An exploratory study on the use of information technology in teaching english listening skills at huong son high school

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that this thesis entitled “An exploratory study on the use of information technology in teaching English listening skills at Huong Son high schoo

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby certify that this thesis entitled “An exploratory study on the use of information technology in teaching English listening skills at Huong Son high school” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at Vinh

University No material in this thesis has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university and neither does this thesis use and contain previously published material or written by another person

Author Nguyen Tien Dung

ACKOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr Tran Ba Tien, my supervisor, for his invaluable guidance, comments, correction, and most of all his kind encouragement throughout the work

I also would like to express my sincere thanks to teachers of Foreign Language Department for their kind encouragement and suggestions

I am appreciative of all my teachers and my students at Huong Son High School where I have gathered information for my study Without their help, this study could not have been successful

I am indebted to my family members whose support and encouragements greatly contributed to the completion of my study

Vinh, July 2017 Nguyen Tien Dung

ABSTRACT

Information Technology (IT) is an important element in the education scenario in order to prepare the citizens for the future The quality of teaching is often related to the use of IT in teaching and learning Hence, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has implemented various programs to promote the use of IT pin teaching and learning The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the use of IT in teaching English listening skills at Huong Son high school To achieve the aims, in this study the researcher used qualitative and quantitative research method, including the use of survey questionnaires and interview The study was conducted with ten teachers and two hundred students at Huong Son high school, Huong Son district, Ha Tinh province, Vietnam The data from survey questionnaires, information collected from interviews was discussed and interpreted statistically The findings reveal that although teachers were quite positive attitudes about IT integration, there were several challenges that were still holding them back from fully utilizing the ITs Issues such as inadequate infrastructure, lack of knowledge and skills on how to integrate IT tools, their own attitudes and beliefs, were challenges that the teachers seemed to point out as major impediments to the smooth integration of IT Considering the data gathered, it is hoped that this thesis will be useful for teachers in using IT in teaching English listening skills at Huong Son high school in particular and at other high schools in general

LIST OF TABLE AND CHART

Table 1: Distribution of respondents by gender

Table 2: Distribution of respondents by age

Table 3: Distribution of respondents by teaching experiences

Table 4: The degree held by the participants

Table 5: IT Ownership

Table 6 & Chart 1: Teachers’ and students’ attitude towards using IT in listening lessons

Table 7 & Chart 2: Teachers’ Internet skill

Table 8 & Chart 3: Teachers' frequency in using IT in their teaching

Table 9: Administrators’ frequency in encouraging teachers to use IT

Table 10: Colleagues’ frequency in appreciating the value of using IT

Table 11: Teachers’ frequency in using computers to design English listening lessons

Table 12: The utilized IT devices

Table 13 & Chart 4: Teachers’ and students’ assessment on the effectiveness of your English listening lessons with the help of IT

Table 14 & Chart 5: Teachers’ and students’ perception towards the importance of using IT in teaching listening skill

Table 15: Teachers’ and students’ perceptions toward the benefits of using IT in teaching English listening skill

Table 16: Difficulties confronted by the teachers in using IT in their teaching

Table 17: Difficulties confronted by the students in learning listening skill with technology

Table 18: Teachers’ suggestions to enhance the effectiveness of using computers in teaching listening skill

APPENDICES

Appendix A: Teacher questionnaire

Appendix B: Student questionnaire

Appendix C: Teacher interview

Appendix D: Student interview

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF TABLE & CHART iv

APPENDICES v

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS vii

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 3

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Method of the study 3

1.5 Scope of the study 4

1.6 Significance of the study 4

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Foreign Language Teaching 6

2.2 Information technology 10

2.2.1 Definition 10

2.2.2 Kind of technology available to language learning and teaching 10

2.2.3 Technology in language teaching and learning 11

2.2.4 The use of using IT in teaching and learning English listening skill 13

2.3 CALL 14

2.3.1 Behavioristic CALL 15

2.3.2 Communicative CALL 16

2.3.3 Integrative CALL 17

2.3.4 Uses of CALL to teach listening skill 18

2.4 Listening skill 18

2.4.1 Listening and hearing 18

2.4.2 Definitions of listening 19

2.4.3 Listening skill 20

2.4.4 The process of listening 21

2.4.5 Types of listening 23

2.4.5.1 Extensive and intensive listening 23

2.4.5.2 Discriminative listening 25

2.4.5.3 Informative listening 25

2.4.5.4 Relationship listening 25

2.4.5.5 Appreciative listening 26

2.4.5.6 Critical listening 26

2.4.6 Strategies for Developing Listening Skills 27

2.4.6.1 Top-down strategies 27

2.4.6.2 Bottom-up strategies 27

2.4.6.3 Listening for Meaning 28

2.4.7 Stages in listening tasks 28

2.4.7.1 The pre-listening stage 28

2.4.7.2 The while-listening stage 29

2.4.7.3 The post-listening stage 30

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 The setting of the study 31

3.1.1 IT in FL education at Huong Son high school 31

3.1.2 The teaching EFL at Huong Son high school 32

3.2 Research methods 32

3.2.1 Participants of the study 33

3.2.2 Measurement instruments 33

3.2.2.1 Survey questionnaire 34

3.2.2.2 Interview 34

3.3 Procedure 35

Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Data collection and analysis 37

