The attitudes of teachers and 11th form students towards the application of podcasts to listening lessons at dong quan high school

At the same time, the research is aimed at investigating the attitudes of teachers and 11th form students at Dong Quan high school towards the application of podcasts to their listening

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

STUDENTS TOWARDS THE APPLICATION OF PODCASTS TO LISTENING LESSONS AT DONG

QUAN HIGH SCHOOL

Supervisor: Nguyễn Thụy Phương Lan M.A Student: Nguyễn Thị Bích Thập

Course: QH2012.F1.E8

HÀ NỘI – 2016

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

THÁI ĐỘ CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH LỚP 11 VỚI VIỆC ÁP DỤNG PODCASTS TRONG CÁC TIẾT HỌC NGHE Ở TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ

DECLEATION

I hereby state that I: Nguyễn Thị Bích Thập, a student of QH2012.F1.E8, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library.

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Signature

Nguyễn Thị Bích Thập

Date: 7th June, 2016

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs Nguyễn Thụy Phương Lan for her constant support and all-around supervision Both her knowledge and encouragement made me inspired and motivated to overcome difficulties Without her, the thesis could not be completed

In addition, I appreciate all tremendous help and support from ten teachers and one hundred and twenty students of grade 11 at Dong Quan high school They whole-heartedly participated in survey questionnaires and interviews, which offered me a lot of useful information Without their cooperation, the thesis could not be possible either

Last but not least, I owe my parents because of their emotional support They have been always by my side and encouraged me to try my best

All these people play integral roles in this research I once more say

my most sincere thanks to all of them

ABSTRACT

The enhancement of listening skills has drawn much attention in the teaching and learning process and podcasts have been applied at Dong Quan high school for the improvement This research is carried out to find out techniques employed by teachers to help students learn listening with podcasts At the same time, the research is aimed at investigating the attitudes of teachers and 11th form students at Dong Quan high school towards the application of podcasts to their listening lessons To reach the research aims, survey questionnaires were administered to teachers and students and semi-structured interviews were designed and carried out with four teachers Participants were 10 English teachers and 120 students of grade 11 at Dong Quan high school Findings show that various techniques were fully employed to help students learn listening with podcasts Secondly, most of teachers and students agreed that podcasts were extremely helpful to improve listening skills Thirdly, teachers used podcasts with low frequency because designing a lesson plan with podcasts required a great deal of time and effort Moreover, it was the lack of training in designing listening tasks and the variety of students‟ levels that limited the use of podcasts to teaching listening comprehension Based on the findings of the research, more techniques would be suggested in the study in order to improve the quality of listening lessons with podcasts

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements……… i

Abstract……… ii

List of tables, figures and abbreviations……… v

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ……… 1

1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENTS AND RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY 1

1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 2

1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 2

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 2

1.5 ORGANIZATION 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ………4

2.1.LISTENING 4

2.1.1 Definition of listening 4

2.1.2.TYPES OF LISTENING 5

2.1.3 Significance of listening 7

2.2.TEACHING AND LEARNING LISTENING IN CLT 8

2.2.1 Goals for listening teaching and learning process 8

2.2.2 Listening strategies for second language learners 8

2.2.3 Listening comprehension tasks for L2 learners 9

2.2.4 Techniques in teaching and learning listening skills 10

2.3.PODCASTS 12

2.3.1 Definitions of podcasts 12

2.3.2 Types of podcasts 12

2.3.3 Advantages and Disadvantages of podcasts 14

2.3.4 Criteria for the selection of podcasts 15

2.3.5 Related studies 17

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ………20

3.1.A QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE STUDY 20

3.2 SELECTION OF PARTICIPANTS 21

3.3 RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS 23

3.3.1 Questionnaire 23

3.3.2 Semi-structured interview 23

3.4 PROCEDURES OF DATA COLLECTION 24

3.5 PROCEDURES OF DATA ANALYSIS 25

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ……… 26

4.1.FINDINGS 26

4.1.1 Research question 1: 26

4.1.2 Research question 2 30

4.1.3 Research question 3 34

4.2.DISCUSSION 37

4.2.1 Techniques have been employed by teachers to facilitate students’ listening comprehension with podcasts 37

4.2.2 Attitudes of teachers towards the application of podcasts to teaching listening 38

4.2.3 Attitudes of students towards the application of podcasts to listening lessons 38

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ………40

5.1 SUMMARY 40

5.2 IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 41

5.2.1 For the teachers 41

5.2.2 For the students 43

5.3 CONTRIBUTION OF THE RESEARCH 43

5.4 LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH 44

5.5 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 44

REFERENCES ……… 46

APPENDIX 1: ……… 51

APPENDIX 2: ……… 56

APPENDIX 3: ……… 60

APPENDIX 4: ……… 61

APPENDIX 5: ……… 70

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3 General information of the selected teachers 22 Table 4.General information of the selected students 22

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Types of exercises designed and their levels of frequency 29

Figure 2: Teachers‟ assistance to help students overcome difficulties 26

Figure 3: Teachers‟ assisstance to facilitate students‟ competence 27

Figure 4: Frequency of using podcasts in a listening lesson by teachers 32

Figure 5: Difficulties teachers encountered when teaching listening with podcasts 33 Figure 6: Students‟ attitudes towards the application of podcasts in listening lessons 35 Figure 7: Reasons for students‟ participation in listening lessons with podcasts 36 Figure 8: Difficulties students have when dealing with podcasts listening 37

