An investigation into the effects of extensive listening using ted talks on students’ listening comprehension

DECLARATION I hereby certify that this thesis entitled ―An investigation into the effect of extensive listening using TED Talks on students’ listening comprehension: An action research

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Hanoi – 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Dương Thu Mai, Ph.D

Hanoi – 2016

DECLARATION

I hereby certify that this thesis entitled ―An investigation into the effect of

extensive listening using TED Talks on students’ listening comprehension: An action research at Faculty of Languages in Hanoi University of Industry‖ is

entirely my own work I have provided fully documented references to others‘ work The material in this thesis has not been submitted for a degree in any other university or institution I also accept all the requirements of ULIS relating to the retention and use of M.A Graduation Thesis deposited in the library

Hanoi, October, 2016

Nguyễn Thi ̣ Lan

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This thesis would not be fulfilled without the help of some people, and in all ways, I would like to thank those who has taught me, inspired me, challenged me, and supported me throughout the realization of this thesis

I would like to express my deepest gratitude towards my supervisor, Dr Duong Thu Mai, for her whole-hearted assistance, encouragement as well as her profound guidance she gave me while I was implementing my research

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all lecturers

in Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their interesting lectures which have inspired me to conduct this thesis

I would also like to express my gratitude to the teachers of English and the second-year students at Faculty of Languages in Hanoi University of Industry for their willingness to participate in the research Without their help, this project could not be completed

Last but not least, I am most thankful to my beloved relatives, especially my parents and husband for their encouragement and great support during the time of implementing this thesis

ABSTRACT

This study examines how TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) Talks, used as an extensive listening material, can affect HaUI English-major students‘ listening comprehension and explores their awareness of benefits and obstacles they may have during the project This study also addresses key notions about listening, listening comprehension, extensive listening with TED Talks and then examined these issues in its merits and demerits The quantitative and qualitative data analyses, based on the results of students‘ pre-and post-tests and their self-assessment paper, indicate that students (inter-mediate and upper-intermediate levels) felt the lectures improved their listening comprehension, enhanced their vocabulary, and accustomed them to listening to a variety of English accents while students of the pre-intermediate group seemed to achieve less progress Finally, providing more talks with suitable levels to their comprehension levels and conducting various types of scaffolding activities for lower proficiency students are also discussed

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

ABSTRACT iii

PART I INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 2

5 Methodology of the study 3

6 Design of the study 4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Definitions, significance and classifications of listening 5

1.2 Definitions of listening comprehension 7

1.3 Extensive listening 8

1.3.1 Definitions of extensive listening 8

1.3.2 Benefits of extensive listening 10

1.3.3 Limitations of extensive listening 11

1.3.4 TED talks as an extensive listening source 12

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 15

2.1 Setting 15

2.2 Research design 15

2.3 Participants 18

2.3.1 Students 18

2.3.2 Teachers 18

2.4 Data collection instruments 19

2.4.1 Pre and post tests 19

2.4.2 Self-assessment paper 21

2.5 Data collection procedures 21

2.5.1 Pilot test data collection 22

2.6 Methods of data analysis 24

2.6.1 Quantitative data analysis 24

2.6.2 Qualitative data analysis 24

2.7 Conclusion 25

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 26

3.1 Research question 1 26

3.1.1 Pre-test‘s and post-test‘s descriptive statistics for three different levels of students 26

3.1.2 Overall test descriptive statistics for all students 31

3.1.3 One sample T-test results 32

3.2 Research Question 2 33

3.2.1 Developing listening comprehension 33

3.2.2 Developing other aspects 38

PART III: CONCLUSION 41

1 Summary of the findings and discussion 41

2 Limitations 44

3 Suggestions for further studies 45

4 Conclusion 47

REFERENCES 48

APPENDIX 1 I

APPENDIX 2 II

APPENDIX 3 VIII

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

HaUI: Hanoi University of Industry

TED: Technology, Entertainment, Design

IELTS: International English Language Testing System

EL: Extensive listening

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: A brief description of the pre-test and post-test

Table 2: Statistical results based on the collected pilot test scores

Table 3: Descriptive statistics related to the results of the pretest and the posttest of Pre-intermediate students

Table 4: Frequency Distribution of the scores of Pre-intermediate students‘ pre-test and post-test

Table 5: Descriptive statistics related to the results of the pretest and the posttest of Intermediate students

Table 6: Frequency Distribution of the scores of Intermediate students‘ pre-test and post-test

Table 7: Descriptive statistics related to the results of the pretest and the posttest of Upper-intermediate students

Table 8: Frequency Distribution of the scores of Upper-intermediate students‘ test and post-test

pre-Table 9: Descriptive statistics related to the results of the pretest and the posttest of all students

Table 10: Frequency Distribution of the scores of all students‘ pre-test and post-test

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Extensive listening (EL) is one of the measures to tackle almost all difficulties that students may encounter on the way of conquering their listening comprehension Rixon (1986) mentioned that students should be motivated to listen outside the class by two main ways – have them ―exercise‖ their listening outside the chool and listen for ―pleasure‖ This seems to lead to ―spontaneous listening for pure pleasure‖ Therefore, EL appears to be regarded as a rewarding motivator to facilitate students‘ learning