4.1.1 Presentation of statistical result from teachers’ and students’ questionnaire 37

4.1.1.1 Personal information about teachers and students 37

4.1.1.2 The status quo of the use of IT in teaching English listening skills at Huong Son high school 40

4.1.1.3 Teachers’ and students’ perception towards the use of IT in teaching and learning English listening skills 48

4.1.1.4 Some suggestions to enhance the effectiveness of using computers in teaching and learning English listening skills 54

4.1.1.4.1 Teachers’ opinions 54

4.1.1.4.2 Students’ opinions 57

4.1.2 Presentation of teachers’ interview 58

4.2 Discuss of the findings 61

4.2.1 The status quo of the use of IT in teaching English listening skills at Huong Son high school 61

4.2.2 The teachers’ and students’ perception towards the use of IT in teaching and learning English listening skills 63

4.2.3 The effective strategies in using IT to help students improve their English listening skills 66

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 5.1 Summary of the results 69

5.2 Implications 70

5.3 Limitations of the study 71

5.4 Suggestions for further research 72

REFERENCES 72

APPENDIX 78

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

English has been considered as one of the compulsory subjects in secondary and high school in Vietnam New English textbooks from grade six to twelve, which are born with the aims to require students standard level of English as well as

to meet, demand of social development focuses on the four skills: reading, speaking, listening, and writing Listening is considered very difficult but important one, the basic for others However, teaching and learning English listening skill at schools in general and high schools in particular still exist some limitations The reasons are the learners lack of motivation to listen, limited level of English, noise and lack of instrument for listening And an important reason is from the teachers’ methodology They may still be familiar to the old method of teaching, or they get difficult to find a suitable method, so they cannot motivate their students to learn English listening skill better In many recent years, the idea of applying IT in teaching in general and English especially listening skill is being carried out in schools in Vietnam to help the English lessons effectively

Nowadays, IT is a concept that is not too strange with many people With a computer and Internet technologies, people can now have access to more information more quickly and easier IT definitely plays an important role in educational success The impact of the use of IT on education has been investigated

by many researchers in different settings in Vietnam and in the world These studies shared a very common finding that is related the effectiveness of the use of IT in teaching in general and in teaching English in particular Lam & Lawrence (2002) also stated that technology not only gives learners the opportunity to control their own learning process, but also provide them with ready access to a vast amount of information over which teachers have no power to control The effective IT tools

which can help teachers to expand the difficult walls of the traditional classroom and rebuild their class without the walls are increasing in both quantity and quality

However, there still exist many difficulties in the use of IT in teaching English in general and in teaching English listening skills in particular Although IT has been in existence for many years, it has just begun to spread to schools and ESL classrooms The reason is that IT tools require hard ware, which is relatively expensive Furthermore, using them well or professionally requires the teachers have to have good skills or knowledge of using them Young (2004) indicated that teachers’ lack of knowledge and skills have become primary factors in failure of computers or technology integration program in the institution The lack of time is also often considered as a difficulty by teachers in their English teaching The teachers only use IT in making lesson plans or let students use Internet in the library Because of the reasons above that cause low quality of period of teaching English As a result, teachers’ lessons can be not very successful as expected

With the requirement of ministry of education and training and the actual demand for teaching programs, the implementation of IT in teaching and learning activity has attracted great interest from the teachers at high schools in Vietnam Teachers have started to adopt and implement IT for teaching and learning process either in the classroom or outside the classroom The use of IT in teaching English

in general and especially listening skill is being carried out in schools in Vietnam It

is very necessary to investigate the reality, the difficulties, the teachers’ and students’ attitude in teaching and learning listening skill at high schools

These above-mentioned concerns urged the author to carry out the research,

called: “An exploratory study on the use of information technology in teaching English listening skills at Huong Son high school” Hopefully, this study would

help teachers of English at Huong Son high school carry out the English listening skill periods with the help of IT as effectively as expected The students will also find more interested and motivated in learning English listening skill lessons

1.2 Aims of the study

This study aims at studying the use of IT in teaching English listening skills

at Huong Son high school Hence, it is expected to achieve the following objectives:

- First, to investigate the status quo of the use of IT in teaching English listening skills at Huong Son high school

- Second, to investigate the teachers’ and students’ perception towards the use of

IT in teaching and learning English listening skills

- Third, to give some effective strategies in using IT to help students improve their listening skills

1.4 Method of the study

In order to realize the aims of the study, a combination of quantitative and qualitative method was used Data were collected through the analysis of the survey questionnaire for students and teachers, teachers’ interview Survey questionnaires are used as the main instrument to collect information and evidence for the study They were then compared, contrasted, analyzed and synthesized both qualitatively and quantitatively The data collected for the study will mainly from two sources:

200 students from grade 10, 11 and 12 and 10 teachers of English at Huong Son high school

All comments, remarks, recommendations, and conclusions provided in the study were based on the data analysis

1.5 Scope of the study

- The study limits itself to investigating the use of information technology in teaching English listening skills at a high school in Ha Tinh It deals with the issue

of using IT to teach English listening skills to high school students

- Because of the limitation of the time, making a research with a large number

of the participants was out of the author’s reach, therefore, the participants for the study was 10 teachers of English and 200 students grade 10, 11 and 12 at Huong Son high school

