VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST — GRADUATE STUDIES RRERAAARA RAK TRAN TIT OANIIT THE USE OF SONGS TO IMPROVE LISTENING SKILLS FOR STUDENTS AT ITC FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTRE IN HAL DUONG ( SỬ DỤNG BÀI HÁT NHÃM CẢI THIỆN KỸ NÀNG NGIIE CTIO SINH VIÊN TẠI TRUNG TÂM NGOẠI NGỮ ITC, THẰNH PHỚ HAI DUONG) M. MINOR THESIS Ficld: Knglish Teaching Mcthodology Code: 60 1410 HA NOL - 2011 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST — GRADUATE STUDIES TRAN TH] OANH. THE USE OF SONGS TO IMPROVE LISTENING SKILLS FOR STUDENTS AT ITC FORELGN LANGUAGE CENTRE INIIAI DUONG ( SỬ DỤNG BÀI HÀT NHẰM CAT THTEN K¥ NANG NGHE CHO SINH VIEN TAI TRUNG TAM NGOAI NGU ITC, THANH PHO HAI DUONG) MLA. MLNOR THESIS Ficld: Kinglish Teaching Mcthadology Code: 60 1410 Supervisor: Tran Hién Lan, M.A HA NOT - 2011 vì TABLE OF CONTENT Certificate of originality.
List of abbreviations. List of tables and charts. v Table of coments — PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale 2 Aims of the stutly 3. Scope of the sindy.
Design of the study. PART TH: DEVELOPMENT Chapter t: LITERATURE REVIEW a. The definition of listening skill He b. Listening skill in leaning a foreign language leaching.
‘The importance of listening skill in foreign language teaching. ii "The difficulties in learning listening skill em iii Teaching listening skill acoordiry ta CLT ¢. Teaching listening skill through English songs. ‘The importance of songs in foreign language teaching fi, Using songs as a motivator for sindents to leam listening skill Hi.
— Tasks đcsigncd fw listeningtext. Summary Chapier 2: USING SONGS TO TEACTI LISTENING FOR STUDENTS AT ITC. ‘The setting of the study 2. Students’ background information - 2.
The teachers and teaching methods. Materials and facilities The minor thesis consists of three parts: Part 1 is the introduction in which the author presents the rationale, hypothesis of the study, aims of the study, scope of the stud ethodology and design of the study. Part ILis the development which is divided into 3 chaplets: © Chapter 1 set up theoretical background that is relevant to the purpose of the study, © Chapter 2 investigaled the Teaming situation at ITC Foreign Language Center, difficulties in teaching and learning listening skill and find out the students’ point of view about using songs in classes. 9 Chapter 3 cmphasives the implications of the sindy in wlnch discusses about the problems when applying in classes and suggests some criteria of choosing songs and some suggested tasks designed from songs Part IIT is the conclusion, summarizes the key issues in the study, points ont the limitations and provides some suggestions for fiuther study.
Chapier I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. ‘The definition of listening skill Listening is one of the fundamental Janguage skills, and crucial in the development of the second language competence so there are many definitions of listening which present different views of scholars towards the conecpt. Listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying. According to Anderson and Lynch (1988), listening is really a receptive skill along side with reading skills and the role of listeners is no longer passive bul active.
Rest (1994) says thal “istoning ts relirred to ø complex process thal. crables us to understand spoken language.” TLis an invisible mental process, soil is very difficull to deseribe. This involves understanding the speaker's accent or promunciaticn, his grammar and his vocabulary, and grasping his meaning (Howat and Dakin, 1974) 1.2, Listening skill in foreign language teaching 12. ‘The importance of listening skill In foreign language teaching it cannot be denied that we spend a large portion of our time listening because it is a key clement of the verbal communication.
It has been estisnated that adults spond almost bal thair 3 The minor thesis consists of three parts: Part 1 is the introduction in which the author presents the rationale, hypothesis of the study, aims of the study, scope of the stud ethodology and design of the study. Part ILis the development which is divided into 3 chaplets: © Chapter 1 set up theoretical background that is relevant to the purpose of the study, © Chapter 2 investigaled the Teaming situation at ITC Foreign Language Center, difficulties in teaching and learning listening skill and find out the students’ point of view about using songs in classes. 9 Chapter 3 cmphasives the implications of the sindy in wlnch discusses about the problems when applying in classes and suggests some criteria of choosing songs and some suggested tasks designed from songs Part IIT is the conclusion, summarizes the key issues in the study, points ont the limitations and provides some suggestions for fiuther study. Chapier I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.
‘The definition of listening skill Listening is one of the fundamental Janguage skills, and crucial in the development of the second language competence so there are many definitions of listening which present different views of scholars towards the conecpt. Listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying. According to Anderson and Lynch (1988), listening is really a receptive skill along side with reading skills and the role of listeners is no longer passive bul active. Rest (1994) says thal “istoning ts relirred to ø complex process thal.
crables us to understand spoken language.” TLis an invisible mental process, soil is very difficull to deseribe. This involves understanding the speaker's accent or promunciaticn, his grammar and his vocabulary, and grasping his meaning (Howat and Dakin, 1974) 1.2, Listening skill in foreign language teaching 12. ‘The importance of listening skill In foreign language teaching it cannot be denied that we spend a large portion of our time listening because it is a key clement of the verbal communication. It has been estisnated that adults spond almost bal thair 3 skill to my students so that they want to leam the listening skill and therefore they can improve their listening abilities in English.