In addition, TED Talks, the most popular conference and events website in the world with over 1 billion informational videos viewed, provides academics with increased popular exposure and is one of the highly recommended websites for EL First of all, TED Talks has featured lectures around the world on Technology, Entertainment and Design which are posted everyday by both native and non-native speakers Using TED Talks as an authentic source for students to explore knowledge and language seems to appeal to students TED Talks also has accompanied almost all lectures with subtitles of over 40 languages, including English which is a highly supportive tool for students to recheck whether they master the content or not In other words, the subtitles make TED Talks less demanding for students to enjoy listening instead of making their concerted attempts when watching For another feature, TED‘s mission is transferring ―ideas worth spreading‖, which is presented by inspirational lectures with appealing inventions as well as breakthroughs and even new perspectives on aspects of life This will keep students‘ interest in exploring and broadening their knowledge as well as keep the passions As a result, they may listen as a pleasure, not as a required assignment to get high marks or pass exams and then enhance their listening comprehension with academic talks

Alhough EL seems to be highly recommneded with such the website, the importance of listening, especially EL is not intentionally paid much attention in a

plenty of colleges and universities in Vietnam In particular, at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI), the second-year students are taught with a book named ―Listening and Speaking Skills‖ by Cusack and McCarter (2007) Students have 4 periods per week (15 weeks in total) During these weeks, students are trained both listening and speaking skills; therefore, the amount of time to study listening in the class is not a great deal In addition, students are also guided listening theory for several listening types in IELTS test in general, which they are tested at the end of every semester It can indicate that there are not many opportunities for students to practice listening outside the class Therefore, EL can probably aid them in meeting the expected targets set at the beginning of the course

On account of all the reasons above, ―an investigation into the effects of

extensive listening using TED Talks on students’ listening comprehension: an action research at Faculty of Languages in Hanoi University of Industry‖ was

implemented, which aims to find out one of the best ways to assist students in improving their listening comprehension skills

2 Aims of the study

The research is conducted with the aim of discovering both whether students can make progresses in their listening thanks to TED Talks as well as their awareness of that progress More specifically, this study is to examine the following research questions:

1 To what extent is students‘ listening comprehension different between before and after the project?

2 How do students view the effectiveness of the project to their listening comprehension?

3 Scope of the study

In terms of literature review, on account of the lack of accessible online sources as well as TED-Talks related topics in the library, this study can only make use of several free sources on the Internet, especially few minor theses sharing nearly the same interest

Besides, due to the small scale of the study as well as the limitation of time, the results only assessed based on two data sources, students‘ results of the pre-and post-tests and their self-assessment paper As a result, this study mainly focuses on evaluating students‘ listening comprehension using TED Talks The other skills such as reading, writing, speaking or even presentation skill are not within the scope

of the study

Regarding the participants of the study, there are 90 English-major students

at the Faculty of Languages in Hanoi University of Industry Hence, the results of this study is expected to be possibly generalized to English-major students in other universities and colleges

4 Significance of the study

The findings of the thesis may serve as useful information not only for the researcher, students but also for teachers at HaUI or even other universities and colleges In particular, the study is conducted to enable English-major students in search of their passion for listening and then enhance their listening comprehension with the support of a selected academic TED Talks list Therefore, the results of this study may be generalized to apply for students at the same levels It is also hoped that the thesis can make great contributions towards the development of students‘ listening comprehension at HaUI Besides, recommendations for other research are stated with the hope of taking the most advantages of the source - TED Talks

5 Methodology of the study

To achieve the aims stated, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used The data collected for the study is analyzed from the results of pre-test and post-test and students‘ self-assessment paper

The pre-test and post-test which have been examined to have an equivalent difficulty level, are used to test students‘ listening comprehension before and after the project The pre-test is delivered to students before the intervention and the post-test is made used of to collect the scores and then compared to the scores of the pre-test

The qualitative research method is used to measure students‘ perception of the effects of TED Talks on their listening comprehension Students presents how they are aware of the merits as well as obstacles they might have when dealing with TED Talks‘ Journals

6 Design of the study

The study consists of three parts: the introduction, the development and the conclusion They are:

Part I: Introduction includes the rationale, aims, scope, significance and

methodology of the study

Part II: Development

Chapter 1: Literature review presents literature related to the study including theories of listening, listening comprehension, the definition of extensive listening and its benefits as well as limitations The last part provides an example as well as theoretical backgrounds of the reasons why TED Talks is selected to orient students

Chapter 2: Methodology shows the setting, the background of participants as well as data collection instruments and procedures for carrying out the research including pre-post-test and students‘ self-assessment paper at the end of the intervention

Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion report the main findings obtained from the data collection and discuss the prominent aspects

Part III: Conclusion, the last chapter, is followed by the references and appendices

The limitation of the study and suggestion for further study are also recommended

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definitions, significance and classifications of listening