1.6 Significance of the study

This study, if successful, will be of theoretical as well as practical benefits First, it will provide more information to help people have a deep insight about the reality of using IT in teaching English listening skills at a high school From then people who are responsible for this field will have some suitable solutions to deal with this problem for their school so that the use of IT in teaching will be more effective The teachers can give more suggestions to help the teaching effectively

In addition, the significance of the study is for English teachers at Huong Son high school The results of the study are expected to English language teachers who have interest in using IT in teaching English listening skill With this study, the writer hopes to make a small contribution to teachers at Huong Son high school that they may use the materials, computer programs, the Internet for their teaching with their own teaching purposes more effectively

Last but not least, this study itself wishes to raise teachers’ and administrators’ awareness of utilizing the existing modern technologies to meet

students’ needs and implementing the instruction 29/2001/CT - BGD&ĐT about applying IT in education and training into specific perspectives Its implemented recommendations will make the use of IT in teaching English listening skill at Huong Son high school more successful and effective

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter introduces a brief review of the literature relevant to the study and is divided into four sections The first section is overview of foreign language teaching The second section is to discuss some key terms related to IT, the third section briefs the history of CALL, the fourth section is overview of listening skill

2.1 Foreign language teaching

In the long history of educational development, people witnessed many teaching methodologies have come and gone In the past, there were some old methodologies of foreign language teaching such as Grammar-Translation Method, Direct method, Audio-lingual Method, Total Physical Response and so on are considered ineffective now because of their shortcomings

In the 19th century, the Classical Method came to be known as the Grammar Translation Method It is one of the most conventional methods which have a long history The Grammar-Translation method represents the tradition of language teaching adopted in western society and developed in many centuries of teaching not only the classical languages such as Latin and Greek, but also foreign languages It focuses much on grammar, reading and writing pays little or no attention to listening and speaking, and learners’ aim is to master the language not

to use the language Therefore, students cannot be able to communicate It remained popular in modern language pedagogy, even after the introduction of newer methods

The Audio-lingual Method is derived from “The Army Method”, so called because it was developed through a U.S Army programme devised after World War II to produce speakers proficient in the languages of friend and foes James Lee

and Bill VanPatten defined Audio-lingual method as: “The Audio Lingual Method was predicted on the marriage of behaviorist psychology and the current structural linguistics According to behaviorist psychology, all learning verbal and nonverbal

takes place through the process of habit formation Habits areformed through repetition, imitation, and reinforcement In ALM, language habits were formed by memorizing dialogues and practicing sentence patterns, usually through drills that required learners to imitate and repeat what their instructor said.” Like any other

method, it has made some good contributions to the educational field In ALM, no translation is permitted to teach vocabulary It means that teachers must not use translation as an activity to teach vocabulary; they should create and apply new ways to explain a new word They can use realia, flashcards, gestures, mimicry, synonyms, and antonyms to explain a word definition or meaning Students learn pronunciation, intonation and stress through teacher’s modeling They are encouraged to use the foreign language and to speak in ALM lessons They must use the foreign language to express any idea they have ALM is based on operant behaviorism where reinforcement plays a very important part in the teaching and learning process Despite of the fact that the ALM created a revolution in the area of teaching foreign languages during 1960s, it has some characteristics which are difficult for learners to follow such as: translation is forbidden at early levels, the use of the student’s native language is also forbidden This method does not let students create a meaningful environment to learn the topic or structures that are going to be presented to them

Total Physical Response (TPR) which was developed by James Asher, an American professor of psychology is based on the theory that the memory is enhanced through association with physical movement TPR is an approach to teaching a second language, based on listening connected to physical activities which are designed to reinforce comprehension TPR as an approach to teaching a second language is based, first and foremost, on listening and this is linked to physical actions which are designed to reinforce comprehension of particular basic items TPR relies on the assumption that when learning a second language, which is internalized through a process of code-breaking similar to first language development It brings many advantages for teachers and learners in their teaching

and learning process In the TPR lessons, students enjoy activity and these simple TPR activities do not require a great deal of preparation on the part of the teachers

It is inclusive and works well a class with mixed ability levels It also helps students achieve fluency faster by immersing learners in activities that involve them in situational language use This method has its own limitations such as: it is most useful for beginners, preparation becomes an issue for teachers at higher levels or students are not generally given the opportunity to express their own thought in as creative manner

After few decades, in 1960s and 1970s foreign language learning was extended with the establishment of comprehensive schools It led to the teaching of

a foreign language to virtually all learners It was the main pressure for a change in teaching methods and curricula to suit the needs of non-traditional learners As a result, there has been a movement in foreign language education, which is studying about language toward a focus on using a language as a useful tool to communicate

in real life And communicative approach or Communicative language teaching (CLT) is becoming a dominant approach used to teach foreign languages CLT is best considered as an approach rather than a method (Richards & Rogers, 1986) It focused around communicative competence rather than on linguistic or grammatical competence It used to motivate learners to want to learn or use the foreign language for real communication by extending their knowledge and experiences Different from the Audio-lingual method, the Communicative Approach gives priority to the semantic content of language learning because learners learn the grammatical points through meaning not the other way around CLT is based on a theory of language

as a system of expression of meaning, the primary function of language being interaction and communication (Nunan, 1995)

