly teach some usefullistening strategies for their students Just as many researchers emphasize, such listening strategies asmaking guess, drawing inferences with the help of contextual information, asking for clarification andfurther explanation, tolerating certain ambiguity, etc are crucial to ensure that the learners becomeeffective and successful listeners not only in classroom but more importantly, in real-life situations.(Field, 1998; Anderson & Lynch, 1988)

Post-listening is like the follow-up state which is an indispensable part of the teaching of

listening As defined by Underwood (1989:74), “post-listening activities embrace all the work

related to a particular listening text which are done after the listening is completed Some listening activities are extensions of the work done at the pre-listening and while-listening stages and some relate only loosely to the listening text itself.” For students, they are given a learner-

post-learner and post-learner-teacher interaction period during which they can work cooperatively to go

deeper into the listening text by discussing, reading or writing on some relevant topics This is also

a very good time for learners to learn, revise or analyze some linguistic features so that they can uselanguage more accurately and naturally in target situations For teachers, post-listening stage is thetime for them to check comprehension of their students to see how successful they have been indoing the task, evaluate listening skills and use of listening strategies, and extend their students‟knowledge gained to other contexts In short, post-listening not only winds up the current lessonbut also serves as preliminary introduction to a new lesson

In summary, above is the common framework of a listening lesson It is, in fact, not the only way tostructure a listening lesson, but it is one of the effective and motivating ways to encourage students: first

to feel more interested and gain more success in listening, the skill considered to be the mostchallenging for learners to develop, and second to become effective listeners in real-life communication

2.2 Theoretical background of language learning strategies

2.2.1 Definitions

The term „strategy‟ itself is of military origin, deriving from the Greek word strategos,

which refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal (Retrieved on 1stApril, 2010 from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategy)

Regarding „learning strategies‟ (LS), different researchers define the concept in different ways

In a helpful survey article, Weinstein and Mayer (1986) defined learning strategies (LS) broadly as

“behaviours and thoughts that a learner engages in during learning that are intended to influence the learner‟sencoding process” (p.315) Later Mayer (1988:11) more specifically defined LS as “behaviours of a learnerthat are intended to influence how the learner processes information” (cited in Clouston, 1997)

These above definitions of LS are involved in all learning, regardless of the content and context To put it more specifically for language learning, Chamot, A (1987) defines LS

“are techniques, approaches, or deliberate actions that students take in order to facilitate

the learning and recall both of linguistic and content area information” (p.71).

Having a deeper look at the concept, Oxford (1990) gives even a more detailed definition of

the term when stating that “LS are specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier,

faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, and even more transferable to new situations” (p.8).

Last but not least, Oxford herself once again specifies language learning strategies (LLS) as

…specific actions, behaviours, steps, or techniques that students (often intentionally) use toimprove their progress in developing L2 skills These strategies can facilitate the internalization,storage, retrieval, or use of the new language Strategies are tools for the self-directed involvementnecessary for developing communicative ability (Oxford, 1992/1993: 18 cited in Clouston, 1997)Since Oxford‟s (1990, 1992/1993) definitions include everything that foreign language learnersneed to be effective learners, they act as a guideline for the present study They also serve very well to

be the background for the classification of LS which will be dealt with in the next section of the paper

2.2.2 Oxford’s classification of language learning strategies

Similar to the variety of definitions of LLS, there exist quite different language learning strategyclassification systems like O‟Malley & Chamot (1990), Oxford (1990), and Vandergrift (1997).However, thanks to its prominent features of comprehensiveness, detail, easy accessibility for readers,Oxford‟s (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) is used as the framework for thepresent study, based on which the data collection and analysis will be carried out

Oxford divides strategies into two major groups: direct and indirect, which are again

subdivided into six sub-groups of memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive,

affective, and social These subsets are interwoven with each other, creating an occasional

overlap in the strategy groups Following is the overview of her classification.

2.2.2.1 Direct strategies

According to Oxford (1990:37), “language learning strategies that directly involve the

target language are called direct strategies.” All direct strategies require mental processing

of the language, but three subgroups of direct strategies (memory, cognitive, and

compensation) do this processing differently and for different purposes.

 Memory strategies help students store and retrieve new information, for example,

creating mental linkages, applying images and sounds, reviewing in a structured way, etc.

