An exploratory study on the teaching and learning of TOEIC listening skill at a university in hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THU TRANG AN EXPLORATOTY STUDY ON THE TEACHING AND LEARNING O

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

GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THU TRANG

AN EXPLORATOTY STUDY ON THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF TOEIC LISTENING SKILL

AT A UNIVERSITY IN HANOI

(NGHIÊN CỨU KHẢO SÁT VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC KỸ NĂNG NGHE TOEIC TẠI MỘT

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC Ở HÀ NỘI)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology

HÀ NỘI – 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THU TRANG

AN EXPLORATOTY STUDY ON THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF TOEIC LISTENING SKILL

AT A UNIVERSITY IN HANOI

(NGHIÊN CỨU KHẢO SÁT VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC KỸ

NĂNG NGHE TOEIC TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG

ĐẠI HỌC Ở HÀ NỘI)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor : Kiều Thị Thu Hương, Ph.D

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION ……… i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ……… ……… ii

ABSTRACT ……… iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ……… iv

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS ……… vii

ABBREVIATIONS ……… viii

PART A: INTRODUCTION ……… ………… 1

1 Rationale ……… ……… 1

2 Objectives of the study ……… …… 1

3 Significance of the study ……… 2

4 Scope of the study ……… …… 2

5 Methodology ……… …… 2

6 Organization ……… 2

PART B: DEVELOPMENT……… … 4

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ……… ………… 4

1.1 Notions of listening ……… ……… 4

1.2 Process of listening……….… 5

1.3 Classification of listening ……… ……….6

1.4 Affective factors in listening ……… …7

1.4.1 Listener factor ……….11

1.4.1.1 Experien ce and practice in listening ……… …… 11

1.4.1.2 Background knowledge ……… 11

1.4.1.3 Knowledge of the target language ……….…………12

1.4.1.4 Psychological factors ……… 12

1.4.2 Speaker factor ……… 12

1.4.2.1 Speaker’s production ……….……… 12

1.4.2.2 Speed of delivery ……… …… 12

1.4.3 Material and medium ……… ………13

1.4.3.1 The language used ……… ………13

1.4.3.2 Content and concepts ……….………13

1.4.3.4 The support provided ……… 13

1.5 Stages of a listening lesson ………13

1.5.1 Pre-listening ……… …………13

1.5.2 While-listening ……… ……….14

1.5.3 Post-listening ……….……….14

1.6 TOEIC ……… .15

1.6.1 Overview of a TOEIC test ……… 15

1.6.2 TOEIC listening ……….………17

1.7 Review of previous studies ………20

1.8 Situation of teaching and learning TOEIC listening skill at HLU … ………22

CHAPTER II: THE STUDY……… …… 23

2.1 Subjects ……… 23

2.2 Research instruments ………23

2.3 Procedure ……… …… 24

2.4 Results and discussion ……… ………24

2.4.1 The teaching of TOEIC listening ……… 24

2.4.1.1 Teachers’ genera information……….……… 24

2.4.1.2 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching TOEIC listening ……… 27

2.4.2 The learning of TOEIC listening ……… …….30

2.4.2.1 Students’ general information ……… 30

2.4.2.2 Students’ general difficulties in learning TOEIC listening ……… 34

2.4.2.3 Students’ specific difficulties in TOEIC listening parts ……… …… 36

2.5 Recommendations ……… …… 39

2.5.1 To the teachers ……….39

2.5.2 To the students ……….……41

PART C: CONCLUSION ……… 43

1 Summary of the study……… … 43

2 Limitations of the study……… 44

3 Suggestions for further study ……….45

REFERENCES ……… ……… 46 APPENDICES ……… …….……….I APPENDIX 1 …….……… … ………I APPENDIX 2 ……….… IV

LIST OF FIGURES, CHARTS AND TABLES

Table 5.1 Students’ difficulties related to Listener factor 35Table 5.2 Students’ difficulties related to Speaker’s factor 36Table 5.3 Students’ difficulties related to Material/medium factor 36

Chart 1.4: Teachers’ length of time teaching TOEIC listening 26

Chart 2.5 Students’ evaluation of the level of difficulties of TOEIC listening 33Chart 2.6 Students’ evaluation of the most difficult part of TOEIC listening 34

Hanoi Law University

Test of English for International Communication

International English Language Testing SystemTest of English as a Foreign Language