The study by Mhundwa (1998) investigating the characteristic of CLT is that classroom communication is planned and presented in ways that stimulate real life situations According to Richards and Rodgers (1995) illustrated some examples of functional communicative activities such as: giving and following directions,

solving problems, using clues, conversations, dialogues and role plays, all of which should not be memorized Students should interact more with each other than with the teacher because CLT is both learner-centered and experience-based The next characteristic of CLT is that it discourages over-correction of language errors by the teacher as it distracts from the message (Brumfit, 1984) To the teachers, errors determine how far the learner has progressed towards the language learning To the learner, errors are evidence of learning

The teachers play the role of facilitator, guide, participant, resource organizer, resource himself, learner, needs analyst and counselor in CLT During the presentation of an activity, students should not normally be aware of intervention by the teacher as teacher but as a communicator (Brumfit, 1984)

Classroom activities in CLT are aimed at the situational and contextualized use of particular language The teaching materials in CLT by Nunan (1995) refers to these as task-based materials that play the primary role of promoting communicative language use

With the application of the active and new teaching approach to CLT, the use

of IT in teaching English in general and teaching English listening skill in particular will help English teachers offer their students with the best lessons, since then help them develop their communicative competence and increase their interest in self-studying English as an important foreign language

With the rapid development of IT, the emerging and developing of multimedia technology and its application to teaching English, sets a solid foundation for reform and exploration on English teaching method It’s proved that

IT plays a positive role in promoting activities and initiatives of student and teaching effect in English class Technological innovations have gone with the growth of English teaching method and are changing the way in which people communicate

2.2 Information technology (IT)

2.2.1 Definition

The term “Information Technology” which appeared in the 1970s has a long history IT stands for “Information Technology”, and it is used to refer to anything related to computing technology, such as hardware, software, networking, the

Internet Technology can be defined as the process of using scientific, material and

human resources in order to meet human need or purpose Then there is a simple

definition of Information as “that which can be communicated and understood”, then together a basic definition of IT could be: Information Technology is the use

of information in order to meet human need or purpose

IT as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA): is study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware In short, IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit and retrieve information, securely

IT consists of computers, networks, satellite communications, robotics, videotext, cable television, electronic mail (e-mail), electronic games, and automated office equipment

2.2.2 Kinds of technology available to language learning and teaching

Teaching and learning is changing from a classic classroom environment to

an increasingly technology one, where students are active learners However, students should engage themselves with technology familiar to them IT has changed a lot with the development of new tools and the arrival of the era of the Internet, use of multimedia, and mobile devices which have been changing the way people interact and collaborate with each other Gill (2011) pointed out that IT has increased its role in second language learning with the use of new tools to deliver language teaching, which provide more interaction, such as live chat or discussion

boards Because of the growing of available technology, teachers have to choose hardware and software that meet teachers’ and students’ needs Their selection depends on several reasons, such as their personal preferences - familiarity with the technology and their ability to implement the technology tool to use it to teach The element should be cared by teachers when they select software or hardware is pedagogical purposes, which are based on learning goals to reach those goals

2.2.3 Technology in language teaching and learning

In teaching and learning English, teachers have a lot to choose from the world of technology: Audio Cassettes, Radio, TV, Computers, CALL, the Internet, Electronic Dictionary, Email, Power Point, Videos, CD, DVD or VCD, etc This rapid development of IT has offered a better pattern to explore the new teaching model As a result technology plays a very important role in English teaching at schools Using IT to create a context to teach English has its unique advantages

Technology and foreign language education is no stranger to one another IT deals with the application of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and retrieve information IT has been used differently in education and contributed greatly to the pedagogical methodology renovation in many recent years

IT is used in classrooms at many schools in Vietnam The use of technology helps teachers to diversify their lessons, display more information, and enhance student learning Thank to different technologies in the classroom, this can help teachers save time and energy and allow for more attention to be paid to the course content There are many different learning materials available to teachers in order to help them with their teaching

In many recent years, to improve the importance of technology in teaching many studies have been conducted to find out the influences or benefits of the use

of IT in teaching foreign language Many studies have been conducted to investigate

how the integration of technology into the curriculum may enhance language teaching and learning (Wong 2004; Miner, 2004; Eugene, 2006; Hixon, 2008)

Many studies were conducted on using IT in teaching English To the researchers’ best knowledge a few studies were conducted on using CALL in teaching English grammar in Jordan Douglas Hogg (2000) conducted a study to examine teachers’ perceptions of the effect of using computer technology on their role in the classroom and on their personal teaching style The result showed that teachers are interested in using computer technology and technology also influences

on their teaching style Hoopingarner (2009) indicated that the use of IT in teaching language can be effective as long as teachers use it efficiently; an effective use of IT takes into consideration language pedagogy practices to use any sort of technology

to support and increase language teaching and learning Al-Qumoul conducted a study to investigate the effect of an instructional software program of English language functions on tenth graders’ achievement The results revealed that the students who studied the English language functions through CAI lessons performed better than those who learnt by the traditional method Mike (1996) described the use of the Internet has also been shown to promote higher order thinking skills The fact is that using IT brings many benefits to teachers’ teaching According to Díaz, Jansson & Martínez (2011), the use IT in teaching and learning foreign language has the power of improving students’ learning and students’ motivation while offering students the opportunity for individuality of technology access and interaction in order to be able to communicate ideas using the new second language vocabulary and grammar learned

