A study on the effects of digital stories on students listening comprehension at elementary level

Among the four skills of the English language, listening has been claimed to be the most difficult English language skill to a majority of Vietnamese students.Particularly, many students

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF

với khả năng nghe hiểu của sinh viên ở trình độ sơ cấp

M.A Minor Program Thesis

Major: Theory and methodology in teaching EnglishCode: 11045226

HANOI - 2018

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF

với khả năng nghe hiểu của sinh viên ở trình độ sơ cấp

M.A Minor Program Thesis

Major: Theory and methodology in teaching EnglishCode: 11045226

Supervisor: Nguyen Thu Hanh, Ph.D

HANOI - 2018

This M.A thesis could not have been accomplished without the invaluablehelp, encouragement and support form a number of people who I would like toshow my sincerest gratitude and appreciation

To begin with, I would like to express my greatest and deepest thankfulness

to Mrs.Nguyễn Thu Hạnh, my supervisor, for her enthusiastic and preciousguideline and advice throughout the duration of my thesis Without her instructionand supervision, this thesis could not have reached the fulfillment

Moreover, my honest thanks also come to studentsat Military University ofCulture and Arts, especially students in experimental and control group whoparticipated in my quasi-experimental research

Last but not least, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my familyand relativeswho have always supported me and supplied the best conditions for me to completethis thesis

Among the four skills of the English language, listening has been claimed to

be the most difficult English language skill to a majority of Vietnamese students.Particularly, many students have trouble catching main ideas or dealing withlistening comprehension tasks in their exams, especiallylistening A2 level is a reallychallenging test for university students This study was conducted to examine theeffectiveness of Digital stories on helping students summarizing events andrecognizing main ideas in doing listening tasks On the basics of a quasi-experimental research, two groups of first-year students at Military University ofCulture and Arts, who were learning English as a non-major subject, participated inthis research in the role of the experimental group and control group Student‟sdiary, semi-structured interview and listening tests were employed to collect data forthe research Before the treatment, no significant difference was founded betweenboth groups in their descriptive writing ability Due to the restricted schedule, theresearcher could only pilot eight Digital stories in listening lessons for theexperimental students, and the same two to teach students in the control group usingtraditional method Interestingly, the post-test results indicated that experimentalstudents who are taught with Digital stories attained higher in scores when doinglistening tasks in terms of summarizing events and recognizing main ideas Besides,via results gathered from diary and semi-structured interview, it revealed thatalthough participants encountered with various problems related to their attitudesand engagement, the higher levels they had, the more they were interested in theinnovation

Table of contents

Declaration

Acknowledgements

Abstract

List of tables

List of graphs

INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

2 Significance of the study

3 Aims and objectives of the study

4 Scope of the study

5 Research questions

6 Research method

7 Structure of the study

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .

1.1 Theoretical background of listening and listening comprehension

1.1.1 Definition of Listening

1.1.2 Definition of Listening comprehension

1.1.3 Teaching Listening Comprehension

1.2 Theoretical background of Digital stories

1.2.1 Definition of Digital stories

1.2.2 Types of Digital Stories

1.3 Digital Stories in Teaching Listening Comprehension

1.4 How to make a digital story

1.5 Summary

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 Population and sample

2.2 Research method 21

2.3 Data collection instruments 23

2.3.1 Semi-structured interview 23

2.3.2 Students‟ diaries 24

2.3.3 Listening comprehension Test 26

2.4 Data collection procedure 27

2.5 Data analysis procedures 28

2.6 Summary 28

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 29

3.1 Data collected from diaries and semi-structured interview 29

3.2 Data collected from listening tests 35

3.2.1 Pre-listening test 35

3.2.2 Post-listening test 39

3.3 Summary 45

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 46

4.1 A summary of the major findings 46

4.2 Limitations of the study 47

4.3 Suggestions for further study 47

REFERENCES 49

APPENDIXES I

List of tables

Table 3.1 Test of normality of data of the pre-test 36

Table 3.2 Group statistics of pre-test 37

Table 3.3 Independent samples test of pre-test 37

Table 3.4 Pre-test cross tabulation 38

Table 3.5 Test of normality of data of the post-listening test 39

Table 3.6 Group Statistics of the post-listening test 40

Table 3.7 Independent samples t-test of the post-listening test 40

Table 3.8 Post-test cross tabulation 41

Table 3.9 Effect size value 44

List of graphs

Graph 3.1 Mark frequency in the pre-test of both groups 38

Graph 3.2 Mark frequency in the post-test of both groups 41

Graph 3.3 Students‟ mean score in the pre-test and post-test 43

1. Rationale

Listening is considered as a key role in communication In fact, listeningskills are acquired and developed naturally at pre-school An effective mothertongue education at school makes it possible to raise students who can comprehend,synthesize and evaluate what they listen to Despite its critical role in languageacquisition and effective communication, listening in educational environmentsdoes not get enough emphasis and is generally neglected Wacker and Hawkins(1995) stated that listening skill is the most commonly used skill at a rate of 45% indaily life Listening is the only comprehension skill used by individuals during theirpreschool period, and also in school, before they learn to read and write

