Useful as it is, the application of internetassisted learning (IAL) in teaching English in Vietnam as a whole and at Business English Department (BED), Faculty of Foreign Languages, National Economics University (NEU) in particular is still limited and needs more thorough studies. Being a lecturer and leader of the Listening Group in BED, contributing to the growth of this course from initial steps, the researcher of the study has been aware of the advantages as well as disadvantages that IAL have brought to the development of English language skills in general, and in listening skills in particular.
Trang 1PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC SỬ DỤNG INTERNET NHẰM PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NGHE HIỂU CHO SINH VIÊN TIẾNG ANH THƯƠNG MẠI - TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KINH TẾ QUỐC DÂN
Lê Th Thu Mai, Phm Th Tuyt Hơng
Trường Đại học Kinh tế Quốc dân
Anh có sự trợ giúp của internet (IAL) tại Việt Nam cũng
như tại Bộ môn (BM) Tiếng Anh thương mại (TATM),
Trường Đại học Kinh tế Quốc dân (ĐHKTQD) vẫn còn
nhiều hạn chế và cần ñược nghiên cứu chuyên sâu
hơn Là giảng viên, ñồng thời là trưởng nhóm Kỹ năng
nghe hiểu tại BM, tác giả ñã nhận thức ñược những lợi
ích cũng như bất cập của phương pháp giảng dạy IAL
ñối với việc phát triển các kỹ năng tiếng Anh nói chung,
và kỹ năng nghe hiểu tiếng Anh nói riêng
Nhìn chung, hầu hết các sinh viên (SV) BM TATM
tại ĐHKTQD gặp rất nhiều khó khăn trong thời gian
ñầu học tại BM, mặc dù họ nắm từ vựng và ngữ pháp
khá tốt Do ñó, chương trình học Kỹ năng nghe hiểu
chủ yếu ñược thiết kế dành cho SV ñã theo học tiếng
Anh hệ 3 năm hoặc 7 năm tại phổ thông, nhưng chưa
quen với hoạt ñộng rèn luyện kỹ năng nghe hiểu Khóa
học nhằm từng bước mục ñích giúp SV luyện tập và
nâng cao kỹ năng nghe hiểu tiếng Anh
Nghiên cứu "Phơng pháp dy hc có s& d$ng
internet nh m phát tri n k' năng nghe hi u cho
sinh viên ting Anh thơng mi, Trng Đi hc
Kinh t Qu"c dân“ nhằm các mục tiêu: (i) tìm hiểu
nhận thức của SV TATM về lợi ích của phương pháp
học có sự trợ giúp của mạng internet ñối với việc phát
triển kỹ năng nghe hiểu tiếng Anh; (ii) tìm hiểu các bất
cập, khó khăn khi ứng dụng phương pháp dạy và học
này; và (iii) nêu ra một số ñề xuất giúp các giảng viên
(GV) và cán bộ quản lý tổ chức thực hiện phương pháp
dạy và học này hiệu quả hơn
Nghiên cứu ñược tiến hành với sự tham gia của 87
SV TATM Khóa 54 và 3 GV ñang giảng kỹ năng nghe
hiểu tiếng Anh tại BM trong kỳ 2, năm thứ nhất (năm
học 2012-2013) Tại thời ñiểm này, SV ñã có thời gian
làm quen với máy tính và mạng Internet Sau một kỳ
tham gia hoạt ñộng giảng và học kỹ năng nghe hiểu tiếng Anh có sự trợ giúp của internet trên phòng máy,
SV có thể cung cấp ñủ dữ liệu giúp ñánh giá hiệu quả của phương pháp giảng dạy và học tập này, ñồng thời
có thể nêu lên một số ñề xuất giúp việc ứng dụng phương pháp dạy và học này hoàn thiện hơn
Abstract: Useful as it is, the application of
internet-assisted learning (IAL) in teaching English in Vietnam
as a whole and at Business English Department (BED), Faculty of Foreign Languages, National Economics University (NEU) in particular is still limited and needs more thorough studies Being a lecturer and leader of the Listening Group in BED, contributing to the growth
of this course from initial steps, the researcher of the study has been aware of the advantages as well as disadvantages that IAL have brought to the development of English language skills in general, and
in listening skills in particular
Generally, most students at BED, NEU (herein referred to as BED students) have difficulties in listening comprehension on their first days at a university specializing in English, while they have quite
a good command of vocabulary and grammar Accordingly, the listening courses are mainly designed for students who have learnt English at high school (in either the 3-year or 7-year program) and who haven't got used to listening skills These courses aim at equipping students with practical skills to improve their listening skills step by step
The ultimate purpose of the study of “Using
internet-assisted learning method to develop BED students’ listening skills” is to: (i) explore BED
students’ perceptions of benefits of internet-assisted learning (IAL) to their English listening skills development; (ii) investigate obstacles to the use of IAL
Trang 2activities in learning English listening skills at BED,
NEU; and (iii) propose some recommendations to
relevant teachers and administrators for better
organization of IAL activities for BED students to
improve their English listening skills
The participants were 87 first year English majored
students of BED, NEU The time to conduct the
research was during the second semester of the
students’ first year (2012-2013), when the students had
had enough time to be familiar with the college life and
to gain some knowledge about using computers and the Internet After a semester taking part in the application of teaching and learning listening in the laboratory with the assistance of internet websites, these students were supposed to provide enough data
to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching listening skill
in the internet-assisted laboratory as well as provide
ground for suggestions to be made
USING INTERNET-ASSISTED LEARNING METHOD
TO DEVELOPLISTENING SKILLS FOR BUSINESS ENGLISH
STUDENTSAT NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY
1 Background
Useful as it is, the application of
internet-assisted learning (IAL) in teaching English in
Vietnam as a whole and at Business English