 Cognitive strategies enable learners to understand and produce new language by many different

means They are skills or steps that involve direct analysis, transformation, or synthesis of the targetlanguage, such as formal practice with sounds or structure, functional practice in natural interactions,reasoning, translating, analyzing, note-taking, etc Oxford herself confirms that cognitive strategies aretypically found to be the most popular strategies employed by language learners

 Compensation strategies allow learners to use the target language despite their often large gaps in knowledge These are the strategies that enable learners to make up their missing

knowledge in the process of comprehending or producing target language, such as guessing wisely in listening and reading, using gestures, switching to the native language, and using a synonym or description in order to get the meaning across in speaking or writing.

2.2.2.2 Indirect strategies

As it is stated by Oxford (1990), indirect strategies support and manage language learning withoutdirectly involving the target language They are divided into metacognitive, affective, and social strategies

 Metacognitive strategies are steps that learners take to manage or regulate their

learning, such as planning and arranging for learning tasks, setting goals and objectives,

monitoring the learning process for errors, and evaluating progress.

 Affective strategies are those strategies that help learners gain control over their emotions, attitudes,

and motivations related to language learning Such strategies including encouraging oneself throughpositive self-talk, talking with someone about their feelings about learning the target language, etc

 Social strategies help learners learn through interaction with others These include asking

questions,

cooperating with others, and becoming aware of others‟ thoughts and feelings (Adapted from Wu, 2008)

Oxford‟s (1990) classification of LLS is summarized in the two below tables with its 2

main groups, 6 subgroups, 19 sets and 62 specific strategies as well as the application of

each in the equivalent language skills.

Reasoning

Structures for Input and Output

Table 2: Direct Learning Strategies to be Applied to the Four Language Skills

(Adapted from Oxford, 1990)

Strategy Strategy sub-groups

(Adapted from Oxford, 1990)Thus, it is clear to see the reason why Oxford‟s (1990) LLS classification system is moreattractive than others‟ Her taxonomy of LLS is simply organized and includes no technical terms

which are easy for readers to understand As it is commented by Gamage (2003) “…The inventory

has a well-understood underlying structure for strategy categorization and employs a wide range

of strategies, all items of which are checked and rechecked for validity and reliability.” (p.2)

2.3 An overview of the course book “Campaign 2”

Campaign 2 is one among the series of three course books of Military English written by

Yvonne Baker de Altamirano, Simon Mellor-Clark, Nicola King, and Randy Walden It was first

published by Macmillan Publishers Limited in 2005 At Military Science Academy, EnglishDepartment, the course book “Campaign 2” was introduced to the third-year cadets of majorEnglish in 2007 Following is the detailed information of the course book‟s objective andcomponents as well as its most important part, listening section, the focus of the present study

2.3.1 Objectives of the course book

The series of course books Campaign is designed based on the measure of performance in military teaching called STANAG 6001 A STANAG (or STANdardisation AGreement) is an international military standard created by NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) in order to regulate equipment, procedures, tactics, training and just about every thing that affects how armed forces from different countries work together on operations and exercises.

STANAG 6001 is a language proficiency scale designed to allow comparisons of language ability in different countries It consists of a set of descriptors of proficiency skills broken down into six levels as follow.

Language proficiency is recorded with a profile of four digits indicating the specific skills in the order of Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing These four digits are preceded by the code letters SLP, which indicates that the profile shown in the Standardized Language Profile The exist level of Campaign 2 is approximately SLP 2222 SLP 2222 is described in detail as follows.

 Listening: Learners can follow conversations about everyday topics, including personal

news, well-known current events, routine job-related topics, and topics in his/ her personal

field

 Speaking: Learners can communicate in everyday social and routine workplace

situations.

 Reading: Learners can read simple, straightforward, factual texts on familiar topics.

 Writing: Learners can write, with some precision, simple personal and routine

workplace correspondence and related documents, including brief reports.