However, the teaching of listening comprehension seems to be neglected and poorlytaught aspect of English in many EFL programs (Mendelsohn, 1994) EFL learnershave serious problems in English listening comprehension due to the fact thatuniversities pay more attention to English grammar, reading and vocabulary.Moreover, the progress made in English training and learning in Vietnam is behindthe shift in ideology Obstacles such as overcrowded classes and the ongoingoveruse of traditional grammar-translation methods prohibit the country‟s languageeducation from achieving its goal

In recent years, with the development of media and computer technology,educators have begun to make use of multimedia and technology to improve theirteaching and consequently students‟ language learning as Chang (1991) put it thevast majority of the published research on the effectiveness of media andtechnology in language instruction is encouraging With the increase of moresophisticated multimedia technology, there is renewed interest in thecomplementary relationship of visual and auditory channels in listeningcomprehension (Brett, 1995; Felix, 1995) According to Brett (1995), digitalstorytelling for foreign language learning can provide a more realistic picture of the

new language and culture in the classroom, including not only linguistic but alsoparalinguistic features such as body language, gestures, prosody, etc., which help toconvey meaning to the learners It is believed that digital stories, if appropriatelyselected, can prove to be very useful in developing learners' listening skills Theytend to be visual, interactive and reiterative Usually, learners have to listen to andunderstand a simple order in order to proceed with the story by clicking on parts ofthe screen or the picture The interactivity of Internet-based stories, we assume, mayfacilitate learning since children are actively involved in decoding andunderstanding the story (Donato, 1994) Students are allowed to proceed at theirown pace which also affords a high level of individual control The reiterativenature of the kind of stories used here could also help children progressively learnthe foreign language Finally, gains in listening skills and understanding seem tobring benefits to improve children's reading comprehension.

Inspired by the above mentioned theoretical views and noticing the lack ofsuch a study in Vietnamese EFL learning context, the researcher set out to conduct a

research entitled “A study onthe effects of Digital Stories on students' listening

comprehension at elementary level” at a Military university in Hanoi.

2. Significance of the study

The study of using Digital Stories in listening comprehension lessons is theapplication of technology in English language teaching The result of this study cansupport teachers in finding an effective tool to develop their students‟ listeningskills This project is also expected to increase elementary students‟ motivation inthe engagement of listening activities

3 Aims and objectives of the study

3.1 Aims of the study

This study attempts to examine the effects that Digital Stories have ondeveloping the understanding of spoken English by elementary students at auniversity in Vietnam Hence, concentrating on the application of Digital Stories inteaching listening comprehension is expected to bring certain positive results

3.2 Objectives of the study

The study is designed:

 firstly, to investigate students‟ opinions of using Digital Stories in listening comprehension lessons;

 secondly, to find out to what extent Digital Stories can develop students‟ listening comprehension at elementary level

4. Scope of the study

Within the scope of a minor thesis, the study only concentrates on the effects

of Digital Stories on the teaching and learning 8 listening lessons Added to that,due to the time limit and restricted scope of the paper, the author could only focus

on two classes of freshmen at a Military university in Hanoi to carry out a experimental research as well as interviews

quasi-5. Research questions

The research seeks the answers for the following research questions:

1. What are students‟ opinions of using Digital Stories in listening

quasi-7. Structure of the study

The thesis consists of the followings:

theoretical constructs concerning to Digital Stories and listening comprehension along with review on previous related studies Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides a methodological framework for collecting and analyzing data

Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, data analysis and findings of the study are presented with theillustration of tables and charts

Chapter 4: CONCLUSION

Summary of the major findings and suggestions for further research are presented in this part

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Theoretical background of listening and listening comprehension

1.1.1 Definition of Listening

Listening has been defined by many researchers Byrne (1986) definedlistening as an active process and he added that when one listens to his mothertongue, understanding normally seems effortless because the experience of thespoken language is enormous He mentioned that going back to the time when onewas born, s/he was exposed to quantities of language and different speakers, andvariety of topics Because of that experience the listeners can easily identify themessage, phonological and grammatical patterns, as well lexical items Secondly,the experience of language caused the awareness of all factors that help to predicatewhat is likely to come next Thirdly, there are a number of contextual clues to helpthe interacters in listening comprehension to know about the participants, thesetting, the topic and the purpose Not all listening situations are easy, especiallywhen one cannot see the speaker(s) particularly facial expression, for example, as

on the telephone it required more than concentration to understand the topic Headded that the length of time of listening without participating may cause memoryproblems To avoid this problem, the writer suggested two ways of responding:firstly, interacting by which the listener participates as a speaker in a conversation ordiscussion; secondly, reacting that is the listener does or says something as a result

of what s/he has heard

On the other hand, Van Duzer (1997) believed that Listening is a criticalelement in the competent language performance of adult second language learners,whether they are communicating at school, at work, or in the community Throughthe normal course of a day, listening is used nearly twice as much as speaking andfour to five times as much as reading and writing

Thompson and Rubin (1996) defined listening process as an active processthrough which the listeners select and interpret information that comes from

auditory and visual clues in order to define what is going on and what the speakersare trying to express Listening is viewed to be an active process in whichindividuals focus on selected aspects of 'aural input', construct meaning frompassages and relate what they hear to existing knowledge.