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

ELT: English Language Teaching

ICT: Information and Communications Technology

IT: Information Technology

BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation

CNN: Cable News Network

RSS: Rapid Simple Syndication

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Problem statements and rationale for the study

It is undeniable that listening plays a vital role in our social life Listening accounts for as much as 50 percent of our everyday communication time and is the most frequently used language skill at work and at home (Goh, 2002) Therefore, listening ability can be considered prime importance in successful communication Despite this importance, listening teaching and learning were paid little attention to and “poorly taught aspects of

English in many EFL programs” (Mendelsohn, 1994, p 9)

In the light of communicative approach for language teaching and learning, communicative competence is placed so much emphasis on and is uniformly known as

the goal of the teaching and learning process (Richards & Rodgers, 2001) Xing (2005)

pointed out three barriers to effective listening including: wrong and insufficient codes, limited listening strategies and inappropriate materials

In Vietnam, especially in some rural and remote areas, not only is teaching listening paid little attention but the materials used in the process of teaching and learning listening also are only based on textbooks Despite the boom of ICT with numerous sources of listening materials, the notice of varying and applying authentic materials to teaching and learning English listening skills is very little

Moreover, it is the textbook with repetitive constructed recordings that has discouraged students from improving listening skills The sources for listening activities

is mainly from the textbook without any changes on improvement Therefore, students do not have opportunities to access to updated information that has contribution to both motivating their interests and helping them to broaden their horizons As a result, listening process is becoming more and more difficult for students to learn

Meanwhile, there have been a wide range of listening sources available for teachers and students to exploit, of which podcasts are available with a huge numbers of topics and voices One of the most important plus points is the updated information

Recently, podcasts have been exploited to teaching listening at Dong Quan high school with a view to improving listening teaching and learning process However, the author is concerned if it has been used effectively; therefore, it is my own desire to conduct a research on investigating the techniques used in classroom to help students with their process of learning listening and the attitudes of teachers and 11th form students

in Dong Quan high school to the application of podcasts to listening lessons

The research was expected to make a certain contribution to the improvement of teaching and learning listening skills for 11th form students in Dong Quan high school in the future

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

My study was carried out with the aim of investigating techniques used by teachers

to help students learn listening with podcasts In addition, the attitudes of teachers and

11th form students in Dong Quan high school towards the use of podcasts in listening lessons were also investigated To reach the aims and objectives of the research, the following questions are raised:

- What techniques have been used by teachers at Dong Quan high school to help students in the application of podcasts to listening lessons?

- What are the attitudes of teachers at Dong Quan high school towards the use of podcasts in listening lessons?

- What are the attitudes of 11th form students at Dong Quan high school towards the use of podcasts in listening lessons?

1.3 Significance of the study

The research was conducted in a great attempt to find out techniques teachers have used in listening lessons to help students learn with podcasts in the most effective way Moreover, the research was carried out to investigate the attitudes of teachers and 11thform students in Dong Quan high school towards the use of podcasts in listening teaching

and learning process

1.4 Scope of the study

Despite the common use of podcasts in the process of teaching and learning English

in all over the world, this research focused only on the techniques employed by teachers

in listening lessons with podcasts and the attitudes of teachers and students Moreover, the research was conducted among the 10 English teachers applying podcasts to teaching listening and 120 students of grade 11 who had chance to join listening lessons with podcasts at Dong Quan high school

1.5 Organization

The study consists of 5 chapters: Introduction, literature review, methodology, findings and discussions and conclusion The introduction part will show the rationale, aims and significance of the study The second part will review the literature which will

be used as the framework for the study The third part will be the research methodology used to investigate the techniques used in listening classes and the attitudes of teachers and 11th form students towards the use of podcasts in teaching listening at Dong Quan high school Part four will be findings and discussions And the last part is the

conclusions and suggestions for further study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Listening

2.1.1 Definition of listening

A myriad of definitions of listening have been presented by researchers and linguistics, ranging from the simple to the complicated ones Rankin (1952) and Nicholas (1974) shared the same idea when defining listening as the ability to understand aural symbols and spoken language Underwood (1989) points out that listening is a two-stage process in which we pay attention to the speaker and then “make sense of” what is said More complicated and extensive definition created by Anderson and Lynch (1988), successful listening process happens when listeners are not only understand the messages delivered by speakers but they are also required to activate and apply a numerous types of existing knowledge to understand what the message is In the very two first definitions, the process of listening seems to be a passive one because listeners just try to make out the words and sound However, the third definition shows a more active role of listening because learners achieve input from listening by using clues from context, anticipated knowledge and many strategies to finish successfully the task (O„Malley, Chamot, 1989) Mendelsohn (1994) provided more details about the requirements of a competent listener which are both the ability to understand the intention of speakers and other abilities such

as linguistics and contextual knowledge Linguistic knowledge can be a very important part that helps listeners comprehend the message without understanding every word because of linguistic form such as fillers which do not have any influence on understanding the meaning Listeners must also analyze the intention of speakers in a particular circumstance which is described as an act of real communication (Mendelsohn, 1994)