English as a Second Language

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

As English nowadays has become a prerequisite for job seekers, there is a growingnumber of English learners who wish to sit for worldwide standardized English testssuch as IELTS, TOEFL or TOEIC Among these, TOEIC (Test of English forInternational Communication) has been increasingly applied in both workplace andeducational institutions Many universities offer English courses basing on thestudents’ TOEIC test scores Enterprises and organizations also use TOEIC scores asone criterion for employing new recruits and promoting employees

At Hanoi Law University (HLU), the TOEIC test has been used since 2010 as astandardized test to classify students’ English proficiency, place them into the rightclasses and evaluate their learning progress Students have to get at least TOEIC 450scores to meet the requirements for graduation

Traditionally, a TOEIC test consists of two sections, which are designed to testcandidates’ two skills: listening and reading Generally, listening skill is alwaysconsidered the most essential as well as the most difficult skill for both teachers toteach and for learners to learn Listening in TOEIC is not an exception because it

comprises different task types with various topics “An exploratory study on the

teaching and learning of TOEIC listening skill at a university in Hanoi” has been

conducted to gain insights into the difficulties encountered by teachers and students inTOEIC listening with the hope to contribute to the improvement of English teachingand learning at HLU

2 Objectives of the study

The purpose of this study is to explore the real situation of teaching and learningTOEIC listening skill at HLU Therefore, the study aims to answer the followingresearch questions:

1 What difficulties do students encounter in learning TOEIC listening skill?

2 What difficulties do teachers encounter in teaching TOEIC listening skill?

3 What are some suggestions to improve the teaching and learning of TOEIC listening skill at HLU?

3 Significance of the study

This study investigates the real difficulties that teachers and students at HLU face inthe listening part of the TOEIC test By doing this research, the researcher wishes tohelp HLU students foresee the problems and overcome them in order to improve theirlistening scores Also, the study has been done to help HLU teachers beware of someteaching problems and adopt appropriate techniques to teach listening skill

4 Scope of the study

The study focuses on the teaching and learning of TOEIC listening skill at HLU Thestudy has been conducted under the scope of an exploratory study with a small number

of teachers and students who are teaching and studying TOEIC courses at theuniversity

5 Methodology

The major research method used in the study is quantitative The data are collectedfrom two survey questionnaires which intend to find out the difficulties teachers andstudents encounter in the teaching and learning of TOEIC listening skill at HLU.Basing on the data collected from the respondents, the researcher examines andanalyzes the causes of those difficulties and suggests some solutions to improve thequality of teaching and learning TOEIC listening at HLU

6 Organization

Part A Introduction presents the rationale, objectives, significance, scope, methodology

and organization of the study

Part B Development is divided into two chapters:

Chapter 1 Theoretical Background lays the theoretical foundation for the research and

reviews the previous studies

Chapter 2 The study deals with the subjects, research instruments, and procedure as

well as results and discussions Some recommendations based on the findings are alsoprovided in this chapter

Part C Conclusion summarizes the major findings of the study Limitations of the study

and some suggestions for further research are mentioned as well

The Appendices where the survey questionnaires can be found come after theReferences

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Another definition is given by Brown and Yule (1983), who distinguish the literalmeaning of the words and the speaker’s intended meaning The authors conclude thatlistening is actually the process where the listener achieves “a reasonableinterpretation” of the speaker’s intention in the communication

In 1989, O’Malley and Chamot claim that listening is “an active and consciousprocess" in which the meaning is constructed from “contextual information” and

“existing knowledge” (p.420) This view is shared by Field (1998) who states thatlistening is “an invisible mental process” in which the listener must “discriminatebetween sounds, understand vocabulary and grammar structures, interpret stress andintention, retain and interpret this within the immediate as well as the large socio-cultural context of the utterance” (p.38)

From the above definition, it can be concluded that listening is a process in which thelistener constructs meaning out of the information provided by the speakers Thisprocess involves the understanding a speaker’s accent or pronunciation, grammar andvocabulary and grasping his meaning Rost (1994) points out:

Listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides input for the learner.Without understanding input at the right level, any learning simply cannot begin.