Department (BED), Faculty of Foreign Languages,
National Economics University (NEU) in
particular is still limited and needs more thorough
studies Being a lecturer who has contributed to
the growth of this course from initial steps, the
researcher has been aware of the advantages as
well as disadvantages that IAL has brought to the
development of English language skills in general,
and in listening skills in particular
2 Purposes of the study
The ultimate purpose of the study “Using
internet-assisted learning method to develop
Listening skills for Business English students at
National Economics University” is to: (i) explore
students’ perceptions of benefits of
internet-assisted learning (IAL) to their English listening
skills development; (ii) investigate obstacles to the
use of IAL activities in learning English listening
skills at BED, NEU; and (iii) propose some
recommendations to relevant teachers and
administrators for better organization of IAL
activities for BED students to improve their
English listening skills
3 Selection of participants
The participants of this study were 74 first year
English major students of BED, NEU These
students were randomly chosen from 144 first year BED students They belong to three classes Instead of randomly selecting the individuals, the investigator randomly selects the groups or classes for investigation Thus, the students chosen in this study could be representatives for the whole group
of freshmen at BED
The time to conduct the research was during the second semester of the students’ first year (2012-2013), when the students had had enough time to be familiar with the college life and to gain some knowledge about using computers and the Internet After a semester taking part in the application of teaching and learning listening in the language laboratory with the use of websites, these students were supposed to provide enough data to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching listening skill in the internet-assisted language laboratory as well as provide ground for suggestions to be made
4 BED students’ perceptions of IAL in listening skill development
4.1 Students’ perceptions towards IAL in English listening skill in the multimedia classroom
The first question in the survey questionnaire deals with the perceptions of learning English listening skill through Internet-assisted activities
in the listening multimedia classrooms Their attitudes towards this new approach of teaching and learning are revealed in Chart 1
Trang 3Generally speaking, the students were positive
about internet-assisted learning English listening
skill in the multimedia classroom (Chart 1)
Although almost all of them indicated their
satisfaction with this new approach of learning
English listening skill (64 out of 74 students),
some still have doubts This could be explained as
the term "effective" might not have been the best
word to use in the questionnaire since it is vague
It is also difficult for students to judge the
effectiveness of a new technology after only being
familiar with it for a semester These students also
gave reasons for their dissatisfaction, which would
be referred to in the next part of the study
4.2 Students' attitudes towards the
appropriateness of the listening course in the
new teaching approach
Overall, the students were positive towards the appropriateness of IAL activities (Table 1), especially its function in supplementing in-class learning (84%) However, they did not show as much agreement when asked whether the program was suited for their English proficiency level (55%) This is probably due to the fact that students in these classes have varied English proficiency levels to start with Moreover, over two thirds agreed that the materials on the selected websites were related to their current English lessons (68%) More interestingly, a high proportion of the respondents (80%) expressed their pleasure with this listening course in the new teaching approach explaining that the course provided them with further listening skill
Table 1: Students’ attitudes towards the appropriateness of the listening course with the Internet assistance
students
Percentage (%)
The course was an appropriate supplement to in-class
The course was appropriate for the skill level of the
The course was appropriately related to the current
The course provided us with further listening skills 59 80%
0 5 10
15
20
25
30
35
28
7
3
Chart 1: S tudents ' attitud es to wards inte rnet-ass is te d le ar ni ng English listening skill in the multime dia cla ssroom
v er y effec tive
e ffe ctiv e not ve ry effec ti ve not effecti ve a t all
Trang 44.3 The effectiveness of IAL in improving
their English listening skill
a Concentration
Two students said that internet-assisted
learning English skill in the self-study period gave
them a great chance to be concentrated when they
can occupy their own cabin in the multimedia
classroom This made their listening more
effectively
b Interest
Four of the respondents felt that this learning
activity is very interesting and can attract their
attention throughout the lesson They provided
lots of their satisfaction as well as leisure
throughout their practice sessions
c Updated material
One more benefits that nearly half of the
students interviewed recognized is that the
listening activity gets them updated They all
seemed eager to discover current things happening
around them
d Authentic English language
Surprisingly, many students enjoyed the
authenticity of the materials on the recommended
websites They felt quite interested in the way
native speakers pronounced Their intonation,
