Enhancing speaking and listening skills through useful website for second year english majored students at thu dau mot university

The paper is going to figure out not only how second year English majorstudents make the most of useful websites in order to further improve theirspeaking and listening skill, but also w

THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

STUDENTS AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY

Student name: HA THI NGOC BICH Student code: 1722202010028

Class: D17AVKD01 Course: 2017 - 2021 Major: ENGLISH LANGUAGE Lecturer: AU MINH TRIET

Binh Duong, December, 2020

Binh Duong, December,2020

through graduate thesis in education program so that I am able to expand myknowledge and apply successfully to my study.

Furthermore, I would like to express my gratitude to Mr Au Minh Triet forhis patience, encouragement and useful advice of this paper I also appreciate hisguidance and support for every single step of my paper

Additionally, I am really grateful to all members of class D17AVKD01 fortheir help, along with their enthusiasm in order that I could complete datacollection

Thank you very much for kind cooperation during my research

Sincerely,

Ha Thi Ngoc Bich

The paper is going to figure out not only how second year English majorstudents make the most of useful websites in order to further improve theirspeaking and listening skill, but also which ones are effective enough for learners

to take up enhancing ability in speaking, as well as listening English There are awide range of definitions, along with elements by which the two skills above areinfluenced so that the paper will contribute to students' study process at Thu DauMot University So far, methods which have been used to collect resultsafterwards are questionnaire and interview on the members of classD17AVKD01 In addition, it is believed that the research conducted will motivateand help students whose major is English get achievements in their faculty

Key words: speaking, listening, website English

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

I General introduction 1

II Research question 1

III The purpose of the research 1

IV Significance of the research 1

CHAPTER 2: OVERVIEW OF PREVIOUS WORK 2

I Literature review 2

II Definition 2

1 What is speaking? 2

2 What is listening? 3

III Factors 5

IV Overview of research 5

V Related research 7

VI Conclusion 8

CHAPTER 3: PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION 9

I METHODOLOGY 9

1 Research methods 9

2 Participants 9

3 Procedures 9

4 Instruments 9

II. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS 13 1 Results

13 2 Analysis 14

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

19 I Conclusion

19 II Recommendations 19

References ix

Appendices xi

Appendix 1: QUESTIONNAIRE xi

Appendix 2: EXAMPLE OF DATA INTERVIEW ix

LIST OF TABLE

Table 1 The importance of websites 16

Table 2 Attitudes towards speaking 17

Table 3 Examples of interview data 18

Table 4 The importance of websites xii

Table 5 Attitudes towards speaking xiii

Table 6 Examples of interview data ix

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

I General introduction

Speaking is a productive skill which is supposed to be a mental process In otherwords, a speaker puts a psychological concept into some linguistic forms such aswords, phrases, and sentences used to transfer a message to a listener On theother hand, listening is one of receptive skills in the oral mode in order that theinterpretative action taken by someone to understand and potentially makemeaning of what they hear It is obvious that both skills mentioned above havebecome extremely crucial to English learners owing to their ambition in targetlanguage Many of them, therefore, have benefited from websites to enhance notonly speaking but also listening skill Despite the fact that there are a wide range

of websites for students of Foreign Language Major to practice these skills, theystill find it difficult to choose suitable ones Thus, this paper is going toinvestigate how students to take advantage of useful websites to improve theirabilities and study effectively

II Research question

“Which websites are the most advantageous to improve your speaking as well aslistening skill?”

III The purpose of the research

First of all, the research conducted to figure out a wide range of websites thatEnglish major students are interested in and use them on a regular basis Then, itaims at making a list of useful sources for other students, especially for those whohave recently taken up English major, to make greatly progress in speaking andlistening skill

IV Significance of the research

The study is being looked forward to finding out the most helpful websites used

in common by English major students at Thu Dau Mot University so that they canenhance their own abilities in speaking and listening In addition, freshmen whosemajor is English will find a variety of great websites necessary for reference

CHAPTER 2: OVERVIEW OF PREVIOUS WORK

I Literature review

The aims of this study were to investigate the effects of the improve speaking andlistening by website and the post-listening question techniques on Englishlistening achievement and to determine students' attitudes towards the twoapproaches among the second - year English major students of the academic year

2020 at Thu Dau Mot University This chapter presents relevant backgroundinformation necessary for this study The first part deals with theoreticalbackground on listening and speaking that are further divided into definitions ofwhat is listening and listening in my opinion, what is speaking and speaking in

my opinion Then, a framework for describing listening ability is reviewed.Literature related to listening comprehension questions is reviewed in thefollowing section Finally, related research studies carried out in the fields ofsome website help students improve them English are presented