According to Bulletin (1952), listening is one of the fundamental language skills It is 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, it is said that it is of vital importance that pupils be taught to listen effectively and critically In their book, Nation and Newton (2008) argue that listening is considered to be ―least understood and most overlooked of the four major language skills in the language classroom‖ This is due to the fact that more importance is given to speaking in several approaches Although Nunan (1998), as cited in the book, claims that ―over 50 percent of the time that students spend functioning in a foreign language will be devoted to listening‖, teachers still consider listening as a method to demonstrate models for learners to copy and speak

as the aim of learning Sharing the same thoughts, Hedge (2000) states that listening has been ―neglected‖, ―overlooked‖ or ―taken for granted‖ due to people believing

in the automatic improvement in listening competence thanks to the exposure to the language and practice of grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation

Research by Gilman and Moody (1984, p 331) demonstrates that adults spend 40-50% of their communication time engaged in listening, 25-30% speaking, 10-15% reading and less than 10% writing It seems logical to conclude from this that language learners will take more extensive advantages of listening comprehension skills than those of other language skills Without the pressure of speech production, learners are able to relax and direct their attention to comprehending speech, developing listening skills, and internalizing vocabulary and structure that will facilitate the emergence of other language skills Moreover, focussing on listening promotes a sense of success, which in turn fosters motivation

to continue learning (Rubin, 1988, p 1) Gary (1975) (as cited in (Nation &

Newton, 2008)) proposes five benefits emerging from giving priority to listening comprehension development, namely, cognitive, speed of coverage, motivation, psychology and efficiency Since students are relieved from the pressure to produce speech, they would improve faster without stress Moreover, the fact that activities would easily be moved to realistic communicative one, learners would be largely motivated In other words, first, listening provides comprehensible input for the learner which is essential for any learning to occur Second, learners need to interact with speakers to achieve understanding Third, listening exercises help learners draw their attention to new forms (vocabulary, grammar, interaction patterns) in the language Thus listening comprehension provides the right conditions for language acquisition and development of other language skills (Krashen, 1989)

As for listening processes, there are two main types, top-down and

up In Field (2003)‘s definition, as cited in (Nation & Newton, 2008, p 40)

bottom-up process involves listeners going from small elements to the whole of the content; while the process is reversed in top-down However, Blyth (2011) suggests the possibility of four listening approaches The third type which is named ―the borrowing‖ refers to a mix of either top-down or bottom-up with the other one, while the last one might be the ―synergistic‖ one where listening is taught holistically ―whilst considering the possible interactions between top-down and bottom-up About bottom-up processing, it describes in detail how people process listening from the input of a single word to the final comprehension of sentences In this, listeners make use of their knowledge of words, syntax and grammar (Rubin,

1994, p 210) It requires listeners‘ familiarity with single words and certain grammar, as it closely connects with the listeners‘ linguistic knowledge The advantage of this model is that it clearly explains in detail the process of how a listener receives incoming data to finally understand them However, it has its own disadvantage: When a listener‘s brain comprehends textual material, it depends not only on linguistic knowledge because that cannot make efficient comprehension (Ahmadi and Gilakjani, 2011, p 979) Besides, Buck‘s (2001) also mentions that

top-down process is a better model because it sees the listening comprehension process more interactive

1.2 Definitions of listening comprehension

There are many ways to define listening comprehension Buck‘s (2001) provides a concept that ―listening comprehension is a top-down process in the sense that the various type of knowledge involved in understanding language are not applied in any fixed order - they can be used in any order, or even simultaneously, and they are all capable of interacting and influencing each other‖ (Buck, 2001, p.3) Carrell and Eisterhold (1983) also pointed out that top-down processing is based on a general and higher level of listening comprehension They argued that top-down processing requires background knowledge more than linguistic knowledge When a listener fails to understand the incoming data by depending solely on his background knowledge, he has to depend on his linguistic knowledge With only linguistic knowledge, it is hard for a listener to comprehend, thus, top-down processing may result in failure of comprehension In other words, listening comprehension is more than obtaining meaning from utterance It also involves a process in which students match the utterance with what they already know about the topic When students know the concept or the topic, they can activate their prior knowledge to get something from knowledge which is needed for comprehending messages Brown (2001, p 2) states ―One very important idea for teaching listening

is that listening courses must make use of student‘s prior knowledge in order to improve listening comprehension‖

Additionally, according to Buck (2001, p 31), listening comprehension is

an active process of constructing meaning and this is done by ―applying knowledge to the incoming sounds‖ in which ―number of different types of knowledge are involved: both linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic knowledge‖ Vandergrift (1999, p 168) also states that ―listening comprehension is an active process in which the listener must discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, interpret

stress and intonation, retain what was gathered in all the above and interpret it with the immediate as well as the larger context of the utterances‖ (cited in Nguyen, 2014)

Sharing the same ideas, Buck (1995) and Field (2003), as cited in (Renandya & Farrell, 2011) stress on four main speech features speed, variability, word blending and limited control over the speech It is obvious that students of low intermediate level would struggle to catch up with the speed of speakers in the recording for advanced students This is defined by Renandya and Farrell (2011) as a critical level where ―speech rate above which comprehension become impossible‖ According to Chastain (1971), listening comprehension is the ability to understand native speech at normal speed in unstructured situations