Purdy (1997) defined listening as the active process which can be affected by both listeners and speakers While listeners must be engaged in five- stage process of

“attending, perceiving, interpreting, remembering, and responding”, speakers must express information and intention by using verbal and nonverbal language The inferential process of listening comprehension was offered by Rost in 2002 Listening

process was divided into multi-stage process in which listeners receive the words delivered by speakers, construct and represent meaning, negotiate the meaning with the speaker and respond, then create meaning through involvement, imagination and empathy To become a good listener, listener must make out the words or sounds and apply strategies of both linguistics and context to understand the intention of the speaker and respond in different ways depending on the purpose of communication In brief, listening is clarified as the process of receiving audible symbols but an interactive process (Brown, 2001)

This research paper adopted the definition suggested by Mendelsohn (1994) because the level of the students involved in the research is not high enough to practice other complicated stages of listening progress and the aim of research is listening naturally for communicative purposes Listening, hence, is known as the ability of listening and understanding the message of the speakers based on the context

2.1.2 Types of listening

In terms of purpose, there are two main types of listening: Active and passive listening Barker (1971) pointed out that active or attentive listening occurred when listeners paid attention and concentration on the speakers‟ speech to interpret ideas actively Passive listening, in contrast, is a process in which we listen to the speech without attention and concentration because of no specific purposes

In terms of material, according to Harmer (2003) authentic and realistic are two distinctive sorts of listening Authentic materials are unscripted materials or pre-recorded announcements, lectures, news broadcasts and other radio program stories read aloud Meanwhile, realistic ones are designed and fixed because the main source of listening materials is scripted materials such as listening sections in books or news with tape scripts

In terms of information, Goh (2002) divides listening into three different types that are used to design listening tasks: listening for general, listening for specific and listening for detailed information The name of each kind shows the distinction The first one is listening for main ideas or the gist of the discourse without worrying too much about

details and students are not required to stop for every word The second one happens when listeners only focus on the information they are interested in and ignore all other information And the last ones is for detailed information Listeners focus on every detail

of the discourse Specific information is often a name, a place, a profession, an object, a number or a quantity

In terms of focus, intensive and extensive listening are the two different sorts of listening (Baruah, 1991, p.201) Intensive listening or focused listening is an activity that the listeners pay full attention to the speakers‟ speech to get information In contrast, extensive one is listening to a large amount of texts without any pre-designed tasks or exercises The process of listening is improved in the most comfortable ones

According to Wolvin and Carolyn Coakley (1988), in a variety of speaking situations and purposes, there are five types of listening: discriminative, comprehensive, critical, appreciative and empathic Discriminative listening is the process in which listeners distinguish between verbal and non-verbal cues or in other words, this type is

“listening to distinguish the aural stimuli” (Wolvin&Coakley, p 141) For example, when your friend tells you that he is happy but his voice and face appearance show the sadness Comprehensive listening is listening to understand messages This type requires the shared knowledge and content between sender and receiver Wolvin and Coakley also considered the first two types the basic part of the other three types Critical ones is a complex listening process that requires many skills because listeners have to make out and evaluate in order make judgments of the meaning of the message Wolf, Marsnik,

Tacey and Nichols (1983) defined appreciative listening as the process of listening to

gain pleasure This type is often used when people listen to entertainment speeches such

as television or radio shows which listeners are interested in The last type, empathic or therapeutic listening, is the ability to understand others‟ feelings and requires a sense of compassion For instance, when a friend understands deeply his friends‟ sadness after his receiving bad marks or neighbors empathize the neighbor‟s loss, these are the situations that empathic listening occurs

in writing Similarly, Mendelsohn (1994) proved the primacy of listening by claiming that in a communication, people spent more time on listening rather than other skills It was illustrated by 40-50% of listening; 25-30% of speaking; 11-16% of reading; and about 9% of writing Wolvin and Coakley (1988) concluded that, both in and out of the classroom, listening consumes more of daily communication time than other forms of verbal communication As a result, without a good listening comprehension, people cannot have an effective and impressive communication

Listening is the fundamental language skill It is the active process through which

people can enhance their knowledge and understanding about the world around In this day of mass communication, much of information is delivered orally, listening efficiently plays an integral part in broadening horizons

In terms of educational development, listening is of great importance in the lives of students (Coakley & Wolvin, 1997; Feyten, 1991; Wing, 1986) Listening is the most frequently used language skill in the classroom (Ferris, 1998; Murphy, 1991) According

to second language acquisition theory, language input has a big influence on language acquisition Numerous studies indicated that efficient listening skills were more important than reading skills as a factor contributing to academic success (Coakley & Wolvin, 1997; Truesdale, 1990)

In conclusion, listening has a big impact on not only social communication but also learning academic process Listening provides a great source of input in which listeners can gain different ideas and expressions of different topics The input gained from listening process assists to the improvement and development of other skills

2.2 Teaching and learning listening in CLT

2.2.1 Goals for listening teaching and learning process

Students learn and practice listening skills in order to achieve “communicative outcome” as listed by Morley (1991, cited by Schwartz, p.12):

- Listening and solving problems such as working with games and puzzles

- Listening and evaluating information, as when preparing for a small presentation

or a debate

- Interactive listening and negotiating meaning through questioning and answering routines