In summary, Campaign 2 is aimed at students from pre-intermediate level The problem-basedapproach lessons are to encourage learners to implicitly or explicitly find solutions to real-worldproblems through individual work or cooperation with their partners Besides, the course book provideslearners with a plentiful source of military terms which are necessary for their job in the future

2.3.2 Structure of the course book

Campaign 2 is composed of 12 units, each based around a topic These topics are of intrinsic

interest and as carriers for teaching the lexis, grammar and functional English in military field.Units range from Military Observer to International HQ to United Nations Police There are topicsand texts from a variety of international contexts, including the USA, the UK, the NATO and the UN.Each unit contains five sections, which are named alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, and echo Each section represents two lessons; each lesson will be between fifty to sixty minutes duration, which means approximately 120 hours of class meeting are necessary to cover the whole book However, the current curriculum for third-year cadets at MSA provides only 60 hours covering 15 weeks, 6 periods per week Therefore, certain topics and activities from 12 units, from 1 to 12, are chosen to most satisfy students‟ needs.Course book Campaign 2 is accompanied by Workbook, Teacher‟s book and 3 CDs for listening section

The Workbook provides approximately 80 hours of consolidation material for self-study, which

assists learners to further practice vocabulary, grammar points, and especially listening skill.

The Teacher‟s Book is of great help for teachers, especially for those who have little or

no first-hand experience of military life with answer keys, procedural notes, tape-scripts and background briefing on the military.

2.3.3 Objectives of the listening skill

As stated by Boyle, Walden and Mellor-Clark (2005:13), “Campaign sees listening skills as

extremely important for military students.” Therefore, all the listening tasks in the book aredesigned to require students to listen, understand and then act The specific objective of listeningskill is to help learners follow conversations about everyday topics, including personal news, well-known current events, routine job-related topics, and topics in his/ her personal field

The strategies to be focused vary from listening to obtain the gist of the spoken text, listening for specific details, deducing, predicting, to note-taking, etc.

2.3.4 Brief description of the listening comprehension section

The listening task appears in almost all sections of each unit in the course book, interweaving withother skill tasks The situations are drawn on or based on authentic sources from conversations betweensoldiers and their commanders, soldiers with doctors, among soldiers, briefing in military meeting,reporting situations on radio, etc The topics chosen are interesting and motivating for cadets to absorbmore information related to military field The content of the listening comprehension section ispresented in the variety of forms like conversations, telephone dialogues, mono briefing talks, radiotalks, etc The length of each task is from two to six minutes, which is suitable for students to follow.While grammatical structures are not problematic for learners, the challenging factors are terminologyand different accents of speakers despite very clear voice and moderate speed Listening exercises coveralmost all types of exercises including True/ False, Answering questions, Completing notes, Writingnotes, Matching, Choosing pictures, Labeling the map, Completing the chart, etc The main listeningtasks are sometimes preceded by guided questions and followed by some follow-up exercises like pair

or group discussion or problem solving

2.4 Current teaching and learning GE and ME at English Department, MSA

2.4.1 Teaching staff, teaching methods, and teachers’ knowledge of Military English

The current English teaching staff at MSA consists of 35 teachers whose age ranges from 25 to 47years old, in which 14 are males and 21 are females Among them, 13 male teachers graduated fromMSA and the rest held B.A degrees from different foreign language universities in Vietnam At present,there is one Ph.D, one Ph.D candidate, 19 having M.A degrees both in Vietnam and Australia

Thus, it is clearly seen that all the teachers have fairly equal academic background; however, theirteaching methods and especially, knowledge of Military English make them different from each other.Regarding the prior, different teaching methods are in use including grammar-translation, audiolingual,and communicative language teaching It is understandable to see differences in teaching methods due

to different sources of training, ages and habits and this, in fact, can be improved through exchangingexperiences, staff meeting or observing classes The problematic matter is the later: knowledge ofMilitary English While the group of teachers graduated from MSA have both good knowledge of MEand real-life experience in the field, the rest find it really challenging to understand military terms, even

in Vietnamese Therefore, it requires more effort, energy and time investment of these teachers whenworking with Campaign textbooks, especially listening texts

2.4.2 Military cadets

At the moment, there are four classes of English majors with the total number of 105 cadets fromthe first to the fourth school-year The learners are at different ages, ranging from 18 to 24 All of themlearnt English at secondary schools and passed the national university entrance examinations to study inMSA Among them there are 9 female learners and the rest are male ones This is a prominent feature ofmilitary classes: males always outnumber females or even take the whole population of the class.Since 2007, there has been a great change in the training time for the cadets at MSA Their English course in MSA lasts only three years and a half instead of four years Therefore, the syllabus for them has also modified.