In the study of Major (2008) about “The Effects of Nonnative Accents on Listening Comprehension: Implications for ESL Assessment‖: “The results

indicated that both native and nonnative listeners scored significantly lower on listening comprehension tests when they listened to non-native speakers of English‖ The finding of this study of the Effect of Non-native Accent on Iranian EFL Learners' Listening Comprehension, focusing on Persian Accent of English also suggest that ―accent familiarity (Persian accent) may function to the benefit

of the listener"

In conclusion, as discussed above, listening comprehension (top-down listening) facilitates students to activate their background rather than linguistic knowledge Besides, the unsuitable speed for students of each levels and the unfamiliarity with various accents may be obstacles for students‘ listening comprehension

1.3 Extensive listening

1.3.1 Definitions of extensive listening

To answer to the difficulties that inhibit listening comprehension, ―extensive listening‖ is regarded as a feasible measure This term refers to various kinds of listening activities which provide learners with comprehensible and enjoyable

listening input (Renandya & Farrell, 2011, p 56) Krashen (1985) argues that although it is of necessity to provide learners with input that is slightly beyond their current level of competence to see their improvement, the best way to enhance learners‘ proficiency is through providing comprehensible inputs and creating a

situation that encourages a low anxiety According to Rixon (1986), ―there are two

ways in which you can encourage students to listen outside the school The first is

to get students to exercise their listening outside school and the second is about finding opportunities for listening for pleasure The hope is that useful enjoyable

exercise may lead to spontaneous listening for pure pleasure.‖ He also affirms that students might find themselves listening to something in a relaxed way An example might be the experience of listening to an interesting or amusing radio programme, which poses no particular problems of language or difficulty of concepts He consolidates this by giving an example:

The sort of experience can last quite a long time, several minutes, as in the case of easy stories read aloud by the teacher or heard on tape They can also

be quite short, when, for example, they hear a short poem or joke, just for pleasure or fun In both cases they are not asked to do 'language work on what they hear but have the satisfaction of an almost complete, direct, understanding of something worth hearing This type of listening can be

called extensive listening (by analogy with extensive reading, a term widely

used in the teaching world See Chapter 1, Williams 1984) It is an experience which it is important to give all students to keep their motivation and interest high, as well as giving them valuable extra contact with English

in its spoken form (Rixon, 1986, p 10)

In summary, EL is seen as listening to comprehensive materials outside school with more pleasure and less anxiety About its benefits, many studies have been largely carried out and reached some conclusions

1.3.2 Benefits of extensive listening

Extensive listening can be utilized as a useful tool to facilitate students‘ learning Regarding the benefits of extensive listening, one of the most active researchers is Chang whose work in 2009 until now has also provided hard evidence

on the benefits of this approach The results of her study point out that students feel more secured when they engage in the listening activities, which ensures the improvement in their listening comprehension (Chang, 2009, p 661) In the thesis

of Jean (2012), pre- and post-tests were used to assess improvements in listening ability, and students also completed surveys regarding their feelings about graded readers and about how much extensive listening they had done All of their survey data indicates that EL activities are some of the most helpful activities that students can do to improve their background knowledge

Besides, EL can be defined as all types of listening activities that allow learners to receive a lot of comprehensible and enjoyable listening inputs (Renandya and Farrell, 2011) In particular, one of the primary aims of EL is to improve listening fluency Listening fluency can be defined as, ―the speed of recognition of words and grammar in a listening text‖ (Waring, 2008) Students may learn through

EL by listening smoothly to vocabulary and grammar that can be quickly processed

Furthermore, listening with over 90% of the content understandable will afford the learner to focus on the content The aim of EL is not the explicit learning

of vocabulary and grammar through listening, but as a result of listening to texts, new or repeated, learners will be introduced to grammar and vocabulary many times and may learn implicitly through context and have a greater opportunity to meet the word and grammar structure again and again A learner‘s background knowledge in the subject will also help them keep listening

The benefits of pronunciation were also explained in the study of Trofimovich, Lightbown, Halter, and Song (2009:632, as cited in Borges 2010) that carried out a research on two groups The experimental group followed a comprehension - based program and the second was still a typical learning language

program In addition, Yonezawa and Ware (2008, cited in Borges 2010) carry out

an EL study using six university classes They did pre- and post-listening tests plus two surveys The majority of students in this study reported that doing EL and shadowing was effective in enhancing their English

In summary, EL seems to have a great contribution to the improvement of students‘ background knowledge, their listening fluency, vocabulary, grammatical structures and even pronunciation

1.3.3 Limitations of extensive listening

Although there are several benefits as mentioned previously, there exist a few drawbacks To measure retention rates for newly-encountered vocabulary, in the Brown‘ study of incidental vocabulary acquisition, thirty-five Japanese university students participated The researchers (Brown et al., 2008) found that the extensive listening participants were unable to recall any of the new words after three months The results for reading-while-listening participants were only slightly better However, a study of native speaking children (Elley, 1989) showed considerable vocabulary acquisition as a result of EL There was no explanation given by the researchers of the 2008 study for these differences He only stated that