- Listening for enjoyment, pleasure, and sociality, such as listening to songs, plays

Table 1 Goals for listening

Adapted from Morley (1991, cited in Schwartz, 1998)

Identification Recognizing or discriminating specific aspects of the message, e.g ,

sounds, categories of words, morphological distinctions Orientation Determine the important facts about a text, e.g., topic, setting, text

type Main idea comprehension Identifying the higher- order details

Detail comprehension Identifying supporting ideas

Full comprehension Understanding both main ideas and detail

Replication Reproducing message orally or in written form

2.2.2 Listening strategies for second language learners

According to Schwartz (1998), listening strategies are cognitive strategies which, as defined by Rubin (1994), are specific techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension and recall of listening input She also classifies listening strategies into top-down strategies and bottom-up strategies based on the way the listener processes

the input

Top-down strategies are listener based; the listener employs background knowledge

of the topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language to comprehend the meaning of a message This background knowledge facilitates the listener to interpret

what is heard and anticipate what will come next Top-down strategies include:

- listening for the main idea

- predicting

- drawing inferences

- summarizing

Bottom-up strategies are text based; the listener relies on the language in the

message, that is, the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates meaning Bottom-up strategies include:

- listening for specific details

- recognizing cognates

- recognizing word-order patterns

2.2.3 Listening comprehension tasks for L2 learners

Schwartz (1998) offers a comprehensive classification of comprehension tasks basing on listeners‟ responses In her classification, listening comprehension tasks cover not only exercises that students do in a silent way but also exercises which can stimulate interactions among students Therefore, students can enhance comprehension level and self-reflection Students‟ responses and activities were elaborated on in the following table:

Table 2: Listener Response Categories

Responses Students‟ activities Doing A physical response Following direction such as in

Total Physical Response Choosing Among several options Selecting, matching, ordering Transferring Information from the aural

form to another modality

Filling in the a graph, tracing a route

Answering Questions about specific

information in the text

Open-ended, short-answer, or multiple choice questions Condensing Synthesizing the information Outlining, taking notes,

captioning pictures Extending Going beyond the text Creating an ending, creating the

text Duplicating The product of replication Repetition, dictation,

transcription Modeling Imitating the features of the

text or the text itself

Role play, telling a story

Conversing An interaction with the text Filling in a taped dialogue,

interactive video programs

Adapted from Schwartz (1998)

She also suggests listening activities should have fascinating contents and match with the students‟ levels Moreover, tasks or activities which raise students‟ awareness of the listening process and strategies available to them are highly valued

well-2.2.4 Techniques in teaching and learning listening skills

Several researchers described various techniques in teaching and learning listening comprehension:

Zaytoun (1988) suggested a few techniques for teaching listening for foreign learners The first technique is exposing students to real life situations in which native speakers use the language in a spontaneous conversational and communicative way

Secondly, using short taped-segments of radio or TV news and weather reports is another technique He also suggested that students should be encouraged to use language laboratory

Candlin (1987) asserted the effective teaching of listening including motivations and stimulation It is implied that the teacher before teaching or introducing a new activity ought to ask some questions to motivate and involve students in activities

Willis (1981, p.134) listed a series of micro-skills of listening These are:

- Predicting what people are going to talk about

- Guessing unknown words or phrases without panic

- Using one‟s own knowledge of a subject to help one understand

- Identifying relevant points; rejecting irrelevant information

- Retaining relevant points (note-taking, summarizing)

- Recognizing discourse marker, e.g., well; oh; ect

- Understanding different intonation patterns and use of stress, ect., which give clues to meaning and social settings

- Understanding inferred information, e.g., speakers‟ attitudes or intention

Mendelsohn (1994) offers seven techniques that will help the listeners focus on any listening activity

- Listen for one crucial detail

- Listen for all the details

- Listen for the gist

- Listen for mood and atmosphere

- Listen for the main idea

- Listen to form hypotheses and make predictions

- Listen to make an inference

Lan (2006) presented suggestive techniques to improve listening skills These are:

- Arousing students‟ listening interest and motivation with lead-in activities

- Raising their awareness of the nature of listening process and the purpose of listening to help them decide whether top-down or bottom-up should be used

- Activating students to work in different stages of listening

- Encouraging students to have extensive listening habits

- Improving activities in three stages of a listening lesson

- Giving feedback right after students finish their work: Positive feedbacks are encouraged to use to help students become more confident

- Varying strategies to aid the students in the process of a listening lesson

- Selecting carefully supplementary listening materials

From these mentioned techniques above, a sample listening lesson plan will be provided in the appendix 4

2.3 Podcasts

2.3.1 Definitions of podcasts

Podcasts is created by blending two different terms “pod” (rooted from ipod, the popular digital music player from Apple and “broadcast” (Sutton, 2009) Podcasts are collections of any digital media file such as audio and video recordings which are uploaded on the web for “playback on portable media players” such as ipods and personal computers (Lazzari, 2009) With this way of defining the term “podcasts”, it will confuse people between “podcasts” and “audio program” on the Internet Lafferty & Watch (2006) gave a more detailed and exact definition of “podcasts” by pointing out the unique ability of “subscription” through Rapid Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds Users do not need to visit every website frequently in order to download latest podcast episodes because RSS give “alerts” to inform users whenever new podcasts are distributed over on the Internet Some podcatcher softwares such as iTunes even download automatically new episodes when opened (Frydenberg, 2006; Richardson, 2006)