Rost (1994:141)

Listening fosters the learning of a second language because it provides input for thelearning process Thus, listening plays an important role in the acquisition of alanguage

1.2 Process of listening

Listening process involves complex physiological and cognitive processes Listeningprocess is proposed to consist of three different processes They are perceptualprocessing, parsing and utilization In the perceptual processing, the sounds enter theechoic memory and are organized into meaningful units basing on the listener’slinguistic knowledge In the parsing, the meaning is constructed in the short-termmemory by comparing the incoming information with the previous knowledge Theutilization involves the transfer of short-term information to the long-term memory forother purposes (Underwood, 1989; O’Malley and Chamot, 1989)

Duzer (1997) agrees, for the most part, listing the following nine stages in listeningprocess: (1) determining a reason for listening; (2) taking the raw speech anddepositing an image of it in short-term memory; (3) attempting to organize theinformation by identifying the type of speech event (a conversation, a lecture, a radioad) and the function of the message (to persuade/inform/request); (4) predictinginformation expected to be included in the message; (5) recalling backgroundinformation to help interpret the message; (6) assigning a meaning to the message; (7)checking that the message has been understood; (8) determining the information to beheld in long-term memory; and (9) deleting the original form of the message that hasbeen received into the short term memory

Concerning how the knowledge is applied to the incoming sounds, there are twocritical views of bottom-up and top-down processes in second language listeninginstruction (Nunan, 1991) In the bottom-up process, the meaning is constructed bycombining increasing larger units of meaning from the phoneme-level up to discourse-level features In other words, in this process learners attempt to understand a listeningpassage by decoding sounds to form words, linking words to form phrases andsentences These sentences build a complex text, the meaning of which is thenconstructed by the listener.

On the contrary, in the top-down process, the contextual and prior knowledge of thelistener is utilized to build a conceptual framework for comprehension This viewemphasizes the prominence of background knowledge already possessed by thelearners in making sense of the information they hear As such, a significant lack ofbackground knowledge can trouble the attempts to comprehend a particular utterance.Anderson and Lynch (1988) compare the bottom-up view of listener as “tape recorder”with the top-down view of listener as “model builder” An able listener should utilizeboth bottom-up and top-down knowledge in order to get the meaning of the spokendiscourse

1.3 Classification of listening

Listening can be categorized differently on the basis of different grounds Regardingthe reasons for listening, Galvin (1985) divides listening into five categories: (1) toexchange in social rituals; (2) to exchange information; (3) to exert control; (4) to sharefeelings; and (5) to enjoy yourself

Basing on the situations in which listening occurs, Underwood (1989) forwards adetailed classification which consists of listening to live conversations in which onetakes no part ; listening to announcements; listening to the news, the weather forecast;

listening to the radio for entertainment; watching a live performance of a play;watching a film in a cinema; listening to records; following a lesson; attending alecture; listening on the telephone; following instructions; and listening to someonegiving a public address.

In a later work, Nunan (1991) classifies the aural texts into monologues and dialogueswith the first being produced by only one speaker and the latter being created by two ormore speakers The monologue can be either carefully structured, planned orunplanned The dialogue can be sub-divided basing on its purposes into interpersonaland transactional dialogues An interpersonal dialogue is socially oriented talk whilethe aim of a transactional dialogue is obtaining and providing information A furtherdistinction is made between familiar and unfamiliar interpersonal dialogues on theground of whether the interactants are acquaintances or strangers This can beschematized as below:

Planned

Monologue

Unplanned

Unfamiliar Aural texts

Interpersonal

Transactional

1.4 Affective factors in listening

There are a great number of studies conducted in order to find out the factorscontributing to listening difficulties According to Brown and Yule (1983), there arefour groups of factors which can affect the difficulty of oral language tasks These are

the speaker (the number of speakers, the speaker’s speaking speed and the speaker’s

accent ); the listener (the role of the listener, the requirement of listening task and the listener’s interest in the subject); the content (grammar, vocabulary, information structure, and background knowledge); and the support (pictures, diagrams, and visual

6 Psychological (motivation and sense of purpose while listening; attitude of thelistener to the speaker; attitude of the listener to the message: level of interest; listener’s powers of attention and concentration)

4 Prestige and personality of the speaker

C FACTORS IN THE MATERIAL AND MEDIUM

1 The language used to convey the message: phonological features, includingstress, 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, esoteric, lengthy, or poorly organized

3 Acoustic environment: noise and interference

4 Amount of support provided by gestures, visuals, etc

Table 1: Affective factors in listening (extracted from Boyle (1984, p.35))