accent and voice seemed attractive to students
Some of the students find it best to study some of
the colloquial and spoken language from listening
to the authentic material in their listening lessons
They can not only be able to approach updated
with news and information in the target language
but also learn a lot from pronunciation and
intonation of English native speakers
e Time saving
Moreover, two students said that
internet-assisted listening activity saved a lot of their time
They explained that time was very precious in
their learning responsibilities as they needed to
study many other language skills and other
courses in the curriculum But now this learning
approach helped them to practise listening skills in an effective way without having to spend so much time
f Convenience
Two respondents thought that it was quite convenient when they learn English listening skill through internet-assisted activities just by sitting
in front of the computer screen as well as enjoying
the totally free resources online
g Independence
More than half of the students interviewed agreed that this learning activity helps them to build their independence They thought that it gave them a very clear purpose and goal at the beginning of the lesson They can find their own needs and expectations They actually realized the importance of persistent practice The reasons they gave are quite understandable These are two
of the main reasons given by the respondents, namely practicing a lot at home and choosing their
favorite activities for self-practice
h Motivation
Interestingly, most of the students are really motivated by this new learning approach They felt more eager in the lesson, especially in the self-study period Through her class observation, the researcher could see the difference in the students’ classroom behavior and performance when they were in the multimedia classroom compared to that in traditional ones First, class attendance was higher compared with that in the traditional classrooms In most cases in traditional classrooms, there were one or two students absent and many students were late for class But during listening periods in the multimedia classrooms, fewer students were absent or late for class During the self-study period, nobody dozed off, although the classes were in the afternoon They were active in taking notes, discussing with their partners, and checking their understanding Seeing this attention and conscientiousness on the students’ part, the researcher felt quite rewarded and thought efforts of the group of teachers of listening were not in vain
Trang 5On the other hand, students became more
to their attentive behavior in the class, the students
also did a lot of practice after class as shown from
the interview From the informal small questions
besides the interview, I could see that all the
students finished the tasks as required and about
1/3 of them even listened to the files again at
home or in Internet shops where they can get
access to the Internet
5 Difficulties encountered by students in the
internet-assisted English listening activity
Besides the above positive attitudes toward the
new learning approach, students also encounter
some difficulties, which are detailed as follows
a Lack of computer skills
The most popular difficulty reported is the
unfamiliarity with computer functions As
mentioned in the previous part, nearly half of the
respondents of the survey do not own a computer,
this difficulty is understandable Although
students attend a training session of how to use the
facilities in the multimedia classroom before
joining the course, this amount of time is not
adequate for them to feel confident when using
these modern facilities
However, a few students think that using a
computer is not that much difficult Most of these
students come from cities and have been using
computers since they were at high schools
b Technical problems
The second most frequent problem is technical
ones Although the multimedia laboratories are
well furnished with modern computers connected
to the Internet, they are not periodically
maintained Besides, the dense frequency of using
these facilities’ qualities may also be worsened
Therefore, students sometimes have technical
problems with their computer in the laboratories,
such as problems with sudden computer crash,
outdated software which does not allow the
installation of new programs suggested in
websites, headphone volumes, slow speed Internet
disconnection, and so on
c Getting lost
Besides the following popular difficulties, three of the student interviewees share the same problem of getting lost when they do listening exercises online They explained that, after they finished the listening assignments in the suggested websites, they continued surfing the Internet They were too interested in what they found online and kept glued to the screen
6 Students’ suggestions to improve the effectiveness of the Internet-assisted listening learning
6.1 Suggestions to the administrator
a Improving facilities quality
As mentioned above, students said that they encountered lots of technical problems while they studied in the lab Therefore, the suggestions they all made to the administrators is to improve the quality of facilities They said that the computers need to be faster They preferred an LCD screen to avoid eye problems Headphones in the lab should
be checked to provide the adequate quality to
enhance their listening rather than annoying them
b Training computer skills