When dealing with the importance of IT in education, we can not ignore the role of multimedia, which has been considered to have enormous potential in education in general and in foreign language teaching and learning in particular On many campuses, new multimedia learning centers and electronic laboratories have already become the focus of the changing paradigms of foreign language instruction To the teachers, the increased use of IT resources in foreign language

programs prompted a revision of teaching styles and techniques When IT is used properly it could be a powerful tool that would have positive effects on the process

of learning language skills (Gill, 2011)

2.2.4 The role of using IT in teaching and learning English listening skill

The use of information technology actually promote high school English listening Teaching recently With the traditional English teaching, listening is carried out mainly through tape recorders and the teachers themselves accomplished Although this traditional method plays an important role, but there are still some disadvantages such as a single method to control the inconvenience Understanding the importance of English listening skill in language learning and teaching is necessary for English teachers to help their students become effective listeners In the communicative approach to language teaching, it means modeling listening strategies and providing listening practice in authentic situations: those that students are likely to encounter when they use the language outside the classroom One of the best ways teachers should introduce students to listening strategies is to integrate listening activities into language lessons using IT This becomes more accessible to teachers and learners of other languages, its potential as

a tool to enhance listening skills becomes a practical option

Modern technology advance listening skills by providing a multitude of opportunities for listening to spoken language An English teacher should be aware

of these new technologies to immerse their students in the spoken language experience Thank to the development of IT teaching English listening skill nowadays are convenience, teachers can use many different tools to assist their teaching and make their lessons better Technology provides teachers multisensory elements, text, sound, pictures, video, and animation, which bring meaningful contexts to facilitate comprehension IT emphasizes the individual needs of learners and allows students to hear the available input as many times as needed until they feel they understand it Besides, it also encourages greater interaction between

teachers and students and students, and allows them to build their self-instruction strategies and self-confidence All these things lead to promotes second language learners’ learning motivation

2.3 CALL

The rapid advances of technologies of the 1990s have raised both the expectations and the demands placed on the computer as a potential learning tool With recent advances in multimedia technology, computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has emerged as an alternative to earlier modes of supplementing

or replacing direct student-teacher interaction, such as the language laboratory or audio-tape-based self-study

CALL stands for Computer Assisted Language Learning It is a new trend in the development of foreign language teaching In the foreign language teaching, IT

in the development process, CALL, definitely make a significant change in high school English teaching This change in English teaching in various aspects such as listening, speaking, reading and writing, are tremendous

It is defined as “the search for and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning” (Levy, 1997, p.1) It is often known as an approach

to language teaching and learning in which the computer is used as an aid to the presentation, reinforcement and assessment of material to be learned, usually including a substantial interactive element It is used to be considered as an essential component in language teaching by many language educators

From the 1960s, computers have been used for language teaching Through

more 30-year history, CALL can be divided into three main stages: “This

development can be categorized in terms of three somewhat distinct phases which I

will refer to as behavioristic CALL, communicative CALL, and integrative CALL”

A certain level of technology and a certain pedagogical approach are presented in each stage

2.3.1 Behavioristic CALL

The first stage, behavioristic CALL, conceived in the 1950s and implemented in the 1960s and 1970s, was based on the then-dominant behaviorist theories of learning It could be considered a sub-component of the broader field of computer-assisted instruction The mode of CALL described repetitive language drills, referred to as drill-and-practice (or, pejoratively, as “drill-and-kill”) “Drill and practice” course-ware is based on the model of computer as tutor (Taylor, 1980) For example, in this period, in the United States, the computer was considered as a mechanical tutor who never grew tired or judgmental and allowed students to work at an individual pace PLATO, the best known tutorial system, ran

on its own special hardware consisting of a central computer and terminals and featured extensive drills, grammatical explanations, and translation tests at various intervals (Ahmad, Corbett, Rogers, & Sussex, 1985) In other words, the computer serves as a vehicle for delivering instructional materials to the student According to Taylor (1980), behavioristic CALL has several following features:

- Repeated exposure to the same material is beneficial or even essential to learning

- A computer is ideal for carrying out repeated drills, since the machine does not get bored with presenting the same material and since it can provide immediate non-judgmental feedback

- A computer can present such material on an individualized basis, allowing students to proceed at their own pace and freeing up class time for other activities

Behavioristic CALL mentioned two important factors in the late 1970s and early 1980s Firstly, behavioristic approaches to language learning had been rejected at both the theoretical and the pedagogical level Secondly, the introduction

of the microcomputer allowed a whole new range of possibilities

2.3.2 Communicative CALL

The second stage, communicative CALL, was based on the communicative approach to teaching, emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s, at the same time that behavioristic approaches to language teaching were being rejected at both the theoretical and pedagogical level, and when new personal computers were creating greater possibilities for individual work

Proponents of communicative CALL stressed that computer-based activities should focus more on using forms than on the forms themselves, teach grammar implicitly rather than implicitly, allow and encourage students to generate original utterances rather than just manipulate prefabricated language, and use the target language predominantly or even exclusively (Jones & Fortescue, 1987; Phillips, 1987; Underwood, 1984) In other words, it emphasized that learning was a process

of discovery, expression, and development

There were several types of CALL programs developed and used during this the phase of communicative CALL There were three main types of communicative CALL: computer as tutor, computer as stimulus and computer as tool or computer

as workhorse (Taylor & Perez, 1989)