Byrnes (1986) identifies three main problems in learning to listen The first listening

problem is learners’ limited experience of the language Therefore, beginning-level

listeners must concentrate very hard on form and might fail in getting the meaning The

second problem is that the learners must listen - often for a longer time than listening

in real life - and respond to a task which has been designed beforehand In practice, a

lengthy spoken discourse often makes listeners physically tired and bored People listenfor many purposes in their real life, not just to complete a given task The third problem

that makes listening difficult is that the learners are divorced from the context Listeners cannot either look at the speakers and their meaning expressed via the

gesture, eye contact and body movements or witness the setting in which the discourseoccurs Thus, the process of grasping the meaning becomes much more challenging

Anderson and Lynch’s work (1988) asserts that the affective factors in listening fallinto three principal categories: the type of language; the purpose in listening and thecontext in which the listening takes place After a series of experiments, the authorsfinally found out the five most influential factors in listening They include theorganization of information; the familiarity of the topic; the explicitness andsufficiency of the information; the type of referring expressions used; and the type ofrelationship described in the text

In 1989, Underwood claim that one of the reasons why listening is challenging comesfrom the special features of spoken English First, the English language contains manyunknown or unusual sounds for foreign listeners Second, English has a rhythmicintonation Next, unlike the written discourse, the spoken discourse is generally notwell-organized, which makes it really hard for the listener to follow Anotherproblematic aspect comes from the syntax and vocabulary of the utterance, which ismuch simpler and less specific The use of incomplete sentences, interactive

expressions, pauses and fillers also contribute to the listening difficulties Finally, theutilization of colloquial language causes troubles to students who get used to formaland academic language used in the classroom.

Some potential problems for learners in learning to listen to English as pointed by

Underwood (1989) include (1) lack of control over the speech; (2) not being able to

get things repeated; (3) the limited vocabulary; (4) failure to recognize the signals; (5) problems of interpretation; (6) inability to concentrate; (7) established learning habits.

In this study, the researcher will focus on the factors proposed by Boyle (1984).However, only some of the most prominent aspects will be selected and discussed As

such, difficulties in learning to listen will be categorized into the Listener factor, the

Speaker factor and the Material/Medium factor The following section discusses each

characteristic

1.4.1 Listener factor

1.4.1.1 Experience and practice in listening

Practice makes perfect Apart from the formal listening lessons conducted in class,learners are advised to practice listening by watching movies, watching news, listening

to the radio or listening to songs The frequent exposure to the target language will help

“train the ears” and bring about more experience to the learners in listening

1.4.1.2 Background knowledge

According to Rubin (1994), background knowledge has an impact on understanding asubject Learners construct meaning during the comprehension process by segmentinginput into meaningful units, then matching the intake with their existing knowledge andfilling the gaps with logical guesses Therefore, students who have broad backgroundknowledge are said to be better listeners

1.4.1.3 Knowledge of the target language

Listeners’ knowledge of the target language includes the knowledge of the language’sphonology, vocabulary, grammar, and cohesion During the listening process, an ablelistener must recognize the sounds, decode them into words, understand thegrammatical structures that connect words together, as well as catch the signals thatmake the discourse cohesive Also, successful listening requires the power of analysisand selection (that is, the ability to distinguish between main and supporting points)

1.4.1.4 Psychological factors

Learners’ psychological factors can be categorized into motivation, sense of purpose,attitude of the listener to the speaker, attitude of the listener to the message, level ofinterest, and listener’s power of attention and concentration

1.4.2 Speaker factor

1.4.2.1 Speaker’s production

As English nowadays has been globalized, the voice of speakers recorded in listeningtapes varies greatly in terms of pronunciation and accent The different pronunciations

of English versions (British, American, Indian, Canadian, Australian) make it difficult

to perceive the sounds Especially students who are used to the accent of their teachersmight feel dismayed when they cannot listen to other speakers

1.4.2.2 Speed of delivery

Listeners cannot control how fast a speaker speaks Very often, beginning listenerscannot keep up with the speed of the information delivered While dealing with themeaning of one part, they might miss the next part or ignore the whole chunk becausethey fail to sort it out quickly enough