―the subjects encountered considerable obstacles when trying to comprehend the story and substitute words they met in listening-only mode Clearly, the inaccurate perception of the pronunciation of words and phrases is potentially a greater barrier

in listening than in reading.‖

In addition, in the study of Joshua (2010), the students were told to choose between six and fourteen (nine on average) audio books during the eight-week treatment that they were interested in, and to not be afraid of exchanging a book that was too difficult or not interesting The author also explained that if this study were done in a classroom setting, the number of students who reached the target of six (audio) books over the eight weeks would likely be higher Nonetheless, as the author emphasized, this study was conducted during the fall semester when all of the participants had a full class schedule; as a result, some of the students did not

have enough time to dedicate to this study and were unable to read or listen to the required amount of material Hence, they seemed not to make any progress after the project Similarly, they failed to acquire high values that the EL activity may have

In general, there are still several weaknesses in implementing EL on account of some subjective different reasons

1.3.4 TED talks as an extensive listening source

The use of authentic TED Talks furnishes students with the opportunities of practicing EL An incredible variety of themes and topics offered on the TED website allows instructors to choose presentations that are suitable, enjoyable and representative for students Teachers must spend a considerable amount of time searching for relevant presentations in terms of content and language levels Waring (2008) indicated that listening materials should be at a level where students are able

to understand 90% or more of the content; if not, students‘ frustration can result in a failed or wasted lesson or class Waring (2008) also adds that students can overcome frustrations if the material is of interest or matches students‘ background knowledge or area of specialty Besides, EL using TED also enhances students‘ motivation The authenticity, together with exhilarating presentations offered on the website allows students to maintain enough motivation so that autonomous learning may occur It is also due to the fact that TED Talks have intention to accomplish its mission: ―Ideas worth spreading.‖ Romanelli (2014) also suggested: ―TED Talks do seem to accomplish their goals of spreading ideas while sparking curiosity within the learner.‖ According to Crotty (2013), ―if the academic research world wants to reach the mainstream audience in a fascinating and entertaining manner, there is

much to learn from TED Talks.‖ Shea (2004) also agreed with that point: “a TED

talk (the acronym stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design) is one of the routes to academic stardom‖ In other words, TED Talks may give more knowledge, which seems to appeal to students

In terms of academic aspects of TED Talks, according to Romanelli (2014),

―in the interim, the academy could learn from the TED phenomenon‖ He added

that ―While TED has limitations and is subject to valid criticisms, educators could use the talks as a component of an overall course sequence that helps students connect with materials or spark students‘ interest in particular topics that are then explored in greater detail within the curriculum.‖ More specifically, using TED Talks could also be regarded as an active-learning strategy, where students are either asked to critique an existing TED Talk and/or design their own TED Talk regarding a particular topic of interest or relevance

In particular, Safavi (2014), said: ―Obviously, TED talks can better your listening skill They are short, fascinating and full of useful language, and more importantly, they are pretty much like section four of the IELTS listening test‖ As for Schwartz, the effect of TED stardom has been most evident in the shelf life of

his 2003 book The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less (Ecco), which continues

to sell 7,500 to 10,000 copies a year "New people discover it every day, and they don‘t discover it from the book—they discover it from the talk." He doubts, however, that this kind of popular fame carries much currency in the academic world In the comprehensive study of over 1,200 TED Talks videos and their presenters, lead author Cassidy R Sugimoto, an assistant professor in IU Bloomington's Department of Information and Library Science, and a team of researchers from Great Britain and Canada, also looked at the demographic make-

up of TED Talks presenters only 21 percent was academics with academic ideas According to the estimated results, with the total of over 2, 200 talks, there are approximately 500 academic TED talks Therefore, using TED talks for educational purposes, especially as an EL tool may be feasible if a selective academic list is provided beforehand

Besides, EL is also proved to be effective to learners in some cases and ineffective in others, so further studies should be conducted to probe which type of materials or instructions is useful for EL learners According to Field (2002), ―we focus on the product of listening when we should be interested in the process – what

is going on in the heads of our learners‖ (p.246) In other words, students need to be

undergone training themselves outside their studying in the class It is likely that listening to authentic materials from inspirational speakers from all over the world

is one of the best measures to guide students to explore on their own This is supported by Takaesu (2013) from International Christian University with a study about ―TED talks as an EL Resource for EAP Students‖ The results represent that

―it is noteworthy that the TED lectures motivated some students to independently pursue their own interest‖ However, the study only uses two surveys to make conclusions; the difficulties as well as strategies to overcome them to conquer the listening comprehension during the listening process have not been stated Therefore, another study should be approached in another way in order to consolidate related perspectives

In summary, this chapter has addressed key notions about listening, listening comprehension, extensive listening with TED Talks and then examined issues in its merits and demerits In terms of listening processes, there are top-down and bottom-

up processes Bottom-up process requires listeners‘ familiarity with single words and certain grammar, which closely connects with the listeners‘ linguistic knowledge while top-down process tends to base on a general and higher level of listening comprehension About listening comprehension, beside the lack of vocabulary and grammatical structures, the unsuitable speed for students of each levels, the unfamiliarity with various accents and lack of background knowledge may be obstacles for students‘ listening comprehension Regarding extensive listening, its definition with benefits and limitations were also illustrated with some research Out of the most useful suggested sources, TED Talks, has also become a subject in some studies with two perspectives, strength and weaknesses All of these issues, where possible, have been supported by academic literature It is hoped that they serve as a consolidated basis to carry out the study in the next chapter