In terms of General English (GE), on the first half of the course, military cadets have 400 hours

of practical English covering four basic skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing Some common course books in use include those of integrated skills like New Headway Pre-intermediate

& Intermediate by Liz and Jones Soars, and single-skill-developed books namely Cause and Effect

by Patricia Ackert, Listen in 1 &2 by David Nunans, and Let‟s Talk 1 & 2 by Leo Lones, etc On

the second half of the course, besides the continuance of mastering four basic language skills, military cadets have chances to study linguistic theory including phonetics and phonology, grammar, lexicology and semantics; translation including English-Vietnamese translation and versus; countries studies about United States of America, United Kingdom and Australia; History

of English Literature; and English Methodology The total amount of time spent on all these is 800

hours of class meeting During each semester, cadets‟ assessment is based on three scores including

attendance and participation accounting for 10% (equal to 1 point), a mid-term test accounting for

30% (equal to 3 points), and an end-of-term test accounting for 60% (equal to 6 points).

Besides, during the studying time at MSA, military cadets will cover three Military English

course books namely Command English by James Arnold and Captain Robert Sacco (in the second semester of the first school-year), Campaign 1 (in first semester of the second school- year) and Campaign 2 (in the first semester of the third school-year), both written by Simon

Mellor-Clark & Yvonne Baker de Altamirano Studying these ME course books, cadets have a good opportunity to practice integrated skills with specific topics in the military field.

Based on the course's objectives, the cadets are sent to learn English to meet the demand of theirduty After the course they will have to deal with a special duty in which they have to deal with English

in the field of military For example, they may have to translate military documents from English intoVietnamese and versus; they may work as interpreters for army officials when these officials meet army

officials from a foreign country (either from native English speaking countries or non-native Englishspeaking countries); or they may have to listen to pieces of military relating news in English broadcast inBBC, VOA or from other sources and then translate it into Vietnamese In short, the learners' target needs canrefer to their job requirements, that is, what they will be able to do at the end of the English course In detail,they have to deal with English on military topics such as: troops, tanks, weapon, etc and their duty maycover the five language learning skills: speaking, listening, reading, writing, and translating.

2.4.3 Teaching and learning facilities

Cadets are of from 25 to 33 in number in each class, sitting in traditionally arranged tables.

In terms of ME materials, both teachers and cadets at MSA use the first versions copied from the original Campaign 1 and 2 Despite the fairly good quality of F1 copy, there are

no coloured pictures or diagrams, except pure black and white.

Luckily, the quality of the CDs is good because they are the first version burned from the original ones.However, CD players are not as good as expected There are no supportive loudspeakers in the classroom.There is only one projector which is used for both cadets and civilian students Therefore, the chance of using it is totally seldom.

To sum up, this chapter has provided an overview of the relevant literature in the field

of study, namely definitions of key terms, the classifications of learning strategies, the brief description of the course book Campaign 2, and current teaching and learning English in MSA All of them will be referred back in the following parts of the thesis.

CHAPTER 3: DATA COLLECTION, FINDINGS, AND DISCUSSIONS

This chapter embraces two main points regarding data collection and findings & discussions.Regarding the first point, the information of the participants and methods of collecting data isthoroughly described After that, the study results are specifically presented and discussed Theresults are categorized in five main headings, namely (i) Cadets‟ attitude towards listening skill, (ii)Cadets‟ opinion on the listening tasks in the course book Campaign 2, (iii) Cadets‟ difficulties inlistening to military texts and possible sources of difficulties, (iv) Cadets‟ use of listeningstrategies, and (v) Cadets‟ opinion on the teachers‟ way of teaching listening tasks in Campaign 2

3.1 Data collection

3.1.1 Subjects’ background information

The informants are 33 cadets major in English, who are in the first semester of the third academicschool-year Two-thirds of them come from city and town; the rest are from rural areas of differentprovinces around Vietnam All of the informants learnt English at secondary school, passed theuniversity entrance exams three years ago, and have been learners of English at the academy for overtwo years Among them five are female and the rest are male, aging from 20 to 23

In terms of ME, the cadets have finished two ME course books named Command English and

Campaign 1, respectively However, the command of English of those cadets is not equally the same.