Fang (2008) stated that Listening is the “Cinderella skill” in second languagelearning It became fashionable again in the 1980s when Krashen‟s (1987) ideasabout comprehensible input gained prominence Richards (1987) stated that the ideaabout the comprehensible input gained prominence that requires negotiation ofmeaning and which contains linguistic features a little beyond the learner‟s currentlevel of competence

As Rost (1994) pointed out that of the four language skills, namely speaking,listening, reading and writing, listening is the most critical for language learning atthe beginning stages Large amounts of listening practice before speaking or readingmay prepare the learner to acquire a second language with a greater efficiency than

if s/he was taught all the skills simultaneously In fact, listening is the mostfrequently used language skill in everyday life Actually, people in general listentwice as much as they speak four times as much as we read, and five times as much

as we write Listening is a highly integrative skill Listening is assuming greater andgreater importance in foreign language classrooms

To conclude, listening skills should be discussed under two related headings.Firstly, it is the processing sound by which the listener can recognize wordutterance, sentences recognize significance of language-related features such as:intonation, pitch and tone Secondly, it is the processing meaning, by which thelistener can organize the heard speech into meaningful sections, to identify thelanguage data to understand what speakers are going to say, and to store information

in memory and know how to get them back later, by organizing meaning anddetails

1.1.2 Definition of Listening comprehension

The term “listening comprehension” has been defined by different authors.Listening is a basic input to communicate and interact It plays an important role in

building communication skill According to Brown and Yule (1983), listeningcomprehension means that a person understands what he/she has heard If he/she learnsthe text through hearing it, he/she will understand it Dirven and Oakeshott-Taylor(1984) defined listening comprehension as the product of teaching methodology and ismatched by terms such as speech understanding, spoken language understanding,speech recognition, and speech perception Rost (2002) and Hamouda (2013) claimedlistening comprehensioninteractive processes in which listeners are involved inconstructing meaning Listeners comprehend the oral input through sounddiscrimination, previous knowledge, grammatical structures, stress and intonation, andthe other linguistic or non-linguistic clues According to Nadig (2013), listeningcomprehension is the various processes of understanding and making sense of spokenlanguage These involve knowing speech sounds, comprehending the meaning ofindividual words, and understanding the syntax of sentences.

To sum up, it is widely admitted that listening comprehension is not merelythe process of a unidirectional receiving of audible symbols, but an interactiveprocess (Brown, 2001) In the eight processes of comprehension (Clark & Clark,1980; Brown, 2001) the hearer, after receiving the information, assigns a literalmeaning to the utterance first and then assigns an intended meaning to the utterance

According to the author, listening comprehension should be considered as aninteractive process in which listeners are involved in constructing meaning In theresearch, this process consisting sound discrimination, previous knowledge,grammatical structures, stress and intonation as well as other linguistic or non-linguistic clues needs to be investigated

Hughes (1991) pointed out that there are two skills involved in listeningcomprehension, they are:

 Macro skill

In macro skill, to understand what someone says a listener has to involvewith listening for specific information, obtaining a gist of what is being heard or thelistener should get the general idea of the information, following instruction ordirections etc The explanation of macro skill will be elaborated as follows:

Identifying the main idea

Identifying the main idea of a text is one of the prominent skills in listeningcomprehension The main idea tells the topic of the paragraph which tells what alland most the paragraphs are about Main idea helps students remember importantinformation because it is the key concept of the whole paragraph

Identifying specific information

Specific information includes the details of the paragraph and develops themain idea or the topic sentence It consists of information such as how, what, when,where, why, how much, or how many in the paragraph

Identifying inference

Inference is a knowledgeable prediction about something which is based onthe information and facts In order to get the inference of the text, students have todraw conclusions refers to information that is implied or not stated Using the clues

of information to give a deeper understanding and go beyond the surface details tosee other meanings that the details suggest and imply

Identifying reference

Reference is a relation between words or utterances which provides theinformation necessary to interpret the other It is the connection between words inwhich one word as a signal or acts as a link to other words in the text

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar and known

to the person who uses it Vocabulary is essential for communication purposes andacquiring knowledge

 Micro skill

In micro skill, to understand what someone says a listener has to interpretintonation pattern (e.g recognize stress and rhythm), recognition of function ofstructures (interrogative as request, imperative e.g sit down!; cohesive devices e.g.such as and which, detect sentence constituents, e.g subject, verb, object, preposition),recognizing discourse markers (e.g well; oh, another thing is; now, finally)

Each skill has its usefulness in gaining information and objectives Forexample, the macro skill is the skill that will be mostly used in this research because

it deals with the information that the learner or students will be retained

In this research, both macro and micro skills will be involved becausestudents have to use their prior knowledge to understand the general meaning of themessage that they will listen in the video and audio tape They also have to be able

to interpret intonation and recognize the vocabularies along with the structure of themessage Students will listen for obtaining specific information and encouraginggist of what is being heard They have to grasp the general idea of the information,following instruction or directions that they will heard and watch in the video andaudio tape

1.1.3 Teaching Listening Comprehension

Listening plays an important role in language learning Therefore, teacherhas to be able to lead the students in improving and sharpening their listening skills

in the class Cross (1998) stated that without listening skill, no communication can

be achieved Meanwhile, teacher should lead the students in mastering theirlistening skills so that they are able to communicate and respond to the message thatthe speaker intends to

Byrne (1978) statedteachers need to follow the three essential steps in teachinglistening comprehension, in forward; the students are expected to be able to:

a) Hear the sound: The students hear the information from the speaker in verbal communication

b) Identify the sound: The students make sense out of the information byusing their background knowledge Moreover, if they consider it new,they will keep it in their mind

c) Produce the respond: After the students identifying the information,they will interpret the data and respond to the speaker as the reflectionthat they receive the information by using the means of language

Through listening comprehension, the students are more than just hearingwhat the spoken word said but also able to understand the meaning of the word andrelate it with what they already know The listener also has to be able to respond andexchange the message of what they already heard from the speaker Withoutunderstanding input appropriately, listening simply cannot get any improvement.Therefore, in teaching listening activity, both students and teachers should activelyinvolve in the teaching and learning process Teaching listening is a process whichrequired an active interaction between students and the teacher as the teacher leadsthem to master the listening skills so that they are able to comprehend the overallmessage and respond on the speaker‟s intention.