Many students come from rural areas and are not familiar with using computers Therefore, it is understandable for them to ask for more thorough computer skill training at the beginning of the course Only one training session is not just enough for them to be comfortable using the computer This suggestion was made by seven out
of fifteen student interviewees
c Improving classroom layout
The students interviewed also made a suggestion related to the interaction among students in the laboratory As the room is equipped with forty computers, its layout is not convenient for them to interact, especially in pair
or group activities
Trang 66.2 Suggestions to the teachers
Besides, students also wanted to make some
suggestions to their listening teachers These
suggestions will certainly be of great help for
teachers to enhance the effectiveness of the
Internet-assisted listening learning activities
a Creating more activities to motivate
students
Almost all students interviewed said that the
teacher should give more activities to motivate
them during the lesson This suggestion is highly
appreciated as these activities would help to hold
the students’ attention and enthusiasm throughout
the lesson
b Being skillful in technical issues
Three of the interviewees even expressed that
the teachers should be more skillful in technical
issues In that case, the teacher could help them
when they got into trouble with their computers
during their listening practice
c Choosing appropriate materials
Interestingly, about half of the students
interviewed said that they are quite satisfied with
the types of online listening exercises that their
teachers suggested They thought the topic chosen,
the language used in the materials, and the levels
of difficulty of the materials are quite suitable to
their needs and levels However, three students
felt that some materials are too hard for them to
listen Two of them even commented that the
content in some website material is not interesting
enough They would like the teacher to choose
more appropriate materials This is not difficult to
understand because the students do not have the
same level and interest
6.3 Suggestions to the students themselves
Surprisingly, the students also give very
interesting suggestions to themselves
a Learning to use computers professionally
Five students expressed their needs to learn to
use the computer professionally This is
reasonable as they have recognized the importance
of this new learning approach and wanted to improve their computer skills in order to gain more from learning in this way
b Being strict to themselves during the self-study period
From the interview, the researcher is glad to see that students’ autonomy is quite good About half of the student interviewees said that they need
to be stricter to themselves while they are practising their listening skill during the self-study period They explained that if they were stricter, they would find listening more comfortable and could catch more from the listening passages
7 Conclusion
In line with the findings, the research implies that:
i Internet-assisted learning does have certain benefits to students’ English listening skill development The application of the Internet to the teaching and learning of English listening skill is really necessary
ii Students have recognized the vital effectiveness that Internet-assisted learning have
on their English listening skill development However, they still encountered some key problems during their learning process in the multimedia classrooms
iii Students have provided useful suggestions which would be of great help to enhance the benefits of Internet-assisted learning to students’ English listening skill development
8 Recommendations
Based on the major findings or the research, it
is of optimistic view of the researcher that multimedia classroom could be beneficially taken advantage to provide great assistance for students
to improve their English listening skills This research is hoped to give administrators and teachers of other universities some ideas about how to utilize their multimedia classrooms as well
as apply the IAL activities as suggested for this purpose
Trang 7APPENDIX 1: Reference materials for self-study session:
Internet websites are collected by the teacher and suggested to the students during their self-study session:
1 http://www.esl-lab.com
2 http://www.listenaminute.com
3 http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com
4 http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/listen-and-watch
5 http://www.listen-to-english.com/
6 http://www.english-listening-world.com/
7 http://elllo.org/
8 http://www.englishclub.com/webguide/Listening/
9 http://www.digischool.nl/oefenen/hennyjellema/engels/tpr/voorbladtpr.htm
10 http://english-trailers.org
11 http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=2
12 http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/
13 http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/
14 http://listenandwrite.com/
15 http://esl.about.com/od/englishlistening/English_Listening_Skills_and_ActivitiesEffective_ Listening_Practice.htm
16 http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/index.shtml
...internet-assisted learning method to develop
Listening skills for Business English students at
National Economics University? ?? is to: (i) explore
students’... INTERNET-ASSISTED LEARNING METHOD
TO DEVELOPLISTENING SKILLS FOR BUSINESS ENGLISH
STUDENTSAT NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY
1 Background...
internet-assisted learning (IAL) in teaching English in
Vietnam as a whole and at Business English
Department (BED), Faculty of Foreign Languages,
National Economics University