2.3.2 Types of podcasts

According to Man (2006), podcasts available on the Web can be broadly divided into two main types: “radio podcasts” and “independent podcasts” The first type is known as the existing radio programs turned into podcasts The prime examples of this type are the collection of selected radio programmes produced by BBC and podcasts whose the variety of topics range from business to technology, health, comedy, travel, sports, entertainment and education by CNN The second type produced by individuals and organizations are called “independent podcasts” This type will provide a huge source for listening materials in ELT class because these podcasts produced in this way will meet different individual‟ needs Stanley (2005) called these podcasts “authentic podcasts” which are not aimed at ELT students but a huge source of listening materials

Many of these will only be suitable for use with advanced students, but others, such as 6

Minute English from BBC World service or Listen to English –Learn English, are ideal

for use with upper and lower lever classes

In educational field, Harris & Park (2008) classified podcasts, based on their purposes, into four types: teaching-driven, service-driven, marketing-driven and technology-driven Teaching-driven podcasts provide learners a summary of the lecture and timely academic materials while service-driven ones offers families or other people information about students‟ activities and policies of university and school Marketing-driven podcasts give other people outside of school a virtual tour of the facility and policy of the school The last type is used to support teaching methodologies and share teaching practices Rosell (2007) classified teaching-driven podcasts into teacher and student initiated Teacher initiated podcasts are lecture and supplementary podcasts which provide learner a summary/ note of the lecture and more materials besides the core one Nie (2006) lists numerous types of supplementary podcasts which are often used in higher education such as pre-lecture materials, explanation of difficult points of courses and feedback to students‟ performances Examples of student initiated can be listed as assignments, reflections on learning activities and discussions between learners (Abt and Barry, 2009)

The research focused on the attitudes of teachers and 11th form students towards the application of podcasts in teaching listening; therefore, the type of podcasts focused in this research would be authentic podcasts which were used as the supplementary listening materials for teaching and self-studying Some suggested websites for podcasts are listed

as breaking news english and BBC podcasts are updated daily so learners can read new information about real world problems The new sources with updated information and the variety of voices and accents undoubtedly encourage and motivate students to investigate and learn Moreover, it is the availability of podcasts that encourage learners

to self-study The variety of podcasts in levels of difficulty also helps learners to choose the most suitable recordings In terms of academic learning, podcasts encourage students

to use various types of learning strategies could facilitate learning of a language (Ashton and Brookes, 2011) They also stated that podcasts offer students a wide range of possibilities for extra listening both inside and outside of the classroom With the aid of podcasts, language learning does not take place in classroom but language learning activities are anywhere and anytime In short, podcasts are expected to maximize students‟ interests and motivation and minimize the weaknesses of the currently used listening materials in the textbook

2.3.3.2 Disadvantages

There are by all means more advantages than disadvantages that accompany podcasting Still according Stanley (2006), there are some disadvantages that should be mentioned though some of which are related to the use of any technology Firstly, training is needed – before teachers start to produce podcast either alone or together with the class, they have to learn how to use the software and hardware needed for podcasting Moreover, users will be required to spend a great of time and effort on finding a suitable podcast Imagine that finding out a 20-minute podcast is suitable for any usage or not will

be more demanding than skimming a book or a magazine Planning and integrating podcast into teaching requires certain time Additionally, money will be a minus point Professional podcasts that guarantee good quality content might charge some fee Also, it

is Internet connection, computer and MP3 players that do cost money In brief, the application of podcasts to teaching process will require a great deal of time, effort and money The teachers‟ knowledge and experience in designing listening lesson plans with podcasts should be put into consideration when teachers choose podcasts as listening materials

2.3.4 Criteria for the selection of podcasts

According to Martinez (2002), authentic materials should not be chosen in a random way but chosen based on the objectives of the lesson, the suitability with students‟ level and students‟ interest Therefore, when evaluating the adapted materials used in teaching and learning English, it is strictly recommended that the evaluation should be based on some related factors Dickinson (1987) claimed that various stakeholders should be involved in the evaluation process: experts and teachers, and material users The evaluation team need not be limited to teachers alone

Gardner and Miller (1999) gave a list of ten categories to evaluate a material as follow: Language level, skills, objectives, length of activity, language of instruction, pathways, technology, assessment, evaluation and progression However, this list appears

to be too general to say it is for teachers, learners or administers whose responsibility for the course book to use

Dickinson‟s checklist (2006) covered a set of criteria including: a statement of objectives, meaningful language input, practice material, flexibility, instructions and advice for learning, feedback, tests, and advice about progression, advice about record keeping, reference materials, indexing, motivational factors This checklist is so general and only focuses on reading, vocabulary when he pointed out that the material should have “meaningful language input”

Sheerin (1989) lists the following features of self-access materials: Clearly stated aims, clarity of rubric (clear examples of what is required), attractive presentation (unclear what that might be), worthwhile activity (motivating, interesting, worth learning), choice of procedure (allowing learners to select their preferred learning style), feedback, balanced diet (quantity of material at each level and for each main focus should

be more or less the same) However, there is no further information on how to identify whether a particular resource possesses these qualities For example, what criteria should

be used to evaluate if a presentation is attractive or not?