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

To address two research questions and achieve the aims, this study was conducted among 90 English major students at Hanoi University of Industry Details of the setting, the participants, the instruments, the procedures of data collection and method of data analysis are stated as below

2.1 Setting

The study is conducted at Hanoi University of Industry In the listening course at this university, EL is not deliberately supported, especially listening to authentic listening materials What is more, students are required to sit an adapted IELTS listening exam, which has a small change of the number of questions at the end of the course About the core curriculum, students have 15 weeks with 60 periods in the class, 120 self-study periods, it seems not to be straightforward to make a great deal of progress as well as attain any breakthroughs without EL intentionally The EL activity also motivates them to spend their self-studying time effectively so that their listening comprehension can be improved as expected

2.2 Research design

Action research design was selected in this study According to Mettetal (2001), Classroom Action Research is research designed to assist teachers in figuring out what is happening in his or her classroom, and then makes use of that information to make changes for the future The selection of action research may have a great contribution to improve students‘ performance and even suggest open-ended outcomes Moreover, action research can promote ―teachers' growth as an empowered professional‖, ―teachers' confidence in their teaching ability‖, and their

―problem-solving skills as well‖ (Briscoe and Wells, 2002: 429) In particular, when being engaged in action research, teachers can be more aware of ―the gaps between their beliefs and practices and of what their pupils are thinking, feeling, and learning‖ (Biott, 1983; Elliot, 1980; Noffke & Zeichner, 1987; Ruddick, 1985; Zeichner, 1993 cited by Tabachnick and Zeichner, 1999: 310)

An action research was applied to this current study with the teacher as the researcher for some reasons First, students‘ listening comprehension has noticeably concerned both educational people and students Moreover, beside many other sources, TED Talks is reviewed as a useful source for studying to what extent Second, action research is often carried out both outside the classroom and inside the classroom Hence, that is very suitable for current setting of the study Third, action research is aimed at changing things as well as suggesting a reference source for other research From findings of the effects of EL using selected academic TED Talks, some constructive suggestions will be given so that teachers can facilitate students‘ listening comprehension

When using the action research approach, the current study follows the five phases proposed by Susman (1983)

Figure 1 Susman’s Action Research Model (1983)

In the light of the model, the study started when there was a need to improve students‘ listening comprehension with an authentically useful source In other

1

5

2

words, the step number one was implemented to diagnose the problem The demand for a useful source to practice listening outside the class context was identified and then investigated This step was followed by step number 2 that TED talks is taken into consideration with particular reasons

In the step number 3, students were assigned to involve in the project after finishing the pre-test The pre-test was used as a placement test because it facilitates categorizing students in different groups as well as compared with the post test at the end of the course Then, the project was introduced to students with an example

of a significantly impressive talk about ―the thrilling potential of Sixthsense technology‖ – a talk with up-to-the-minute technological innovation by Pranav Mistry This example is accompanied with an authentic TED Talks by a native speaker – Monica Lewinsky – a person nominated for a National Magazine Award with a widely viewed speech at Forbe‘30 Under 30 Summit The reasons for using the two above examples were to both provoke students‘ imagination, curiosity as well as provide students more knowledge from an another different perspective Several note-taking techniques to facilitate students, along with a completed journal example and a list of academic TED Talks, were then shared with them From then

on, students involved in the activity by accomplishing TED journals weekly and had

a post test at the end of the course

After that, the results were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively in the step 4 With qualitative data, the analysis was carried out right after 15 students from three different groups had summited their self-assessment paper About the quantitative data, students‘ scores of the two tests – pre and post tests were categorized and then analyzed with the support of certain tools

Finally, in step 5, the study is summed up, the relationship between the listening process and students‘ improvement in listening comprehension as well as some suggestions were stated at the last step

2.3 Participants

2.3.1 Students

The participants are 90 English major juniors (from 3 different classes) at Hanoi University of Industry Out of them, 23 students are pre-intermediate (IELTS 3.5-4); 42 are intermediate (IELTS 4.5-5.0) and 15 are upper-intermediate (IELTS 5.5-6.5) These categories are fundamentally based on the results of the previous course that targeted at B1 level These English-major students, aged 20 to 21, are required to take a core speaking & listening course according to IELTS orientation that targets at Level 4 of 6-level CEFR-VN (B2) To carry out the experiment, students are assigned to choose one of their favorite videos in the provided TED talk list (taken out from educational websites) and then complete the ―Listening journal form‖ (Appendix 1) weekly in a group of 2 to 3

There are several reasons for the selection First, the listening students‘ scores in the previous course were relatively slow Moreover, they are expected to learn the IELTS-oriented course to achieve level 4 according to CEFR As a result,

a suitable supplementary tool should be applied to facilitate their study As a result,

in terms of students‘ listening comprehension, students‘ in-class studying time is comparatively limited beside critically low-quality loudspeaker system equipped in each class, the demand for supporting activities both in class and at home appears to

be necessary

2.3.2 Teachers

Three teachers at Faculty of English in HaUI were interviewed to compare two tests (pre-and post-tests) in terms of testing skills, the number of items and the level of difficulty They are all experienced with both tests as test takers before being interviewed