There are some techniques in listening comprehension based on thecommunicative approach The selection of appropriate technique and media inteaching learning process is required for the teacher In this case, the writer choosesvideo and audio tape in teaching listening comprehension By implementing thevideo and audio tape, the writer assumed that it will overcome the students‟boredom during teaching listening comprehension It is reasonable because younglearners usually like to listen to audio tape alongside watch video which is an audiovisual aid that involved sound and moving pictures so that students will beinterested in the learning process

When the purpose of teaching listening comprehension is achieved thenstudents‟ achievement in listening comprehension will be improved as well Hence,teacher is required to apply suitable materials in teaching listening process because

it is a process which required an active interaction between students and the teacher

as the teacher leads them to master the listening skills so that they are able tocomprehend the overall message and respond on the speaker‟s intention

1.2 Theoretical background of Digital stories

1.2.1 Definition of Digital stories

Firstly, a story is defined as a narrative account of a real or imaginedevent(s), it is a structure of narrative with a specific style and a set of characters

Additionally, in the “storytelling” technique learners may share experience andlearn from others‟ wisdom, beliefs, and values Besides, stories build blocks ofknowledge and it is the foundation of memory and learning, lastly, stories connectpeople to the past, present and the future (Barzaq, 2009).

Maynard (2005) defined stories as the way people communicate theirexperience, the way they understand the experience of others, the way they liberatetheir imaginations, the way they make sense of the world and their own positionwithin it He also stated that stories are important to people, politics, and education.Stories are how people make sense of themselves and their worlds

In young children‟s spontaneous stories that they act out as they play, onecan see how they believe people relate to one another, who they hope to become,and how they will behave As adults,the true and imaginary stories wish to tell,believe and suggest what the most important value in this world In a real sense,stories make people For this reason, stories are political because they address theways in which people identities, their beliefs, attitudes, and values, are created andmaintained “Storytelling is a task shared by storyteller and story listeners, it is theinteraction of the two that makes a story come to life” (Baker and Greene, 1985)

Digital Storytelling is the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling

It represents its power by existing images, music, narrative and voice together,thereby giving deep dimension and wonderful color to characters, situations,experiences, and insights Telling stories through digital media has become easierwith a variety media tools, and it is an effective way for students to share culturalinformation Rule (2008), in his study, indicated some educational uses of digitalstorytelling:

- It combines text and images with narration in the student‟s own voice toform a short digital move

- Digital Storyteller is a web-based tool that offers teachers and students'frictionless access to digital images and materials that enable them to constructcompelling personal narratives

- Digital storytelling tools are easy for students to use, so the focus of the activities can be on the storytelling and sharing others' experiences.

- Furthermore, digital storytelling empowers students to share cultural information and stories

- Digital storytelling gives the students the ability to reach more stories than ever before in history

Digital storytelling takes many forms There are stories that are audio onlyand rely on words, sound effects, field recordings, and music Web-based mediafacilitate not only stories with words, but also movies, stills, sounds, and graphics.People have a fundamental desire to tell each other stories Human communicationseems to revolve around remembering and sharing experiences

Stories are valuable in that they serve as a means for passing on knowledgeranging from the little things in life to those big issues which give human experienceform and definition People can define digital storytelling as the process by whichpeople of all ages and experience share with others' stories from their lives or creativeimagination This new form of storytelling has emerged with accessible mediaproduction techniques using computers, digital cameras, recorders and software Thisnew technology allows individuals to share their stories over the Internet Furthermore,they can think of digital storytelling as the modern extension of the

ancient art of storytelling but now woven together with images and sound “Digitalstorytelling facilitates the use technology to inform and entertain” (Porter, 2005)

1.2.2 Types of Digital Stories

There are many different types of digital stories, but it is possible tocategorize the major types into the following three major groups:1) personalnarratives - stories that contain accounts of significant incidents in one‟s life; 2)historical documentaries – stories that examine dramatic events that help usunderstand the past, and 3) stories designed to inform or instruct the viewer on aparticular concept or practice (Robin, 2008)

Personal Narratives

One of the most popular reasons for producing digital stories is to create apersonal narrative This type of story has multiple benefits in an educational setting.First, other students who view the story learn about people from diversebackgrounds other than their own and they can gain an appreciation of the types ofhardships faced by fellow classmates whose families have come from anothercountry A story such as this one can be used to facilitate discussions about currentissues such as race, multiculturalism and the globalization In addition, a studentwho creates such a story can benefit from sharing that story with others and therebyuse information as a way of eliminating some of the distance that foreign bornstudents feel between themselves and their peers A personal narrative like this onecan also be a positive means for dealing with the some of the emotional familyissues that were described in the story