Spelleri (2002) mentioned the suitability between materials and students‟ level According to him, materials which are a bit difficult will be useful tools to motivate and encourage students to achieve their knowledge But complex and demanding materials will demotivate and make students afraid of listening with a wide range of unfamiliar vocabulary and rapid speed Morley (1991) added the importance of teachers‟ support in listening teaching and learning progress Authentic materials may be too difficult for lower students to tackle; hence, teachers should explicit students with pedagogical methods by providing students guide for them to achieve the objectives of the lesson Richards (2005) pointed out numerous factors that shaped an effective material including: Teacher factors, learner factors and contextual factors Specifically, teacher factors included “teacher‟s language proficiency, training and experience, cultural background and preferred teaching styles while learner factors were learners‟ learning style preference, their language needs, interest and motivation” Concerning the contextual factors, school culture, classroom conditions, class size and the availability of teaching resources should be taken into consideration Tomlinson (1998) shared the same

ideas with Richards in evaluating a material but more points were added Regarding the learner factors, personal needs (age, sex, cultural background, interests, motivation and education background); learning needs such as learning styles, anticipated language learning experiences, learning goals and expectation; and the requirement for the future

of undertakings in terms of knowledge of language use Teacher factors were absolutely like what mentioned by Richard For contextual factors, Tomlinson added the education policy which could be known as under-resourced and strict syllabus the teachers were expected to follow

As mentioned in the previous chapter, the scope of this research was to investigate the attitudes of teachers and 11th form students; therefore, the researcher only used some

of teacher and learner-related factors in this study The factors were interests, learning style and experience, learning goals and the requirement in terms of language of language use The availability of the materials would be used as a criterion to help the researcher investigate the attitude of teachers and students towards the application of podcasts to teaching and learning listening

2.3.5 Related studies

The relation between podcasts and education has drawn a lot of attention and there

is an abundance of studies related to podcasts in education Some of them focus on the potential benefits that podcasts offer such as Sze (2006) and Hasan & Hoon (2012) Others were conducted with the view to investigating the attitudes and perceptions of teachers or students towards the application of podcasts to teaching English, namely Gribbins (2007), Shaw (2009) and Brookes (2010) Below are four prime studies related

to podcasts and they focused on different aspects in the relation between podcasts and language learning

The first study was conducted with the aim of having a closer look at the effectiveness of podcasts in language learning especially in learning listening skills Hawke (2010) investigated how science students can develop their scientific English listening skills through podcasts via an independent listening pilot course based on podcasts The participants were 30 masters and doctoral degree students The procedure

of his study consisted of 3 phases Firstly, he held the pre-test to check the levels of participants and then he let them join an eight-week learning course with podcasts After that, the same test was chosen to know their improvement The comparison in scores between pre-test and post-test was noticeably different Findings of his study showed that the post-test scores of students were significantly higher than the pre-test scores Hawke (2010) also pointed out that podcasts helped students to pay more attention to the podcast content and motivated them to listen both from top-down and bottom-up perspectives Moreover, Istanto (2011) proved the advantages that podcasts bring and also showed the students‟ improvement of grammar knowledge as well as the knowledge of the culture of the target community He designed five podcasts units as supplementary materials to develop learners‟ listening skills and grammar knowledge At the end of the semester, a questionnaire was delivered to 20 undergraduate students learning Indonesia as a foreign language The results received from 20 students showed potential advantages of podcasts

in language teaching and learning

Secondly, the attitudes of teachers or students towards the application of podcasts to learning language also drew a lot of attention of researchers Suparjan, Regina and Sudarsono (2014) conducted a case study to investigate the attitudes of students towards the use of podcasts in language learning at Tanjungpura university Qualitative method was used to do the research After choosing suitable participants, the researchers used semi-structured interview to scrutinize the reactions, perceptions of students towards the application of podcasts The findings of the research showed the positive attitudes of students in terms of the effectiveness, the usability and the satisfaction Firstly, the strong belief in the positive influence of podcasts in one‟ language learning could be easily found They believed that podcasting could effectively enhance the ability of listening, reading, and speaking and improve the mastery of vocabulary and grammar and it is useful to enhance the ability of pronunciation Secondly, students found the usability of podcasting in language learning because it would be easy for them to learn the technology for applying podcast and to use podcast for foreign language learning Regarding the satisfaction, they claimed that they could feel an enjoyable experience by

using podcasts and continue to use podcast for English learning purposes Moreover, Kavaliauskienė and Anusienė (2009) used survey questionnaires to examine learners‟ perceptions of online listening to podcasts The participants of the study were from psychology and law and penitentiary specialization at Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania Most of them showed their positive attitudes towards the use of podcasts with 76% and 64% respectively

In short, a mass of benefits that podcasts offer and the attitudes of students towards the application of podcasts in language learning have been investigated thoroughly It was my own attempt to investigate both techniques employed by teachers, and teachers and students‟ attitudes towards the application of podcasts in teaching listening comprehension

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 A quantitative and qualitative study

This research was conducted as a quantitative and qualitative study, in which I used questionnaires and semi-structured interview to collect data The reasons for my choices lie in the aims of this study, in which I would like to answer three questions as followed:

- What techniques have been used by teachers of Dong Quan high school to help students in the application of podcasts to listening lessons?