In addition to the piloting of pre-and post-tests to a group of students before the project to ensure both tests are parallel, the tests were piloted to three teachers with the aim of intensifying the equivalence of both tests Although they participate in the study indirectly, their roles are relatively crucial to achieve the final results

2.4 Data collection instruments

The research applies both qualitative and quantitative instruments: pre-post tests and students‘ self-assessment papers The former instrument measures learners‘ listening comprehension before and after the project The latter is designed to explore students‘ awareness of the effects in learning with videos on the TED website

2.4.1 Pre and post tests

A pre-and post-test design requires the researcher to collect data about participants‘ level of performance before the intervention takes place (pre-), and that researcher collect the same data after the intervention takes place (post-) The pre- and post-test design allows researchers to make inferences on the effect of your intervention by looking at the difference between the pre-test and post-test results The study design of pre-post tests will follow steps as below:

The students are delivered two tests (one at the beginning and one at the end

of the course) The two tests are samples from official IELTS tests (section 3 and 4) and tend to be equivalent to each other in terms of the format and the skills tested After taking the pre-test, students are guided to listen extensively to videos on the TED website and complete the listening journal form adapted from ―Lecture Listening Journal Form‖ of Takaesu (2013) (see Appendix 1) In addition, note-taking skills are definitely instructed to them at the beginning of the course to make sure they can enjoy watching TED videos while practicing the IELTS skills

The pre- and post- tests have been shown parallel in some aspects First, only section 3 and 4 in IELTS tests with 3 task types (sentence, table and summary

Pretest

Intervention

posttest

completion) are in both tests to ensure test consistency as well as to be consistent with the local learning activity/outcome students are required to accomplish during the time the project was carried out More specifically, in terms of skills, according

to IELTS listening description, all the 3 included task types (sentence, table and summary completion) test students‘ summarizing skills More specifically, in the sentence completion task, test takers are required to read a set of sentences summarizing key information from all the listening text or from one part of it About the other tasks, test takers are required to fill in gaps in an outline of part or

of all of the listening text The outline will focus on the main ideas/facts in the text

In particular, in the table completion type, a table is used as a way of summarizing information which relates to clear categories and the summary completion task focuses on the ability to identify the key information in the listening text by filling

in blanks in a paragraph More importantly, students were instructed on the exam skills of all the three task types Lastly, the lectures in both tests had similar topics

as the talks on the TED website Also both tests have 20 items and the brief description of the tests is stated in the table 1 below

Table 1: A brief description of the pre-test and post-test

PRE-TEST POST-TEST TASK TYPE Section 3

(Table Completion)

Section 4 (Sentence and summary completion)

Section 3 (Table completion)

Section 4 (Sentence and summary completion)

REQUIREMENT Complete the

table with no more than three words and/or a number

Sentence completion and summary completion with no more than three words and or

Complete the table with no more than three words and/or a number

Sentence completion and summary completion with one word only

a number

NUMBER OF

THE ITEMS

TOPIC Education Economy Education Art

TIME 12-15 minutes 13-15 minutes

To prove that the tests are parallel, Bachman (1990, p.168) considered the takers‘ scores The nearly similar means and variances should be ensured so that there are not significant differences between the two tests

test-2.4.2 Self-assessment paper

Self-assessment requires students to reflect on their own work and judge how well they have performed in relation to assessment criteria According to Boud (1995), the focus is not necessarily on having students generate their own grades, but rather providing opportunities for them to be able to identify what constitutes a good (or poor) piece of work

In the current study, self-assessment was used to measure students‘ awareness of the effects of TED talks on their listening comprehension This assessment, in fact, was a personal reflection which contained two questions inquiring about students‘ self-improvement as well as challenges of listening extensively to TED Talks More specifically, students were required to write a personal self-assessment report to answer the two following questions at the end of the semester

Question 1: Are there any benefits you have achieved after the project? What are they?

Question 2: Are there any difficulties you have encountered during the project? What are they?

2.5 Data collection procedures

This study arose from the necessity to consider the understanding of listening extensively to TED as a strategy to encourage students to listen as a passion as well

as broaden their knowledge about ―Technology, Entertainment and Design‖ all over the world in addition to enhancing their listening comprehension The gathered data reports their reactions throughout the process and teacher‘s reflection relied on students‘ test papers and comments The data consisted of: pre- and post-tests and students‘ self-assessment paper

2.5.1 Pilot test data collection

The two collected IELTS tests were administered to 20 HaUI English-major students in two lessons The results, means, variances as well as standard deviation

of both test were collected, calculated and then analyzed

Table 2: Statistical results based on the collected pilot test scores

N

(students)

Minimum Maximum Mean Variance Standard

Deviation Test 1 20 5 7.5 5.95 0.4975 0.7053

1 increase with test 2 and vice versa To recapitulate, the two tests are highly parallel to each other

2.5.2 Main data collection procedure

The following are different steps of main data collection process of two research questions