Historical Documentaries

Although many personal narratives can include historical information to addcontext to the story, a different kind of digital story can be created from historicalmaterials that students might explore in a classroom

Stories that Inform or Instruct

While it can be argued that all digital stories inform (and perhaps instruct),the distinction here is that there is room to create a separate category for stories thatreflect instructional materials in content areas such as maths, science, healtheducation and instructional technology

1.3 Digital Stories in Teaching Listening Comprehension

Despite the potential benefits of digital stories, there are few studies on theuse of digital stories in language skill areas, especially on listening

According to Aiex (1988), storytelling is a creative art form that hasentertained and informed across centuries and cultures and its instructional potentialcontinues to serve teachers Storytelling, or oral literature, has many of its roots inthe attempt to explain life or the mysteries of the world and the universe that to try

to make sense out of things In stories, the characters and themes have becomecultural and often cross-cultural of historic and continuing importance He alsoinvestigated the effects of three mediums for presenting literature to children anddiscovered that storytelling and dramatization were significantly more effective infacilitating recall of prose content These findings indicated that storytelling is avaluable method for stimulating children's imaginations, ultimately leading to ahigher cognitive level in student responses Besides, he discussed ways to usemythic literature to teach children about themselves and to help them write theirown stories and legends For very young children, the sequencing of events or theshaping of stories may be difficult, as children tend to ramble However, sharingstories can give young children more of a "sense of story"- an awareness that canhelp them in both reading and writing In reading, for example, a sense of story canhelp children to predict and know what to expect, and to read with more awareness

of cause and effect, sequence, and other story factors related to comprehension Inwriting, children learn to apply such structures while telling their own stories andgiving shape to their experiences Perhaps storytelling‟s greatest value for a teacher

is its effectiveness in fostering a relaxed and intimate atmosphere in the classroom

He also explained how this practical and general objective can relate to theother benefits from using storytelling He asserted that it can 1) introduce children

to a range of story experiences; 2) provide young students with models of storypatterns, themes, characters, and incidents to help them in their own writing, orallanguage, and thinking; 3) nurture and encourage a sense of humour in children; 4)help put children's own words in perspective; 5) increase knowledge andunderstanding of other places, races, and beliefs; 6) introduce new ideas and be used

to question established concepts without threat to the individual; 7) lead todiscussions that are far ranging and often more satisfying than those arising fromformal lessons; and 8) serve as the most painless way of teaching children to listen,

to concentrate, and to follow the thread and logic of an argument

Asserted the same topic, Boje (1991) stated that storytelling is much more than

an effective method to teach students to use management concepts and to make sense ofreal life experiences Practice in storytelling builds students‟ “performance” and

“learning” skills In addition, story skills training may enhance managementperformance The article includes practical advice on teaching storytelling skills, aswell as on story writing and story interpretation skills With practice, students doimprove their performance as storytellers and enhance their chances for scripting ahealthier, happier, and more terrific story for their work lives

Realized the benefits of storytelling in language learning, Tsou et al (2004)developed a multimedia storytelling website to study how web-based technologycan assist English as a foreign language teaching and learning process throughstorytelling and story recalls In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of thiswebsite in significantly facilitating English as a foreign language teaching andlearning process It was implemented in one elementary school The storytellingwebsite was used for both the English as a foreign language instructor to composestories for telling in the experimental group and for English as a foreign languagelearner in the experimental group to compose story recalls This Website served as astorytelling environment for teaching and learning English as a foreign language byallowing users to: (1) compose online multimedia stories in an easy, intuitive, andquick manner, even for young students, (2) re-play and share the stories composed

by others in schools or at home, (3) demonstrate or learn how storytelling can beintegrated into classes, and (4) access the website anytime and anywhere However,

in the control group, the teacher applied only regular storytelling process withoutany assistance from the storytelling website The students in the control group wrotetheir story recalls after each storytelling The results of the study supported thesignificance and the education value of the multimedia storytelling website onEnglish as foreign language teaching and learning If such a website can be appliedwithin elementary English as a foreign language classroom, the quality of teachingand learning can be improved and students‟ enjoyment and success in English as aforeign language learning may increase

Specifically, digital storytelling was introduced in the study by Collen(2006) Students in one group listened and watched two digital stories in class, andstudents in another group listened to the two stories read aloud by the researcher.Listening activities in both classrooms were video recorded, and during theactivities students were required to ask questions about what they listened to, andthe researcher also asked questions concerning comprehension Students whowatched and listened to digital stories concentrated better and gave more attentionduring listening They also gave a higher number of correct answers to questions onthe stories In 2007, Verdugo and Belmonte carried out another research with thesame concern Their paper examined the effects that digital stories may have onunderstanding spoken English by a group of 6-year-old Spanish learners Toaccomplish this aim, a quasi- experimental research study was launched in six stateschools in Madrid A pre-post-test design was used to investigate whether internet-based technology could improve listening comprehension in English as a foreignlanguage Findings indicate that the experimental group outperformed the controlgroup in the final test administered These results raise interesting issues related tothe use of technology in the context of foreign language learning Future researchwhich includes other age groups and digital materials and which explores otherlinguistic areas could further substantiate the link between Information andCommunication Technology (ICT) rich environment and improved languagelearning.