Based on the results of the tests in previous terms and the researcher‟s own observation, about 15%(5/33) of the cadets have good command of English (average mark is from 8.0 to 9.0), about 24%

(8/33) of them have fairly good command of English (average mark is from 7.0 to 8.0), about 39% (13/33) of them have average command of English (average mark is from 6.0 to 7.0) and the rest 22% (7/33) have weak command of English (average mark is 5.0 and below).

3.1.2 Methods of collecting data

Questionnaire is chosen as the major instrument of data collection in this study because of itsnumerous advantages First, it is really economical compared to recoding or camcoding, which issuitable for teachers‟ salary Moreover, information can be collected quickly within a short period oftime In addition, respondents can complete the questionnaire when it suits them Finally, withquestionnaire, respondents‟ anonymity is respected, which makes respondents feel free to answer thequestions Therefore, the results of the questionnaire are expected to be more accurate and objective

To get enough information from the subjects, a survey questionnaire comprising 5 main partswith 30 questions were carried out Almost all the questions are designed in the form of Likert-item

type, which is clear for informants to follow and comprehend Following is the brief description of the questionnaire.

(i) The two first questions are to find out informants‟ attitude towards

- Associating/ Elaborating and Placing new words into context (Memory strategies)

are included in Questions 12 &13.

- Getting the ideas quickly, Taking notes, and Summarizing (Cognitive strategies)

are presented in Questions 14, 15, and 16.

- Guessing, using linguistic clues and Guessing, using other clues (Compensation

strategies) are asked in Questions 17 & 18.

- Paying attention, Finding about learning strategies, Identifying purposes, and Seeking

practice opportunities (Metacognitive strategies) are raised in Questions 19, 20, 21, and 22.

- Lowering anxiety, and Describing feelings about learning in diaries (Affective

strategies) are checked in Questions 23 & 24.

- Asking for clarification, Practicing with fellow learners, and Trying to learn about target

cultures (Social strategies) are mentioned in Questions 25, 26, and 27.

(v) The last part, questions, from 28 to 30, intends to discover cadets‟ opinion on the teachers‟ ways of teaching ME listening lessons at MSA.

All of the thirty questions were carefully worded and tested through a pilot survey Therefore, there was no misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the questions, which helped ensure the reliability and validity of data collected.

Besides, a test downloaded from www.campaignmilitaryenglish.comwas given to the informants tocheck their real performance in applying listening strategies in exploiting listening tasks in Campaign 2

The test is 25 minutes long, composed of four tasks Task 1 consists of 10 True-False questions to testcadets‟ skill of finding specific information from a telephone conversation Task 2 is

composed of 10 statements with one or two gaps for completion Each gap needs to be fulfilledwith only one word Task 3 is another note-taking exercise but with longer fulfilling- neededinformation (no more than five words) Task 4 is in the form of three-option multiple choicequestions aiming at testing cadet‟s ability to get detailed information and deductively reasoning.Additionally, in order to collect further information backing up those collected from the survey questionnaire, informal discussions with cadets during short-breaks and small talks with teachers after staff meeting time were also carried out.

3.2 Findings and discussions

In this part, all the collected data are presented in tables, charts and figures following five sections described in 3.1.2 Each of them is in turn followed by an analysis and discussion.

3.2.1 Cadets’ attitude towards listening skill

AnswersQuestions

12

Table 4: Cadets’ Attitudes towards Listening Skill

A noticeable finding in the table worth mentioning is that nearly all of the informants, 93.4% (31/33), consider listening a very important skill This could reflect the fact that we tend to do a lot of listening in our everyday life Being aware of the importance of listening comprehension will help students overcome difficulties that hinder their learning process However, this does not mean that listening skill is taught in isolation In fact, all the four language skills need to be combined to reinforce one another.

At the same time, a relatively high proportion of informants of 51.5% (17/33) think that listening is the most difficult to learn among the four basic skills 36.3% (12/33) of the informants rank it the second and 12.2% (4/33) consider listening the third difficulty compared

to writing, speaking and reading Hence, despite teachers‟ myth that listening is the easiest skill to teach, for cadets, listening is the hardest skill to acquire in learning a foreign language.