- What are the attitudes of teachers of Dong Quan high school towards the use of podcasts in listening lessons?

- What are the attitudes of 11th form students of Dong Quan high school towards the use of podcasts in listening lessons?

To answer the 3 questions, I used both quantitative and qualitative method which play an important role in research process As said by Bouma (1995), both quantitative and qualitative method in the research process are important In order to collect sufficient and useful information, I decided to make full use of both methodologies rather than choose one and dispose the other

Quantitative method gave the researcher the opportunity to collect data with a larger number of participants As stated by Gay (1987), questionnaire was thought to be easy to construct and a useful tool to gather large amount of information because it saved time and effort For this specific research, two set of questionnaires for teachers and 11th form students were delivered to collect the information

According to Bouma and Atkinson (1995), the purpose of qualitative research is to look into events through the perspective of the people who are being involved in the research In a qualitative research, the research is required to empathize with the people being studied Therefore, this study was designed qualitatively with case study approach

to gain a deeper insight into teachers' attitudes toward the use of web technology, particularly podcast in learning English as a second or foreign language Qualitative method was also used to achieve a deep understanding of the issues that arise in this study, the techniques employed by teachers and the attitude towards the application of

information technology as a medium of language learning Therefore, to obtain the techniques employed by teachers in listening lessons with podcasts and the attitudes of teachers and 11th form students toward the application of podcasts to teaching listening, I conducted semi-structured interviews among four English teachers which were randomly chosen to collect more detailed information

3.2 Selection of participants

This study was carried out at Dong Quan high school Podcasts have been exploited

to teaching listening at this school to facilitate students‟ listening competence The participants were ten English teachers and one hundred and twenty 11th form students at the age of seventeen of Dong Quan high school The participants were chosen randomly Although the researcher could not obtain the survey of all 11th form students and English teachers of Dong Quan high school, it is hoped that this number is considered significantly in order that it could provide enough data for a thorough analysis

Firstly, the current research was conducted among ten teachers who have taught 11thform students and have applied podcasts to listening lessons Therefore, they can have a good understanding of students‟ listening competence in general Moreover, they can also have a closer look at the current situation of applying podcasts in teaching listening Their opinions hence would be reliable for the present study Among ten teachers chosen, four of whom are very young and has experienced their teaching career for under 10 years The youngest teacher has 5 years of teaching experience The other six teachers have been teaching English for over twelve years This diversity in sampling ensures the validity and reliability of the study result The participants were asked to fill out the questionnaires which are aimed at finding out their techniques to help students learn listening with podcasts and attitudes towards the application of podcasts in teaching listening to 11th form students in Dong Quan high school Four of selected teachers were invited to semi-structured interviews in order to get more detailed information Below is additional information on the teacher participants, table 3

Table 3 General information of the selected teachers

Teachers Year(s) of teaching Teachers Year(s) of teaching

Table 4 General information of the selected students

Questionnaires for students included 10 questions (both closed and open- ended questions) (see Appendix 2) Like the questions given to teachers, data from questionnaires for students would bring us information about the frequency and task types used in listening lessons with podcasts Furthermore, problems students had to encounter and the techniques teachers used in listening lessons to help students would also be revealed The reasons for learning listening with podcasts and students‟ attitudes towards listening learning and the application of podcasts in listening progress were investigated

3.3.2 Semi-structured interview

To get a deeper insight into the techniques that teachers employed in listening classes and attitudes of teachers and students towards the use of podcasts to teaching listening skills, four questions (see Appendix 3) were designed to collect detailed information The very first question revealed the current materials used in teaching listening and the frequency of using podcasts in listening lessons The second question offered the information about the obstacles that prevent teachers from using podcasts

with high frequency and techniques that teachers have used in listening lessons with podcasts Moreover, the viewpoint of teachers about the importance of podcasts in improving listening skills for students would be asked in the third questions The last question was designed to get to know their plans for listening materials in the future

3.4 Procedures of data collection

The process of data collection included three phases:

Phase 1: Questions were prepared 3 weeks before being delivered When designing, the researcher made sure that all information was kept anonymous The questions and interview were piloted with several voluntary respondents The aim of this activity was to find out and correct any misunderstanding in both structure and content of those questions They are 2 English teachers and 20 students of grade 11 at Dong Quan high school, all of whom have similar characteristics to the target population of the research The teachers and students were encouraged to point out any confusing words or mistakes that needs correcting

Phase 2: Two sets of questions were delivered to teachers and 11th form students Questions for teachers were delivered through email and students were given questionnaires at their break time The questions included explicit instructions on how to reply to question, hence the participants could do it easily The researcher briefly explained what they were going to do and carefully instructed them how to answer the questions in order to avoid any misunderstanding The researcher waited for students to complete and provided help if necessary After ten minutes, the researcher collected the survey questionnaires and thanks them for their assistance

Phase 3: After the stage of delivering questionnaires, data were in the process of collecting At the same time, the semi-structured interviews were carried out randomly among four out of ten teachers With the appointment arranged in advance, the interviews were held in comfortable places and time English was chosen to be the interview language