II Definition

1 What is speaking?

To begin with, Marin Bygate (1987) supposed that speaking is “a skill whichdeserves attention every bit as much as literary skills, in both first and secondlanguages Our learners often need to be able to speak with confidence in order tocarry out many of their most transactions It is the skill by which they are mostfrequently judged, and through which they may make or lose friends.” In 1995,Nunan made this definition more obvious, he stated speaking was the ability inusing oral language for exploring ideas, intentions, thoughts, and feeling to otherpeople as the way to make the message clearly deliver and well understand by thehearer Then, Kathleen M Bailey (2003) discovered that it is clear to say speaking

is a productive aural/oral skill as it consists of producing systematic verbalutterances to convey meanings After that, Marriam Bashir (2011) providedBailey's previous work with not only complication but also close relation betweenspeaking and pronunciation

There are may definitions of speaking according to experts Harmer (2007:284)states speaking is the ability to speak fluently and presupposes not onlyknowledge of language features, but also the ability to process information andlanguage on the spot while Quianthy (1990:7) defines speaking as the process oftransmitting ideas and information orally in variety of situations Nunan (in Kayi,2006:1) defines speaking as the use of language quickly and confidently with fewunnatural pauses, which is called as fluency Speaking is the process of buildingand sharing meaning through the use of verbal and nonverbal symbols, in avariety of contexts (Chaney, 1998:13) Therefore, the researcher concludes thatspeaking is the ability to produce the language and share their ideas

In my opinion, Speaking is the delivery of language through the mouth To speak,

we create sounds using many parts of our body, including the lungs, vocal tract,vocal chords, tongue, teeth and lips This vocalized form of language usuallyrequires at least one listener When two or more people speak or talk to each

other, the conversation is called a "dialogue" Speech can flow naturally from oneperson to another in the form of dialogue It can also be planned and rehearsed, as

in the delivery of a speech or presentation Of course, some people talk tothemselves! In fact, some English learners practice speaking standing alone infront of a mirror

Speaking can be formal or informal:

• Informal speaking is typically used with family and friends, or people youknow well

• Formal speaking occurs in business or academic situations, or whenmeeting people for the first time

Speaking is probably the language skill that most language learners wish toperfect as soon as possible It used to be the only language skill that was difficult

to practice online This is no longer the case English learners can practicespeaking online using voice or video chat and services like Skype app They canalso record and upload their voice for other people to listen to

2 What is listening?

According to Rivers (1992), listening “involves active cognitive processing

- the construction of a message from phonic material” (p.18) However, it wassuggested by Purdy (1997), listening defined as “"the active and dynamic process

of attending, perceiving, interpreting, remembering, and responding to theexpressed (verbal and nonverbal), needs, concerns, and information offered byother human beings" while Anderson and Lynch (1988) argued what successfullistening was, understanding was not something that happened because of what aspeaker said: the listener had a crucial part to play in the process, by activatingvarious types of knowledge, and by applying what he knew to what he heard andtried to understand what the speaker meant (p.6) One year later, Kenneth C.Petress (1999) proved that listening “can be learned and improved upon no matterone's age, gender, education, or previous skill level Like any skills, if it isallowed to go unused, it will atrophy By closely observing what good listeners inour midst do and how they do it, we can sharpen our own listening skills”.Around four years later, Babita Tyagi (2013) stated that this skill is a key so thatmessages are received effectively In particular, it is apparent that listening is acombination of hearing what another person says and psychological involvement

with the person who is talking.

By Richard Nordquist

Updated January 06, 2019

Listening is the active process of receiving and responding to spoken (andsometimes unspoken) messages It is one of the subjects studied in the field oflanguage arts and in the discipline of conversation analysis

Listening is not just hearing what the other party in the conversation has to say

"Listening means taking a vigorous, human interest in what is being told us," saidpoet Alice Duer Miller "You can listen like a blank wall or like a splendidauditorium where every sound comes back fuller and richer."

Author Marvin Gottlieb cites four elements "of good listening:

- Attention—the focused perception of both visual and verbal stimuli

- Hearing—the physiological act of 'opening the gates to your ears'

- Understanding—assigning meaning to the messages received

- Remembering—the storing of meaningful information" ("Managing GroupProcess." Praeger, 2003)

He also cites four levels of listening: "acknowledging, sympathizing,paraphrasing, and empathizing The four levels of listening range from passive tointeractive when considered separately However, the most effective listeners areable to project all four levels at the same time." That means they show they'repaying attention, they show interest, and they convey they are working tounderstand the speaker's message

In my opinion, Listening is receiving language through the ears Listeninginvolves identifying the sounds of speech and processing them into words andsentences When we listen, we use our ears to receive individual sounds (letters,stress, rhythm and pauses) and we use our brain to convert these into messagesthat mean something to us

Listening in any language requires focus and attention It is a skill that somepeople need to work at harder than others People who have difficultyconcentrating are typically poor listeners Listening in a second language requireseven greater focus Like babies, we learn this skill by listening to people whoalready know how to speak the language This may or may not include native

speakers For practice, you can listen to live or recorded voices The mostimportant thing is to listen to a variety of voices as often as you can.

III Factors

There are several factors having significantly effects on improvingspeaking as well as listening skill, such as:

Accent plays a vital part in studying English as it reflects social and

educational background, together with unique interest of each individual Flege(1988) wrote that “speaking with a foreign accent entails a variety of possibleconsequences for second language users, including accent detection, diminishedacceptability, diminished intelligibility and negative evaluation” Accent,therefore, has a considerable impact on communication in general, on bothspeakers and listeners in particular

Speed control extremely influences on speaking, along with listening

comprehension Underwood (1989) found that “the greatest difficulty withlistening comprehension is that the listener cannot control how quickly a speakerspeaks'' In addition, speed is a vital element that creates fluent and smoothconversations, especially whenever speaker is about to give instructions to others

English learners also find it hard to catch up with the conversation as they

occasionally lack vocabulary In other words, they sometimes encounter an

unknown word which may cause them to stop and think about the meaning of thatword and thus cause them to miss the next part of the speech

IV Overview of research

The notion of "word" Vocabulary mastery begins with a word So what is aword? Michael McCarthy (1990) defined words as "free-standing items oflanguage that have meaning For example: the word eating is free-standing initself, and that within it has another potentially free-standing element eat,independently meaningful from the second element -ing Pyles and Algeo(1970:96) said "when most of us think about language, we think first about words

It is true that the vocabulary is the focus of language It is in words that soundsand meanings inter-lock to allow us to communicate with one another, and it iswords that we arrange together to make sentences, conversations and discourse ofall kinds"

Vocabulary item As in Penny Ur's definition of vocabulary, a new item ofvocabulary may be more than a single word For example, post office and mother-in-law, which are made up of two or three words but express a single idea.Another term to call for vocabulary is "chunks" as stated by Schmitt, N &MCCarthy, M (1997): "Some of the vocabulary people know is originally learned

as parts of multi-word chunks, often as phrases, idioms, or proverbs" A useful

convention is to cover all such cases by talking about vocabulary "items" ratherthan "words".

Roles of vocabulary in second language learning the prominent role of vocabularyknowledge in second language learning has been increasingly recognized.According to Bogards, P and B Laufer (2004: 1), " much has been done in thefield of vocabulary in the context of the acquisition of foreign or secondlanguages The growth of interest in L.2 vocabulary since the days of "aneglected aspect of language learning" (Meara, 1980) has also been reflected inauthored and edited books specifically devoted to vocabulary"

Michael West (1930: 514) stressed that "the primary thing in leaning a language isthe acquisition of a vocabulary, and practice in using it" McCarthy stated that

"the biggest component of any language course is vocabulary" (McCarthy, 1990:viii) "No matter how well the student learns grammar, no matter howsuccessfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to express a widerange of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningfulway." 66 A leading linguist researcher Paul Nation notes: "Vocabulary is not anend in itself A rich vocabulary makes the skills of listening, speaking, reading,and writing easier to perform" When learners' working memory is not loadedwith hesitation about the correct spelling, pronunciation and contextual use of thewords, they can concentrate fully on higher level aspects of language such asusing precise sentence structures and appropriate expressions for the type ofconversation that is going on These all show that the success of a student inbecoming proficient in any language depends in part on the extent and richness ofhis/ her vocabulary, so vocabulary teaching should be part of the syllabus, andvocabulary should be taught on a well- planned and regular basis To sum up,vocabulary is considered an important aspect of learning a foreign language.Second language vocabulary acquisition has become an increasingly interestingtopic of discussion for researchers, teachers, curriculum designers, theorists, andothers involved in second language learning and teaching

So there are too many of the same meanings and pronunciations That makesdifficulty for students Web sites will help them better understand the meaning ofwords and pronounce them properly

V Related research

The benefits of websites that have provided students with a variety ofmaterials in improving English skills have been evaluated and experienced bynumerous preceding researches According to Gottwald (2002), the content ofexisting websites devoted to second language research and indicated areas thatneeded to be improved At the same time, Kung and Chuo (2002) investigated the

potential role of English-as-a-Second/Foreign-Language (ESL/EFL) websites tosupplement in class instruction Then, Murray and Reagan (2003) discussedresources for students and teachers so as to make a list of English-as-a-Second-Language textbook companion websites In particular, Nicholas, Debski andLagerberg (2004) devised a system for students to practice spelling individuallythrough an online tool, which tests for the students' performance on individualrules of spelling while Smidt and Hegelheimer (2004) investigated how authenticweb-delivered video can inform ESL online instruction and enhance the incidentalacquisition of vocabulary and listening comprehension After that, Son (2006)reported the results of a study that examined an online discussion groupestablished for a computer-assisted language learning course and investigatedpatterns of interactions generated through the online discussion and participants'attitudes toward 5 the computer-mediated communication (CMC) activity As aresult, various ideas were launched to assist English learners in enhancing theirskills Furthermore, it was reported that Yip and Kwan (2006) carried out a study

of the usefulness of online games in vocabulary learning for some undergraduatestudents which explored students' potential for both speaking and listening Lastbut not least, Furukawa (2007) succeeded in how the SSS (Start with SimpleStories) Website supported individual learners to improve their communicationskills in English through extensive reading

VI Conclusion

In summary, the literature reviewed here noticed significant improvements

in academic achievement of students when differentiated instruction wasimplemented While differentiation requires increased time to prepare lessons,increased student responsibility, and more district resources, the literature arguedthat academic improvements made by students can outweigh the drawbacks.Teachers can instruct students which website is most useful for the lesson,varying what is learned, how it is learned, or how the learning is demonstrated, aswell as by readiness, interests, and/or learning profile The literature appears toargue that when instruction is differentiated, teachers report that students weremore engaged and performed better in the classroom and on standardized tests.While this literature also found areas of concern it also argued that with carefulplanning by districts and with sufficient time for support and training thisapproach could be beneficial

CHAPTER 3: PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION

I METHODOLOGY

1 Research methods

In order to collect data, methods included questionnaire and interview weretaken into consideration The results which were sorted out later would provideaccuracy as well as possibility of the paper in order that second year Englishmajor students could consider and put it into practice

2 Participants

The study was designed to investigate how English major students in classD18AV07 at Thu Dau Mot University have applied several useful websites tomake giant steps forward in second language Especially, thirty-four respondents

of this class were interviewed which websites they supposed to help them boostpotential for both speaking and listening skill

3 Procedures

To begin with, the data were gathered from English major students in classD19AV07 at Thu Dau Mot University during the second semester of the 2020academic year The questionnaire was adjusted so that it was suitable forrespondents' levels In detail, every single member would receive a form of thequestionnaire and complete several questions as well as information included inthe paper At the same time, the researcher would interview them to figure outwhich websites had contributed to their study process and played a vital role toenhance not only speaking, but also listening skill As a result, interview datawere recorded, then translated into English, finally sorted out to make a list ofpopular websites

4 Instruments

Two forms of questionnaire for English major students in class D19AV07 werementioned respectively Each survey questionnaire included five statements.Then, a semi-structured interview among these members was conducted byresearcher so as to select which websites gained much popularity andeffectiveness in reality In this case, students would offer the researcher theirexperience while improving speaking and listening skill through websites.Additionally, the semi-structured interview allowed the researcher to not onlymodify, but also supplement other related questions to gather information

a The Students' Point of View about the Advantages on the Websites Employment for Practicing English Listening Skills

Most students agreed that using websites for practicing listening skills canhelp them improve not only their listening skills, but also other skills as well, and

it can help them to create autonomous learning strategies Another one it isconvenient for them when using the websites for practicing listening skills outsideclassroom and from book, anywhere and anytime According to the questionnaireand interview results, it was found that all students mentioned about advantagesinto three points Firstly, the use of website is convenient for them to practicelistening skills Many websites provide various topics and students can choose thetopics they prefer and or those related to the topics they are studying in Englishclass They also stated that it saved time and was convenient They don't need tofind materials for practicing listening skills from library or book stores Manyinformants said they can use the websites in part time or in their free time atlibrary, house, or dormitory and Internet café These are quite convenient andsupport time and place for them Secondly, the students find their suitablelearning strategies to solve some problems by themselves Students can easilyrepeat listening materials again and again until they finally get information about

51 listening materials and with the help of scripts, students can find out where arethe problems when they listen to those materials Outside classroom students canuse the websites for practicing listening skills to prepare themselves for listeningtest of their English class This is quite helpful to create autonomous learningenvironment Finally, the use of websites enhances English skills for students.Most students reported that using the websites can help them improve Englishlistening skills Moreover they thought that this kind of practicing listening skillsenhanced them not only listening skills, but also they could improve other skillswhile they listened through websites, such as pronunciation, speaking, reading,vocabulary learning During the time they listened to the native speakers' sound,they also tried to follow and repeat the sound, in order to familiar withpronunciation, native accent and intonation, and they spoke better after then.When they looked at the sound script, they knew new words and vocabularies aswell

b The Students' Problem on the Websites Employment for Practicing English Listening Skills

The problems when using the websites to practice listening skills weretechnical problems, the Internet connection was quite slow, the processes andinstruction of the websites are complicated Some students did not have their ownpersonal computers Somebody had a lot of schedules to do, so it was limitation