Abidin, Pour-Mohammadi, Souriyavongsa, Da and Ong (2011) investigatedthe effects of digital stories on the listening comprehension skills of pre-schoolstudents in a foreign language learning context In their study, the experimentalgroup watched digital stories and a post-test showed a significant gain over thecontrol group Moreover, Sandaran and Lim (2013) conducted a study of the effects

of digital stories on listening comprehension skills with 9- year old third gradestudents in a Malaysian primary school which used instruction in Chinese Studentslistened and watched eight fairy tales designed as digital stories Preliminary

findings obtained from observations showed that the students‟ interest,concentration and motivation increased substantially, and their listeningcomprehension skills developed during the listening activities However, they statedthat in order to develop listening comprehension skills, there should be vocabularyteaching activities before the students listened to and watched digital stories.

Last but not least, Ciğerci and Gultekin (2017) conducted a significantresearch in order to determine the effect of digital stories on developing the listeningskills of fourth grade primary school students in a Turkish course The study used amixed methods and was conducted in two fourth grade classrooms (ages 9-10 years)

in a primary school in Eskisehir city, Turkey, during the 2014-2015 spring semester.During the 8-week application process, Turkish lessons were conducted usingdigital stories and activities were designed depending on the digital stories Whilethe lesson plans were put into action by the classroom teacher, the researcherobserved the process Research data were obtained also from a listeningcomprehension test, and teacher and student interviews Quantitative data from thelistening comprehension test was analyzed using t-tests, and the qualitative data wassubjected to descriptive analysis A significant difference was found between thepost-test listening comprehension scores for the experimental and control groups.The qualitative data from student and teacher interviews, and from classroomobservations, showed that digital stories, listening activities based on the stories,and the creation of a more engaging and motivating classroom environment hadpositive effects on listening comprehension skills in the experimental group

In short, both traditional storytelling and digital storytelling are important inteaching and learning However, researches show that that it is digital stories that ismore effective in improving listening comprehension when compared to thetraditional method of storytelling

After taking the previous studies into account, the findings of those studiesshed light on both the plus points and shortcomings of the digital storytellingtechniques Although the history of this innovation began about twenty years ago,

digital storytelling is still not prevalent in Vietnam Hence, as a teacher in thisbackground, the researcher will need to give much consideration towards theusefulness as well as the limitations of its to make it more appropriate to herstudents in her own teaching context It is clear that storytelling technique is apowerful tool that enhances learning in all fields Moreover, it is an influentialtechnique that helps developing language skills The conclusions of all the studiesintroduced in this paper have total agreement on the beneficial role, storytellingplays in developing reading and speaking fluency in addition to listening Althoughnot many studies were conducted to reveal the impact of storytelling technique ondeveloping listening comprehension sub-skills, the current researcher points out thatlistening sub-skills are similar to reading sub-skills such as predicting the events,recognizing the main idea, recognizing characters, and so on This belief urges her

to investigate the impact of storytelling technique in enhancing listeningcomprehension skills of the Vietnamese students

1.4 How to make a digital story

There are several steps to create a digital story For a start, the authoridentifies key points in the listening transcript so that the digital story can supportstudent to understand and summarize the main content of the audio After that,appropitate images illustrating those key points would be chosen Next, anapplication called “photostory for windows” is employed to import those selectedimages

The author must arrange the images according to the order of the listeningtape Then, the application allows the user to type text on each image so that it can

be easier to understand The text can be at the top, in the middle or at the bottom ofthe image In the next step, the author just inserts the audio file from their computerand adjusts the audio in order that it well matches with the content demonstrated inthose images

Finally, the author just clicks on “finish” and exports the digital stories to theavailable format so that it will be saved in the computer.

1.5 Summary

In a nutshell, after reviewing previous studies, the researcher considersdigital storytelling as a teaching method in her own educational context Moreover,researcher learns from other linguists that digital stories might be essential as well

as effective in improving learners‟ listening comprehension That‟s the reasonurging her to carry out a study to investigate the relationship between DigitalStories and students‟ listening comprehension skills at the Military University ofCulture and Arts where she is working for

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the methodology adopted for the purpose of thepresent study As a result, information on the research participants, data collection

instruments and procedure of the study are represented in this chapter.

2.1 Population and sample

According to Fraenkel, Wallen and Hyun (2012), sample in the researchrefers to any groups on which information is attained while population is the group

to which the results of the study are intended to apply The sample is usually smallerthan the population which the researcher would like to generalize the findings of thestudy Commonly, the researcher merely uses the sample since it is difficult to getaccess to all member of the population

In this study, the population is the freshmen at Military University of Cultureand Arts enrolled in the academic year of 2017- 2018 All these classes are usingNew English File (elementary level) as their course book Since the sample of theresearch is smaller than the population, the researcher selects only two classes as thesample They are assigned to be the experimental and control group randomly Eachclass includes 30 students and one third of them are female; thus, the total numbers

of the students of the study are 60 students In addition, the placement test results inEnglish listening skills of the students of these two classes are equivalent, whichwill ensure a more precise control between them after the treatment to see theeffects of Digital Stories Therefore, the results of the study will be more valid.Furthermore, 30 students in the experimental groups are coded from 1 to 30according to their names so that the random selection of five students to participate

in a semi- structure interview becomes more objective

2.2 Research method

A mix method, using both qualitative and quantitative method, with a experimental design is employed in this research

quasi-On the basics, a quasi-experimental study is relatively similar to anexperimental research While in the experimental research, participants arerandomly assigned to one of the groups, in the quasi-experimental research, they donot(Mackey&Gass, 2015) Since the population in this study does not consist ofindividuals but groups of individuals or classes, students are not randomly selectedand assigned to the groups.

