VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -----------o0o------------ ĐÀO THỊ HẢI YẾN AN INVESTIGATION INTO CONTEXTUALLY APPROPRIATE STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS TO STUDENTS AT NINH BINH CENTER OF INFORMATICS AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES Nghiên cứu các chiến lược dạy nghe phù hợp với điều kiện thực tế cho sinh viên ở Trung tâm Tin học và Ngoại ngữ Ninh Bình M.A MAJOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60140111 Hanoi, 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -----------o0o------------ ĐÀO THỊ HẢI YẾN AN INVESTIGATION INTO CONTEXTUALLY APPROPRIATE STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS TO STUDENTS AT NINH BINH CENTER OF INFORMATICS AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES Nghiên cứu các chiến lược dạy nghe phù hợp với điều kiện thực tế cho sinh viên ở Trung tâm Tin học và Ngoại ngữ Ninh Bình M.A MAJOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60140111 SUPERVISOR : Assoc. LÊ VĂN CANH Hanoi, 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I, Dao Thi Hai Yen, hereby certify that the thesis entitled “An investigation into contextually appropriate strategies for teaching listening skills to students at Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages” is the result of my own research in the fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies – University of Languages and International Studies, VNU, Hanoi. I have provided fully documented references to the work of others. The material in this research has not been submitted for assessment in any other formal course of study.
i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor Le Van Canh, PhD. for his generous assistance, enthusiastic guidance and constructive supervision throughout my research. Le Van Canh’s enlightening suggestions and comments have shaped to a very large extent. Without his help, this study would not have been completed.
I would also like to send my sincere thanks to all teachers at Post - graduate Studies Department, ULIS – VNU who gave me interesting lessons and comprehensive knowledge. I am most thankful to learners of Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages in Ninh Binh province for their enthusiastic participation in the study. I am grateful to colleagues at Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages for their continued help and encouragement. Last but not least, I would like to thank my husband, my parents who always encourage me while the work was in process.
Ha Noi, September 2014 Dao Thi Hai Yen ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Listening plays a significant role in daily communication and educational process. This study tries to find the factors influencing English listening comprehension and the contextually appropriate strategies for teaching listening skills to students. Participants were 60 learners and three English teachers at English Department of Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages. Three questions which were examined are (1) What strategies do teachers use to develop students’ listening comprehension?; (2) What teaching strategies do students prefer their teachers to use in teaching listening? And (3) To what extent do teachers’ teaching strategies match student’s preferences? To find out the answers to the above questions, a survey questionnaire, combining with class observation were conducted.
First, questionnaires were delivered to students of three different classes to find out what they thought of listening skills, what were their difficulties in listening comprehension; and what were their opinions on the teachers’ ways of teaching listening tasks; what strategies the students preferred their teachers to use in teaching listening. Second, the questionnaire was delivered to teachers to find out what they thought of listening skills, what were their difficulties in teaching listening. In addition, in each class, the researcher observed listening lessons to find out what strategies the teacher used to teach listening skills and how the learners performed in listening lessons. Then, the data was collected and prepared for the next step of the analysis.
The results showed that the informants all realize the importance of listening skills in their learning English. Most of the learners satisfied with the ways their teachers teaching listening skills. In each stage of listening lessons teachers used different iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com strategies to motivate learners and help them finish listening tasks effectively. Besides, teachers taught learners how to combine direct and indirect learning strategies to better learners’ comprehension of listening texts and do listening tasks effectively.
In addition, techniques for development of listening materials and for improvement of teachers’ activities in listening lessons were suggested. Key words: listening comprehension, contextually appropriate strategies, listening skills iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
viii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES. ix PART A: INTRODUCTION. Aims of the thesis. Scope of the thesis.
Methods of the thesis. The structure of the thesis. 5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Theoretical background of listening.
Definition of listening and listening comprehension. The importance of listening comprehension in foreign language learning. Listening comprehension process. Stages of carrying out a listening lesson.
Pre-listening stage. While-listening stage. Post-listening stage. The Shift to the Context-Based Pedagogy.
Definition of “context”. Contextual factors that affect listening comprehension in English language learning. 15 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Contextually appropriate pedagogy.
Previous research on contextually appropriate pedagogy in ELT. 20 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. The setting of the study. Data Collection Instruments.
Data collection procedures. 25 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS. Findings of the students’ responses. Students’ attitudes towards listening skills.
Students’ self-reported difficulties in learning listening skills and possible sources of difficulties. Students’ opinion on teachers’ ways of teaching listening tasks. Findings of the Teachers’ responses. Teachers’ attitude towards listening skills.