2.5.2.1 Research question 1

To achieve reliable results from pre-and post-tests, there are three main steps

Step one – Pre-test: Prior to the experiment, the participants were given an IELTS

Test (section 3 and 4) as a pre-test

Step two – Extensive Listening and Journal Form Completion using TED talks:

This project lasted 15 weeks Prior to assigning students with the TED tasks, the four first teaching periods were devoted to building their curiosity, belief as well as nurturing their passions by showing students some rewarding TED talks and completed journal forms with certain note-taking skills Furthermore, students were shown an academic TED list including more than 90 talks for the first ten journals, which were taken from http://www.ieltsjuice.com/ted-talks/ (see APPENDIX 2), and a list with approximately 30 talks taken from academic and IELTS websites (see APPENDIX 3) The reason for the division is that the 90 talks in the first list, along with a list of selected academic words for each talk, are categorized according

to particular levels The second list with nearly 30 talks is provided later for the last

4 journals because it includes academic talks without useful language, which requires students to list useful vocabularies for each talk on their own Besides, the procedure to choose and listen to TED Talks is also suggested so that students can approach TED Talks effectively More specifically, about Lecture Listening Journal (see APPENDIX 1), students were required to summarize the talk they choose (about 100 words in their own language), list the useful language they have acquired (for the last four ones out of 14 journals) and then write their comments on the talk as well as a reflection about their listening process

Step three - post-test: At the end of the experiment, the participants were given the

IELTS Test (section 3 and 4) as a post-test

2.5.2.2 Research question 2

15 randomly chosen students (from 3 different groups) filled in the self-assessment paper at the end of the semester to show their general personal reflections on their listening comprehension

Step 1: Receiving self-assessment questions: Teacher delivered two questions to 15

students from three different groups (5 for each group) The students were chosen

into groups based on their scores they got in the post-test

Step 2: Writing self-assessment paper: Students wrote their overall reflection on

the achievements they have attained and the difficulties they encountered during the

project within about one hour

Step 3: Summiting self-assessment paper: After one hour writing their own

reflection, students handed in their writing to the teacher

2.6 Methods of data analysis

2.6.1 Quantitative data analysis

Quantitative Research is used to quantify the problem by way of generating numerical data or data that can be transformed into useable statistics In other words, quantitative Research also uses measurable data to formulate facts and uncover patterns in research In terms of forms, quantitative data collection methods include various forms of surveys, interviews, longitudinal studies, website interceptors, online polls, and systematic observations

In the current study, the quantitative analysis of data was conducted to assess the effects of EL using TED Talks on students‘ listening comprehension The data were analyzed by means of Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) The means, variances, standard deviation were applied to measure the parallelism of the two trial tests and the results of the pre-and post-tests before and after the project A

one sample t-test was also used to investigate the effects of EL using TED Talks This one sample t-test is a statistical procedure used to examine the mean difference

between the sample and the known value of the population mean In the study, one

sample t-test is used to measure whether there are any differences between the

post-test scores and pre-post-test scores or not

2.6.2 Qualitative data analysis

Quantitative Research is primarily exploratory research It is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations It provides insights into the problem or helps develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research It is also used to uncover trends in thought and opinions, and dive deeper into the problems Out of the numerous qualitative research methods, qualitative

content analysis is used to analyze text data The goal of content analysis is ―to provide knowledge and understanding of the phenomenon under study‖ (Downe-Wamboldt, 1992, p 314) It is regarded as an unobtrusive and nonreactive way to study the phenomenon of interest (Babbie, 1992) It also can provide basic insights into how words are actually used

In the study, the self-assessment was manipulated to assess how student view the effects of using TED journals A small group including students of different levels is required to state their thought as well as perspectives of the relationship between the accomplishment of the project and their progress after the project as well as obstacles they may encounter Students‘ statements were grouped and coded

to analyze in categories

2.7 Conclusion

The purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of EL using TED Talks

on students‘ listening comprehension To attain the possible effects of TED Talks, pre- and post-tests were conducted, together with students‘ self-assessment paper

In conclusion, chapter 2 covers the method used in this research In Chapter

3, the results of the study would be presented and discussed so as to answer the two research questions as stated in Part A

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, students‘ possible progress as well as their viewpoints on extensive listening using TED Talks are reflected through results of conducted pre- and post-tests and students‘ self-assessment paper This analysis aims to achieve better understanding of the effects as well as students‘ viewpoints on their progress and difficulties Hence, a firm foundation for a discussion and further recommendations are laid in the following parts of the study

3.1.2.1 Pre-intermediate students

Table 3: Descriptive statistics related to the results of the pretest and the

posttest of Pre-intermediate students

Pre-test scores of Pre-intermediate

in the post-test is much higher than in the pre-test The figures for 8/20 in the pre- and post-test are 33,3 and 53,8 respectively All in all, the statistics indicate that students of this level seem not to make a significant progress; however, it can be regarded as a good signal

Table 4: Frequency Distribution of the scores of Pre-intermediate students’

pre-test and post-test

Valid

Valid Percent

3.1.2.2 Intermediate students

Table 5: Descriptive statistics related to the results of the pretest and the

posttest of Intermediate students