It is undeniable that mixed methods help researchers to emphasize theresearch problem and broaden their perspective with both quantitative andqualitative data While quantitative data provides listening test results in order topresent numerical representation, qualitative data, in contrast, seems to be moresubjective It ensures that participants‟ “voice” in their diaries and semi-structuredinterview will be listened to and collected for interpretation In general, mixedmethods bring us a variety of advantages First, mixed methods could offset theweaknesses of both: the shortage of context and setting in quantitative research andthe biases in qualitative one Besides, with this kind of method, researchers haveopportunity to use all available tools to reach the most comprehensive data Forexample, Hur&Suh (2012) used 7 data collection tools in their research aiming atachieving a throughout understanding of the overall issue Moreover, the findingsare validated because they are concluded from not only observations but alsostatistical analyses They also appeal to audiences with convincing evidence (wordsand numbers) Especially, with mixed method strategies, researches challengethemselves to produce and combine inductive and deductive thinking and reasoning,wisely

However, mixed methods also have some limitations First of all, it is consuming to collect quantitative and qualitative data Besides, in order to collectenough data, you need to find more resources In fact, it really takes time to applymany data collection tools in one research However, this can be foreseen by manyresearchers (including the researcher) Assistants, in these cases, are necessary.Another weakness of mixed method design is the researchers‟ ability Specifically,

time-researcher needs to master multiple methods and make sure how to mix themeffectively How to interpret conflicting results and analyzing quantitative dataqualitatively still need to be considered.

2.3 Data collection instruments

To gather data for this study, three data collection instruments will be

employed: semi-structure interview, diaries, and listening comprehension tests.

2.3.1 Semi-structured interview

The interview appears to be one of the most used research methods,especially when it comes to the methods of data collections used in qualitativeresearch There are a number of ways to classify interviews Considering theamount of structure deemed appropriate, the interviews can be divided into threemain types, the structured, semi - structured and unstructured According toDenscombe (2007) the semi - structured interview can be placed somewherebetween the two opposing ends - structured (closed questions) and unstructured(closer to observation) interviews

2.3.1.1 Justification of the use of semi-structured interview

Teijlingen (2014) believes semistructured interviews are particularly well suited when exploring sensitive areas such as attitudes, values, beliefs and motivesand since non - verbal indicators are present, it can assist in evaluating validity andurgency Hence, this instrument really meets the researcher‟s need since one of themost crucial purposes of this study is to investigate students‟ opinions towards theuse of Digital Stories in listening comprehension lessons as well as obstacles thatthey encounter during their lessons The fact that the interviewer can create andavoid questions in order to adjust to the topic, makes the semi - structured interviewmore flexible and adaptive This also leads to more effective data collection Moreimportantly, the researcher prefers to use semi - structured interviews because thequestions can be prepared in advance so that well-structured answers can bereceived from participants in order to construct research narratives

-2.3.1.2 Description of semi-structured interview

This study follows Athur and Nazroo (2003) as they suggest a frame forplanning the topic guide before the interview Therefore, in this study the semi-structured interview includes four parts: The introduction, opening questions, corein-depth questions and closure (see Appendix 1)

The first step in this interview is to introduce the research to the interviewees

in order to ensure that the participants are aware of the purpose of the research andhas given informed consent After that, several early questions are given to make theparticipants feel confident and gather background facts about students‟ listeningskills to contextualize the rest of the interview During the interview, the researcherfocuses on asking participants about their opinions and attitudes towardsexperimental listening lessons applying Digital Stories along with any difficultiesthey encounter Finally, the researcher signals the end of the interview with gratitudeand informs participants what will happen next with their answers.Furthermore, thisstudy was carried out with both group and individual interviews in parallel in order

to bring insights into students‟ real experiences based on a variety of circumstantialsources such as facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice and so on.After having conducted directly facing interviews in groups to discover students‟experiences from their own perspectives, individual interviews were held thenaimed at achieving more specific responses that might be hidden among a group ofrespondents For instance, because of being afraid of losing face, some participantsmight not or were not willing to admit that they got into troubles with the methodduring the process The data then became unreliable, as a result

2.3.2 Students’ diaries

Krishnan and Lee (2002) define diaries as first person observations ofexperiences that are recorded over a period of time While many researchers refer tosuch records as diaries because they tends to be associated with „confessions‟ or

„baring the soul‟ “highlighting the unavoidable tension between writing a record of

personal relevance and having it read by a tutor” (Jarvis, 1992: 135) However,some other researchers prefer to call them diaries or records because it seems torelate to public consumption and they are designed to be read by others This studywill use the term “diary” as it appears not only to be more widely employed but alsosuits for the researcher‟s purpose.