1.4.3 Material and medium

1.4.3.1 The language used

The type of language (formal/informal) can cause troubles for the learners’ listeningprocess In general, colloquial/informal language used in spoken discourse affects thepronunciation, the lexis and the syntax in use Students who are familiar with theformal and academic language uttered in educational setting might find it very difficult

to deal with this kind of language

1.4.3.2 Content and concepts

Listening becomes much more difficult if the material is abstract, highly specialized ortechnical Furthermore, a lengthy or poorly organized discourse can lead to learners’ fatigue or lapse of concentration because an overtly informative message cannot be stored easily in memory

1.4.3.3 Acoustic environment

Outside factors such as background noise on the recordings and environmental noise

can interfere with the listeners’ mind and badly affect their performance Other

environmental distractions such as ringing telephones and learners’ voices can affectlistening comprehension as well

1.4.3.4 The support provided

Barriers in listening comprehension can be associated with lack of visual support such

as speakers’ gestures or visuals

1.5 Stages of a listening lesson

1.5.1 Pre-listening

This is the stage in which the context of the listening passage is established, the tasksare explained and assistance is offered There are various activities that students can do

in pre-listening stage, such as reading something relevant, looking at pictures,discussing a topic, answering questions, doing written exercises, considering strategiesfor the tasks These activities can either help activate students’ relevant prior linguisticand background knowledge or provide them clues for the following listening passage.However, the choice of pre-listening activities depends on a number of factors: thetime available; the material available; the ability of the class; the interests of the class;the interests of the teacher; the place in which the work is being carried out; the natureand content of the listening text itself

1.5.2 While-listening

At this stage, the students listen to the passage and fulfill their tasks During this phase,there can be a period when students discuss their responses The listening can berepeated for students to complete the activity or to clarify their missing information.Examples of while-listening activities include putting pictures in order, completingpictures, drawing pictures, arranging items, following a route, completing grids,completing chart, labeling, deciding True/False statements, doing multiple-choicequestions, gap-filling, spotting mistakes, and predicting Whatever activities, it ishighly suggested that teachers provide immediate feedback on students’ performance

1.5.3 Post-listening

The purpose of post-listening stage is to encourage learners to use what they have gotfrom the listening text and reinforce their overall command of English through acombination of skills To be more specific, students needs to act upon what they haveheard to clarify meaning and extend their thinking Well-planned post-listeningactivities are just important as those before and during listening There are a variety of

post-listening activities such as summarizing the speaker’s presentation, reflecting onwhat they have listened to, using information from the listening text for problem-solving and decision-making activities, identifying relationships between speakers,establishing mood/attitude/behavior of the speaker, role-play and so on.

1.6 TOEIC

1.6.1 Overview of a TOEIC test

TOEIC, which was developed by Educational Testing System (ETS) in Japan in 1979,

is an English-language proficiency test for non-native learners It measures theeveryday English skills of people working in an international environment in business,commerce, and industry

Traditionally, TOEIC is a two-hour paper-and-pencil test It consists of 200 choice questions which are divided into two sections: Listening and Reading Separatescaled scores are provided for each section, the part score scales ranging from 5 to 495and the total score scales ranging from 10 to 990 The Listening section tests how wellthe test taker understands spoken English and the Reading section written English Theoverall structure of the test is summarized as below

multiple-TOEIC Listening and Reading Test

 Photographs: 10 questions  Incomplete Sentences: 40 questions

 Question-Response: 30 questions  Text Completion: 12 questions

 Conversations: 30 questions; 10

conversations with 3 questions each  Reading Comprehension:

 Talks: 30 questions; 10 talks with 3

Single Passages: 28 questions

Table 2: TOEIC test structure

Examples of the topics that examiners may find in the TOEIC test questions includethe following:

 Corporate Development: research, product development

 Dining Out: business and informal lunches, banquets, receptions, restaurant

reservations

 Entertainment: cinema, theater, music, art, exhibitions, museums, media

 Finance and Budgeting: banking, investments, taxes, accounting, billing

 General Business: contracts, negotiations, mergers, marketing, sales, warranties,

business planning, conferences, labor relations

 Health: medical insurance, visiting doctors, dentists, clinics, hospitals

 Housing/Corporate Property: construction, specifications, buying and renting,

electric and gas services

 Manufacturing: assembly lines, plant management, quality control

 Offices: board meetings, committees, letters, memoranda, telephone, fax and

e-mail messages, office equipment and furniture, office procedures

 Personnel: recruiting, hiring, retiring, salaries, promotions, job applications, job

advertisements, pensions, awards

 Purchasing: shopping, ordering supplies, shipping, invoices

 Technical Areas: electronics, technology, computers, laboratories and related

equipment, technical specifications

 Travel: trains, airplanes, taxis, buses, ships, ferries, tickets, schedules, station

and airport announcements, car rentals, hotels, reservations, delays and cancellations