At that time, communicative CALL was controversial topic By the late 1980s and early 1990s, critics pointed out that the computer was still being used in a disconnected fashion and thus “finds itself making a greater contribution to marginal rather than central elements of the language learning process” (Kening, M.M & Kening, M.J, 1990, p 90) This led to a new perspective on technology and language learning, which has been termed integrative CALL (Warschauer, 1996b),

a perspective which seeks both to integrate various skills (e.g., listening, speaking, reading, and writing) and also integrate technology more fully into the language learning process The challenge for advocates of CALL was to develop models which could help integrate the various aspects of the language learning process

Fortunately, advances in computer technology were providing the opportunities to

do just that

2.3.3 Integrative CALL

The last stage, integrative CALL, was based on two important technological developments of the last decade-multimedia computers and the Internet Students learn to use a variety of technological tools as an ongoing process of language learning and use, rather than visiting the computer lab on a once a week basis for isolated exercises (whether the exercises be behavioristic or communicative)

The multimedia networked computer is the technology of integrative CALL The multimedia networked computer provides not only the possibilities for much more integrated uses of technology, but also the imperative for such use, as learning

to read, write, and communicate via computer has become an essential feature of modern life in the developed world

“Computer-mediated communication allows users to share not only brief messages, but also lengthy documents and also graphics, sounds, and video Using the World Wide Web (WWW), students can search through millions of files around the world within minutes to locate and access authentic exactly tailored to their own personal interests They can also use the Web to publish their texts or multimedia materials to share with partner classes or with the general public”

(Warschauer, 1996, p3)

Language data in multiple media provides learners with the raw material they can use to recreate the language for themselves, using their own organizing schemes Activities that encourage students to explore and be creators of language rather than passive recipients of it further the idea of the learner as an active participant in learning (Brown, 1991)

2.3.4 Uses of CALL to teach listening skills

The latest IT has brought CALL a broader access to a wide range of not only audio, but video clips as well Levy (2009) stated that the accessibility to computer programs provides so much flexibility for students as they can replay, stop, and replay the audio/video as the student learns intonation and sounds of second language Research conducted by Mayor (2009) found that listening can be enhanced by new CALL technology as the framework used can get intermediate learners to the advanced level In addition, new IT tools allow teachers to add captions to real live videos When learners listened to a video twice, the first time using captions and the second time without captions, the learners’ anxiety was minimized The use of captions helped the learners to get a better understanding, recalled previous knowledge, and improved their attention Videos with captions have shown to be a helping tool for L2 listening and understanding The study of Rubin (2007) investigated the importance of listening skills in language learning and communication is growing among teachers and readers It showed that listening should come before speech production in foreign language acquisition as it does in first language acquisition

2.4 Listening Skill

In this part, the author summarizes what is essential to be known about the difference between listening and hearing, the definition of listening and listening skill and the listening process It is intended to provide an overview of the key concepts and issues involved in understanding listening, it discusses the types of listening, strategies for developing listening skills and stages in the listening tasks

2.4.1 Listening and hearing

Though the terms hearing and listening are often used interchangeably in

our daily talk, there are some important differences between them It is very necessary to realize the differences between hearing and listening While hearing and listening are initiated through sound perception, the difference between them is

essentially a degree of intention The listening process is guided by our intention

which is psychologically an excitation of nerve pathways in the brain to organise incoming stimuli in an efficient way with a psychological terms Intention is known

to involve several levels, but initially intention is an acknowledgement of a distal source and a willingness to be influenced by this source (Allwood, 2006) Hearing

is a physical ability while listening is a skill Listening skill allows someone to make sense of and understand what another person is saying It allows us to

understand what someone is talking about Hearing is the primary physiological

system that allows for reception and conversion of sound waves while hearing provides a basis for listening, it is only a precursor for it

2.4.2 Definition of listening

Listening is a very necessary part of our life and plays an important role in our daily communication The survey conducted by Cooper (1988) suggest that anaverage person spent about 30% of time in speaking, while 42% of time in listening Listening is also important in the language classroom because it provides input for the learner Without understanding input at the right level, any learning simply cannot begin Listening is thus fundamental to speaking (Roost, 1994) There are several distinct definitions of listening and there is little agreement about which is the best Each definition represents a different perspective of listening, and with many approaches to listening There are bound to be a number of definitions

Bulletin (1952) defined listening was one of the fundamental language skills It’s a medium through which children, young people and adults gain a large portion

of their education, their information, their understanding of the world and of human affairs, their ideals, sense of values, and their appreciation In this day of mass communication (much of it oral), it is of vital importance that our pupils be taught

to listen effectively and critically, he says

According to Howatt and Dakin (1974), listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying This involves understanding a speaker’s accent

or pronunciation, his grammar and his vocabulary, and grasping his meaning This definition is very simple but it is very easy to understand

Listening involves both bottom-up and top-down processes and well requires attention, thought, interpretation and imagination Therefore, in some ways, it is even more difficult in compare with other language skills (speaking, reading and writing)

2.4.3 Listening skill

In our daily communication, listening plays an important role In the research

of Vandergrift (1999) he demonstrated that adults spend 40-50% of communication with listening, 25-30% speaking, 11-16% reading, and about 9% writing Listening which is the most widely used language skill is often used in conjunction with the other skills of speaking, reading and writing Listening skill provides opportunities

to hear voices other than the teachers’, enables students to acquire good speaking habits as a result of the spoken English they have absorbed, and helps to improve

their pronunciation

Vandergrift (1999) defined listening skill is no longer viewed as a passive process, there has been studies putting listening before speaking and considering placing speaking before listening in learning language as to ‘put the cart before the horse According to Vandergrift & Tafaghodtari (2010) listening skill is a complex skill that involves many simultaneous processes on diverse levels and engages a mixture of linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge

Listening skill plays an utmost important role among the four language skills since it helps to identify who knows or does not know a language In a social context, social roles are likely to be taken by those who learn and know how to listen, but not by those who do not have this skill It cannot be denied that listening deserves as much attention as or even more attention than reading skill

Pierce (1998) showed that listening as an interactive, not passive process that the students need to reply much effort and practice He also discussed that listening

involves actively perceiving and constructing from a stream of sound Listeners who want to listen well must have enough knowledge of that language Listening skill is not a passive skill but an interactive process, which requires learners to own adequate knowledge of the language to decode the message and the ability to apply different strategies

We now can understand that listening is a group of skills in its own right, and that research may not automatically transfer from reading to listening It is important to bear in mind that listening comprehension requires substantially different skills from those required for reading comprehension (Osada, 2004)

In other principles, Poelmans (2003) defined listening skill as listening comprehension, which is the combination of processes that transform an auditory stimulus to a mental interpretation on the part of the listener of the speaker’s purpose Listening comprehension is a highly integrative skill which serves a significant role in the process of language learning and acquisition, facilitating the appearance of other language skills In the process of listening, listeners are encouraged to predict by making hypotheses of what is to be spoken next in the flow of speech For the students who can predict what is to be next is very useful for them in listening comprehension Listening situations require the listeners to respond, which involves interpretation and evaluation of the speaker’s purposes, as well as conceiving what outcomes the speaker might be trying to achieve In addition, the listeners who have background knowledge about the speaker might influence the listener's reaction, interpretation and respond to what has been said

2.4.4 The process of listening

In the book of the author DeVito (2000), he has divided the listening process into five stages: receiving, understanding, remembering, evaluating, and responding which are presented as below:

 Receiving

DeVito (2000) defined receiving is the intentional focus on hearing a speaker’s message, which happens when we filter out other sources so that we can isolate the message and avoid the confusing mixture of incoming stimuli At this stage, we are still only hearing the message

 Understanding

Poelmans (2003) stated that in order to communicate adequately it is important for a listener to understand what the speaker says At the understanding stage, people attempt to learn the meaning of the message, which is not always easy Message is sent and received by the receiver; however, no effective communication takes place Effective communication does not take place until the receiver

understands the message Even when the receivers have understood the words in a

message, because of the differences in our backgrounds and experience, they sometimes make the mistake of attaching our own meanings to the words of others

 Remembering

Yet memory is often a necessary and integral part of the listening process (Kline, 1996) Remembering begins with listening; if the listener can’t remember something the speaker was said, he might not have been listening effectively Actually, even when people are listening attentively, some messages are very difficult to understand and remember Complex messages that are filled with detail call for highly developed listening skills If there is something that distracts your attention even for several seconds, you could miss out on information that explains other new concepts you hear when you begin to listen fully again

 Evaluating

The fourth stage in the listening process is evaluating the value of the message People are more likely to evaluate a message positively if the speaker

speaks clearly, presents ideas logically, and gives reasons to support the points made Unfortunately, personal opinions sometimes result in prejudiced evaluations

of tasks such as:

- To make a record of their responses to what they have listened

- To evaluate the level of difficulty

- To epitomize the content of the used material such us a tape

- To encourage students to write their comments in a special comments' boxes to consult them and try to meet all the students’ needs

Therefore, extensive listening is a suitable way for students to be provided by extra chances for the reason of constructing their linguistic bank

 Intensive listening

Intensive listening is the other type of listening It is used in daily situations the, ability to listen intensively is considered to be an fundamental part of listening proficiency It mention to the process of listening for exact sounds words, phrases,

grammatical units and pragmatic units (Rost, 2002, p138) In the study of Harmer

(1998), he showed that teachers prefer to use audio tapes as their favourite material

in classroom since it gives students the chance to listen to a variety of voices with different aspects such as accents, topics, genres, as well as it supplies the learner with a useful source of language input Intensive listening helps the learners to meet different characters specially when people are talking in real life situations, interact with speakers, interrupt them and why not asking for clarification this is what is called “live listening” It can take many forms; such as the teacher and the students make a play in the classroom or the teacher reads aloud a story Students dealing with this task listen to a natural spoken language of a written passage

2.4.5.2 Discriminative Listening

Discriminative listening is the first type of listening and it is the most basic type of listening, whereby the difference between difference sounds is identified Kline (1996) indicated that it is only by detecting the changes in speaker’s rate, volume, force, pitch, and emphasis, the informative listener can perceive the differences in meaning If you cannot hear differences, then you cannot make sense

of the meaning that is expressed by such differences People learn to distinguish

between sounds within their own language first, and then cannot discriminate between the phonemes of other languages It helps us to explain why a person from

a country finds it difficult to speak another language well because they cannot distinguish the subtle sounds that are required in that language

2.4.5.3 Informative Listening

According to Derrington, Groom & Chapman (2004, p 42), informative listening is “Where your aim is to concentrate on the message being given.” It is a situation in which a learner tries to understand the message Listeners are capable of understanding when their comprehension of the meaning of the message is close to the intention of the sender (Kline, 1996) Informative listening, or listening to understand, “is found in all areas of our lives Much of our learning comes from informative listening.” (Kline, 1996, p 30) It is through listening that our learning depends, especially during lectures or instructions (Kline, 1996)