In conclusion, taking the procedures of data collection by separate steps enabled the author to obtain the most precise data for the study

3.5 Procedures of data analysis

In the first stage, the data gained form the survey questionnaires were transferred into numerical form with the use of chart and table Valid comparisons between the figures were also included

Next, quantitative and qualitative data collected from the questionnaires and structured interviews were also summarized and evaluated The findings of this research will be presented in detail in chapter four

semi-CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter commences with research findings based on the analysis of data gained from the research instruments: Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews It precisely follows the analysis plan laid out in chapter III The results were discussed according to each sub-research question

4.1 Findings

4.1.1 Research question 1:

“What have techniques been used by teachers of Dong Quan high school to help

students in the application of podcasts to listening lessons?”

To answer the research question 1, questions number 5, 6 and 8 in the questionnaire for teachers as well as question number 4 and 6 in the questionnaire for students were designed Question 2 in the interview also provided a deeper understanding to answer the research question

4.1.1.1 Arousing students’ motivation with lead-in activities

Question number 8 asks: (for teachers)

“What have you done to facilitate your students’ comprehension of podcasts?”

Figure 2: Teachers’ assistance to help students overcome difficulties

As can be seen that 70% of the teachers used pre listening activities such as providing new words and background and even listening techniques would help students find it easier to listen to podcasts 20% allowed students work in pair/ group as an

effective tool to help students overcome their problems when listening with podcasts Only 1 teacher thought that choosing familiar topic with easy tasks would help students

Question 6 asks (for students)

“What has your teacher done to help you improve your listening skills through podcasts?”

Figure 3 Teachers’ assistance to facilitate students’ competence

Finding shows that most of students were facilitated by pre-listening activities: vocabulary and provided with background knowledge and listening strategies Some students were allowed to work in pairs or groups in order to help them overcome difficulties in listening to podcasts A few students shared that they were often supported

by familiar topics and easy tasks to help students improve listening via podcasts

4.1.1.2 Improving three stages of listening

Question number 5: (for teachers)

“How do you organize your class for doing podcast activities?”

Concerning the organization of the class in listening lessons with podcasts, teachers participated in the survey mostly (80%) organized the class in different ways One

teacher also explained that: “According to different kinds of exercises, students in the

class will be divided into pairs or groups and even asked to work individually.”

However, two among ten teachers were often asked students to work in groups rather

than pairs or individuals They explained the reasons for that organization:” The level of

students in a class is unequal and few students still find hard to listen with podcasts Therefore, mixed ability groups will help them to assist together.”

Question number 6 (for teachers) and question number 4 (for students)

Ask teachers/students to put a tick to the types of listening exercises designed from podcasts and rank them according to the level of frequency:

The following graph showed the types of listening exercises and their levels of frequency in listening lessons with podcasts

Task types Used Always Usually Often Occasionally Never

Figure 1: Types of exercises designed and their levels of frequency

The data from the survey disclosed that teachers used common types of exercise with high frequency while other types were not used All of the teachers (100%) agreed that multiple choice questions were always used while true/ false statements/ gap filling and giving short answers were usually made full use of in designing listening comprehension tasks The “spot the differences” exercises were occasionally used in listening lessons with podcasts The rest of task types were not used when designing tasks for listening comprehension

The data collected from the same question (question 4 in questionnaire for students) also share the same ideas with the teachers Through these data, it can be seen clearly that students had no chance to practice with the variety of kinds of exercises The same types

of tasks: multiple choice, true/ false statements, gap filling and short answers were designed in every listening lesson

4.1.1.3 Giving positive feedbacks and raising awareness of listening strategies

Question 2 asks (in interview question for teachers)

“In a listening lesson with podcasts, what techniques do you often employ to facilitate your students’ listening competence?”

Four selected teachers described numerous techniques used in listening lessons One

of them also claimed that:” In a listening lesson, techniques made use of to help students

are different from those used in other listening lessons Teachers need to be flexible to

Gap filling Spot the differences Giving short

answers

%

use the most effective ones.” However, in general, some techniques often employed by

teachers are: Arousing students‟ motivation with exciting lead-in activities, improving three stages of listening with different activities, giving positive feedbacks right after students finish their tasks When asked more details about the improvement of three

stages of listening, one teacher shared her ideas:” In the pre-listening part, I often hold

fascinating warm-up activities and elicit some questions in order that students have prediction of what they will hear Background knowledge and vocabulary would be given

to students The next part is designed with many types of tasks such as true/false statements, short answers, multiple-choice, gap-filling A listening lesson often ends with one question to encourage students to use their knowledge gained from listening to discuss” More interestingly, the youngest teacher revealed that:” I sometimes ask students what the purpose of listening and then make them decide what strategies of listening should be used.”

In short, some common techniques were made full use of in listening lessons by teachers to help students find easier to learn listening with podcasts The techniques used are: Motivating students with exciting lead-in activities, designing different activities in each stage of listening, giving positive feedbacks right after students finish their tasks and raising students‟ awareness of listening strategies However, there is lack of variety in the listening task types

in question number 6 Moreover, the plans for future listening teaching were also shared

in the interview question number 4