(Extracted from “TOEIC Examinees Handbook” (2008, p.3))

1.6.2 TOEIC Listening

The entire listening test, which lasts approximately 45 minutes, is broken up into fourmain parts differing in the length and structure of the listening passage

Part 1: Photographs (approximately 5 minutes)

In part 1, for each of the ten questions, the candidate will see a photograph either aboutpeople or things and hear four descriptive statements related to the photograph.Examinees are asked to select the one statement that best describes the picture Thedifficulty in this part may come from (1) words that sound like the correct answer; (2)words related to the correct answer; (3) words used out of context; (4) incorrect detailsprovided; and (5) incorrect inferences made

For example:

(A) The girl is stretching (incorrect detail)

(Extracted from Taylor and Byrne, Very Easy TOEIC, p.46)

Part 2: Question-Response (approximately 15 minutes)

In part 2, the candidate will hear 30 questions or statements that may ask about time,people, an opinion, a choice, a suggestion, a reason, or a location For each of thequestions or statements there are three possible responses The candidate’s job is toselect the best response to the question or statement Generally, the questions in Part 2are informative questions belonging to one of the following types: (1) Interrogativequestions (using Who, Whose, Whom, Which, What, Where, When, How, Why); (2)Non-interrogative questions (using Be/Do, auxiliary verbs); and (3) other questiontypes like Indirect questions, Tag questions, Negative questions, Alternative questions,Declarative sentences and Suggestions

The choices in this part may be difficult and confusing due to (1) similar-sound words,(2) repeated words, (3) words used in a different context, (4) incorrect verb tense or person, and (5) inappropriate response to the type of question

For example:

Mary is never late for her meetings

(A) He is always on time (incorrect person)

(B) Her meeting is running late.

(words used in a different context)

(Extracted from Lougheed, p.49)

Part 3: Conversations (approximately 10 minutes)

In part 3, the candidate will hear 10 conversations between two people at the office, atthe hotel reception, at the restaurant, or over the telephone After each conversation, he/she will be asked to answer three questions about what the speakers say The questionsnormally ask about the general idea of the conversation and the examinees are oftenrequired to identify an activity, an emotion, a relationship, a reason, a location or anopinion The reasons for confusing choices are quite similar to those in part 2,including: (1) words that sound like the correct answer; (2) words in a different context

or a different meaning; (3) incorrect details provided; (4) incorrect inferences made;and (5) irrelevant details provided

For example:

Speaker A: I’d like to book a flight to Santiago

Speaker B: Certainly When would you like to fly?

Speaker A: Next Monday Can you make a hotel reservation for me, also?

What is Speaker B’s occupation?

(D) Librarian (incorrect inference)

(Extracted from Lougheed, p.74)

Part 4: Talks (approximately 15 minutes)

In part 4, the candidate will hear 10 talks given by a single speaker and will be asked toanswer three questions about what the speaker says in each talk The talk can be anairport announcement, a news report, a book review, an informal talk, a formal speech,

a telephone message or an introduction The question types in this part can be MainIdea Question, Fact and Detail Question, Inference Question or Cause-and-EffectQuestion The sources of difficulty listening to this part are similar to the ones in part 2and part 3

For example:

“Next Tuesday is Library Forgiveness Day All overduebooks and late fines are forgiven Return your overduebooks to the library on Tuesday and you won’t becharged a late fine.”

What are library users asked to do next Tuesday?

(C) Give new books to the library (sounds like correct answer)

(D) Charge the fines to their credit card (incorrect detail)

(Extracted from Lougheed, p.91)

1.7 Review of previous studies

Research papers on the teaching and learning of listening skill have been carried out sofar by some candidates of the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies at the University ofLanguages and International Studies, VNU

Bui (2009) studied the problems faced by Vietnamese learners in learning IELTSlistening The findings suggest that the sources of difficulties come from (1) unfamiliartopics of the listening text; (2) learner’s limited vocabulary, grammar and backgroundknowledge; (3) the speaker’s speed and accent; (4) the time allowance for listening; (5)cultural differences and (6) types of listening tasks Among these, the unfamiliarity ofthe listening topics is ranked the most difficult to IELTS listeners

