VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ----------o0o---------- PHÙNG THỊ MƠ USING DICTOGLOSS TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF 8TH FORM STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION (Sử dụng kỹ thuật Dictogloss để nâng cao hiệu quả học nghe hiểu của học sinh lớp 8) M. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi – 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITYHANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ----------o0o---------- PHÙNG THỊ MƠ USING DICTOGLOSS TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF 8TH FORM STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION (Sử dụng kỹ thuật Dictogloss để nâng cao hiệu quả học nghe hiểu của học sinh lớp 8) M. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr. Trần Thị Tuyết Hanoi – 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby state that I: Phùng Thị Mơ, am the author of the thesis entitled: ―Using Dictogloss technique to improve the effectiveness of 8th form students‘ listening comprehension‖, which is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, and that this thesis has not been submitted for any other degrees.
The thesis also integrates the publication with my supervisor during my candidature. The publication is included in appendix III. Hanoi, 2014 Phùng Thị Mơ i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to Dr. Tran Thi Tuyet, my honorable supervisor for her great guidance and encouragement without which the study would not be completed.
Her patience and the amount of time she spent on revising manuscripts with muddled up contents have been truly appreciated. Besides, her sense of thoughtful criticism and recognition of the work have played a crucial role to the progress and completion of this study. I also take this opportunity to express my thankfulness to all of my course instructors and lecturers of University of Foreign Languages and International Studies - Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable advice and suggestions throughout my study. In addition, I am appreciative of my students of class M5 at Clever school for their wholehearted cooperation in involving in the lessons and participating in interviews which gave great help to form a significant part of this study.
Last but not least, my heartfelt gratitude goes to all those who have kindly advised and helped me towards the completion of my study report. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Despite the growing need for the communicative English skills suited for global integration and curriculum innovations to teach English through communicative language teaching over the years, studies conducted in Vietnam education system report that most language teachers still follow the traditional methods in teaching English. Given that the four language skills namely listening, speaking, reading and writing are taught separately, and especially listening skill which has not been paid due attention in EFL seems to be the most challenging issue with learners. This study reports the findings of a case study where Dictogloss technique was used to enhance the effectiveness of students‘ listening comprehension.
Dictogloss technique is an integrated skills technique for language learning in which students work together to create a reconstructed version of a text. Accordingly, the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing were integrated in a lesson with a focus on both communicating meaning and correct use of grammar. The findings show that although Dictogloss tasks are challenging, students hold positive attitudes towards dictogloss tasks. Additionally, the dictogloss technique used gives a great help in the development of students‘ listening comprehension.
For these reasons, Dictogloss technique is recommended to be used more extensively in Vietnam in order to increase the effectiveness of listening in particular and English teaching and learning process in general. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL English as a foreign language ESL English as a second language ELT English language teaching LIST OF APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: INTERVIEW QUESTIONSAND SOME KEY ANSWERS APPENDIX 2: STUDENTS‘ REFLECTION FORMS APPENDIX 3: REPORT iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. iv LIST OF APPENDICES.
iv PART A: INTRODUCTION. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study. Aims and research questions. Significance of the study.
Scope of the study. Methods of the study. 8 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Listening comprehension in ESL.
What is listening comprehension?. Nature of learning listening. Listening is more than hearing. Listening has a strong attachment to other skills.
Significance of listening. Overview of current teaching and learning ESL learning situation in Vietnam. Current teaching and learning ESL learning situation in Vietnam. Problems of teaching and learning listening comprehension in Vietnam14 1.
General concepts of Dictogloss technique. What is Dictogloss?. Significance of Dictogloss. 17 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY.
Setting of the study. Data collection methods. Semi-structured interviews. Qualitative data analysis.
23 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS OF DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION. The students’ attitudes towards Dictogloss – applied listening lessons. Dictogloss tasks foster students’ interest for listening comprehension. Dictogloss tasks: challenging but interesting.
The roles of Dictogloss tasks in improving the effectiveness of students’ listening comprehension. Dictogloss tasks increase students’ comprehension of the information heard 27 3. Dictogloss tasks offer students different strategies to develop listening comprehension skills. Dictogloss tasks improve students interactions in listening lessons.
Dictogloss helps to direct students’ focus on both meaning and form of the language. Dictogloss tasks help to develop students’ critical thinking and autonomy 31 PART C: CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. Implications of the study. Limitations of the study.
Suggestions for further studies. 39 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.VI vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study It can be seen that language is the most important communicative tool of humankind and English is an important tool for today‘s international communication (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). As ―the last 50 years have witnessed the rise of English from an international language.
to the position of the first truly global language in the history of the world‖ (Hung, 2002, p.33), the need for English in Vietnam has increased significantly. It is likely that the needs and requirements of Vietnamese learners have changed. In the past, students put more focus on learning grammar and tried to be good at grammar, attempting to achieve good results in formal examinations. Nowadays, English is needed for daily communication and employment.
However, despite the fact that in English teaching, one of the main objectives is to prepare students for the communication in the real life and it is of great importance and necessity to efficiently equip students with the four skills together with relatively sufficient background knowledge, the teaching of English in Vietnam has been widely criticized for the weak ability of the students in using the language outside the classroom. Indeed, the outcome of English as a foreign language (EFL) education in secondary schools and universities is far from effective (Ngan, 2004; Nguyen, 2002; Tran, 2006). Compared with other students in Asian region, Vietnamese students generally have lower proficiency; most can hardly communicate or pursue a study program in English, and thus experience disadvantages in the international work force (Huynh, 2006). Although some students are very good and achieve such high scores in grammar-based examinations, they are unable to produce a perfect sentence in both written and spoken forms (Huy, 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Hence, this failure in education has set the theme for the researcher to search for what can be done and how English should be taught to fully meet the requirements of each of language level. Regarding listening in EFL, it has been considered as one of the most important language skills in EFL as an input for the other skills. Listening seems to become a bridge of productive skills since it is an activity that happens in order to get or receive information which plays a very important part to learn a foreign language. In other words, it provides input for the learner.
Without understanding input, student cannot learn anything. It is also admitted that listening is the most frequent skill used in everyday life. Rivers and Morley (2008) assume that we listen twice as much as we speak, four times as much as we read, and five times as much as we write. Besides, listening is a highly integrative skill playing a crucial role in language acquisition.
It is not simply the perceptions of sounds, but a complex process in second or foreign language. Due to its complex nature, listening comprehension has been so far believed to be one of the most challenging skills for EFL learner to develop. Therefore, a lot of students face the fact that they have met many difficulties to comprehend the information and to tackle with listening skill. Being a teacher of English for secondary students at Clever School for nearly two years, I realize that my students get difficulties in listening not only because of lack of grammatical knowledge or prior knowledge in English but also inappropriate learning language technique as well.
In addition, it seems to be an obstacle for learners lacking background knowledge and cultural understanding in a listening lesson. As a result, students have less motivation to learn listening. Therefore, it is essential for the teacher to find out the 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com effective teaching approaches to make the lessons more interesting so that s/he can attract students‘ attention and help to improve their listening proficiency as well. Besides it is the teacher‘s job to create more opportunities for students to master language skills in the class due to the fact that the crucial objective of English lesson for Junior high school is to develop communicative skills in both spoken and written forms.
Based on this, the students will achieve ability to use language to meet the demands of daily needs such as ability to read newspaper or understand a video well. Realizing the gap between the theory and current situation of teaching listening skills for students, the above – mentioned reasons put the researcher on the path to conduct a research project of Dictogloss applied in listening lesson in the hope of improving students‘ listening ability as well as enhancing students‘ motivation and attitudes towards English listening learning at a secondary school in Vietnam. Accordingly, this thesis namely ―Using Dictogloss technique to improve the effectiveness of eight – form students‘ listening comprehension‖ aims to find innovative ways to help Vietnamese secondary students to feel more motivated to learn listening and to enhance students‘ comprehension in the development of listening skills. The findings suggest that dictogloss technique, a multiple skills and system activity (Vasiljevic, 2010), can be used to improve students‘ understanding and retention of spoken English in listening lessons.
It is undeniable that exploiting Dictogloss technique effectively is challenging for teachers because they have to take many things into consideration. However, if the lesson is carefully designed, dictogloss will potentially enhance both students‘ listening and communication skills. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Aims and research questions The major purposes of the study are 1.
To explore whether Dictogloss technique is applicable 2. To explore the effect of Dictogloss technique in students‘ listening proficiency. To find out students‘ attitudes towards Dictogloss technique used in listening skills With these initial targets, the result is expected to raise implications for teachers of English, students and educators.