2.3.2.1 Justification of the use of diaries

The purpose of this paper was to suggest digital stories as a tool for teachingstudents listening skills Clearly, listening to digital stories would be processed bystudents in experimental group during eigtht weeks of experiment As a result, diarieswere applied in here first is for managing their participation in the listening activity.Besides diaries are stated as a tool to examine “personal assumptions and goals” andclarify “individual belief systems and subjectivities” by Russell & Kelly (2002).Janesick (1999) also claims that diaries writing may be an effective qualitative researchtechnique in long-term qualitative studies With this technique students can give theirreflection on new knowledge achieved, solidify their learning experience by recordingtheir growing thought process as they progress further in the course, learn new material,and shape new conclusions Thus, this instrumentis not only adopted for showingparticipants‟ join, but also for investigating their difficulties while listening to DigitalStories So the data collected from the diaries could also support for the two firstresearch questions that is believed to make the most sufficient and precise answer forthese research questions along with the result from the semi-structured interview at theend of the process

2.3.2.2 Description of diaries

The diary contains three main questions The first one is to ask participants‟opinions on the use of Digital Stories in listening lessons each week such as: whichpart of the Digital Stories they like most; which part of Digital Stories they feelmost useful and whether the use of Digital Stories supports their listeningcomprehension or not With this question, the purpose of the researcher is not only

to check for their participation in the experiment, but also to investigate theirmotivation and attitude towards the use of Digital Stories in listening lessons

Regarding to another question, its responsibility is to seek for students‟ difficultieswhile listening to Digital Stories; for example, whether they can focus on listeningwhile looking at images on Digital Stories or not The last question is to ask whetherparticipants in the experimental group would like to listen to Digital Stories in thenext listening lesson Then, these answers will be along with the data from the samequestion conducted in the semi-structured interview at the end to make the mostrelevant and sufficient answer for the two first research questions A sample ofstudents‟ diary is presented below:

2.3.3 Listening comprehension Test

According to Bloom‟s taxonomy (1956), educational learning objectives are

classified into six levels: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate and create Regarding the first levels, students are expected to memorize or identify facts, so

the types of questions should be used to ask students to label, select, recognize orname something and so on At the higher level-the second level, students arerequired to understand information, so the questions are designed to ask them tosummarize, locate, or explain information Based on the first two levels in Bloom‟staxonomy, the listening tests are adapted from KET to examine students‟ listeningcomprehension ability in terms of recognizing the main ideas and

summarizing the events Therefore, only two parts of KET (part 2 and 3) are taken

to the test

Listening comprehension tests which consist of pre-listening test and listening tests are administered to measure students‟ listening ability in terms ofrecognizing the main ideas and summarizing the events The pre-listening test isconducted to both of experimental and control group before giving the treatment.This test is taken to find out students‟ initial listening ability in terms of the twomentioned sub –skills and to make sure that both groups have equal ability The testconsists of 2 parts with 10 questions in total (see Appendix 3 and 4) Regarding thepost-listening test, it will be conducted after 8 week of experiment This test in thesame format to the pre-test is to find out the significant difference between the meanscores of the experimental and control group

post-2.4 Data collection procedure

The quasi-experimental research takes place during 10 weeks using pre-testand post-test between control and experimental group In the first stage as well asthe first week of the research project, the researcher explains the purpose of thestudy to the participants After that, listening comprehension Test (A2 level) isadministered to both groups as a pre-test to check their initial listening ability beforeimplementing the treatment

In the second stage, the teaching process is held in both the experimental andcontrol group during 8 weeks During this period, 8 Digital Stories with differenttopics in the New English File course book are merely implemented to theexperimental group while the control group is taught with traditional technique.However, the same listening tasks designed based on Bloom‟s taxonomy to teachstudent‟s listening comprehension in terms of recognizing the main ideas andsummarizing events isapplied to both groups Besides, participants in theexperimental group are asked to complete a diary every two weeks This diary isdesigned by the researcher to investigate students‟ viewpoints on the application ofDigital Stories and their difficulties during listening comprehension lessons withDigital Stories

In the third stage, the post-listening test (A2 level) is conducted in bothgroups Then, five students in the experimental group are randomly selected based

on their coding to participate in a semi-structured interview developed by theresearcher The interview is audio recorded for descriptive analysis

2.5 Data analysis procedures

The result collected from students‟ diaries and audio recorded frominterview will be descriptively analyzed to find out students‟ opinions of usingDigital Stories and their difficulties during the application of this treatment inlistening comprehension lessons

Data collected from listening tests are used to examine the hypothesis onwhether Digital Stories could develop students‟ listening comprehension andwhether there is a significant difference in the mean scores of the control andexperimental groups in the listening comprehension tests.SPSS software forWindow version 11.5 is employed with the main concentration on the application ofindependent sample t-test Data from pre-test are analyzed to ensure that there is nosignificant difference in students‟ listening ability in both groups before thetreatment However, scores from post-test are analyzed to examine whether DigitalStories can develop students‟ listening skills and whether the difference in the meanscores between the two groups is significant

2.6 Summary

This chapter has presented the methodology employed in this research togather data Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are utilized along with thequasi-experimental design to find out the effects of Digital Stories on students‟listening comprehension at elementary level after eight weeks of treatment Whilequalitative instruments including semi-structured interviews and students‟ diariesare targeted to investigate students‟ viewpoints on the application of Digital Stories

in listening comprehension, pre-test and posttest of listening aims at discovering thelevel of difference of students‟ listening ability before and after applying DigitalStories