3.2.2 Cadets’ opinion on the listening tasks in the course book “Campaign 2”

Statements

3 The topics of the listening comprehension in the

course book are ….to your own knowledge

4 The length of the listening comprehension in the

course book is…

5 The speaking speed of the speaker(s) in the listening

comprehension is…

6 The accent of the speakers in the listening

comprehension is…for you to listen and recognizewords

7 In your opinion, in the listening texts of the course

book, there are…difficult words and phrases for you

to understand

9 In your opinion, the tasks in the listening

comprehension in the course book themselves are…

Table 5: Cadets’ Opinion on the Listening Tasks in the Course book “Campaign 2”

In terms of length of the listening texts, it is lucky to see that a high percentage of the cadets with75.76% (25/33) in class agree that the listening texts are of average length for them to follow This is due tothe fact of using ME in real life The content of information transferred is usually brief and precise.

Similarly, the speed of the speaker(s) in the listening comprehension is also considered neutral

by many cadets 63.64% (21/33) of them think that the speed is suitable for them to follow Only12.12% (4/33) of informants report that they find it fast and too fast to catch up with the speaker(s)

In contrast to the speed, quite many cadets find it hard to realize the accents of the speakers 51.51

% (17/33) of the informants think that it is quite difficult to recognize the speakers‟ accent and

21.21% (7/33) think it is difficult Only 15.15% (5/33) of the informants get acquainted to different accents of the speakers and no one find it very easy, which is relevant to learners

of foreign languages, especially when they have not had any chance to live among natives and other groups of speakers of English.

When acquiring ESP, the seem-most problematic for learners is terminology Data collected fromthe questionnaire show that nearly 40% (13/33) of the informants find that there are so many and manydifficult words and phrases to understand Not many cadets of 24.24% (8/33) find it easy to deal withvocabulary and certainly, no one is familiar with all words and phrases in listening texts

It is happy to see that many cadets, 60.61% (20/33), find the quality of the CDs good for them It is because the CDs are new and original This contributes to lessening difficulties for them in comprehending listening texts.

However, when being asked about the level of difficulties of the tasks, still quite a high percentage of the informants find it hard to deal with: 45.45% (15/33) think it quite difficult and 30.3% (10/33) think it difficult These may due to other factors which will be analyzed in the following part.

3.2.3 Cadets’ difficulties in listening to military texts and possible sources of difficulties

Figure1: Cadets’ Difficulties in Listening to Military Texts

Among nine suggested points of difficulties that may face cadets, the highest rate falls

on the understanding and remembering new words or ideas with 81.81% (27/33) Ranking the second and the third are summarizing with 63.63% (21/33) and note-taking with 54.54% (18/33) Getting the specific information comes next with 51.51% (17/33) of the subjects pointing out this difficulty Inferencing is also problematic for cadets when 45.45% (15/33) of the informants report that they have difficulty in this skill.

Luckily, understanding the overall of listening texts and getting the main ideas are not really challenging for informants 21.21% (7/33) of the informants make this conclusion This proves that the learners somehow know what should be focused on when listening Similarly, while new vocabulary is problematic, grammatical structures in ME listening texts are quite simple for cadets to comprehend: only 24.24% (8/33) of the informants choose this point 36.36% (12/33) of the respondents find concentrating a bit problematic when they are tired or distracted by other factors like noise outside the classroom.

Interestingly, quite a big number of informants of 48.48% (16/33) add the same problem in dealing with ME listening texts that is translating terms into Vietnamese This is due to the nonequivalence of ME terms between English and Vietnamese.

Thus, it is easy to recognize that students seem to have more problems related to terminology, getting detailed information, making inference, summarizing and note- taking.

The above difficulties are rooted from following sources which are reported from cadets‟ personal views.

D

C B

A

Figure 2: Possible Sources of Difficulties

The highest percentage of informants with 72.72% (24/33) chooses the reason for lackingvocabulary (A) It is explained why it is hard for them to understand detailed information despite thefact that generally they can grasp what speaker(s) is/ are talking about Ranking the second and the thirdare the lack of providing listening strategies for every single task from teachers (E) and the lack ofbackground knowledge about the topic (B) with 69.7% (23/33) and 48.48% (16/33), respectively.Besides, local accents (D) as discussed in 3.2.2 are also a cause of difficulty when there are 42.4%(14/33) of the informants ticking it in the survey Finally, cadets‟ confidence and interest (C) accountrelatively high proportion with 39.39% (13/33) in the process of understanding listening texts

3.2.4 Cadets’ use of listening strategies

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30

Always used

Usually used