Aims of the study Aims of the slutty are * To investigate the cffectives of using songs in tcaching listening skill to the students at ITC foreign language center. © To suggest some methods on how to use English songs to teach listening to students. Research questions What is teachers and students’ attitudes to teaching and listening skill? 2. What are teachers’ and students’ attitudes at ITCFLC to using songs in teaching listening ski? IIL.
Scope of the study Tn dhris study, the author intended to use songs to help tevel A students at IPCFLC improve their listening skill without using other activities suchas siolies, games, or poems, IV. Methodology To fulfill the above aims, qualilative and quantitative method was chosen for the study. All comments, remarks, assumptions and conclusion of the study were based on the observation, data and analysis, Data collections for analysis in this study were gainsd though the following resources - Survey questionnaires, - Interview; -observation; The questionnaire was designed for both students and teachers, However, sometimes interviews were also applied if the author found that the answer of respondents were not dei cnongh Y. Design of the study According to Underwood (1989), there are seven problems in listening skill that students may encounter: (1) lack of control over the speed at which speakers speak; (2) not being able to get things repeated: (3) the listener's limited vocabulary, (4) failure to recognize the signals, (5) problems of interprclation; (6) inabilily lo concentrale and (7) csteblished leaming habit.
She explains that these problems of students relate to students’ different backgrounds such as their cullure and edncations. Sludenls whose “culture and education includes a strong storytelling and oral communication tradition are generally “better” at listening than those from a reading and book-based culture and education background”. Funthormore, “students for whom the stress and intonation which occur in English arc reasonably familiar have tess trouble than those whose own language 1s based on different rhythms and tones” (Underwood, 1989), From that point of view, students in Vietnam whose Tanguage is made of different tones face a great deal of difficulties in tearning listening skills 1. Teaching listening skill according te CLT Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), decived from the late 1970s and eaily 1980s, can be said to be the product of educators and linguists who had grown dissatisfied with the audiotingual and grammar-translalion methods of forcign language instruction.
IL ean be understood as a set of principles about the goals of language teaching, how leamers lea a language, the kinds of classroom activities that best facilitate learning, and the roles of teachers and learners in the classroom. According to Richards (2002), “CLT was an attempt to operationalize the concept of communicative competence and to apply it across all levels of language program design, from theory, lo syllabus design, to tea ing techniques.” In other words, CLT makes use of real-life situations thal necessitate commnunicalion. The Tcaeher sets up a situation that students are likely to encounter in real lif, As a part of communication, listening can be taught in a communicative way. According to Rost (1990), listening is given a new role in language learning in CLT: communicative approach views listening as an interactive functional basic mode of communication on rather than a skill to be learned aid tested CLT cmphasizes the usc of extensive listening to material taken from “authentic” L1 situations where learners are expected to sotocl the language they need to usc in order to perform language lasks.
5 it can be said that listaning plays an important role in CLT, It can enable the listeners to select a function of language ftom the presented listening model and to apply it in communication activities, Besides, it could stimulate communication by creating the need for social interaction through simulation of real-lifz situations. CLT regards listening a3 a procedure in language leaming not as a target of learning by itself. Teaching listening skill through English songs 1. The importance of songs in foreign language teaching No one can deny that music has played a very important part in our life.
Every ane likes music, TL ascompanies wilh us very lime we fecl happy or sad Music is al everywhere, every time we need it: “when we exercise, when we work, when we play, when we worship and even when we die, music 1s there to reinforce or alter every mood and cinotion” (Lynch, 2005). Studics have shown thal music cam itmprovs. concentration, improve memory, bring a sense of community to a group, motivate learning, relax people who are overwhelmed or stressed, make learning fim, help people absorb material Due to its great value, music and songs have been taken into consideration as a method to teach language as Medina (1993) says “it is currently a common practice to use songs in. the classroom to support sceond language acquisition” hecause musie can stimulate and motivate students to leam a new language.
It is really a language package that bundles culture, vocabulary, listening. grammar and a host of other languags skills in just a few rhymes (Ingeris, 2008).2, Using songs as motivatar for students fo learning listening skill Songs can be used to show our emotions, it makes us happy, helps us ease the pain in the best. Besides, songs ca be utilived in foreign language leaching for many purposes. According to Eken (1996), songs can be used: © To present a topic, a language point, lexis, etc © To practice a language point, lexis, etc.
+ To focus on common Icamer crrors in more dircet way. 6 it can be said that listaning plays an important role in CLT, It can enable the listeners to select a function of language ftom the presented listening model and to apply it in communication activities, Besides, it could stimulate communication by creating the need for social interaction through simulation of real-lifz situations.