Nguyen (2010) conducted a research on the current situation in teaching and learningEnglish listening at a high school in Hanoi She found out three main listeningproblems experienced by 10th grade students These include (1) the method ofassessment which focuses on grammar and vocabulary only; (2) poor listeningtechniques and strategies such as trying to listen and understand every single word andnot being able to keep up with the rate of the listening passage; and (3) students’negative mood in the listening lessons

Nhu (2012) investigated the common errors in the TOEIC listening test made by intermediate students at Haiphong Foreign Language Center The three most frequentlymade mistakes are reported to result from (1) similar-sound words; (2) different accent,stress and intonation; and (3) limited linguistic and background knowledge

pre-In conclusion, the reviewed literature serve as a base in understanding the nature oflistening and the factors that affect listening comprehension The previous andinfluential researchers (Brown and Yule, Byrnes, Anderson and Lynch, Underwood

encounter in listening acquisition and comprehension However, their studies do notfocus on the listening factors relating to Vietnamese background and the context ofteaching and learning English in Vietnam As for the M.A theses conducted byVietnamese researchers, the reality of teaching and learning English listening skill hasbeen studied either in a different setting or from a different perspective Therefore, it isessential for the present researcher to fill in the gap by conducting “An exploratorystudy on the teaching and learning of TOEIC listening skill at a university in Hanoi”.

1.8 Situation of Teaching and Learning TOEIC Listening Skill at HLU

At HLU, the teaching and learning of TOEIC has been applied since 2010 Students allhave to take a placement test and based on the result of the test, they are classified intothree groups:

Group 1 includes those whose TOEIC stores are less than 200 These students cannotenroll into TOEIC classes They must continue studying at some foundation classeseither at home or at private classes and re-take the placement test

Group 2 includes students whose TOEIC scores range from 200 to 450 They will beplaced into the TOEIC course which lasts in two continuous semesters The core

textbook used in the course are Longman Preparation Series for the New TOEIC

Test – Introductory Course Teachers are English lecturers at the English Division of

HLU During the course, the students have to get five progress tests as the requirement

of the attendance check and one final-term test

Students from group 3 are considered as having met the required English level Theydon’t need to attend classes in English

CHAPTER II: THE STUDY 2.1 Subjects

There are two groups of participants in the study:

One group included 50 students chosen at random from eight TOEIC classes at HLU.They are all second-year students at HLU The ratio of male and female were 12/38.All of them attended the placement test and got the TOEIC scores ranging from 200 tounder 450

Another group consisted of 14 teachers who are working at the English Division andhave been teaching TOEIC classes All of them are female, aged 25-53 All theteachers are qualified in English teaching

2.2 Research instruments

The data were collected through two questionnaires – one for the teachers and the otherfor the students The researcher used survey questionnaires to collect quantitative databecause a well-structured questionnaire “can provide data economically and in a formthat lends itself perfectly to the purposes of the study” (Verma and Mallick, 1999,p.24) Surveys are also a useful tool to gather “information about affective dimensions

of teaching and learning, such as beliefs, attitudes, motivations, and preferences”(Bension and Voler, 1997, p.10) Brown (1987) also explains that using questionnairesallows for more uniformity across questions, that respondents are less likely to skipquestions because of their length or complexity, and that responses are relatively easy

to interpret

The survey questionnaire for students consists of 12 questions which are divided intothree main parts: students’ general information, students’ common difficulties in

The survey for teachers has 8 questions which are categorized into teachers’ generalinformation and teachers’ difficulties in teaching TOEIC listening.

2.3 Procedure

The questionnaires for students were delivered during the TOEIC listening courses atthe university The students were asked to fill in the questionnaire objectively andseriously within 10 minutes Before administering the questionnaire, the researcher hadtime to explain the purpose and the importance of the study as well as clarify anyquestions that learners had It took one week for the researcher to collect the databecause the classes were not at the same day and classroom as well The questionnairesfor teachers were delivered on a meeting at the English Division because all theteachers gathered on the day The same procedure as above was taken by theresearcher

The data collected from the questionnaires were classified on the basis of the researchquestions After that, they were analyzed carefully The results were then displayed informs of tables and charts

2.4 Results and discussion

2.4.1 The teaching of TOEIC listening

2.4.1.1 Teachers’ general information