2.4.5.4 Relationship Listening

The main goal of relationship listening is either to help an individual or to improve the relationship between people (Kline, 1996, p.32) A special type of relationship listening is therapeutic listening Goh (2002) considered it as where the listener’s role is to be a sympathetic listener without much verbal response It is a situation where the listener allows hearer to talk freely about a problem It is very important in construct good interpersonal relations It also requires hearer to listen for information, the view of it is to understand other people

2.4.5.5 Appreciative Listening

Stephen & Lucas (1998) defined appreciative listening as “Listening for pleasure or enjoyment, as when we listen to music, to a comedy, or to an entertaining speech" Appreciative listening which refers to listening for enjoying what one listens includes listening to music for enjoyment to people because of

their likeable styles, to plays in theatre, television, radio, or films People use appreciative listening when they find information which

will appreciate for example that which helps meet their need and goals

2.4.5.6 Critical Listening

The ability to listen critically is essential everywhere; on the job, in the community, at service clubs, in places of worship, in the family, there is no place where critical listening is considered unimportant This type of listening deserves much more attention; it is listening to evaluate a message for purposes of accepting

or rejecting it (Stephen, Lucas, 1998) Critical listening in classroom aims to:

- Categorize facts from opinions and help learners to prevent opinions from influencing their understanding of the facts

- Examine speakers' qualifications, motives, biases and help learners to know the way to weight fact and arguments

- Explore opinions for effectiveness and appropriateness and help learners to test ideas they learn

- Acknowledge the speaker's reasoning and help learners to know the speaker's logic or lack of logic

2.4.6 Strategies for Developing Listening Skills

According to National Capital Language Resource Center [NCLRC] (2007), listening strategies are techniques or actions that contribute directly to the understanding and remembrance of listening input It is according to the processing

of the input by the listener that listening strategies could be classified

2.4.6.1 Top-down strategies

In understanding spoken discourse there are two different kinds of processes involved They are often referred to as bottom-up and top-down processing Top-down processing mentions to utilizing background knowledge and global understanding to derive meaning from and interpret the message Top-down strategies are listener based; listeners use background knowledge of the topic, the

situation or context, the type of text, and the language This background knowledge turn on a set of expectations that help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate what will come next Top-down strategies include:

- listening for the main idea,

- recognizing word-order patterns

2.4.6.3 Listening for Meaning

To extract meaning from a listening text, students need to follow four basic steps:

- Know the target for listening Activate background knowledge of the topic to predict content and identify suitable listening strategies

- Concentrate on the parts of the listening input that are relevant to the underlined purpose and neglect the rest This selectivity allows learners to concentrate on particular items in the input and decreases the amount of information they have

to keep short-term memory in order to recognize it

- Choose top-down and bottom-up strategies that are suitable to the listening activities and employ them flexibly and interactively Learners’ understanding

enhances and their confidence augments when they use top-down and bottom-up strategies simultaneously to construct meaning

- Check learners’ understanding while listening and when the listening task is over Monitoring comprehension helps students detect inconsistencies and comprehension failures, directing them to use alternate strategies

2.4.7 Stages in the listening tasks:

In this part, the author will present the three stages of a good listening activity, and present some basic suggestions for each stage The three stages are the pre-listening stage, the while-listening stage, and the post-listening stage Each stage has its own aims and activities

2.4.7.1 The pre-listening stage:

This stage aims at preparing learners with everything necessary for listening and understanding the listening text It is very important if teachers want their students to get as much as possible out of listening The students should be have a reason to listen, a chance to discuss and predict what they are going to listen because teachers can not let their students carry out a listening blind of information and without any point of reference This pre-listening stage contains these activities

as presented below:

- Warming up the class: The teacher motivates the whole class, builds a

context for the listening text by asking questions to elicit students experience, or ideas related to the coming text or by using some sort of visual aids or their imagination

- Introducing the topic of the listening text: The teacher introduces the topic

of the listening text in brief in order to get students’ mind ready for it

- Presenting key words: The tteacher should notice the importance of this

kind of pre-listening activity The students may have difficulty transferring their meaning while listening Therefore, it is necessary to give vocabulary introduction before listening to the text but sometime before that

2.4.7.2 The while-listening stage

This stage aims to facilitate students listening and check their comprehension Teachers use tape recorders for their classroom listening practice While-listening activities ask the students to collect or catch the necessary information for an overall listening comprehension While the students listen to the listening task for the first time, they can check their guess and give the correct answer to the guiding questions The teacher then gives the students some tasks to

do while they are listening for the second time Sometimes, the students may need

to listen to the text more than once to finish their while-listening activities When they finish checking the students’ answers, they should emphasize the main points

of the text and explain the difficulties in vocabulary or structures that their students encounter while listening Many activities are suggested for teachers to use in this phase:

2.4.7.3 The post-listening stage:

It is necessary for teacher to let students realise they have been listening something useful and interesting Because of that reason, post listening activities refer to all activities which can be practiced after the second phase Post listening activities are considered to be a source of motivating At this stage, students can have opportunities to get more information about the topic and to practice using what they have got from the listening text Students can do such activities as: