Improve note talking skill for the third year english students at vinh university

Real-life listening situations...4 Vinh university The Foreign Languages Department ===    === Improve note-taking skill for the third-year English students at Vinh University C¶i thi

Table of contents

Page

Acknowledgement

Part i: introduction 1

1 The rationale 1

2 The aims of the study 1

3 The scope of the study 2

4 The methods of the study 2

5 The design of the study 2

Part ii: development 3

Chapter 1: Theoretical background 3

1.1 Listening comprehension 3

1.1.1 Definition of listening skill 3

1.1.2 Real-life listening situations 4

Vinh university

The Foreign Languages Department

===    ===

Improve note-taking skill for the third-year English students

at Vinh University

(C¶i thiÖn kü n¨ng ghi chÐp khi nghe

cho sinh viªn Anh ng÷ n¨m thø ba

trêng §¹i häc Vinh)

Graduation Thesis

Field: Methodology

Supervisor: Ms NguyÔn ThÞ Lan Ph¬ng, M.A

Student: Bïi ThÞ Mü H¶o, 43A2

Vinh, May 2006

=  =

1.1.3 Types of listening activities in classroom 4

1.1.3.1 No overt response 5

1.1.3.2 Short responses 5

1.1.3.3 Longer responses 5

1.1.3.4 Extended responses 5

1.2 Note-taking skill 6

1.2.1 Definition of note taking 6

1.2.2 The importance of note taking 7

1.2.3 Four phases of note taking 8

1.2.3.1 Get yourself ready to take notes 8

1.2.3.2 Before class 9

1.2.3.3 During class 9

1.2.3.4 After class 9

1.2.4 Some methods of note taking 10

1.2.4.1 The Cornell Method 10

1.2.4.2 The Outlining Method 11

1.2.4.3 The Charting Method 12

1.2.4.4 The Sentence Method 13

1.2.5 Some problems affecting note-taking process 13

1.2.5.1 Coping with speech 14

1.2.5.2 Coping with the lack of vocabulary 15

1.2.5.3 Coping with fast, natural speech 15

1.2.5.4 Coping with redundancy and background noise 15

1.2.5.5 Listeners 16

1.2.6 Basic framework for teaching note taking 17

1.2.6.1 Pre-listening 18

1.2.6.2 While-listening 19

1.2.6.3 Post-listening 19

1.2.7 Symbols and abbreviations used in note taking 20

1.2.7.1 Why to use symbols and abbreviations? 20

1.2.7.2 How to use symbols and abbreviations 20

1.2.7.3 Some suggested symbols and abbreviations 21

Chapter 2: The survey 24

2.1 Overview of the survey 24

2.1.1 Objectives of the survey 24

2.1.2 Informants and their background 24

2.2 Description of the survey questionnaire 24

2.2.1 The focus of the survey questionnaire 24

2.2.2 The survey questionnaire and the results 25

2.2.3 Findings 27

Chapter 3: Some activities for improving note-taking skill 31

3.1 Some pre-listening activities for note-taking in class 31

3.1.1 “Wh” Game 31

3.1.2 Summarizing 32

3.1.3 Vocabulary Game 33

3.1.4 Replacing symbols and abbreviations 34

3.1.5 Story- making 35

3.1.6 Realizing the situation 35

3.2 Some common note-taking activities based on listening situations 36

3.2.1 Listening to a conversation 36

3.2.2 Listening to news 40

3.2.3 Listening to advertisements 41

3.2.4 Listening to a story 42

3.2.5 Listening to descriptions or introductions 43

3.2.6 Listening to a lecture 44

3.3 Some activities for students to practise note taking outside class 45

3.3.1 Activities for general understanding 45

3.3.2 Activities for understanding the details 46

3.3.3 Activities for listening and taking notes during lectures 47

3.3.4 Other suggestions 48

part iii: conclusion 49 references

To finish this graduation thesis, beside our efforts, we are indebted tomany people for their great help

First of all, I would like to express my special thanks to my supervisor,

Ms NguyÔn ThÞ Lan Ph¬ng, M.A, who has helped me enthusiastically withher advice, directions, comments, criticism and encouragement for theaccomplishment of the study

I would also like to thank The Foreign Languages Department foroffering me a chance to carry out the study and thank all my teachers whosevaluable lectures on English, especially listening and methodology, took animportant part in this graduation thesis

I am also grateful to the students from course 44, The ForeignLanguages Department, Vinh University who took part in my small survey aswell as my friends for their constructive opinions, useful and up-to-datematerials concerning our study

Finally, I deeply thank my family and my close friends for theirspiritual support and encouragement

Vinh, May 2006Bïi ThÞ Mü H¶o

Part i: introduction

1 The rationale

Once learners have adjusted the idea that school requires a certainamount of work- no matter how good or bad the instructors are, no matter howinteresting or boring the classes are, no matter how difficult the subjects are–

they are ready to listen But only listening is not enough An important thingthey have to do is taking notes while listening.

Although students have to take notes at university, not many studentstake time to take effective notes In fact, note taking is very important butdifficult For foreign language students, note taking is more difficult.However, relatively few foreign language teachers teach this skill At VinhUniversity, this skill is officially taught for the third-year students in listeningsubject but we find that the results of listening tests are far behind theexpectation Beside the reason that students’ listening skill is not good,another reason is that they do not know the best way to take notes well whilelistening

It is undeniable that note taking is good for both students' studyingprocess and their life later on So learning how to take notes well is reallyimportant As a forth-year student of the The Foreign Languages Department,the author wishes that she could do something to help students in lowercourses, especially third-year students in improving their note-taking skill inlistening That is the reason for choosing the topic “Improve note-taking skillfor the third-year English students at Vinh University”

2 The aims of the study

As the title suggests, this graduation thesis is done to improve note-takingskill in listening for the third-year students Therefore, when doing this thesis,

we aimed at:

- Giving the theoretical backgrounds of listening and note-taking skill

- Making teachers and students more aware of the importance of taking skill, some methods of note taking and other guidelines fortaking notes

note Investigating the current status of learning note-taking skill of the year English students through the survey questionnaire

third Introducing some activities and suggestions for teaching and learningnote-taking skill

3 The scope of the study

This thesis focuses on the theoretical background of listening andnote taking and the activities that help to improve note-taking skill for the

third-year English students at Vinh University

4 The methods of the study

In this graduation thesis, we have used different methods but themain ones are as follow:

- Examining the relevant literature from which we build up the theoreticalbackground of listening and note-taking skill.

- Investigating the current status of learning note-taking skill of the year English students at Vinh University through a survey questionnaireincluding ten questions

third Basing on the results of the survey to search for suitable activities forimproving note-taking skill

5 The design of the study

This thesis consists of three parts:

Part I is the introduction of the thesis containing the rationale, the aims,

the scope, the methods, and the design of the study

Part II is the development with three chapters:

Chapter 1: Theoretical background

Chapter 2: The survey

Chapter 3: Some activities for improving note-taking skill

Part III is the conclusion of the thesis

The thesis also contains acknowledgements, the table of contents

and the references.

Part ii: development

Chapter 1: theoretical background

This chapter examines a theoretical background of listening skill ingeneral and note-taking skill in particular Firstly, we provide a brief overview

of listening comprehension Secondly, we focus on the theories of note-takingskill including the definition of note-taking skill, four phases of note-taking,some methods of note-taking, problems affecting note-taking process, basicframework for teaching note taking in listening, and symbols andabbreviations used in note-taking

1.1 Listening comprehension

1.1.1 Definition of listening skill

It is obvious that students spend majority of their time at schoollistening to their professors’ lectures So much of what they acquire duringtheir studying process is through listening

According to Ron Forseth and others in their “Methodology Handbook

for English teachers in Vietnam” (1994: 112), “Listening is a language skill

which involves a wide range of sub-skills It is much more than hearing; it isdecoding sounds and understanding the meanings behind the sounds”

Listening is paying attention to what people are saying in order to makesense of what they want to communicate It is not simply hearing andpassively copying what others say but it is an active process In order toreconstruct the message that the speaker intends, the hearers must activelycontribute knowledge from both linguistic and non-linguistic sources As

Garvie claimed in his “Story as Vehicle” (England: Multilingual Matters

Limited, 1990), “Listening is an active not a passive operation”

1.1.2 Real-life listening situations

In principle, the objective of listening comprehension practice in theclassroom is that students should learn to function successfully in real-life.Obviously classroom listening is not real-life listening However, in order toprovide students with training in comprehension that will prepare them foreffective functioning outside classroom, the teacher should provide real-lifelistening situations It is also worth noting that listening activities based onstimulated real-life listening situations are likely more motivating andinteresting to do than contrived textbook comprehension exercises Clearly,learners need to know what real-life listening situations are They are thelistening experiences that occur in our life In these situations, people may bedoing other things beside listening– speaking usually - but the essential point

is that they need to be able to understand what is said to functionsatisfactorily

The following list is about a fairly representative selection of real-life

listening situations showed in “Teaching Listening Comprehension” (Penny

Ur, Cambridge University Press, 1992: 24):

Radio news/ TV news

Lesson, lecture, speech

1.1.3 Types of listening activities in classroom

There are various ways of classifying such taxonomy: by listening skill,

by level of difficulty, and so on But here we refer to types of listeningactivities by the amount and complexity of response demanded of the learners

Obeying instructions: Learners perform actions, or draw shapes or pictures,

in response to the instruction

Ticking off items: Learners tick off any items that they hear

True-False statements: Learners tick or cross to indicate whether thestatements are right or wrong

Detecting mistakes: the teacher tells a story or plays the recording, but withdeliberate mistakes Listeners raise their hands or call out when they hearsomething wrong

Close: The listening text has occasional brief gaps represented by silence orsome kinds of buzz Listeners have to write down what they think may be themissing words

Guessing definitions: The teacher provides brief definition of a person, aplace, a thing, an action, etc Learners write down what the think it is

Skimming and scanning: A not-too-long listening text is given, improvised

or recorded Learners are asked to identify some general topic or information

1.1.3.3 Longer responses

Answering questions: One or more questions demanding fairly full responsesare given in advance Learners base on what they hear to answer

Note taking: Learners take brief notes from what they hear

Paragraphing and translating: Learners rewrite the listening text in different words Summarizing: Learners write a brief summary of the content of the listeningpassage

Long-gap filling: A long-gap is left at the beginning, middle or end of a text.Learners guess and write down missing information

1.1.3.4 Extended responses

Problem solving: Learners hear all the information relevant to a particularproblem and then set themselves to solve it, either individually or throughgroup discussion

Interpretation: An extract from a piece of dialogue or monologue is provided,with no previous information Learners try to guess from the words, kinds ofvoice and any other evidence what is going on

Briefly, these theories of listening skill are very necessary for languagelearners to use as a base to study note-taking skill The next section willprovide a deeper understanding about note-taking skill

1.2 Note-taking skill

1.2.1 Definition of note taking

Note taking is a type of listening activities in classroom as the previoussection referred In fact, students often think of note taking as one of the mostdifficult listening exercises However, “Note-taking is generally known as atechnique or, more than that, a skill that is used in listening process” (Marchiand Najul, Department of English, Barhan University, Israel, 1994)

According to Clara P.Fajardo (1996) from University of California,Berkeley, “Note taking is a complex task including two aspects: Itsinvolvement with the combination of different skills like listening or reading,selecting, summarizing and writing, and its requirement of selecting therelevant information from the nonessential”

It is clear that note taking is different from copying which is a passiveprocess Note taking is an active process in which students listen and writedown things critically and selectively in an understandable and abbreviatedway As Carol Carrier (1983) claimed, “Just as listening means more thansimply hearing sounds, taking notes requires much more than writing downeverything that your instructor says Productive note taking involves your ears,your brain, and your hand in a complex process

Note taking is not a process that only happens during our lesson but it

is “an extensive process that begins long before the class starts and ends longafter the class has finished” (Shirley Browner, 1996) Clearly, one can takegood notes only after a long time of active learning and practising

1.2.2 The importance of note taking

While most students anticipate that they will have to take notes atUniversity, not many students take the time to take effective notes In fact,

note taking while listening is a very important skill So realizing theimportance of note taking is a good motivation to improve your study

Firstly, taking notes will help you to extend your attention span (RowTree, 1976:112) When listening, your mind may tend to wander off Youmight be inclined to think about work, money, or relationships It is quite easyfor other aspects of life to pop into your head while you are listening to lectureduring listening lessons Taking notes keep you focused on your subject areaand to the task at last

Secondly, taking notes will help you to remember what you have heard.The studies at Eastern Illinois University in 1996 show that people may forget50% of a lecture within 24 hours, 80% in two weeks, and 95% within a month

if you do not take notes That is why note taking can recall learners ’memory

Thirdly, note-taking helps student sort out important information bysynthesizing and beginning the actual learning process, the student is actuallymaking the material in his own word, his own format The notes taken willbecome a study aid, an external memory device, and an instrument to aid inreview and recitation This process leads to long-tern learning

Additionally, taking notes in class means, most significantly, that youare present in class, the most honorable action to take as a serious student, not

to cope with the teacher or the exam Furthermore, you benefit much fromtaking notes While listening to the tapes and take notes, you have a chance tochallenge with real-life situations including a variety op sounds, accents,speech rate, etc You can apply this technique in your life later on And whenyou are in class to listen to a lecture, the professor often points out orhighlights certain information Taking notes on the highlighted information isnote taking

Last but not least, taking notes makes you more active, as a rule, youlearn more effectively when you use multiple senses and multiple activities.When taking notes, you are using listening and writing skills, or you are usingyour brain and muscles For foreign language students, it is difficult to do twothings at a time You may be afraid you will forget what you are listening tobecause you are taking notes while listening This is difficult, of course, butmakes students more active in learning

In conclusion, note taking while listening is not only the most difficultskill for second language learners but also one of the most important skills in

studying a second language It helps you to listen attentively and critically,remember what you have heard and review your own material for re-use inrevision and assignments Also, it helps you to be a serious and active learner,reduces your study time and provides you essential resources for you futureprojects.

1.2.3 Four phases of note -taking

1.2.3.1 Get yourself ready to take notes

Listen actively: Note-taking skill can be improved by working on your

listening abilities Try to identify the speaker’s pattern of organization andidentify the main ideas Listen for changes in the speaker’s intonation Listenespecially carefully at the beginning and end of the lecturer tape

Set a goal: the general goal is to record enough information to be able to

reconstruct the important elements of what you have heard

Be organized: Carry all necessary items and related materials to class.

Choose the kind of notebook that works best for you in your classes

1.2.3.2 Before class

Read all the assigned material (if you are given the material)

Shortly before class, review the previous session’s notes

Begin notes for each lesson on a new page and date each page of your

Do not let your mind wander

Stay focused on what the instructor is saying

Tune in the volume till it is not too loud or too soft in case you listen to the

tape

Watch for clues to identify the essential information

Leaving spaces for adding information later

Organize your notes in a suitable format, using symbols and abbreviation

whenever possible

1.2.3.4 After class

Edit / Revise your notes as soon as possible after class

Add any missing information and additional details to help to clarify points Use textbook on a friend’s notes to help fill in the gaps when necessary Review and organize your notes in your own way

Review notes immediately after a lecture

Review notes regularly This is the most important thing in this phase

1.2.4 Some methods of note-taking

1.2.4.1 The Cornell Method

The Cornell method provides a systematic format for condensing andorganizing notes without laborious recopying

* Method: Draw a vertical line down your notebook about one third from theleft Only use the two thirds on the right to take notes Choose an outline styleappropriate to the lecturer’s style Listen, think and write When the instructormoves to a new point, skip a few lines To every significant bit of information,write a cue in the left margin-the recall column

To review, cover your notes with a card Leaving the cues exposed Saythe cue out loud; say as much as you can of the material underneath the card.Then move the card and check

* Advantages: - Organized and systematic for recording and reviewing notes

- Easy format for pulling out major concepts and ideas

- Simple and efficient Save time and effort

* Disadvantages: None

* When to use: This method is applied in almost all the situations, when youlisten to the lecture directly or listen to the tape

The Cornell method is best reflected in the six-R steps:

- Record: take notes in an appropriate format in the right hard column

- Reduce: Fill in gaps in notes and reduce the information to keywords for therecall

- Recite: Read each cue word out loud and state in your own words theinformation in the right hard column

- Reflect: Do steps “Recite” and “Reflect” frequently

- Recapitulate: summarize your notes at the bottom of the page

1.2.4.2 The Outlining Method

Dash or intended outlining is usually best except for some scienceclasses such as physics or math

- The information, which is most general, begins at the left with each morespecific group of facts intended with spaces to the night

- The relationship between the different parts is carried out through indenting

- No numbers, letters, or Roman numerals are needed

* Method: Listen and then write in points in an organized pattern based on

space indention Place major points farthest to the left Indent each more specific point to the right Levels of important will be indicated by distance away from the major point Indention takes you less time

*Advantages: Well-organized system if done right Outlining recordscontents as well as relationships It also reduces editing and is easy to review

by turning main points into questions

* Disadvantages: Requires more thought in class for accurate organization.This system may not show the relationship by sequence when needed And itcannot be used if the speech rate is too fast

* When to use: The outline format can be used if the lecture is presented inoutline organization This may be either deductive or inductive If you listen

to the tape, you need to be given hints by teacher

For example:

Extrasensory perception

- Definition: Means of perceiving without use of sense organs

- three kinds:

- telepathy: sending messages

- clair voyage: forecasting the future

- psycho kinesis: perceiving events external to situation

- current status:

- no current research to support or refute

- few psychologists say impossible

- door open to future

1.2.4.3 The Charting Method

If the lecture format is distinct (such as chronological), you may set upyour paper by drawing columns and labeling appropriate headings in a table

* Method: Determine the categories to be covered Set up your paper inadvance by columns headed by these categories As you listen, correctinformation into the appropriate category

* Advantages: Help you to track conversations and dialogues where youwould normally be confused and lose out on relevant content

-Reduce amount of writing necessary

-Provide easy review mechanism for both memorization of facts and study ofcomparisons and relationships

* Disadvantages: Few disadvantages except learning how to use the systemand locating the appropriate categories

* When to use: When you listen to facts and relationships Content is heavyand presented fast You want to reduce the amount of time

1.2.4.4 The Sentence Method:

* Method: Write every new thought, fact or topic on a separate line,numbering as you progress

* Advantages: Slightly more organized than the paragraph Get more or all ofthe information Thinking to track content is still limited

* Disadvantages: You cannot determine the main points from the numberedsequence It is difficult to edit without having to rewrite by clustering pointsthat are related.

* When to use: This method is often used when the content of the lesson isorganized but heavy You can hear the different points, but you do not knowhow they fit together In this case, you tend to note down detailed information

* Example:

Melville did not try to represent life as it really was The language ofAhab, Starbuck, and Ishmael, for instance, was not that of real life

->Sample notes:

Mel did not repr life as was; eg, lang of Ahab, etc not of real life

1.2.5 Some problems affecting note-taking process

Generally, almost all the students have problems relating to listeningskill The following problems are very popular

1.2.5.1 Coping with speech

The base of this problem is that listening is different from reading.When you listen, you are working with speech that consists of sounds,intonation and stress

Since most listeners rely mostly on context for comprehension, they areoften themselves unaware of inaccurate sound perception In fact, soundschange in many ways:

- The way a sound is articulated is influenced by what other sounds next to it:The “ed” suffix of the past tense in English, for example, may bepronounced /d/, /t/ or /id/ depending on what come before that word

- A change in the stress pattern of a word will change its sound as well: Theword “subject”, for example, has the stress on the first syllable when it is anoun, but when it is a verb, the sound is different

- Furthermore, allophones with similar sounds cause difficulties for students

to realize exactly the sound they need Take /I/ in “sit” and /i/ in “seat”, forexample To distinguish the sounds, students need a considerable amount ofpractice

- In fast speech, the pronunciation is very different from the dictionary form ofthe word So the sound changes.

Also, speech contains many mistakes and grammatical errors, notcorrect and polished as written language It contains many pauses andhesitations Speakers often use their tone of voice, or stress and intonation toexpress important information; they do not use the choice of words In thefollowing example: “I THOUGHT that SUSAN was japaNESE, NOTPETER”, what the speaker means is that Peter was Japanese However, whentaking note about Peter’s nationality, most students tend to think that Peterwas not Japanese

English is a stress-time language It appears frequently in plenty ofinformal native speech That is why speech seems to be a big problem forstudents

1.2.5.2 Coping with the lack of vocabulary

It is not a surprise to discover that many students cannot note downessential information of a piece of special English news even though they canhear clearly the standard voice of native speakers This is because thevocabulary seems new to them They may spend less time reading Englishnewspapers, listen to the radio or watch the TV news in foreign language

Beside the subjective reason above, there is an objective reason It is thecolloquial vocabulary that is used in informal conversation and is rarelywritten When being said quickly in a colloquial way, some words “disappear”

or are different from their pronunciation in dictionary Sometimes, the wordsthat are very familiar to students become “strange” in a colloquial nativespeech It makes students feel difficult to note down correct words

1.2.5.3 Coping with fast, natural speech

Many students complain that they feel very difficult when they aregiven a fast, natural listening lesson Even when the teacher gives them someinstructions or suggestions, they still do not take notes well The mostsignificant reason is that they cannot keep track of what the speaker is saying.The speaker moves from this information to the other so quickly that thestudents cannot catch up with the essential information

In class, students may ask the lecturer to slow down and speak clearly.But when students listen to the tape, they have to follow the speed because it

is the requirement The teacher is helping the students to cope with everydayinformal speech, spontaneous talk However, a sudden change in the speed ofthe listening lesson may lead to this problem.

1.2.5.4 Coping with redundancy and background noise

In informal speech, redundancy appears frequently Redundantutterances take the form of repetition (e.g “I’m absolutely sure, absolutelysure you know that she is right”), hesitation (“Yes, well, umm, er…”), falsestart, rephrasing, self-corrections, tautologies and apparently meaninglessadditions such as “I mean” or “You know” Sometimes, students waste time torewrite the repeated or rephrased information So they do not get the essentialinformation to note down

Beside redundancy, students have to cope with ‘noise” which occurswhen information is not received by the listener because of interference Some

of the listening situations in which “noise” often appears are: Theannouncements over the loudspeaker at a railway station or airport, charting at

a party or other social gatherings; discussing current problems with family orcolleagues, etc

Some words may be drowned by outside interference others indistinctlypronounced A native listener who hears the phrase “He was in a towering…”can predict that the last word will be something like “rage” But a foreignlearner cannot normally be expected to have this ability of guessing words.They run into a psychological problem: they have a kind of compulsion tounderstand everything, even things that are totally unimportant, and aredisturbed, discouraged and even completely thrown off balance if they comeacross an incomprehensible word

So redundancy and background noise are a big interference in note –taking

1.2.5.5 Listeners

It is undeniable that with the same teacher, studying condition andsome other things, the ability of taking notes of each student is very differentfrom one another So listeners with their own characteristics should be seen asone of the most influential factors in note-taking process as well as otherprocesses

In fact, students have some personal problems.

- Nervousness:

Many students feel very nervous when they start taking notes whilelistening Some students even feel really nervous when the teacher says that he(or she) will go to check everyone’s notes Nervousness is a big interferencebut students can slow it down when they get good progress in listening

- Fatigue

Even though students have only two or three listening periods perweek, they still get tired after these periods The effects of fatigue vary a greatdeal depending on how hard the learner needs to concentrate and on his ability

to do so for long periods Especially, students are easy to be tired after adifficult listening lesson with the listening machine They think that they workall the time during the lesson: Hearing the words, interpreting sounds, takingnotes, etc The result is that when they get tired, it is difficult to concentrateand take notes well

- Motivation and attitudes:

When students are interested in the listening topic or topic of thelecture, they find it easy to hear and take notes Also, if students have goodmotivations and attitudes in their listening (E g, they find that listening ingeneral and note-taking in particular is really good for their future job), theytake better notes

Other physical and psychological statuses of listeners at the time oflistening are also a strongly influential condition in note-taking process

To sum up, listeners must be conscious of the fact that they, or inanother words, their current physical and mental conditions, are among themost important factors deciding the result of note-taking process

1.2.6 Basic framework for teaching note taking

According to Nick Peachey, a teacher, a trainer and a material writer ofthe British Council: Note-taking is one of the most challenging skills for ourstudents to develop and yet also one of the most important By taking noteswell while listening, we develop our students’ ability to become moreindependent learners They are more likely to be able to reproduce accurately,refine their understanding of grammar and develop their own vocabulary” For

this benefit of note taking, he outlined a framework that can be used indesigning a listening lesson to develop note-taking skill.

1.2.6.1 Pre-listening:

- Set certain goals that should be achieved before students attempt tolisten to and take notes every text These goals are motivation,contextualization, and preparation

*Motivation:

It is enormously important for the teacher to motivate students to listen.Select a text that they will find interesting and then design tasks that willarouse your students’ interests and curiosity A short activity or game, or easyquiz, is good for lessening students’ nervousness

*Contextualization:

When we listen in our daily life, we hear language within its naturalenvironment, and that environment gives us a huge amount of informationabout the linguistic content we are likely to hear But listening in classroom isunnatural process The text has been taken from its original environment Sothe teacher needs to design tasks that will help students to contextualize thelistening and access their existing knowledge and expectations to help themunderstand the text By this way, students know what to write down Forexample, when students listen to the schedule of filming, they know that theirtask is to note down information about the names of films, the time, andnames of the cinemas…

*Preparation:

To do the task set by the teacher, there should be specific vocabulary orexpressions that students will need It is vital that the teacher covers thisbefore students start to listen

It is also necessary for the teacher to let students know what the accent

is It may be Chinese, American, British, Indian or Vietnamese accent

Beside two standard accents (British English and American English),the teacher should give a choice for students to be familiar with other accents

1.2.6.2 While- listening

Students have to cope with many problems such as speech rate,background noise, redundancy, accents, so they need a number of times

Depending on the difficulty level of the text, the teacher gives students certaintimes-two, three, or even four times.

At the first time, a single question will be enough for students to get thegeneral meaning of the text, not putting students under too much pressure

In the second task for the second time, the teacher gives detailedquestions for the information that students have to take notes At higher level,the teacher only reminds students to pay attention to detailed information anddoes not give them any clues It is important that the teacher gives students

“breathing” or “thinking” space between listenings

The third task is that the teacher gets students to compare their notesbetween listenings So they have a chance to check their understanding,adding information or reconsider before listening again

1.2.6.3 Post-listening

Check students’ notes

Ask students to summarize the notes in their own ways

Let students compare their notes with their friends’ to complete the notes Free discussion: Ask students about their attitudes towards the listeninglesson, the problem that they need during listening (For example, the accent,the high speech rate, the background noise, etc), their viewpoints about whatthey have heard Free discussion can help the teacher understand more aboutstudents’ ability and adjust a suitable listening lesson for the next time

1.2.7 Symbols and abbreviations used in note taking

1.2.7.1 Why to use symbols and abbreviations in note taking?

As we have mentioned before, note taking is a very complicated anddifficult skill Learners have to do many things such as listening, thinking, andwriting It is not very difficult for them to take notes when the lecture or thelistening lesson is rather easy with an interesting and familiar topic, lowspeech rate, short, etc But it is a big problem if they cope with a long, fast,difficult lecture or listening lesson Learners may be afraid that while they aretrying to note down the full words, they will miss the next information It isthe fact that time seems to fly quickly when they are listening and takingnotes Sometimes, after two or three times listening they only take notes somewords So to save time when listening and taking notes, learners should use

symbols and abbreviations For example, instead of writing “The UnitedStates of America”, we can write “U.S.A.” It is really faster.

Symbols and abbreviations used in your note-taking process also showthat you use foreign language efficiently and practice a lot

1.2.7.2 How to use symbols and abbreviations?

It is clear that not all the symbols and abbreviations are familiar to alllearners They may also create their own symbols and abbreviations that theyunderstand but other do not, and in contrast Writing symbols andabbreviations is not very difficult, just the way learners write words in a shortform, but it is necessary to know how to use them effectively

If learners take notes on a lecture in class, the lecturer may not checktheir notes So learners do not need to rewrite the symbols and abbreviations

in the full forms of the words But sometimes they may forget what thesymbols and abbreviations mean, or misunderstand them The best way is thatwhen the lecture is over, learners go back to write the full forms of thesesymbols and abbreviations in the left margin It helps them when reviewingand preparing for the examination

In a listening exam, learners cannot use symbols and abbreviations exceptthe accepted abbreviations such as “U.S.A.”, “U.N”, etc However, they oftenhave three or four times listening At the first and second time listening, theycan use symbols and abbreviations At the third and the forth time, they bothadd missing information and fill in the words that they have abbreviated

One more thing learners need to remember during taking notes in thelecture or listening lesson is that the symbols and abbreviations used must beeasy to understand

1.2.7.3 Some suggested symbols and abbreviations:

symbols Abbreviations

Meanings ofabbreviations

6 +, & And/ Add/Plus 6 Q Question

12.  Resulting in/ Lead

24.  The same as/

Coincide

To conclude, this chapter provides you an overview of the theoreticalbackground of listening skill in general and note-taking skill in particular.These theories take an important part in the study of note taking But onlytheory is not enough for taking notes well The more important thing ispractice With the hope to search for good activities for practising note-takingskill, in the next chapter, we make a survey to investigate the current status oflearning note-taking skill of the third-year students at The Foreign LanguagesDepartment Vinh University so that we can use it as a base for searching

Chapter 2: The survey

2.1 Overview of the survey

2.1.1 Objectives of the survey

The survey is designed to find out some information involved inthe third- year students’ note-taking study, especially the ways they studynote-taking skill, and some problems affecting note-taking process The result

of the survey shows the real status of note-taking study of the third- yearstudents in The Foreign Languages Department of Vinh University It is alsoused to make the best application of kinds of note-taking activities forteaching note taking in listening subject

2.1.2 Informants and their background

The survey was conducted for all the third-year students of TheForeign Languages Department of Vinh University There are six classes(44A1; 44A2; 44B1; 44B2; 44E1; 44E2) including 223 students All thestudents are given a copy of the survey questionnaire but we only choose bychance 100 survey answers from 223 ones to make research The studentsinvolved in the survey are being taught note-taking skill in listening subject

2.2 Description of the survey questionnaire

2.2.1 The focus of the survey questionnaire

The survey questionnaire focus on:

Students’ attitudes towards the importance of note-taking skill

Students’ motivations in taking notes

Students’ feelings when starting to take notes

 Students’ preparation for taking notes in class

 Students’ techniques used in note-taking process

 Students’ current status of learning note-taking skill outside class

 Students’ difficulties in learning note-taking skill

2.2.2 The survey questionnaire and the results

1 How important note-taking a) Very important 10