Teachers’ difficulties in teaching listening skills. Teachers’ teaching strategies. Suggestions for the students. Having a positive motivation and active participation.
Having an appropriate learning strategies. Suggestions for the teachers. Helping students build up a positive attitude, motivation and confidence. Teaching listening strategies to learners in a systematical way.
Techniques for improvement of teachers’ activities in listening lessons. Techniques for development of listening materials. 64 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER C: CONCLUSION. A brief summary of the thesis and the main conclusion.
Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research. 68 APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE (For Students). I APPENDIX 2: CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT .VII APPENDIX 3: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE (For Teachers) .XII APPENDIX 4: OBSERVATION SHEET.XXII vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ED: English Department EFL: English as a Foreign Language ESL: English as a Second Language ESP English for Specific Purposes L2: Second Language LLS: Language Learning Strategies LS: Learning Strategies NEF: New English File NCIFL Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages SILL: Strategies for Inventory Language Learning ULIS University of Language and International Studies VNU Vietnam National University viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1: Contextual factors that affect listening comprehension in English language learning in the literature Table 2: Students’ attitudes towards listening skills Table 3: Teachers’ activities in pre-listening stage Table 4: Teachers’ activities in while-listening stage Table 5: Teachers’ activities in post-listening stage Table 6: Standard Outline Note-Taking Format Table 7: An Example of Mapping Method Table 8: An Example of Charting Method Table 9: Grenfell & Harris’ Model of Teaching Listening Strategies Figure 1: Student participants in the study Figure 2: Students’ self-reported difficulties in learning listening skills Figure 3: possible sources of difficulties Figure 4: Frequency of teachers’ organizing 3-stage listening lessons Figure 5: Students’ opinion on teachers’ ways of organizing listening activities Figure 6: Students’ preferences for teachers’ activities in pre-listening stage Figure 7: Students’ preferences for teachers’ activities in while-listening stage Figure 8: Students’ preferences for teachers’ activities in post-listening stage ix LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION The first chapter presents the rationale for the study. Following this, the aims of the study, the research questions, the scope and methods of the study are presented.
The chapter ends with an overview of the thesis structure. Rationale Over the last few decades, many English Language Teaching (ELT) professionals and researchers have called for contextually appropriate forms of ELT pedagogy to be developed, arguing that the dominant discourse on ELT methodology has been largely generated in ideal (European and Northern American) contexts and so does not reflect the challenging realities of the majority of language teaching and learning contexts in which they are being imposed. Despite these calls, there has been very little research that shows how contextually appropriate ELT pedagogies can be developed, especially in the context of large under-resourced learning environments like those in Vietnam. To fill this gap, there is a need for research that develops from the bottom-up by relying on the input from teachers and learners who are the major players in the teaching and learning process.
When teachers moved from one teaching context to another, teaching locally and abroad, varied factors influenced teachers’ practice, teaching philosophies, and professional identities. Surely teachers are not unique in their experiences. So how different teachers would respond to their local contexts, what factors would affect their pedagogy and how they would teach effectively within that context need to be considered. Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages (NCIFL), which is under the management of Ninh Binh Department of Education and Training, is mandated to offer English language courses for those who need to 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com use English in their present or future work, but they do not have the opportunity to study the language at universities.
The learner population is therefore varied in terms of their language learning experience, learning motivation, and other physiological variables. Learner variables are really a great challenge to teachers of English at any educational institution in general and at Ninh Binh Center for Informatics and Foreign Language in particular. This requires teachers to develop their own methodology that fits the particular contextual factors. However, developing a contextually appropriate pedagogy for learners of English as a foreign language is a big issue that cannot be addressed within the scope of this thesis.
Therefore, the study presented in this thesis focuses on just one small issue, i. exploring contextually appropriate strategies for teaching listening skills to the students learning English at Ninh Binh Center for Informatics and Foreign Languages. Aims of the thesis The author of this paper conducted this theory in order to explore listening strategies that are appropriate with the context of learners at Ninh Binh Center of Informatics and Foreign Languages. In an attempt to achieve this goal, the study is aimed at identifying the gap between teachers’ teaching strategies and students’ learning style preferences regarding the teaching and learning of listening comprehension skills.
Research questions In order to fulfill the above mentioned aims, the study tried to answer three following questions: 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com (1)What strategies do teachers use to develop students’ listening comprehension? (2) What teaching strategies do students prefer their teachers to use in teaching listening? (3) To what extent do teachers’ teaching strategies match student’s preferences? 4. Scope of the thesis As stated earlier, this study is confined to the exploration of the gap between teaching styles and learning styles in the teaching and learning of listening comprehension skills as the foundation for developing contextually appropriate strategies for teaching listening comprehension at NCIFL.